February 3, 2025
Here's an old school illustration that sums up where we are in the publishing world right now.
Bear With Me!"While we make the pivot to digital."
I lived through the Swinging Sixties (or, was it the seventies that swung?) And, that reminded me of this ad campaign which seemed hipper at the time than it does looking at it now.
Bell-bottoms, Get It?
The Bell Tolls For Thee & Me Hee Hee
We're working on an Alamo and Jim Bowie story in the next issue of True West. I kind of went off the deep end on Mr. Bowie about eight years ago in terms of whip outs. Here's the best three:
Daily Whip Out: "Jim Bowie #1"
Daily Whip Out: "Jim Bowie #2"
Daily Whip Out: "Jim Bowie #3"
Where Are All The 69 Year Olds?
I was talking to the head of Sharlot Hall Museum this past week about our mutual challenges and here's what Stuart Rosebrook said to me: "We all have the same problem: how do we get people under the age of seventy to come in the door?"
Later, I was visiting with the PR director at Scottsdale Museum of the West and that would be this guy:
David Sholefield,
PR Director at Scottsdale Museum of the West
David had a young millennial working feverishly on social media at the end of his desk. She overheard my conversation with David (we are the same age so we talk about rock concerts we both loved growing up) and she pipes in and says, "my generation is interested in how to start a fire and cook over it," which I thought was kind of weird, but then she turned her laptop around so I could see a YouTube video from a young cowboy instructing us on how to cook over a campfire. After she told me the guy has 2.4 million followers, she added that her generation is afraid civilization is collapsing (you don't say?!) and they are going to need to know how to learn how to survive. Here is her picture after saying all of this.
Willow giving me the future of the Old West
Not all my friends agree with Stuart's assessment.
"I disagree on the under the age of 70 comment. That is an insult and they are the mainstay."
—Lynda Sanchez
Bear With Me!
Daily Whip Out: "Jim Bowie #1"
Daily Whip Out: "Jim Bowie #2"
Daily Whip Out: "Jim Bowie #3"
1) The bell bottom ad is so cool, but I see in the fine print that they charge more in the West? I don't remember higher prices for the West back then. Must have been really high trucking fees then. 2) There are a ton of popular Youtube videos showing bushcraft, people building shelters and cooking out in the boonies. Many have no speaking, just a person silently building a shelter or hut out of limbs, brush, rocks, whatever. This one has 268 million views. https://youtu.be/skcqFTi3s_A?si=WwuWmBnHBk972Tu- Here's another survival one from one of my favorites, Outdoor Boys, where he does talk, it has 18 million views. Younger people are definitely interested in this stuff. https://youtu.be/iys_pmJSp9M?si=JW1rUg0G4D9Tuw2D
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