Don't Wanna End Up Like Bonnie and Clyde

... which is from the early reggae classic "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker. An infectious tune, if you ask me.

Just watched the revisionist noir classic "The Long Goodbye", directed by Robert Altman and starring Elliot Gould, and a band of gypsies. Or so it seems. While I enjoyed the movie, I made the mistake of listening to the interviews with Altman and Gould that accompany the film. So I learned what the "concept" of the movie was, which was to have Philip Marlowe return from being asleep for 20 years, a la Rip Van Winkle.

To that end, Gould's Marlowe wears the same cheap dark blue suit throughout the movie [he sleeps in this suit], he smokes [no one else does], and he has "morals" [unlike most of the characters, who kill, lie, commit adultery or run around topless while doing yoga]. Other than that, he looks and talks like David Crosby.

Which makes for a funnier and stronger movie than the Rip Van Marlowe concept that Altman and Gould were trying to achieve. There is a lot I could say about the movie to recommend it. The greek chorus of stoned hippie chicks that live next door to Marlowe, that is genius. The addition of the character [not in the original book] of Jewish gangster Marty Augustine is brilliant. Sterling Hayden as Roger Wade, the doomed Hemingway-esque writer is great. Just seeing so much of Los Angeles and Malibu from that era makes the movie enjoyable.

The movie has all of the Altman weirdness that makes his movies so good. I think the following can be said of Altman: All of his movies were different, all of his movies were the same.

My five days in Indiana last week went pretty well. I survived the time change, and the somewhat frozen weather [the time change being the bigger deal to me.] I caught the double overtime game between the Pacers and the Bucks, which the Pacers [who led by 17 at one point] barely won. First, the referees call WAY TOO MANY FOULS these days. Second, your average Indiana basketball fan knows a lot more than your average California basketball fan. A woman behind was yelling at the refs for not calling 3-second violations. And we were in the cheap seats. Third, you have never seen so many white people [other than at a Lutheran Church, Nascar event or Kenny Chesney concert] in your life. What gives, Indiana? You're supposed to be the basketball epicenter.

I've been bounced from the gf's blog. I'm thinking it was for the tart comment I made in response to her post about mercurial multimillionaire midget David Geffen. She had some sort of reference to Mrs. Keanu Reeves in her post, and I commented, to paraphrase, that it was unlikely she would be getting a call from the Free Man in Paris, as he was not interested in the ladies [hence no Mrs. David Geffen.] And that probably explained why he supported dreamy Barack Obama vs. Evil Frau Clinton [which I thought was a neat summation of DG's term for her, which was "unelectable" and "polarizing."]

So, as Desmond D. feared he would be in "Israelites", I have been shot down like Bonnie & Clyde. It happens to the best of us, and me as well.