June 5, 2008
Working with gouache paints yesterday. Whipped out these sketches:



Back in 1985 I attended the Mill Avenue Street Fair in Tempe to sell copies of my four comic books on Honkytonk Sue. During the three-day-event a young architectural student came up to me and said he was a fan, and if I ever built a house he wanted first crack at designing it. I told him I was in fact getting ready to build a house in Cave Creek but I couldn't afford an architect. He said, "Oh, you'll be able to afford me, I'll do it for $25 an hour."

Fresh out of ASU, this young baby, Perry Nathan Becker, designed our adobe ranchito with plenty of creativity and zane thrown in for effect. We have lived in this "dream house" for 21 years now.

Fast forward to yesterday, and during an Executive Meeting conference call yesterday I was perusing an issue of Sunset magazine on the table and there on page 78 of the current issue (June) I saw a familiar face:



That's Perry, on right, on fence, and that's his new bride (of five years), left foreground. Perry was a professional bachelor for many years and cut a wide swath across the Valley. Perry Becker turns 50 today. Happy birthday Brooder Boy!

(Perry was a disciple of the local legend architect Will Bruder)


Two Reasons Why It's So Hard To Solve A Redneck Murder

1. All the DNA is the same.
2. There are no dental records.

Alan Huffines sent me a link to the Cormac McCarthy website, wherein the discussion is about making McCarthy's best border book, Blood Meridian into a movie. We have heard that Tommy Lee Jones owned or optioned the property with himself attatched to play The Judge. Not sure if that's still current, but here's director Ridley Scott (Bladerunner) talking about working up the script for BM:

“We got [Blood Meridian] down as a screenplay and the problem is that it is so savage. But that’s what it is. If you did it properly it would be an X-certificate. But you can’t apologise for the violence and you can’t quantify the violence and you shouldn’t try to explain the violence. It is what it is…an exercise in brutality, savagery and violence. For the most part it is probably relatively accurate. It shows the flipside to Dances With Wolves of how the United States was probably taken. It was taken by the throat.”
—Ridley Scott

In the comments below the above quote is this entry:

"Given that Scott seems to interpret BM as primarily a historical narrative that 'is probably relatively accurate,' I hope he never makes the film. BM is to history as Moby-Dick is to sailing."

Ha. I agree.

Death of A Salesman
"Sad to report the death of Alton Kelley, the guy who (along with Stanley Mouse) created all kinds of psychedelic posters back in the '60s--including stuff for the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, etc., etc.

"In 1967, Kelley did a poster for a Vanilla Fudge-Charles Lloyd Quartet three day stand at the Avalon Ballroom in San Fran. It featured the Kaloma image, later used by Glen Boyer as the cover for I Married Wyatt Earp.

"The rock poster brought back the image, which had been popular around WWI.

"I wonder if Boyer somehow saw that poster--which became very famous and well-distributed--and thought, 'That would make a great Josie Earp'?

"Now we know what Boyer's problem is--the brown acid wasn't specifically too good...."
—MHB

“Speaking of aging, you know you’ve gotten old when you watch re-runs of I Love Lucy and realize you identify more with Fred and Ethel than with Ricky and Lucy.”
—Gus Walker

"I understand the age obsession. I turned 60 April 2. The thought beat me to death for months. No other birthday has ever bothered me. This one more than made up for the other 'milestones'. My beautiful bride knows how to gig me about it. We were watching Crossfire Trail. There is a scene where Tom Selleck and Wilfred Brimley are riding together. Vicky commented that I could act in a movie like that to which I obviously replied, you think I could be like Tom Selleck. She said no, Wilfred Brimley and busted a gut laughing. Tom Selleck is 2 years older than me.

"By the way, don’t become critical of Indiana Jones as Mr. Hutton did No Country. You have to leave your brain at the door for Indy and just enjoy the ride."
—Hugh Howard, Maniac# 9

Speaking of The Top Secret Writer
“I was crying during The Searchers a few days ago on the Westerns Channel, and I did exactly the same thing and watched ONLY the Slim scene in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid and choked up (but no tears like for Searchers). Estrogen buddy. The good news is ya gots to be alive to cry.”
—Paul Hutton

“The first weekend of Sex and the City over 5 million women attended the movie along with a flight attendant named Gary. The Big Cactus-out!”
—Minnesota Mike Melrose