Working in office. Need to video-tape a snap tag for the cover. Working hard on the next CG (Classic Gunfight). More on that in a minute.
The Day The Music Died (and was born again)
Great interview with Jimmy Page in the new Rolling Stone. We think of the British recording studios in the early sixties as being open to new ideas and that's what led to the Beatles. Not true at all. In fact the opposite is true. Here, I'll let Jimmy tell it: "When I was in Neil Christian and the Crusaders, we got a recording contract, but we didn't play on the tracks. Session musicians did. Record companies had staff producers who would supply songs written by their pals. There would be a deal on the publishing. It was a shut-down situation. Then the Beatles came along."
And totally destroyed the Good Ol' Boys' Club. Ha. The beauty of this world is that nobody can really quite put a stranglehold on anything. Not Ghengis Khan, not Rupert Murdoch and certainly not recording studios, record companies or even movie companies. Content is king. Long live content!
Sometimes I'm the whipout-er and sometimes the whipout whips me. Worked both in the morning and at lunch yesterday on a painting for the next Classic Gunfight. Tried to finish this morning but it just won't fall. Here it is, a work in progress, "The Death Tent."
The Death Tent (fpo: for position only)
Had a very simple plan to finish this in short order. Two riders, Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Dalton and Deputy U.S. Marshal James Cole come upon a tent in the Indian Nations. They have warrants for an illegal bootlegger named Smith. Unbeknownst to both, Smith is in the tent with his wife and a kid, plus three other outlaws and a whole bunch of women and kids. The ensuing gunfight cost Dalton his life Two others were killed, including Smith and a woman. Will try to finish this weekend. Need to add some laundry hanging on a line. Smoke coming out a stove chimney, blankets hanging on the tent lines and assorted barrels and still-type materials. A simple plan ended up very ambitious. Can't look back now. Got to keep going. Why?
"Don't look back—you're not going that way."
—Old Vaquero Saying
