Slot Canyon Auditions & The Genius of Richard Brautigan

 March 27, 2022

   In our Mickey Free story, he leaves Tom Horn and Jim Young high in the Sierra Madres and rides on alone, entering an ominous looking slot canyon. And that's where the story hits the fan. In fact, it's the opening sequence of the movie on paper. Here I am auditioning slot canyons.

Daily Study Whip Outs:

"Slot Canyon Auditions"

   The goal is to make it as foreboding as all get out, and, in fact, three assailants are hidden in the rocks planning their ambush.

Daily Whip Out: "Slot Canyon Ambush"

   And, here's a big, fat scratchboard version.

Daily Scratchboard Whip Out:

"Slot Canyon Ambush"

   One of these days it will all fall together. And what do those ambushers look like? Typical Apache Pass Cowboys with a mixed blood Mestizo, or two, thrown in for good measure.

Apache Pass Cowboys

Mestizos Galore

   Thanks to my son, Thomas Charles, I am reading this guy.

Richard Brautigan

   Tomas sent me "The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western." The genius of Brautigan, to me, is he does these really sparse, short chapters. Before I knew this, I put off trying to read it and finally, last night, I said, "Dammit, you've got to at least read the first page!" So I cracked the book and the first chapter is less than two pages! It is so concise and arbitrary and funny. Here is a taste:

   "The train only went as far as Gompville, which was the county seat of Morning County and fifty miles away by stagecoach to Billy. It was a cold clear down with a half-a-dozen sleepy dogs standing there barking at the train.

   "Gompville," Cameron said.

   Gompville was was the headquarters of the Morning County Sheepshooters Association that had a president, a vice-president, a secretary, a sergeant at arms and bylaws that said it was all right to shoot sheep."

Author Clarification

   "Just because you write doesn't make you an author. It's the ability to procrastinate and hate yourself for not writing that makes you an author."

—Old Author Saying