April 15, 2004
Is it my imagination or has Disney pulled in their ad and marketing horns on The Alamo. I haven’t seen jack. I know they were upset about the false launch last Christmas and even trailers I saw in the lobby last month said “Coming December 19th.” Is it possible that Michael Eisner is being hung out to dry? That the film was written off and given little or nothing in the way of an ad campaign? I don’t know. I haven’t seen much in the media except bad reviews.

One of my good friends and an Alamo fanatic finally saw the movie yesterday and “cried like a baby.” I’m trying to get his permission to run some of his “cogent” comments.

Worked all morning today with Gus getting images for the second batch of the Westerns Channel’s True West Moments. Gus finds the most amazing photographs. Got some very stunning buscadero holster shots (Bad Holsters!) and wonderful Mexican loop rigs (Good Holsters!) on real Old West gunfighters. Hope to send off first batch on CD to Denver tomorrow.

Drove into Scottsdale at 11 and had lunch with my daughter at Pischke’s in Old Town ($27, includes tip, cajun chicken caesar salad and iced tea). Tried to talk Deena out of acting just like me at her age, and more like her mother. Of course, she rarely listens to me (which is just like me) but she does a pretty good job of pretending to care (another skill she got from her old man).

Went over to Arizona West gallery and had a great talk with Abe Hays about the top secret museum project. They need $13 million to make it happen. Takes my breath away.

Drove down to the 202 and Scottsdale Road and met Theresa from Tri Star, my publisher, and signed about 200 books and a dozen artprints. As I’m sitting on the tailgate of her Toyota a guy pulls up and gets out. He’s got on a City of Scottsdale shirt on and he asks if he can buy a book. This was so weird. I have been at scheduled book signings in big malls where nobody shows up—ever, and here we are in a parking lot and some guy pulls off the road. Marketing. Go figure.

“I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed.”
—George Carlin