Class Dismissed & New Billys Framed

 April 23. 2024

   Spoke via Zoom yesterday to an Ann King class of Art & Visual Communcation kids at Mohave County Community College. Mostly Kingman kids with some from Bullhead and Havasu. Always enjoy talking to eager young artists.

   Meanwhile, got a couple more Billy paintings framed for the upcoming art show in Lincoln. Can you spot them?

New Billys Framed (plus a Lovely Linda)

   Great interview with Jerry Seinfeld in the Hollywood Reporter. He was talking about his new film "Unfrosted" which will be released on Netflix next month. He talks about how the experience was new to him. "I thought I had done some cool stuff, but it was nothing like the way these people work. They're so dead serious! They don't have any idea that the movie business is over. They have no idea."

   Jerry goes on to say, "film doesn't occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did for most of our lives. When a movie came  out, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all discussed it. We quoted lines and scenes we liked. Now we're walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see."

   Had lunch at the Grotto today with two of my favorite long time employees today. We laughed and laughed about the good times and the bad. 

The Grotto Crew:

Sheri Riley Jenson and Rebecca Edwards

   Sheri has been with me for 16 years and Rebecca for 12. When it comes to being a good manager, I agree with David.

"We assume we are being judged on our competence, but mostly we are judged on our warmth. Ethical leaders communicate a joyfulness in what they do and attract followers in part by showing pleasure." 

—David Brooks

Rumble City Mahem

 April 22, 2024

   Hey mama, look at me, I'm on the way to the promised land. . .

Rumble City Mahem

   Not to beat a dead horse, but that is my mama on the hood of that '56 Fairlane and I have Dan The Man to thank for swiping her off the hood of a '32 Dodge.

Bobbi Guess on the hood of

her dad's new Dodge Pickup

out at the Diamond Bar Ranch

in Mohave County, Arizona

1933

   Of course, not everybody loves this stuff like I do and sometimes I get push back, even hate mail. But I take solace in knowing what that really means.

"It's good to know who hates you, and it's good to be hated by the right people."

—Johnny Cash

Three Billys at The Back Door & J. R. R. Tolkein at The Front Door

 April 21, 2024

   As mentioned yesterday, we are in the planning stages of a Billy the Kid Art Show & Confab in Lincoln on July 12. I found out from the new owner of the Ellis Store, Amy, that because of severe termite damage they had to refurbish the room the Kid allegedly stayed in and she wanted to know if I might like some of the salvageable wood for an art frame?

Daily Reworked Whip Out:

"Billy at The Backdoor of The Ellis Store"

(I added a period vest and a smirk)

   Now imagine this piece framed with the floorboards that Bonney actually walked on. If you ask me, I think that is a couple steps beyond groovamente!

   Meanwhile, my favorite Aussie Bastard, James B. Mills, who is as much of a period snob as I am, weighs in, saying, "I'd go with the painted visage [below]. It has some shadowy enigma about it, which is appropriate for Bonney." Or, as one BtK tintype expert phrased it, it looks like  "enraged mud turtles crawling on a ferrotype wash." Or, something like that.

Daily Reworked Whip Out:

"The Shadowy Enigma of Billy

at The Backdoor of The Ellis Store"

   Meanwhile, my grandson Weston prefers this one:

Daily Reworked Whip Out:

"Billy In An Above Ground Swimming Pool

at The Backdoor of the Ellis Store"

   Yes, my Canon printer ran out of ink in the middle of the run and, well, that's what it looks like: Billy the Kid up to his waist in an above ground swimming pool, at the back door of the Ellis Store.

Every hat I love is in this picture.

Mexican Revolution Soldados, circa 1915

   I especially dig the guy, at lower left with the swept back surgarloaf and the spoiler backfin and black shirt. I want to see this guy move, in a film about the true story of Pedro Pasqual.

Daily Whip Out:

"Pedro Pasqual's Sugarloaf"

Daily Whip Out:

"Pedro Heads Out to Meet His Fate"

      And, I don't see this as some fruity allegory either. This will not be a story that reveals a hidden meaning. With this I am on the side of Tolkein.

". . .I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varired applicability to the thought and experience of readers."

—J.R.R. Tolkein in the foreword to "The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring"

Pump House Blooms, Ellis Store Savior & Mickey Free Characters

 April 20, 2024

   This is a beautiful time of year on the Great Sonoran Desert. Here's the view looking north from my studio.

Pump House Blooms

   An Old West Savior has arrived in Lincoln, New Mexico and she has made it her mission to revive and restore the historic Ellis Store which had fallen into major decline. Thanks to our historian compadre, Lynda Sanchez, who lives in Lincoln, we are covering Amy's efforts in the next issue of True West.

Amy Gautheir on a work break

at the historic Ellis Store

   Me and the Boys are going to bring some of our Billy the Kid art to hang in the store when she has her grand reopening on July 12. If you read this blog you know who the Boys are. I'll have more details when we get closer to the date. 

   I went for a walk with Uno this morning and ran into these two:

Fluffy and Miss Aubry Piddybutting

   I asked how her mother is doing (Bev just had surgery) and she replied, "She's doing well, she's in the yard piddybutting." I had never heard that term before. If I didn't know better, I would assume it means she is headbutting an errant ram?

Heads Up Humor Alert

   My son Thomas Charles alerts me to humor I might have missed. I try to do the same back his way.

"I was hit by a bicycle. No, it was my fault. I was standing on the sidewalk. He was a food deliverer—a third responder. Heroes delivering heroes to heroes."

—Dave Attell, on his Netflix special, Hot Cross Buns

   You know who doesn't get the respect they deserve? These guys:

Daily Whip Out:

"Mickey Free On His Big, Bad Jack"

   Of course I am referring to Jack mules and half-breed captivos who definitely don't get the respect they deserve. Besides them, or, actually, in addition to them, everyone else in my story on Mickey Free's hunt for the Apache Kid is based on real, historic characters.

Daily Whip Outs:

"My Favorite Mickey Free Characters"

   And, as you may, or may not, know, one of these real life characters begat Mitt Romney.

"Just because you were conceived in the back seat of a Jeep doesn't make you Cherokee."

—Old In-din saying

Bandido Sneer And When Jugs Iced Free Saved Humanity!

 April 19, 2024

   Had some fun with this one.

Daily Whip Out: "Bandido Sneer" 

  It's that time of year.

Prickly Pear Solamente!

Bust Shots Busted

   If you thought, like I did, that the faces on Mount Rushmore were always planned with just their heads, check out the artist's preliminary concept.

The Original Concept for Mount Rushmore

(completely busted)

Random Teasers for The 66 Kids

   Don't look now, but your past is in the rearview mirror.

warning:

(objects in mirror are closer than they appear)

   When Jugs Iced Free Saved Humanity!

Meet one of the heroes

who iced those jugs.

Number One Ice Jugger With A Bullet

 

You think you're big enough to fill this, Kid?

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

—Benjamin Franklin

The Black Cat Cowboy Who Lost His Leg But Won The Girl

   April 18, 2024

   It's rare when horror stories have a happy ending. This is one of them.

Danny and Mary Romero

The Black Cat Cowboy

   Danny Romero is a Kingman kid who lost his leg, but won the girl. He was helping load 800 head of cattle on the Sevens, a storied ranch northeast of Seligman, Arizona, when he banged his knee on this loading chute.

The Loading Chute From Hell

   "I woke up ten days later looking up at a doctor who told me the infection—necrotizing fasciitis—was crawling up my leg an inch an hour. They took my leg and I was there for five weeks. In fact, I turned 36 in ICU. I was born on Route 66 and damn near died on 66."

—Danny Romero

Is It Too Early To Start On Volume III?

 April 17, 2024

   What is it about cheesy that sometimes can be so satisfying? Or put another way, some stuff can be so cheesy it's actually kind of endearing.

First Class Cheese? Or, So Bad It's Good?

   Sometimes cheesy is way too close to awful and sometimes classic literature is awful close to cheesy.

   Bottom line: get ready for some major cheese in The 66 Kids, Volume III.

   So, what exactly is cheesy? Basically cheesy is bad taste done so boldly it almost passes as good taste.

   Can you use "cheesy" in a sentence? Yes, a cheesy smile is wide but not sincere.

   Can you show me an example of a cheesy, goofball look? 

   Sure.

The Stifleman?

   Can you show me a photo of a certain granddaughter doing a cheesy pose?

   Absolutely.

Frances Mocks Up Some Major Cheese

Can you show me two cheeseballs who don't even mind if you call them that?

Marshall & Me Tee Hee Hee

"Two kids who have grown older but have never grown up."

—Some Critic With A Cheesy Sense of Humor