March 8, 2004
Called Alan Huffines this morning and read him his Alamo interview. He caught several mistakes and we got them changed. Issue goes to press this afternoon. He gave me a great addition but we don’t have room. In reference to period cursing, Alan says he got a “Jesus Christ” changed in the script to “God Damn.” Evidently, Santa Anna’s troops called the Americans “God Damns” because that’s all they heard them saying. They didn’t know what it meant, they just heard all these “God Damns” coming from the fort. The Americans claimed to be religious but every other word out of their mouths was “God Damn!” That’s so funny, and I’m sure so true.

Retrieved over 100 rocks yesterday. Went for a long walk with Kathy and the dogs and every time I saw a flat candidate, I grabbed it and left it by the road, then drove back later in the truck and got them. According to Kath, I’ll need 200,000 rocks to completely cobblestone the entire driveway. At 10 rocks a day (my average) I’ll have this project in the can in 66 years. Somehow I hope her math is off.

Went and saw Starsky & Hutch with Deena and Kathy on Friday night. Thought it was so-so (7). Sometimes when writers try to push situations in a script, they’re thinking it is going to be so outrageous, when in realty they’ve pushed it too far and it plays out as just lame. In one scene Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller go undercover as mimes. I’m sure the writers were just full of themselves at how hilarious this was going to play out but it was a yawner. Humor is a fragile commodity and you can push it too far.

Hidalgo came in at number three over the weekend. We’ll see if it has legs.

Finally saw Pirates of the Carribean on Saturday (Carole gave us her video copy to watch). Very clever but about 45 minutes too long. Too many plot twists and turns and after a while you just get numb to them (Hey its’ Jerry Bruckheimer!), and I hate to admit it, but I thought Johnny Depp’s performance was too fey and just weird. But what do I know, the God Damn thing made $400 million and they’re writing the second one even as you read this.

Did manage to knock out four gouache studies on Sunday. Copied two Fritz Scholder’s images to try and learn from his color schemes. Actually kind of fun and I did learn a few tricks in the process.

"Talent is overrated. You win with character."
—Lewis Shaffel