Pinocchio Overtime & Century-Sentry Dust Storm Rider

July 25, 2011

Big storm blew in last night at about nine. I was watching Pinocchio, the 1940 Disney classic animation marvel. Been meaning to watch it for years and hadn't seen it since I saw it at the State Theatre in downtown Kingman. I have a cartoonist friend, Bob Steinhilber, who told me he has a friend who believes Western civilization peaked with the animation in Pinocchio and it's been downhill ever since. I think someone told me there is some 200-plus years worth of overtime in the making of the film and it was as a result of all this overtime that the studio unionized. May be an urban myth, but I've long since used that as a benchmark in my own business, where I casually remind my staff from time to time when we are working late, "Hey, we've got a long way to go before we reach Pinocchio territory!"

Heavy winds and rolling thunder. Blew the front door open during the whale scene. Put the movie on pause and closed everything up. Got some rain out of it.

Having grown up in Kingman, I know a thing or two about wind and dust. One of my first paintings after I got out of college was an attempt to capture a dust storm rider at Coyote Pass. Never finished it. Somewhere I have the canvas. Captured a good monotone of dust, wasn't sure how to add any color. This morning I took another crack at the idea and came up with this:

As I walked down to the Aughteron's to deliver their newspaper (I take the Republic, read it, then walk it down to them, in exchange for Tom taking care of my chickens while I'm gone), I noodled the title to this little dirt clod: Century Rider (get it, Century plant?) or Sentry Rider? Or, how about Century-Sentry Dust Storm Rider?

I know. Overproducing. Gee, I wonder what old Gyorgyi has to say about this?

"Discovering consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought."
—Albert Szent-Gyorgyi