Planning for The First Payson Film Festival & Bass Reeves Is Just Getting Started

 April 30, 2024

   Met these fine folks at Tonto Bar & Grill yesterday for lunch. We are planning big things for August.

The Payson Film Festival Crew

(L-R): Craig Swartwood (former mayor of Payson), Elizabeth Fowler (Rim Country Artists, director of programs), Sherah LaBonte (pronounced Share-ah), BBB, and Miranda Meyer of the Chamber.

   We just shot a new YouTube video today. Here is what I talked about.

Bass Reeves Finally Gets His Due

   Yes, the lawman who went from being a slave to a stalwart U.S. Deputy Marshal has been having a moment recently with the release of the eight-part series Lawman: Bass Reeves, produced by Taylor Sheridan for Paramount + in 2023.

   While we pride ourselves on being on the cutting edge of history at True West magazine we were late to this party ourselves. Our magazine is 70 plus years old and yet, Reeves, did not appear in our pages until 1979, and we have one man to thank for him finally getting his due, and he is a member of my tribe: Art T. Burton. Art and I are both percussionists: he plays congas and I am an above average rock drummer. It was in 1991 that Art first brought the Bass Reeves story to the pages of True West with the cover headline "Bass Reeves: Deputy U.S. Marshal."

   As I said in the 2021 issue, we think it's high time we celebrated this amazing lawman who logged over 3,000 arrests in a three-decade career and shot it out with 14 to 20 bad guys.

   Bottom line is he makes Wyatt Earp look like a part-time mall cop!

Lawmen: Bass Reeves television series.

   So, if you've seen the Lawman: Bass Reeves TV series, here are some observations by Art T. Burton about the difference between the real lawman and the TV portrayal.

•  Bass Reeves never fought for the Confederate Army. Bass was a slave of a Confederate officer and served as his personal valet.

• Bass Reeves did not live with a Seminole woman and son for three years during the Civil War. Bass fought with the Union Army Native Americans during the Civil War and learned their languages, culture, and lay of the land of the Indian Territory.

• Bass Reeves was not a farmer. After the Civil War, Bass was a scout and interpreter for railroad surveyors in the Indian Territory. Later, he served as a guard for the railroad workers. After that, Bass worked as a scout and guide for federal lawmen in western Arkansas who worked in the Indian Territory. Bass did own a horse farm in Arkansas.

• There were no wagons with steel bars to transport prisoners in the Indian Territory. Prisoners were shackled ankle to ankle and had to walk.

• There were no legal saloons or brothels in the Indian Territory. Alcohol was illegal.

• If the deputy U.S. marshals in the Indian Territory didn’t have a supply wagon, they had pack horses or pack mules to carry supplies.

• Before Oklahoma statehood in 1907. There were very few racial murders in the Oklahoma/Indian Territories. Bass Reeves investigated several of these cases. There was also no Jim Crow laws until after statehood.

•  As an individual, Bass Reeves was not stoic and quiet. He liked to laugh, tell jokes and stories, and brag about what he could do. He was a Texas gentleman and he treated everyone with dignity and respect. Reeves was 6' 2' and weighed 190 pounds and it was claimed he could whip whip any two men with his bare hands.

• Reeves loved dogs and horses and always kept a large dog to guard his camp and watch the prisoners. Bass rode large horses, favoring sorrels and grays.

• Deputy U.S. Marshals didn’t wear badges while in the field of operation. A badge would tip off outlaws and possibly cause the death of the lawman.

• Bass Reeves when charged with murder of his cook was tried by a jury, it was not a bench trial. A jury found him innocent of murder in 1887.

   Other than that, the series was dead on. Ha.

   Okay, here is my prediction: there have been close to 40 movies about the lawman Wyatt Earp, but keep in mind he wasn't "discovered" until the late 1920s—almost 50 years after the events he is now famous for—and the first movie on Wyatt Earp came out in the thirties! By the same token, Bass Reeves is just getting started and I predict you are going to see a lot more films about him as a lawman. And, I look forward to one where he is a tad more badass.

"Always remember that the crowd  that applauds your coronation is the same crowd that will applaud your beheading. People like a show."

—Terry Pratchett

Gauche vs. Goauche & Skill Observations

 April 29, 2024

   For the life of me, I could not remember the spelling of the French putdown—gauche (pronounced Goe-SH). I tried putting it into search, but I was using the pronunciation of "Go" as in Go-Go and nothing came up. I finally had to call a distinguished professor and ask him how to spell it. He, of course, ripped me for using a French term when there are so many English words that would suffice (his bush league prejudice, not mine). Then his long suffering wife piped up in the background and said, "What do you call a husband who says 'nothing' when you ask him what happened in his day?" to which I replied almost immediately, "That would be the very definition of gauche."

   Actually, gauche means lacking ease or grace, being unsophisticated and socially backward. It also can mean left, or clumsy.

   Which brings us to gouache (pronounced go-wash) and although it is a type of opaque watercolor that I prefer, I wonder if the two words are cousins?

Gauche vs. Gouache

   Awful close in spelling and punctuation.

    And, speaking of being close, here is an artist friend weighing in on my Billy at Midnight quest:

"Very strong, Bob. It will be interesting to see if you stop here or continue with the piece."

—Larry Gay

The Reworked Reworking

of A Daily Whip Out (Version 4):

"Billy the Kid at Midnight On The Deadliest Street In America"

   I have a distinct skill of overworking everything!

Good News Department

   Marshall Trimble had a heart attack last week and is recuperating at home with two new stents.​

Marshall Trimble in 1946

"The only thing in life that’s really worth having is good skill. Good skill is the greatest possession. The things that money buys are fine. They’re good. I like them. I know a lot of rich people. They don’t feel good, as you think they should and would. They’re miserable. Because, if they don’t master a skill, life is unfulfilling. So I work at my skill because if you don’t, in standup comedy, if you don’t do it a lot, you stink.

—Jerry Seinfeld

Crosshatching to Glory & Billy the Kid at Midnight On The Deadliest Street In America

 April 28, 2024

   One of my favorite art techniques is crosshatching. It has been going in and out of style for a very long time, but it's still guaranteed to raise a smile. At least in some circles that I run in. In the Fine Art scene it is considered passe and not cool, but I still love it.

Daily Crosshatch Whip Out:

"The Unsinkable"

(as in Molly Brown, who did not go down

on the Titanic)

   Had some fun with a new pen this morning, which led to the crosshatching observations.

Daily Whip Out: "Crosshatching to Glory"

Old Hat

   Now, there's a name for a book on authentic & historic hats.

   Thanks to the Top Secret Writer who convinced me I needed to include this piece with the Ellis Store floorboard frame job.

Daily Reworked Whip Out:

"Billy at Midnight

On The Deadliest Street In America"

   Speaking of the Kid, Buckeye Blake called me to talk about his proposed shrine to Billy in Fort Sumner and we got to talking about someone who is giving him grief and he said, "Hell, he'd chop down the last tree in Lone Pine." Such a funny guy.

"There are two great things in this world, in my opinion. There are only two things that count—writing and performing. Everything else is just a pain."

—Jerry Seinfeld

Silver Lab, Silver Sky

 April 27, 2024

   Big storm rolled in last night around sunset.

Silver Lab, Silver Sky

Our neighbor, Tom Augherton, called us last night and told us to go outside to see the big storm rolling in from New River Mesa. Very dramatic sky juxtaposed with a thoughtful dog. Hmmmm. . .

It really rained hard. Blew a chair into the pool. Gushed and thundered for about a half hour, then let up, started again, petered out and stayed cool all night. We might have 48 hours more of this, then it's straight up summer heat for the next, oh, six or seven months. Wish I was kidding.

Sigh. I've been weathering this for seven decades and it never gets easier.

The Ellis Store Historic Wood Project

   The historic Ellis Store in Lincoln, New Mexico is being renovated and the new owner, Amy Gauthier, is going to fete myself and two other Billy the Kid artists with a big reopening art show on July 12. In the room where Billy the Kid allegedly stayed in the Ellis Store (1878), the floor needed to be replaced because of termite damage and she asked me if I wanted some of the salvageable wood for an art frame, or two. I said, "Boy, Howdy! Send it to me," which Amy did.

Strips of The Ellis Store wood Billy the Kid

actually walked on and the artwork it will frame.

   Interesting dynamic, yes?

"No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness."

—Aristotle

A Good Day to Finish Some Whip Outs

 April 26, 2024

   I have several hundred—perhaps close to a thousand!—unfinished paintings in my studio and I very often run across one of them in my quest to find something else, of course. And I pick one up and think to myself, "I think I can improve this," and so, rather than find what I was originally looking for, I take a detour into, what Kathy calls, the Salvage Department Syndrome (she is a therapist and should know). 

   And, as you might guess, sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't.

Daily Retweaked Whip Out:

"Reachin' For Iron"

(Actually from a reference photo of Flint Carney pulling a pistol in front of the garage.)

Daily Retweaked Whip Out:

"Jesse In Darkness"

   During the Civl War, Missouri Bushwhackers carried as many as five, or even six, pistols.

Daily Retweaked Whip Out:

"Jesse James In Hell"

  An actual photo of just a smattering of my unfinished boards.

Mucho Daily Un-Finished Whipped Outs

(in a bin and stacked against the wall)

Meanwhile. . .

Opening Sequence of The 66 Kids Road Show

   A wide shot of Long Valley, west of Seligman, Arizona, just off old Route 66.

   Narrator: "In the beginning the road was just a path and trod by mocassin-clad-feet. Then came the camels and the stages and the freighters and then creeping on the scene a smattering of Model Ts, but after the second world war a seismic change happened."

   The camera slowly pans around until we see a narrow two-lane highway packed with classic 1950s and 60s American iron, rolling across the valley, bumper to bumper.

Craig Fouts Found These BBB

Billy-centric pen and inks

in Washington State.

      At some point it's going to be. . .

Daily Whip Out Sketch: "Adios!"

But, until then. . .

Whip Outs In Progress

(at 4:14 p.m.)

   Don't get me wrong, this is pure fun.

"I have learned that to be with those I like is enough."

—Walt Whitman

Blues Guy Spreads Joy, Comps Tickets

 April 25, 2024

   Got a call yesterday from this blues guy I know who was following up on getting one of my Billy the Kid books sent out to a desert recording studio in Tornillo, Texas where he was laying down some tracks. He went on to say he was playing in Prescott Valley that night and if I knew anybody who might want to see the show to give him the word. So I put in a request for Stuart Rosebrook, his wife Julie and his daughter Kristina (it was her birthday) and they went to the show and landed in the 14th row.

The Reverand W. F. Gibbons

(Photo by Stuart Rosebrook)

"Lord take me downtown, I'm just looking for some comp tickets."

—A Longtime Editor of True West

   What was it like growing up on a famous highway? Well, we had the fastest cars and the prettiest, beehived babes the world has ever seen.

Beehive Supreme

One guy who still loves a good beehive.

The 66 Kid

"Comedians are now held to this high standard. It's so weird. We're talking about serious subjects, and people go, 'I wonder what the clowns think? Has anyone asked the clowns about it?'"

—Neil Brennan, on his Netflix special Crazy Good

The Girl In The Flatbed Ford

 April 24, 2024

   Once and for all, who was the girl in the flatbed Ford? You know, the one who slowed down and took a look at the hitchhiker, Jackson Browne, in Winslow, Arizona back in the early seventies?

A 1970 Flatbed Ford

   Kathy taught at Moon Mountain Elementary School back in the seventies and one of her fellow teachers was from Winslow and claimed to be the girl in the flatbed Ford. In my mind, she fits the bill and I have always believed her story and when I hear the song I see her face and, it makes me smile. She was, and is, a cutie, who married a prominent judge.

A convincing, but unconfirmed

photo of the girl in the flatbed Ford

"300 people, or more, stop for photographs every day at the corner to take photographs with the statue of Jackson Browne. On holidays and weekends it's non-stop."

—Stephanie Lugo, a board member of the Standing On A Corner Foundation

Class Dismissed & New Billys Framed

 April 23. 2024

   Spoke via Zoom yesterday to an Ann King class of Art & Visual Communcation kids at Mohave County Community College. Mostly Kingman kids with some from Bullhead and Havasu. Always enjoy talking to eager young artists.

   Meanwhile, got a couple more Billy paintings framed for the upcoming art show in Lincoln. Can you spot them?

New Billys Framed (plus a Lovely Linda)

   Great interview with Jerry Seinfeld in the Hollywood Reporter. He was talking about his new film "Unfrosted" which will be released on Netflix next month. He talks about how the experience was new to him. "I thought I had done some cool stuff, but it was nothing like the way these people work. They're so dead serious! They don't have any idea that the movie business is over. They have no idea."

   Jerry goes on to say, "film doesn't occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did for most of our lives. When a movie came  out, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all discussed it. We quoted lines and scenes we liked. Now we're walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see."

   Had lunch at the Grotto today with two of my favorite long time employees today. We laughed and laughed about the good times and the bad. 

The Grotto Crew:

Sheri Riley Jenson and Rebecca Edwards

   Sheri has been with me for 16 years and Rebecca for 12. When it comes to being a good manager, I agree with David.

"We assume we are being judged on our competence, but mostly we are judged on our warmth. Ethical leaders communicate a joyfulness in what they do and attract followers in part by showing pleasure." 

—David Brooks

Rumble City Mahem

 April 22, 2024

   Hey mama, look at me, I'm on the way to the promised land. . .

Rumble City Mahem

   Not to beat a dead horse, but that is my mama on the hood of that '56 Fairlane and I have Dan The Man to thank for swiping her off the hood of a '32 Dodge.

Bobbi Guess on the hood of

her dad's new Dodge Pickup

out at the Diamond Bar Ranch

in Mohave County, Arizona

1933

   Of course, not everybody loves this stuff like I do and sometimes I get push back, even hate mail. But I take solace in knowing what that really means.

"It's good to know who hates you, and it's good to be hated by the right people."

—Johnny Cash

Three Billys at The Back Door & J. R. R. Tolkein at The Front Door

 April 21, 2024

   As mentioned yesterday, we are in the planning stages of a Billy the Kid Art Show & Confab in Lincoln on July 12. I found out from the new owner of the Ellis Store, Amy, that because of severe termite damage they had to refurbish the room the Kid allegedly stayed in and she wanted to know if I might like some of the salvageable wood for an art frame?

Daily Reworked Whip Out:

"Billy at The Backdoor of The Ellis Store"

(I added a period vest and a smirk)

   Now imagine this piece framed with the floorboards that Bonney actually walked on. If you ask me, I think that is a couple steps beyond groovamente!

   Meanwhile, my favorite Aussie Bastard, James B. Mills, who is as much of a period snob as I am, weighs in, saying, "I'd go with the painted visage [below]. It has some shadowy enigma about it, which is appropriate for Bonney." Or, as one BtK tintype expert phrased it, it looks like  "enraged mud turtles crawling on a ferrotype wash." Or, something like that.

Daily Reworked Whip Out:

"The Shadowy Enigma of Billy

at The Backdoor of The Ellis Store"

   Meanwhile, my grandson Weston prefers this one:

Daily Reworked Whip Out:

"Billy In An Above Ground Swimming Pool

at The Backdoor of the Ellis Store"

   Yes, my Canon printer ran out of ink in the middle of the run and, well, that's what it looks like: Billy the Kid up to his waist in an above ground swimming pool, at the back door of the Ellis Store.

Every hat I love is in this picture.

Mexican Revolution Soldados, circa 1915

   I especially dig the guy, at lower left with the swept back surgarloaf and the spoiler backfin and black shirt. I want to see this guy move, in a film about the true story of Pedro Pasqual.

Daily Whip Out:

"Pedro Pasqual's Sugarloaf"

Daily Whip Out:

"Pedro Heads Out to Meet His Fate"

      And, I don't see this as some fruity allegory either. This will not be a story that reveals a hidden meaning. With this I am on the side of Tolkein.

". . .I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varired applicability to the thought and experience of readers."

—J.R.R. Tolkein in the foreword to "The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring"

Pump House Blooms, Ellis Store Savior & Mickey Free Characters

 April 20, 2024

   This is a beautiful time of year on the Great Sonoran Desert. Here's the view looking north from my studio.

Pump House Blooms

   An Old West Savior has arrived in Lincoln, New Mexico and she has made it her mission to revive and restore the historic Ellis Store which had fallen into major decline. Thanks to our historian compadre, Lynda Sanchez, who lives in Lincoln, we are covering Amy's efforts in the next issue of True West.

Amy Gautheir on a work break

at the historic Ellis Store

   Me and the Boys are going to bring some of our Billy the Kid art to hang in the store when she has her grand reopening on July 12. If you read this blog you know who the Boys are. I'll have more details when we get closer to the date. 

   I went for a walk with Uno this morning and ran into these two:

Fluffy and Miss Aubry Piddybutting

   I asked how her mother is doing (Bev just had surgery) and she replied, "She's doing well, she's in the yard piddybutting." I had never heard that term before. If I didn't know better, I would assume it means she is headbutting an errant ram?

Heads Up Humor Alert

   My son Thomas Charles alerts me to humor I might have missed. I try to do the same back his way.

"I was hit by a bicycle. No, it was my fault. I was standing on the sidewalk. He was a food deliverer—a third responder. Heroes delivering heroes to heroes."

—Dave Attell, on his Netflix special, Hot Cross Buns

   You know who doesn't get the respect they deserve? These guys:

Daily Whip Out:

"Mickey Free On His Big, Bad Jack"

   Of course I am referring to Jack mules and half-breed captivos who definitely don't get the respect they deserve. Besides them, or, actually, in addition to them, everyone else in my story on Mickey Free's hunt for the Apache Kid is based on real, historic characters.

Daily Whip Outs:

"My Favorite Mickey Free Characters"

   And, as you may, or may not, know, one of these real life characters begat Mitt Romney.

"Just because you were conceived in the back seat of a Jeep doesn't make you Cherokee."

—Old In-din saying

Bandido Sneer And When Jugs Iced Free Saved Humanity!

 April 19, 2024

   Had some fun with this one.

Daily Whip Out: "Bandido Sneer" 

  It's that time of year.

Prickly Pear Solamente!

Bust Shots Busted

   If you thought, like I did, that the faces on Mount Rushmore were always planned with just their heads, check out the artist's preliminary concept.

The Original Concept for Mount Rushmore

(completely busted)

Random Teasers for The 66 Kids

   Don't look now, but your past is in the rearview mirror.

warning:

(objects in mirror are closer than they appear)

   When Jugs Iced Free Saved Humanity!

Meet one of the heroes

who iced those jugs.

Number One Ice Jugger With A Bullet

 

You think you're big enough to fill this, Kid?

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

—Benjamin Franklin

The Black Cat Cowboy Who Lost His Leg But Won The Girl

   April 18, 2024

   It's rare when horror stories have a happy ending. This is one of them.

Danny and Mary Romero

The Black Cat Cowboy

   Danny Romero is a Kingman kid who lost his leg, but won the girl. He was helping load 800 head of cattle on the Sevens, a storied ranch northeast of Seligman, Arizona, when he banged his knee on this loading chute.

The Loading Chute From Hell

   "I woke up ten days later looking up at a doctor who told me the infection—necrotizing fasciitis—was crawling up my leg an inch an hour. They took my leg and I was there for five weeks. In fact, I turned 36 in ICU. I was born on Route 66 and damn near died on 66."

—Danny Romero

Is It Too Early To Start On Volume III?

 April 17, 2024

   What is it about cheesy that sometimes can be so satisfying? Or put another way, some stuff can be so cheesy it's actually kind of endearing.

First Class Cheese? Or, So Bad It's Good?

   Sometimes cheesy is way too close to awful and sometimes classic literature is awful close to cheesy.

   Bottom line: get ready for some major cheese in The 66 Kids, Volume III.

   So, what exactly is cheesy? Basically cheesy is bad taste done so boldly it almost passes as good taste.

   Can you use "cheesy" in a sentence? Yes, a cheesy smile is wide but not sincere.

   Can you show me an example of a cheesy, goofball look? 

   Sure.

The Stifleman?

   Can you show me a photo of a certain granddaughter doing a cheesy pose?

   Absolutely.

Frances Mocks Up Some Major Cheese

Can you show me two cheeseballs who don't even mind if you call them that?

Marshall & Me Tee Hee Hee

"Two kids who have grown older but have never grown up."

—Some Critic With A Cheesy Sense of Humor