Midnight Suprise & Marlon Brando Cops The Kid's Hat

 January 19, 2025

   Horses love this.

Daily Whip Out: "Midnight Suprise" 

  Still stuck in the dust.

Daily Whip Out: "Day of The Dusty Dead"

One Can Only Imagine

How did this punk kid end up with Billy the Kid's hat?

Marlon Brando, age 8

Resident Wise-Ass Answer:

"He made him an offer he couldn't refuse."

—James B. Mills

  Back to the crease. You see. the hat crease style out west in those far off days was to take an unblocked crown and give it a random bash with the edge of your palm, and that became the badge of authenticity, that broadcast to all those city folk that you didn't care about store bought creases.

That's about half right!

   "Don't get me started on that tie down!"

—Every Western Lover Who Ever Lived

The New Young Guns Are Gunning for Boomers Like Me

 January 18, 2025

   The ground is shaking, the earth is quaking, my mind is aching, and, well, if you're an AC/DC fan, you know the rest.

Daily Whip Out:

"Riders On The Dust Storm"

  There's a new group of riders coming this way and they are hell bent on fixin' all the stuff we have mismanaged and ruined. And by we I mean the dreaded Boomer Gang.

   When I was an underclassman at the University of Arizona (1966-68) a classmate commented that when we get in power the world will finally be fixed and the old, "corrupt" power guard—Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon!—will be relegated to the trash heap of history. Fast forward, and here is the sum total of my fellow Boomers who became president: George W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton and Donald J. Trump. All of them born a month apart in 1946, the same year I was born. Now I don't care what your political persuasion might be, but that is a mighty mixed bag of Boomer nuts. And, frankly, it sums up my generation's conceit to the T. And, so, here comes the next generation about to fix everything we screwed up.

   And so it goes.

   American Primeval has had 10,400,000 views in one week! Meanwhile, I am being lobbied from Down Under to do this cover:

James B. Mills sees this as the next cover

"Anything is much more believable, if it happens in the past."
—Richard Lester

Charlie Goodnight On The Range And American Primeval On The Deranged

 January 17, 2025

   I'm working on a cover image for old Charlie Goodnight. It's kind of amazing there aren't any photos of him as a young cowboy. Just a couple portraits of him looking like a bearded banker:

Charlie Goodnight, circa 1880

   And the above photo is apparently what the wardrobe and make up department used to fur out Taylor Sheridan when he played Goodnight in "1883".

Taylor Sheridan as Charlie Goodnight.

   Cool hat, but slightly modern. I wonder if the ol' boy maybe looked more like this?

Charles Goodnight Sketch #2

   Or, this?

Charles Goodnight sketch #3

   Kathy and I are on the fourth episode of American Primeval and I was talking to our movie editor, Henry Parke, about the equal, but incessant, brutality on the show. And, by "equal" I mean all races are equally deranged. We have an underaged Shoshone girl who steals a knife, goes home and a seemingly drunk Native American brute starts to get familiar with her and she stabs him in the neck and kills him while her mother stands by and seems upset that the girl has ruined their meal ticket. The overarching theme seems to be that we are all guilty of heinous crimes, no matter our race or gender and that is something new for Westerns. I asked Henry when this trend started, and here is his reply.

"I think this rush for the sordid started with Deadwood, which despite its virtues created the dubious impression that in the old west, every third word was cocksucker, and every third person was one. I give the show credit for temporarily jump-starting the genre, I loved the art direction, the performances, and I applaud David Milch for giving the Western a patina of 'cool' that it had long lacked." 

—Henry Parke

Dust Devil Forming A Cowboy Musical Intro Looming

 January 16, 2025

   Caught this dust devil forming up on Rockaway Hills yesterday. 

Dust Devil Forming In Horse Arena

   Very unusual for our neighborhood. The land is chopped up creek bottom (that's five of the Seven Sisters across the creek) so it's not the best recipe for the formation of these mini-twisters. 

Dust Devil Stage Two

(and there's six of the Seven Sisters)

   In fact, in all of the 38 years we've lived out here, this is the first one I recall seeing. Now, growing up in Kingman I would see three at a time for breakfast, cruising across Hilltop where we lived.

   Meanwhile, I got a request from my friends down at Scottsdale Museum of the West to introduce a few of their upcoming films. Here is a taste of the first films to play in the series:

1/27 @2PM Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

1/28 @2PM Calamity Jane  

1/29 @2PM Rhythm on the Range  

1/30 @2PM The Marx Brothers in Go West

1/31 @10AM An American Tail: Fievel Goes West

@1PM Disney’s Home on the Range  

2/1 @10AM Disney’s Home on the Range

@1PM  An American Tail: Fievel Goes West  

2/2 @2PM Oklahoma!

   When I responded that these Westerns were a tad outside my comfort zone, the Chief Curator sent me this reply:

"The world’s biggest stickler for historical accuracy in Westerns doesn’t like movies where the cowboys spontaneously burst into carefully coordinated song-and-dance numbers? I don’t believe it."

—Andrew Patrick Nelson, Chief Curator at Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West

I'm Stting On A Magazine Gold Mine

 January 15, 2025

   We are blessed to have such helpful and generous readers. Just got these in the mail today:

Four back issues of The West magazine

   Which prompted me to send this out today to our True West sales team:

Boo-koo Sales Potential!

   Thanks to a True West reader in Deming, New Mexico, named Paul Hoylen, we now have the complete ad sales client list for one of our arch competitors, circa 1969. I am passing along to you the best leads in the bunch. Good luck on landing these prestige accounts!

   Yes, you too can now "turn your hands, feet, fingers into super weapons almost like a sword!"​ Who among us wouldn't jump at the chance to sign up for these Best Values? Just for you, here are a couple more ads to poach from:

   It's so great to know that those 6 foot bull whips are made by "the Cherokee Indians" in Roslyn, New York, Division Mail Sack, Inc.

"It doesn't get any better than this."

—Old Ad Salesman Slogan

Have We Created A Cover Too Sexy for Our Readership?

 January 14, 2025

   If you want an old school look at the Old West stream The Searchers. If you want to see an extension of The Revenant where Hugh Glass fought a grizzly bear, watch the first episode of American Primeval on Netflix. Lots of my peeps are talking about it.

Daily Whip Out: "Evil In His Prime"

   It's no surprise this new series was penned by the guy who wrote The Revenant.

   Meanwhile, closer to home. . .

A Cover Too Sexy for Our Readership?

   Dan The Man and I came up with this bold little cover concept yesterday. . .

Sadie Earp In The Raw

   

   Dan and I love it, but our sales staff and the publisher are bridling over the overt sexiness of the message and they are afraid it doesn't say "Travel." It is, in fact, our "Travel" issue.

   Gee I wonder what a certain Mamacita—I know and respect—has to say about this?

"I would say I agree with your sales staff.  Also, when one gets anxious to make sales, one turns to SEX and the sordid for attention.  TW does not have to do that nor would you want to go there with such glaring headlines and even use of the word ‘sordid’.  Many people love the lady and the Earps so why offend them?  Unnecessarily?   A Travel issue is supposed to capture travel, wide open spaces, special places and not the bedroom."

—Lynda Sanchez, Lincoln, New Mexico Mamacita

Real Indians Loved Vincent Craig's Candy Bar Song

 January 13, 2025

   I'm proud to say, I grew up with a whole slew of In-dins in Mohave County. That would be the Hualapais, the Havasupais and the Mojaves. We played sports together and had some major fun.

Real Indians Up Ahead!

   When I was a kid, I remember billboards on old Route 66 that proclaimed "Real Indians! 1/2 Mile." These billboards advertised roadside curios and Navajo traders, etc. This would have been in the 1950s in the Holbrook, Arizona to Gallup, New Mexico corridor. Some don't believe me, but I think this old sign vindicates the memory.

   Speaking of real In-dins, Vincent Craig, used to come on our KSLX morning show in Scottsdale back in the eighties and play his most famous song:

Navajo Cowboys Loved "Rita"

"Rita: The Candy Bar Song" by Vincent Craig

   Our program director hated it because we were billed as Classic Rock, and the tune was a tad soft for the brand, but dang it was humorous in a Navajo In-din kind of way. I still get people asking me what happened to Vincent. Sadly, he passed back in May of 2010, a month shy of his 60th birthday.

Vincent Craig Dine Singer

   One zany cat he was. Miss him!

"I just found out my wife is one-quarter Navajo and three-quarters regular ho."

—Old Navajo Joke

The Frontier Just Got A Litte More Crowded Plus Dustables Galore

 January 12, 2025

   Ever had a brainflash and thought to yourself, "This could really be something different!"

   Well, we can scratch "Frontier" as the title of a new SIP magazine from us: Just saw this on Facebook.

   Ha. I think our cover layout is a little stronger— thanks to Dan The Man—but there you go. This isn't the first time this has happened to me, but the punchline is the same: You snooze, you lose. 

   And the moral is: If you are thinking of a concept you can rest assured there are at least two other people out there thinking the same thing. We're all reading the same headlines and watching the same shows.

Mas Dustables Galore

   As you may have already noticed, I'm diggin' me some dust storms!

Daily Whip Out: "Straw Dust Rider"

Daily Whip Out: "Ridge Riders In Amber #17"

Daily Whip Out: "Ridge Rider In Amber #18"

   And speaking of dust storm riders, look who is using a Triple B Dustable on his next book cover:

Preorders right here

   Yes, we got storms everywhere we look. I'm thankful we're safe, at least for this moment.

"And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about."

—Haruki Murakami

Rurales On The Ridgeline, Part I4 And Onward, Plus My Favorite Vaquera

 January 11, 2025

   It's fun to get lost on a quest. If you don't believe me, go ask Cortez.

The Cave Behind Bars

Prologue

   He knew the Rurales were on his trail and he had a hunch there were others. He rode south, wearing one shoe, towards a pass where he hoped he could disappear.

Daily Whip Out: "Guero In The Pass"

Paisano Upward Mobility

   "He is very brave. The bullets bound off him like rain from a sombrero. He is the cousin of my woman's first husband's sister. He is bueno para los negocios del campo (that is to say, he is a highly successful bandit and highwayman). A few years ago he was just a peon like us; and now he is a General and a rich man."

—John Reed, Insurgent Mexico, interviewing the Arab, Antonio, who is bragging here about General Urbina

Mas Suspended In Amber

   Speaking of Mexican Revolutionaries, Vaqueros and Rurales, I'm still chewing on the ridgeline riders "suspended in amber." Tried a couple different approaches today, just for fun.

Daily Reworked Whip Out: 

"Rurale On The Ridgeline Suspended In Amber #14"

Daily Whip Out:

"Rurales On The Ridgeline #15"

Daily Whip Out: 

"Rurales On The Ridgeline #16"

   There's a couple more, but you get the picture.

   Yes, we see.

My Favorite Vaquera of All Time

   She grew up in the Old Pueblo and friends of mine who knew her said she was a pistol.

Linda Ronstadt, age 4, Tucson, Arizona

"Painting is very easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do."

—Edgar Degas

Cockfighting In The Rearview

 January 10, 2024

   Love those brujas (Mexican witches) at least on paper.

Daily Whip Out: "La Bruja de Divisadero"

She answered nothing and explained everything.

      Meanwhile, I'm still seeking Rurales in amber. . .

Daily Whip Out:

"Rurales On The Ridgeline Suspended In Amber #13"

   And, led by the Yacqui scout Cosenoe.

"I just realized cockfighting is done with chickens. There's goes five years of training I'll never get back."

—Old Vaquero Complaint

A-1 Memories & Another Stab at Rurales Suspended In Amber

 January 9, 2025

   This old heartwarmer popped up on my phone and it made me smile.

A-1 In The Snow

One of my proudest possessions: the neon A-1 Beer sign off the old Nogales Cafe in downtown Phoenix, seen here, lighting up a snowy landscape near the cave in Cave Creek.

Still working hard to capture Rurales suspended in amber. Such a great phrase and fun, but not easy, to execute.

Daily Whip Out:

"Rurales On The Ridgeline #7"

Mas Reed to Read

  So, John Reed has bummed a ride with an Arab muleteer to get to the front lines and he drops a couple politically incorrect zingers, "They say there are so few Jews in Mexico because they cannot stand the competition  of the Arabs. . ."

   And, of course, he describes the land, "Then all the rolling leagues of desert glowed and came near in the soft light. . .now the western mountains were blue velvet, and the pale sky a blood-stained canopy of watered silk. But by the time we reached the great gate of the rancho, above was only a shower of stars."

   Then, this: "We passed only one human being all that day—a ragged old man astride a burro, wrapped in a red-and-black check serape, though without trousers, and hugging the broken stock of a rifle. Spitting, he volunteered that he was a soldier; that after three years of deliberation he had finally decided to join the Revolution and fight for Libertad. But at the first battle a cannon had been fired, the first he had ever heard; he had immediately started for his home in El Oro, where he intended to descend into a gold mine and stay there until the war was over. . ."

—John Reed, Insurgent Mexico

   An entire life of an ex-soldier—without pants!—summed up in a paragraph!

"There is always a philosophy for lack of courage."

—Albert Camus

More Rurales On The Ridgeline Plus Pancho In Agua Prieta And The Battle of Bad Friends

 January 8, 2025

   Still trying to nail that "suspended in amber" look.

Daily Whip Out: "Rurales In Amber #4"

   Getting closer. Love the happy accident sun directly over the second rider's head.

The Battle of Bad Friends

   Our crack designer Rebecca Edwards, and I, are working on a new doubletruck for the Tombstone Epitaph featuring an old Classic Gunfight I am very proud of. Here is the second page just to give you a taste:

   And, speaking of the Mexican Revolution. . .

Another Tasty Reading of Reed

"These were metropolitan days for Presidio, a straggling and indescribably desolate village of about fifteen adobe houses, scattered without much plan in the deep sand and cottonwood scrub along the river bottom. Old Kleinmann, the German storekeeper, made a fortune a day outfitting refugees and supplying the Federal army across the river with provisions. He had three beautiful adolescent daughters whom he kept locked up in the attic of the store, because a flock of amorous Mexicans and ardent cowpunchers prowled around like dogs, drawn from many miles away by the fame of these damsels. Half the time he spent working furiously in the store, stripped to the waist; and the remainder, rushing around with a large gun strapped to his waist, warning off the suitors."

—John Reed, Unsurgent Mexico

   And, another sneak peek at our upcoming coverage of Sexy Sadie.

Daily Rough Whip Out: "Sexy Sadie"

   She was not who she said she was and even this image is not her and that's half the point.

   And, finally, a tightening of the pack cinch just for grins.

"For many people, the talents that bloom later in life are more consequential than the ones that bloom early."

—David Brooks

Life Goes On In One Form Or Another. . .

 January 7, 2025

   Yesterday I finally broke down and got a subscription to the new Mountain Gazette ($79 for two issues!) and as I was thinking about this new, hipster-oversized-magazine loaded up with big, juicy pictures, I stumbled—totally by accident—across something very ancient in my studio:

Life Magazine published the week I was born

   File this one under: The more things change, the more they remain the same. Oversized, indeed! Or, you want a new idea, read an old book—or magazine.

   Oh, and by the way, who is Teresa Wright?

   Yes, Life was larger than most magazines out at that ancient time, but it was still only 10.5 inches wide and 14 inches high, while Mountain Gazette claims to be 11" X 17". What's next? Maybe this oversized:

Daily Whip Out: "Saint Sadie In Red"

   Was Sadie Earp simply the lady in red? Or, was she the stalwart lawman's wife with a heart of gold? Probably both. Full—oversized—story coming in True West magazine.

   On the other hand, if that's not what you want to see, how about a certain buck-toothed outlaw riding into a sunset?

Daily Revised Whip Out:

"Billy In The Sunset III"

-New Yorker cartoon-

"It's not what you look at, it's what you see."

—Henry David Thoreau

Rurales On The Ridgeline

 January 6, 2025

   Been on a Rurale kick lately. You know, these guys.

Daily Whip Out: "Rurales On The Move"

   I am also rereading "Insurgent Mexico" by John Reed and every time I dip in, I am mesmerized by Reed's magnificent prose. Here's a small taste:

"Wednesday my friend the photographer and I were wandering across a field when Villa came by on his horse. He looked tired, dirty, but happy. Reining up in front of us, the motions of his body as easy and graceful as a wolf's, he grinned and said, "Well, boys, how is it going now?"

Daily Whip Out:

"Pancho Villa Graceful As A Wolf"

   And, here's another snippet. . .

"We went down through San Ramon and beyond the end of the line of trees out across the desert. It was already stinging hot. In front a snake of rifle fire unfolded along the line, and a then a machine gun, 'spat-spat-spat!' As we emerged into the open a lone Mauser began cracking down to the right somewhere. . ."

   This sequence led me to a phrase of his I wanted to poach and so I did. . .

The Rurales topped the ridgeline at sunset and crossed over, suspended in amber.

Daily Whip Out:

"Rurales On The Ridgeline"

The "suspended amber" is pure Reed in all his descriptive glory. And here is another take on the amber angle:

Daily Whip Out: "Amber Rurales Redux"

"The general's house, corrals and storerooms ran around all four sides of a space as big as a city block, swarming with pigs chickens and half-baked children. Two goats and three magnificent peacocks gazed pensively down from the roof. In and out of the sitting room, when came the phonographic strains of the 'Dollar Princess,' stalked a train of hens. An old woman came from the kitchen and dumped a bucket of garbage on the ground; all the pigs made a squealing rush for it. In a corner of the house wall sat the General's baby daughter, chewing on a cartridge."

—John Reed, describing General Urbina's ranch

My Winchester Mea Culpa

 January 5, 2025
   Although I own several Winchesters, I am not really a gun guy and with that said, Man, do I miss Phil Spangenberger!

My Winchester Strewn Studio

    Still, I should have known better than to hold up not one, but two Winchesters—that's them in the photo, above—in my latest YouTube video on Historically Accurate Westerns and then call movie people idiots for using a 95 Winchester to portray events in 1881. When we reviewed the video, one of the gun guys on staff informed me that the rifle I was showing off as a 95 Winchester was actually a 92 Winchester. 

   So we had to go in to the video and I changed the audio to say it was a 92 Winchester. It took some doing to match it up and it delayed the posting of the video by 24 hours.

   The post went up last Thursday and it wasn't long before we received this comment:  "L O L! You held up a model 94 Winchester and said what idiot would use a 92 Winchester in a Western that was set in the 1880s…"

A 94 Winchester

Ouch! We went to all that trouble only to get it wrong twice? Like I said, I sure miss Phil because he would have corrected all of this before we even went into production. Still, I had to know how we blew it so bad, so I reached out to the above poster and here is what he told me:

"Just to be clear, I am teasing you a little bit about the irony of the comment! I love the videos and your channel. The 92 is a somewhat more compact action that was made for Pistol calibers. If you compare the 94 you held up to a 92 you will see that the action is shorter and the proportions are somewhat different. The Rifle is more compact overall. They were originally chambered for cartridges such as the 4440, 38-40, 32 WCF a.k.a. 32-20, and others. They are still currently manufactured and chambering include things like the 357 magnum and 44 magnum. The model 94 is a longer action that is chambered for rifle cartridges such as the 30-30, which was the first smokeless cartridge. It was also chambered for the 32 Winchester special, which has a somewhat slower twist and was intended for people who wanted to continue shooting black powder rounds in the new Rifle design. Other chambering have been offered overtime. These cartridges are too long to function in the model 92 action. To circle back to your topic in this video about authenticity, it’s worth noting the John Wayne nearly always had his model 92 Winchester, chambered in 38-40, in his western movies. he was known for twirling it using his right hand with the large loop lever. Fanatics about accuracy, which includes me when it comes to the gun issues, get upset about this. Some of his movies are set in time periods before the 92 existed, which is an example of what you described. I had no idea that people were equally demented about hats! In that realm, I am extremely ignorant. Thanks for educating me on the issue."

—Jeff Davis

John Wayne and his Model 92 Winchester

Meanwhile, Regarding My Pick of Tombstone as the Number One Choice for Most Accurate Western. . .

"Tombstone? Seriously? Doc Holliday killing Johnny Ringo? Ike Clanton blasting around at the OK Corral? Doc firing three shots from his two barrels? The Earps killing two dozen cowboys on the vendetta ride? Jesus Christ!"

—Irate, but accurate comment in the string

And here is a link to my mea culpa:

Misfiring Winchesters

"Remember the farther up the flagpole you go, the more people can see your rear end."
—Old Vaquero Saying