Santa Clarita Muy Bonita

May 2, 2011

Great weekend in LA. Attended the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival and was treated royally by the staff and crew. Excellent festival. I have been to a couple clunker events in the past month, so it was flat out fun to be involved with a world class event.

Spoke on Friday at the Newhall Repertory Theatre. Full house. Went very well. Afterwards did a book signing across the street at Out West Gallery run by Bobbi Jean Bell (no relation). Sold a ton of books. Met some great people.

On Saturday Joe Freedman and I went out to the Melody Ranch studios, which I half expected to be like Old Tucson or the Mescal movie set. That is, way out in the sticks. Well, the Melody Ranch movie set is surrounded by homes so close to the perimeter that the main street movie set has inordinately high false fronts in order to mask the power poles and urban setting.

Tons of movies and TV shows filmed here (I think someone said over 2,000), including Deadwood, Lone Ranger, Wyatt Earp and even the Incredible Hulk. Sat on a True Grit panel and learned that the new Lone Ranger movie is tentatively set to begin filming in November. They were considering Rayan Gosling as the masked man, but have moved on because of scheduling issues. Johnny Depp is slated to be Tonto.

Visited the William S. Hart home in Newhall on Sunday. Great place. Stunning views.

Hung out with Kathy and my kids and we all went to the Comedy Store in Hollywood. Saw Sarah Silverman, Paulie Schore and the dude who plays Larry David's manager in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Fun evening. Enjoyed the laughter.

Saw one of the lead actresses from the tv show "Hung" at the Burbank Airport.

Flew home from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. Southwest took a circuitous route via Laughlin, Kingman and Prescott before dropping down into the Valley and Sky Harbor Airport. Flew right over Finger Rock, which is between Bullhead and Union Pass. Interesting to see from the air:

"History is who we are and why we are the way we are."
—David McCullough