CHRISTIAN BALE RETURNS WEST FOR 'HOSTILES', PLUS WHO DO YOU BELIEVE IN 'TOMBSTONE-RASHOMON'?

Christian Bale

HOSTILES – A Film Review 

A decade ago, Christian Bale played the reluctant temporary deputy escorting outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crow) to a train in the remake of Elmore Leonard’s 3:10 TO YUMA. In HOSTILES, he’s more than reluctant; he’s defiant. A heroic, much-honored veteran of both the Civil War and Indian Wars, Cap. Joseph J. Blocker (Bale), is ordered to escort captive Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) back to his homeland in Montana, presumably to die. Having lost many friends at the hands of Yellow Hawk and his men, Blocker refuses, and it is only the threat of court martial, and loss of his pension, by Col. Briggs (Stephen Lang), that induces Blocker to transport Yellow Hawk and his family through deadly territory.

Jonathan Majors & Wes Studi

The movie becomes, in a sense, a ‘road picture’, with Blocker and Yellow Hawk gradually coming to grips with their intersecting pasts and their terrible memories. There are chance encounters along the way. En route they meet up with Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike, Oscar-nominated for GONE GIRL), a settler whose husband and three daughters have been piteously butchered by Comanches. Her mind shattered by her pain, she is brought along, and begins healing along the way. Soldiers and Cheyenne must do battle with Comanches, enemies of both. They’re also asked to transport a soldier to a court for trial and presumably a hanging – Sgt. Charles Wills (Ben Foster) hacked a family to pieces with an axe. Wills has a history with Blocker – they soldiered together – and Wills is eager to convince Blocker that his crimes are no worse than Blocker committed, and that they’re a pair of angels next to Yellow Hawk. Interestingly, Foster, who all but walked away with last year’s HELL OR HIGH WATER, as the bank-robbing brother with no off-switch, has a history with Bale, as he played Crow’s obsessively-loyal right-hand in 3:10 TO YUMA. Come to think of it, he all but walked off with that movie as well.

Rosamund Pike

HOSTILES, written and directed by Scott Cooper, based on a manuscript by the late Donald E. Stewart, an Oscar-winner for 1983’s MISSING, is a deeply felt story, peopled by soldiers, Indians and civilians who express their feelings with utmost caution.  Despite the familiar premise, the flow of the story, and the people who populate it, are happily unfamiliar. The cavalry soldiers assisting Blocker include a young Frenchman (Timothee Chalamet – currently starring in CALL ME BY YOUR NAME), a sergeant recently treated for melancholy (Rory Cochrane), and a loyal black corporal (Jonathan Majors) ironically in charge of chaining the Indians. It’s full of both quiet passages, and jarring, unflinching violence – in some ways it’s the SAVING PRIVATE RYAN of Westerns.  

Christian Bale & Adam Beach

Scott Cooper made CRAZY HEART with Jeff Bridges, but his Western credentials go back further, to his acting career, in GODS AND GENERALS, with Stephen Lang, and the excellent miniseries BROKEN TRAIL. Cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi, who also shot Cooper’s BLACK MASS, makes full, beautiful use of the New Mexico and Arizona locations, and at times effectively thrusts the viewer deeper into the action than we want to go. There is also frequently a classical look to the images – his doorway compositions are not merely an homage to John Ford, but a jumping-off point.

My one disappointment is that the excellent Adam Beach, who plays Yellow Hawk’s son, has virtually nothing to do. But with a performance by Bale that runs from barely contained fury to understated grace, and a story that is frequently grim, but never without hope, HOSTILES is one of the finest Westerns in several years. From Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, it opens in theatres on January 19^th.

TOMBSTONE – RASHOMON – Alex Cox at the O.K. Corral!

There is probably no more polarizing incident in the Old West than the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral or, as those involved demurely referred to it, ‘the difficulties.’ 132 years after the Earp and Cowboy factions faced each other, all that can be agreed upon is that 30 seconds after it started, Billy Clanton, and Frank and Tom McLaury were dead.  There is no consensus as to whether or not it was avoidable, and who was at fault.    

“I was a kid at grammar school in England, and in the school library was a copy of Stuart N. Lake’s book, WYATT EARP -- FRONTIER MARSHALL,” remembers wildly-independent filmmaker Alex Cox – whose previous Westerns include 1986’s punk neo-Spaghetti STRAIGHT TO HELL and ‘87’s classical WALKER. “I read that, and of course it’s a total hierography of Earp. But it was well-written, entertaining, and it got me interested in the subject.” His favorite of the films on the subject is John Ford’s 1946 MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. “It’s so beautiful. It doesn’t have a lot to do with the events; it’s a made-up story, for the purpose of entertaining and myth-making.” He also liked 1971’s DOC, “the anti-Earp version. And I kinda like TOMBSTONE – it’s a bit long, but it tells a bigger version of the story, so you know who Johnny Behan is, and Curly Bill Brocious, and all these guys who don’t normally make it into the story.”

Christine Doidge as Kate, Eric Schumacher as Doc 

To tell his own version, Cox took inspiration from Akira Kurosawa’s RASHOMON, 1951’s Best Foreign Film Oscar-winner. The story of a crime is told repeatedly from several different perspectives, and it’s up to the viewer to decide what to believe. RASHOMON, whose title refers to the gate of a walled city, was remade as a Western, THE OUTRAGE, in 1964, starring Paul Newman in the Toshiro Mifune role.

The premise is explained in the film’s opening title: “On 27 October, 1881, a time-travelling video crew arrived in Tombstone, Arizona, to film the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Realizing they were a day late, they started interviewing the survivors.”

Adam Newberry as Wyatt

Cox’s research is as journalistic as his premise is whimsical. The various tellings come directly from Judge Spicer’s hearings, and the coroner’s report. Those who testify include Wyatt Earp, Ike Clanton, Johnny Behan, and saloon-owner Roderick Hafford. Cox also uses newspaper interviews with Doc Holliday, and a letter ‘Big Nose Kate’ Haroney wrote to her niece. Talking-head interviews lead to filmed versions of each participant’s memories, which overlap, and oppose each other. Among events leading up to the shootout, Wyatt offered Ike Clanton a reward for turning in three men for stage-robbery and murder. But their versions of the proposed deal, and involvement of Doc Holiday, differ radically.  And when it comes to the walk-down, and Sheriff Johnny Behan’s words, do we believe Wyatt’s version, that Behan said he’d disarmed the Cowboys, or Behan’s version, that he said he was there to disarm them?

The casting-for-resemblance is striking: Adam Newberry as sulky Wyatt, Eric Schumacher as manic Doc, and Benny Lee Kennedy as Ike seem to have emerged from the pages of The Tombstone Epitaph. Kennedy’s Ike is unexpectedly sympathetic, but Christine Doidge, as Kate, walks off with the movie as a character who is by turns hilarious, tragic, savvy and innocent. Doidge recalls, “Alex had given (Kate) a real space to be herself. Which is great, because he could have easily written this film without her, or with her in one scene; I think having Kate’s perspective is important.”

Hafford's - Richard Anderson as Hafford, 

Benny Lee Kennedy as Ike

It wasn’t a film easily put together. After a “disastrous” crowd-funding campaign, Cox spent a month preparing at Old Tucson, accomplishing the impossible. “We shot a five-week movie in a week.” Having recently taught a learn-by-doing film-production class at University of Colorado Boulder, making the feature BILL THE GALACTIC HERO, he hired several ex-students as crew. 

The real Hafford's Saloon

Cinematographer Alana Murphy remembers, “I was an assistant camera for HERO.  I suppose I made an impression. When I graduated in 2015, Alex said, hey, I’ve got a project I might want your help with - very mysterious.” A year later she was cinematographer on her first feature. She loved working with Cox. “He starts with a lot of inspiration; he gave me a lot of homework, a lot of films to watch, that inspired. That’s how I got to know him, through the source material.”  The biggest challenge?  “The heat. We were having technical issues with batteries not lasting very long. And we were working on a bigger scale then I’m used to.”

Production Designer Melissa Erdman marveled at Cox’s ability to pull it off. “Alex really had great planning skills in the way that the film was structured. So we had an ‘A’ unit and a ‘B’ unit operating pretty much the entire shoot: the B unit was doing the interviews, and the A unit was shooting the various reenactments.” Recreating the interior of Roderick Haffords’ Corner Saloon, famous for hundreds of pictures of birds on its walls, required major planning.  “We had a pretty limited team – it was me, and my art director, who helped to construct the inside of Hafford’s. We had two days of load-in, and most of the stuff came pre-painted, and then putting the bar together, and then getting all the birds put up. I had three people cutting out birds for two days.”

Cox, like Kurosawa, has no intention of telling the viewer if any version of the shoot-out is the unvarnished truth, but he gives each speaker, without pre-judging, a chance to state his or her case. While some differences are flagrant, some are surprisingly subtle. Doidge remembers that after the shootout, as Kate remembers it, “When Doc comes back, grazed by a bullet, I’m there, and I’m horrified.  And in Doc’s version he’s just sitting on the bed by himself. I’m not there.”

TOMBSTONE – RASHOMON will be available on video in 2018 – stay tuned for details!

SILENTS DESCENDS ON THE AUTRY - AND OTHER AUTRY NEWS 

For years The Autry has had their monthly ‘What is a Western?’ screening series – they’re showing STAGECOACH on January 20^th -- and every second month they screen a Gene Autry double feature. They’re now adding a new film series, The Silent Treatment, featuring silent Westerns with a live piano accompaniment by Cliff Retallick, starting on January 27^th with James Cruze’s epic, THE COVERED WAGON (1923). 

Also at the Autry, on Tuesday, January 16^th, Rob Word’s Cowboy Lunch and Word on Western series, Rob will look at the role of women and children in Western films, and Rob always gets terrific guests.

HENRY PARKE WINS WWA'S 'TWEET US A WESTERN' CONTEST! 

I don’t mean to brag, but like Ralphie’s old man, I just won a Major Award. I won first place in the Western Writers of America’s ‘Tweet Us A Western’ contest, where you were challenged to write a complete Western story in 280 characters or less – the length of a tweet.  My winning entry was as follows:

“Eureka!” shouted the old sourdough, sluicing the last of Columbia River silt from his pan to reveal the glitter of color. He straightened.

'Thwack!' The Indian's arrow pierced his back between the shoulders. For a moment he knew his gold rush was over. Then he knew nothing.

...AND THAT'S A WRAP!

...and my New Years resolution is to get the Round-Up out a lot more frequently in 2018. I've got a huge backlog of stories and interviews, and books and movies to review, and I'll get to them as soon as I can. In the meantime, please check out the February 2018 True West, where we asked readers to help us choose the Most Historically Accurate Westerns. And in my column, I take a look at continuing popularity of  The High Chaparral series. Have a wonderful 2018!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright January 2018 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved

WHO IS MORGAN KANE?

That’s what the teaser poster asks, the eyes of the cowboy in the picture obscured by the angle of his battered Stetson, his right hand touching the brim, but probably not tipping it to a lady. What kind of a man is Morgan Kane? There’s a popular song by Benny Borg and the Penthouse Playboys, called A Man Like Morgan Kane, or the Ballad of Morgan Kane – you can find several versions on Youtube. But it won’t help you much, unless you happen to speak Norwegian.

You see, Morgan Kane is the most popular Western character in Norway. In 1893, Karl May took the German-speaking world by storm with his Winnetou and Old Shatterhand Western tales. Three quarters of a century later, a Norwegian banker named Kjell Hallbing did the same with Morgan Kane. Hallbing changed his own name to Louis Masterson, and between 1966 and 1978 – just twelve years -- he wrote 83 novels about the Texas Ranger and U.S. Marshall. They’ve sold twenty-million copies internationally – ten million in Norway alone, which has a population of only five million! They’re popular in Spain and France and Germany and, translated into English, they sold well in Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada by Corgi Books.

But they’ve never been sold in the United States until now. Now several of the western tales are about to be issued here as e-books, which is why, a little more than a week ago, a crew gathered at Peter Sherayko’s Caravan West Ranch, to photograph ‘covers’ for the eBooks.

John Michaels, President of Production for WR Films explained, “We’re redoing the covers to make them a little more interactive, so when you go to the site to download the book, you see the cover, hit it, and you’ll get a two or three second video. We’re going to sell these e-books globally, as part of our awareness campaign for the film franchise.”

Because, just like you guessed, it’s really all about movies. The plan is to start with three movies. The first, to be titled MORGAN KANE: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS, will be based on two of the Kane novels, EL GRINGO and EL GRINGO’S REVENGE. Ryan Wiik, who created WR Films to make the Morgan Kane films, is from Norway, but with scarcely a hint of an accent. When the crew broke for lunch, I asked him how he pulled the project together.

RYAN: (laughs) I worked day and night for the last four years, almost. I was sitting with an investor in Spain, and we were talking about another movie project. And then he said, “You will do well with this. But what you really need to do, Ryan, is Morgan Kane.” And I didn’t even know what Morgan Kane was. He said, “It’s James Bond of the West. You need to do this.” It’s weaved through (American) history, the same way as Forrest Gump; it’s based on this book series that’s sold 20 million copies, and I was one generation too late for it. So I had to start researching, and reading the books. I’ve read forty or fifty by now.

HENRY: Wow, out of 83?

RYAN: (laughs) I’m playing catch-up. I’ve spent about two years securing the rights, pulling the people together that I thought were the right ones to do this. Started WR Films, and we’re getting closer.

HENRY: So today you’re shooting eBook covers.

RYAN: That is correct. We thought (the covers) needed modernizing; each cover will show the essential scene of each book.

HENRY: How many covers do you plan to do – not all 83, I assume.

RYAN: Over a few days, twenty-two covers.

HENRY: What kind of a hero is Morgan Kane?

RYAN: He’s more of an anti-hero. He drinks too much, he smokes too much – it’s always a battle with this guy.

HENRY: Do you think that’s a lot of his appeal?

RYAN: I think so; it makes him easy to identify with. Because he’s not this over-muscled man (who does) everything with the flick of a finger. He goes through a lot of struggles, he’s afraid of dying, and he gets nauseous whenever he kills someone. But he’s so focused, and trains so hard. It’s part of what sets him apart, but it’s more complex than that.

(John Michaels consults storyboards)


HENRY: Were you a big western fan before you got involved in this project?

RYAN: No, I wasn’t really. This is a new world to me. And it’s extraordinary to get back to the elements with this thing. I grew up in Norway, and the Wild West – I always liked it; I just was not a western buff.

(Peter Sherayko tells propman Zack Smith and Kyle Kalama how not to handle a single-action Colt)

HENRY: Are you influenced by any other western books or movies?

RYAN: I’ve been researching a lot of movies, watching everything -- THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. I’m trying to go through all the stuff I should have seen. And as far as books – I’ve got enough with these books, trying to get through all the material. I think the first movie will be what BATMAN BEGINS was for Batman, the origin. And we’re very excited about it.

(plenty of artillery to choose from)

A couple of days later I spoke again to John Michaels, who had just been looking at some of the footage. He was in a very good mood. “We felt good about it when we were shooting it, but it exceeded our expectations. We’re very satisfied with the performances. The costumes were very authentic, thanks to our consultant Peter Sherayko. We have some really great material to promote the project further.”

Michaels has a long history in film financing and producing in both the U.S. and Europe, but actually began on the other side of the camera. “I started my internship as an actor, in a film called THE ZERO BOYS in 1984. I wanted to learn more about the process, the physical production, so I started as an assistant to the producer, and I learned hands on how to do it.

(Costumer Nikki Pelley gets to act as well)

“One thing I found about working internationally for many years is there’s an absolute interest still in the United States, especially anything to do with the western genre and the desert and landscapes of the west. It peaks their curiosity much more than anything on the east coast: the rugged West. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and the west was always something of a fantasy to me. The discovery was when we travelled west on vacation, and it was everything we thought it was; it was boundless.

“But I learned (that Westerns) were not the most salable. It represented more risk than action-adventure or sci-fi. Certainly through the 1940s,’50s, ‘60s, ‘70s the western genre was very hot, especially domestically, before foreign markets became very important in the financing of films. People are still fascinated by the western genre of yesteryear, but the future has to have a hook. I don’t think you can do a traditional western per se, unless it’s a TNT original or other cable movie, where you don’t need big numbers for recoupment. People like to watch them; they’re family-safe generally.

“But our picture will be for adults. There will be violence in it – love, lust, money, greed, temptation, betrayal: all those wonderful things that make a theatrical picture. It’s going to be an actioner that can carry to foreign markets, appealing to the domestic, too, who warm up to these kinds of pictures, as evidenced by TRUE GRIT, and of course COWBOYS & ALIENS that is opening this weekend.”

There’s still a lot to do. They’re talking to directors and actors, but no one is set yet. They will be making announcements soon. And a first draft of the script is coming soon. “The script is being written while we speak. We have a very edgy writer who read the books and has a great understanding of the characters, of story. We’re expecting a first draft the first week in August. He’s an interesting guy, but he’s not a marquee name, at least not yet.”

What’s the approach to casting Morgan Kane? “It’ll more than likely be a non-familiar face. We’re going to break a new star with Morgan Kane, and have a very visible supporting cast to surround him. People won’t have a prejudice against this person coming in. They’ll see him as Morgan Kane – that’s our hope.

(Megan Albertus getting made-up to look man-handled)

“Our plan is to do it in New Mexico. It has the correct terrain, that stark western sagebrush look; also we’re enticed by the New Mexico tax incentive. And we feel that they have competent crews that’ve been established over the years. We want to make a big picture and put all the money onscreen.”

Kjell Hallbing died in 2004. I wondered how his son feels about the project. “He’s excited. There’s always been people who wanted to film Morgan Kane. There was a Norwegian television movie made about him, but it wasn’t very good, and that’s all that’s been done. We’re doing it on a large Hollywood scale. I think it’s going to be a real tribute to his father, and he’d love to see that happen.”

(Ardishir Radpour slightly ahead)

AMC’S ‘HELL ON WHEEL’S GETS PLAYDATE!

AMC announced today on Thursday that their Western series HELL ON WHEELS, centered on the building of the trans-continental railroad, will premiere on Sunday, November 6th, following an episode of their highly successful THE WALKING DEAD.

Starring Anson Mount, Colm Meany, Wes Studi, and Common, it follows Mount’s character, a former Confederate soldier out to avenge his wife’s death. The title refers to the traveling saloons, brothels and gambling dens that moved on wheels to follow the track-layers -- Historian Stephen Ambrose wrote a wonderful book on the subject by the same title. Here’s a preview:





BBC AMERICA ANNOUNCES NEW ‘EASTERN’ DRAMA SERIES

Not a Western but still of great interest, COPPER will take place in 19th Century New York City. It’s the story of a young Irish cop in the infamous, teeming immigrant community of Five Points, the area brilliantly portrayed in Herbert Asbury’s history, GANGS OF NEW YORK, later filmed by Martin Scorcese. The flatfoot will also be dealing with the black community of Harlem, and Manhattan high society. The first-ever original drama from BBC America, it will lens in Toronto, Canada starting this fall, and begin airing next summer. It will have a ten episode season.

It’s co-created by writer/producer Tom Fontana, who won Emmys for writing HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET and ST. ELSEWHERE, and recently wrote BORGIAS, and writer/producer Will Rokos, who was Oscar-nominated for writing MONSTERS BALL. In addition to Fontana and Rokos, series will be also exec-produced by Christina Wayne, late of AMC, where she exec’d on MAD MEN and the terrific BROKEN TRAIL, and Barry Levinson, whose writing, directing and producing credits would take all day to list, who won his Oscar for directing RAIN MAN, and is in pre-production to direct Al Pacino as GOTTI.


‘UNTITLED WESTERN’ ACTUALLY TITLED ‘THE MASTER’

In Facebook on Thursday I reported that a movie was being shot around 5th and Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles. My informant told me that there were many dress extras bustling about, and a glimpse in a production truck had revealed paperwork referring to the film as ‘Untitled Western.’ Further investigation on Friday revealed more, and the fact that the film was neither untitled nor a western, and I was not asked to say more until the location wrapped on Saturday.

The film is ‘THE MASTER,’ and the period is the 1950s. It’s a work by writer director Paul Thomas Anderson, who has previously brought you such films as BOOGIE NIGHTS, MAGNOLIA and THERE WILL BE BLOOD. Apparently The Master fiction story parallels the story of an actual religion started in the 1950s, and still quite active, and the filmmakers wish to keep a low profile. It stars Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix.

TCM FANATIC - WESTERN NOW ONLINE!

That's right, the segment I was interviewed for is now viewable here:




THE AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER

Built by cowboy actor, singer, baseball and TV entrepeneur Gene Autry, and designed by the Disney Imagineering team, the Autry is a world-class museum housing a fascinating collection of items related to the fact, fiction, film, history and art of the American West. In addition to their permenant galleries (to which new items are frequently added), they have temporary shows. The Autry has many special programs every week -- sometimes several in a day. To check their daily calendar, CLICK HERE. And they always have gold panning for kids every weekend. For directions, hours, admission prices, and all other information, CLICK HERE.

HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM

Across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, this building, once the headquarters of Lasky-Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) was the original DeMille Barn, where Cecil B. DeMille made the first Hollywood western, The Squaw Man. They have a permanent display of movie props, documents and other items related to early, especially silent, film production. They also have occasional special programs. 2100 Highland Ave., L.A. CA 323-874-2276. Thursday – Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. $5 for adults, $3 for senior, $1 for children.

WELLS FARGO HISTORY MUSEUM

This small but entertaining museum gives a detailed history of Wells Fargo when the name suggested stage-coaches rather than ATMS. There’s a historically accurate reproduction of an agent’s office, an original Concord Coach, and other historical displays. Open Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Admission is free. 213-253-7166. 333 S. Grand Street, L.A. CA.


FREE WESTERNS ON YOUR COMPUTER AT HULU

A staggering number of western TV episodes and movies are available, entirely free, for viewing on your computer at HULU. You do have to sit through the commercials, but that seems like a small price to pay. The series available -- often several entire seasons to choose from -- include THE RIFLEMAN, THE CISCO KID, THE LONE RANGER, BAT MASTERSON, THE BIG VALLEY, ALIAS SMITH AND JONES, and one I missed from 2003 called PEACEMAKERS starring Tom Berenger. Because they are linked up with the TV LAND website, you can also see BONANZA and GUNSMOKE episodes, but only the ones that are running on the network that week.

The features include a dozen Zane Grey adaptations, and many or most of the others are public domain features. To visit HULU on their western page, CLICK HERE.

TV LAND - BONANZA and GUNSMOKE

Every weekday, TV LAND airs a three-hour block of BONANZA episodes from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. They run a GUNSMOKE Monday through Thursday at 10:00 a.m., and on Friday they show two, from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m.. They're not currently running either series on weekends, but that could change at any time.

NEED YOUR BLACK & WHITE TV FIX?

Check out your cable system for WHT, which stands for World Harvest Television. It's a religious network that runs a lot of good western programming. Your times may vary, depending on where you live, but weekdays in Los Angeles they run DANIEL BOONE at 1:00 p.m., and two episodes of THE RIFLEMAN from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.. On Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. it's THE RIFLEMAN again, followed at 2:30 by BAT MASTERSON. And unlike many stations in the re-run business, they run the shows in the original airing order. There's an afternoon movie on weekdays at noon, often a western, and they show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic.

RFD-TV has begun airing THE ROY ROGERS SHOW on Sundays at 9:00 a.m., with repeats the following Thursday and Saturday.

Also, AMC has started showing two episodes of THE RIFLEMAN on Saturday mornings.

On Saturday mornings at 8:00 a.m. Pacific time, TCM is showing two chapters of ZORRO RIDES AGAIN, Republic’s fine western action serial, starring John Carroll, Duncan Renaldo, and featuring action directed by John English and William Whitney.

WHY THE ROUND-UP MAY SAY ‘HAPPY TRAILS’ TO TWITTER

When I started writing the Round-up about a year and a half ago, skeptics told me I’d never find any readers because you can’t balance a laptop on a saddle. I went ahead anyway, and thanks to you good people, I know I’m not wasting my time. For the record, I’m averaging now better than 2,600 hits a month, and growing. A few months ago I added a Facebook page, so that when news stories broke I wouldn’t have to keep rewriting the Round-up, and the Facebook page has been very successful as well.

I’d been encouraged to add a Twitter feed, but I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. It seemed to me that it was repetitive of Facebook, and not as good: you’re so restricted in the number of characters that about all you can say is ‘See Facebook page.’ Besides, no one cares what I’m doing every minute – not even me. And Tweeting stuff like, ‘Am waiting on line for C’boys n Aliens’ is like saying, “I’ll be away from my home for three hours if you’d like to rob it.”

But I thought I’d give it a try. I started my Twitter feed, and immediately had four followers: women so beautiful that I don’t believe any of them are real. Over the next several weeks I Tweeted interesting stories, and soon had six followers! I thought I was making progress. In truth, I had already peaked. I am now down to two followers, an actual Western person, and a beautiful woman from Alabama who likes NPR. Today I was checking for interesting stories, and came across a man who had just come back from seeing Cowboys & Aliens, and loved it. Great! I reTweeted it to all of (both) of my followers. Then I realized that the original message had come from my one Western guy, and I had Tweeted it back to him! And to the beautiful NPR-fancier in Alabama. I feel like a horse who’s been chasing his own tail. So unless anyone has a good reason not to, I’m going to let that last Tweet by my Twitter swan song.

That's it for tonight, folks! Keep an eye Facebook for updates, and on Twitter if you have nothing else to do! Next week, Part One of my interview with TV's BRONCO LAYNE, TY HARDIN!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All contents Copyright July 2011 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved