February 14, 2005
Got up at six and wailed on a big, ambitious train painting. Aped a color scheme out of a fold-out promo piece for the HBO series "Band of Brothers." Had a sweet, pale yellow and violet color scheme. Worked until about eight. Juan and his son showed up to work on the Spanish driveway. I'll post a photo of the progress in the near future.

We're taking some of the staff to an all-day Get Motivated Business Seminar tomorrow down at America West arena. Big speakers coming in: Joe Montana, Zig Zigler, Jerry Lewis, General Tommy Franks, Rudolph Giuliani. We're all riding down in Joel Klasky's van. Everyone going is excited. Going to be a TW field trip. "Now line up kids and count off. And when we go inside the building, remember, no talking to your neighbors. We want to be good do-bees."

Came home for lunch and almost finished the big painting. ruined the conductor's face and gave him a hair-lip, but I think I can save it. Brought the painting back to the office and showed it around. Good reactions. It may work.

Met with Allen Fossenkemper at 1:30 about doing a museum show in Fountain Hills featuring True West photos and artwork. Sounds like a solid deal. He's going to coordinate everything.

The gay Western is almost upon us. Brokeback Mountain, based on a short story by Annie Prouix ("The Shipping News"), written by Larry McMurtry ("Lonesome Dove") and directed by Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger" and "Ride With the Devil"), is scheduled to be released on October 7. This modern cowboy story stars heart throbs, Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, as lovers. Ay-yi-yi! Gay Caballeros?

And speaking of the gay market, a friend of mine in the real estate biz (yes, it's Russ) got this pitch from a new gay magazine: "Our publication is a gay bilingual magazine and last year alone the Hispanic and Gay market was spending 260 Billion in the United States."

Which brings us to the question of the day: Does this controversial topic deserve a True West cover story on "Riding Drag: Gay Cowboys In The Old West"?

"Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door."
—Dr. Laura Schlessinger