July 9, 2007
It's not often that I get a phone call from a friend saying he was just in a gunfight. Drew Gomber, of Lincoln, New Mexico called me to tell me he shot it out with a hispanic male in his front yard the other night. According to Drew, the guy was drunk and demanded something (he couldn't speak English), and Drew came out on his front porch and told him to "Vamoose." The guy swore in Spanish, went to his truck and as he sped out of the driveway, Drew saw two muzzle flashes, ducked, pulled out a .38 five-shooter and emptied five rounds into the truck.

Aftermath: Odds & Ends
Drew emailed me this morning and said the Ruidoso paper is running a piece on the front page and he's curious to see how the gunfight is portrayed in the media.

Lynda Sanchez, also of Lincoln, sent me her new photo essay booklet: Eve Ball: Woman Among Men. Excellent photos of Apache Ace Daklugie and author and Apache expert Dan Thrapp, the latter with pistolas and horses as he rode over the Andes in 1940 and hopped a steamer in Chile back to the States. Thrapp wrote the difinitive book on Al Sieber: Chief of Scouts, which I treasure.

Speaking of the Wild West, I've been up to my neck in Remington and his short stories. I worked all day Saturday and Sunday, culling tidbits for the Top Secret Project. Ran across this:

He Knew The Chicken?
On December 18, 1909 Frederick Remington wrenched a stomach muscle while shelling corn for his chickens. Two days later, he wrote in his blog, I mean diary, that he “was caught with intense pains in belly.” He thought the pains were either from the muscle strain or from constipation so he took a strong laxative which led to peritonitis, brought on by appendicitis (the real cause of his pain) and by December 26th, the day after Christmas, he was dead.

The moral: let the chickens shell their own corn.

Only His Hairdresser Knows For Sure
“Why is your mustache so much DARKER in the 'Glamour Shot' photo of you in your blog than it is on the True West Moments that run on the Westerns Channel? Just curious.”
—Hugh Howard

The photo is old and so am I.

And speaking of the Westerns Channel I finally saw "The Renegade," on Saturday night and I understand why the fan in Winterset was so upset about it. Made in 2004, this spacy Western stars Vincent Cassel, Michael Madsen and Juliette Lewis and is based on the graphic novels of Moebius, who is one tripped-out dude. While I only saw the last half hour, there is a scene at the end where Ms. Lewis swims buck naked and we see some pretty wide open spaces, if you get my drift. The guy in Winterset was really upset about it and said he hated it. I didn't hate it, but it was a tad too psychedelic, even for me. And this seems to be where the Western is going. Last week we learned that the graphic novel "Cowboys & Aliens" has been optioned, or bought, by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. It's about a UFO crash-landing in the Wild West and cowboys and Indians do battle with them. Of course, none of this is really new. Check out this old comic, sent to me by Henry Beck:



This Just In From Peru
"Well luckily I'm feeling better dudes. I went to the agriculture university training we do on Saturdays and apparently two other guys in the group had the exact same symptoms and they didn´t take meds to kick it. Oh man, I was so darn starving though and at the university they have an organic restaurant where all the ingredients are fresh from the their own stock and it´s dirt cheap. Probably the best meal Ive had in Peru but as they say, hunger is the best sauce. Salad with avocado and cucumber and thai chicken with rice. Then I split a cheeseburger with my buddy Wes that had a fried egg, bacon and cheese on it. The burger was 5 soles which is a like a dollar seventy. Yeah baby.

"Father, I´ll call you today after I eat lunch. Right now I´m waiting for this dope video of me dancing at a b-day party to upload onto you tube so maybe tomorrow search for peace corps dancing videos. I also got some great photos from my friends camera but they´re taking forever to upload so I might do it tomorrow.

"Sorry to hear about the chickens man. Mother, thanks for the offer on goodies but I´ll be alright. I actually have the pills in my peace corps med kit but the doctor recommended waiting to see if it was an infection. So far the only thing I regret not bringing are my slippers and a camera. The camera I will need more at site because for now I'm around a ton of people who are all taking photos so its not neccessary."
—Tomcat

Did some decent red-black sketches this weekend. Yes, that's The Straddler, at right:



Also, got some decent sunset effects on a scene for the Top Secret Project:



Classic Onion Headline de Jour
Heaven Less Opulent Than Vatican, Reports Disappointed Pope

"There is no such thing as old age, there is only sorrow."
—Edith Wharton