Dewey Beach, The Hustler Club & My Thai in Baltimore

May 21, 2014
   Spent a couple days off the grid in Dewey Beach, Delaware right on the Atlantic Ocean. Drove through the capitol of Dover on Sunday. Stopped for gas then found a great little place called The Governor's Cafe in an old house. Believe it or not, had coffee and B-52 shots:


The Governor's Cafe in downtown Dover, Delaware

Landed in Dewey, Delaware at about three. Kathy rented us an upstairs funky apartment space right on the beach:



Our Dewey Beach House

Walked on the beach, sketched, made notes for a new project, solved life, played cards and ate good food at Fin's Seafood and Raw Bar in Rehoboth Beach and The Starboard in Dewey Beach. Left this morning at ten and traveled down the coast to Ocean Beach, also in Delaware and walked the boardwalk and posed on the pier:



Our gang on Ocean Beach Pier: Sci, Thomas, Pattarapan, Maliwan, Kathy and BBB

Had lunch a Seacrets, right on the water, then drove back to Baltimore via Annapolis. Landed back at Tommy's apartment in the city. And decided to go out for Thai noodles at about six:



Downtown Baltimore in rush hour rain.

Fought our way through The Block, which is a notorious skin bar area right next to the police station:


Larry Flint's Hustler Club on The Block in downtown Baltimore

Landed at My Thai Restaurant on Central Ave.



Tommy puts in parking meter fees while the girls run for a table in the rain.

Long day traveling but got back to T's place at about 8:30. Thinking of going to Gettysburg tomorrow.

"How can you live in that first draft world?"
—An old writer at seeing Facebook and Social Media for the first time

Chadds Ford Pays Off

May 18, 2014
  We flew east last Thursday to witness the graduation of Thomas Charles Bell from the Masters program at the University of Maryland on Friday:


The guest graduation speaker was Wes Moore, who you will be hearing more from in the future.

Afterwards we motored down to Jeff & Patty's house in Severn, where we partied on the patio:


Tom Bell's graduation party

The next day, we drove to Philadelphia and I saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall for the first time. Also, the Philly Art Museum where Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) ran up the steps. Everyone, I mean everyone runs up the steps and does the victory dance at the top.

Afterwards we went to a great restaurant in China Town:


Dinner at Dim Sum Garden in Philadelphia: left to right T. Bell, Kendra and Jeremy, Kathy, Maliwan, Sci and Pattarapan.

This morning we drove out to Chadds Ford where we saw a bunch of paintings by this guy:


A certain artist dressed as a cowboy in Colorado in 1904

Got to visit his house and studio, which was a thrill:


BBB in front of NC's studio

Great little details, like these death masks:



Death masks in NC's studio, bottom one is of Lincoln which had been removed for a display in the museum showing the artist's props.

And here he is painting in his studio:

NC painting in his large studio on a hill in Chadds Hill.

I'm reading "Treasure Island" so it was great to see so many of his original paintings that were created for the book.


NC Wyeth's most famous work, is probably the paintings for "Treasure Island"

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest—Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"
—Long John Silver's familiar tune

The River Dance Boy

May 17, 2014
   Yesterday, a certain kid from Arizona brought his Zanie Zonie antics to the Lyric Auditorium in Baltimore, Maryland:

The River Dance Boy

BBB

The Kid In The Crazy Hat

May 14, 2014
    I am leaving town tomorrow to attend Thomas Charles Bell's graduation ceremony in Baltimore (he has earned his Master's Degree) on Friday. This prompted Deb Gessner driving down from Prescott Valley this morning with the Billy the Kid sculpture in progress. Ed Reilly at Bronzesmith sent me jpeg images of the work yesterday, but after a round of changes, Ed thought Deb and I would work it out faster if we were in the same place at the same time. So Deb came in after our Design Review meeting at 11 this morning to work on it. After an initial pow wow, she started revamping the face while I went next door to Janie's to order out for lunch.

 
Deb Gessner rebuilds the Kid's facial features while I eat lunch and chirp in know-it-all suggestions.

   After nailing the face (Deb got his eyes just so), we went over the enigma of his hat (so odd looking, crazy crease, distorted crown) and tried to make sense of the whole thing, giving it style, but at the same time trying to be true to the damn photograph. Not an easy thing to do:

 
Deb builds up the hat brim on the Kid's hat while I hold my breath.

 
Deb deals with the crazy crease in the Kid's lid

"Teachers may come where you don't look for them."
—Old Vaquero Saying

So, Who's Kidding Whom?

May 13, 2014
  Dan The Man came up with another PPP (proposed promotional postcard):

 
The 66 Kid will premiere on August 14, 2014 at the Powerhouse in Kingman. Go to BobBozeBell.net for more details.

   Need to get back in the patina business. You know, stuff like this:

 
Daily Whipout, "Patina #1986"

   Also working on a ride for the TV documentary. My good buddy Steve Wahl came by yesterday. He's got this cherry ride:

 
Steve Wahl's 1956 Ford

One Baby Boomer In Denial
   I have definitely turned another corner on "old." Last weekend there was an article in the Republic about a popular professor at the University of Arizona who is retiring. After talking about his quaint ways and extolling his long tenure, the article ended by saying he started teaching at the U of A way back in 1996.

   Last Friday when I was waiting in the doctor's lobby for my stress test all these old farts came in and were hobbling around and complaining about everything. I couldn't believe how old and crotchety they were. One of the oldest and feeblest lurched up to the window and the nurse asked him about his insurance and finally his birth date. He said he was born in 1949. The old fart is three years YOUNGER than me!

So Who's Kidding Whom?
"De Nile is more than a river in Egypt."
—Old Vaquero Saying

Johnny Ringo Cocktails & Southern Fried Flicks

May 12, 2014
   Had a fun weekend treating Kathy to a Mother's Day Weekend Celebration. On Friday I treated her to dinner at Cartwright's, then on Saturday we went into Scottsdale and saw the new road picture "Locke" at Camelview 5, which we both really liked (85 minutes in a car, one actor, Tom Hardy, amazing). Afterwards we went to Virtu, a hipster restaurant next to Guidon Books which John Langellier turned me on to on Friday. This time I had the Johnny Ringo Epitaph cocktail mixed up by this guy:

 
Bobby The Virtu Mixologist Mixing the Ringold Up Good

   Speaking of John Langellier and the Tempe branch of the Arizona Historical Society, they have a very large mural painted by one of my heroes:

 
A Detail from a Maynard Dixon mural at the Arizona Historical Society

   It allegedly was created to hang at the Arizona State Fair Grounds. Really a stunning piece. This is just a snippet of the left-hand corner. On Saturday morning I dropped in to Fry's on Carefree Highway to get a Mother's Day card and when I turned around I saw this:

 
True West magazine (Custer Captured, June issue), front and center IN TWO POSITIONS!

   Someone had evidently grabbed a copy of True West magazine in the upper rack and replaced it in the front rack. Behind the True West issue in the front position were 9 Cowboys & Indians. I felt bad about this, so I removed the C&Is and put them in the upper position and placed the 9 True West magazines in the front position. It was the least I could do.

   I also rented "The Baytown Outlaws" another road picture, this one a "Southern-fried" flick about some redneck siblings going up against biker mama's and a bad-ass drug dealer played by Billy Bob Thornton. It was spotty, but funny in parts, especially when the brothers go up against a Death Truck, complete with a Crow's Nest, oh, and the truck is full of black dudes with automatic weapons and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" plays on the soundtrack during the entire attack. I think you get the picture.

"We like in our writers the qualities we don't especially want in our friends—keen antennae for hypocrisy, a long memory for mistakes, a touch of cruelty."
—Sam Sacks

A Close-up of Mickey Free and Alchesay

May 10, 2014
   As I mentioned yesterday, I really enjoyed seeing a sneak preview of the forthcoming Medal of Honor Show at the Tempe branch of The Arizona Historical Society facility (90,000 square feet with two theaters!). This is one of the blow-up photographs in the exhibition:



General Crook and his White Mountain Apache Scouts at Fort Apach, this photo is from the collection of Jeremy Rowe and is a wonderful print.

   It was Crook who famously said, "Only an Apache can catch an Apache" and here was his proof. In this amazing photograph are nine Medal of Honor recipients, including the legendary Alchesay, front right:



Alchesay nay the namesake of Alchesay High School in White River (just north of Fort Apache)

   Alchesay shows up in a couple photographs, most notably with General Crook aboard his mule, Apache, at Fort Bowie. Big Al was a handsome dude and later joined the Lutheran Church at White River. I met his namesake, Arthur Alchesay Guenther, the anglo Lutheran pastor who probably had more to do with the high school being named for Big A, than anyone else. Pastor Guenther even showed me a photograph of Alchesay holding the tiny tike (Guenther). These kinds of history lessons, where you are talking to a guy who is connected directly to the guy in this photo is, well, kind of marvelous.

Meanwhile, the other incredible visage captured in this photo is this wonderful rascal:



Felix Ward AKA Mickey Free

Yes, this is non other than Felix Ward, the lad who started the longest war in US history. Kidnapped by Apaches, from his father's ranch near Patagonia on the Mexican border, the kid grew up as an Apache and joined the scouts at Camp Verde. While serving, one of the soldiers nicknamed him Mickey Free and the handle stuck.

"He was half Irish, half Mexican and all son of a bitch."
—Al Sieber, chief of scouts describing Mickey Free

Get Some Kicks On Route 66!

May 9, 2014
   I had a stress test down in Scottsdale this morning. Took four hours. I was stressed when I got out of there, although I think I passed. From 92nd and Shea Blvd, I drove down into Scottsdale and had lunch with this guy:

 
John Langellier, the director of the Arizona Historical Society in Tempe showing off a sneak preview of his forthcoming Medal of Honor Show.

   I asked Dan Harshberger to design another batch of postcards to promote the premier of "The 66 Kid". Here are a couple ideas he shot up to me this morning:

 
Harshberger postcard #1

 
Harshberger postcard idea #2

 
Harshberger postcard idea #3

 
Harshberger postcard idea #4



Harshberger postcard idea #5



Harshberger postcard idea #6

   See anything you like" Or want me to send to you?

"Get some kicks!"
—The 66 Kid

Changing Woman

May 8, 2014
   Is this where Powers Booth got his look for "Tombstone"? Or, is it just a happy accident?

 
Rattlesnake Pete or Powers Booth as Curly Bill?

   Just finished a new True West Moment on Changing Woman

 
Daily Whipout: "Changing Woman"

   Both the Apaches and the Navajos have a version of Changing Woman, a powerful diety who is the goddess of fertility and reproduction.

   I was looking for something else and found this little cloud study, looking north from my studio on Old Stage Road. That's Elephant Butte on the left and Continental Mountain on the right.

 
Daily Whipout, "Summer Clouds Over Cave Creek"

  Finishing up images for The 66 Kid documentary. Lots of great stuff to chose from, like this image:

 
Daily Whipout, "Big Sandy Cowgirl"

"It has never mattered to me that millions of people might think my opinions are wrong. The number of people who thought Hitler was right did not make him right.
—Frank Vincent Zappa

Fill it with Flite Fuel?

May 7, 2014
   Deena C. turns 34 today. She loved to play in the sand as a tooter, and she still does.



Deena C. plays in the sand I trucked in for our patio when we lived at 707 W. MacKenzie in Phoenix.

Last night Kathy and I watched another episode of Silicon Valley, the new TV show from Mike Judge. The episode was written by this guy:



T. Bell, Amy, Kathy, Carson and his date (an up and coming singer he met at the post office).

   Anyway, here's the title card at the end of the show to prove the authorship:



Not bad for a Phoenix boy. I couldn't be prouder if he was my own son.

Meanwhile, I am still shocked by the disappearance of all the old gas stations, even on old Route 66. The only one left, I saw, was the station in Truxton, which against all odds, is still in business. It even has the old rubber tubes that trigger a lube room bell when a car drives over them.



Old School Service Stations—gone but not forgotten

"Fill it with Flite Fuel, ma'am?"
—Our trained first greeting as we walked out of the office

Storm Over Wyatt Earp

May 5, 2014
      I was cleaning in the garage over the weekend and found a failed study of a certain, controversial lawman. Got up this morning and whipped it out to a finish before I came into work:

 
Daily Whipout: : "Storm Over Wyatt Earp." Alternate title: "Badges? Yes, We've Got Badges!"

   Went over to Grandma Betty's yesterday to celebrate her 90th birthday. She's still got it going on, sharp as a tack and able to blow out at least a decade of candles:

Betty Radina blows out several candles on her 90th birthday

"The ache for home lives in all of us—the safe place where we can go, as we are, and not be questioned."
—Maya Angelou

Route 66, Seligman and Kingman Where The Wind Does Blow

May 4, 2014
   A very long and productive road trip yesterday. Ken Amorosano and I took off at five, headed for Seligman and the start of the Route 66 Fun Run. We were a two-man crew shooting coverage for our documentary on "Legends of The Road: The 66 Kid."

   Got to Seligman at eight and Ken immediately started shooting some of the 900 cars cruising up and down the streets in front of the Snow Cap Drive-in:



Got plenty of footage of tricked out, souped up, bored and stroked, rat rodded, Detroit muscle rumbling back and forth on old Route 66.

Took off from Seligman at ten, shot segments and cars all the way to Kingman, including stops at Grand Canyon Caverns (Dinosaur Caverns back in my day), Truxton—where we filmed in a classic old Whiting Brothers gas station still in operation, complete with old school pumps and bell-ringer tubes. The only one I saw on the entire route. All the old style stations are gone, with some shells remaining but the pumps have all been ripped out. I also met the dude from Australia who wants to buy Truxton, or, I should say, the rest of Truxton. He already owns the motel and cafe.

Stopped at the Hackberry General Store for lunch.



Took off from there, but stopped a mile or two down the road to catch this. . .



Ken shooting two-lane blacktop near the Meadview Turnoff.

   Landed in Kingman a little after two. Interviewed a car club, The Salt River Slugs, about their cars, then stopped in to see Scott Dunton at the old Dunton Motors showroom. My father worked as a mechanic for Scott's grandfather. We taped a segment with Scott telling Billy Logas stories. Really funny stuff. From there, we went over to the old Elks to tape a segment on "Land of A Thousand Dances" and I got to stand on the spot where I had my Wipeout, six years ago. Hadn't been back since the incident. It was a little eerie, to say the least.

Legendary fist fighter, Mickey Campa came by and so Scott, Mick and I traded lies, then posed outside:



Three Big Windies: BBB, Scott Dunton and Mickey Campa.

Took Mick to dinner at Mr. D's where we shot our last segment. Went over to the Powerhouse Museum to see the space where I'll be doing a show in August (based on the book and the TV doc). Met Josh Noble, the director and we went over specs, etc. Also met and talked to Rob Chilcoat, who is doing the film festival.

Ken could not get over the wind (Does it always blow like this? No, sometimes it blows from the other direction) or the trains, which rumble through, like clockwork about every 15 minutes.

   Took off from Kingman at six and was home by nine. Long day, 15 hours on the road, but we got some good stuff, I hope.

"Kingman: home of incessant wind, constant trains and did we mention the wind?"
—Ken's proposed slogan for my hometown

The Fun Run Here We Come!

May 3, 2014
   Heading out early (5 a.m.) for Seligman and the Route 66 Fun Run. Filming all day on the run to Kingman.



The Snow Cap Drive-in in Seligman. I'll see you there.

"You'll meet a few hicks down on Route 66."
—Ray Benson's clever line take on Bobby Troup's ditty

The Long Life & Times of Roscoe Willson

May 2, 2014
   Went over to Janie's next door for lunch yesterday. Sat at the bar and looked out the open breezeway onto the saguaro studded hill behind us (True West World Headqaurters faces the same hill). Had a turkey sando, iced tea and worked on sketches. Beautiful day.

 
The view from the bar at Janie's

   Speaking of my home town, here's our hero Roscoe Willson when he was in Cave Creek:

 
Roscoe Willson in Cave Creek

   Roscoe is the guy who saved the postcard photo of the Quartzite Gunfight (it's in his massive archives down at the Polly Rosenbaum warehouse). Here is the online bio for the guy:

Roscoe G. Willson was born in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, the son of a country newspaper editor, on July 13, 1879. He finished high school at 16 and worked on his father’s newspaper, which he later published for a year.

After three years of wandering over Mexico, working on railroad construction and on coffee and rubber plantations, Willson came to Arizona in 1902 and worked at Crown King Mine in Crown King, Arizona. He did some prospecting before joining the newly organized U.S. Forest Service in 1905. During his tenure with the U.S. Forest Service in Southern Arizona, Roscoe met his wife, Maude, in 1907 and married her in January 1909. He put in 14 years with the forest service, resigning in 1919 to run sheep and work in oil fields.

In 1924, Willson and Maude opened the Arizona Specialty Company. He sold the business in 1945 to retire. He then began writing The Arizona Days and Ways column for the Sunday edition of the Arizona Republic in 1947 and continued doing so until his death on August 25, 1976 at the age of 97.

---

   And here is Roscoe when he was a Forrest Service Supervisor:

 
Roscoe Willson, Nogales, 1907

   And here's Roscoe prospecting. . .

 
Roscoe as a prospector, somewhere in Arizona

   After a long, and varied career all over the West and in Mexico, Roscoe retired in 1945, then he approached The Arizona Republic about doing a column called "Arizona Days & Ways" which he published with tales of old Arizona, usually punctuated with first person accounts, like, "The next time I was in Bisbee, i ran into Burt Mossman, the head of the Arizona Rangers, and told him of the altercation. . ." Roscoe is the guy I grew up reading in the 1950s and 1960s, and he wrote these columns until he died in 1976 at age 97! Amazing.

"He was funny because he wasn't funny, but he was always trying to be funny, and that struck me as funny."
—Angie Dickinson on Jack Warner