Went home for lunch and did not whip out anything. In fact, I failed at two attempts to recreate a sketch I did way back in August of 2009:
This "Lone Grave" was inspired by a grave I always see near Datil, New Mexico.
This sketch was spotted by an art director in New Mexico who wants to use it on a cover, but without the grave stone. Thought I could easily duplicate it, and, in fact, improve it, but I think I'm a tad rusty from the trip (not painting every day is much more profound than I thought). Anyway, quite frustrating.
If you missed our TV show Outrageous Arizona, I got this reminder from Jana Bommersbach this afternoon:
Hey guys: "Outrageous Arizona"- Bob Boze Bell and Marshall Trimble and yours truly telling outrageous stories about AZ-- is rerunning on Chanel 88 this Saturday, Oct. 6 at 6:30 p.m. it's Channel 8's other cable station. If you missed it, hope you get a chance to see it.
Also, we have DVDs of the show and they are moving like hotcakes. You can check them out right here on the website. Interestingly, my True West Moments DVD is selling along with it. Sally told me she got seven orders this morning for both videos. People are seeing the OA and also buying the TWMs. Interesting marketing. One pulls the other.
Saw the first promo, or trailer for Steven Spielberg's forthcoming film Lincoln last night during the debates. Have to say I was rather underwhelmed. Bad wigs, kind of hammy, and what's with Lincoln's voice? I naturally assume that Daniel Day-Mr. Obsession-Lewis probably went to great lengths to get everything right and he probably is channeling Abe in more ways than one. Also, someone this morning in our design review meeting said that Lincoln did allegedly have a nasally whine. Still I was not as impressed as I was by the full page ad in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago. Check this out:
The TV trailer may be weak but the print ad is fantastic.! In fact I showed it in our design review as inspiration on how to promote some of our products or features. One image, one word. Yikes! That is a great ad.
Meanwhile, we sometimes get unsatisfied customers, like this one:
I would like to cancel my subscription effective immediately. When I started taking the magazine I believed it would have true stories of pioneers and survival like I had read as a child. I was interested in them due to my Texas pioneer background. Instead, your magazine seems to be mostly about outlaws and those who are interested in them for fun and profit.
By the way, your information on the movie, Little Big Man, was incomplete. I lived on the Stoney Indian reserve on Morley, Alberta, Canada where part of the film was made, but no mention of this location was made in your magazine. My father was the principal and my mother was a teacher at the K-8 Morley school. If Dustin Hoffman had made any effort to meet with the people of the community except to show up to shoot scenes for the movie he would have had fans for life. However, I never saw him the entire shooting time which was at least six weeks. All I saw was the CBS van coming in from Calgary as my bus was leaving for school. I was in grade 12 and my brother in grade 10 in high school attending a rural school west of Calgary. He also shot scenes on a local rancher’s property. I attended school with the daughter, Suzanne Copithorne.
Yours truly,
Sarah J. McKenzie, Porter, TX
So, I called Sarah and we had a very nice chat. She found us online and subscribed for a year. She admits she takes them to work and they always disappear because everyone loves them. She is an ex-teacher from Ogden, Utah, who moved back to Texas and now works at a Home Depot. She and her son love history and movies. I assured her that we are going to be doing a new kind of featurette in 2013 on little known pioneers and how they survived. She granted she would give us another shot, so we have four issues to implement some of these things. Here is her request in a nutshell:
"How did people make a go of it?"
—Sarah McKenzie
