May 17, 2005
Lost today's blog. Went into a meeting at five with blog all but done (no quote), Abby must have done something when she turned off the server, came back at 5:40, computer frozen, restarted, no copy.

Let's see, I talked about the two consecutive fires, the St. Clair fire which has burned 1,900 access and the Bart fire which is at 11,500 acres and counting. Both originated in the same area, near Bartlett Lake. Damn it was funny, poignant. But we'll never see it, not that I'm bitter or petty. Or immature.

We’ve got a new poll up. Do Hollywood Western movies distort the public's view of the Old West? Please vote.

Last night, after work, I drove out to Bryan Neumeister’s house and studio in New River to pick up the True West radio spots we cut last week. Bryan is amazing (he's won 28 Emmys for his tv camera work, mostly with Jerry Foster and Sky 12, and he produces music for Blue Oyster Cult, among other things). Bryan asked me what kind of music bed I wanted on the ads and I said I wanted something edgy, zany and modern, yet with a Western touch. And please, no Hee Haw hocum, or Classic Rock, a la 1982, which is where every documentary producer turns to when they approach the West and especially True West.

Bryan nailed it. He created everything from the ground up, complete with an overmodulated dinner bell, that he turned into gigantic Mexican church bells out of a Sergio Leone movie, to eerie steel guitar techniques that sound like they were recorded on Saturn. Just very inspired and zany. Just what the doctor ordered. We will get them up here on the site so you can hear them for yourself, as soon as we can MP3 them, whatever that means.

More later. I forgot half the stuff I had in here.

"As the wind blows, you must set your sail."
—Thomas Fuller