April 21, 2004
Gregg Clancy just came into my office (9:47 am) and told me one of the legends of Cave Creek died yesterday. Honkytonk Jack was a rollicking piano man who played the Satisfied Frog and every other CC waterning hole going back at least 30 years. Evidently he had allergies, it quickly progressed to pneumonia, then some other horrible disease and he was found, passed out on Saturday. Lived a short time. Sad. Great guy. I usually saw him at the post office, reading and culling his junk mail at one of those stands. He had tattoos up both arms, usually wore muscle shirts, red bow tie, derby and his skin was weathered and leathery somewhere north of grizzled.

Worked most of the day yesterday on outlaw Bill Doolin’s demise. Extrapolated between two books, Glenn Shirley’s West of Hell’s Fringe, and Bill Doolin: Outlaw O.T. by Col. Bailey C. Hanes. Bill rode with the Daltons and that’s where the Eagles song “Doolin-Daltons” came from.

Kathy took yesterday off and worked on the yard, weedwacking and pruning and hauling branches. Hippie George Coppock came out and sawed out an opening in our old block wall to give access to the damn dogs into the new backyard.

The Little Bighorn Battlefield has ordered extra copies of our July Custer feature. And speaking of Custer, here’s Custer expert, Bob Reece’s take on The Alamo : “Hancock's movie is outstanding. It got even better with my second viewing. The critics have been totally unfair—Roger Ebert is the only one that got it right. Gave the movie 3 1/2 stars. Looks like it will bomb at the box office though. John Wayne's Alamo movie bombed too, however it was remembered at Oscar time. Wayne's movie received seven Oscar nominations—Film, Supporting Actor (Chill Wills), Cinematography for Color (they were still making black and white films back then), Sound, Editing, Music—Original Song, Music—Original Score. Out of the seven nominations Wayne's movie walked home with one Oscar for Best Sound.”

Inspired to do some stagecoach scratchboards along with the cover I’m working on for Mark Boardman’s forthcoming book.

"You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
—Jack London