Sunday, September 22, 2013

Defending The Town I Love vs. Defending The West I See Disappearing


September 22, 2013
  Worked most of the weekend on my Cowboy Ground Zero concepts.



Daily Whipout, "Cowboy Ground Zero Concept #5"

And I also tried a more nuclear approach:



Daily Whipout, "Cowboy Ground Zero, Concept #6"

   Working on an Arizona Republic Op-ed piece on the controversy over Scottsdale's trademarked motto "The West's Most Western Town." I am supposed to defend Cave Creek's claim to the motto, so I will probably not use this:

We moved to Cave Creek back in 1986, in large part because it had an Old West feel to it. And part of the feel I was attracted to has disappeared with the ever encroaching Valley rules and regs and pavement. I know many old Creekers who left ten years ago because too many people moved here and ruined the charm. "It's Yuppy Scum like you who ruined this place," Lew Jones, of Mineshaft fame, told me (he moved to Mogollon, New Mexico to escape the onslaught of newcomers, like myself). I enjoy that cantankerousness. It's part of the West I love and it seems to get more scarce every day.



"Our New Jersey jeep tour operators are more Western than your New Jersey jeep tour operators."
—A suggested alternative motto for Cave Creek made by a neighbor who shall remain nameless