December 15, 2004
Bad radio dreams. Haven't been on the air in some time, but last night I dreamt I was trying to do a radio show in Williams, Arizona and I didn't know where any of the controls were, how to start or stop records (this is funny because in real life I never did this stuff anyhow and counted on others to be the board op), and I was totally faking the technical stuff while trying to be zany and "on." I was flailing around like a total fool and I woke up very tired, like I had boxed an angry Mexican for 33 rounds.

Of course, this has nothing to do with my current business situation or the people I work with. Granted, if you're not a literalist, you may think it's probably totally about that.

Speaking of which, I told Mike Melrose I was taking him and Robert Ray to a seminar on How to Deal With Difficult People. I told him to clean out February 23rd on his calendar and to not have any excuses because we would be there all day. He left my office with no comment, then returned in about a minute and said, "I’ve already got that date blocked out because I'm one of the speakers at the conference."

Dan the Man Emailed up a cover design of Al Swearengen (Deadwood Returns). Mighty evil looking. Very strong. Could be a big seller on the newsstand. Big face, evil, recognizeable, movie star. We’ll see. I never can predict these things.

Had lunch with Carole at Pei Wei ($18 cash, no tip). Talked about everyone behind their backs. Laughed and laughed. Came back and she had a surprise birthday cake for me and Brittany. She's 22 and my birthday is next Sunday and I'll be 58. "So we're contemporaries then," I told her with a straight face. Everyone laughed. I know why.

Worked on an Ed Schieffelin bio in the afternoon. Did you know the guy picked up a bunch of rocks at Goose Flats (eventually Tombstone), walked to Tucson to get the rocks assayed, the guy there told him they were worthless, so he got drunk and threw many of them away, then tried to interest a mine owner there who told him to get lost, so he walked to Globe to see if his brother Albert might look at the rocks. Unfortunately, Albert had moved to Signal, Arizona, so Ed, who was broke got a job swamping at a mine to earn enough money to buy an outfit to get to Signal, walked there. Now this is a long, damn walk, basically from Tombstone to Tucson to Globe City (as it was called then) to Wickiup, maybe 250 miles. Richard Gird, the assayer at the McCracken Mine there told Ed he had hit the jackpot, so they (Ed, Albert and Dick) outfitted a wagon, left in the night and made the return trip to stake out their claims. Ed sold later out for $500,000. And the rest is history—or a myth too tough to die.

"If you don't bet, you don't have a chance to win.  It's so silly in life not to pursue the highest possible thing you can imagine, even if you run the risk of losing it all, because if you don't pursue it you've lost it anyway.  You can't be an artist and be safe."
—Francis Ford Coppola