June 12, 2023
It was three years ago last May we were ravaged by the Ocotillo Fire that swept through our neighborhood and took out this budding saguaro. As it slowly decomposed, I began to notice the fingers of a hand. Do you see it?
Still noodling Jesse James artwork for the cover of the book. As I told Dan The Man, I want to emphasize how innocent the boy was in the beginning. And, even when he was a full blown Bushwhacker and is alleged to have shot dead the Union commander at the Battle of Centralia, he looked like this! Just a kid!
And, then during the seventies he breaks out, along with his brother Frank, as a bank and train robber, and then, with his assassination he becomes something even bigger, perhaps the most famous American outlaw in the world. I need to get that idea across on the cover. How did he go from one thing to the other? I know it's somewhere in between these two poles:
Daily Whip Out:
"Jesse James Before The Storm"
And here. . .
Daily Whip Out:
"The Legendary Outlaw Jesse James"
Music to My Ears
One of the things I enjoy about my kids is talking about their music. Deena and Tommy are very eclectic but, fortunately, their tastes do not fall far from the rock 'n' roll tree.
The Cattletrack Three Chord Blues
Some things are better left unsaid.
"I ain't gonna hang no picture, I ain't gonna hang no picture frame, I might look like Robert Ford, but I feel just like a Jesse James."
—Bob Dylan, "Outlaw Blues"
More cowbell!!
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