January 19, 2007
Woke up to a drizzling rain. Surprisingly warm out though. Went for a bike ride with Kathy and the dogs at about eight. It's funny, dogs don't care if it's raining, cold, snowy or hot, they just prance along like it's Christmas Day. Every day. We could all emulate dogs in that respect (that and the licking deal).

Writing this blog has been a benefit to me on several levels: one is it makes me happy, and that goes a long ways, but another side benefit has been that if I say I can't find outhouse pictures, all of a sudden I receive them. Fred Nolan in England sent a beauty of an outhouse photo he took in White Oaks, New Mexico and this morning Kevin Mulkins down Tucson way said he's mailing me a batch of classic outhouse photos from 1945. Thanks Kevin and Fred!

Meanwhile, Trish Brink told me yesterday that Time magazine is laying off several hundred employees, mostly editors and writers. That news prompted this poem from Jeff Hildebrandt at the Westerns Channel:

I heard the news today. Oh boy!
About a magazine that’s cutting staff.
Time, Inc. is in the news. Oh boy!
They have to separate the wheat from chaff.

They say the reason is the internet.
They think the printed stuff is nearly dead.
But I don’t buy that and you know I bet
its just to help them cut their overhead.

I heard that news today. Oh boy!
If True West does the same; its doom and gloom.
I hope that you will not. Oh boy!
There’s no computer space in my bathroom.

—Jeff

Back to outhouses, I have been doing sketches of them for the past couple days and here's those efforts:




I am at 2,989 sketches and will most likely pass the 3,000 mark this weekend. Starting next Monday I'll start posting the top 30 pages. Mark Boardman had a few picks that startled me, but he said, "They just spoke to me." Many times the artist is the last to know. Ha.

Running a magazine can be very stressful and difficult, but yesterday was a very satisfying day for me. The trip into The Beast was quite successful. Dan Harshberger turned in a stellar cover at about four, and everyone who I showed it to up here signed off on it (some were less than 100% but given where we were prior to this, I'll take that as a win any day!). Meanwhile, on the Royal Wade Kimes layout for the cover story, both Mark Boardman and Meghan Saar added critical nuggets of clarification and credibility that take the piece out of "The Fluff Zone." This is a huge problem for magazines and I just hate it when I read some celebrity piece that is obviously a hand job for a film coming out (and most likely the company that owns the film also owns the magazine!). Late in the day I had a good talk with Trish about doing what's right for our employees and that was quite encouraging. And after work, I went up to the pre-High Noon party at Cowboy Legacy and had some free wine, homemade chili and shrimp and had an excellent encounter with the people at Round Up Productions. Dave and Kristi Wilson put on a Collectable Show & Sale in Tucson and got great response from their ad in True West (this is always thrilling to hear). They also put on a similiar show in Montana. Very nice people.

Onion Headline de Jour
Perfect Gift For Boring Asshole Found At Crate & Barrel

"Asserting yourself while respecting others is a very good way to win respect yourself."
—Janice La Rouche