Grand Changes On The Road to Artistic Minimalism

 October 17, 2025

   One humid afternoon in July I had a dream. A jagged walking stick for my morning walks to protect Uno from aggressive packs of Cave Creek coyotes. Well, thanks to Buckeye Blake who hand carved it, here we are ready for action.

A Custom Made Whip Out From BB 

(Buckeye Blake)

  A day off! What will I do with it? Perhaps clean the garage? Perhaps write an original story? Or, maybe, just maybe, do some whip outs for fun.

Daily Whip Out For Fun:

"El Fiero Pistolero" 

  What happens when you stop short on underlayers and then subtly add a rider? This happens. . .

Daily Whip Out: "Mystic Rider"

Daily Whip Out: "Mystic Tracker"

Two weeks ago at the museum, longtime Valley photographer, Bob Rink, gifted me a packet of photos he took of the Jones, Boze & Jeanne Radio Show on KSLX back in the day. I think these are from a $10,000 scavenger hunt the station put on and one of the items you needed was a photo with us at a new bar near Metrocenter.

Jeanne, David K and BBB

(not sure why, but David doesn't look happy)

Jeanne schmoozes, Gordon Smith

whips out a Zany tune and Flint Carney goes all In-din on us.

"And that's the news from smack dab in the middle of the West's most midwestern town!"

—The BBB Signature Sign-off on KSLX

Sideways In A Good Way Jesse James Wise

 October 16, 2025

   I'm in between projects today and when  that happens I start to go sideways, in a good way.

Daily Revised Whip Out:

"The Killer Kid Jesse James"

Daily Whip Out: "Miss In The Mist"

Daily Whip Out: "Mythic Tracker"

   And, what the hell, let's look at one more Hell Rider. . .

Daily Whip Out: "Windmill Lightning Rider"

   Horses don't like lightning, but then, neither do dogs. That said, I've had about as much as I can take from drawing them. (hint: it ain't easy to capture!)

"If you want to write a good book, write about the things you don't want people to know about you. If you want to write a great book, write about the things you don't want to know about yourself."

—David Perell

Hell Riders Galore

 October 15, 2025

   I have been on a jag for about a month now. Here are the highlights from hell.

Daily Whip Out: "Hell Riders #19"

Daily Whip Out: "Hell Riders #7"

Daily Whip Out: "Hell Riders #13"

Daily Whip Out: "Hell Riders 5"

Daily Whip Out: "Hell Rider With Posies"

Daily Whip Out: "Hell to Breakfast"

first pass

Daily Whip Out: "Rurale Hell Rider"

Daily Whip Out: "Regretful Hell Rider"

Daily Whip Out: "Deep In Hell Rider"

"The Road to Hell is paved with rejected Daily Whip Outs"

—Old Vaquero Saying

Does Appstinence Make The Heart Grow Fonder for Analogue?

 October 14, 2025

   I had an inkling a while back that grew into a suspicion, but now it has a name: Appstinence, an organization dedicated to helping people reimagine life without social media. Some Gen Z-ers are forming other groups to go "phoneless" for 30 days. The ones who have done it successfully claim it is wonderful, like reconnecting to something real. You know, like analogue living. 

   Somehow, I don't think Dick Tracy expected this turn of events.

Chester Gould's detective Dick Tracy uses a wrist phone

The cartoonist boldly predicted picture phones back in the 1960s.

   Meanwhile, a certain dog sits in the extreme chaos of a certain artist's studio who successfully predicted the emergence of extended deadlines.

Uno In Chaos

(Uno Is The One)

   That piece of art on the desk, at left, is my latest attempt to land the concept of Hell to Breakfast, the title of Roger Clyne's next album.

   I went up to the post office around three and received a box of the book Dan The Man and I created for our Texas friends: Chasing The Big West. Such a great cover. I am hoping Dan will do the same for Roger.

Hell to Breakfast meets The Big West

   If you haven't noticed by now, everything runs its course and yet it is still kind of shocking when the end actually comes. . .

"So video killed the radio star and now reality TV killed MTV."

—Johnny D, commenting on the fact that as of today MTV is no more.

Climbing The Mountain of Truth Over And Over Again

October 13, 2025

   When I was a kid if someone had told me that in the future 33 Columbus statues would be toppled from public places I would have said, "That is insane! I suppose the next thing you are going to tell me is that Custer is no longer a national hero?"

Columbus Meets The Pavement

   Speaking of the shifting sands of our petty and porous belief systems, I read with interest in the New York Times book review section this morning about a new book "What We Can Know" and one of its themes around history is "the ultimate unknowability of the past" which hit me right where I live. The book makes the claim that all of our efforts are "imperfect approximations," and another phrase in the review made me think of Paul Andrew Hutton: "the dead hand of academic neutrality," something the Distinguished Professor has fought against and skirted in all of his books and all his efforts. But in the end here's the quote that got to me.

"You often hear history will be my judge, but history will have its own obsessions, prejudices and amnesia. We don't get to climb some sort of mountain of Truth and stand on the top and know everything."

—Ian McEwan, author of "What We Can Know"

   Interesting metaphor, the so-called Mountain of Truth which me and all of my history-minded friends attempt to climb all day, every day. Which brings me back around to "I Married Wyatt Earp," the discredited "true narrative" of Josephine "Sadie" Earp's Tombstone story.

   It is sobering that the true story of Sadie's trip to Arizona involves her being a 14-year-old prostitute (she was apparently arrested for solicitation at age 12!). I have a hard time believing anyone is going to retell the Tombstone story with THAT as the primary premise, but then again, see Columbus example above.

   "I Married Wyatt Earp" went through a dozen printings at the University of Arizona Press from 1976 to 2000 and allegedly sold more than 35,000 copies, earning Boyer a reputation as one the most acclaimed Earp experts. If you are still hankering for the truth, warts and all, I highly recommend Peter Brand's new book:

 Today, like Columbus, Custer and Woody Allen, Boyer resides somewhere deep in the cultural banished bin.

   And, it must be said, my old alma mater newspaper, New Times Weekly did some of the most serious reporting to discredit Boyer. Investigative reporter Tony Ortega wrote two features, "How The West Was Spun" (a very clever title) and, "I Varied Wyatt Earp" (even more clever) to eventually force the U of A Press to withdraw the book in 2000.

  The irony to me is that Boyer lived out his life in relative comfort near Tombstone and of the two mainstays of New Times Weekly (Truth to Power!), Mike Lacey is in prison for prostitution profiteering (see Back Page scandal) and his partner, and a good friend of mine, Jim Larkin, committed suicide over the tortuous trials and government prosecution.

"If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees."

—Khalil Gibran

How Emilio Became Billy the Kid

 October 12, 2025

   We are launching a Billy the Kid Film Festival at the Scottsdale Museum of The West to coincide with our Resurrection of Billy the Kid art show. This afternoon, I introduced the first Young Guns film and I got this little tidbit from the guy who created the franchise:

How Emilio Morphed Into Billy

"During prep for the film, I took Emilio on a road trip (just us) from Santa Fe to Lincoln, Ruidoso, and other landmarks along the way. All through the road trip, he picked my brain and had me talk him through both the screenplay and my research. In Lincoln, Emilio had me leave him alone for a day while he went incognito and wandered the nooks and crannies. I always say that I drove to Lincoln with Emilio Estevez, but drove back with William Bonney."

—John Fusco, Young Guns screenwriter 

To Hell And Back In Time for Breakfast

 October 11, 2025

   Been working all weekend on Hell to Breakfast riders for a certain guy who has a band called the Peacemakers. It's fun, but I can go sideways in the blink of an eye.

Daily Whip Out: "Double Lightning Rider'

Daily Whip Out: "Hell Rider With Posies"

Daily Whip Out: "Canyon Rider"

Daily Whip Out: "Bust Out Rider"

Daily Whip Out: "Hell Bent Riders"

"What progress have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself."

—Seneca

Bedroom Eyes And Hell Bent Riders

 October 10, 2025

   Sometimes I get on a loosey goosey jag.

Daily Whip Out: "Bedroom Eyes"

   And, when I get like this, I go off on tangents. Like, I'm doing an album cover and I want it to be good. I've done about 35 studies, so far, very random and specific, like this one:

Daily Whip Out: "Hellbent Rider"

   And I'm persuing multiple riders as in, you know, a band.

Daily Whip Out: "Hellbent Riders"

   And, here's a sneak peek at an upcoming show in November. . .

The Doctor Will See You Now In Prescott

"We are like books. Most people only see our cover, the minority read only the introduction, many people believe the critics. Few will know our contents."

—Emile Zola

The Spurious Photo of Mrs. Wyatt Earp That Launched A Thousand Books

 October 9, 2025

   It's amazing how much damage can be done to history with just a simple little fib, here and there. If you've seen either "Tombstone" or Kevin Costner's "Wyatt Earp" you know that Josephine "Sadie" Marcus came to Tombstone with a theatrical group and met Wyatt Earp there, and, well, they eventually got room service. Oh, and in both movies she posed for an infamous semi-nude photo for C.S. Fly. In fact, in one of them Sadie is posing for the photo as the so-called Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is about to happen. It's as if they were both joined together in one big mythic tale. 

   Gee, ya think?

   So, here's the spurious photo that launched a thousand books (well, not quite, but it ain't over!)

Daily Whip Out: "Kaloma Baloney!"

   And, here's how it appeared on the groundbreaking 1976 book, "I Married Wyatt Earp":

My personal copy of "I Married Wyatt Earp"

has been read a few times as you can see

   This book not only led to the big blockbuster movies mentioned above, but it also was optioned for a 1983 TV movie starring Marie Osmond as Sadie and Bruce Boxleitner as Wyatt Earp.

Marie Osmond is Sadie Marcus!

   For me, the first crack in the facade came when I found myself in an Austin, Texas recording studio in 1978 and I noticed on the wall of the control room was a classic San Francisco rock poster for Vanilla Fudge utilizing a very familiar image and I thought to myself, "Hmmmm, how did Mrs. Wyatt Earp end up on a Vanilla Fudge rock poster?"

Vanilla Fudge Sadie?

   Well, it turns out the actual image of what is now known as "Kaloma" was first registered by the Pastime Novelty Company in New York with a copyright of 1914 and it's been around for a good while.

   Glenn Boyer claimed he received the photo in 1956 from a woman in Yuma who had a cantina named Carmelita's Place. He also claimed she claimed Wyatt Earp gave it to her when they came to Yuma on their way to the Harquahala Mining District in 1889. The only problem with this story is Carmelita was 8-years-old in 1889.

   Then Boyer changed his story and claimed it was found in Johnny Behan's personal things stored at the Tombstone Courthouse and that could be true, but it could also be true Behan was a horndog and possibly had a pinup from 1914 in his private stash. Either way, it is without question NOT Mrs. Wyatt Earp. But then, neither was Josephine Marcus. They were never legally married.

The Genesis of The Bean Scene

"I watched so many westerns when I was a kid. Gene Autry or Roy Rogers would be sitting around the campfire playing the guitar, and you could see these tin plates and beans. And I always wondered: How many beans could you eat and how much black coffee could you drink out of those tin cups without letting one go? I don’t know if 'Blazing Saddles' was the first movie to have a fart in it. But when I went to work on it, I said: Let’s tell the truth of the campfire. So we got a bunch of guys around a microphone, soaped up our armpits and . . ."

—Mel Brooks to Cal Fussman, 2008

Nuclear Thunderheads, Saguaro Ghosts & Pinata Dust Storms Galore!

 October 8, 2025

   Three years ago yesterday we had a unique cloud take shape over Continental Mountain.

October 7, 2022 Cloud Goes Nuclear

And here's what Uno and I caught on our ride up to the post office today:

Ghosts among the saugaros

My neighbors up on Spur Cross have two giant Halloween skeletons that make me smile every time I drive by. Had to stop and capture the nearest one. Boo!

And, here's the other one:

Boo Hoo Two!

   You know, sometimes we Desert Rats find ourselves driving home on a dirt road and we come face to face with a rolling pinata in the guise of a dust devil and it, well, it doesn't bode well for the paint job on our vehicle.

Daily Whip Out: "Rolling Pinata Dust Devil"

"The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it."

—Cicero

In The Middle of Nowhere You Will Find Yourself In Vaughn, New Mexico

 October 7, 2025

   I absolutely love lonely highways, especially out here in the West. So, imagine my big-fat-smile when I received a photo yesterday from mi amigo Buckeye Blake who is driving home to Texas after our show at the Scottsdale Museum of the West last Friday. 

In the middle of nowhere you will find yourself 

(in Vaughn, New Mexico!) 

   He sent me this photo outside of Vaughn, New Mexico with the tagline: "I am the one and only SOB out here on the Llano!" Truer words have never been spoken.

   Of course, Buckeye is referring to the Llano Estacado which is often translated into English as the Staked Plains, but a more accurate translation would be the Stockaded Plains, which derives from the steep escarpments on the eastern, northern and western edges of the plains. Early explorers remarked that the ridges abutting the plains resembled "ramparts, or stockades" rather than "staked." Here's how an early tourist described it:

   "I reached some plains so vast that I did not find their limit anywhere I went, although I traveled over them for more than 300 leagues. . .with no more land marks than if we had been swallowed by the sea. . .there was not a stone, nor bit of rising ground, nor a tree, nor a shrub, nor anything to go by."

—Conquistador Francisco Coronado, 1541

Mickey Free's Multi-Cultured Border Pancho

 October 6, 2025

   When it comes to mixed-blood on the border, Mickey Free takes the ethno-cake. Part redheaded Irish with a Mexican mother and captured by Aravaipa Apaches at the age of 12, he was first abused as a slave, before being trained as a warrior. The one-eyed-captivo then became a controversial character in the Apache Wars of the 1880s and 1890s. He somehow retained aspects of all these disparate ethnicities but he ended up being something completely different. Oh, and did he, in fact, bag the Apache Kid? Some say he did, but with a pinecone twist.

Mickey Free's Multi-Cultured Border Pancho Reflected A Complicated Past

   Of course, there is another side to Mickey that no one wants to talk about.

Daily Whip Out: "Mickey's Dark Side"

   Yes, all of us have a dark side, and mine is somewhere south of Big Foot Wallace.

Bigfoot Wallace and Little Boze Billy

"The more we're governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories. . .about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible."

—Alan Rickman

Relatives of Lincoln County War Warriors Attend Resurrection Show

 October 5, 2025

   If there is one thing that really floats my boat, it's historic connections. Take this guy, for example:

George Coe

showing off his missing trigger finger which he lost at Blazer's Mill when he, and others, including Billy the Kid, tried to arrest Buckshot Roberts during the Lincoln County War.

   George's great-great granddaughter, Linda Mallet, showed up at the Scottsdale Museum of the West last Friday night to attend the Resurrection of Billy the Kid Art Show.

The Coe Crew

Linda Mallet (in green)

and her family attended the artist reception.

   She was not alone. One of the museum staff members who hung the show is a distant relative of the man who allegedly shot the man who killed Billy the Kid.

The Hanging Crew

Natalie Reichert, Henry Terry and Andrew Patrick Nelson who hung the art show on Thursday. Natalie's family is related to this guy:

Wayne Brazel, center, who allegedly shot Pat Garrett to death while the latter was urinating

(the Brazel family at some point changed the spelling of their name to Brazell with two Ls)

"It's the only time in history a man has been assassinated while urinating that the defendant claimed self-defense and got off!"
—Historian Leon Metz