February 10, 2023
Here's a French artist I have always admired and tried to emulate (i.e. steal from).
"At The Milliners"
(At The Hat Shoppe)
by Edgar Degas, 1881
Degas (pronounced Day-gah) did the above pastel at the O.K. Corral. Just kidding. What I really mean is, he did it the same year that Doc Holliday made a house call at Fly's Boarding House. This is just frosting on the cake for me. He's a contemporary of the Earps, Wild Bill, Curly Bill, the Kid and Jesse James. Just on a different continent. Degas also did self-portraits that have that Wild West, funky Tombstoner look, through and through.
We've Been Tumbleweeded!
We woke up to this sight.
Rumblin' Tumbleweeds lookin' for a fight.The crazy winds we've had for the last couple days blew all these tumbleweeds right into our front gate area. And yes, that is Uno behind the gate looking out.
Cowboy Culture
We've been compiling old cowboy photos for an upcoming feature. Got this one from historian Janice Dunnahoo in Roswell. The caption says, "Carl Paxton on Roan Tail." Photo taken circa 1905, Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico.
From the collection of Kent Taylor
photo restoration by Rance Rogers
Back To The Humor
If you haven't noticed by now, I tend to get my humor wherever and whenever I can find it.
The Crypt of Edgar Degas
When we were on the hunt for Vincent van Gogh in September of 2015, and traveling with the D's (Dan and Darlene Harshberger) we stumbled across the Edgar Degas crypt in a cemetery in Montmartre, which is the hipster neighborhood both Edgar and Vincent hung out in. So we looked him up and here's what we found.
Paying Our Respects to The Family of Gas
We found him and we had to pay our respects and we had to smirk, because, well, to a couple Kingman kids, who both received two solid semesters of Spanish from Coach Baca at MCUHS, the sign on his crypt says, "Family of Gas."
No disrespect! Like I said, humor is where you find it, even in the City of Lights. Or, especially in the City of Lights!
"A painting requires a littly mystery, some vagueness, and some fantasy. When you always make your meaning perfectly plain you end up boring people."
—Edgar Degas
BBB, you’ve certainly been tumbled by Russian Thistles. Note of histórica, true west importance: one of the most famous western songs, Tumbling Tumble Weeds was written by an Arizona (later California) singer songwriter, graduate of Tucson High School, (1926) Bob Nolan. His song Tumbling Tumbleweeds was published in 1934 and recorded the same year by Nolan’s group Sons of the Pioneers. Of course this group included Tim Spencer, Hugh and Karl Farr and Len Slye (Roy Rogers).
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