I've been very busy this summer. In June I took Los Famdamos on the Bell Legacy Tour (The BLT tour as we called it) to the family farm in Iowa. Spent some major money (wrecked $5 grand) but had a great time and showed my kids where I came from.
In July we filmed the pilot for Outrageous Arizona, a co-production between Channel EIGHT, PBS Phoenix and True West magazine, which will premiere a week from tonight. I also did all of the artwork for the show and finally finished that on Monday.
Tomorrow, Ken Amorosano and I drive to Santa Fe for the Arizona-New Mexico Centennial Art Show at Due West Gallery on Saturday night. And next weekend I fly to Durango for the First Annual True West Railfest AND tape some new True West Moments for the Westerns Channel while i'm there. In fact, we're sharing a tent with Jeff Hildebrandt and the Encore Westerns crew. Paul Andrew Hutton and I are giving a talk on Wyatt Earp in Hollywood at the Strater Hotel in Saturday night. Looking forward to that.
But the good news is most of the work for all of the above is done, in the can, so I can get back to my pet project "The Last Baby Boomer Speaks". Cleaned and reorganized this morning in my studio to get ready for the final push. I have made a commitment to master colorist Brett Smith that we will knock out at least two episodes to run in True West. Here is my desk this morning with the vital tools needed to finish:
From top to bottom, my friend Ron Carlson gave me the four steps to completion (in red), my notes from April sum up my quest ("I want the truth"), the original cartoon is a reminder to keep the lines clean and the drawing of Metallica, juxtapositioned with a scowling Wyatt Earp is the theme.
Wish me luck. So, I have the tools, but I need one more thing. Here's what a certain coach says I need:
"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will."
—Vince Lombardi
