June 15, 2009
Had a grand old time this weekend painting and watching movies. Did quite a bit of both:

This is a cloud study for Mickey Free. And worked on a Remington sketch of Bylas, where Beauty and her parents lived:

This is based on an old photo of the San Carlos area in the 1870s. Also worked on a sunset rider:

And this morning I whipped out a painting of Ray Simpson, a storekeeper in Delta, Colorado who took on the McCarty gang with a single shot rifle. Stepping into the street, he shot and killed two of the McCartys who were on horseback fleeing a botched bank robbery:

It's called "One Man With Courage" as in one man with courage makes a majority. Really a brave guy.

Went to see Away We Go on Saturday. Excellent little movie, written by Dave Eggers & Vendela Vida. Dave Eggers will always be my hero for one zany stunt: according to my daughter Deena Bean, Eggers inherited a bunch of money and while travelling in Africa, on a whim, he taped $1,000 and a note to a random cow in the middle of nowhere. The note said, "Here I am, rock you like a hurricane," and then he drew lightning bolts. That's it. He postulated that some poor farmer would find the money and the note and flip out over his good fortune. Then he would go find a translator to find out what the note says. And when the translator tells him they will wonder and wonder, never probably realizing that it's a mindless lyric by the rock band The Scorpions. That is priceless. And, by the way, John Drasinski and Maya Rudolph are amazing. Great scenes in Phoenix and Tucson. A very funny and honest film. Totally enjoyed it.

On Saturday night we rented JCVD, which stands for Jean Claude Van Damme. Also zany and honest about celebrity (his own) and how it affects everything, including a bank robbery.

And because I picked JCVD, Kathy chose He's Just Not That Into You which we watched last night and I also enjoyed that as well. Good cast, clever writing. Quite good.

And remember last week when I said Zach Galafianakis, in the hit movie The Hangover reminds me so much of Gordon Smith? Well, here's a photo of Gordon (along with Miss Connie and Buffalo Rick) next to Zach. Pretty scary, eh? Their humor is quite close as well.

The photo was taken at the old Rawhide when the four of us were Grand Marshals at a parade for about 27 people. That's why the meek smiles are evident. I've been involved in leading a few of these "parades", including one in Kingman, not so long ago. Or, I should say, not long enough ago. Ha.

"The fact that you're not answering leads me to believe that a) You're not home, b) You're home but you don't want to talk to me, or c) You're home, desperately want to talk to me, but you're trapped under something heavy. If it's either a) or c), please give me a call."
—lines from the script for When Harry Met Sally