Nice post on “Argentine Post” about the history of these two Gringo Bandidos.  Couple interesting photos as well.

Cholila

• via The Argentine Post » Blog Archive » Chasing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The 10th anniversay party for Famous Stars & Straps and the celebration of Snoop Dogg’s 10th album went down last night at Vanguard in Hollywood. Stephanie & I were invited by the ID Agency so we made sure to show up to this invite only event. We got there early and it was already chaotic! There were different lists for media, invited guests and contest winners so people were everywhere speaking the same line “I’m on the list!” Thanksfully Victor took care of us like he always does and walked us right in!

Once inside the club there were installations commorating Famous’ 10 years in existance and Snoop’s 10 album covers.

New Era had these cabinets set up through out the venue with FSAS fitteds.

Outside both Snoop & Travis had some of their cars on display. Here’s Trav’s Riviera. I hated the lighting they had on the cars.

There was a red carpet/sponsor wall at the event but I hung out at the end of the red carpet and caught people when they just made it into the club. I found a spot to shoot my photos of the arrivals.

Soul Assassins ~ Muggs & Mils

Ben Baller, Rob Kardashian, Franchise, Jimmy Boi

The super funnyJeff Garcia and his wife

SA Studios/Mister Cartoon’s Tattoo ~ Sal & Tana ~ Hi friends!

OG Graffiti King ~ Slick

R&B Artist/Reality TV Star ~ Ray J

Tattoo Artist Franco Vescovi & Maryam

Travis was kind enough to stop for me while he was walking in.

Mark Arcenal of Fatlace was at the event. I have never had the pleasure of meeting Mark in person. We have mutual friends and I am a FATLACE regular so it was really cool to say hello and chat with Mark.

Trouble & Big Flaco was in the house! Good seeing you friends!

I managed to get on the stage just in time. Snoop, his band and Travis started the set and then they were joined on stage by The Game, Pharell, DJ Quick, Kurupt, Warren G, Nipsy Hustle, and Butch Cassidy. I’m sure I’m leaving some names out. At one point there were quite a few of people on stage.

This was only part of the crowd in the club to see Travis & Snoop!

These two need no introduction

Snoop’s band

I’ll end the post with a close up shot of Snoop’s microphone.

I’ll have another post with more photos. There were alot of photos ops at the event!

Santiago, plein soleil, température idéale et vent à peine suffisant pour soulever les pollens qui me donnent une allergie terrible : nous avons du mal à croire que nous venons de passer deux semaines dans le froid, le vent et parfois la neige de Patagonie. Le calme, l’immensité et les chiens errants nous semblent également loin (l’air pur aussi !). Retour sur cette étonnante région et les quinze jours que nous y avons passés.

Quelques rappels d’histoire-géographie pour commencer – si vous en savez autant que nous au moment où nous quittions Buenos Aires pour Bariloche, ça ne peut pas faire de mal ! Vaste région de plus d’un million de km² partagée entre deux pays (Argentine pour trois quarts de sa surface et Chili pour un quart) dont elle couvre la partie méridionale, la Patagonie a longtemps été habitée par les seuls peuples amérindiens, qui s’y étaient installés plus de 10 000 ans avant notre ère. Suite au passage de Ferdinand de Magallanes (le Magellan de nos livres d’histoire) en 1520, les Indiens réussiront tant bien que mal à mater les Espagnols jusqu’au 19ème siècle, la présence européenne prenant essentiellement la forme d’expéditions scientifiques et de missions d’évangélisation au succès modeste. Une fois leur indépendance acquise, le Chili (dès 1840) puis l’Argentine (vers 1880) vont rapidement réussir là où l’Espagne avait échoué et coloniser la Patagonie, de façon souvent brutale. Des migrants de différentes nationalités peupleront alors un territoire qui ne s’est véritablement développé que récemment autour du tourisme, du pétrole et du gaz et garde une densité de population parmi les plus faibles au monde (moins de 4 habitants au km², à peine plus qu’en Sibérie).

Données factuelles arides dans lesquelles la région puise pourtant l’atmosphère unique que nous avons observée pendant notre séjour : terre de « bout du monde » au climat rude et aux espaces immenses, terre d’exil qui a attiré des colons européens en quête d’un nouveau départ mais aussi des personnages excentriques en rupture de ban. Portrait robot en quatre points de cette région de plus en plus étrange à mesure que l’on va vers le sud :

• Des paysages extraordinairement variés : des lacs de Bariloche au nord à l’archipel de la Terre de Feu au sud en passant par les plaines, glaciers et haute montagne du centre, la Patagonie offre une palette de paysages étonnante. La région de Bariloche, notre première étape, est célèbre pour les superbes lacs de moyenne montagne et les pistes de ski alpin qui l’entourent. Les couleurs sont exceptionnelles mais l’architecture de chalets suisses et l’ambiance très touristique nuisent un peu au côté dépaysant de l’endroit. Pas grave, on se rattrape un peu plus bas, à El Calafate, point d’accès aux glaciers et à la haute montagne du milieu de la Patagonie. Cette ville plantée au milieu de nulle part est notre première impression d’une Patagonie réellement sauvage : la plaine environnante est battue par le vent et on peut marcher des heures avec quelques chiens errants pour seule compagnie. Un vrai sentiment de liberté ! Enfin, plus au sud encore, la Terre de Feu réalise la synthèse de tous les décors patagoniens en réunissant plaine, forêt, mer et montagne. La demi-lumière qui règne en quasi-permanence sur Ushuaia est étonnante, ainsi que son architecture anarchique. Les conteneurs empilés dans le port n’iront pas plus loin, on est vraiment au bout du monde

• Un climat plutôt rude : avec la steppe et les arbustes qui la recouvrent, le vent, le froid et l’immensité sont les principaux traits qui unissent les différentes régions de la Patagonie. Partout où nous sommes allés, il faisait vraiment froid et les immenses espaces ne nous laissaient aucun espoir de nous protéger du vent fort et incessant. Si on ajoute une forte humidité, notamment à Ushuaia (où les pharmacies sont d’ailleurs le commerce le plus répandu), on obtient un cocktail climatique détonnant et caractéristique de la région. Tolérable pour les locaux qui se plaignaient toutefois de ce printemps particulièrement rude, nettement moins pour des gringos ramollis par huit mois à plus de trente degrés !

• Une population très variée… quoique : bétail au nord de la Patagonie, manchots et cétacés sur la côte de la Terre de Feu, moutons et guanacos (lamas) partout : un cocktail d’espèces étonnant et typique de la Patagonie, notamment les moutons qui profitent de l’absence de prédateurs et de la faible concurrence pour les pâturages. La présence humaine tout aussi variée reflète la volonté des nouveaux états d’encourager l’immigration, même lointaine, pour asseoir leur présence dans la région à la fin du 19è siècle. De nombreux Allemands se sont ainsi installés dans la région des lacs et une forte colonie galloise s’est formée sur la côte atlantique, alors que des Croates s’installeront en Terre de Feu à l’époque de la ruée vers l’or. Ces migrants, soucieux de reproduire leur culture originelle dans un environnement isolé et hostile, ont donné aux endroits qu’ils ont peuplés un caractère à part qu’on retrouve encore aujourd’hui. Les brasseries sont ainsi nombreuses à Puerto Montt ou Bariloche, où nous petit-déjeunions tout les matins d’un excellent apfestrudel, alors que les salons de thé et chapelles rappellent l’héritage gallois à Trelew ou Puerto Madryn. Un séjour dans une estancia (ranch) isolée, propriété d’Anglais descendants de pasteurs anglicans arrivés en Terre de Feu vers 1870, nous a également donné un aperçu bref mais fascinant d’une atmosphère d’un autre temps, où les propriétaires terriens tenaient la région sous leur coupe – mais nous y reviendrons… Seule exception à cette diversité, ce sont comme souvent les occupants originels qui ont disparu : les Amérindiens ont été largement décimés dès lors que leurs terres ont été convoitées pour supporter l’élevage ovin florissant, même si de nombreux habitants actuels de la région sont métissés. Un exemple supplémentaire d’évangélisation rapidement détournée en asservissement et en massacre au service d’un agenda politique et économique…

• Des moutons (noirs) d’un autre type : en plus du cheptel ovin « traditionnel », l’immensité et le côté longtemps sauvage de la région ont attiré bon nombre de personnages étonnants, « moutons noirs » en exil volontaire ou forcé qui ont alimenté l’aspect fascinant du territoire patagonien. Le premier prix de l’excentricité revient sans doute au Français Antoine de Tounens, avoué originaire de Périgueux reconverti en aventurier, qui débarque au Chili en 1860 afin de créer le « Royaume de Patagonie et d’Araucanie » dont il se proclame « naturellement » monarque. S’il réussit l’exploit de rallier les Indiens à sa cause, « Orélie-Antoine 1er » sera expulsé sans ménagement par les autorités chiliennes. Ses trois tentatives de reconquête seront autant d’échecs et il mourra dans l’anonymat en 1878. Belle occasion ratée au passage pour la France d’établir une présence dans la région… En 1901, ce sont Butch Cassidy et Harry Longabaugh, deux célèbres pilleurs de banques et de trains, qui s’installent à Cholila, au sud de Bariloche, après avoir fui les Etats-Unis avec l’agence Pinkerton à leurs trousses. Ils erreront ensuite plusieurs années entre le Chili et l’Argentine, avant de tenter de s’établir en Bolivie où ils seront vraisemblablement abattus en 1908, avant d’être ressuscités par la 20^th Century Fox en 1969 sous les traits plus glamour de Paul Newman et Robert Redford. En 1911, l’anarchiste ukrainien Simon Radowitzky sera un des premiers occupants de la prison d’Ushuaia, mais lui n’était pas arrivé là de son plein gré…

Après ce portrait robot, rendez-vous dans quelques jours pour la seconde partie de ce carnet de route, avec Bariloche et la région des lacs…

© Anne and David Placet and http://anneetdavid.wordpress.com, 2009. Unauthorized use and duplication of this material (texts, pictures and videos) without express and written permission from this blog’s authors is strictly prohibited.

After several days of eluding the posse hired by E. H. Harramond of the Union Pacific Railroad, the outlaws Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, freed their hard-driven horse, then stumbled their way up a ridge.   “Ya think they’ll follow the horse? ” Butch said.  Sundance answered as he climbed higher ” I don’t know.”  But, it was clear by the sound of pounding hooves that the posse was closing in on them. “You’re the brains, Butch, you’ll think of something.”

Damn it! they shouted as the camera panned out wide on the outlaws looking frantically around at a boulder strewn river beneath them and the ridge above them.  Sitting hard against a boulder, Sundance started filing bullets into his pistol, “They’re going for position. Better get ready.”

Looking out over the end of his nose at the river below, Butch asserted, ”No, we’ll jump.”

“Like hell, we will.”

“No, it’ll be okay if the water’s deep enough we don’t get squished to death. They’ll never follow.”

“I have to and I’m not gonna!” Sundance defied. “Come on, just one clear shot, that’s all I need.” Urged again by Butch to jump, Sundance squirmed away and told Butch, “Get away from me, I want to fight them.”

“They’ll kill us!”

“Maybe.”

“You want to die?”

“Do you?” Sundance said pointing the tip of his pistol toward the river.

“Alright, I’ll jump first… What’s the matter with you?”

Looking away Sundance said, “I can’t swim!” Then he looked back at Butch and shrugged.

In a fit of wild laughter, Butch said, “Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you!”

With no further discussion their jaws were squared and off the cliff they jumped, suspended in air screaming “Shhhiiiiiiiiiii” before hitting the river below.

“It was Lord Baltimore and LaForce,” Butch exclaimed as he read Etta’s newspaper.  Stepping forward and reaching for the paper, Sundance shook his head, “Jesus, we were lucky to get away from them.” Butch looked down at the table a moment and then looking up predicted a group like that wouldn’t stay together long.

“They will if E. H. Harramond of the Union Pacific Railroad has anything to do with it.” Etta said as she stepped inside the room. ”He resents the way you’ve been picking on him. He’s outfitted a special train and hired special employees. You spent the last few days running from them.”

Sundance looked up from the newspaper, looked toward Etta and asked, “You say they’re hired permanent?” Pausing slightly before answering, Etta said, “No, just ’til they kill you.”

As it falls bloody to the rocks below, Butch’s eyes cross quickly to Sundance laying on his back, gun drawn. Sundance focuses on the lizard, closes his eyes a second, then looks left to Butch. He shakes his head one time to the right, clicks his cheek. 

They ride again.

At the peaceful Wyoming ranch, Butch faced a challenge by announcing, “Well, I run things here, Harvey.” Just then the camera turned up the hill to the giant, holstered Harvey Logan, walking slowly down to Butch as he calmly announced, “Used to be you did.  Me now.” Faced with a choice of guns or knives, Butch responded, I don’t want to shoot with ya, Harvey.”  Harvey reached behind his back, pulled out a 10 inch shiny blade, tossed it from his right hand to his left hand. “Anything you say, Butch.”

Harvey Logan

The camera then focused on a squint-eyed Sundance Kid as he pulled himself taller in the saddle. Quickly, the camera was back on Harvey pointing his finger and announcing to Sundance that this didn’t involve him and promising him he’d be welcome to stay after Butch was dead.

Standing close and quiet beside Sundance’s horse, Butch looked ahead as he removed his holster and said in a low voice, “Maybe there’s a way to profit in this. Bet on Logan.” Sundance assured him he would, but there was noone to bet on him.

Butch thought for a second and said, “Listen, I don’t mean to be a sore loser, but after this things over, if I’m dead, kill ‘im.”  

“Love to,” Sundance said as he sat back a tad, turned to Harvey, repositioned his chewing tobacco in his lip, grinned, waved and nodded.

Having successfully robbed the money laden Union Pacific train on its way north, the outlaw Hole in the Wall Gang, led by Butch Cassidy, was set to rob the Union Pacific on its trip south.  Little did the gang know, but E. H. Herromand, the Union Pacific owner, had his own plan.  Lagging just the right distance behind the targeted Union Pacific was a lone iron car loaded for one purpose: a hand-picked posse to capture Butch Cassidy and his sharp-shooter sidekick, the Sundance Kid.

With surprise in their favor, the posse picked off most of the gang with shots to the back as they tried to escape. Hoping to divide and conquer, the survivors split up, leaving Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid separated from their gang. Purposefully, all five of the horse-riding posse chased Butch and Sundance up the dusty trail. 

 Butch turned to Sundance and asked, “Who are those guys?”

Mile after mile, with no rest and nothing to eat, the two rode their horses hard over the hot, dry, rocky terrain of Wyoming.  In an attempt to lose the posse, Sundance jumped onto the back of Butch’s horse, spanking his own horse to chase it off.  Overlooking the area from higher ground, the two watched as the posse bit at the bait, but within a short time, regrouped and came closer.  This time, the stunned Sundance looked at his leader, Butch, and asked “Who are those guys?”

CHEYENNE, WY – Tourists often get more than they bargain for when they trek behind the walls of a historic Wyoming prison… they come face-to-face with the ghost of a long-dead ex-prisoner!

And those who have seen the eerie spirit swear it’s Butch Cassidy, infamous horse thief who was incarcerated for 18 months at the facility back in 1895-1896.

The spooky encounters take place in broad daylight in the former prison, now a popular attraction for tourists visiting Wyoming Territorial Park in Laramie.

“When I first saw that ghost, I think I jumped 10 feet in the air,” declared Bernie Myers, a sub-contractor now living in Sacramento, Calif.

“But after my heart started beating again, I recognized the ghost right off. It was Butch Cassidy. There’s no mistaking it… we saw his picture in the prison.”

The famed prison, the only one to ever hold Cassidy, closed its doors Feb. 14, 1901.

According to park staff member Mary Batenhorst, the bizarre ghost was also seen by Gerald Broussard, a park visitor from Whittier, Iowa.

That encounter came while he and other tourists were looking at a dead prisoner’s picture.

“Suddenly, Mr. Broussard felt a chill,” the staff member said.

“He told me he looked over his shoulder and saw a shadowy figure in prison stripes standing in the doorway. The prisoner extended his hand – then vanished.”

A man standing next to Broussard overheard him tell his wife about the ghost.

“The man said to Broussard, ‘Oh, good! You saw it, too,’” Miss Batenhorst said.

“I didn’t talk to the other man, but I think Mr. Broussard honestly believed he had seen a ghost.”

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (E.U.A., 1969)

Escolhemos um clássico do cinema para o mês de outubro. No western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (com a bela tradução para o português: Dois homens e um destino), dois grandes amigos lideram um bando de assaltantes nos Estados Unidos. Quando estão sendo cassados por todo o país, decidem ir juntamente com a namorada de um deles para a Bolívia. No elenco o saudoso Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy), Robert Redford (Sundance Kid) e Katharine Ross (Etta Place) são os personagens centrais da história. Newman (que mostra muita habilidade sobre duas rodas) e Etta protagonizam a clássica cena da bicicleta, com a também clássica “Raindrops keep falling on my head”, música de B.J. Thomas. Ficha completa no site adorocinema.

Meet the future!

“Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”

(Hal David /Burt Bacharach)

B.J. Thomas

Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head
And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed
Nothin’ seems to fit
Those…
Raindrops are fallin’ on my head, they keep fallin’

So I just did me some talkin’ to the sun
And I said I didn’t like the way he got things done
Sleepin’ on the job
Those…
Raindrops are fallin’ on my head, they keep fallin’

But there’s one thing
I know
The blues they sent to meet me
Won’t defeat me
It won’t be long till happiness steps up to greet me

Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head
But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turnin’ red
Cryin’s not for me
‘Cause…
I’m never gonna stop the rain by complainin’
Because I’m free
Nothin’s worryin’ me

It won’t be long till happiness steps up to greet me

Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head
But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turnin’ red
Cryin’s not for me
‘Cause…
I’m never gonna stop the rain by complainin’
Because I’m free
Nothin’s worryin’ me…

In Memoriam

The other day, while driving to IKEA, I covered some ground on which I intended to run. Because I was going to IKEA, I was thinking about marketing. Because I was driving on my running course, I was also thinking about running. The two topics wove around themselves in my head until I started thinking about how they’re related. Yes, I think a lot.

Content is King

At one of the earliest running events I entered, I saw someone wearing a t-shirt that said, “You can’t fake this.” It’s one of the things that I love about running. It forces you to be honest with yourself. You can’t hide a lack of training, a lack of focus, poor sleep, or inadequate nutrition on the course.What you bring with you, your content, is all that matters.

Meanwhile, marketing gurus are evangelizing the “return” of the importance of content. Well, content was always king. You can BS your way through anything in the short-term, but in the long-term you must provide genuinely useful content.

Make It Yours

I compete with people who swear by a training method they adopted wholesale after reading a magazine article. They miss the point. They are not the person who “discovered” that training method. They don’t have the same needs. They’re not at the same training level. What’s more, a training method won’t adapt itself as their needs change over time. To succeed, you have to know your own body, needs, and commitment. Then you can adapt what you read and experience to suit your own goals.

When I worked for a start-up company, they brought in some process consultants who taught the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) process. The consultants made no attempt to understand our business. They had different teams attend the training everyday, and made no attempt to understand teams’ roles within the company. As a result, most of what they taught was forgotten as soon as they left. I took away the idea that my team could experiment with no projects or processes. We could execute trial runs or small scale versions and learn from the experience before going full speed and full scale. I made it mine.

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

I see runners who have to have the latest shoes, technical clothing, and MP3 players. I, myself, am sometimes guilty of believing that I need certain things before I can run. When those things become an excuse not to run, I simplify. In Heartbreak Ridge, Clint Eastwood’s Marine gunnery sergeant says, “Let’s keep things simple: If you’ve got your boots on, you can march into combat.” I paraphrase that to motivate myself: If you’ve got your shoes on, you can run.

I’ve been in many meetings where marketing, legal, PR, customer service, and even HR kept adding layers to the discussion, until we lost track of what we were trying to accomplish. Know your team’s role. Know who your team serves. Communicate with those people. Change and improve based on their feedback. Everything else is gravy.

Focus

Something else that I love about running is the focus. I have to focus on my body as I prepare to run. Has my last meal settled? Does this hurt? How about that? My body tells me what I can accomplish, and what I need to protect, if I listen. I have to pay attention to my stride, my pace, my breathing, and my foot placement as I run. When I finish, I focus on stretching again, this time trying to uncover any weakness that I can reduce or eliminate through other training or activity. When I run, it’s about me.

In our daily lives, we spend so much time working with others and caring for others that we can lose track of ourselves. Running brings me back to me. We’ve all heard the old aphorism that “when you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember that you came to clear the swamp.” Take some time everyday to focus on your product and your processes. Focus on things under your control. Try to identify one area that can improve, and work on that. You don’t have to fix everything immediately.

“You just keep thinkin’ Butch. That’s what you’re good at.” -Sundance Kid, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969

Having written a substantial amount on several WIPs, I find myself jotting down the odd (and I mean ODD) line which throws my brain off course. The use of particular phrases and ideas out of context seems to be counter intuitive, but there’s a long tradition in writing of coming up with new uses for stale bones. The lines which are currently bothering me were written within an hour of each other, and both push my western – strange as it is – into a different place altogether.

I never thought about writing a western before I came up with the imagery of a man in a preacher’s outfit, shot to ribbons, riding into the desert. I added in a shoot-out, where he spouts lines from the bible as he blows a bunch of bounty-hunters away, then discovered that the story had cursed gold as well. It’s a mix of at least a dozen sub-genres as it is, but the addition of my latest lines makes me think that there might be further twists in store.

There’s no set plan, and I’m throwing everything in the mix. It ain’t pretty at the moment, but I’m sure that the idea has legs. My problems lie with this:

She had a body to kill for, which The Reverend had done. Repeatedly.

It’s like something out of a film noir, and I really like the line, but does it feel like it comes from a western? Hell no. It’s only marginally better than the other line which follows in quick succession:

She was as throaty and chesty as a bad cold.

What the fuck? I’m suddenly channeling the spirit of Spillane… I’m not easily influenced by outside sources, mostly because my ideas are never cookie-cutter, genre-safe stories, but rather they tend to sprawl over several areas which don’t quite have a common ‘voice’. I like throwing people off in the wrong direction before tightening the focus back to a single point. I’m a little worried that this particular tale might be getting away from me.

It wouldn’t be the first time I have sent a story reeling off course with an out-of-place word or sentence, and this is what I may be doing. Again. The ‘music’ of language is too interesting to listen to while I am playing messing around with character, and the two aforementioned lines were what the story pointed to. Do I let the story dictate the style, or are those lines too far from a traditional western? Hmmm…

A couple of comedy moments are slightly out of place amongst the endless catalogue of violence and pain, but those I can live with as ‘artistic statements’ or… something. A character who has been set on fire is used to light the MC’s cigarette at one point, and at another point a heroic rescue is foiled by the injured character being eaten alive by coyotes. Lovingly described, as the character wonders why he can’t wiggle his toes any more.

In a bid to straighten out what I wanted to do, because relaxation works wonders, I played Call Of Juarez for a while. It’s near enough to a old 70s western movie to fuel my imagination, but I began noticing all of the minor irritations which the game has. Even trying to watch Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid – a brilliant film – isn’t appeasing the little gray cells. Gah! My brain is completely fried.

I’m blaming exhaustion on the current writing mash, and I’m sure the tone will settle when I can spend a few days relaxing at the end of my course. Of course, when I relax I tend to drink, and there’s always the worry that I’ll end my western with the MC being kidnapped by aliens. When I work out what the hell I’m doing, I’ll keep everyone informed.

The realization that the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this summer is hard on me.  I’ve never seen a movie in a theater more than this classic that I still love today.

I’m fine with growing older, yet, every once in a while, things crop up that make me wonder where all the years have gone.  How can I possibly be that old when I sure don’t feel it and certainly don’t act it?  Then I remember Paul Newman has, sadly, passed on and Robert Redford is about to turn 73.

Just out of Topeka High, I was totally enthralled with my new life at The Topeka Capital-Journal when the movie came out.   There are lines in that movie that I can call up as though I was the one making them.

“Bolivia.”

“You just keep thinking, Butch.  That is what you are good at”

“I have vision while the rest of world wears bifocals.”

“You are riding on my bicycle.  In some Arabian countries that is the same as being married.”

“Why you, crazy. The fall will probably kill you.”

Finally, the one that has summed up my financial life has Butch complaining about being out of money again.  Etta Place replied, “Sundance says it is because you are a soft touch, always taking expensive vacations, buying drinks for everyone and you’re a rotten gambler.”

“Well, that might have something to do with it,” was Butch’s reply, and haven’t I made almost the same reply often in my life?

But my best real-life memory came one night as the photo staff was leaving a gathering held at Director of Photography Rich Clarkson’s duplex on 29^th St. Terrace.  The famed Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker loved the movie nearly as much, and we had been talking about it throughout the evening.

In the days before cell phones, all photographers had two-way radios in our cars.  Clarkson was an absolute stickler for proper FCC protocol in the use of those radios.  As we all drove home, I heard a voice giggling through my car speaker.

“I work for Mr. E.H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad.”  I knew it was Lanker and grabbed my mike.

“Hey, Woodcock!  You OK?”   The reply was instantaneous.

“Well Sort of.”

“Let’s open up and take a look at you.”

And, then we all heard another voice barking over the speaker that everyone knew was Clarkson’s.

“There will be two photographers having their radios removed from their cars tomorrow.”

Boom!  We knew what was coming the next day.  Standing in front of his desk, we both knew our radios would be safe.  We wouldn’t.  We also knew every other photographer was standing behind the red one-way mirror in the print lab watching with total glee as we were scorched.

We had been told been told that we’d never have been caught by anyone other than the FCC if Clarkson hadn’t gone out to move his car.  What?  Out of his garage?  We knew what had happened (as you now do), but neither would say another thing about it.  Safely in the back, Lanker just turned to me and said, “You just keep thinking, Butch.  That is what you are good at.”

Everyone in the building had to hear us roaring with laughter.   Here’s to Butch, Sundance and Brian Lanker.  I’m still laughing 40 years later.

It’s a winning combination; Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and George Roy Hill. Hell, even just Hill and Newman has proven to be a winning combo as Slap Shot is a great movie just as The Sting was. Combine that with the story of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, throw in Elaine from The Graduate, and you’ve got yourself a top notch movie on your hands… right?

Well, all in all I was a bit confused by the tone of this movie. At times, it seems like it was a comedy. It certainly is lighthearted all the way through. Now, the question I must ask is; What kind of tone is that for a movie about two guys who robbed for a living?

It’s one thing to make a movie about unscrupulous people who aren’t good human beings. It’s quite another to make you want to root for them. It is hard to make that work. It works in The Sting, but only because the movie is about them scamming a real fucking asshole. Quite frankly, this movie tries to make Butch and Sundance even more likable than Newman and Redford in The Sting. It is, to say the least, an odd choice.

Newman and Redford are disarming fellows. Charming and fine actors both. That’s not what I want in a movie about two bank robbers. I haven’t seen Public Enemy yet, but I’ve heard Mann does not mythologize Dillinger in it. I loved The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford because it does the same thing. It shows James how he really was, and paints an alarming, disturbing picture of how he was thought of in society. This movie is of that alarming variety. Why try and make Butch and Sundance likable? Why make what is ostensibly a buddy comedy about two robbers? Does anybody enjoy a whimsical scene where Cassidy and Elaine from The Graduate ride around on a bike to “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head?” To some up, what the fuck is going on here and why are you making me try and like two guys who made their bones robbing innocent people?

I have an ethical issue with making movies about actual immoral people and sad events in general, unless the movie seems to have some sort of reasonable justification. I’m not going to bemoan a movie such as Schindler’s List, for example. I don’t really have an issue with a movie being made about B.C. and the S.D.K. as the kids call them when they text and what have you, but I’m a little put off by the jovial nature of it. If you are going to make a light hearted movie about robbery, do it like The Sting and/or Ocean’s Eleven.

Not that I don’t have anything good to say about this film. I thought both Redford and Newman did a good job. I thought there were a few good scenes. I thought Redford’s Sundance was particularly well done for the most part. Again, chalk that up mostly to Redford’s force of personality. I wouldn’t say I didn’t enjoy the movie. All in all I probably did. I was just struck by the light hearted tone of the film with confusion and bemusement. The film seems like it clearly wants you to like Butch and Sundance, but I don’t want to like them. I don’t like them, even with all the wisecracks and bizarre playfulness. If you present their story to me, fine. If you present it as a pseudo-buddy comedy, I’m a bit peeved. Final verdict: 6/10

I just finished reading Etta, by Gerald Kolpan – a first novel for him and a rip-roaring ride of a read for me. I like strong women and I love western history, and this combines the two in a tale of what the author imagines might have been the life of the woman who loved and was loved by Butch Cassidy’s sidekick, Harry Longbaugh.

The story begins with Etta Place out riding and shooting on her family’s estate on the outskirts of Philadelphia when she hears another shot – not from her firearm. Her father, deep in debt from gambling, has committed suicide, and Etta must leave immediately to escape the pre-mafia “black arm” which would have her maimed or killed to avenge her father’s debt.

After a brief stint as a Harvey Girl, and due to circumstances beyond her control, she winds up on the wrong side of the law, and eventually finds fulfillment of sorts with the imfamous hole-in the-wall gang. And of course she falls in love with the dashingly handsome and aloof Sundance Kid.

There’s more to the story than that, though. She goes in hiding back East and becomes BFF with Eleanor Roosevelt, joins Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show for a while, and saves the President’s life, but must continually stay on the run to avoid capture by the notorious Pinkerton detectives.

Lively prose is interspersed with journal entries, newspaper articles and letters to lend an air of historic authenticity to the story. I wished it hadn’t ended as quickly as it did – but then it isn’t billed as a leisurely ride!

This is straight Aftermath right here. Bishop Lamont & Xzibit laced the vocals while Dr. Dre laced the beat. This shit is definetly crack.

Download Here: Hallelujah (Ft. Xzibit) (Prod. Dr. Dre)

Update

Bishop comes through with another track called “Nothin’ Could Be Better” feat. Chevy Jones, Suga Free, Bokey & Butch Cassidy.

Download Here: Nothin’ Could Be Better(Ft. Chevy Jones, Suga Free, Bokey & Butch Cassidy)

FILME: BUTCH CASSIDY

Título Original: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Gênero: Faroeste
Tempo de Duração: 112 minutos
Ano de Lançamento: (EUA) 1969
Estúdio: 20th Century Fox / Campanile
Distribuição: 20th Century Fox Film Corporation
Direção: George Roy Hill
Roteiro: William Goldman
Produção: John Foreman
Elenco
Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy)
Robert Redford (Sundance Kid)
Katharine Ross (Etta Place)
Strother Martin (Percy Garris)
Henry Jones (Vendedor de bicicletas)
Jeff Corey (Xerife Steve Bledsoe)
George Furth (Woodcock)
Cloris Leachman (Agnes)
Ted Cassidy (Harvey Logan)
Kenneth Mars (Marechal)
Donelly Rhodes (Macon)
Sinopse: Dois amigos inseparáveis, Butch (um ex-açougueiro, daí o nome) Cassidy (Paul Newman) e Sundance Kid (Robert Redford), lideram o Bando do Buraco na Parede e vivem de assaltar trens e bancos. Quando são caçados por todo o país resolvem ir para a Bolívia e juntamente com Etta (Katharine Ross), a namorada de Sundance, rumam para a América do Sul. Mas esta decisão não lhes proporcionará grandes assaltos ou uma vida mais tranqüila.

Comentário: bom filme…

MÚSICA: DAVID BOWIE – THIS IS NOT AMERICA