February 8, 2004
Got some good news on my e-mails this morning:

“Just watched you on the Westerns channel, True West Moment. It was great.”
—Larry Thrapp

Also, Trish Brink e-mailed me and said some of my artwork is up on the site here. You can click right here to check it out.

I did ten scratchboards for the new April issue and Dan Harshberger only used two. Here’s two he didn’t use that I rather like. Both were intended for the “Are You An Old West Maniac?” article. One would have had the caption: “Do you or a loved one get a mystical look in your eye whenever the movie Tombstone is played?” And the other one would have said, “Do you dress up like John Wayne and watch his movies until the cows come home?” Of course, both behaviors (especially the John Wayne one) would qualify you as an Old West Maniac.

And speaking of movies, we had dinner last night at El Encanto with the Barra family, Buckeye Blake and his wife Tona, a good lookin’ barrel racer from Texas named Aaron (she was in town for the Parada del Sol Rodeo this weekend) and her mama. Over many margaritas (bill was $242! our portion was $120, paid cash) we argued about Westerns and movies in general. Allen Barra maintains that there are no categories like in the old days. There is no Science Fiction or B-Movie per se. It’s all action movies geared for 18-24 males. He claims the genre movie is dead. And to some extent he is correct. Even romantic comedies have to have the exploding car or outrageous stunts.

With that said, take our new poll on the types of movies you like to see (assuming you don’t agree with Allen Barra that they are kaput). You also can click right here to vote.

“It's hard enough to write a good drama, it's much harder to write a good comedy, and it's hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is.”
—Jack Lemon