December 17, 2008
Woke up to more rain. After feeding the chickens, I went for a walk with Peaches and became entranced with the socked in rain and the tattered clouds over Elephant Butte. When I got home I did a quick study of the scene:



Not as subtle as I wanted it but learned a thing or two about feathering in mountains that are being obliterated by low clouds.

Also working on the big Billy the Kid & Pat Garrett painting. Here are a couple studies for Pat:



Our son Thomas Charles, turned us on to "The Wire." I had heard good things about the HBO series but had never watched it. We rented the first season. I will say, no one has ever shown cops like these, or for that matter drug dealers (who are actually, in some cases sympathetic). I read an interview in the English Esquire with the creator, David Simon. Under the heading:

God Is Not A Second-Rate Novelist
"That's what Richard Price always says. It's always funny what people think is not real. Donnie Andrews was one of the real models for Omar [played by Michael K. Williams]. He was a stick-up guy: in drug culture, guys who rob drug dealers are not as improbable as people outside the culture would think. [In episode 5, season 5] when Omar went out of the fourth-floor window, Donnie actually went out of the sixth floor of that building. We brought it down a couple of floors just to be credible."

And, lastly, I love his final take on the show: "If the show gets anything correct about the drug war, about political reform, about equality of opportunity in public education, about the death of work, if all of these things had any relevance to the American experience, what is it that America was paying attention to when all this was going on? The Wire is about the death of empire. That's what it's about."

Really a strong show. Brutally honest to a fault (no wonder it wasn't that successful in terms of viewers).

This morning I wrote up my Ten Critical Issues Facing True West in 2009 and had a meeting with Bob and Trish Brink at 10:30 to compare lists. Our three lists were almost identical. Considering how awful the rest of the economy is, we are holding our own. And, we're looking at decent opportunity for next year. You can't ask for more than that.

"Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am grateful that thorns have roses."
—Alphonse Karr