June 23, 2004
This year’s Best of the West needs your votes to make it legit. Certainly you know of some worthy craftsperson, bootmaker, gunbelt tooler, re-enactor or can-can dancer that deserves to be awarded. You don’t have to vote for every category, but please vote for the ones you know well. You can click right here to vote.

Got going early on a scratchboard of the Wild Bunch, as in the Peckinpah film. We need a good strong iconic image to go with a piece we’re doing on a new documentary of the legendary Westerns director.

Had to walk up to my truck at the end of the road when I got ready to go into work. Felt good, but added about fifteen minutes to the commute.

Got into the office at ten, had several meetings. Went to lunch with Carole Glenn at El Encanto. Too hot to sit outside although they had misters and a whole bunch of people were out there. There were several mama ducks with a whole row of baby ducks behind. Quite cute. Had the fajita salad and iced tea. Carole bought, I got the tip ($4 cash).

Came home at 3:30 and bailed into a big gouache of The Wild Bunch walking towards us. It’s that iconic image of Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, William Holden and Ernest Borgnine heading for the big die off. Each of them is loaded down with shells and shotguns. As I tried to feather in their shadows (they are backlit with their shadows reversed, from the movie photo, I got to laying in the vermillion and of course it turned to blood and soon I was splatting and splattering all over the paper, until the title came to me: “Bloodrops Keep Droppin’ on My Head.” Thanks to Sam Peckinpah they always will. Now whether it’s a cover remains to be seen. Needs some work, we’ll see.

Worked until around 8:15 and ran out of gas. Need to finish something in the morning, before I leave for Cody. Going to be a long one tomorrow.

"When you’re up to your nose in doo-doo, keep your mouth shut."
—Old Vaquero Saying?