Got a bugged boy: Big Tom is looking at me pet and coo over Peaches, who’s got her snout in my lap, begging for carresses. I don’t think a cat could show more disdain for human stupidity (actually all cats do, that’s what makes them so loveable and hateable).
Kathy and Tommy (my son, not the cat) are on the roof, putting up Christmas lights. I know, I know, it’s November 11th, but my wife just loves to see the lights and what can I say, I have to live with her (and it’s actually kind of great to see the house lit up at night when you come home in the dark, just don’t tell her I said that). This year Kathy got these little velcroe deals that stick to the stucco, so you can attatch the lights to them and secure the strand. Last year we had a glue gun and it was tedious, and we kept burning our fingers.
Absolutely beautiful out. I’m working on Dalton paintings. Heard T and K yelling on roof, so went out and threw up a 100 foot extension cord onto the roof, They seem to have it under control.
Piddly poop. Struggling (1:03). Good ideas, crappy skills. Excellent photo referene from Time and Newseek, of combatants in Afganistan, lots of chopper prop wash and men running through explosion dust and debris to apply (steal) to my Daltons images of them running from the Coffeyville bank, but my painting skills are so meager. Hate it. Still I mush on.
Now that I have a scanner I can document more of the process. Here’s a piece of crap (at left). Really sucks I just wanted nice, clean, subtle, yet accurate silhouettes of five riders, with the hint of a sixth enveloped in dust, riding into Coffeyville. Is that too much to ask for? Evidently.
Deena called and wanted to meet us for lunch and have Mexican. Debated between the benefits of El Conquistador, El Encanto, Valle de Luna and Grundaldies (new place over on Scotts. Rd., can’t remember the name, wouldn’t their marketing dept. love to hear that). El Conquistador closed at three, so we ended up at Valle de Luna ($52 cash). So-so lunch, good talking with the kids. They are both going to see The Strokes tonight at Mesa Amphitheatre.
Went and saw “Bowling for Columbine” at Cameview Five on Saturday. A doc-propaganda film on guns and the kids at Columbine who allegedly went bowling before the shootings. They showed the cafeteria surveillance tapes of the shootings. Chilling and awful. Really thought the film was compelling and persuasive (why do we have 11,000 shooting deaths and Canada has only about 100? Proportionately, they have as many guns as we do. Moore’s premise is that we are more afraid because of the media—”Coming up at six, why escalators can maim you!”—Hmmmm) until the end. Didn’t like the ambush on Charton Heston. Really made Michael Moore seem like a prick and a bully. I thought it undercut his whole premise. Kathy accused me of being a redneck. She thought it was brilliant, but, of course, she’s a flaming liberal (although she admitted last night the ambush was “unnecessary.”). Of course, the irony is not lost on me. Here I am doing illustrations for Classic Gunfights, our most popular feature, which celebrates and glorifies the shooting deaths of outlaws and lawmen in minute detail (“Coming up at six, why a certain magazine is the reason America is so violent!”).
"If we were logical, the future would be bleak indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope, and we can work."
—Jacques Cousteau