February 3, 2006
I spent all afternoon yesterday driving to two different book signings. The annual Hashknife pony express mail was riding into Fountain Hills and the River of Time museum at three and they had a big gitdown to celebrate. I had a table full of my books in the lobby and sold Classic Gunfights, the posters, T-shirts and subscriptions to True West. Last weekend I was inducted into the FH artgroup Los Artistas Vaqueros but I was in Cody. So Kathy represented me. Evidently she made an impression on the locals because more than one person came up to the table, looked at the stuff, then at me and said, "Oh, you’re Kathy’s husband." Ha.

These kinds of events and sitting at a table with other venders always brings out weird questions. Here’s a couple I got yesterday:

• "What time is the raffle?"

• “Is the parade at nine or ten in the morning?”

• “You ever run into ol’ Bob Shue-fly?”

• “Do you know Howard Rogers? Now he’s a good artist.”

Just how big is the Boomer Generation? According to Ellen Goodman, “about 7,918 people turn 60 every day.”

Amen, Bro
“The Oscars should have an occasional category for best previously nonnominated performance. Among the first nominees would be Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in Tombstone.”
—Jim Chambless (in Esquire magazine), 45, Lewisville, Texas

A Certain Daughter Reports In
“I went to see Aerosmith on Wednesday and man was it depressing. Here I am trying to have a good time and rock out to a pretty cool band and all I could do was think of how bad I felt for the drummer. I kept saying to Frank, ‘Dude, the guy looks like he just wants to take a nap... not rock a stadium!’ So, every time I would start to get down with ‘Love In An Elevator’ the cameras would zoom in on the drummer, sweating profusely, all tattooed up, trying his hardest to keep from falling asleep on the drum set itself.....and I kept thinking of my dad trying to rock out at that age.”
—Deena Bean

Favorite Onion Headline de Jour
Pregnant Woman Acting Like No One Ever Got Pregnant Before

More Brokeback Feedback
“My forty something wife and my 50 something self went to see the thing (Valley Art is still a very nice theater), and I have the following comment; A very well told story of a very plausible situation, albeit probably not a common one. I could imagine every character really existing, and every reaction as realistic. The accurate portrayal of the 'true west' invoked the love affair many of us have for the simple, hard life that existed [and still does]. I guess those two love affairs portrayed together don't mix well with the straight crowd, but only in the fact that when viewing the movie, you can't enjoy the one without considering the other.”
—Glenn Wirgau

Comedy Central's The Daily Show finally ran the gay rodeo-Brokeback piece last Tuesday (Jan. 24), the night before I left for Cody. As you know, True West columnist, Marshall Trimble turned them down, but, incredibly, Jon Stewart’s crew nabbed another True West writer, Ron Feldman, who is an expert on the Lost Dutchman Mine. Ron is a good guy, but they managed to get him to say, in terms of the so-called gay agenda, “Just stop crammin’ it down my throat,” which the reporter, Dan Backinall, managed to tie to the obvious gay angle of oral sex. I felt for Ron. I wish he had called me.

Jeb Rosebrook and I went to lunch today to talk about his current movie and script projects. He jokingly calls himself my agent, because he got me my deal at the Westerns Channel for True West Moments (which he did and I owe him a car). We went down to El Encanto and sat outside by the pond. Beautiful day, high seventies. I had the blackened chicken and rice and he had two tacos ($22.25, plus $4 cash, I paid). It’s always fun talking to Jeb, who was the screenwriter for the Steve McQueen movie Junior Bonner, among other films and TV series. He and his son Stuart are forming their own production company and we kicked around a few ideas. Jeb got kind of excited about my graphic novel character Johnny Loco which I sketched out right here a couple weeks ago. We’ll see. Jeb has some pretty stellar connections and a good rep in Hollywood. And by the way, Jeb enjoyed Brokeback Mountain and is mystified by the “Texan comments” from a few days ago.

“If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms,—never, never, never!”
—William Pitt, First Earl of Chatham