The Casas Colgadas of Cuenca, Spain

 November 14, 2022

    Funny what we find when we're sweeping out the garage to make room for more Hellraisers books.

Tommy & Saddam

   We flew to Spain to visit Thomas Charles in December of 2003. Tommy was attending school in Valencia, and we rented a house on a small lake south of the city and in the morning we were going to a local pub for breakfast paella, when we spied a newspaper rack with this headline. 

   Tipped off by turncoats (and no doubt the $25 million reward), Saddam Hussein was discovered in a "spider hole" in someone's backyard and his captors probed his mouth which is allegedly a major insult in the Arab world? Great shot of Tommy preserved for our family history. Meanwhile. . .

The Hanging Houses of Cuenca

   On this same trip we stumbled across a Moor-founded town called Cuenca.

The Goose, The Deen and The Kid

in front of the Casas Colgadas

   Cuenca is a city set in the mountains of east-central Spain. Founded by Moors, it retains its Historic Walled Town with steep cobbled streets and medieval castle ruins. Perched on a limestone spur high above the Júcar and Huécar rivers, it's most famous for its well-preserved "casas colgadas," or hanging houses. Cantilevered over the Huécar gorge, they seemingly cling to the cliffs’ edges.

T. Charles On A Limestone Spur

with the Cuenca skyline in the background

   We stayed in a monestary with four-foot-thick walls and I was so inspired by the cobbled streets I came home and created our own stone driveway as an homage to the streets in Cuenca, Spain!

Our Cuenca Inspired Driveway

"Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent."

—Adam Smith

More Bozecards From Out of The Vault

 November 13, 2022

   When Carole Glenn retired last month she gave me a couple boxes full of promotional items she had saved over the last two decades. First up is a gang shot of just a few of the postcards in the boxes that she saved. These cards pretty much sum up what our entire editorial thrust has been, en toto. 

Wow! Thanks Carole. You are the best.

     Here's some more:

      And two more from 2014:

Bozecards for "The 66 Kid"

   Yes, we've churned out the Bozecards in the last two decades and hopefully you have received your share in the mail.

"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."

—Lao Tzu

The Return of Flat Top, Six Ways to Sunday and Churchill On Painting

 November 12, 2022

   I am still on a journey surrounded by cascading dust and cascading women, and my goal is to do something epic with it all. My goal is to make something that is human and funny but doesn't pull any punches. For example:

   When I was growing up, we had a guy at MCUHS who was known by the name of his haircut.

Daily Whip Out: "Flat Top"

      He was too cool for school, as we used to say, but some of the girls were crazy for him. It's a tragic tale, but you knew that.

   A colorized photo of one of my painting heroes W. Herbert Dunton, painting outside (a la plein air) near Taos, New Mexico, c. 1925. Someone said he could paint "six ways to Sunday."

   Amen.

   

Born Under A Bad Sign

There is an infamous outcropping near Union Pass in Mohave County that was notorious when I was growing up. We called it Finger Rock, but it has a more proper name and apparently it has great significance to the Mojaves.

Sage Advice

   Write the truth about unreal people. Readers should think, "that feels true." Be human, be empathetic, make it as true as you can. Of course, don't hold back on the ridiculous, either. It's out there for the plucking.

     Also, if you're going to San Francisco, don't forget to wear flowers in your headgear.

Fruits of The Loom

   Oh, and don't forget the dust.

Daily Whip Out:

"He Rode Out of A Wall of Dust"

   Obliterated by dust, obfuscaded by darkness. he rode into a bewildered and obscure present.

The Bulldog Weighs In On Painting

"When I get to heaven, I mean to spend a considerable portion of my first million years in painting and so get to the bottom of the subject."

—Winston Churchill, who started painting at age 40 after a disastrous naval attack in World War I. He painted 500 pieces that are quite collectable today.

A Photographic Memory, Or Two

 November 11, 2022

   Memory is a funny thing. Photographic memory, not so funny.

   I pride myself on having a good memory, but sometimes a long forgotten piece of data can throw a wrench into that conceit. When Carole Glenn retired last month she sent me a couple boxes full of momentos, like old postcards we had created for the magazine and various other promotional and archival images she had saved and collected over the years, like this crazy one:

Our reaction to "Brokeback Mountain"

(a promotional postcard and a cover!)

 In one of the boxes was an email (printed out) from one of my original partners. After buying the magazine together (along with a third partner, Rick Baish) back in 1999, we fought over many things. He didn't think we should go from pulp to glossy paper. He didn't think we should sell advertising until we had stabilized our subscription base. He didn't think the magazine needed a redesign. ("If it ain't broke, don't fix it.") I could go on but needless to say, I remembered him as being very hostile to our efforts and fighting me at almost every turn. He sold out to my current partner Ken Amorosano and more or less wished us luck. All of this is true, but here is what he said to me in that email Carole saved, back in 2012:

   "I think the magazine is better than it has ever been. That includes, as a charter subscriber in 1953, going all the way back to the first issue. Have you talked to Jim Earle lately? He has been bragging on the magaine for years. You have done miracles with the advertising. And most ads add to the enjoyment of the magazine. True West has completely out-distanced Wild West. I doubt if they could continue to exist without the connection to Weider and his other mags. It is still mostly history. True West is what I would call more like 'Popular History' and 'history for vacationers." I usually turn first to the Truth Be Known page of quotes and jokes. Fun and some wise sayings. I read and enjoy your editorial page and Ask The Marshall. Always, of course, I look at the photos."

—Robert G. McCubbin (1937-2020)

   Sometimes our memories are clouded by petty conflicts that get in the way of remembering the bigger picture and how it actually played out. I will treasure this email and keep it to remind me of my feeble memory bank. Thanks Carole!

"No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar."

—Abraham Lincoln

"Tune Low, Play Hard And Floor It!"

 November 10, 2022

   More rain yesterday afternoon, made for a pretty sunset last night.

Sunset In The Rain Over The Seven Sisters

Rainbow Over Continental Mountain

   If you have read our new book, "Hellraisers & Trailblazers" would you please write up a short review, right here:

Amazon Review Site for Hellraisers

   Here's a cool photograph:

Hunters Wearing Sugarloafs

(courtesy Wild West Faces)

   Speaking of cool photos, we're doing a whole bunch of them for the January 2023 issue. We asked all our contributing editors and colleagues to give us their fave Old West photos and why. Got a very cool list of known and unknown images. I have a hunch this will be one of them.

Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch.

   Here's some good advice for all of us.

"I use heavy strings, tune low, play hard, and floor it. 'Floor it,' that's technical talk."

—Stevie Ray Vaughan

Audie Murphy Does A Turn As Free And Old Man Licked In Face Survives

 November 9, 2022

   New horizons and new projects on the boards. One of them involves a parody of Western movie posters, like this:

Audie Murphy Is Mickey Free!

  This delightfully weird parody will underscore something I firmly believe, which is, I love history. I just wish more of it was true.

The Big Circle

   Tablets were replaced by scrolls. Scrolls were replaced by books. Now we scroll through books on tablets. And look who is going to be strolling the streets of Wickenburg for the umpteenth time.

Triple B Goes All Whoopeee!

"Everything in this world tries to be round."

—Old Vaquero Saying

If you live long enough you will realize the wrong side of history is where you are now.

   This just in:

Old Man Licked In Face Survives

   Turns out, this is a shirt my daughter bought by mistake and she gifted it to me. Perhaps all of this explains something profound.

"We spend our lives trying to understand our parents."

—Thomas McGuane

The End Is The Beginning of Something New

 November 8, 2022

   Spent most of last week in this fine old hotel as we prepped the James Gallery in the Phippen Art Museum for our opening on Friday night.

Prescott's Historic Hasssayampa Inn

   This is my headquarters when I am in town. And this is the venue—or, more accurately, the canvas—we had to work on

Hellraisers & Trailblazers Show

(The raw beginning)

   This is a photo, above, I took of how raw and empty the James Gallery was on Wednesday afternoon. That's Brent Bond, at left, lining up the stud hangers for the big Cascading Collage and that's Jeannette Holverson, curator at the Phippen, pulling out her notes to attack all of those paintings and scratchboards along the back wall. And here is Jeannette and Neal on the day of the show.

And here's a shot of the same room on Saturday during the book signing.

Standing Room Only

   What a wonderful event. Thanks to everyone who made it work.

   Today, I am picking up the pieces in the studio, cleaning out the mess from the Hellraisers project which has clogged my studio for three years. Wow! Hard to believe.

   Got some new images to do, like this one:

Daily Whip Out: "Long Faced Juan"

   Of course, now that the show is over and the book is out there, I start running across more images I wish we would have had for the book.

Gay Nineties Hat Lovers

(That hat lovers love)

   Meanwhile, got a new project, that is actually an old project and it involves movie poster parodys featuring this guy.

A Legendary Mexican Comedian

   Only in our story he will look more like this:

Cantinflas As A Certain One-eyed Captivo

(thanks to Buckeye Blake for finding this)

   So, one project ends and another begins. Somehow, this quote gives me solace.

"We are neither the beginning, nor the end."

—Lydia Millet

A Total Love Bomb In The Peacock Room

November 6, 2022

   It was standing room only at the Phippen Art Museum yesterday as Jana and I discussed our new book "Hellraisers & Trailblazers" in the James Gallery where my art show was held. 

   We ended up co-signing six cases of books! Some book buyers bought a dozen books each for Christmas and we signed them all with pleasure.

   Earlier in the day, in the Peacock Room at the Hassayampa Inn we had a True West breakfast to honor all of the people who made the Phippen Show a roaring success.

The Peacock Crew

"That was a total love bomb."

—Jana Bommersbach describing our lovefest in Prescott

A Hard Sell On Whiskey Row

 November 4, 2022

   We've been waiting for this day for a long time. Got up and met Vince Murray at the Silver Spur for breakfast. We worked on "Free." Going to be a pretty ding-danged good story, if you ask me.

   From there I played tourist and walked the entire downtown area, then dropped into the Western Heritage Center where I got a pretty hard sell from a pretty girl in red.

Colleen at the Western Heritage Center

on Whiskey Row in Prescott

   "We just got this new book in and you need it. No, really it's great." I finally told her it's mine and she didn't believe me. Made me take off my hat. Then she said, "Okay, maybe." Tough girl. So, I bought the damn book.

   Dan The Man fixed another newsstand problem.

Albertson's magazine rack

19th Ave. & Northern, Phoenix, Arizona

   They had us way up high and Dan brought us down to eye level, as a good art director should.

   A full report on the Phippen opening tomorrow.

"If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past."

—Baruch Spinoza

Snow Flurries In Prescott But the Real Storm Is Shaping Up at The Phippen

 November 3, 2022

   Well, this is a treat for a desert rat, we've got snow flurries and it's 37 degrees in Prescott. I am up here to install the Hellraisers Art Show at the Phippen Art Museum. Woke up to this view.

The Elks Building in downtown Prescott

   Got out to the Phippen around noon to find Neal and Jeannette putting the finishing touches on the Cascade.

Neal Puts Last Letter In Place On Cascade 

  And here's an unadulterated look (without me in the way) at the Cascade:

The Cascading Collage with title

  The lone sculpture in the show is a small version of this ten-footer at the Prescott Valley Civic Center.

   Debbie Gessner of Bronzesmith created this from my painting of the same name. I shot this photo yesterday and walked down to Staples to see if I could get a blow up on foam core for the show, only to run into an ex-Creeker, Dennis, who hooked me up with an oversized print on foamboard.

Dennis does good work

(and he knows Jeff Carneal so he can't be all bad)

   Had breakfast in the Peacock Room this morning and yesterday me and the Cattletrack Crew celebrated at Casa de Perez and took this goofy shot with Mark and Penelope.

Road Rules Goofy Shot #1

"Breakfast is always more fun in hotels."

—Alan Rickman

The Cascading Collage Is On The Wall

 November 2, 2022

   Today was a big day. Drove up the hill this morning and landed at the Phippen Art Museum, where three members of the staff unloaded 66 paintings and scratchboards for the premiere of the book and the artshow on Friday night. The Cattletrack Boys, along with Penelope, showed up a half hour later and proceeded to hang the five section Cascading Collage up on the wall in record time. I had never seen it in it's full glory and here it is:

The Cascading Collage Hangs High

   More pictures tomorrow.

"It looks so much more vivid in person!"

—Jeannette Holverson, curator and collections manager of the Phippen Art Museum

Roadside Distractions & The Greatest Hat Hut In The History. of The West

 November 1, 2022

   This photo speaks to me.

By Robert Frank

“Car Accident—U.S. 66, Between Winslow

and Flagstaff, Arizona”

(1956)

    For starters, my family was on this very highway a lot in the years 1955 and 1956 when we moved for the final time, to Kingman, from Iowa. I feel like I am related to the four people standing there. I can almost name them. I certainly knew people exactly like them. That's how powerful this image is in my memory. See that house back there. We lived in several houses just like that. How can you capture a world with one picture? Just like this.

    Meanwhile, here's another ridiculous sunrise over Ratcliff Ridge this morning.

Ratcliff Ridge: 6:45 A.M.

The Hat Hut Out Wickenburg Way

   If you ask me, this is the greatest hat hut in the history of the United States. Out Wickenburg way, circa 1940s. Long gone by now, but someone needs to rebuild it and here's the choice part—I'll pay for it!

The Greatest Hat Hut In the West

   The problem is, nobody cares but me and the lead guitar player in ZZ Top. We're threatening to do a history of the Cowboy hat book and if I have any say in the matter, the Hat Hut is going to be a full page in said book.

   This might get a page to boot:

A trending track on John Fusco's new CD:

   Speaking of great photographs and roadside distractions, which cover would you buy?

Dan The Man's Cover Concept #1

Dan The Man's Cover Concept #2

"Oh, thanks a lot, Dan, that's just ridiculous. How in the hell do we choose?"

—BBB

Get Ready to Rock The Granite Dells!

 October 31, 2022

   Our big weekend is coming up at the Phippen Art Museum just north of Prescott. This Saturday, November 5, Jana and I are speaking at the museum at 1 PM about our adventures co-writing the Hellraisers book and the dark secret Olive Oatman took to her grave.

Plus, we will be talking about this feisty woman as well.

   And also this hometown girl. . .

     And a couple hundred more (if we have time). You don't want to miss this! It's open to the public and we will be signing our book, so come see us and enjoy a very lively discussion.

"Don't strive to be well known. Strive to be worth knowing."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Get Ready for the Bozecard Roadside Rack & Grandpa Ha Ha's Road Rules

 October 30, 2022

   Here's the prototype for a new product: The Bozecard Roadside Rack, full of beans and all the Old West characters you and I love, writ large.

A Bozecard Roadside Attraction

   I'm aiming it at the Phippen Art Museum opening next Friday. So look for it in the gift shop.

   From Dust to Dust is a pretty accurate epitaph for my tombstone, since I am so enamored of impressionistic dust in Westerns and Western scenes, like this:

Daily Whip Out Revisited:

"Mexico Reaps The Whirlwind"

   We're planning a big road trip next April with the Bortscheller grandkids. Deena mentioned her kids are the perfect age to travel because they are not yet teenagers. True-true-true-true-so true! So, I thought it was time to lay down grandpa's Road Trip Rules.

The Ten Grandpa Ha Ha Road Trip Rules

Road Rule #1: Take plenty of goofball photos posed especially goofy so that when they grow up they can show these photos to their kids.

Road Rule #2: If possible do not come back on the same road that you left on. It's more fun to see new country.

Road Rule #3: at least once on the trip take an unknown side road and see where it goes.

Road Rule #4: Always stop at hysterical markers, I mean historical markers. We want to find out what happened there and learn something!

Road Rule #5: No chains like McDonald's or Wendy's. We want to support the local business whenever possible and also to try the local dishes.

Road Rule #6: Uno picks the pee stops. I mean it— every single one. If you don't like it, take it up with Unocito!

"No, really, I can hold it another ten miles"

Road Rule #7: When we drive by a ranch or an isolated farm house, imagine what it would be like to live there. Where would you go to school? What would it be like to have Hillbilly parents?

Road Rule #8: Avoid freeways whenever possible and take the back roads. It's more fun.

Road Rule #9: Have at least one picnic. Buy food and take it to a lake, or a scenic vista. The food will taste better there.

Road Rule #10: Save your whining for the whining window. That's where we roll down the window closest to you and you whine and whine with your head out the window. Be sure to save up your whines, because we wouldn't want to miss any!

"Okay, buckle up and let's roll!"

—Grandpa Ha ha