October 11, 2005
Drove down into the Beast on auto-pilot at six this morning. Same place, same time: 7:30, Clear Channel Radio Headquarters, only this time I landed two doors south of Tim and Willy’s at Beth and Bill’s Radio Show on KEZ (99.9 FM). This time out I really got to rock. They aren’t as restricted as Tim and Willy and Beth let me off the leash and I ran for 35 minutes! Wow! That was fun and I really got in some fun bits, with great laughs. Of course we had some great material. One of the morning crew, Marty Manning used to date Kathy so we had fun with that. Sam said the interview appearance set off the phones and we got several orders and subscriptions from people listening to the show.
Got out of there at 8:15 and drove over to Sky Harbor to transfer a ticket to Thomas Charles, who is flying in from New York City on Friday. We bought the ticket with my credit card but you have to go down in person to transfer the ticket. You can’t buy a ticket for someone else, lest you pull an Atta Boy into the World Trade Center. So I had to wade through the worst airline terminal mess in the country and from the wrong end! I swear, Sky Harbor has the worst signage of any place, airport or not, that I’ve ever been. And I’ve been going there for years and it doesn't get any easier. In fact, the roads are all corkscrewed with really awful, misleading signs. For example, as you come in off the 202 on the east end, the road Ys and the main road says “Return Rental Car” and nothing else, even though it’s the main road past all the terminals. There must have been a thousand skid marks in front of this as no doubt a thousand cars have veered off, afraid they had missed the road to their terminal.
After that mess, I veered downtown and had huevos rancheros at the Matador ($10 cash, includes tip). Got waited on by a male impersonator. Actually a male who must do female impersonating at night. Or, he might just be a flaming Young Republican who impersonates Ann Coulter, what do I know?
Stopped at Dan Harshberger’s and gave him his copies of Blaze Away! and talked about a quarterly we want to do. From there I drove out to the office, getting back here at ten. Had several meetings about circulation, the quarterly and special events. We need to cut more radio spots for Pro Rodeo Radio. The New York Times is poaching one of our ideas. More on that tomorrow.
I’ve got a speech tonight for the Western Art Associates of the Phoenix Art Museum at a house in Paradise Valley. It’s a pre-party for the guys who help put on the annual Cowboy Artists Show, which opens this week. I was interviewed at length yesterday by a Republic reporter on the significance of the show. A woman is picketing the show this year for not having any female artists in the group and it’s being held in the Phoenix Art Museum which is a public facility. Ironically, someone told me the woman who is suing is a writer in a woman’s group that doesn’t allow men. ha. The world is so funny, I can’t top that. God is the big dog comedian, although sometimes his humor is too rough for human ears.
Got a call from Harold Jayne in Drybrook, Gloshire England yesterday. He loves the magazine and wants to buy a True West calendar. I tried to tell him we are planning one, but it won’t be ready until next year, but he kept saying, “Good, send it to me lad.” So I gave up and told him we’d send it.
“Believe that you have it, and you have it.”
—Old Vaquero Saying
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Monday, October 10, 2005
Sunday, October 09, 2005
October 9, 2005
This morning’s Arizona Republic held a nice surprise. The Viewpoints editor, Phil Boas, led with my History of Violence piece on the front page of the Viewpoints section. It’s actually a rebuttal to a column that ran this past summer on the “myth of violence” in the Old West. My scratchboard of the Hamlet inspired Ranger holding the sombrero-clad skull and pointing a pistol at it, is quite humungous. A very nice editorial plug for the magazine and the artshow still hanging up at Cowboy Legacy Gallery in Carefree is included. Dan Buck and Mark Boardman were quite helpful in getting the inside skinny on the author’s dubious claims.
If you’d like to see the piece it’s at viewponts.azcentral.com
And speaking of scratchboard, here’s the final three images documenting the progression from total blackness to some semblance of Chief of Scouts Al Sieber’s visage. One of the tricks I’ve learned is to feather in the mid-tones with the sharp point tool, then get bolder with the mutli-toothed wire brush, and then for full-on high-lights, use the brush hook (sorry, I don’t know what these individual tools are called and this is an old surveying axe-like tool term we used when I was a rear chainman in the 1970s). The brush hook, when used properly, clears out dramatic whites for a bold emphasis.
Yesterday morning I drove down into the Beast to see The Last Mogul at the Fifth Annual Scottsdale Film Festival. It’s a documentary on Lew Wasserman, the agent turned movie mogul who was a dominating force in the entire entertainment biz, raking in fees with rumored mob-tinged percentages for a good half century (he died in 2002). It was quite good, but the doc tried to paint him as somehow tragic, fragile and unfairly dethroned at the end but it’s hard to feel sorry for a guy who made hundreds of millions of dollars in a fifty year career, then sold out to the Japanese for billions, with Lew’s personal take-home check a cool $300 million. The doc showed Suzanne Pleschette and others crying, so this diminished clout evidently passes as human suffering in Beverly Hills.
After that film I went outside, met the girls, Deena and Kathy, and got in line to see the next film, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Wow! I really liked this film. It’s about two young intellectuals who are sent to the Chinese countryside for “re-education” during the Cultural Revolution in the early 1970s. The title refers to the two boys stealing a trove of “forbidden” books, including Balzac and Victor Hugo and educating the beautiful, but ignorant rural seamstress, who is a teenaged naive peasant. Of course both boys fall in love with her, but the enlightenment and influences from the reading of the books does not result in the effect the boys expected, nor does the film follow a typical Hollywood plot point of expanded love with a happy ending (see today’s quote, below). The “postlude” is both painful and truthful. We had ballots and I gave the film five stars. It is wonderful.
Afterwards we drove over to Grand L’Orange (or is it L’Orange de Grande?) for lunch. Big pizza-deli deal at 40th Street and Campbell. Nice talking to the girls. Had a BLT with guacamole and an iced coffee ($27 cash, I paid. deli-style counter service, but no tip for you! service was awful).
We going back down today to see Machuca, a Chilean film.
“Great writers are always evil influences; second-rate writers are not wicked enough to become great.”
—George Bernard Shaw
?
This morning’s Arizona Republic held a nice surprise. The Viewpoints editor, Phil Boas, led with my History of Violence piece on the front page of the Viewpoints section. It’s actually a rebuttal to a column that ran this past summer on the “myth of violence” in the Old West. My scratchboard of the Hamlet inspired Ranger holding the sombrero-clad skull and pointing a pistol at it, is quite humungous. A very nice editorial plug for the magazine and the artshow still hanging up at Cowboy Legacy Gallery in Carefree is included. Dan Buck and Mark Boardman were quite helpful in getting the inside skinny on the author’s dubious claims.If you’d like to see the piece it’s at viewponts.azcentral.com
And speaking of scratchboard, here’s the final three images documenting the progression from total blackness to some semblance of Chief of Scouts Al Sieber’s visage. One of the tricks I’ve learned is to feather in the mid-tones with the sharp point tool, then get bolder with the mutli-toothed wire brush, and then for full-on high-lights, use the brush hook (sorry, I don’t know what these individual tools are called and this is an old surveying axe-like tool term we used when I was a rear chainman in the 1970s). The brush hook, when used properly, clears out dramatic whites for a bold emphasis.Yesterday morning I drove down into the Beast to see The Last Mogul at the Fifth Annual Scottsdale Film Festival. It’s a documentary on Lew Wasserman, the agent turned movie mogul who was a dominating force in the entire entertainment biz, raking in fees with rumored mob-tinged percentages for a good half century (he died in 2002). It was quite good, but the doc tried to paint him as somehow tragic, fragile and unfairly dethroned at the end but it’s hard to feel sorry for a guy who made hundreds of millions of dollars in a fifty year career, then sold out to the Japanese for billions, with Lew’s personal take-home check a cool $300 million. The doc showed Suzanne Pleschette and others crying, so this diminished clout evidently passes as human suffering in Beverly Hills.
After that film I went outside, met the girls, Deena and Kathy, and got in line to see the next film, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Wow! I really liked this film. It’s about two young intellectuals who are sent to the Chinese countryside for “re-education” during the Cultural Revolution in the early 1970s. The title refers to the two boys stealing a trove of “forbidden” books, including Balzac and Victor Hugo and educating the beautiful, but ignorant rural seamstress, who is a teenaged naive peasant. Of course both boys fall in love with her, but the enlightenment and influences from the reading of the books does not result in the effect the boys expected, nor does the film follow a typical Hollywood plot point of expanded love with a happy ending (see today’s quote, below). The “postlude” is both painful and truthful. We had ballots and I gave the film five stars. It is wonderful.Afterwards we drove over to Grand L’Orange (or is it L’Orange de Grande?) for lunch. Big pizza-deli deal at 40th Street and Campbell. Nice talking to the girls. Had a BLT with guacamole and an iced coffee ($27 cash, I paid. deli-style counter service, but no tip for you! service was awful).
We going back down today to see Machuca, a Chilean film.
“Great writers are always evil influences; second-rate writers are not wicked enough to become great.”
—George Bernard Shaw
?
Saturday, October 08, 2005
October 8, 2005
In April of 1995 I attended End of Trail in Corona, California (just south of San Berdoo). At that time I had three Old West books out, my Billy the Kid book (1992), Wyatt Earp (1993) and Doc Holliday (1994). Tri Star, my publisher, had rented a booth space and I was there at the big Western festival to hawk my books and artwork.
On the last day of the show, a gentleman came up to the booth and said, “I’ll bet you get accused of doing scratchboard, don’t you?” He was right. Although I had heard of the technique I had never tried it, or even knew where to find the materials to do it, or how to even go about it. No artist I knew ever used the medium, but would often get comments from artists types assuming I was utilizing scratchboard. The guy told me he was an art teacher at Long Beach State and that if I wanted to try it I should buy only Essdee Scratchboard from England and Pelican Ink #14. I wrote this down in my daytimer and made a mental note to see if I could find such exotic art supplies in the desert.
When I got back to the Valley I called around and after numerous dead-ends finally located the English import at Arizona Art Supply deep down in the Beast. I bought about six boards (at $22 a sheet!) and a set of tools, basically knives of various widths, to scratch with and came home to try it out. Of course I was pretty bad, but I did have a knack for crosshatching (which is why so many thought I was doing scratchboard) and that helped some. The main thing is you have to think in reverse. You take away the mid tones and what you leave is the black lines. Just the opposite of pen and ink renderings. It’s quite a mind game and takes some getting used to. Needless to say, I ruined more than several boards trying to get the hang of it, but as I kept scratching I eventually stumbled onto some decent effects.
That was ten years ago. At my art show opening last week I must have had a half dozen people (most of them artists themselves) ask me what scratchboard is and how do I do it. I have about 35 scratchboards in the show and there are over 150 in the book, Blaze Away!
Yesterday, I had Abby Pearson come into my office and document the genesis and stages of an image I want to do in my forthcoming story on Mickey Free. One of the main characters is Al Sieber, the chief of scouts under General Crook and others. There is a great photo of him with a scowl on his face, hat in hand and covered in buckskin.
Having that reference material at hand, I started with the fine point scratcher and blocked in the face. Someone told me that the scratchboard process is quite ancient and involves clay coated board with the ink on top of it, which facilitates cleaner scratching.
I have tried other cheaper boards and they flake off erratically. Only Essdee has the clean lines I like. Tomorrow I’ll show you the end results of all my chicken scratching.
“Art is a paradox: if you want to master it, you must become its slave.”
—Old Vaquero Saying
r
In April of 1995 I attended End of Trail in Corona, California (just south of San Berdoo). At that time I had three Old West books out, my Billy the Kid book (1992), Wyatt Earp (1993) and Doc Holliday (1994). Tri Star, my publisher, had rented a booth space and I was there at the big Western festival to hawk my books and artwork.On the last day of the show, a gentleman came up to the booth and said, “I’ll bet you get accused of doing scratchboard, don’t you?” He was right. Although I had heard of the technique I had never tried it, or even knew where to find the materials to do it, or how to even go about it. No artist I knew ever used the medium, but would often get comments from artists types assuming I was utilizing scratchboard. The guy told me he was an art teacher at Long Beach State and that if I wanted to try it I should buy only Essdee Scratchboard from England and Pelican Ink #14. I wrote this down in my daytimer and made a mental note to see if I could find such exotic art supplies in the desert.
When I got back to the Valley I called around and after numerous dead-ends finally located the English import at Arizona Art Supply deep down in the Beast. I bought about six boards (at $22 a sheet!) and a set of tools, basically knives of various widths, to scratch with and came home to try it out. Of course I was pretty bad, but I did have a knack for crosshatching (which is why so many thought I was doing scratchboard) and that helped some. The main thing is you have to think in reverse. You take away the mid tones and what you leave is the black lines. Just the opposite of pen and ink renderings. It’s quite a mind game and takes some getting used to. Needless to say, I ruined more than several boards trying to get the hang of it, but as I kept scratching I eventually stumbled onto some decent effects.That was ten years ago. At my art show opening last week I must have had a half dozen people (most of them artists themselves) ask me what scratchboard is and how do I do it. I have about 35 scratchboards in the show and there are over 150 in the book, Blaze Away!
Yesterday, I had Abby Pearson come into my office and document the genesis and stages of an image I want to do in my forthcoming story on Mickey Free. One of the main characters is Al Sieber, the chief of scouts under General Crook and others. There is a great photo of him with a scowl on his face, hat in hand and covered in buckskin.Having that reference material at hand, I started with the fine point scratcher and blocked in the face. Someone told me that the scratchboard process is quite ancient and involves clay coated board with the ink on top of it, which facilitates cleaner scratching.
I have tried other cheaper boards and they flake off erratically. Only Essdee has the clean lines I like. Tomorrow I’ll show you the end results of all my chicken scratching.
“Art is a paradox: if you want to master it, you must become its slave.”
—Old Vaquero Saying
r
Friday, October 07, 2005
October 7 , 2005
Kathy and I were supposed to be in Roundtop, Texas this week for the big Old West Show we are co-sponsoring, but I had to cancel when Melrose resigned on Monday. I needed to stay close to home and mind the store. Anyway, Kathy had already rescheduled all of her clients so she still had Wednesday thru today off, and she has taken to calling this “vacation time.” It’s funny how much our attitude could be affected by such a simple phrase, but last night Kathy asked me if I would bar-b-que some hamburgers and my first thought was, “I’m tired, I don’t want to do anything, I’ve been at work all day.” But, I quickly realized if I was in Roundtop I’d be chomping at the bit to do something fun in a new place. So my actual response became, “Hey, we’re on vacation, I’ll light up the grill in our rented cabana.” And as I sipped some cabernet wine and looked out over the back fence at the saguaros, the cave and the creek, I remarked to Kath when she came out to join me, “Man, what a great view. I think we’ll come back here.” Although, next time I don’t think I’d rent the hat-eating dog.
“Boze, I must have missed something. What in the heck is a Charrette? (It is not in the dictionary.)”
—Leon Metz
Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, Leon. I didn't know what it was either until we did the saving Tombstone article and the planning company kept throwing the word around and I finally asked, "What the hell is a charrette?" They told me that a charrette is a fancy, French term for compiling papers for a study. Supposedly, the word comes from the French word for “cart” and refers to the cart that came to collect the architectural works of architectural students in Paris (circa 1869 to 1930). The word came to mean the harried period in which a student’s final drawings were completed.
More Tombstone feedback:
“To hell with Tombstone! You are giving them unappreciated FREE advertising. You and I know the rule. Good, Bad, Ugly, it's all great advertising. I wish you would have written something bad about the bookstore when I owned it. I would have thanked you!”
—Bookcrazy Deb
“I don't get it. I mean, I'm just mystified. I assume it's because you are just a few hours away from them, but obviously they look on the magazine as an extension of their Chamber of Commerce. No, that's not even right; the Chamber in Tombstone is full of quarreling factions who can't agree on how to promote the town. I wonder if it's like this in Deadwood?”
—Wordsmith Bill
“I can walk into most stores in Santa Fe, even art galleries where I can't afford a post card, and generally I get treated with courtesy (mainly because, this being Santa Fe, a guy dressed like a bum could in fact be as rich as Bill Gates). I go into most (but not all) businesses in Tombstone, and they act like they don't want to make a buck, don't want you in their store.”
—Santa Fe Savvy Man
“Tombstone is finally under scrutiny for failure to apply certain standards expected of them in exchange for the perks of being a Historic Town (easier access to federal grants, etc). So what are the Tombstone ‘elite’ doing about this? They are striking out at the people shining the light on the situation. Some of them will try to sidestep the issue of their personal & professional responsibility in the matter by slinging negative attention onto others. Why did these local experts allow this longterm movement away from historic to happen while they sat on their hands? Maybe because more tourists means more book sales?”
—Terry Jo Neff
Took the dogs for a bike run this morning. Very pretty out. Weather and scenery is just gorgeous. Even though we do this twice a day, every day, Buddy Boze Hatkiller lopes and prances up the road like we are exploring new country for the very first time. Paraphrasing Ray Bradbury: every day is a vacation day to a dog.
“Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear.”
—Dave Barry
Kathy and I were supposed to be in Roundtop, Texas this week for the big Old West Show we are co-sponsoring, but I had to cancel when Melrose resigned on Monday. I needed to stay close to home and mind the store. Anyway, Kathy had already rescheduled all of her clients so she still had Wednesday thru today off, and she has taken to calling this “vacation time.” It’s funny how much our attitude could be affected by such a simple phrase, but last night Kathy asked me if I would bar-b-que some hamburgers and my first thought was, “I’m tired, I don’t want to do anything, I’ve been at work all day.” But, I quickly realized if I was in Roundtop I’d be chomping at the bit to do something fun in a new place. So my actual response became, “Hey, we’re on vacation, I’ll light up the grill in our rented cabana.” And as I sipped some cabernet wine and looked out over the back fence at the saguaros, the cave and the creek, I remarked to Kath when she came out to join me, “Man, what a great view. I think we’ll come back here.” Although, next time I don’t think I’d rent the hat-eating dog.
“Boze, I must have missed something. What in the heck is a Charrette? (It is not in the dictionary.)”
—Leon Metz
Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, Leon. I didn't know what it was either until we did the saving Tombstone article and the planning company kept throwing the word around and I finally asked, "What the hell is a charrette?" They told me that a charrette is a fancy, French term for compiling papers for a study. Supposedly, the word comes from the French word for “cart” and refers to the cart that came to collect the architectural works of architectural students in Paris (circa 1869 to 1930). The word came to mean the harried period in which a student’s final drawings were completed.
More Tombstone feedback:
“To hell with Tombstone! You are giving them unappreciated FREE advertising. You and I know the rule. Good, Bad, Ugly, it's all great advertising. I wish you would have written something bad about the bookstore when I owned it. I would have thanked you!”
—Bookcrazy Deb
“I don't get it. I mean, I'm just mystified. I assume it's because you are just a few hours away from them, but obviously they look on the magazine as an extension of their Chamber of Commerce. No, that's not even right; the Chamber in Tombstone is full of quarreling factions who can't agree on how to promote the town. I wonder if it's like this in Deadwood?”
—Wordsmith Bill
“I can walk into most stores in Santa Fe, even art galleries where I can't afford a post card, and generally I get treated with courtesy (mainly because, this being Santa Fe, a guy dressed like a bum could in fact be as rich as Bill Gates). I go into most (but not all) businesses in Tombstone, and they act like they don't want to make a buck, don't want you in their store.”
—Santa Fe Savvy Man
“Tombstone is finally under scrutiny for failure to apply certain standards expected of them in exchange for the perks of being a Historic Town (easier access to federal grants, etc). So what are the Tombstone ‘elite’ doing about this? They are striking out at the people shining the light on the situation. Some of them will try to sidestep the issue of their personal & professional responsibility in the matter by slinging negative attention onto others. Why did these local experts allow this longterm movement away from historic to happen while they sat on their hands? Maybe because more tourists means more book sales?”
—Terry Jo Neff
Took the dogs for a bike run this morning. Very pretty out. Weather and scenery is just gorgeous. Even though we do this twice a day, every day, Buddy Boze Hatkiller lopes and prances up the road like we are exploring new country for the very first time. Paraphrasing Ray Bradbury: every day is a vacation day to a dog.
“Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear.”
—Dave Barry
Thursday, October 06, 2005
October 6 , 2005
Evidently many in Tombstone feel we “trashed” their town with our October issue. A cover story in the Tombstone Tumbleweed rakes us across the coals for what they deem biased coverage. This is also the article that includes the Ben Traywick quote where he says I’m so perfect. If you’d like to check it out it’s at:
www.tombstonetumbleweed.com
You’ll need to click on PDF Files (in the left-hand corner) and then on September 29.
I wasn’t going to respond but Bob Brink insisted, saying, “You can’t let this go by and not remind people down there how much coverage you have given that town.” So, here is my letter to the editor of the Tumbleweed:
Having read your coverage regarding True West magazine’s cover story on the recent Charrette please allow me to correct several misconceptions:
• Our October issue with Wyatt on the cover went to press prior to the Charrette. We interviewed the two principals, Dr. John McIntosh and Bob Frankeberger, so we could present their plans to our readers. Since we knew the issue would be out around the time of the charrette presentation, we asked guest editors and others to comment on what Tombstone could do to present itself better. We then sent our features editor, Mark Boardman, to the meeting, for an upcoming piece on the town’s progress. We are also looking for feedback from locals for this article.
• No other national magazine has given Tombstone as much coverage as True West has in the past six years. In fact, I get criticized constantly by our readers for giving too much coverage to Wyatt Earp and Tombstone. We have just finished a two-year series on the gunfights behind the O.K. Corral with many never before published images and rare source material from Tucson historian Neil Carmony who oversaw the entire project. To dismiss this painstaking coverage as “[BBB’s] history of Tombstone is what he wishes it was, not what it really was” is petty and unwarranted. Mr. Carmony, who is known for his no-nonsense research, deserves better than this.
• Our newest book, “Blaze Away! The 25 Gunfights Behind the O.K. Corral” showcases all of this hard work, and is in effect a valentine to the town. Released on September 30th and featuring 236 original illustrations and paintings, plus many original photos from the collection of Robert McCubbin, this book is going to bring more positive attention and tourists to Tombstone.
Sincerely,
Bob Boze Bell
Executive Editor, True West magazine
I finished two articles today and a scratchboard of Lynx Lake. Samantha ordered out for Subway and we all pitched in $5 bucks and had a noontime feed. Lots of fun talking about the old days at Clantonville. Carole laughed until she cried telling us about the pack rats and stinky conditions (or was she just crying?). That was fun. We may do this once a month.
“Where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.”
—Rabindrannath Tagore
Evidently many in Tombstone feel we “trashed” their town with our October issue. A cover story in the Tombstone Tumbleweed rakes us across the coals for what they deem biased coverage. This is also the article that includes the Ben Traywick quote where he says I’m so perfect. If you’d like to check it out it’s at:
www.tombstonetumbleweed.com
You’ll need to click on PDF Files (in the left-hand corner) and then on September 29.
I wasn’t going to respond but Bob Brink insisted, saying, “You can’t let this go by and not remind people down there how much coverage you have given that town.” So, here is my letter to the editor of the Tumbleweed:
Having read your coverage regarding True West magazine’s cover story on the recent Charrette please allow me to correct several misconceptions:
• Our October issue with Wyatt on the cover went to press prior to the Charrette. We interviewed the two principals, Dr. John McIntosh and Bob Frankeberger, so we could present their plans to our readers. Since we knew the issue would be out around the time of the charrette presentation, we asked guest editors and others to comment on what Tombstone could do to present itself better. We then sent our features editor, Mark Boardman, to the meeting, for an upcoming piece on the town’s progress. We are also looking for feedback from locals for this article.
• No other national magazine has given Tombstone as much coverage as True West has in the past six years. In fact, I get criticized constantly by our readers for giving too much coverage to Wyatt Earp and Tombstone. We have just finished a two-year series on the gunfights behind the O.K. Corral with many never before published images and rare source material from Tucson historian Neil Carmony who oversaw the entire project. To dismiss this painstaking coverage as “[BBB’s] history of Tombstone is what he wishes it was, not what it really was” is petty and unwarranted. Mr. Carmony, who is known for his no-nonsense research, deserves better than this.
• Our newest book, “Blaze Away! The 25 Gunfights Behind the O.K. Corral” showcases all of this hard work, and is in effect a valentine to the town. Released on September 30th and featuring 236 original illustrations and paintings, plus many original photos from the collection of Robert McCubbin, this book is going to bring more positive attention and tourists to Tombstone.
Sincerely,
Bob Boze Bell
Executive Editor, True West magazine
I finished two articles today and a scratchboard of Lynx Lake. Samantha ordered out for Subway and we all pitched in $5 bucks and had a noontime feed. Lots of fun talking about the old days at Clantonville. Carole laughed until she cried telling us about the pack rats and stinky conditions (or was she just crying?). That was fun. We may do this once a month.
“Where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.”
—Rabindrannath Tagore
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
October 5 , 2005
I got an Email yesterday from an ex-Wickenburg guy who now lives in Italy and misses the Doperoper. Ha. It’s true. He moved over there about 18 years ago and misses the grit and 1950s feel of my cartoon character who roped dopers for fun and appeared in the Razz Revue. I’m going to send him the first Honkytonk Sue comic which has an episode starring the D-R called “Jackpot Roping” (get it?). Hey, it was 1974, Man.
One final note on the airtight discussion:
“The gentleman who said that Ben Johnson was the one who used the term ‘airtights’ is to be commended. As I ran the film Chisum again to cling to every word Johnson might mumble or say, sure enough, he does use that word. Can't figure out how I could have missed it and never even noticed it before. The scene is as follows: John Wayne is lying on a hammock on his front porch, and his niece in the film asks when Duke's men will return from Santa Fe. And there's Big Ben Johnson sittin' in a rocker, replying, ‘They better get here sooner than later. We're running low on grub. We're short on sugar, flour, airtights and everything else.’”
—Ed, WILDEST WESTERNS Magazine
Samantha is so amazing. We had a woman come in our office looking for a birthday gift for her hubby (we haven’t really had a story for a month or two) and she ended up buying almost $600 worth of stuff, including a $200 collector’s edition of Doc Holliday (December, True West, 2001), all the t-shirts, a Blaze Away! book, and a Maniac membership. Women control the buying of almost everything, with the possible exception of porn. Ha.
Whipped out an illustration for a piece I wrote for The Arizona Republic. I was inspired by a grisly Texas Rangers photo that appears in a new book on the Rangers and the Mexican Revolution, showing a Ranger named Jack Webb, holding a skull with a cowboy hat on, and he’s pointing a gun at the head in a Shakespeare-MacBeth kind of way. It’s going to run this next Sunday.
In a delayed reaction to my press release, Beth and Bill have invited me to appear on their popular radio show next Tueday on KEZ (99.9 FM). Their studio is two or three doors down from Tim and Willys. Funny.
I received a strange package from Hong Kong recently and after I asked production if they wanted to open it, I found four books inside. There was no cover letter but we assumed it was a printing company sending us the books so we could see their printing quality and hopefully send them some business. For some reason I was very intrigued by the books. I am a firm believer in the idea that the Universe is trying to help us and I took the books home to study them. One of the books was basically the Bruce Lee family album. You know, the karate legendary guy who died mysteriously, then his son followed suite (killed by an errant squib?). Lee’s family lived in Hong Kong so that made some sense. Out of this book I was inspired by the names (they call it Gung Fu over there, not Kung Fu) and came up with a possible name for a Chinese gunfighter I’m thinking of doing: Loong Gung. Either that or Wan Hung Lo (as in his holster).
Another book had incredible lithos from 1839 of Egypt and they are stunning and I have thoroughly enjoyed using it as art reference for my desert paintings. Last Saturday I bought a big old book called Beatles Diary at Barnes & Noble ($3.50!) which has by date every gig the Beatles ever played, including the August 20, 1964 concert at the Convention Center in Las Vegas where I saw them. The Fab Four really went into a bizarre zone of celebrity with all the frenzy that ended with John’s death, by a fan. It’s all so incomprehensible. He’s in a rock band and you want to kill him? What’s with that?
Ironically the last book was the dumbest by far but had the biggest payoff. It was a photo book of Hawaiian Legends and had stills from some hokey educational films, including the Legend of Boyhood of Kamehameha, whatever that is. The book was so stupid I forced myself to read the whole thing because I knew the Universe might be hiding some kernel of truth or contain some key that just might unlock the door. Here’s an example of dialogue: “Wiki had placed Pele’s fire into the hau tree so Mokea no longer needed to journey to the distant volcano to light his Fire Stick.
And then, two thirds in, I found it. This is what it said: “Captain James Cook chanced upon Hawaii Island in 1778. The Islanders, believing him to be their god Lono, honored him but, finding him mortal, killed him.”
That one paragraph, explains the Beatles, Ghandi and every celebrity who ever walked the earth.
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance—it is the illusion of knowledge.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin
I got an Email yesterday from an ex-Wickenburg guy who now lives in Italy and misses the Doperoper. Ha. It’s true. He moved over there about 18 years ago and misses the grit and 1950s feel of my cartoon character who roped dopers for fun and appeared in the Razz Revue. I’m going to send him the first Honkytonk Sue comic which has an episode starring the D-R called “Jackpot Roping” (get it?). Hey, it was 1974, Man.
One final note on the airtight discussion:
“The gentleman who said that Ben Johnson was the one who used the term ‘airtights’ is to be commended. As I ran the film Chisum again to cling to every word Johnson might mumble or say, sure enough, he does use that word. Can't figure out how I could have missed it and never even noticed it before. The scene is as follows: John Wayne is lying on a hammock on his front porch, and his niece in the film asks when Duke's men will return from Santa Fe. And there's Big Ben Johnson sittin' in a rocker, replying, ‘They better get here sooner than later. We're running low on grub. We're short on sugar, flour, airtights and everything else.’”
—Ed, WILDEST WESTERNS Magazine
Samantha is so amazing. We had a woman come in our office looking for a birthday gift for her hubby (we haven’t really had a story for a month or two) and she ended up buying almost $600 worth of stuff, including a $200 collector’s edition of Doc Holliday (December, True West, 2001), all the t-shirts, a Blaze Away! book, and a Maniac membership. Women control the buying of almost everything, with the possible exception of porn. Ha.
Whipped out an illustration for a piece I wrote for The Arizona Republic. I was inspired by a grisly Texas Rangers photo that appears in a new book on the Rangers and the Mexican Revolution, showing a Ranger named Jack Webb, holding a skull with a cowboy hat on, and he’s pointing a gun at the head in a Shakespeare-MacBeth kind of way. It’s going to run this next Sunday.
In a delayed reaction to my press release, Beth and Bill have invited me to appear on their popular radio show next Tueday on KEZ (99.9 FM). Their studio is two or three doors down from Tim and Willys. Funny.
I received a strange package from Hong Kong recently and after I asked production if they wanted to open it, I found four books inside. There was no cover letter but we assumed it was a printing company sending us the books so we could see their printing quality and hopefully send them some business. For some reason I was very intrigued by the books. I am a firm believer in the idea that the Universe is trying to help us and I took the books home to study them. One of the books was basically the Bruce Lee family album. You know, the karate legendary guy who died mysteriously, then his son followed suite (killed by an errant squib?). Lee’s family lived in Hong Kong so that made some sense. Out of this book I was inspired by the names (they call it Gung Fu over there, not Kung Fu) and came up with a possible name for a Chinese gunfighter I’m thinking of doing: Loong Gung. Either that or Wan Hung Lo (as in his holster).
Another book had incredible lithos from 1839 of Egypt and they are stunning and I have thoroughly enjoyed using it as art reference for my desert paintings. Last Saturday I bought a big old book called Beatles Diary at Barnes & Noble ($3.50!) which has by date every gig the Beatles ever played, including the August 20, 1964 concert at the Convention Center in Las Vegas where I saw them. The Fab Four really went into a bizarre zone of celebrity with all the frenzy that ended with John’s death, by a fan. It’s all so incomprehensible. He’s in a rock band and you want to kill him? What’s with that?
Ironically the last book was the dumbest by far but had the biggest payoff. It was a photo book of Hawaiian Legends and had stills from some hokey educational films, including the Legend of Boyhood of Kamehameha, whatever that is. The book was so stupid I forced myself to read the whole thing because I knew the Universe might be hiding some kernel of truth or contain some key that just might unlock the door. Here’s an example of dialogue: “Wiki had placed Pele’s fire into the hau tree so Mokea no longer needed to journey to the distant volcano to light his Fire Stick.
And then, two thirds in, I found it. This is what it said: “Captain James Cook chanced upon Hawaii Island in 1778. The Islanders, believing him to be their god Lono, honored him but, finding him mortal, killed him.”
That one paragraph, explains the Beatles, Ghandi and every celebrity who ever walked the earth.
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance—it is the illusion of knowledge.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
October 4 , 2005
I got some funny and poignant responses to the “Ben feud” from yesterday’s post. Here’s my favorite:
“It seems to me that to be perfect at anything is quite an
accomplishment in this day and age. Congratulations!”
—Paul Andrew Hutton
As for the two photographs from the artshow opening, the top one is of me with my friends at Armstrong-Prior, on right is Alexis (the platemaker who helped create the chine colle that led to the poster) and on the left is Joan Prior, wife of artist John Armstrong. In the second photo are three of my favorite employees, Sue Lambert, Meghan Saar and Abby Pearson all dressed up and having fun.
Mike Melrose has resigned as general sales manager. He came in last night and told me it was time for him to move on. At first I was stunned and tried to get him to stay but after talking to him for a while, I realized he was right. He has been with us for five years and I’ll miss his daily, zany antics. Mike gave us credibility when we had very little. I wish him the best.
“Unless both sides can win, no agreement can be permanent.”
—Jimmy Carter
I got some funny and poignant responses to the “Ben feud” from yesterday’s post. Here’s my favorite:
“It seems to me that to be perfect at anything is quite an
accomplishment in this day and age. Congratulations!”
—Paul Andrew Hutton
As for the two photographs from the artshow opening, the top one is of me with my friends at Armstrong-Prior, on right is Alexis (the platemaker who helped create the chine colle that led to the poster) and on the left is Joan Prior, wife of artist John Armstrong. In the second photo are three of my favorite employees, Sue Lambert, Meghan Saar and Abby Pearson all dressed up and having fun.
Mike Melrose has resigned as general sales manager. He came in last night and told me it was time for him to move on. At first I was stunned and tried to get him to stay but after talking to him for a while, I realized he was right. He has been with us for five years and I’ll miss his daily, zany antics. Mike gave us credibility when we had very little. I wish him the best.
“Unless both sides can win, no agreement can be permanent.”
—Jimmy Carter
Monday, October 03, 2005
October 3 , 2005
Well, just when I thought the “airtight” debate was finished, I get this:
“I noticed that some of your emails were about the use of the word Airtights in the movie Chisum. Someone said that someone else who heard the word used was mistaken. They are wrong. Ben Johnson’s character Pepper uses the word while he is talking about food provisions. I can't remember exactly when but if you watch again and listen to him you will hear it, listen closely.”
—Richard Kenney
We’ve got a new poll up: If Custer had Gatling guns at the Little Bighorn, would it have made a difference? Click here to cast your vote.
Here’s a couple of photos that Captain Ray took last Friday night at the artshow opening. I’ll tell you who they are tomorrow.
I guess the first time I met Ben Traywick was at the O.K. Corral Centennial on October 26, 1981. Ben played Wyatt Earp that day as the famous re-enactment came off right at 2:30, one hundred years to the minute that the original fight went down. I was on the roof of Fly’s Boarding House shooting the event with my state-of-the-art Super 8 camera. Ben cut a dashing figure and I told him it was an honor to meet him.
At the time I think Mr. Traywick was Tombstone’s official historian and had begun to write a series of books on Tombstone and its characters.
When I was doing my book on Wyatt Earp in 1993 I interviewed Ben and he graciously allowed me to use a rare photo of Allie Earp in my book. I gave him and his bookstore credit in all four editions of the book.
A couple years later I was in a saloon on Allen Street with two Earp authors who are notorious hotheads. Ben happened to be at the end of the bar, having a beer. We joined him and after pleasantries my two companions proceeded to get into it with Ben about his alleged alliance with Glenn Boyer. I thought my two companions were out of line, but I said nothing and didn’t join in the debate.
The next day I had a book signing at the Territorial Bookstore and during a lull in the signing I looked up and saw Ben stick his head in the door and say, “Oh, it’s Bob Booze Bell.” Now this is a common semi-humorous take on my name and is usually a heavy-handed clue that someone doesn’t like me. I wondered why he was being so hostile, but there were other people in line for my book and I got caught in the crunch of signing and thought no more of it.
In 2000 I asked Ben if we could run an excerpt of his forthcoming book on Texas John Slaughter book and he agreed. Our editor at the time, Mare Rosenbaum, edited Ben’s piece for publication and after the issue came out I got a snippy note from Ben along the lines of “I didn’t appreciate the heavy editing.” Fair enough.
Three years ago Ben and I sat on an Earp panel down in Wilcox and had a pleasant time talking about his long history with the magazine. I encouraged him to submit some more things and I would take care of him this time and not allow any heavy-handed editing.
Last year I ran into Ben and his wife at the Golden Boot Awards in Hollywood and we shook hands and marvelled at being in such a ritzy place.
Today we received a copy of the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper and here’s what Ben had to say:
"Bob Boze Bell is the most perfect asshole I know. He is not a historian—not a bad artist—but not a historian. . .He has probably made more on Tombstone than any other man in this country, but he loves to badmouth us. . .Unfortunately, his history of Tombstone is what he wishes it was, not what it really is."
"Two men look out through the same bars; one sees the mud and one the stars."
—Frederick Langbridge
Well, just when I thought the “airtight” debate was finished, I get this:
“I noticed that some of your emails were about the use of the word Airtights in the movie Chisum. Someone said that someone else who heard the word used was mistaken. They are wrong. Ben Johnson’s character Pepper uses the word while he is talking about food provisions. I can't remember exactly when but if you watch again and listen to him you will hear it, listen closely.”
—Richard Kenney
We’ve got a new poll up: If Custer had Gatling guns at the Little Bighorn, would it have made a difference? Click here to cast your vote.
Here’s a couple of photos that Captain Ray took last Friday night at the artshow opening. I’ll tell you who they are tomorrow.I guess the first time I met Ben Traywick was at the O.K. Corral Centennial on October 26, 1981. Ben played Wyatt Earp that day as the famous re-enactment came off right at 2:30, one hundred years to the minute that the original fight went down. I was on the roof of Fly’s Boarding House shooting the event with my state-of-the-art Super 8 camera. Ben cut a dashing figure and I told him it was an honor to meet him.
At the time I think Mr. Traywick was Tombstone’s official historian and had begun to write a series of books on Tombstone and its characters.When I was doing my book on Wyatt Earp in 1993 I interviewed Ben and he graciously allowed me to use a rare photo of Allie Earp in my book. I gave him and his bookstore credit in all four editions of the book.
A couple years later I was in a saloon on Allen Street with two Earp authors who are notorious hotheads. Ben happened to be at the end of the bar, having a beer. We joined him and after pleasantries my two companions proceeded to get into it with Ben about his alleged alliance with Glenn Boyer. I thought my two companions were out of line, but I said nothing and didn’t join in the debate.
The next day I had a book signing at the Territorial Bookstore and during a lull in the signing I looked up and saw Ben stick his head in the door and say, “Oh, it’s Bob Booze Bell.” Now this is a common semi-humorous take on my name and is usually a heavy-handed clue that someone doesn’t like me. I wondered why he was being so hostile, but there were other people in line for my book and I got caught in the crunch of signing and thought no more of it.
In 2000 I asked Ben if we could run an excerpt of his forthcoming book on Texas John Slaughter book and he agreed. Our editor at the time, Mare Rosenbaum, edited Ben’s piece for publication and after the issue came out I got a snippy note from Ben along the lines of “I didn’t appreciate the heavy editing.” Fair enough.
Three years ago Ben and I sat on an Earp panel down in Wilcox and had a pleasant time talking about his long history with the magazine. I encouraged him to submit some more things and I would take care of him this time and not allow any heavy-handed editing.
Last year I ran into Ben and his wife at the Golden Boot Awards in Hollywood and we shook hands and marvelled at being in such a ritzy place.
Today we received a copy of the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper and here’s what Ben had to say:
"Bob Boze Bell is the most perfect asshole I know. He is not a historian—not a bad artist—but not a historian. . .He has probably made more on Tombstone than any other man in this country, but he loves to badmouth us. . .Unfortunately, his history of Tombstone is what he wishes it was, not what it really is."
"Two men look out through the same bars; one sees the mud and one the stars."
—Frederick Langbridge
Sunday, October 02, 2005
October 2, 2005
I woke up at four fretting about the weak sales on the art. Much mulling about what I could have done better. We got zero coverage in The Arizona Republic (although we got a nice plug in the Scottsdale Republic zone section). I know many of the editors and writers at the main paper, but evidently it didn't help. Ultimately, I'm afraid my press release efforts were too little, too late. I should have been hammering these media contacts much sooner. In the good news department.Curtis Riggs of The Sonoran News has expressed interest in doing a photo feature on the show. That will definitely help us for the two week run of the show. We got no support from the Desert Advocate (where the Cowboy Legacy Gallery actually advertises!). That was a shock, considering the publisher, Karen Seemeyer is a friend of mine. I don't think there was any malice involved, it's just a case of the event slipping through the cracks. I thought the gallery was taking care of it and put it out of my mind. This happens to us at the magazine all the time, (events getting short shrift based on the flow of so many things happening) so it's hard for me to get too upset about it.
Ultimately, I dedicated myself to create more due diligence for the rest of the two week run. On the 16th, the show moves to Tucson at the Transportation Museum. The show will premiere down there on October 21. This isn't a battle, it's a campaign, and I need to keep the long view and keep fighting. I ran an impactful quote a few weeks ago: "If you're facing the right direction, keep walking."
Kathy and I went into the Beast at two to see the much touted movie A History of Violence. ($14 for tickets, but got a free, small popcorn with our AMC cards, but bought a bottle of water, $3.25. Ay-yi-yi! $3.25 for a small water? Imagine paying that twenty years ago? I can't even imagine). Ironically I???m writing a View piece for The Arizona Republic on violence in the Old West, so I was particularly interested in seeing this movie, because of all the raves about what it says about violence. When I saw the disclaimer at the beginning, "Based on a graphic novel" I should have known what was coming. Turns out it's not an in-depth look at violence at all, it's just an excuse to show violence with comic book plotting. Like Sin City, it was five miles wide and two inches deep. How they got all of those great actors, like Ed Harris and William Hurt to be in it is beyond me. And speaking of Hurt he is absolutely fantastic. You have never seen a "mobster" like this. Incredible. He made the whole movie worth seeing for me, but sad to say, the film's integrity is about three degrees from Death Wish III.
We were at Desert Ridge, so after the movie I ran over to Aaron Brothers and bought more watercolor paper and more gouache tubes of paint ($45 Sue account). Then Kathy wanted to go to Barnes & Noble so I followed her in there and lo and behold there was the new issue of True West, facing out, visible from the doorway: "Is The Wyatt Earp Era Over" The big red X blasted off the stands and the white space really set it off from the avalanche of titles around it. Hats off to Daniel Harshberger who designed it. They only had four left (I believe they get 10). That really cheered me up and I caught myself going to different parts of the store and seeing if I could still see the magazine, and I'm happy to say I could see it all the way from the calendar clearance table.
Afterwards we went to Rockfish and had dinner ($27, includes tip), then to a birthday party for Lynn Hauss (our new neighbors, building downstream from us).
Got home about eight and checked my Email. Had a couple raves about the show and that was nice. Here's two of them:
"You should be very proud of yourself. Last night's gallery opening was a BIG HIT, with tons of admiring folks and LOTS of great vibes for True West. You really are an Arizona treasure and I hope all this doesn't burn you out, because you are so special. I loved the art work, wish I could afford some of it, and felt proud to be among your entourage last night!!!! Love you, pal."
--Jana Bommersbach
"Thanks, Bob, for your thoughtful inscription in my book. It was great to be able to see your art in 'full size'. I hope it was a good show for you. Naturally, if I win the lottery, I am going to come to you first for that really awesome portrait of Billy. That's a real 'wow'. I still think a few votives would have been appropriate -- ha ha.
"Mike and I enjoyed the Stillwell Purchases the Farm (aren't you glad I don't title art for a living), and I was really really taken in by the Tunstall Purchases the Farm. Powerful stuff. Love it."
--Linda B. AKA Sallie Chisum
And speaking of Sallie and John Chisum, the other day I got a question about the term "airtights" being used in the movie Chisum. Although I got some great answers from the experts, I got this interesting reply from a Chisum, the movie, expert:
"Well, as promised earlier today, I ran the film, Chisum in search of the
word "airtight" and never heard it once. I've never heard the word in the film all the times I've seen it. In fact, I've never heard the word used in any Western.
"I watched the film tonight on DVD with the English subtitles on, just to make sure I'd catch it. Still, nothing. In fact, there is no reference to food in the film at all, even during the party scene. So, I'm afraid our friend in search of an answer might be a little confused."
Ed G. Lousararian, publisher of WILDEST WESTERNS magazine
My guess is that the guy was confusing Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid with Chisum, since both include John Chisum as a character.
"Celebrate what you want to see more of."
--Tom Peters
I woke up at four fretting about the weak sales on the art. Much mulling about what I could have done better. We got zero coverage in The Arizona Republic (although we got a nice plug in the Scottsdale Republic zone section). I know many of the editors and writers at the main paper, but evidently it didn't help. Ultimately, I'm afraid my press release efforts were too little, too late. I should have been hammering these media contacts much sooner. In the good news department.Curtis Riggs of The Sonoran News has expressed interest in doing a photo feature on the show. That will definitely help us for the two week run of the show. We got no support from the Desert Advocate (where the Cowboy Legacy Gallery actually advertises!). That was a shock, considering the publisher, Karen Seemeyer is a friend of mine. I don't think there was any malice involved, it's just a case of the event slipping through the cracks. I thought the gallery was taking care of it and put it out of my mind. This happens to us at the magazine all the time, (events getting short shrift based on the flow of so many things happening) so it's hard for me to get too upset about it.
Ultimately, I dedicated myself to create more due diligence for the rest of the two week run. On the 16th, the show moves to Tucson at the Transportation Museum. The show will premiere down there on October 21. This isn't a battle, it's a campaign, and I need to keep the long view and keep fighting. I ran an impactful quote a few weeks ago: "If you're facing the right direction, keep walking."
Kathy and I went into the Beast at two to see the much touted movie A History of Violence. ($14 for tickets, but got a free, small popcorn with our AMC cards, but bought a bottle of water, $3.25. Ay-yi-yi! $3.25 for a small water? Imagine paying that twenty years ago? I can't even imagine). Ironically I???m writing a View piece for The Arizona Republic on violence in the Old West, so I was particularly interested in seeing this movie, because of all the raves about what it says about violence. When I saw the disclaimer at the beginning, "Based on a graphic novel" I should have known what was coming. Turns out it's not an in-depth look at violence at all, it's just an excuse to show violence with comic book plotting. Like Sin City, it was five miles wide and two inches deep. How they got all of those great actors, like Ed Harris and William Hurt to be in it is beyond me. And speaking of Hurt he is absolutely fantastic. You have never seen a "mobster" like this. Incredible. He made the whole movie worth seeing for me, but sad to say, the film's integrity is about three degrees from Death Wish III.
We were at Desert Ridge, so after the movie I ran over to Aaron Brothers and bought more watercolor paper and more gouache tubes of paint ($45 Sue account). Then Kathy wanted to go to Barnes & Noble so I followed her in there and lo and behold there was the new issue of True West, facing out, visible from the doorway: "Is The Wyatt Earp Era Over" The big red X blasted off the stands and the white space really set it off from the avalanche of titles around it. Hats off to Daniel Harshberger who designed it. They only had four left (I believe they get 10). That really cheered me up and I caught myself going to different parts of the store and seeing if I could still see the magazine, and I'm happy to say I could see it all the way from the calendar clearance table.
Afterwards we went to Rockfish and had dinner ($27, includes tip), then to a birthday party for Lynn Hauss (our new neighbors, building downstream from us).
Got home about eight and checked my Email. Had a couple raves about the show and that was nice. Here's two of them:
"You should be very proud of yourself. Last night's gallery opening was a BIG HIT, with tons of admiring folks and LOTS of great vibes for True West. You really are an Arizona treasure and I hope all this doesn't burn you out, because you are so special. I loved the art work, wish I could afford some of it, and felt proud to be among your entourage last night!!!! Love you, pal."
--Jana Bommersbach
"Thanks, Bob, for your thoughtful inscription in my book. It was great to be able to see your art in 'full size'. I hope it was a good show for you. Naturally, if I win the lottery, I am going to come to you first for that really awesome portrait of Billy. That's a real 'wow'. I still think a few votives would have been appropriate -- ha ha.
"Mike and I enjoyed the Stillwell Purchases the Farm (aren't you glad I don't title art for a living), and I was really really taken in by the Tunstall Purchases the Farm. Powerful stuff. Love it."
--Linda B. AKA Sallie Chisum
And speaking of Sallie and John Chisum, the other day I got a question about the term "airtights" being used in the movie Chisum. Although I got some great answers from the experts, I got this interesting reply from a Chisum, the movie, expert:
"Well, as promised earlier today, I ran the film, Chisum in search of the
word "airtight" and never heard it once. I've never heard the word in the film all the times I've seen it. In fact, I've never heard the word used in any Western.
"I watched the film tonight on DVD with the English subtitles on, just to make sure I'd catch it. Still, nothing. In fact, there is no reference to food in the film at all, even during the party scene. So, I'm afraid our friend in search of an answer might be a little confused."
Ed G. Lousararian, publisher of WILDEST WESTERNS magazine
My guess is that the guy was confusing Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid with Chisum, since both include John Chisum as a character.
"Celebrate what you want to see more of."
--Tom Peters
October 1, 2005
Big crowd at the opening and many surprises. Our old editor Marcus Huff showed up. I haven’t seen him since he stormed out of our offices almost five years ago to the day. We actually hugged and clasped each other warmly with major slaps on the back. He congratulated me on the new work and introduced Kathy, Carole and I to his new wife.
Three major paintings sold as soon as the doors opened. Another three sold within an hour. Richard Ignarski, who drove over from Albuquerque with Bob McCubbin, bought the portrait of Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce ($600). Richard asked for and received his Maniac discount (10%) and confided to me he bought it for his forthcoming Gunfighter Museum.
My daughter came early and brought me a bottle of Chilean wine with a sweet note: “Age appears to be best in four things, old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.” Pretty classy, I wonder where she got such manners? (hint: not from her dad).
A couple from Chandler bought the painting of the Milt Joyce showdown with the Earps (I hope they don’t read the blog archives here where I bemoan my failure with that painting. Ha.) They also confessed they have lived in the Valley 20 years and this was their first visit to Carefree. They heard about the show “on the radio.”
And speaking of the radio, The Tim and Willy Show pulled more than a few people out from the Valley. One pretty woman walked up to me and reminded me of several stunts we pulled on KSLX, then introduced me to her husband and their daughter Kelly, who told me she was on night shift on Wednesday, driving home half asleep, heard me on Tim and Willy’s Show and called her mother to tell her. They all came.Funny what hits and what misses. If you read Thursday’s blog I was kicking myself all the way home from Tempe, wondering aloud whether it was worth it to spend three hours and five gallons of gas to be on a radio show for fifteen minutes. Well, it was. Thanks Tim and Willy!!
At least a half-dozen people quizzed me on scratchboard. What is it? How do you do it? I need to do a demonstration here and document the phases: a blank, black piece of Essdee scratchboard ($22 a sheet), then the first scrapings of the knife, until I actually have a decent image. Then all of the extra scrapings where I actually ruin it. Could be quite instructive to younger people. Or not.
Some of my friends got more than their share of free wine at the opening. I won’t mention any names but here’s a clue: they do a lot of flying, but on this night they were really flying!
Wonderful Russ held court as he’s prone to do. After nine, when most had left, he and I tag-teamed a local doctor who was bemoaning an early Saturday morning caseload. Russ volunteered the two of us to come in and “loosen up the patients with humor and a full body enema.” I don’t think the doctor thought it was as funny as we did.
In spite of the light sales on paintings, Bill Welch and Brian Label were quite upbeat about the night. “There were some heavy hitters in here tonight. This was very good for us and for you. Trust me. We’ll sell quite a few more paintings before the show comes down in two weeks.”
Well, I certainly hope so. The sale of the six paintings puts me about half-way to paying off the framer. Ha. Sometimes I think I should have listened to the hip-hop bad-boy, Andre 3000.
“I thought I was going to be an artist when I grew up. And then I figured out artists don’t get paid.”
—Andre 3000, one-half of the hip-hop eccentrics OutKast, in Spin magazine
Big crowd at the opening and many surprises. Our old editor Marcus Huff showed up. I haven’t seen him since he stormed out of our offices almost five years ago to the day. We actually hugged and clasped each other warmly with major slaps on the back. He congratulated me on the new work and introduced Kathy, Carole and I to his new wife.
Three major paintings sold as soon as the doors opened. Another three sold within an hour. Richard Ignarski, who drove over from Albuquerque with Bob McCubbin, bought the portrait of Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce ($600). Richard asked for and received his Maniac discount (10%) and confided to me he bought it for his forthcoming Gunfighter Museum.
My daughter came early and brought me a bottle of Chilean wine with a sweet note: “Age appears to be best in four things, old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.” Pretty classy, I wonder where she got such manners? (hint: not from her dad).
A couple from Chandler bought the painting of the Milt Joyce showdown with the Earps (I hope they don’t read the blog archives here where I bemoan my failure with that painting. Ha.) They also confessed they have lived in the Valley 20 years and this was their first visit to Carefree. They heard about the show “on the radio.”
And speaking of the radio, The Tim and Willy Show pulled more than a few people out from the Valley. One pretty woman walked up to me and reminded me of several stunts we pulled on KSLX, then introduced me to her husband and their daughter Kelly, who told me she was on night shift on Wednesday, driving home half asleep, heard me on Tim and Willy’s Show and called her mother to tell her. They all came.Funny what hits and what misses. If you read Thursday’s blog I was kicking myself all the way home from Tempe, wondering aloud whether it was worth it to spend three hours and five gallons of gas to be on a radio show for fifteen minutes. Well, it was. Thanks Tim and Willy!!
At least a half-dozen people quizzed me on scratchboard. What is it? How do you do it? I need to do a demonstration here and document the phases: a blank, black piece of Essdee scratchboard ($22 a sheet), then the first scrapings of the knife, until I actually have a decent image. Then all of the extra scrapings where I actually ruin it. Could be quite instructive to younger people. Or not.
Some of my friends got more than their share of free wine at the opening. I won’t mention any names but here’s a clue: they do a lot of flying, but on this night they were really flying!
Wonderful Russ held court as he’s prone to do. After nine, when most had left, he and I tag-teamed a local doctor who was bemoaning an early Saturday morning caseload. Russ volunteered the two of us to come in and “loosen up the patients with humor and a full body enema.” I don’t think the doctor thought it was as funny as we did.
In spite of the light sales on paintings, Bill Welch and Brian Label were quite upbeat about the night. “There were some heavy hitters in here tonight. This was very good for us and for you. Trust me. We’ll sell quite a few more paintings before the show comes down in two weeks.”
Well, I certainly hope so. The sale of the six paintings puts me about half-way to paying off the framer. Ha. Sometimes I think I should have listened to the hip-hop bad-boy, Andre 3000.
“I thought I was going to be an artist when I grew up. And then I figured out artists don’t get paid.”
—Andre 3000, one-half of the hip-hop eccentrics OutKast, in Spin magazine
Friday, September 30, 2005
September 30, 2005
Well, the big day is here and I’m appropriately nervous. In other words, full of self-doubt and catastrophic imaginings. “What if only five people show up?” and “What if I only sell five paintings?” and “What if people smirk and say, ‘He’s no Ted DeGrazia”?” Of course, on the outside I’m calm and I act nonchalant. I’m a pro, I’ve done this all of my life. If people only knew!
Samantha, Carole and Melrose helped me load up the trucks with 114 framed pieces and we chugged up the hill to deposit them at the Cowboy Legacy Gallery at about nine. Brian was in the process of stripping the walls of their normal stuff to make room for my stuff.
After we loaded in everything, Melrose took the opportunity to grab a squib (a fake gun, on a gambling layout) and play cowboy in the store, twirling the gun on his finger, cocking it and shooting, telling everyone he would be a major gunfighter if he had been alive in the real Old West. I told Mike that on a scale of one to ten on the International Irritability Scale he was pushing a strong 8.5. This of course just encouraged him as he redoubled his efforts with all his Charles City, Iowa heart to somehow, someway, get up to a solid ten. He pretty much achieved his goal.
I’m going to go home and take a shower. Sam and I are going up after lunch to look at the space one more time. She needs plenty of room to sell books, posters, t-shirts and notecards.
Got this question this morning: “During the movie Chisum a reference was made about a food product ‘airtight.’ What is it?”
—Grayslush
I didn’t know so I asked some of my Western film aficionados and here's their answers:
"’airtights’ is a reference to canned goods. In Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Garrett (James Coburn) tells Alias (Bob Dylan) to go over to a shelf in a saloon/store and keep busy by reading the ‘airtights’......and the scene shows Alias reading the labels on canned foods. Alias: ‘Beans.....stewed plums.....spinach......beans....’ etc.'”
—Thom Ross, 2005 artist of the year, True West Best of the West
“Probably meant a can, as in tinned food.”
—Frederick Nolan, author and Billy the Kid expert
“As I recall, ‘airtight’ was another slang term used for tinned goods, since they were packed airtight.”
—Phil Spangenberger, gun expert and True West columnist
“My thought is that is was ‘hard tack.’ Didn't they used to put it some kind of can so it wouldn't get stale? Though how the hell anyone would notice if had tack was stale is beyond me.”
—Allen Barra, author
At this juncture (11:30 A.M.) I’m fighting the strong temptation to run away and change my name.
“We gain the strength of the temptations we resist.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Well, the big day is here and I’m appropriately nervous. In other words, full of self-doubt and catastrophic imaginings. “What if only five people show up?” and “What if I only sell five paintings?” and “What if people smirk and say, ‘He’s no Ted DeGrazia”?” Of course, on the outside I’m calm and I act nonchalant. I’m a pro, I’ve done this all of my life. If people only knew!
Samantha, Carole and Melrose helped me load up the trucks with 114 framed pieces and we chugged up the hill to deposit them at the Cowboy Legacy Gallery at about nine. Brian was in the process of stripping the walls of their normal stuff to make room for my stuff.
After we loaded in everything, Melrose took the opportunity to grab a squib (a fake gun, on a gambling layout) and play cowboy in the store, twirling the gun on his finger, cocking it and shooting, telling everyone he would be a major gunfighter if he had been alive in the real Old West. I told Mike that on a scale of one to ten on the International Irritability Scale he was pushing a strong 8.5. This of course just encouraged him as he redoubled his efforts with all his Charles City, Iowa heart to somehow, someway, get up to a solid ten. He pretty much achieved his goal.
I’m going to go home and take a shower. Sam and I are going up after lunch to look at the space one more time. She needs plenty of room to sell books, posters, t-shirts and notecards.
Got this question this morning: “During the movie Chisum a reference was made about a food product ‘airtight.’ What is it?”
—Grayslush
I didn’t know so I asked some of my Western film aficionados and here's their answers:
"’airtights’ is a reference to canned goods. In Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Garrett (James Coburn) tells Alias (Bob Dylan) to go over to a shelf in a saloon/store and keep busy by reading the ‘airtights’......and the scene shows Alias reading the labels on canned foods. Alias: ‘Beans.....stewed plums.....spinach......beans....’ etc.'”
—Thom Ross, 2005 artist of the year, True West Best of the West
“Probably meant a can, as in tinned food.”
—Frederick Nolan, author and Billy the Kid expert
“As I recall, ‘airtight’ was another slang term used for tinned goods, since they were packed airtight.”
—Phil Spangenberger, gun expert and True West columnist
“My thought is that is was ‘hard tack.’ Didn't they used to put it some kind of can so it wouldn't get stale? Though how the hell anyone would notice if had tack was stale is beyond me.”
—Allen Barra, author
At this juncture (11:30 A.M.) I’m fighting the strong temptation to run away and change my name.
“We gain the strength of the temptations we resist.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thursday, September 29, 2005
September 29, 2005
Twenty-nine hours to the show and I finally finished the tagging of the paintings at two (total: 114, retail value: $108,600). Ron and I will haul all of them up to the gallery in the morning. Going to take several trips.
Last night I watched the first installment of "No Way Home," the Bob Dylan documentary by Martin Scorsese on PBS. Really inspiring. I am not a fan (I’ve never bought a Dylan record) but I am a huge admirer of him now. That this little kid (I think he was 19) from Hibbing, Minnesota went to New York and conquered the folk scene and the world with his songs, is nothing short of miraculous. And the courage of little Zimmerman is breathtaking. Concert footage of people yelling at him: “Traitor!” And worse (phoned in death threats of killing him with a shotgun before a show!), and why?—you ask. Because he had the temerity to use an electric guitar. Seems quite lunatic today but that’s the ugly side of the 1960s. Or, one of the goofier, ugly sides.
And speaking of snot-nosed kids going to New York, I got this from Thomas Charles two days ago (I had to get clearance to run it):
“I've come to see New York and Miriam under the same light. At first sight you are enthralled by the mystery, beauty, exoticness and seemingly endless possibilities. But when the shock wears off and the fog clears from your vision, you see something for what it really is. In one case, there really is endless levels and interpretations to be explored. In the other is endless smoke screens that ultimately add up to nothing. As you may have guessed, in the ladder I am referring to New York and the former, Miriam. Her being a make up artist and former model, our conversations are rich to the point of diminished physical attraction.”
—Tomcat
PS:Sorry, I just had a cafe con leche at my favorite restaurant in Inwood. No English and an $8 plate of chicken with rice that's enough for four meals.
Unlike Bobby Zimmeran, Thomas Charles has some pretty strong connections in New York. One of his best friends is Robert Chenal whose uncle is a famous psychologist. In fact, here’s the uncle now, right off the Associated Press:
“Xavier Amador, a clinical psychologist from New York, said at the court-martial in Fort Hood, Texas, that England's soldier boyfriend, Charles Graner, was her "social compass" whom she relied upon without reservation to guide her behavior.
"It was a knee-jerk reflex," Amador said Friday during [Army Pfc. Lynndie] England's military trial. "It was very much like a little kid looking to an adult for what to do and what not to do."
Prosecutors maintain England was a willing participant in the 2003 abuse at Abu Ghraib. They tried to paint Amador as a professional defense witness who tailored his testimony to benefit her.”
We all call him Xav (Hav) and he is a great guy. Fortunately he likes Tomcat and is a great influence.
Daily Feedback from the phones:
“James McGinnis of Ocean View, DE called and subscribed for 2 years of TW (and purchased Oct 05 issue). He has long been interested in old west history. He saw BBB on the History Channel recently and asked his daughter to find info on TW on the internet and then called today to subscribe.”
—Carole Glenn
Speaking of Carole, she took me to lunch today at Tuscan Cafe up in Carefree. Had the veggie sando and an iced tea. Talked quite a bit about office angst and what to do about it. We also got real petty, but Carole is my kind of petty. Ha.
“Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place.”
—Johnny Carson
Twenty-nine hours to the show and I finally finished the tagging of the paintings at two (total: 114, retail value: $108,600). Ron and I will haul all of them up to the gallery in the morning. Going to take several trips.
Last night I watched the first installment of "No Way Home," the Bob Dylan documentary by Martin Scorsese on PBS. Really inspiring. I am not a fan (I’ve never bought a Dylan record) but I am a huge admirer of him now. That this little kid (I think he was 19) from Hibbing, Minnesota went to New York and conquered the folk scene and the world with his songs, is nothing short of miraculous. And the courage of little Zimmerman is breathtaking. Concert footage of people yelling at him: “Traitor!” And worse (phoned in death threats of killing him with a shotgun before a show!), and why?—you ask. Because he had the temerity to use an electric guitar. Seems quite lunatic today but that’s the ugly side of the 1960s. Or, one of the goofier, ugly sides.
And speaking of snot-nosed kids going to New York, I got this from Thomas Charles two days ago (I had to get clearance to run it):
“I've come to see New York and Miriam under the same light. At first sight you are enthralled by the mystery, beauty, exoticness and seemingly endless possibilities. But when the shock wears off and the fog clears from your vision, you see something for what it really is. In one case, there really is endless levels and interpretations to be explored. In the other is endless smoke screens that ultimately add up to nothing. As you may have guessed, in the ladder I am referring to New York and the former, Miriam. Her being a make up artist and former model, our conversations are rich to the point of diminished physical attraction.”
—Tomcat
PS:Sorry, I just had a cafe con leche at my favorite restaurant in Inwood. No English and an $8 plate of chicken with rice that's enough for four meals.
Unlike Bobby Zimmeran, Thomas Charles has some pretty strong connections in New York. One of his best friends is Robert Chenal whose uncle is a famous psychologist. In fact, here’s the uncle now, right off the Associated Press:
“Xavier Amador, a clinical psychologist from New York, said at the court-martial in Fort Hood, Texas, that England's soldier boyfriend, Charles Graner, was her "social compass" whom she relied upon without reservation to guide her behavior.
"It was a knee-jerk reflex," Amador said Friday during [Army Pfc. Lynndie] England's military trial. "It was very much like a little kid looking to an adult for what to do and what not to do."
Prosecutors maintain England was a willing participant in the 2003 abuse at Abu Ghraib. They tried to paint Amador as a professional defense witness who tailored his testimony to benefit her.”
We all call him Xav (Hav) and he is a great guy. Fortunately he likes Tomcat and is a great influence.
Daily Feedback from the phones:
“James McGinnis of Ocean View, DE called and subscribed for 2 years of TW (and purchased Oct 05 issue). He has long been interested in old west history. He saw BBB on the History Channel recently and asked his daughter to find info on TW on the internet and then called today to subscribe.”
—Carole Glenn
Speaking of Carole, she took me to lunch today at Tuscan Cafe up in Carefree. Had the veggie sando and an iced tea. Talked quite a bit about office angst and what to do about it. We also got real petty, but Carole is my kind of petty. Ha.
“Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place.”
—Johnny Carson
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
September 28, 2005
Worked last night until around seven, tryiing to knock a hole in the massive undertaking of creating 220 tags for the artwork. Very tedious and tiring.
Left the house this morning at 6:20 A.M. to drive down into the Beast. Avoided the freeways and just went down Scottsdale Road all the way to Clear Channel Headquarters to make a morning appearance on the Tim & Willy Show. As I was ushered down the hallway, it looked like a radio version of an auto mall, with all of the Clear Channel radio stations in a row, Beth and Bill on KEZ, KOY, and on and on until we came to door number six, which houses the Hattrick Man and crew. Did three breaks, an eternity in today’s radio, and got in some good plugs for the artshow. Lots of laughs with the Boys. We go way back. Then turned around and drove back out to Cave Creek. Got to the office at about nine
Mark Boardman drove in from Indiana on Monday. He got a place out at I-17 and the Carefree Highway. Today is his first day at work. Nice to have him here. He adds another voice to the editorial mix.
We got a nice thankyou from author Richard Wheeler who won our Best of the West category for writing. He also had this to say:
“The traditional western does seem to be in a parlous state, with so many mass-market lines abandoning the field, and sales at a pathetic low. I know of one outstanding western novelist whose most recent mass-market sale was only about 6,000—this in a nation of three hundred million.
“I do believe the historical western novel will survive and may become the main source of fiction about the early West. I hope to be a part of all that. We have barely begun to tell the true story of the American West, or depict its legendary people. So here's to the future, and here's to you, True West, for all you've done.”
—Richard S. Wheeler
During a break on KNIX this morning Willy asked me if I was running for office in Prescott. I laughed. Then I got this Email when I got back to the office:
“I was in Prescott today and saw a sign that read "Reelect Bob Bell for Town Council" Is there something you are not telling us?”
—Debora Gifford
The short answer is no, but I must say there seems to be a ton of Bells cropping up all over the landscape. I have noticed that there are a whole gaggle of actors on tv shows with my last name. Just a coincidence, or evidence of a nation’s decline?
“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
—Ray Douglas Bradbury
Worked last night until around seven, tryiing to knock a hole in the massive undertaking of creating 220 tags for the artwork. Very tedious and tiring.
Left the house this morning at 6:20 A.M. to drive down into the Beast. Avoided the freeways and just went down Scottsdale Road all the way to Clear Channel Headquarters to make a morning appearance on the Tim & Willy Show. As I was ushered down the hallway, it looked like a radio version of an auto mall, with all of the Clear Channel radio stations in a row, Beth and Bill on KEZ, KOY, and on and on until we came to door number six, which houses the Hattrick Man and crew. Did three breaks, an eternity in today’s radio, and got in some good plugs for the artshow. Lots of laughs with the Boys. We go way back. Then turned around and drove back out to Cave Creek. Got to the office at about nine
Mark Boardman drove in from Indiana on Monday. He got a place out at I-17 and the Carefree Highway. Today is his first day at work. Nice to have him here. He adds another voice to the editorial mix.
We got a nice thankyou from author Richard Wheeler who won our Best of the West category for writing. He also had this to say:
“The traditional western does seem to be in a parlous state, with so many mass-market lines abandoning the field, and sales at a pathetic low. I know of one outstanding western novelist whose most recent mass-market sale was only about 6,000—this in a nation of three hundred million.
“I do believe the historical western novel will survive and may become the main source of fiction about the early West. I hope to be a part of all that. We have barely begun to tell the true story of the American West, or depict its legendary people. So here's to the future, and here's to you, True West, for all you've done.”
—Richard S. Wheeler
During a break on KNIX this morning Willy asked me if I was running for office in Prescott. I laughed. Then I got this Email when I got back to the office:
“I was in Prescott today and saw a sign that read "Reelect Bob Bell for Town Council" Is there something you are not telling us?”
—Debora Gifford
The short answer is no, but I must say there seems to be a ton of Bells cropping up all over the landscape. I have noticed that there are a whole gaggle of actors on tv shows with my last name. Just a coincidence, or evidence of a nation’s decline?
“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
—Ray Douglas Bradbury
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
September 27, 2005
Four days to the big show. Many meetings and distractions. Had a staff meeting at about nine, then a pow-wow with George Laib (former manager of Waylon and Willy and Larry Mahan and Goose Creek Symphony, among others). He has great ideas on marketing. Both Bob and Trish Brink were impressed with him.
Jana Bommersbach came in at eleven. Her, Meghan and I went over our proposed editorial calendar for 2006. Debated whether Apaches were terrorists, or not. The three of us went to lunch at Satisfied Frog. Had the caesar salad and an iced tea. I bought ($47, includes tip, credit card).
Joey Dillon (amazing gun handler, been on “Wild West Tech”), Tony Casanova and Dennis Moore came by at two. They have filmed a short Western and gun-handling high-def DVD out at Cowtown and wanted to fill me in on it. Sounds like they had fun. All three bought the new Classic Gunfights book, six posters and Tony bought all five of my other titles. That was a nice Tuesday afternoon treat
The BBC (Ireland Division) wants two more photos, one of Zane Gray and the other of Louis L’Amour ASAP. Robert Ray uploaded images via Email before lunchtime.
Frank and Patty Fara came by at three. They are using one of my Billy the Kid paintings on their newest CD: “Charming Billy.”
Tagged ten more paintings, but didn’t get far enough. I’ll need to stay late and tag another 25 if I plan on having the paintings ready to hang by Thursday. I wish I had more time, but you know what the old vaqueros used to say. . .
“Time as he grows old teaches all things.”
—Old Vaquero Saying
Four days to the big show. Many meetings and distractions. Had a staff meeting at about nine, then a pow-wow with George Laib (former manager of Waylon and Willy and Larry Mahan and Goose Creek Symphony, among others). He has great ideas on marketing. Both Bob and Trish Brink were impressed with him.
Jana Bommersbach came in at eleven. Her, Meghan and I went over our proposed editorial calendar for 2006. Debated whether Apaches were terrorists, or not. The three of us went to lunch at Satisfied Frog. Had the caesar salad and an iced tea. I bought ($47, includes tip, credit card).
Joey Dillon (amazing gun handler, been on “Wild West Tech”), Tony Casanova and Dennis Moore came by at two. They have filmed a short Western and gun-handling high-def DVD out at Cowtown and wanted to fill me in on it. Sounds like they had fun. All three bought the new Classic Gunfights book, six posters and Tony bought all five of my other titles. That was a nice Tuesday afternoon treat
The BBC (Ireland Division) wants two more photos, one of Zane Gray and the other of Louis L’Amour ASAP. Robert Ray uploaded images via Email before lunchtime.
Frank and Patty Fara came by at three. They are using one of my Billy the Kid paintings on their newest CD: “Charming Billy.”
Tagged ten more paintings, but didn’t get far enough. I’ll need to stay late and tag another 25 if I plan on having the paintings ready to hang by Thursday. I wish I had more time, but you know what the old vaqueros used to say. . .
“Time as he grows old teaches all things.”
—Old Vaquero Saying
Monday, September 26, 2005
September 26, 2005 Bonus Blog
Oops! I forgot to show you the new t-shirts designed just for the book premiere this Friday. Yes, that's our very own Abby Pearson and Sue Lambert modeling the two different color schemes. Nifty, no? I've got to thank Laury Klasky for the great color coordination, and Wayne did a fine job on the seps and color work down at JJ Distributors in Tempe. The shirts, the posters, the books, the artwork, the free wine, the free food, yes, it's going to be quite a night up at the Cowboy Legacy Gallery. Hope you can come up for a visit. And by the way, the show will be up for a week, so you'll still have a chance to catch it if you miss the opening night.
Kathy and I worked until 8:30 tonight and got 58 paintings tagged. About half done, need to finish tomorrow. I think the tagging (size, medium, price, description) has been almost as hard as painting the Bastards! Ha.
"I was raised by the praise of a fan who said I upset her."
—Neil Young, "Mr. Soul"
Oops! I forgot to show you the new t-shirts designed just for the book premiere this Friday. Yes, that's our very own Abby Pearson and Sue Lambert modeling the two different color schemes. Nifty, no? I've got to thank Laury Klasky for the great color coordination, and Wayne did a fine job on the seps and color work down at JJ Distributors in Tempe. The shirts, the posters, the books, the artwork, the free wine, the free food, yes, it's going to be quite a night up at the Cowboy Legacy Gallery. Hope you can come up for a visit. And by the way, the show will be up for a week, so you'll still have a chance to catch it if you miss the opening night.
Kathy and I worked until 8:30 tonight and got 58 paintings tagged. About half done, need to finish tomorrow. I think the tagging (size, medium, price, description) has been almost as hard as painting the Bastards! Ha.
"I was raised by the praise of a fan who said I upset her."
—Neil Young, "Mr. Soul"
September 26, 2005
November issue goes out the door today. It’s a big puppy. Looks like we'll stick with the perfect binding, everyone seems to love it. The only downside is that cross-overs don’t work as well (that’s when a photo or artwork crosses over to the opposite page and on perfect bound, it disappears down into the crack, whereas a saddle stitch allows the image to cross over cleanly.)
Robert Ray is studying to be a sea captain (“Yo soy capitan, soy capitan, soy capitan.”). He is taking lessons on Tempe Town Lake and everything. It’s his burning passion to sail a big ol’ yacht and do it well.
Tomcat Bell kind of hit the wall with the exotic model he’s dating. Much angst regarding flirtatious behavior. Ah, the twenties. Wouldn’t go back for all the tea in China (however I might go back for all the circ. of Maxim).
I’m going to have to put in a double shift tonight. I’ve been putting off doing the tags on the paintings and now I have three days left and 100 tags to do in duplicate. Ay-yi-yi. Kathy’s coming down to help me. I bought her a salad at Bad Donkey ($11 cash, includes meager tip, Hey, it’s takeout!).
I mailed the new book on Wyatt Earp to Wyatt Earp today. A reviewer from my old paper New Times called and asked me to forward the book to Wyatt (he’s local, that's his real name and he and his wife do one-person-plays on Wyatt, Doc, Big-Nose-Kate and Josie). It's a clever idea (Wyatt Earp reviews Wyatt Earp!) but I am so suspicious of those cynics down at NT that I confronted the guy on the phone, “You’re not going to sandbag Wyatt are you?” I demanded. The reporter said coyly, “No, not him.” For all of you who’ve never seen New Times nor worked there (and I realize that's not many of you), that’s N.T. speak for, “Get ready to grab your ankles Authorboy!”
Got a call from the BBC in London today. Thought it was the same office of my friends from Ireland who came in last summer, but this is a different deal. I was talking to Bernadette Ross in the “Specialist Factual” Department, deep within BBC White City (the name of the huge facility in London where they plan the takeover of the world and occasionally program stuff). They’re doing three docudramas on three big, American icons that I imagine you could guess if you really tried. Had a nice chat with her.
Received an Email from an old girlfriend who has been reading this blog and bemoaning the changes I seem to have gone through ("You used to be so artistic. Now you're a businessman who keeps track of his lunches?").
“Is it strange I should change, I don’t know, why don’t you ask her.”
—Neil Young, “Mr. Soul”
November issue goes out the door today. It’s a big puppy. Looks like we'll stick with the perfect binding, everyone seems to love it. The only downside is that cross-overs don’t work as well (that’s when a photo or artwork crosses over to the opposite page and on perfect bound, it disappears down into the crack, whereas a saddle stitch allows the image to cross over cleanly.)
Robert Ray is studying to be a sea captain (“Yo soy capitan, soy capitan, soy capitan.”). He is taking lessons on Tempe Town Lake and everything. It’s his burning passion to sail a big ol’ yacht and do it well.Tomcat Bell kind of hit the wall with the exotic model he’s dating. Much angst regarding flirtatious behavior. Ah, the twenties. Wouldn’t go back for all the tea in China (however I might go back for all the circ. of Maxim).
I’m going to have to put in a double shift tonight. I’ve been putting off doing the tags on the paintings and now I have three days left and 100 tags to do in duplicate. Ay-yi-yi. Kathy’s coming down to help me. I bought her a salad at Bad Donkey ($11 cash, includes meager tip, Hey, it’s takeout!).
I mailed the new book on Wyatt Earp to Wyatt Earp today. A reviewer from my old paper New Times called and asked me to forward the book to Wyatt (he’s local, that's his real name and he and his wife do one-person-plays on Wyatt, Doc, Big-Nose-Kate and Josie). It's a clever idea (Wyatt Earp reviews Wyatt Earp!) but I am so suspicious of those cynics down at NT that I confronted the guy on the phone, “You’re not going to sandbag Wyatt are you?” I demanded. The reporter said coyly, “No, not him.” For all of you who’ve never seen New Times nor worked there (and I realize that's not many of you), that’s N.T. speak for, “Get ready to grab your ankles Authorboy!”
Got a call from the BBC in London today. Thought it was the same office of my friends from Ireland who came in last summer, but this is a different deal. I was talking to Bernadette Ross in the “Specialist Factual” Department, deep within BBC White City (the name of the huge facility in London where they plan the takeover of the world and occasionally program stuff). They’re doing three docudramas on three big, American icons that I imagine you could guess if you really tried. Had a nice chat with her.
Received an Email from an old girlfriend who has been reading this blog and bemoaning the changes I seem to have gone through ("You used to be so artistic. Now you're a businessman who keeps track of his lunches?").
“Is it strange I should change, I don’t know, why don’t you ask her.”
—Neil Young, “Mr. Soul”
Sunday, September 25, 2005
September 25, 2005
A very nice relaxing day at home. Went for two bike rides with the dogs, cleaned up in studio, made a pot of pinto beans. Kathy made a turkey for dinner.
At two I drove down into the Beast. Had a one-hour-radio interview on my old station KXAM, 1310 AM. As I drove down (it’s about a 45 minute drive) I turned on the station to get a feel for what they are doing these days. They are known locally as the station where you buy time. In fact David K. and I did a barter show (we did the show for free, but sold our own commercials). Our tenure ran from February 3, 1998 to September 10, 1999 (420 shows). Then I did a second version of the show for about two more years. I wondered if things had changed.
On first listen, it appeared nothing had changed, but that turned out to be deceiving. Three guys were doing “PC Chat,” a computer, techno show and I couldn’t help noticing all of the things they were doing wrong. For one thing they all talked on top of each other, no one had any clear role as the moderator (straight-man), or anchor, and they were all trying to be funny and I use the term “funny” in the weakest possible meaning, in fact to be quite honest, it was bordering on “all lame, all the time.” In spite of this they had some decent content. There’s a new digital camera coming out from Sony that has the capabilities of 10 mega-pixals (sp?). Wow! That’s cool. I wanted to hear more about that, but they continued the everybody-talk-at-once routine until they had beaten that to death, then it was off to another topic which they quickly beat to death as well.
As is my experience (a decade in the biz) I predicted the drill: my host, Tom Campbell (who does the show after the PC Boys) would meet me in the lobby and we would walk up to the studio and as we came in, we would meet the PC Chat boys wrapping up their headphones and leaving and I knew I would have to say something lame like, “Hey, heard your show on the way in, good stuff.” But I decided I needed to be honest and size up the situation when I got there and if the circumstances were right, and one of them seemed receptive I needed to take that person aside and give him some solid advice about how to improve their show. Or not. I knew they would most likely perceive me as a “Dad”, or worse, so I made a vow to keep my mouth shut unless they seemed interested in hearing a constructive critique of their “show” (Hey, it could happen!).
As it turns out, Tom Campbell met me in the lobby just like I pictured he would and he introduced me to his engineer Sam and we went up the elevator together and made small talk. But much to my surprise we walked into an empty studio (with the PC Boys chatting incessantly coming in over the speakers). When I asked where the PC Boys were, perhaps in a newly built studio? Sam looked at me like an old man and said, “doing the show here is so 1999, most everybody MP3s the show at home and sends it in.” So much for a show critique with the young Turks. When we used to say “you could have phoned that show in,” we had no idea it would someday be the norm.
The interview was in the same studio I spent many a morning in with Gordon Smith, Heather the Weather Girl and Buffalo Rick (1999-2002). The interview went fine and Tom gave me several plugs for the artshow and premiere of the Blaze Away! book. Tom has a business called E-snipe that allows you to super-bid on eBay.
I got home at five and Kathy and I had turkey and beans and a nice glass of Sheraz. I think I’ll take the dogs for one more bike ride before it gets dark.
“I've been enjoying your gurgles of pleasure at first sight of your new book -- wonderful feeling, ain't it? Perhaps at some point down the line Tom will say to you, as my son once said to me, keep this up and you may be able to make a career out of it.”
—Fred Nolan, British author and Billy the Kid expert
A very nice relaxing day at home. Went for two bike rides with the dogs, cleaned up in studio, made a pot of pinto beans. Kathy made a turkey for dinner.
At two I drove down into the Beast. Had a one-hour-radio interview on my old station KXAM, 1310 AM. As I drove down (it’s about a 45 minute drive) I turned on the station to get a feel for what they are doing these days. They are known locally as the station where you buy time. In fact David K. and I did a barter show (we did the show for free, but sold our own commercials). Our tenure ran from February 3, 1998 to September 10, 1999 (420 shows). Then I did a second version of the show for about two more years. I wondered if things had changed.
On first listen, it appeared nothing had changed, but that turned out to be deceiving. Three guys were doing “PC Chat,” a computer, techno show and I couldn’t help noticing all of the things they were doing wrong. For one thing they all talked on top of each other, no one had any clear role as the moderator (straight-man), or anchor, and they were all trying to be funny and I use the term “funny” in the weakest possible meaning, in fact to be quite honest, it was bordering on “all lame, all the time.” In spite of this they had some decent content. There’s a new digital camera coming out from Sony that has the capabilities of 10 mega-pixals (sp?). Wow! That’s cool. I wanted to hear more about that, but they continued the everybody-talk-at-once routine until they had beaten that to death, then it was off to another topic which they quickly beat to death as well.
As is my experience (a decade in the biz) I predicted the drill: my host, Tom Campbell (who does the show after the PC Boys) would meet me in the lobby and we would walk up to the studio and as we came in, we would meet the PC Chat boys wrapping up their headphones and leaving and I knew I would have to say something lame like, “Hey, heard your show on the way in, good stuff.” But I decided I needed to be honest and size up the situation when I got there and if the circumstances were right, and one of them seemed receptive I needed to take that person aside and give him some solid advice about how to improve their show. Or not. I knew they would most likely perceive me as a “Dad”, or worse, so I made a vow to keep my mouth shut unless they seemed interested in hearing a constructive critique of their “show” (Hey, it could happen!).
As it turns out, Tom Campbell met me in the lobby just like I pictured he would and he introduced me to his engineer Sam and we went up the elevator together and made small talk. But much to my surprise we walked into an empty studio (with the PC Boys chatting incessantly coming in over the speakers). When I asked where the PC Boys were, perhaps in a newly built studio? Sam looked at me like an old man and said, “doing the show here is so 1999, most everybody MP3s the show at home and sends it in.” So much for a show critique with the young Turks. When we used to say “you could have phoned that show in,” we had no idea it would someday be the norm.
The interview was in the same studio I spent many a morning in with Gordon Smith, Heather the Weather Girl and Buffalo Rick (1999-2002). The interview went fine and Tom gave me several plugs for the artshow and premiere of the Blaze Away! book. Tom has a business called E-snipe that allows you to super-bid on eBay.
I got home at five and Kathy and I had turkey and beans and a nice glass of Sheraz. I think I’ll take the dogs for one more bike ride before it gets dark.
“I've been enjoying your gurgles of pleasure at first sight of your new book -- wonderful feeling, ain't it? Perhaps at some point down the line Tom will say to you, as my son once said to me, keep this up and you may be able to make a career out of it.”
—Fred Nolan, British author and Billy the Kid expert
Saturday, September 24, 2005
September 24, 2005
Yesterday afternoon I met Theresa from Tri Star down at the Superpumper on Cave Creek Road just north of the 101. I got there early so I filled up with gas ($2.89 a gallon, 11 gallons, $33 house account, debit). Theresa showed up shortly with a truck full of Blaze Away! books hot off the press and I had to rip open a box and take a gander. Oh, that new book smell! It is beautiful! A bouncing, baby boy book, if you like homicides by the dozen and what immature boy doesn’t?!
Loaded about fifteen boxes in my Ranger, gave Theresa a big hug and told her I love her (it’s our sixth child, I mean, book together), then called Carole on my cell and warned her the books were incoming and asked her to tell Ron and Mike Melrose to be out front to help load them in. Got back to the office at about three and we unloaded all the books into the conference room and gathered around to take a closer look. A couple pages have minor gaffs, but overall it’s a thing of grace and homicidal beauty.
Kathy came down from her office at about five and we went down to El Encanto to celebrate. Carole joined us and we ordered a pitcher of margaritas and a sampler (a big dish of assorted mini-chimis, tostadas, tortas, etc. ($52 plus $10 tip, cash, I paid). Seemed a tad high (the tab) but I didn’t care because I was high myself.
Came home, watched a bit of tv, but then got in bed early and read the whole thing cover to cover. A couple of maddening typos and glitches (one date I know we fixed but somehow Quark Xpress either picked up an earlier version or it’s a phantom regurgitating saboteur). In another place an arrow got moved and is pointing to a wrong position (a scratchboard shows Wyatt and Morgan running and an arrow coming from the image box goes down to an overhead view of Allen Street and points at a building. So, they are running in a building. Oh, that’s cute!). Most people won’t notice this (except, of course, all of you!)
Every book I’ve ever done has these renegade factoids and minor-muffs, and out of the thousands of good to great stuff, if there are five that suck, well, I’ll take those odds and raise you five.
Got up today at about six and Kathy and I filled out fifty invitations to the show and mailed them off (bought 50 stamps, $23). That felt good. Picked up two of our bikes from the Flat Tire Bike Shop. Yes, that's the name and we had two flat tires (Tomcat thinks it's because of the Spanish Driveway, driving over those rough stones is giving us flats). Loaded up the bikes ($50 for fixing them. I complained to Kathy about the charge and she said what should it be and I said, "We used to fix flats for $2 at my dad's gas station," and she smirked, "Well, yes, but that was before electricity." Funny girl). Came home, unloaded the bikes, then moved Kitty Custer out to the studio. Kathy has given him a new name: “Bob’s Cat.” Ha. She’s fed up with the little turd, but I couldn’t give him the death sentence, so he’s hiding out somewhere in my labyrinth of reference materials. I hesitate to let Buddy Boze Hatkiller in, although I know he’d find the little feline and find him good. But then that's just do nature.
“There is a great deal of human nature in people.”
—Mark Twain
M
Yesterday afternoon I met Theresa from Tri Star down at the Superpumper on Cave Creek Road just north of the 101. I got there early so I filled up with gas ($2.89 a gallon, 11 gallons, $33 house account, debit). Theresa showed up shortly with a truck full of Blaze Away! books hot off the press and I had to rip open a box and take a gander. Oh, that new book smell! It is beautiful! A bouncing, baby boy book, if you like homicides by the dozen and what immature boy doesn’t?!
Loaded about fifteen boxes in my Ranger, gave Theresa a big hug and told her I love her (it’s our sixth child, I mean, book together), then called Carole on my cell and warned her the books were incoming and asked her to tell Ron and Mike Melrose to be out front to help load them in. Got back to the office at about three and we unloaded all the books into the conference room and gathered around to take a closer look. A couple pages have minor gaffs, but overall it’s a thing of grace and homicidal beauty.
Kathy came down from her office at about five and we went down to El Encanto to celebrate. Carole joined us and we ordered a pitcher of margaritas and a sampler (a big dish of assorted mini-chimis, tostadas, tortas, etc. ($52 plus $10 tip, cash, I paid). Seemed a tad high (the tab) but I didn’t care because I was high myself.
Came home, watched a bit of tv, but then got in bed early and read the whole thing cover to cover. A couple of maddening typos and glitches (one date I know we fixed but somehow Quark Xpress either picked up an earlier version or it’s a phantom regurgitating saboteur). In another place an arrow got moved and is pointing to a wrong position (a scratchboard shows Wyatt and Morgan running and an arrow coming from the image box goes down to an overhead view of Allen Street and points at a building. So, they are running in a building. Oh, that’s cute!). Most people won’t notice this (except, of course, all of you!)
Every book I’ve ever done has these renegade factoids and minor-muffs, and out of the thousands of good to great stuff, if there are five that suck, well, I’ll take those odds and raise you five.
Got up today at about six and Kathy and I filled out fifty invitations to the show and mailed them off (bought 50 stamps, $23). That felt good. Picked up two of our bikes from the Flat Tire Bike Shop. Yes, that's the name and we had two flat tires (Tomcat thinks it's because of the Spanish Driveway, driving over those rough stones is giving us flats). Loaded up the bikes ($50 for fixing them. I complained to Kathy about the charge and she said what should it be and I said, "We used to fix flats for $2 at my dad's gas station," and she smirked, "Well, yes, but that was before electricity." Funny girl). Came home, unloaded the bikes, then moved Kitty Custer out to the studio. Kathy has given him a new name: “Bob’s Cat.” Ha. She’s fed up with the little turd, but I couldn’t give him the death sentence, so he’s hiding out somewhere in my labyrinth of reference materials. I hesitate to let Buddy Boze Hatkiller in, although I know he’d find the little feline and find him good. But then that's just do nature.
“There is a great deal of human nature in people.”
—Mark Twain
M
Friday, September 23, 2005
September 23, 2005
Joel Klasky came in my office at 9 A.M. and said he just got off the phone with Dave Walker down in Louisiana. Dave worked with Joel and I at New Times Weekly (Cap’n Dave!) and Dave was also a drummer in our band, The Zonies. Dave and his wife Judy (also a writer) moved to New Orleans several years ago to work for the Times Picayune. Dave and Judy’s home in New Orleans wasn’t totally destroyed by Katrina because it’s four feet above the street, but they still got about two inches throughout their house and the water has ruined their wood floors. Dave is in Baton Rouge helping to put the newspaper out from there. Of course, there isn’t any advertising to support them except for companies looking for relief help, and they are limping by as best they can. Dave also said at least 100,000 people are not coming back. Can you even fathom what this will do to the city and their livelihood? And ultimately, as it ripples out, ours? Scary stuff.
Feedback on the Paul Harvey radio broadcast from yesterday:
“I live on a ranch in Alberta. At noon I was listening to Paul Harvey news and low and behold he starts talking about Wyatt Earp and Bob Boze Bell. Paul Harvey says how hard this guy in Arizona at Cave Creek tries to find the true story and prints it in his magazine TRUE WEST. Doesn't sound like Mr. Harvey has been reading True West very long or he would know this has been going on for quite a spell. Anyhow am I ever impressed, he's talking about a bunch of my friends !!”
—Bill Dunn, Alberta, Canada
I got a call from Jeanne Sedello yesterday and I said, “Hey, Jeann-er, are you watching that new reality show on VH-1 called ‘Breaking Bonaduce’’?” She assured me she was. “Didn’t we set up Danny,” I continued, “with his wife Gretchen, on our radio show?” Yes, we did, Jeanne Sedello confirmed, as she gave me all the juicy details, some of which I had forgotten. In about 1991 we had a psychic come on our show. Our producer Derek Jones had met a girl at a club the night before and he had her come visit The Jones & Boze Radio Show and she started pressing the psychic about when and where she would meet her future husband, she wanted a family, where was this mystery man? etc. David K. Jones had a sister with cancer and he was putting together a benefit for her at a south Scottsdale bar and we invited Danny Bonaduce, who had just got a morning gig on another local radio show (Y-95?). As Jeanne reminded me, I always thought it was goofy how competing radio stations and morning DJs would shun each other and never give out competing call letters on the air or even admit anyone else was even alive. So, naturally, we invited Danny to come by our show since he had agreed to support David’s benefit. The girl Derek brought in was Gretchen, who quickly fell in love with Danny and she’s been with him ever since (I think she said 14 years last night on the show, while they were in counseling). As an aside, Danny kept calling me “Dad,” which I took as a mild putdown. I was 45 and I always assumed he thought I was an old fart trying to be hip. While he was right about that, I had to chuckle last night on the show, where he is in major angst and meltdown at being old. He’s now 45. Ha. Ha, ha.
Remember when O.J. was doing his Bronco “chase” and he pulled into his driveway at sunset and the overhead copter shot showed a guy run out to the driver’s side of the car and everybody freaked because it looked like someone was going to grab O.J.? Well, it turned out that was O.J.’s son and the guy standing next to him was our old producer Derek Jones.
My books have arrived in Phoenix from the printer and Theresa from Tri Star is driving them out this afternoon. I’m very anxious (it really is very much like being a fathering a child in the hospital waiting for a newborn, but without the eighteen years of hell afterwards, of course).
“Life is very much a study of attention. Whatever you dwell upon and think about grows and expands in your life. The more you pay attention to your relationships, the quality and quantity of your work, your finances and your health, the better they will become and the happier you will be.”
—Old Vaquero Saying
Joel Klasky came in my office at 9 A.M. and said he just got off the phone with Dave Walker down in Louisiana. Dave worked with Joel and I at New Times Weekly (Cap’n Dave!) and Dave was also a drummer in our band, The Zonies. Dave and his wife Judy (also a writer) moved to New Orleans several years ago to work for the Times Picayune. Dave and Judy’s home in New Orleans wasn’t totally destroyed by Katrina because it’s four feet above the street, but they still got about two inches throughout their house and the water has ruined their wood floors. Dave is in Baton Rouge helping to put the newspaper out from there. Of course, there isn’t any advertising to support them except for companies looking for relief help, and they are limping by as best they can. Dave also said at least 100,000 people are not coming back. Can you even fathom what this will do to the city and their livelihood? And ultimately, as it ripples out, ours? Scary stuff.
Feedback on the Paul Harvey radio broadcast from yesterday:
“I live on a ranch in Alberta. At noon I was listening to Paul Harvey news and low and behold he starts talking about Wyatt Earp and Bob Boze Bell. Paul Harvey says how hard this guy in Arizona at Cave Creek tries to find the true story and prints it in his magazine TRUE WEST. Doesn't sound like Mr. Harvey has been reading True West very long or he would know this has been going on for quite a spell. Anyhow am I ever impressed, he's talking about a bunch of my friends !!”
—Bill Dunn, Alberta, Canada
I got a call from Jeanne Sedello yesterday and I said, “Hey, Jeann-er, are you watching that new reality show on VH-1 called ‘Breaking Bonaduce’’?” She assured me she was. “Didn’t we set up Danny,” I continued, “with his wife Gretchen, on our radio show?” Yes, we did, Jeanne Sedello confirmed, as she gave me all the juicy details, some of which I had forgotten. In about 1991 we had a psychic come on our show. Our producer Derek Jones had met a girl at a club the night before and he had her come visit The Jones & Boze Radio Show and she started pressing the psychic about when and where she would meet her future husband, she wanted a family, where was this mystery man? etc. David K. Jones had a sister with cancer and he was putting together a benefit for her at a south Scottsdale bar and we invited Danny Bonaduce, who had just got a morning gig on another local radio show (Y-95?). As Jeanne reminded me, I always thought it was goofy how competing radio stations and morning DJs would shun each other and never give out competing call letters on the air or even admit anyone else was even alive. So, naturally, we invited Danny to come by our show since he had agreed to support David’s benefit. The girl Derek brought in was Gretchen, who quickly fell in love with Danny and she’s been with him ever since (I think she said 14 years last night on the show, while they were in counseling). As an aside, Danny kept calling me “Dad,” which I took as a mild putdown. I was 45 and I always assumed he thought I was an old fart trying to be hip. While he was right about that, I had to chuckle last night on the show, where he is in major angst and meltdown at being old. He’s now 45. Ha. Ha, ha.
Remember when O.J. was doing his Bronco “chase” and he pulled into his driveway at sunset and the overhead copter shot showed a guy run out to the driver’s side of the car and everybody freaked because it looked like someone was going to grab O.J.? Well, it turned out that was O.J.’s son and the guy standing next to him was our old producer Derek Jones.
My books have arrived in Phoenix from the printer and Theresa from Tri Star is driving them out this afternoon. I’m very anxious (it really is very much like being a fathering a child in the hospital waiting for a newborn, but without the eighteen years of hell afterwards, of course).
“Life is very much a study of attention. Whatever you dwell upon and think about grows and expands in your life. The more you pay attention to your relationships, the quality and quantity of your work, your finances and your health, the better they will become and the happier you will be.”
—Old Vaquero Saying
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