The Truthful Lies Behind The Hassayampa Curse

 July 26, 2026

   I survived and I have returned from a glorious, quasi-heatstroke trip to the Mile High City, or, as it's known by the editors of Arizona Highways, "Everybody's Hometown." When I left on Friday for the drive up the hill, it was 117 degrees on Carefree Highway, and my Flex thermometer registered 118 degrees at Anthem, 106 at Cordes Junction, 101 at Dewey and 99 as I made the turn onto Gurley Street, into downtown Prescott, Arizona. I landed at my headquarters which is a historic hotel with a very zany name.

The Hassayampa Inn's neon sign

outside my room window

   In case you didn't know, Hassayampa is a corruption of a Yavapai word that translates as "River that runs upside down." And, thanks to the mountain man Pauline Weaver, we get this added little caveat, "He who drinks above the trail is ever truthful, while he who drinks below is lost to the truth." While this seems a bit like a variation on "Don't drink downstream from the herd," the Weaver quote eventually gravitated to this timeless edict: "If you drink from the Hassayampa you will never tell the truth again."

   And, speaking of which, I was in town to give a talk at the Phippen Art Museum on The History of Art In Print. The last time I was at the Phippen it was for this little event.

The Premier of Hellraisers in 2024

   We had some fun at the Westerners Corral event and I followed Paul Fees and Bill Anton and here are the four takeaways from my talk:

• We are having a Jackson Pollack moment with AI (how do we artists misuse this new medium to conjure meaning out of miles of BS?)

• Courage never goes out of style (everything you want is on the other side of fear).

• The biggest risk of all is to play it safe (sometimes we need to jump off a cliff and figure it out on the way down).

• We need to tell better stories (especially if we want to make an impact on the future).

The Hassayampa Grandpa's "Truth"

   In the attention economy we need to unleash art we can't yet imagine, like Marcel Duchamp—for him the whiff of the "precious" in art disgusted him.

   The three people in Prescott who changed my life are Gail Gardner, Cynthia Rigden and Budge Rufner.

The Tracing Is Shameful School of Art

   In the old days, tracing from photographs was the ultimate sin if you wanted to be a bonified Cowboy Artist. And it was a dirty secret among most artists in that time. I did a parody of all this in New Times Weekly in the mid-eighties and this was my take on this taboo practice.

"Tracings Tell Tales That Paintings Make Secret"(And, yes, the model for this was Ed Mell!)

   And, also, you might notice, the artist of this piece has signed the painting as Russ L. Remington. Get it?

   But then again, as you might have expected, I confess to drinking heavily from the deep waters of the Hassayampa. Proving for the umpteenth time. . .

“Nobody is more full of it than those who think they can speak the truth about the past.”

—Old Vaquero Saying

A Narrative Grid Meets The AI Future

 July 24, 2026

   Headin' up the hill this afternoon. Going to be giving a talk on The Importance of Art in Print at the Phippen Art Museum tomorrow. When I go there—in my mind—I invariably hit on a certain crossroads in my past.

E.J. Montini's Arizona Republic column

   This was in 1994 after an eight year run as a Morning Drive Personality on KSLX in Scottsdale. I came in on a fluke (as a guest on the show) and went out on a fluke (tepid ratings). But god bless E.J. because he was correct, the firing forced me to get serious about my art and it led indirectly to here.

Daily Whip Outs: "A Narrative Grid"

     Not to mention this little fledgling publication:

Just one of the 260 covers I helped create

   One important aspect of my professional life was never far from the surface and it has haunted and taunted me ever since.

Daily Whip Out: "A Drummer In Darkness"

Yes, I was a drummer in many an Old Pueblo honkytonk (1966-1977) and I certainly got an eyeful—and an earful—of sordid scenes.You can expect to see a story or two about this infamous chapter in my life on a narrative grid. Well, beyond what I have already done.

Donna Jean and Honkytonk Sue

make a toast to our AI future

My Checkered Past Meets The AI Future

   I am not afraid of AI and, in fact I am excited about taking this new machinery and conjuring meaning out of predictable nonsense and unleashing stories we can't quite yet imagine. 

   I am simply fulfilling my earlier edict to my staff: tell better stories.

"Why worry about history being erased when we're all so busy repeating it?"

—Old Vaquero Saying

The Importance of Art In Print

 July 23, 2026

   This weekend I will be at the Phippen Art Museum in Prescott talking about a subject that is near and dear to my heart: "The importance of Art in Print" at 11:30 and I will lead another discussion on "The art of Bronze & Patina" at 1:30. 

   Of course, if you are going to get all technical there is one cover theme I am kind of partial to:

Mega-Earp O.K. Coverage

(20 covers out of 260)

The main objective of art in my world is to inspire people to buy magazines. It's hard to define but it's pretty easy to spot when you see it in action. I got my first lesson in art appreciation in this little Arizona community.

Desert Drugs in downtown Kingman, Arizona
 

When to Use Art When to Use Photos?
   Someone on our staff asked, “Why wouldn’t you just run a photo of Bass Reeves on the cover?” Well, it’s what we call “The Banker Shot Problem.” A formal, bust portrait sometimes works, but, it’s ultimately just, nyeh. Looks like a boring banker. As a wing-ding long-shot, I told Dan about my idea to cut the Lone Ranger down the middle, with Clayton Moore on the left and Bass Reeves on the right. Of course, Dan did a full on version of this, but his version ultimately knocks it out of the park. Great job! A classic cover.

The Bass Reeves Lone Ranger Cover

   But, on the other hand, here is a "banker shot" of Reeves that we used later that falls somewhere in between and works just fine.

   Some of the old True West issues—before my time—tried to go to the net (see analogy below) but I'm not sure it worked.

   We often use the tennis analogy: go to the net, stay behind the baseline, don't get caught in the middle. Here's a cover that didn't get caught in the middle.

   And, here's another one. . .

      My original partner, Bob McCubbin hated, no he loathed this cover. And, here's another go to the net cover. . .

   At the end of the day, I agree with this guy:

"The biggest risk of all is to play it safe."

—Chris Nolan, the director of "The Odyssey"

The Life Solvers Come Full Circle

 July 22, 2026

   Woke up to this ridiculous scene.

Morning Cloud Show Over

Continental Mountain

 

  Yes, and when I see something like that, there's one thing I absolutely love to do and it's the opportunity to solve some life.

The Life Solvers This Morning

   A cup of good joe and a couple friends who have opinions about what it takes to live a full and happy life and I am a very happy camper. As a side note, it's interesting that one of the above "life solvers" has a one-note obsession about more kinds of dog food served more often as being the absolute elixir of life. Or, so his barking seemed to convey.

A Loving Tribute to A Member of Our Tribe

   Chris Enss has written a touching tribute to our wonderful history comrade, Sherry Monahan, who passed recently. Her eulogy will appear in the next issue of True West magazine.

Chris Enss and Sherry Monahan

"If there is no knowledge, there is no understanding; if there is no understanding, there is no knowledge."

—Old Vaquero Saying

My Side of The Story (Spoiler Alert: The Odyssey Is A Dog Movie!)

 July 21, 2026

   One of the early morning treats for me is that my son wakes up at five and takes his coffee outside to watch the sun come up. Since I am an early riser myself, I have joined him and it has been a blast solving life and laughing about movies we love.

Thomas Charles Yawning

(yes, it rained during the night)

The Odyssey Is A Dog Movie!

   Let the record show I had to be dragged to AMC Theaters at Desert Ridge yesterday to see "The Odyssey" on an IMAX screen. Yes, my son and his family wanted to go and as a grandfather in good standing, I couldn't say no. Don't get me wrong, I used to love going to the movies and when I was maybe fifteen minutes younger, Kathy and I would go to the movies at least once a week, sometimes twice and on special occasions three times in one week! To a movie! In a theater!! I know you think I'm joking around here, but I am not. If you see Kathy at Jazzercize, you have my permission to ask her!

   First the good news: the theater was almost full (for some reason those seats down below the mezzanine, in front of the screen rarely fill up.) I haven't seen that many people in a movie theater since the premiere of Nut Job 2. 

   And, we weren't alone. The Hollywood Reporter reported today The Odyssey took in 17.5 million on Monday alone and that AMC had it's best week in the 106 year history of the company. Wow. Maybe this country does have a future.

   In an interview also in the Hollywood Reporter, Christopher Nolan admits The Odyssey is, well, here's the quote:

"It’s funny when you look at the films you’ve made and how they parallel your life. You get married, and then you make a film in which that relationship is important. You have kids, and then you find yourself making films about trying to get home for your kids. I had never had a dog, and a few years ago, we got our first dog as the kids were leaving for college. They were kind of bitter about it. They’d always wanted a dog, and we’d never been able to have one because we were traveling too much. And coming to The Odyssey, it’s the ultimate dog movie. So I was definitely better prepared to take on the ultimate dog movie having become a dog owner."

—Chris Nolan

   Full disclosure: I missed the subtitles we have on our TV at home.

Uno Loves to Have Cowgirls Around

Cactusland Cowgirl: Harper with Uno

   And speaking of dog relatives Uno admires. . .

Daily Whip Out:

"A Lone Wolf Laughs at Wolf Haters"

"Better to be a wolf everyone hates, than a donkey everyone rides."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Cave Creek Crazy Arms And Deadwood Swearing Revisited

 July 20, 2026

   My son Thomas asked me about a cache of saguaro prints in my studio and why the saguaro has such twisted arms. So, I told him.

The History of Crazy Arms

   When we first moved to Cave Creek in the mid-eighties, I would sometimes go down into the creek bed below our house and sketch the saguaros up and down the trickling stream. Unlike the tall and stately saguaros up on the ridges, the ones that were closest to the water invariably had contorted and twisted arms. My neighbor, Tom Augherton, told me this is because in the winter time, the frigid air off of the creek affects the growth of new saguaro limbs, twisting them in odd directions, almost like a tortured soul trying to escape a freezing situation.

   Thanks to my good friend at Cattletrack Arts Compound, Brent Bond, for taking one of those sketches and producing this special art print:

"Cave Creek Crazy Arms"

photopolymer relief and linocut, edition of 38

12" x 11.5" image on 15.5" x 14.25" paper

$200

   You can get your artprint right here:

Cave Creek Crazy Arms Artprint

   This is a repeat from a blogpost in 2017 on the accuracy of the swearing in Deadwood:

Youthful Depravity
The fact must come home to every observer that Deadwood's rising generation is very depraved. Go where we will our ears are greeted with profanity and obscenity from almost baby lips, while our vision is assailed by sights of the most lamentable character. These urchins are not all of that peculiar class known as "hoodlums" for whom ignorance is some excuse, as many of them receive the kindest and best instruction at home, but from too lenient parents who allow their children to wander through the city, visiting haunts of iniquity where are exerted those pernicious influences which sooner or later deaden the most acute sensibility, destroy all sense of right and morality and inspire to an emulation of the worst characters of the town.

--Black Hills Daily Pioneer-January 26, 1881

   Every generation thinks it's smarter than the last and wiser than the next. And, by extension, I think every generation thinks they more or less invented swearing. Why is this? Because nobody can remember their grandparents swearing. My grandkids have never heard me swear and if I do my job right, they never will. So these babies get to grade school and hear the inevitable swear words and they are excited and appalled ("My grandparents don't talk like this!") So they assume it's new. I think it's safe to say, this has been going on for about three to ten thousand years, and as long as there are grandparents, kids will grow up believing that swearing is a flippin' new thing.

"I am not young enough to know everything."

—Olscar Wilde

Faded Secrets come Into Focus

 July 19, 2026

  For quite some time now, I have had this burning desire to emulate old, faded photographs and to somehow put them into a graphic narrative that would pay off at the end of the story.

Daily Whip Out: "Faded Rider"

   And by "pay off" I mean that sometimes what you cannot see is more powerful than the perfect clarity of good images. What if, as the story develops, a faded, detail challenged image, like the one above, somehow, comes slightly more into focus and we eventually see who the killer actually was? 

   Seems like a zany, obvious extension of "The Rest of The Story" or "Fractured Fairy Tales."

   On a related note, I am still obsessed with the theme of the lone kitchen light and have these two passes to prove it.

Daily Whip Out: "The Lone Kitchen Light #79"

Daily Whip Out: "The Lone Kitchen Light #80"

   Meanwhile, sometimes we know the fix is in. .  .

Daily Whip Out: "Everybody Knows"

"Everybody knows that the dice are loaded

Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed

Everybody knows the war is over

Everybody knows the good guys lost

Everybody knows the fight was fixed

The poor stay poor, the rich get rich

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows"

—Leonard Cohen

The Blessings of Billy the kid From The Son of The Son of The 66 Kid

 July 18, 2026

   Today is the Grand Unveiling of Buckeye Blake's Traveling Wake of Billy the Kid in the Old Fort Sumner Museum. Be there, or be square.

   Meanwhile, in other Billy the Kid news. . .

Fenton hard at it with the correct hat on

with the right crease

 My grandson, Fenton, asked me how Billy the Kid got that dent in the crown of his hat? So, I showed him and then he put the exact dent in the hat he is wearing in this photo of him executing his first illustration of William H. Bonney in my studio today. Note to self: ask for no other blessing.

My first attempt at Billy the Kid, 1958

Fenton's first attempt, 2026

   Okay, I was 12 when I drew mine, Fenton is only seven. I've got a hunch he is going to put grandpa in the shade in five years.

Fenton with the right hat crease

and the right Kid attitude

"Grandparents and grandchildren get along so famously because they have a common enemy."

—Old Vaquero Saying

When Faded Secrets Hold The Key to Doc Holliday

 July 17, 2026

   What can I say about Doc Holliday that hasn't been said a thousand times? Yet he remains in shadow, which actually enhances his legend when you think about it.

Daily Whip Out: "Doc In Shadows"

   What makes a good mystery? In the case of Doc Holliday, he's not quite knowable, which makes him even sexier. Which leads me to. . .

The Faded Secrets Series

   I can get on a jag, and this is certainly one of them.

Daily Whip Out: "Faded Secret #1"

Can you see the faint outlines of something important?

The Visual Clues Hiding In Plain Sight

   The secrets are in there to be seen. You just need to look at the images in the right way and the truth will reveal itself.

Daily Whip Out: "Faded Secret #2"

Daily Whip Out: "Faded Secret #3"

   Okay, now do you see it?

Daily Whip Out:

"In The Window of Obscure Desire"

   Okay, tomorrow we'll deal with all this

 unfinished business.

"Nothing in this world is more dangerous than a desperate man."

—Old Vaquero Saying

What Is The True History of The Flag Pants?

 July 16, 2026

   In my Divisadero, one woman rules the roost.

Daily Whip Out: "La Poderosa" 

     But it must be said, she had her detracters.

Daily Whip Out: "Bloody Chata"

  When you study history you quickly realize just what a thorny thicket it is. Case in point:

   "I have questions about the Classic Gunfights section, 'Death by Shakespeare' in the July/August 2026 issue. In one caption (page 40), it states Martin,'..led a large outlaw gang..' and that he and Curly Bill were 'partners in crime'. But then oin Aftermath:Odds & Ends, it states Martin is a rustler. So he's bad guy. However, in the article text, Martin and Turner drove 4 head of stock 40 miles to return them to Mr. Fitzgerald. Odd behavior for a rustler leader, giving away income. A caption on page 41 states the 100 miles ride is the San Simon to Cloverdale to Shakespeare leg. But from the map, it's actually Cloverdale to SS to Shakespeare. The caption also states Martin/Turner ride 'in combat for most of the journey'. But in the text, the only combat on this leg was the ambush. And that occurred AFTER the 100 mile journey."

 —David Fuller, Lisbon, CT

BBB responds: Yes, there are conflicting accounts of who the bad guys are, and there are conflicting accounts on where they actually went and what they actually did when they arrived. Welcome to my world.

What Is The True History of The Flag Pants?

   Thirty years ago I got it in my head to create Arizona Flag Pants to pay off a zany sight gag we were planning to launch on The Jones, Boze & Jeanne Radio Show on KSLX. So, I had my seamstress friend, Jennie Smith, create loud pants with the state flag and a quasi-looking belt buckle of the bronze star at the waistline. There was only one problem: Wonderful Russ wouldn't wear the pants. So, the bit died and sometime later, Jennie, who was also doing curator work for me in my studio, stored them in a box and put them in a plastic storage bin in our garage.

   Fast forward to last week, when we were in Flagstaff, I saw my grandson's Arizona flag pants.

Fenton and his Arizona Shorts in a bandit pose

His mother told me he wanted them for their trip from Thailand to Arizona and so she ordered them off Amazon. Of course when I saw him wearing them I remembered that certain box in the garage. . .

My "Flag Pants" Stored In Garage

(special thanks to Jennie Smith for creating the Arizona Flag Pants and for creating a storage box with the title right on the side)

   What are the odds of finding these 30 years later? Crazy amazing to say the least. So, that is why I thought we needed a photo session to contrast and compare our flag pants.

The Flag Pants Trio Getting Jiggy

   And, yes, those pants are so loud, Uno couldn't stop barking at them.

Uno barking at my loud pants

   One thing is clear. It's time to make up some new stories. But before I do that, what is the difference between fibbing and lying?

The Truth About Fibbing 

Daily Whip Out:

"Vaqueros Laughing at The Below Saying"

"He who has a good wife wears heaven in his hat."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Vaquero Pantalones Fabuloso Vs. Gringo Cowboy Pomposity

 July 15, 2026

   What can I say? There is a southern border between our countries and it's not just a physical wall separation. The divide is deeper than that. And it began a long time ago.

Daily Whip Out:

"Vaquero With Bitchin' Pantalones"

(after Frederic Remington)

   Yes, the Sonoran border vaquero of old had a very stylish, flamboyant look. While, on the north side of the border, the American cowboy adopted a much tamer style.

A Typical Texas Cowboy in Arizona

   Meanwhile, south of the border a group of federal lawmen adopted a flashy and unique uniform based in large part on the vaquero outfit.

Daily Whip Out:

"Rurales Crossing The Rio Grande"

And, one of them stood out above all the rest.

Daily Whip Out: "El Rurale Supremo"

   Lo and behold, a big, border incident arose and El Rurale Supremo was tasked with joining forces with an Arizona cowboy who looked down on his southern horseman cousin for being, for lack of a better word, a "dumb Mexican."

Two Rode Together. 

Barely.

"Your problem is you have no style."

—El Rurale Supremo

   Welcome to the world of Divisadero:

"Your problem is you are all style."

—Dally Duncan, American Cowboy

    Oh, boy. Hang on, here we go.