August 30, 2014
Had meetings all day yesterday, including a great confab with a well-known writer at True Foods in Scottsdale. We met to discuss creating a Western together and it was at least fun to talk about. I don't want to name drop, but that's his writing advice, down below.
On the way home I stopped at iMemories to see about the transfer of a large batch of 8mm film to DVDs and was disappointed that one of the reels was missing. When I was in Kingman two weekends ago for the book rollout, a certain person there gifted me a box of old films taken in Mohave County in the 1950s and one of them was of a cock fight at, or near, the Fairgrounds. I want this footage to illustrate a section of the 66 Kid documentary where I talk about Kingman still being an outlaw haven in the 1950s.
The DVD has two seconds of the film, showing a man standing with a fighting cock and in the background you can see Bull Head Mountain and the Cerbats. When I complained about the censored film, the manager said, "That footage is against the law. We cannot reproduce prostitution either." Well, damn! Looks like I won't be getting my film of working at KSLX transferred either.
They took it off my bill, but now I've got to go buy an old 8mm projector to get this footage. I'm not going to show much of the actual cock fighting part, mostly the crowd and their reactions to see something seedy is going on. And, in reality, I guess I don't get what the big deal is about cock fighting. Yes, it should be illegal, but then so should cluster bombs. And besides, anyone who has had roosters know they are born fighting machines (my personal cock attacks me every, flippin' day when I go in to feed him!) and just because you take away their switchblades, doesn't mean they are going to stop killing other roosters AND hens.
Stopped at Mad Coyote Joe's house and picked up a few packs of Mad Coyote Salsa mix so I could have a little one-man Mexican fiesta today. Mixed up a bowl of chunky stuff and brought out a beer to make it official.
Big Balls In Cowtown Salsa
Made salmon tacos for lunch and had the Pacifico. Then proceeded to take a bite out of three different books: "How Fiction Works" by James Wood ("My grandfather's grave turned into the light, and the dew on his weedy little mortality patch was glorious." Wood praising Marilynne Robinson's "Mellvillean metaphor and analogy.") "Bulletproof Vest" by Maria Venegas ("If I could trade heads, I would give [her father's head] up to have my brother back.") and "Still Foolin' Em" by Billy Crystal ("Why does God make everything small that should be big and everything big that should be small? Like my nuts, why are they now HUGE? Everytime I sit on the toilet, I make tea with my balls. Thank you, God, put that and the Nazis on your greatest hits album.")
Curator Cal and I are closing in on categories of art to be compiled in big envelopes. Cal asked me to do a chronological list of my career so she can get an idea of where stuff should go, so I sent her this:
A Short History of The Triple B Archives
1. Junior High school cartoons when I worked on The Desert Rat, then the cartoons I did while at MCUHS (Mohave County Union High School) 1961-1965
2. University of Ariona art and cartoons: my original (but not by much) cartoon character "Dick Matric" which ran in the Daily Wildcat, 1965-1970
3. My just out of college Freelance Period: cartoons for the Mohave Miner and The Prescott Courier (1968-72) i also spent several years creating a comic strip "Lippo & Pagoona" for national syndication but never could land a gig because it wasn't funny enough.
4. The Razz Revue humor magazine (1972-76) The Doper Roper appeared in every issue. This effort was funnier but it made zero money, which is probably due to it still not being funny enough.
5. Honkytonk Sue premiered in National Lampoon in June of 1977 (6 pages). Then I went to work for the Phoenix New Times, 1978-1987, then with an interlude, a second tour of duty 1991-1993. Honkytonk Sue, the weekly cartoon strip appeared from 1978-1980 (and I self-published four comic books repurposing the weekly strips). I also made another run at The Doper Roper in a full page color comic that ran in the New Times in the early nineties. During this period I sold a six page cartoon to Playboy magazine at $1,000 a page, my biggest cartooning payday ever.
6. KSLX radio morning show, Jone & Boze, later Jones, Boze & Jeanne Show, 1986-1994 where I made $112,000 a year just for talking too much and not drawing a damn thing. This will mess with your life goals. Big time.
7. Publishing Tri Star Boze books: "Illustrated Life & Times of Billy the Kid," 1992; "Illustrated Life & Times of Wyatt Earp," 1993; "Illustrated Life & Times of Doc Holliday," 1994; "Bad Men," 1999; "Classic Gunfights," Vol. I, II, III, 2002-2007
8. Young Buck Radio, morning show, 1997-98, followed by KXAM three different shows, 1998-2000.
9. True West magazine 1999-present
10. Published "The 66 Kid" September 1, 2014 (the formal rollout date)
The Writing Advice I Have On My Desk And Read Every Day
"Bring the story to a boil. Find nine weeks solid to work six hours a day. Get the dream up over your head and pay attention (as if you are juggling). Eventually, the angry tension between the macro-story and the mini-stories will break and reveal themselves."
—Ron Carlson