Here They Come Again! The Five Sisters of Shonguapavi

 October 16, 2022

   We keep thinking they're going to end, but here they come again! Massive rain clouds rolling in over Ratcliff Ridge this afternoon. 

 

  We're not complaining mind you. When it's 68 degrees at ten in the morning, you kind of go all loosey goosey with joy. On a related note, I actually wore a long-sleeved, flannel shirt for the first time since, oh, I don't know, 1998? It's been a looooong, hot spring, summer and fall and for the first time in memory, we are smiling!

   Meanwhile, been working on a couple last minute fillers for the Cascading Collage. Thought these five sisters might find a place in the mix

Daily Whip Out:

"The Five Sisters of Shonguapavi"

   And thanks to a reminder from a wonderful reader, Deborah Holland, we are going to include this fine shelf, I mean rack, I mean specimen of a woman.

"Tea Cup Sally"

"If you want happy endings, read a cookbook."

—Dean Young

Band Gigs From Hell: When Audience Members Insist On Sitting In

 October 15, 2022

   Drifting and sifting through the past with fellow musicians and bandmates is like some twisted form of TikTok meets the Twilight Zone meets The Creature From The Black Lagoon. It's unintentionally hilarious, quasi-bizarre and often as naught, extremely humiliating.

Band Gigs From Hell: When Audience Members Insist On Sitting In

Venue: Elks Hall, Kingman, Arizona

Era: 1964

Punk Upstart Drummer: "Hey, let me sit in on drums and play 'Wipeout.'"

Tinker Alvarado: "Sure, at the end of the set, come on up."

The Outcome: Punk Drummer drops a stick in the middle of the drum solo and vows to never ask to sit in again.

   A rare photo of the Punk Drummer in 1964:

Band Gig From Hell, Part II: When Audience Members Want to Sit In

Venue: The Weekender in Strawberry, Arizona

The Band: Mad Coyote Joe by Hisself

Era (last night): "Hey can I sing one, I’m really good!"

Joe Daignault: "Sure."
Girl (in tanktop): "Do you know any Joe Walsh?
Joe: "Nope."
Girl: "You know… Rocky Mountain Way!
Joe: "Yeah, I know that song, but I don’t play it."

Girl: "Do you know Joe Walsh?"
Joe: "Yeah, still don’t know it.  How about Zombie by the Cranberries?

Girl: "Yeah, I kill that tune."

Joe: "Okay" (she takes the mic and I start singing).
"Wait, I’d better get my phone." (still playing) Okay, how does it go again ( off mic I sing the line) okay you start…"
Joe: "Go ahead, it’s your show."
Girl (losing the beat and the tune): "Usually I kill this song!
Joe: (fading out on guitar) "Well, go home and practice, we’ll try again next time!"

"We're gonna take a wee wee break so the band can get ahold of themselves!"

—Typical Jay Bob & The Ramrods Stage Bantor

Let Me Tell You 'Bout My Baby, You Know She Comes Around

 October 14, 2022

   Finally got my hands on the pictures from my sit in with the Dusty Ramblers at Ed Mell's 80th birthday party last month. 

"Let me tell you 'bout my baby,

you know she comes around."

photo by Carl Schultz

The song is "Gloria" and yes, that is flippin' Nils Lofgrin, on lead guitar, at left. We rocked that joint.

Nils Lofgrin, at left, and the Boss

"She stands about five-foot-four,

from her head to the ground."

"She makes me feel so good lord, she makes me feel allright. And her name is. . .G. . . ."

—"Gloria" by Van Morrison

Phase V of The Cascading Collage

 October 13, 2022

   Spent another fine morning down at Cattletrack Arts Compound, working on Phase V of the Cascading Collage. Here are the guys who are making it happen.

The Cascading Collage Boys

(Brent Bond and Mark McDowell)

   Here's another view of another section (there are five sections) of the big opus.

Cascading Collage In The Middle

   My initial fear of it looking too much like a community bulletin board have been disolved. It is such a fun facade. And, here's another sneak peek:

  Somehow, the amber glow ties it all together, Man. 

"That rug tied the room together, man."

—The Big Lewbowski

Dan The Man And BBB Hit The Half Century Mark

 October 12, 2022

   It was fifty years ago today a retrograde graphic style hit the streets bearing what became known as the Harsh-Boze-Kingman-Kaboy visual style. You know, like this:

Razz Revue, Volume 1, Number 1

October 12, 1972

   Of course, being from Kingman, Dan Harshberger and I collaborated on a few other styles including T-shirt designs, like this:

   Yes, that's Ed Mell, second from left, and Dan the Man, far right. Believe it or not, over the years we received our fair share of fake awards.

   And, we never failed to bring attention to ourselves in a heavy-handed, yet off-putting, juvenile way.

Extremely Lame Cover Idea #47

   And this graphic partnership extended up through the millennium, when we bought a failing history magazine and Dan created a new logo and designed the first cover.

   New owners and a new direction for True West indeed! Dan has designed every cover and most of the features inside for the past 22 years (I haven't counted but that has to be at least 230 covers). In addition to the True West work, Dan has designed all of my books (a baker's dozen), including the book which arrived at my house last night at 5:30.

The latest Dan the Man book cover

hot off the press.

   So, hats off to a graphic partnership that has lasted a half century.

"Hey, Dan The Man, please don't quit your day job."

—BBB

ZZ Top Clouds & Longtime Wild West Editor Steps Down

 October 11, 2022

   Went out for a walk this morning and ran across this.

ZZ Top Clouds

Uno Yawns at Yet Another Thunderhead

"Really, you need to photograph every single one?"

   Found this a couple days ago and thought it could use some improvement.

Daily Whip Out Reworked:

"Dust Storm Rolling"

"I didn't really want to die at my desk like Bat Masterson."

—Gregory Lalire, stepping down as the editor of Wild West magazine after 33 years

When It's Deadly Hot

 October 10, 2022

   On Labor Day I walked out to the end of the driveway to retrieve our garbage container and thought to myself, "Oh, it's pretty toasty out here." As I wheeled the big garbage can back up the driveway to the garage I heard a helicopter go overhead, heading northeast towards the Spurcross Trailhead which is about two miles north of us.

The Spur Cross Trail is just over that rise

in the middle foreground. The trailhead is

on this side of Sugarloaf Butte, at right

   That evening we heard the rumor that a 24-year-old male hiker was overcome by the heat and died on the Spur Cross Hiking Trail. My first thought was of a crazy, brash kid pushing himself up the trail, showing off and then getting in trouble and becoming confused and then heatstroke set in and he died. Still, it seemed unreal.

   Turns out, it was even worse and more than a little tragic. The victim was a 32-year-old male named Evan Dishion, who was a doctor at Barrow's Institute. He and five other hikers got lost on the trail and ran out of water. I'm not sure what they were doing because that trail is very well marked.

   The national news of the tragic death led with the temperature at Sky Harbor being 117 degrees but that is slightly misleading because the airport is at 1,800 feet above sea level and we are about 35 miles north and at 2,200 feet. I would guess the temperature was maybe 110, but still, it was plenty hot.

   And, as it turns out, actually deadly hot.

A Severe Case of Rhabdomyolysis

   It starts with confusion and slurred speech and ends with seizures and loss of consciousnes. Other symptoms are muscle pain, cramping, swelling, weakness, decreased range of motion of the joints, and dark or tea colored urine. Those showing symptoms should stop the activity they’re performing, increase hydration and seek immediate medical care. In severe cases of rhabdomyolysis, hospitalization and aggressive treatment with I.V. fluids is needed to minimize kidney damage.

   All six of the hikers were hospitalized with various symptons. And to think, we were two miles away, walking around in shorts, complaining about the heat and drinking iced tea. Now that's just crazy.

"Recommended first aid measures are sitting or lying down in a cool place and hydrating after the fainting spell has passed."

—CDC guidelines for Heat Stroke

Genuine Poetry & Random Raunchiness at The Heatwave Cafe

 October 9, 2022

   When I think back on my honkytonk years from this end of the barrel, I am struck by a basic truth that I don't think I realized at the time.

Sex and loneliness is a damned potent combo.

   Maybe this is a Duh statement for you, but for me, at least, I was very oblvious to it, and, the irony is, I actually pride myself on being a good observer.

   How's that for the introduction of an unreliable narrator?

   I created The Heatwave Cafe as a catchall for those wild times I participated in at the tail end of the seventies.

My view from the Heatwave Cafe bandstand

"That's me in the spotlight, losing my religion."

—R.E.M.

Another view of my view from deeper in the lot

An Ambitious Flight of Beers

   My very ambitious attempt to capture the array of beers available at the Heatwave Cafe.

   And, of course, that Apache Beer bottle is the most rare of all the Southwestern beers.

Short-lived Beer brewed in Phoenix

by the A-1 Pilsner folks

   A couple weeks ago, I attended Ed Mell's 80th birthday party at Andaz Resort in Scottsdale. There were two bands on the premises, the always excellent Trio Rio played indoors and the always rowdy Dusty Ramblers played outside.

   Sitting in with the Ramblers was this guy (the one on the left).

Nils Lofgrin and The Boss jam out

   On the Rambler's last set, the bandleader, Mark McDowell, leaned over and said to Nils, "Do you know Gloria?" According to Mark, the legendary gitpicker, nodded in the affirmative, smiled that impish grin of his and said, simply, "In E." And as he said this, he riffed on those classic opening chords of the Spelling Bee anthem everyone who went to Mohave County Union High School from 1964-1968 knows by heart and we were off to the Frug-filled races. I sang that ancient anthem and dedicated it to my old studio mate, Edmundo Segundo. Someone took a video of it.

   Last week I was down at Cattletrack for the Cascading Collage project and Mark played the video of "Gloria" on his computer and Brent Bond, who was acting as the percussionist in the jam sat on a big box, directly behind me, beating on the box, as I slithered through my patented goofball, surf-meets-the-pony moves directly in front of him. When Brent looked at the video he laughed and said, "Nice to actually see a front view of that performance." I suddenly realized at that moment one of the biggest drawbacks to pursuing a career as a honkytonk drummer. And let this be a warning to all the kids out there who think it might be a groovy career choice.

The Honkytonk Drummer's Curse

   Spending all night, every night, staring at the wrong butts.

The view from the back

   So, I don't miss that.

"Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood."

—T.S. Eliot

The Elementary Teacher Who Took Me to School

 October 8, 2022

   It all started with a search for early photos of Carole Compton Glenn, who, as you know by now, is retiring as General Manager of True West magazine after a stellar 23-year-run. Looking at all our old photo albums I ran across this great photo, taken outside one of my favorite restaurants on the planet.

Kathy Sue at El Charro in Tucson,

early 1978.

In the same vicinity of that great photo was this gem.

Kathy Sue, Moon Mountain

Elementary School Teacher

giving me a geography lesson

   These photos led to this classic image which really nails the almost, exact moment when said elementary teacher changed my life.

Honkytonk Redemption

   That title—Honkytonk Redemption—led to Mark Fletcher asking me what the lyrics to a song with that title might be? Hmmm, how about this:

She was a teacher and I was a drummin' fool

I thought I could play her but she took me to school

—Honkytonk Redemption

Sunset Thunderhead Goes Nuclear & Honkytonk Redemption

 October 7, 2022

This is from two nights ago. Uno seems to be saying, "Would you look at that."

A sunset thunderhead goes all nuclear.

  My good friend Mort Mortinsen has written a wonderful script on the story of Sharlot Hall's search for Olive Oatman. It is fictional, of course, but most all of the characters I love are in the story, including Charles Lummis, Maynard Dixon, Barry Stapp (aka Wyatt Earp), Charles Goodnight, Charles Poston and this guy.

Daily Whip Out:

"Moon of The Mojave In Dust"

Let's ponder something else for a moment.

Honkytonk Redemption

   I played in Honkytonks for more than two decades and I saw some pretty raunchy and unseemly things. One person saved me from that scene and that is the woman in this picture.

Thanks Kathy Sue!

This photo was taken in the Tucson Barrio

in early 1978, by Julia Flannigan

"Something to do, someone to love and something to hope for."

—Ask for no other blessing

You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man

 October 6, 2022

In honor of her impending retirement, I am declaring this Carole Compton Glenn week. We will celebrate her work ethic, her magnanimous nature and her intrinsic beauty. Let's go back to the beginning in Tyler, Texas.

Carole Compton Glenn in Grade School

    Here are Carole's comments on the photo: "Yikes!  Gary Elementary (1st-6th grade school) in Tyler, Texas. It's either my 2nd or 3rd grade photo (Miss Renfro or Mrs Littlejohn, I think). Lovely old red brick two story building, probably built in the 1930's. It's still there and used, but not as a school, I don't think."

   Fast forward to the 1970s, here's Carole at the offices of KCAC, the progressive radio station in Phoenix that her brother, William Edward Compton spearheaded.

Carole Compton, at left, with KCAC crew

Carole's comments: "This photo was taken at KCAC in the old house on Camelback Road. Next to me is Bob Dunne, Felipa Kinsey (Toad's wife - before they were married) My brother Bill performed their marriage—and they also had a priest or minister marry them, I think. Then we have Troy Irvin or Irving and Gayle (girlfriend of Dave Bridges?), an ad salesman."  

And here is Carole at KDKB among the giants of that seminal and legendary radio station.

   That's Carole, top row center, and that's her legendary brother William Edward Compton, bottom row third from right, with the beard. 

And then here she is at Clantonville (actually Cave Creek, in the wash behind the Goatsucker Saloon) after we bought True West and moved it from Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Clantonville Crew, 2000

   That's Carole, second from the right, holding down the fort, literally!

   And, here she is with me, and Ken, and Dan The Man and the office crew in the last photo taken at the True West World Headquarters before we moved out in 2020.

 It's been a hell of a ride, Carole. Thanks for all your love and suport.

"I wasn't the first woman in Country music. I was just the first one to stand up there and say what I thought, what life was about. The rest were afraid to."

—Loretta Lynn (1932-2022)

Mucho Mas Monsoons Mucho Mas Caliente Mamacitas

 October 5, 2022

   We keep hearing the monsoons are over but go tell that to these clouds angling in last night over Ratcliff Ridge.

Mucho Mas Monsoon

   Every generation thinks they have the most beautiful women in the history of the world, but the Eduardians, for one, had their fair share of cuties to swoon over.

One Fine Eduardian Contemplator

   Not too shabby considering she is probably someone's great, great grandmother.

When Cowboys Are In-dins

   One of the cover stories we are considering for 2023 is a feature on these guys:

In-din Cowboys

   Many Native Americans took readily to the cowboy life since it involved one of their favorite activities, hunting on horseback.

End of An Era at True West magazine

   Gonna miss this wonderful woman who is retiring as General Manager of True West magazine after a solid 23 year run.

Carole Compton Glenn, at right,

with her mother and her brother,

William Edward Compton. 

Yes, she is wearing a Razz Revue T-shirt.

   If you Google the definition of "customer service" Carole's photo should be there. I cannot tell you how many emails and letters from subscribers began with, "Tell Carole Glenn thank you for straightening out my subscription."

   Thanks to Kathy Sue, Carole was my first hire and she always showed up and guided us through some seriously rough sledding. Thank you Carole!

"Why is it that every so often history demands a bloodbath, a holocaust, an Armageddon? And why is it that every time the time before has taught us nothing?"

—Graham Swift

Cloud Watcher & Wind Breakers & Westerns vs. Easterns

 October 4, 2022

   Storm blew through yesterday and I caught a certain watch dog, out watching.

The Cloud Watcher

   The impending storm produced a strong and crazy wind—almost tornado worthy—flipping lawn chairs across the yard and upending a portable-dog-carrying-kennel at least twenty feet from where it was placed outside the Triple B Bunkhouse.

   As every day goes by, I feel more and more like I have been blessed by the many desires in my life that were not answered. For example: when I was in my twenties, I wanted to be a rock star. So glad that didn't happen on any level.

"Most human beings have more desires than opportunities in life. Those who the gods will destroy are provided with desire and opportunity in equal measure."

—Dwight Garner, reviewing "Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain" by Charles Leerhsen

Aussie Bastard Alert!

   My good friend, the Crazy Aussie Bastard, thinks we should do this cover story.

A James B. Mills Cover Concept

   Yes, that is Jamie Foxx in "Django Unchained" and, yes, it grossed some $440 million at the box office and it is purportedly, the highest grossing Western ever. But, according to Stuart Rosebrook, it's not a true Western because it takes place in the East and, thus, he thinks it's an Eastern. When I asked Stuart if "Last of The Mohicans" is a Western, he said, "No, it's an Eastern." Stuart also believes John Wayne in "The Horse Soldiers" is not a Western, but an Eastern.

   What do you think? And more importantly, is that a future cover of True West, or not?

"Once you've been to Cambodia, you'll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands."

—Anthony Bourdain

Saying Goodbye to The Old Bison

 October 3, 2022

   We said goodbye to the Old Bison yesterday.

PAH: A Final Salute 

    Yes, that is a raven taking flight, at left.

   The Distinguished Professor Paul Andrew Hutton flew in for a memorial celebration of life for the esteemed Robert M. Utley. Kathy and I picked up Paul and his wife Tracy at Sky Harbor and brought them out to Cave Creek. Driving by Retablo on School House Road we spied a long line of iron bison sculptures lined up and I knew we had to stop and take a photo.

Death On The Trail Revisited

   One of the casualties of deadline work is not having enough time to complete a complicated vision. Case in point, here is a scene from the forthcoming book, "Hellraisers & Trailblazers: The Real Women of the Wild West" that I didn't have time to finish. This morning I added the distant wagon train leaving behind grieving mothers and wives still distraught, standing at the hasty graves of their loved ones. Believe it or not, this happened almost daily on the Oregon Trail wagon trains.

Daily Reworked Whip Out:

"The Longest Graveyard"

Blow Back On Billy Issue

   Got this yesterday: 

   "I'm reading the Billy issue of TW featuring the new book by Mills and your latest Classic Gun Fights version of the night of Billy's death, which are very different. In fact, I went back to my earliest Illustrated Billy and it differs from the 'Final Word' version too.   Most of all, in your Classic GF counter punch to Mills's version, you boldly claim. 'In my opinion the Kid was unarmed'!  (What?)

   "But in the Final Word and this issue's Classic GF, you tell how he 'slipped into her bedroom and when he heard a noise he dropped to the floor..... and like a cat slipped across the hall into Pete's Bedroom to investigate. Do you really believe that Billy the Kid would sneek into Pete's room to investigate the strangers outside the house without taking a gun or knife with him?.  I just can't see the logic in your claim of 'unarmed.'  Sounds like a BLM claim (Billy's Life Matters) 'Unarmed man gunned down by Cop!' You owe your readers an explanation of your thinking. And to top if off, a few pages later, Stuart praises the Mills book as the Billy Reference that old west scholars have been waiting for. I know one history scholar who doesn't buy Mills version of that night."

—Allen Fossenkemper

Fountain Hills, Arizona

   Short answer: I did the accepted-official version of the Kid's death in my first AND second book on Billy the Kid, but on the third and final version, I had to tell the unpleasant truth, that the Kid was shot down like a dog, unarmed. His worst fear had come true.

"Criticism is something you can easily avoid—by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing."

—Aristotle

Beep! Beep!

 October 1, 2022

   Captured this pretty nifty roadrunner cloud right out my Ford Flex window on Scottsdale Road on the way back out to Cave Creek. I swear it's absolutely unretouched. Look at those cheekbones!

Beep! Beep! 

   And, yes, I realize it could also be the legendary rogue camel—Red Ghost:

Daily Whip Out: "Red Ghost"

   The reason I was on Scottsdale Road this morning is I motored down to Cattletrack for Phase III of the Cascading Collage Project.

Cattletrack Crew Phase III

Penelope (a renegade bank teller), Brent and Mark

   Dang, they are doing the coolest stuff, combining my artwork, both scratchboard and gouache pieces, on a cascading grid. Notice how the boards at the bottom are coming right off of the matt. So cool. Here's the view looking the other way.

Cascading Collage In Progress

   My biggest concern has been that it will look like a community bulletin board, but it's starting to breath and move. I need to paint over these sections to unify all the images and I predict people are going to spend some quality time gazing at this monster when it's up on the wall in the museum.

"My hands do the thinking. It is not a conscious process."

—Cormac McCarthy describing his method of writing