January 30, 2007
Warmer this morning, but overcast. Got sprinkled on when I took the dogs for a bike ride at seven. Yesterday I mentioned running into Jim Covarrubias. Here's his website:

www.jimcovarrubias-artist.com

Best of 3,000
Struggling with art and sketches the last several days. Need to get back to the looseness of previous efforts, like these I did when I was in Vegas last year (below, left). Kathy particularly liked the eyes of the jungle cat. On the right is a very strong composite of Mickey Free and his dark world. I may use this, as is, in the prototype for the Top Secret Project.



I've been trying to create a patina of amber-styled illustration and this page (below, left) really captures what I've been after. it's all felt-tip pens to boot. And the sky on the right is bold and unusual, both elements I need to rediscover.



I have often claimed we are living in The Age of Blur, and this page (below, left) is the best I've done in that regard. This is also another take on the sideways school of illustration. It was created on the kitchen table with the rodeo photo turned sideways and the sketchbook. I did the black and white first and was so happy with it I repeated the exercise in color and it's just as strong (that rarely happens for me). After we got back from Mexico I remembered that on my 1996 tour of Chihuahua we saw numerous fires burning languidly with no effort to put them out. In fact we sat on our porch at the Hotel Divisidero and watched a fire burn up a canyon. This is a scene from that memory, and quite accurate, I might add:



Johnny Boggs Weighs In On Seraphim Falls

“Saw Seraphim Falls today, which falls a little flat. My report:

“Director David Von Ancken could take lessons from Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher in directing a revenge Western. He's too focused on gore, and the movie runs too long. The moral ambiguity of the two leads -- and the movie's certainly well-acted and well-photographed -- is interesting, but I think a revenge tale works better when we watch good men descend into hell rather than picking up with two real SOBS. That could be Von Ancken's intention, reversing the
story, and it might work but he takes too long to explain what turned them into SOBs. Dialogue, what little there is, is toooften cornball. Some continuity problems, and the vengeance trail gets a little dull before turning way, way surreal.

“If you take it as±as Wes Studi described it -- Dante's Inferno, it's OK. But when you try to blend Dante's Inferno with Winchester '73, it has to work on both levels, and this doesn't. Not quite. Not a bad film, but certainly not
a great one. ** 1/2

" And, geez, you'd think the crew could have spelled Wes Studi's name right on the credits!!!! Unless he's spelling it STUDIE these days.

“Don't know how much interest it'll spark. It was filmed mostly here, and the theater for a 4:30 show was packed. But then, it had to be the smallest theater in the building, and, judging from the applause over certain names in
the closing credits, I think about half of the viewers worked on it. But what do I
know?”
—Johnny Boggs

Actually Johnny liked this film more than I did. I thought it started good and I enjoyed the cold, and the sruvival aspect. And I loved the hats on two of the pursuers (the Kid character and the grizzled guy), but the plot was hackneyed and tired and the ending was ridiculous. I won't spoil it for you but I just want to say, "How would Pierce cut his toenails?!"

Lame, goofy and uninspired. It's movies like this that keep the Western in the land of So-So.

I also watched Bandidas and I must say I really, really wanted this movie to work. The women are gorgeous (Salma Hyak and Penelope Cruz) and they've never looked better, but it just doesn't hold up as a movie. Too bad. Great premise, good cast but no see-gar.

Onion Headline de Jour
Live-In Boyfriend Like The Deadbeat Dad Kids Never Had

"A writer talks of things that we all know but do not know that we know."
—Orphan Pamuk