New True West Moments In The Can

August 20, 2012

We filmed five new True West Moments on the Presidential run of the Durango & Silverton Railroad last Saturday. After grabbing two segments at the station we headed up into the mountains and stopped for a camera pass at this bridge and I filmed one about how outlaws like the Wild Bunch actually robbed trains (as opposed to the Hollywood version where they attack on horseback.)



This photo was snapped by Kristi Cohen, one of the passengers on the special True West Railfest run.







We stopped at Cascade for lunch and I did another one in front of the locomotive which was used in the movie "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid" back in 1968 (they filmed in 1968, film came out the next year):





That's my producer, Jeff Hildebrandt to the left of the camera. Scott, the director is at right. The film crew was from Telluride. The new Moments should start running next month. Unlike most of our other shoots we didn't have a teleprompter and I had to memorize the scripts. I actually nailed several of the scripts on the first take, which elicited this comment from my partner:



"Well, if it isn't One-Take-Boze."

—Ken Amorosano



"

The Sour Puss Singers

August 19, 2012

    Last night the Distinguished Professor Paul Andrew Hutton and myself realized a life long dream. We sang backup with Sourdough Slim in the Pullman Ballroom in the basement of the Strater Hotel in Durango, Colorado. We got a standing O and women were throwing their outer garments at us.











 "Life has been good to me, so far."

 — Joe Walsh

Eureka! I Filmed it!

August 19, 2012
Busy day in Durango yesterday. Started off early at the train station filming new True West Moments for the Encore Westerns Channel.

Here I am in front of the Eureka steam locomotive, built in 1875 and in use in Nevada one year before Custer's Last Stand. Sucker weighs 44,000 pounds and is in perfect condition. They had the steam engine on the roundabout and it turned behind me as I gave the history of steam engines in the West.  After this shot, the owner of the train allowed me to get up in the engine as we chugged through the rounrhouse and coupled with two cars and a caboose. The little boy in me was in the clouds. Much fun. Filmed four other Moments on the Presidential Train to Cascade and back.

"Eureka, I filmed it!"
—BBB

True West Railfest Steams Into Durango

August 18, 2012
   Big rainstorm yesterday afternoon in Durango. Wiped out our celebrity fast draw competition but it was fun hanging in the True West Railfest tent and listening to the rain beat down on the canvas. Cleared off about about three and we Zonies enjoyed the cool afternoon (this is bliss for a desert rat).

   Last night I had the pleasure of meeting actor Charles Diercup, who played Flat Nose Curry in "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid." We aired the film outside the Durango depot at 8:30 as part of our True West Railfest festivities. I introduced the film and Charlie. We watched the film at the back of the amphitheater and he told me several funny stories about the making of the film, which we'll use in True West.

At six, Ken Amorosano, Sheri Riley and myself joined Paul Andrew Hutton and his son Paul Andy at Seasons Restaurant for a fine meal and then we retired to the Office Bar next to the Strater Hotel to tell more lies.

Big day today on the special presidential train. The Westerns Channel is here and we're filming new True West Moments on the ride up to Cascade and back.

"You keep thinkin' Butch. That's what you're good at."
—The Sundance Kid (Redford) to Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman)

Outrageous Arizona Tonight

August 16, 2012

   The entire staff of True West magazine is getting ready to depart Cave Creek, to make the long, hot trek into the Beast. Tonight, at 8:30, Channel 8 (PBS, Phoenix) will premiere our TV show Outrageous Arizona. Marshall Trimble and myself will be on hand, and on camera, to talk it up (it's a Pledge Drive show) and we are having a big party before the show in Studio B.





You will seen this painting in the segment on Red Ghost.



"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."

—Robert F. Kennedy

The Duke of Dust Boy Stands His Ground

August 16, 2012

   Whipped out three paintings this morning before I came into work. First up, "The Duke of Dust Boy Stands His Ground":





Then I finished up a big cloud scene that I call "Beale's Camel Corp West of Laguna". I wanted to use Cubero, but I'm not sure it was there in 1857.





And I finished Texas John Slaughter for my next Classic Gunfight (Slaughter vs. Gallagher):



 

"Sit, walk, or run, but don't wobble."

—Old Zen Saying

Texas John Slaughter Armed & Dangerous

August 15, 2012
   Got up this morning with one goal: extrapolate between the photos of Texas John Slaughter as an old man with a white beard and the one bust shot of Slaughter taken in the 1870s and get rid of his paunch and gray beard and make him into the fit and trim fighting man he was in his heyday. Not easy, but I love the challenge.

"Work in the gap between art and life."
—Robert Rauschenberg

Amy Watts & Thunderbird Thunderheads

August 14, 2012

   When I was in Santa Fe I met talented artist Amy Watts from Georgia, who was also in the Arizona-New Mexico Centennial Art Show at Due West Gallery. Here we are standing in front of her work, and that's my "Digging Up Billy" on the right:







  Finished a sunset study I started last week. Inspired by a sunset I saw at Marv Kaiser's house in Williamson Valley, north of Prescott two weeks ago. I call this Thunderbird Thunderheads:





Had lunch today with Marshall Trimble and Ken Amorosano at Gallo Blanco in the Clarendon Hotel. Someone said this is the hotel where Don Bolles was murdered (in the parking lot), but I don't think that is correct. I think the Clarendon Hotel where he encountered the car bomb was closer to Central Avenue, which is about a block east of there.



After lunch we went to Channel EIGHT in the Walter Cronkite Building on the downtown ASU campus and watched the final cut of Outrageous Arizona with the head brass of the station. Then went upstairs to Studio 6 to tape a Special Features addition with Marshall and I chatting about the making of the show and the stuff we left out.



Working on a Texas John Slaughter classic gunfight (Chuck Parsons asked me at the WWHA convention if I was running out of gunfights, or just being lazy for rerunning so many old ones. I laughed and admitted "some of it is lazyness, but I've got a ton more I want to do")



"I say, I say. . .aim high, the horses are mine."

—Texas John Slaughter (not really)

Outrageous Arizona Is Ready to Air

August 13, 2012

   You've seen the video clips and you've seen the naked models:





You've seen the artwork that didn't make it into the show:





And now you've seen the news articles about Outrageous Arizona.



Two years ago, it was just an idea I had at a history convention in Laughlin, Nevada. This Thursday at 8:30 P.M. on Channel EIGHT in Phoenix the show will premiere. The True West staff will be manning the phones. Myself and Marshall Trimble will be bragging up the show and you will get to see what all the hub bub is about.



"It's not the steak it's the sizzle."

—Eric Flatt, Cartwrights Steak House

Pipeline Rider & Honkytonk Sue

August 13, 2012

   Back from Santa Fe. Marveled at the scenery along I-40, especially since I just finished reading "The Last Camel Charge" and the entire route follows Captain Beale's Camel Corp Expedition almost to the T. This was of course Route 66, which we followed religiously every summer from Kingman to Iowa from 1946 to 1966. I love that country from Gallup to Flagstaff. Many memories. Did a painting of this as a possible centennial image called "Old Trails."



Got up this morning and whipped out a painting I call "Pipeline Rider":





This was inspired by a film I saw recently of surfers riding through pipeline waves and coming out after seemingly swallowed up by water. Seemed like a perfect thing for a hellbent cowboy to be doing as well.

  We've got more packrats in the garage and they have taken to rearranging my boxes of photos. Found two historic photos on the floor by the garbage cans. The first is of Andy Solt and Malcolm Leo, at the time, 1981, two of the hottest producers in Hollywood. They had just produced "The History of Rock 'n' Roll" for ABC and were slated to produce a major documentary "This Is Elvis" for theatrical release.





Through my agent at William Morris, they signed on to produce my comic book character Honkytonk Sue and actually sold the project to Columbia Pictures who slotted Goldie Hawn to play the Queen of Country Swing. This photo was taken in 1981, in the aftermath of "Urban Cowboy", which created a semi-big wave of new Westerns. Goldie, of course, had just done "Private Benjamin" which was a major hit and she had a five picture deal and Honkytonk Sue was supposed to be one of them, but  although Larry McMurtry co-wrote three scripts for the project it never even made it to production.







The other photo the garage packrats brought to my attention is this one of a certain radio celebrity who worked with me on KSLX. I would come in every morning with horror stories about the behavior of my teenage kids and she was quite often very unsympathetic, telling me flatly she wouldn't put up with such nonsense. Last Thursday I got a very sweet email from her. She has a teenage daughter and she told me how sorry she was. Didn't gloat at all. I have nothing but sympathy for anyone who has to raise a teenager.





This photo was taken in 1988, which is slightly before my kids became teenagers from hell. Ha. This is when The Jones, Boze & Jeanne Show aired on KSLX. Fun times.



"We probably wouldn't worry about what people think of us if we could know how seldom they do."

—Olin Miller

The Duke of Dust: Pipeline Rider

August 13, 2012
   Back from Santa Fe. Got up this morning at 5:30 and whipped out a little study I call "Pipeline Rider."

"The Duke of Dust is back."
—Old Kingman Saying

Thom Ross At Home In His Own Personal Alamo

August 12, 2012

Ever sit around and wonder what the wild and crazy artist Thom Ross looks like at his Lamy, New Mexico Alamo compound? Well, wonder no more.

My Mary Ann Belt

August 12, 2012
Got to Santa Fe last Thursday night. Drove over with Ken Amorosano. Forgot my pants, my boots and a belt. Borrowed a pair of pants and a pair of boots. On Friday morning Thom Ross took me downtown and I bought a belt from Mary Ann who has a store two doors down from Due West Gallery. Here I am with Mary Ann and Thom showing off my new Mary Ann belt.

"Yes, Thom is looking at her cleavage. Hey, he's an artist."
—BBB, defending his lewd compadre

Arizona's Capitol On Wheels

August 9, 2012

   Working hard to finish up all my work before we hit the road for Santa Fe tomorrow morning. Worked for about an hour at my desk this afternoon to finish an ambitious "Capitol On Wheels" illustration for a new True West Moment.





Yes, I was channeling Heinrich Kley here. In fact, the guy at left is almost a flat out poach, but I'll deny it in court.



"Der Taschendieb"

—German for The Pickpocket (and also the name of a Heinrich Kley drawing)

Pearl Hart PG?

August 9, 2012

   Had a blood test this morning and had to fast until nine. Not fun, but kept busy and tried not to think of coffee or food. Actually accomplished quite a bit and wonder if I did this every other day, how much more successful I would be. Nah. Slightly irritating that doctors don't do blood tests anymore, at least the ones I go to. They farm it out to a company called Sonoran Labs, a specialty lab that has boo-koo offices around the Valley and you have to go THERE to get the damn test, which they charge me extra for and then send the reports to my doctor who charges me to look at them. But hey, there's nothing wrong with our health care system that triple charging can't cure.



   Got to the office at 9:30 and whipped out a black and white of Pearl Hart receiving a payoff from the governor to leave the state.





Of course, this may look familiar. It is, of course, poached from my color version of the same scene which I did for our TV show Outrageous Arizona:





I realized this morning I have done the Lady Bandit a couple of times. Here is my first take on her, done about seven years ago:







And here is my black and white version which ran in True West Moments:





And here is an actress portraying Pearl in our TV show Outrageous Arizona:





Posed her in the back of the True West World Headquarters. I guess you could say I have certainly beat this topic to death. Ha.



Also, reworked my Wyatt Earp character for our upcoming graphic cinema:





This is me doing more blocks of black. Not too bad.



"You can't make this stuff up."

—Kelly McCullough, KAET general manager, describing our show

The Last Baby Boomer

August 9, 2012

I've been very busy this summer. In June I took Los Famdamos on the Bell Legacy Tour (The BLT tour as we called it) to the family farm in Iowa. Spent some major money (wrecked $5 grand) but had a great time and showed my kids where I came from.



In July we filmed the pilot for Outrageous Arizona, a co-production between Channel EIGHT, PBS Phoenix and True West magazine, which will premiere a week from tonight. I also did all of the artwork for the show and finally finished that on Monday.



Tomorrow, Ken Amorosano and I drive to Santa Fe for the Arizona-New Mexico Centennial Art Show at Due West Gallery on Saturday night. And next weekend I fly to Durango for the First Annual True West Railfest AND tape some new True West Moments for the Westerns Channel while i'm there. In fact, we're sharing a tent with Jeff Hildebrandt and the Encore Westerns crew. Paul Andrew Hutton and I are giving a talk on Wyatt Earp in Hollywood at the Strater Hotel in Saturday night. Looking forward to that.



But the good news is most of the work for all of the above is done, in the can, so I can get back to my pet project "The Last Baby Boomer Speaks". Cleaned and reorganized this morning in my studio to get ready for the final push. I have made a commitment to master colorist Brett Smith that we will knock out at least two episodes to run in True West. Here is my desk this morning with the vital tools needed to finish:





From top to bottom, my friend Ron Carlson gave me the four steps to completion (in red), my notes from April sum up my quest ("I want the truth"), the original cartoon is a reminder to keep the lines clean and the drawing of Metallica, juxtapositioned with a scowling Wyatt Earp is the theme.



Wish me luck. So, I have the tools, but I need one more thing. Here's what a certain coach says I need:



"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will."

—Vince Lombardi

Lone Ranger Update

August 9, 2012

   Over the weekend in Prescott I talked with a crew member on the new Lone Ranger movie and he brought me up to speed on the Monument Valley shoot. According to the grip they had very bad dust storms and couldn't film in John Ford-ville (this after bad forest fires near Creede, Colorado, in June, which dogged their train climax sequence with heavy smoke). So, in a pinch, the production moved to Canyon de Chelly where Johnny Depp had a trailer in the canyon and held court with the Navajos who trekked from across the reservation to see him).





The shoot is supposed to last until the end of this month. They have spent a ton of money on this and I'm rooting for them. I hope it all ends up on the screen as they say in the biz.



"In this business there's a fine line between trying hard and letting go."

—David Duchovny, in Time

True West Wins Western Legends Award

IAugust 8, 2012

   Yesterday at two, I finally finished the artwork coverage for our TV show Outrageous Arizona (airs a week from tomorrow). Got up this morning and whipped out three studies, the first I would call "The Palette Cleanser".



I

t felt nice to just move paint around and not care about what it was supposed to represent. For my next piece I whipped out this little study of a sunset I witnessed at Marv Kaiser's house in Williamson Valley last weekend. This is "Cloud Study #52":





And then I finished a little study I call "Lake Mead In The Distance":



When you round the corner on the approach to Boulder City, you look back and see this spectacular lake and mountains. This was done from memory.



True West magazine won the Western Legends Award at the Wild West History Association convention in Prescott last weekend. Presenting the award is Julie Ann Ream.





Here we are onstage. I'm introducing and thanking my staff, including Marshall Trimble, Meghan Saar, Greg Carrol, Ken Amorosano and Dan The Man Harshberger. We've come a long ways in the last 13 years. Not sure where we're going from here, but I trust it will not be boring. Besides. . .



"The idea of knowing exactly where you're going is overrated."

—Sarah Sze

Santa Fe Centennial Show This Weekend

August 8, 2012
   Rusty York came by the True West World Headquarters yesterday morning at six to pick up a dozen BBB paintings and drive them to Santa Fe for the big Arizona-New Mexico Centennial Art Show this weekend at Due West Art Gallery. Ken Amorosano and I are driving over on Friday, show is on Saturday night. This is one of the paintings in the show:

This is "Skull Valley Cowgirl". Yesterday afternoon the staff helped me pick five images from the Outrageous Arizona TV show for a series of notecards. They will not include this one, which unfortunately fell through the cracks.

But it will be in the art show, however. I asked the staff to vote on their favorites and this one didn't make the cut for the note cards. Gee, I wonder what ol' Moliere has to say about this?

"On is easily fooled by that which one loves."
—Moliere

Camels Bye Bye, Ashfork Ham

YeAugust 7, 2012

Went home for lunch and finished the last painting for Outrageous Arizona. This is for the segment on Red Ghost and how mules responded when they got around camels. Actually, not quite fair to the camels but this is how the army rank and file viewed Captain Beale's "secret weapon".





Big clouds rolling in this afternoon. Shot these thunderheads over Ratcliff Ridge on the way back into work.





Yesterday afternoon I captured this horsehead thunderhead over Continental Mountain.





Spent some time in Prescott with that historian from Ashfork. Great guy but can't remember his name.



"


Work in the gap between art and life."

—Robert Rauschenberg

The Haunting of Wyatt Earp

August 7, 2012

   Been working for some time on a Wyatt Earp story about an old geezer who claims to have driven to Vegas with Earp way back in the 1980s. The geezer is in an assisted living home and surrounded by precious items from his younger days including a Hopalong Cassidy clock:





This little beauty is a BBB drawing of my clock and then colored by master comic book colorist Brett Smith. Now that is haunting.



"The past does not haunt us. We haunt the past."

—Augusten Burroughs

Kid Krazy Posse

August 5, 2012

So I'm in the Palace Saloon on Whiskey Row last Saturday and I meet two of the most passionate Billy the Kid afficionados I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Meet my new Kid Krazy posse members, Loca Leenda from New Mexico and Shoot'em Shel from Montana. These two make me proud to be into history.





Actually, talking to them was an eye opener to me. I have met other females who are into the Kid and I always assumed it was a romantic fantasy attraction, the bad boy attraction, the handsome, suave boy outlaw. These two women are as obsessed with Billy as I am but the difference is they don't imagine being his sweetheart, they, well, they feel like they are him, or have been him. It's an extraterrestrial, past lives deal and I can't pretend to understand it, but I finally get it. The bottom line is that the boy bandit still has some powers

I was in Prescott for the Wild West History Association conference and it was a ton of fun as was the History meets Hollywood event put on by Rob Bandhauer at the Hassayampa Inn on Saturday. Michael Blake of Dances With Wolves was there as was the mayor, etc. Lots of stories to tell tomorrow.



"Remember down in Tularosa you bought one. . .Billy why you runnin' so hard?"

—Bob Dylan



"

Wayward Travelers

August 2, 2012

   Just heard from my road warriors, Thomas and Pattarapan. They stayed in Tucumcari, New Mexico last night at the Route 66 Motel (this is added proof he is my son). Pattarapan found the motel on smart phone after looking at the other alternatives. Evidently, an old couple (someone my age) bought the place and renovated the old motel and they charge something like $39 a night. They are also refurbishing a classic coffee shop next door and the kids had breakfast there as Tommy put it, "In The Texas tradition of loading up on cholesterol before you hit the road." They are in Oklahoma this morning and are making good time.



   Speaking of wayward travelers, finished another painting for the Diltche segment of Outrageous Arizona. After successfully crossing the Colorado River on her 1,000 mile journey, Diltche joined two other Native American women going up the Gila River. The trio was doomed however as they were attacked by Yavapais and the two women with Diltche were killed.





"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world and the best that we can find in our travels is an honest friend."

—Robert Louis Stevenson

Sinnk of Swim

August 1, 2012

   Thomas Charles and his lovely bride Pattarapan packed up all their worldly goods yesterday and packed it in a Budget Rental truck. Came out last night for one last meal and took off this morning at eight for the east coast and a new life.





Took T. 15 minutes to turn that truck and trailer around in the driveway:





Finished two paintings this morning. One of Diltche talking to an old Mexican sheepherder who told her where she could cross the Colorado River (she couldn't swim):







And here is Diltche crossing at the point the old man told her about, utilzing a sand bar in the turn of the river to make it safely across.





I believe the account mentions that she almost went under (she had to wade into the fast moving stream at some point) but she made it safely across. She then fell in with two other In-din women to help her navigate up the Gila, but they were attacked by Yavapais and the two women were killed. That painting is next.



"Sink or swim."

—Old Vaquero Saying

A Bridge Too Far?

July 31, 2012

   AC went out in the studio yesterday. Got to work early at five this morning, but it was already 85. Gutted it out and finished a Gila River flood painting for out Outrageous Arizona coverage.



This is the 1885 flood that marooned the Old Pueblo legislators from getting to the state capital in Prescott in a timely manner (they had to go to Los Angeles on the Southern Pacific, then back to Kingman and Ashfork and down to Prescott that way). They arrived several days too late and lost out on all the pork (they wanted the insane asylum but got the university instead). Had some very good photo reference of early day floods in Arizona. Tempted to call this:



• A Bridge Under Troubled Water



Got a dash warning on my new Ford Flex saying "tire pressure low". This happened last Saturday during a rain storm, coming back from Grandma Betty's, but the tires still look fine. Checked them several times and trying to determine if the warning is a fluke, or if I've picked up a nail. Got Eric from 24-Hour-Car-Care coming to the office this morning. Meeting the AC guy at the house at noon. Tommy and Pattarapan are coming out this afternoon in a rental truck, hauling all there stuff back to Maryland. T. is going to grad school there.



"It's always something."

—Emily Litella, Gilda Radner character on Saturday Night Live

Tomas Takes Off

August 1, 2012
Thomas Charles and Pattarapan are starting a new life and they took off from the old homestead this morning for the east coast. Took them a few minutes to back that big puppy around.