July 16, 2005
Really a scorcher today. Heat warnings from the weather service. Jumped in the pool a couple times just to get wet. How bad is it? The dogs are lying on the cement floor, under the fan in the studio, with the cooler on, and they're still panting. Oh, I tell ya’, it’s bad

James Radina was able to spring the kids out of Mexico. He got the passport via UPS ($29) at about 10:30 this morning and took off for the border. I got a call from Tomcat at about four asking me where a certain Mexican food restaurant is in El Centro. I told him it’s the Hacienda but I think they’ve given up the ghost. Still, I can’t deny that he’s my kid. Three hours out of Mexico and he’s looking for a Mexican food restaurant. They’re supposed to blow in tonight at about eight.

Deena went camping up at Lake Mary. She took her mom’s car and two boys (they’re just friends she says).

Worked all morning on a Tombstone lesbian scene which I call "Ladie’s Choice." It shows two women dancing together perhaps a tad too close (This is inspired from a George Parsons diary entry where he lambastes a couple he spied at a social function. He couldn’t even bring himself to say the word, so we're not even sure that's what he meant). Spent too long on it. Aped John Singer Sargent’s El Jaleo, both the color scheme and the design. I’m not sure anyone will get it but I get a kick out of "honoring" the guys I love, and steal from. For the bystanders looking on, I gave them a variety of expressions, with disdain, disgust and shock being the basic ones. I couldn’t help but include a cow-boy on the far right with a look of Boy Howdy! I know. I know. It's so juvenile, but it makes me happy.

Switched gears this afternoon and started an opium scene. Blended two scenes together. One of a guy on the pipe, zonked to the eyeballs and smoke enveloping his entire body and that evaporates into a street scene in front of the OK Corral where bystanders are gathering around a prostrate body lying in the dust. It’s about half done. Hope to finish in the morning.

Kind of bugged at my painting skills. I have great cinematic scenes in my head but I have a hard time getting the effects I want on paper. Maybe I’m expecting too much.

"There is no such thing as expecting too much."
—Susan Cheever

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