January 26, 2014
We turned in the fourth signature on "The 66 Kid" last Friday. On schedule for completion on March 15. Still a ways to go, but so far so good. This weekend I'm working on Service With A Smile, Jugs Iced Free and, perhaps, my favorite segment Related to Outlaws, which I plan to excerpt in
True West. Speaking of which, got this critique of my Pat Garrett Assassination painting in the current issue:
"BBB your painting of Garrett on page 23 looks like an unshaven selfie."
—Allen Fossenkemper
Oh, crap. My worst fear. I spent a long time trying to get Garrett right, and this is the second person who has commented on this. Robert Ray being the first.
Studied the film "Y Tu Mama Tambien" last night. The director Carlos Quaron uses excellent storytelling techniques for going sideways and backwards with narration. It's the second or third time I've watched the film and it gets better every time. It was also interesting to watch the making of doc because the film community in Mexico is quite small and quite rich. Carlos Quaron, the writer and director is also the dude who did "Gravity." One of the guys in his little Mexico community is Guillermo del Toro, who did
Hellboy II, etc. and he is a genius as well. I'm reading his book, "Cabinet of Curiosities" which is full of excellent insights as well: "Always try to think about the opposite of your instinct. In between, you'll find the direction for everything. Color, light, monsters, acting. The first instinct, and then the complete opposite instinct, and then you decide, "I'll go with this."
"Any community that you get to know well, it's a small town. . .every little community is like Peyton Place once you get into it."
—Ethan Coen, describing the folk scene