March 21, 2005
Rather tired. Long weekend. Turned out to be a beautiful day today. Sunny and bright. Patented Arizona weather.

One thing is sure. HBO's Deadwood is an uqualified success. How do I know? We received several large gorgeous posters of the show from my friend Kat in New York. We framed one and put it outside our tent this weekend out at Festival of the West and had a sign-up fish bowl to put your name in for a drawing to win it. All weekend long people came over like honey bees to a honey tree. That poster drew people from everywhere. Many offered to buy it. Of course they all complained about the cussing on the show, some even saying it was too much for them and they couldn't watch it. In fact, one tall guy was decked out in Western garb with a black beard and a ponytail and he was standing talking to his mother. He was about fifteen feet off, and when he saw the poster he started ranting, and describing just how awful the language on the show is. He was going on and on, he even shuddered. But after venting his disgust for a good three minutes, he shook his head and said, "Trixie should have never gone back to Al."

Now that is power. Even people who hate the show, watch it! Just amazing. We have the second episode on tape and I wasn't in a hurry to watch it because Carole had said she didn't like it. Well, I finally took a look and I've got to say, that is one exquisitely written show. Nasty? You bet, but good is good. However, I do agree with Alan Huffines that Al Swearengen's henchman needs to get rid of the Bonanza hat. Ha.

We’ve got a new hit t-shirt design on our hands. Out at Festival of the West we sold a whole bunch of the new Curly Bill shirt: "Y'all Killed Two Cow-Boys."

Worked today on the Papago Station images. Joel printed out several shots from his digital of the scenes I took on our trip yesterday (so much has happened, it seems like a week ago). Did a scratchboard and a gouache from Wyatt’s POV of the freight train bearing down on him while he waves a hanky. Nice effects on the gouache version. halo lighting. Might work. Need to sleep on it.

We finally put the finishing touches on the Jesus Out West cover. Dan Harshberger had some suggestions and we added them this morning. Going to be a very strong one. The Autry bought a schedule based on the image (we put it on a postcard which they got).

"The worst thing about war is that it seldom kills off the right people."
—Old Vaquero Saying

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