Staying Home vs. Going Out (Naughty Boomers)

March 17, 2020
   As per the government's request, I have stayed home for the past four days. So far, so good.

   Got two new books on the Mexican Revolution and it is all quite sobering. I thought Geronimo was brutal? Ay Yi Yi! Pancho Villa makes the G-Man look like Gandhi.

   Just one example: the Mexican General Obregon (later president, probably later had Villa killed, and even later still, is assassinated himself) goes to El Paso and gives a speech to the Americans there, telling them that it is safe to return and invest in Mexico. So a mining group of gringos takes the train to Chihuahua City and then west. About 40 miles west of there they come upon a railroad car blocking the tracks and when they get up there, Villistas demand all the gringos get off the train and murder 17 of them, in cold blood. Villa always claimed he had nothing to do with it, but after the raid on Columbus, New Mexico, where Villistas killed 10 soldiers and about 19 U.S. civilians (the numbers are conflicting), one of the dead attackers had a diary on him with this entry for January 10: "Today about eleven o'clock we assaulted two trains at Santa Isabel, killing 17 gringos; leaving afterwards, sleeping at Lago."

   The very idea that there is a statue honoring Pancho Villa in Tucson is an insult to anyone who knows history, but then, that is the problem everywhere.

   Meanwhile, here I am in my studio, dusting off my pile of unscratched scratchboards.

Daily Scratchboard Whip Out:

"El Pendejo Rides In"

   In spite of the dispiriting history, I have fond admiration for the rank and file Mexican vaqueros and their classic style.

Vaquero Mas Grande

   Many Boomer parents I know are refusing to be "grounded," prompting this comment from someone I am related to:

"In an unsettling reversal of my teenage years, I am now yelling at my parents for going out."
—A Certain Number One Daughter

The National Confinement & Al Capone

March 15, 2020
  So, everyone is asking me how I am surviving the mandatory quarantine? Well, frankly, it could be worse. I could be in solitary confinement with Al Capone playing a banjo.

   Everything is so relative.

   Also, I must say, as a lapsed Lutheran, I still find myself asking the Lord to show me a sign.

   Okay, got it. Thanks Triune God.

"We are all born crazy, only a few remain."
—Samuel Beckett

The Goose Garden!

March 14, 2020
   We were supposed to be down in the Old Pueblo today for the annual Tucson Festival of Books but, like everything else in our world lately, it has been cancelled. 

   Went to the grocery store yesterday and parked farther from the front door than I ever have in 35 years of living out here. Bashas' was crowded but not slammed and there were some outages (bananas and booze) but it was not a melee or anything out of control. Still, every checkout lane was full. Then tried to drive home but the washes on Cahava Ranch were running deep and strong from the rain and nobody, including, our fearless UPS driver, dared cross. So I went back up town and got a happy ending, I mean a massage. Well, not that kind, but, you know.

   "So what can a poor boy do, 'cept to play in a rock 'n' roll band?"
—The Stones

   Kathy is spending her quarantine time on the Goose Garden. Our kids call us the Gooses, as a derivation of Mother Goose. Anyway, Kathy is keeping busy in the breezeway.

The Goose Garden Takes Shape

   Very wet and very green out. The yellow wild flowers are starting to bloom. This is up on Morningstar.

Green Scene

   Working on a couple concepts, including this portrayal of Olive Oatman and her "rescuers" swimming their way to Yuma from the Needles. It's a 200 mile swim and although they walked some of it, Olive later admitted they swam ten different stretches. 

Daily Whip Out:

"Swimming Thru The Deep Gorges"

   On the Pendejo front, I am still trying to find this trickster's visage. I know he's a total jag, as we used to say in college.

 Daily Whip Out:

"Laughing at El Pendejo's Campfire Stories"

"The best print books still rock. There is nothing else that takes their place."
—Cable Neuhaus

Death Rides A Big, Black Horse, First Pass

March 13, 2020
   Another big storm rolled in last night. My phone blew up around two in the morning with a flash flood warning (sounded like a WWII submarine dive blast). Washes running this morning. Caught this sight on the way out to get the newspapers.

Big Storm Clouds Over Ratcliff Ridge

   I reluctantly decided to postpone the first stop on my Never Surrender Book Tour because of all the hysteria and fallout over the Coronavirus. I wasn't overly concerned with catching the virus, I was more concerned with all the people who would not come out to the talk because of the Panic-demic.

   My musician friend, the legendary Hans Olsen, does shows out at Fountain Hills in the community center and they regularly draw 500 to 600 people for his mini-concerts but yesterday's show only drew 200. Discouraging, and until we get past this phase of the plague, it will only get worse. Perhaps this all has something to do with this morning's whip out.

Daily Whip Out:

"Death Rides A Big, Black Horse"

   This was a first pass at the idea. Of course, I want to make the horse even bigger and the fire sweep, longer and distant, but I got some of the creepiness right.

   Strange, strange times.

Mexican Mounted Cavalry

   Another gem from Samuel K. Dolan. Thanks. Wonderful reference.

   Remember all those pots Kathy bought in Rocky Point? Well, they're starting to show up in our breezeway.

The Goose Gets The Green Thumb

"History repeats itself. That's one of the problems with history."

—Clarence Darrow

Yaqui Carranzanistas

March 12, 2020
   I am fascinated by something called "The Porfirian Peace." It lasted for about 35 years. Here are some of my notes about it.

Daily Whip Outs: "Porfirian Peace Notes"

    And thanks to Michael Farmer, I ordered the book, "the General and The Jaguar," by Eilen Welsome. Also, Samuel K. Dolan expect a thank you packet from me. 

   Also noodling other characters and ethnic types down on the border. . .

Daily Whip Out: "Yaqui Gunner"

   One of the underreported aspects of the border is just how multinational and polyglot it was, back in the day.

Daily Whip Out: "Sabay, Sabay"

      According to my son Tomas, "Sabay, Sabay" is Thai for relax, or chill out.

Title page rough of "El Pendejo"

"Don't be 'consistent,' but be simply true."
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

When Kids Went to War

March 11, 2020
   Thanks to Samuel K. Dolan, I have been looking at some pretty astounding photographs of the Second Battle of Agua Prieta. Man, some of the soldiers who fought there were young!

Carranza Boy Soldiers, Agua Prieta, 1916

   And here are a couple captured Villistas:

Villista Prisoners at Agua Prieta

   Makes you wonder if there were any adults among the fighters, and the answer to that is, oh, yeah.

Train Arrivals at Agua Prieta

   Agua Prieta (Brown Water) is south of Douglas, Arizona on the Mexican side. This is the battle that basically ended the Old West.  Why? Because hard riding vaquero cavalry were no match for this:

Pancho and crew with a Hotchkiss machine gun.

 And the battle basically put a nail in the coffin of Pancho Villa's aspirations to retake control of northern Mexico.

"A man who tells you he's no fool, has his suspicions."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Pendejo Pondering and Dads Without Borders

March 10, 2020
   Went home for lunch and finished another high mountain pass scene.

Daily Whip Out:

"El Pendejo Ponders"

   High above Divisadero Falls sits a lone figure pondering his next move. His faithful guide, Rodrigo stands guard, alert and ready, for there are those who would like to see Pendejo dead. Like these guys, for example:

"Rojo" Cavalry On The Move

Dads Without Borders
   My father has been gone for more than two decades but there isn't a day goes by that I don't think about something he said, his laugh, and his unbridled love of cars.

Al Bell and The 66 Kid

"We can accept an imperfect Dad. Let's face it, the idea of a good father was only invented like 30 years ago."
—Nora (Laura Dern), "Marriage Story" written by Noah Baumbach

Nothing Happens In Mexico Until. . .

March 9, 2020
   Still chasing the campfire glow.

Daily Whip Out:

"Campfire Cowboys, Part II"

   If there is one thing that keeps us all afloat it's these two:

Daily Whip Out: "Old Woman, Old Ways"

   Working on the story of a trickster.

10 Character Sketches

There's Something Happening Here, What It Is Ain't Exactly Clear. . .

   It was on this date—March 9, 1916—that Pancho Villa and the rag tag remnants of his Division of the North attacked Columbus, New Mexico. If you read True West magazine, you know how this event indirectly led to Walter Noble Burns writing "The Saga of Billy the Kid." And if you know your Southwest history, you know that the Columbus raid was in retaliation for the debacle at the second battle of Agua Prieta. All of these details will be in an upcoming cover story on this guy:

"Nothing happens in Mexico, until it happens."

—Porfirio Diaz

Ridge Blaster & The Tucson Stratocasters

March 7, 2020
   Very little intrigues me more than a horseback rider blasting across a ridge line.

Daily Whip Out: "Ridge Blaster"

   When I was just a lad, I attended the University of Arizona in Tucson (1965-1970) and just missed encountering this Tucson singer with the big pipes:

Linda Ronstadt

   I did, however, play in various Tucson bands with a couple different git pickers who were in the Stone Poneys with her. They were both fond of Strats (Fender Stratocasters). 

   Speaking of Strat Masters, I had lunch today with Jack Alves, who is a great rock guitarist and played with Hans Olsen and I in the Razz Band.

Jack Alves, Chips & Salsa Guitar Hero

   I am asking Jack to provide some original licks to a video of Geronimo that will support this tour:

"We are all born crazy, only a few remain."
—Samuel Beckett

Nothing New Under The Sun Except Roger Naylor's New Book

March 6, 2020
   I'm researching the Mexican Revolution for an upcoming cover story we're doing for True West and I came across the double whammy statistic of over 1 million deaths by violence in the 1910-1920 period, but then on top of that there is another 300,000 who died from the Spanish Flu.

   Ay-Yi-Yi! Can't help but think of the current pandemic hysteria and how there is nothing new under the sun. 

Death Dealer

(going the wrong way)

  My good friend Roger Naylor is having a book signing this weekend out in Chandler.

Roger Naylor Book Signing

"We are, for the most part, big talkers with meager destinies, at the mercy of luck, global capitalism. . .and one another."
—A.O. Scott, reviewing the new Western "First Cow"

Rough Zapata On The Rise

March 5, 2020
   Working on a cover idea.

Daily Whip Out:

"Zapata On The Rise"

   Here's another Samuel K. Dolan stunner from south of the border.

Rural folk (peons) with Rurales

(El Norte mounted police)

Daily Whip Out:

"Lincoln, New Mexico Territory"

Lily Langtree?

"History is open to interpretation, but it isn't a lap dog you can make leap however you like."
—Neil Steinberg

Don Dedera Has Passed

March 4, 2020
   Everyone complains about the intrusiveness of social media, including myself, however, for those of us who enjoy seeing new, old photographs, the whole dang shebang is a wonderful treasure chest of joy and a bright, vivid window into the past.

A Cowboy And His Dog

(and his saddle and his Winchester)

   I'm not even sure where this image came from. Perhaps from Garrett Roberts or Samuel K. Dolan, both of whom often post treasures from their collections, or from their research. If I snagged this from one of you, I apologize and I promise I will give credit where credit is due. This, in fact, is part of my working mantra, which I learned from this guy:

Marshall Trimble, Don Dedera and me.

   The legendary Don Dedera has passed. We who love Arizona, loved him a whole bunch. He was two weeks shy of his 91st birthday. Here is Marshall Trimble and myself with Don on his 89th birthday. Learned a ton from him, and he always claimed he "invented" me.

"Discipline is the backbone of graciousness. Stoicism is the other face of wounds. In the most beautiful smile, painful knowledge hovers."

—Roger Cohen

More Bozecards For The Road

March 4, 2020
   One of my pet projects is to develop a line of Bozecards (Postcards from the edge). Dan the Man Harshberger created a rack card for me and I have some of my most recent cards of Geronimo and Wild Bill and the 66 Kid down at the Scottsdale Museum of the West.

   I am getting set to go out on my Geronimo book tour and I thought it would be cool to bring along a Bozecard rack with some other postcards to display and sell. Over the pat 20 years we have produced some mighty fine cards for promotional usage and here are just a smattering of them:

Bozecards for The Road

​

Blaze Away and Shotguns of The Old West

​

125th Anniversary of the O.K. Corral

and Great Western Train Trips

​

Western Movies and Wyatt And Doc

​

Doc and Custer

​

Classic True West Covers

   See anything you'd buy as a postcard, I mean a Bozecard?

"Common sense is not a gift, it's a punishment. Because you have to deal with everyone who doesn't have it."
—Old Vaquero Saying

Campfire Hallucinations & El Rancho Grande Mexican Movie Posters

March 3, 2020
   Sometimes it seems like the artwork goes where it wants to go.

Daily Whip Out: "Campfire Hallucinations"

   Other times I am inspired by images sent to me. For example, my Tejano-Artist-Amigo Buckeye Blake, sent me this photo of Navajos at the Flagstaff Pow Wow in the 1920s when In-dins became cowboys, Bigtime.

Under The Navajo Brim

Muy Mas Mexicano!
   I've been studying classic Mexican movie posters to get the feel for that period. This is for a graphic novel I am working on with my son.

 "Vuelven los Garcias" (The Garcias Return)

1946

   I love that period of El Rancho Grande (literally):

"Alla en el Rancho Grande"

(Over at The Big Ranch)

American title:

"The Little Cock That Could"

"Dona Diabla" (She Devil), 1949

"Si Adelita Se Fuera Con Otro"

(If Adelita Went off With Another Man)

1948

American Title:

"Double Dating With Pancho Villa"

"Cartas Marcadas" (Marked Cards), 1947

American title: "Infantile Humor Scores Big"

   Full disclosure: some of the previous renamed American titles are mine.

   When it comes to public speaking:

 "It only matters how much we empower our audience to solve a problem they truly care about."

—Neil Gordon