Vanity Plate Poll - 7-29-05

We've been considering vanity plates for the Bounder, and the Escape for some time now. It's especially important, now that we're offering the "Dog Tags" shirt design. We've settled on

XLCRATE

for the Bounder. We thought we'd have a poll to help us out with the car. (This will also help us find out if anybody's reading this damned thing). Here are our finalists:

JACKDOG

LNGDOGS

LONGDOG

DOGBOY

STAGHND

DZINRK9

K9IMAGE

HUNDPIX

We'll also take suggestions, (we can't think of everything, after all!). Leave your votes and comments.

BOOK RAVE - 7-27-05

I just finished Folly and Glory, the fourth, and final, book of Larry McMurtry's Berrybender Narratives. The others being, The Sin Killer, The Wandering Hill, and By Sorrow's River. If McMurtry isn't America's best writer, he's at least one of the top five or six.

The series follows Lord Berrybender, and his family's trek into America's 19th Century wild West. The characters are a mixture of fiction, and real heroes of the times, like Kit Carson. Along the way, they encounter Indians, Slavers, Mexicans, other travelling foreigners, both famous and unknown, Bison, trappers, traders. Starting and ending at St. Louis, the trek covers the whole of the West from Yellowstone, to Santa Fe, to Austin.

It's not a series for people who like to get comfortable with a character, because like the real times, death follows the Berrybenders and their extended entourage on their four year, four book trek. I was disappointed, for instance, that their staghound was killed by Indians very early on in the first book!

I give the whole series All my thumbs... UP!

B & B?

I was taking head shots of Fanny and Buffy, so Mary Jane Helder could do a watercolor... and the picture above, just reminded me of something, but I couldn't quite put my finger in, er, on it.......







huh, huh, huh-huh, huh...... I said finger.

How It Got Its Name..

It suddenly struck me: Why Hare-Brained Express? The idea came from many photo images I've taken of our hounds in pursuit of the Corralitos version of the Black Tailed Jackrabbit- a formidable foe- capable of amazing speed and agility in avoiding being caught. In fact, until last Winter, my hounds have never caught one- and they've never caught one without help from another dog... usually a Saluki! Anyway, here is the image we chose to put on the rear window of the Bounder... That's the World Famous Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in a single-minded, "hare-brained" pursuit. This, of all the shots I've taken- even the later ones of Rally's intensity of purpose, best illustrates the name. From a format standpoint, it's also the one that best fit the window. LOL.

Dog Tags!

Introducing Dog Tags: the T-Shirt

Here it is... the latest innovative design from the fertile minds of Dan & Margaret. The cool part about this is that it will be constantly evolving, as my collection of "dog tags" grows and grows, meaning that the shirts will be true limited editions. My shirt is a plum color... very close to the color of the font, above. It looks great. It also looks great on Black. Click on the image to see the full size!

Leave comments and feedback. We'll be sitting tight here in Jackson, MI until the camera comes back.

I'll update the Fall schedule in the next day or two.

I'm getting Behinder and Behinder!!

I can't believe I haven't posted since April! Well, most of the events of the previous posting have come and gone. The Irish Wolfhound specialty was fun, especially watching the big'uns doing agility. I was impressed. The II was hot, humid, exhausting, and, as always, impressive.

This past weekend, we went to Canada to shoot the Ultimate Canine event. Obedience, Rally, Shows, Lure Coursing, and Racing- both straight and oval. We entered Rally in the oval meet- her first official event as a greyhound. And damned if she didn't go undefeated and win the damn thing!

The picture above is one of Margaret's new "artsy" designs for tee-shirts, tote bags, and such. We'll be seeing how much interest is out there over the next month, as we take them to a couple of craft shows in Michigan and Wisconsin. We'll put a selection up on the website, so you can see what we've been doing lately.

We're on a kind of "forced bivuac", as the Nikon D2H... the workhorse of my business, went to hell last weekend, and is now being "rejuvinated" by the Nikon service techs on Long Island. $400+ bucks, they tell me. Hey you out there- Buy some shirts!

I've got a cool new shirt design, that all you dog folk are going to love! I'll post it tomorrow!

Schedule Update, and a List Essay.

First things first, as it's been a while since I updated the schedule:

April 16-17 BCOSW Belvedere, IL (ASFA)
April 20-22 Jackrabbit hunting in OK!
April 23 IHCA Shreveport, LA (All breed AKC trial)Tentative.
April 24 BCOA Ferris, TX (Borzoi ASFA trial)
April 25 BCOA Ferris, TX (Borzoi LGRA races)
April 30-May 1 LSWC Ferris, TX (All breed AKC trial)
May 7-8 AAWC Hutto, TX (All breed ASFA)
May 17 IWCA Gray Summit, MO (IW ASFA trial)
May 18 IWCA Gray Summit, MO (IW LGRA races)
May 19 IWCA Gray Summit, MO (IW Agility) Tentative.
May 21-22 WCLCC Hobart, IN (All breed ASFA trial)
May 28-29 NCC Ravenna, OH (All breed AKC trial)
June 4-5 ASFA International Invitational, Remington VA
June 7-10 SCOA National Specialty, Lexington, KY
June 11-12 NCC Oberlin, OH WRA (and LGRA?)& fun match
Sept 18-23 The Dog's Camp Asheville, NC
Sept 26-28 BCOA Basenji National Specialty, Gray Summit, MO
Sept 30-Oct 1 Loomis, Nebraska Dog Races and Swapmeet.

Whew! What a schedule.. and most of the missing Summer weekend dates should get filled in. We're also going to try and get the gig shooting the Kenton, OH "Coondog Nationals" on the week leading up to Labor Day. For those not familiar with coondogs, (as opposed to coonhounds!), they're basically greyhounds.... that bark/bay. The coondog races are a speed event, covering a distance of about a mile. There are also water races. It's a massive event held in central Ohio every year for a long, long time!

We're also most likely going to do the WCLCC trial at Hobart in September, because we NEVER miss the pig roast. More events will be listed as they become established.


DOG LISTS- (they eat their own)

I noticed a strange phenomenon this week on one of the lists I'm on. I became involved in a bit of an imbroglio.. a first for me; have been on numerous lists since '98 or so and have never been in an imbroglio. And all from a brief "toss off" posting. It brought about the cannibalistic nature of lists, and I'm not sure I'm going to stay subscribed to most of them, other than for informational (read: business) purposes.

But anyway, back to the interesting dynamic... where the people on the list one least identifies with (for political, personality, or whatever reasons) become one's defenders, and those who are one's (supposed) friends turn on them. Very disconcerting. And a little bit hurtful. I'll be more careful around them in the future. Especially the instigator, who has a long history of this sort of thing on many lists, and in my thoroughly non-professional opinion, should probably seek therapy to root out the source of their insecurity. It ain't natural.