May 22, 2007
Sold two more paintings yesterday. What started as a trickle, has become a torrent. It's almost like a virus. Once it starts spreading you can't stop it. Ha.

Meghan Saar, our managing editor, and I finally got in a big planning session this morning. Lots of story ideas with good ideas and flying leaps of imagination.

One of the movies I have been waiting for is the Coen brothers new flick, No Country For Old Men. Taken from the Cormac McCarthy book of the same name, it deals with the border area in West Texas and stars Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Bell (ha). For some reason it's being distributed in Europe before a U.S. release, which seems odd. I got this sneak preview this morning from Alan Huffines. Here's five scenes from No Country For Old Men (warning: it's a French site). Looks intriguing but I thought the ending in the book was weak. I hope they were able to come up with something better.

http://www.commeaucinema.com/bandes-annonces=76586.html

Poet Red Shuttleworth sent us a booklet of his new poems and he dedicated one of them to me and Meghan. Here it is:

Wyatt Earp (1909)

The Mojave rattlers are terrified,
leave the bald man to crawl his copper holes.
He lists his occupation as Minging Dynamo
that winter. "A man of sixty-one
should not have to kill for Wells & Fargo,"
but he shovels one more grave in the weeds
for a debtor to float below sand. Sadie huffs,
helps Earp lug a fluid-dripping body
from the Packard's back seat,
nags that the brass trim is tarnished.
At midnite it rains like ten men pissing.
Sadie slips into an unbutton-me-quick chaos dress,
but Earp is not in the mood. "Why," she asks,
"are we always one step from heaven?"
—Red Shuttleworth

Meanwhile out at Wild West World north of Wichita they have a roller coaster ride installed called the Crazy Mouse. Thomas Etheridge and his artist came up with an alternative name so it would qualify as a cowboy ride. The name they came up with is "Speedy Gonzales," complete with a drawing of the banished cartoon character. Personally, I have always loved Speedy, but I predict Mr. Etheridge will be hearing from the hispanic community on this one. Still, if he's going in that direction I would recommend having another ride called the Nappy Headed Ho-Down. Just a suggestion.



Onion Headline de Jour
I Can't Stand It When Jews Talk During Movies

"The only people you should try to get even with are those who have helped you."
—Old Vaquero Saying