Month: September 2015

My favorite magazine, The Blues Magazine out of the UK (subscribe at www.teamrockmags.com), just ran a terrific article on me and my blues book, Legends of the Blues, in their current issue (September 2015, Issue #24).

As a happy coincidence, that issue features the great Buddy Guy on the cover. I’ll be seeing Mr. Guy soon, as he’s headlining my October Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise. He will also be featured in my third blues volume, Modern Legends of the Blues.

Here’s the first page of my article:

The well-illustrated (eleven full color pictures, two of them full page) article talks about the origins of my book, but also includes my personal commentary on eleven of my choices for the book, information that is not in the text of Legends of the Blues. Here’s another page from the six-page article:

On this same subject, I just heard from my editor at Abrams ComicArts that Legends of the Blues is going into a second printing. Woo hoo! Great news, indeed!

Ben Cauley, the trumpet player for the Bar-Kays and the sole survivor of the tragic 1967 Otis Redding plane crash, has passed at the age of 67.

Several years ago, Industrial Light and Magic asked me to be the designer of their first foray into themed entertainment design. This job took me to Memphis, Tennessee. I won’t go into the whole project here, just that it involved a celebration of four kinds of music that emanated from Memphis. Our guide to the soul music aspect of this project was David Porter, half of the famous Porter-Hayes (the “Hayes” being Isaac) songwriting team, responsible for hits like “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Comin'”.

He took my team out to a Beale Street music club for some live Memphis soul music.

It wasn’t long before I became uncomfortable. Something didn’t feel right. I looked around the room. There were no African Americans in the club.

I leaned over to Dave and asked if we could go to a black club. He lit up.

“Oh — you want the Real Thing!”

“Indeed I do.”

Dave made some quick calls, then we jumped into a cab and drove to the heart of black Memphis. The club owner seemed very surprised to see a couple of white guys strolling into his venue but Dave assured him we were OK and there for the music.

Dave had called in some favors. We got to see two incredible performances that night. One was by the powerful Ruby Johnson, whose version of Sam Cooke‘s “A Change Is Gonna Come” brought me to tears.

The other was by Ben Cauley, who sang and played up a storm that night, covering all the Bar-Kays hits and more. Although it had been many years since the fateful crash that took Otis and most of the band, when we talked about it Ben still seemed extremely haunted by the event. He easily teared up at the memory of the horrors he witnessed, the pain all over his face.

I will never forget the fine, kind and deeply human soul that was Mister Ben Cauley.

Rest in Peace, dear good man.

I am really looking forward to my guesting at this weekend’s Salt Lake City Comic Con!

I was born in SLC on the way to Los Angeles. I’ve got lots of family there and the Convention Center is close to the huge Mormon center where all of Arnold Friberg‘s original paintings for the Book of Mormon are on display. Woo hoo!

The Masters of the Universe screening and Q & A afterwards last Friday night went extremely well. Packed house, great questions.

I had a mediocre birthday dinner at the El Cholo in Pasadena. The original El Cholo on Western Avenue is one of the three oldest restaurants in Los Angeles (they have the best chile rellenos, nachos and cheese enchiladas in L. A….and their seasonal green corn tamales — YUM!). It was name-checked by Warren Beatty‘s character in Shampoo. Unfortunately, the food at their Pasadena subsidiary is but a pale shadow of the quality of their original location’s cuisine. Quite frankly, I’ll never eat at the Pasadena El Cholo ever again.

On a brighter note, I had my son Andy pick up a Small Party Platter from Bludso’s in Compton yesterday (Sunday). Serving us (four adults, two grandsons) enough food for a small army, Bludso’s is famed L. A. Times Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold‘s pick for the best BBQ in Los Angeles.

He’s right! Everything was amazing, especially the ribs, chicken and beef brisket. Absolutely loaded with smoky flavor! Like eating meat if meat was candy! Bludso’s, you made my day (and made up for that crappy meal at El Cholo)!

Back to Business: Continuing a new series of sales of original William Stout art related to Outer Limits, from an Outer Limits-themed art exhibition.

Black & white inks on acid-free heavy paper card stock.
Size: 11″ x 8.5″″.
$650 (matted and framed).

It’s for sale in the “Original Art” section in my website Store‘s Bazaar.

Yup; it’s my birthday. Another turn around the sun. What am I doing? Working, of course.

In a few minutes I’m leaving for the American Cinematheque screening at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood of Masters of the Universe. I was the production designer for that film; you can see my visual fingerprints all over that baby.

Director Gary Goddard (and some very special guests) will be joining me for a Q & A after the film.

See you there?

Sorry about the gap between posts; it’s convention time. I was in Atlanta for Dragon Con two weeks ago and then the Long Beach Comic Con last weekend.

Continuing a new series of sales of original William Stout art related to Outer Limits, from an Outer Limits-themed art exhibition.

Black & white inks on acid-free heavy paper card stock.
Size: 11″ x 8.5″″.
$600 (matted and framed).

It’s for sale in the “Original Art” section in my website Store‘s Bazaar.

There should be one more tomorrow; then, I’ll start posting other stuff.