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First things being first.. A handful of New Additions from across the country are now available. And as mentioned last time, all of the newest, "New Additions" will appear first on the Jim Tunell Photography Face Book page... Next, and I'm inclined to say worst (but an item or two down, adds some needed perspective), I had a computer problem which cost me an entire RoadNotes that was just about to be posted...these are the things that will eventually put me in my grave. That said, this is RoadNotes "Lite"
And still more, after a bit of a respite, Samantha Harvey, a very gifted friend of mine has decided (at least one more time) to venture out on-the-road and offer her considerable equine skills in the form of her highly successful clinics. If you've ever wanted to immerse yourself in a total learning experience, now is the time to host a clinic in your area. Sam can be reached at The Equestrian Center On a more somber note, a very good man passed on just recently...he brought some wonderful art to the world and some sage advice to his friends. His name was Michael Kabotie of 2nd Mesa at Hopi...Michael was a victim of the swine flu which lead to other complications and it took him too soon.
In light of the fact that in Hopi (and others) traditions, the soul departs this world on the fourth day after the passing. I just keep wondering if it was more than coincidence that on the morning of the fifth day after Michael, who was of the Snow Clan, departed, the reservation received it's first and what officials called an "unseasonably early" dumping of the white stuff. This all brings to mind that a long ago friend had passed recently and reminded me of a long ago bet we had made one crazy night...each wagering that we would be the first to go. It's a bet I never looked forward to winning, and despite what I would have expected, there was no comfort in losing this one either. If Time Is Money By my calculations President Obama owes me more than just the bail out average Americans seem to be missing, he owes me more than a few days of my life.
You see, the only evidence of a "stimulus" I have seen in all of my travels is the one that has lead to the tearing up of every major highway in the west...if I see one more sign touting that the government is "Putting America To Work", why I'll...I'll...sit in traffic along with the rest of America while we try to get to our jobs...you know, the ones no one handed to us? Random Thought At a recent show, a female artist with a last name I had never seen before passed by my booth and made me ponder, would a male or female child get it worse on the school yard? The name you ask? Manlove..hmmm... Both Feet In Mouth...And Maybe a Leg As Well! I need a few more feet this RoadNotes as two were clearly not enough and it all started when an old cowboy entered my booth in Las Cruces, Nm. I greeted him as I often do, with a, "If any of the images need a who, what, or a where, just SHOUT!" But the words were just leaving my mouth when the grizzled man dipped deep into his pocket and pulled something out, where upon he put a voice valve to his throat and informed me, "That's going to be kinda hard... I just had a tracheotomy." Not knowing when to quit, I decided to engage yet another elderly rancher, who despite no ill intentions, slighted me a bit when he said, "Well these are sure nice picture frames anyway."
As I said, I did think he intended to slight the photographs, but just to remind him that that is how it came across, I replied, "Well thanks a lot, that's like your dentist telling you the teeth are okay, but the gums have got to go'" The man immediately winced and said, "Don't say that! That's what they just told me!" He then opened his mouth wide to show me a mouth the likes I have never seen before...outside a Mr. Ed episode anyway. And this past weekend brought yet one more awkward moment, when a very nice couple asked me to assist them in finding an image for their "dear friend" who was about to me married. It seems the friend loves Native American cultures, so that was where I focused and knew "just" the picture. It took me a moment to find it, but I was so proud to offer the perfect image...it's an Anasazi petroglyph of a Hopi girl in the birthing squat giving birth...it's particularly unique as she is depicted wearing the " butterfly buns" which are worn only by maidens. Given she is bearing a child in the image, it is clear she is no longer a maiden.
As I explained the significance of this and that given the woman might be starting a new family someday and then related the fertility aspect of the carving, she gently put her hand on my arm and said, "Probably not the best one for her...she had her uterus removed a few weeks back.. They walked away empty handed, perhaps fearing any more of my insightful gift giving ideas. I Won't Hold My Breath. There comes a time when selling anything that you think you have received all of the excuses you might ever hear from a customer as to why they "won't be buying today". In fact, every artist I know is eagerly awaiting the day when all of those loyal customers who are "building a new house" will actually build the damn thing and finally return to buy all of those pieces of his work they plan to "fill" that new house with.... So when you hear one or in this case two in the course of a day that leaves you perplexed and wondering why the person felt the need to explain, it always makes for fun and further fodder... On this day an elderly gentleman had pulled more than 20 prints from my meticulously categorized print bins only to spread them all of the ground in some master schematic that seemed to make sense in his head if not through his eyes.
Now it's rare for this many images to come out and undergo this much scrutiny without a sizable percentage of them going home, but today was a day to be perplexed, for as the man had his assistant retrieve all of the outlayed images from the ground, he approached me with an extended hand and assured me that when his book of cowboy "haiku" found a publisher, he'd be sure to use "a bunch" of my images... it may be short sighted of me and perhaps I've underestimated this man's gift for poetry, but given the market for cowboy haiku these days, I decided against putting the prints aside for him as he had asked and returned them to their appropriate bins.
My next brush with success came when a young couple pushing a stroller spent what I call quality time absorbing each and every image I had brought... now this is always a good sign especially when the husband is as involved in the decision making process as the wife is, but it is rarely as a good a sign as the pushing of the stroller is a bad one and on this day the curse of the stroller won the day yet again. For as they had digested all of the images they could and some then again, the young woman, who was also pregnant, approached me and said that they "absolutely love my work" and that while they were not in a position to buy right now, once the new baby was born in a few months and they had "one more", they would then have some "extra cash" and be ready to buy. I've admitted math was never my forte, but looking back, and if my dad were alive he'd back me up, baby plus two more rarely results in "extra cash"... but then I've been known to look at the half full aspect of certain things. Famous In Pecos Accolades and recognition was never a motivator in my life so it surely isn't the impetus behind all of this picture taking, but if my goals should ever change, I think I found the perfect place to make my name known You see as I was stopped in Monahans Sand Hills State park in West Texas recently, I was conducting my usual research to find something in the area that was worthy of America's vanishing west. Now as a town Pecos, Texas has always been a noted name in the west, but it wasn't until I explored some of it's history that I realized that as a legendary town from the past, it had produced very few legendary citizens of it's own. In fact, wikipedia states that it's most prominent residents over the years have been Abel Talamantez of the Kumbia Kings, Tejano singer Esmi Talamantez both of whom were born and raised in Pecos, and in 1976, a team of local citizens appeared in the ABC television competition Almost Anything Goes.
Now offciandos of the west would likely say that Clay Allison, the "Gentleman Gunfighter" is a more famous resident of Pecos than those above, but in fairness it should be admitted, that Clay "He Never Killed a Man That Didn't Need Killing" Allison didn't truly take up residence until 1883 when he was buried there. So with that in mind, if my priorities should ever change in life and fame be the name of the game, I have my eye on a little town with a big history in west Texas. A Case of Mistaken Identity...parts 1 & 2 I've assumed things many a time in life and I've been told an equal number of times to stop, by those who were confused that I would ever 'think such a thing', so when it happens to me, I guess I should be less than surprised. As I concluded a sale in Las Cruces (boy this town is ripe with RoadNotes material) the woman buyer said "Would it possible to write a favorite passage from the bible on the mat underneath these pictures in calligraphy?" Now any sales pro will tell you that you never want to tell the customer no, at the same time, I could just see these pictures being returned to me when the prints didn't end up looking like she wanted, but I encouraged her nonetheless. "Sure", I said, "I like to use a paint pen when I sign these, so I think that would work best." As I showed her the pen, she handed me the pictures and said, "Use whatever you like." That awkward moment of stunned silence was me deciding whether it was more embarrassing was to admit that I don't have favorite a bible passage or even know one, or that I had never mastered coloring 101, much less calligraphy...oh well, the check cleared. I was equally confounded when after a recent very lengthy and in depth discussion of Native American culture and our mutual interest in them, a gentleman asked me if I would be working with any specific tribes in the future? I told him that it was such a time intensive process to become accepted into the tribes to gain enough trust, that I was going to approach things a bit differently now and speak directly with the tribal councils directly...for while I was still open to doing pow-wows, I really wanted to concentrate on doing more of the actual ceremonial dances, as I felt they were more fleeting and I had enjoyed doing them so much in the past.
The man had a very quizzical look on his face and paused for a moment before he said, "Wow, I never would have guessed it by looking at you, you must be one hell of a dancer." As he walked away, leaving me wondering where I had lost him, I could only think that was the second time in my life I had been oddly mistaken for a "hell of a dancer" and each time, they walked away not knowing the difference and me never wanting to dance again. Coming Soon to a Town Near You... When I venture around the West and listen to it's people, I can't imagine this ever happening... when I turn on the news and listen to our politicians, I can't imagine it won't. I'm Counting on an Afterlife Otherwise I would have no doubt killed a recent visitor to my booth. What I have failed to mention in my previous references to the show in Las Cruces, NM is that this fair bills itself as a renaissance fair when in reality it has turned into something less than that and more into a conventional art show. Had it been a true renaissance fair, I would never attend and others had assured me that this was not the case, but that didn't stop about a third of the crowd from dressing up for the festivities, and one of them decided to engage me. Despite knowing he was not among those I consider to be in my customer base, (there was no way in hell he was going to buy anything) I was my usual delightful self when I greeted him with a friendly, "Howdy!" With rage in his eyes and venom in his (prissy) tongue, he lashed out and said, "How about leaving that cowboy crap at home for one weekend and try something like, "Good morrow" (good morning I'm now told). He was still easily within my grasp, but I quickly recalled that worse trouble would likely ensue, just as it had when I attended a Halloween party sans costume many years ago. Random Thought Good dog bad dog...Diesel got sheep grass in his ear and cost me money to get it out...Chief got sheep grass in his ear and shook his head till it came out which didn't cost me money...Chief is a good dog, Diesel is a bad dog...sometimes life is simple. Yet More Proof We're a Nation in Decline!
Ok, I'm going to keep this one simple, the words Insane killer field trip and county fair, should NEVER be in the same article. The end. Next up...it's a phenomenon I had become aware of, but had never witnessed first hand and now that I have, it's one that defies belief. Folks...I saw my first "reborn baby"!. And it was nursing from a bottle at a show in Wichita Falls, Tx. If any of you out there can shed some light into the minds of these women and what this is all about, please let me know. On the other hand, just unsubscribe, knowing it makes sense to someone I know, will only keep me up more than I already am. Apparently the woman pictured here is more comfortable with her own body than I am with mine and she certainly should be applauded for her on target, self-effacing humor, but is the bag she's sporting really too much? I'm sure you can't see the bag, so I'll help you, it has a cartoon mule logo accompanied by words that read, "Does This Bag Make My Ass Look Big?" Lastly and as I said above, I have many a sleepless night courtesy of my own restless mind, so this kind of story is just the medicine I don't need when I'm trying to get that elusive shut eye...come to think of it, I don't need it when I'm wide awake either, but nobody asks me... On a positive note and one on which I intend to end all future "Decline" columns, it oddly brings me some degree of comfort that there are still (no pun intended) a few American traditionalistsout there tweaking convention and thumbing their noses at authorities...ok, that out of my system, I promise to raise the bar on my great American experiences in the future, so don't unsubscribe just yet Random Thought How is that I know when my truck is going to break down, yet I can't choose even one number correctly in a Powerball?
When A Bad Life Gets Worse... I can't imagine that any part of being homeless is ever a "walk in the park", but I guess it can get worse when even a walk in the park is no walk in the park. As I walked the dogs early one morning, in a park north of Wichita Falls, I greeted a homeless fella and in passing, noticed that his backpack was open and he was about to lose some things. I yelled to him, but he continued without stopping as did we and as we did, we stumbled upon many belongings he had lost along the way, including his toothbrush kit, beef jerky, a rugby shirt (homeless athletes?) and an item he will no doubt notice he was missing when it is all too late. Random Thought Not sure how many shades of white there are, but the one that describes a bunch of cowboys in a cold campground shower at 5 in the morning wouldn't look good on anyone's walls. Things I've Learned: It's hard to sell anything to a man in a "Bite This!" t-shirt. There is no place I have found that is so pristine, so magnificent, so grand, that a man won't think twice about leaving his fouled underwear behind.. I like everything in your average trail mix, I just don't like trail mix. If Willow doesn't stop rolling in stuff I can't see, but can smell, I'll soon have a comfortable, curly brown, rug. Bad haircuts and bad towns seem to go together. And if you will settle for a bad haircut in a bad town, make sure the "stylist" doesn't have McMuffins waiting for her...if not, be prepared to wear a hat for a while. I use to listen to trains go by and wonder where they're going...now I'm glad I'm not going with...I like where I am. There are no straight roads in Arkansas. Customers who make suggestions, never buy anything. The best thing that ever happened to me, hasn't happened to me yet. It's easy to clear a bar full of drunken louts without calling the cops or employing brain dead bouncers... just switch the big screen TV from baseball to a show called, "Natures Most Amazing Events". First, the loudest and most annoying yell even louder, then they laugh uncomfortably as the baby elephant struggles to get to its feet, they then grow silent along with the rest of the crowd as it takes its last breathe and goes still...this is when then they leave the bar ... quietly, humbly..and thanking the bartender as they do. I know, cause I saw it happen. When faced with someone you'd rather not spend much time with and asked, "How are you?" quietly respond with, "Fine, I just "can't seem to shake this nasty swine flu." They're pretty sure you're not serious, but they move along in any event...throw in a cough for effect if you like. Sometimes a friend needs to know some things in life are not too far, too high,or too hard to try...don't be surprised if they don't recognize you as a friend at that point though. Always say market, never say slaughter, as in cows go to market, not slaughter. Slaughter kills both the beef and the sale I plan my life like a marathon and live it like a sprint...not sure a person can live like that...not sure I know how to do it any other way. It's still fun to put a penny on the train tracks. And lastly, I've found a dose of humility is never a bad thing and it is always right around the corner whether one likes it or not, so before it sneaks up on me, i like to self induce, that said... If you want to feel powerless walk beside a Northern Pacific train as it rumbles by. If you want to feel small walk in Idaho Grizzly bear country without a weapon. If you want to feel vulnerable, take a stroll in the Bonneville salt flats on a summer day without water. If you want to feel selfish visit a ANY pediatric cancer ward this Christmas. Until next time....be well and as always, please excuse any typos (and you know who you are) and most importantly, "Save a Horse, Ride a Mustang."
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