[malumot]

Hallo everybody............

So last night I'm channel surfing at around 12:10 am...... Guess what I see coming up in FIVE MINUTES on Turner Classic..........

THE EXILES.

Yup. They ran it last nite.

Opening and closing shot: Clay, just north of Angels Flight, in the exact same spot where Mike Hammer parked his little convertible in Kiss Me Deadly.

As to the movie.....Let's just say it was a student movie. But the insight into what things were like in LA 50 years ago was instructive. Life was harder, with sharper edges. And that just didn't apply to the Indians.

Watching it will deflate some of the romantic notions many of us (myself included) hold about Bunker Hill and the Main Street bars. Could - and should - the Engstrum have been saved? Absolutely. The Sunshine? No way in the world. Bunker Hill WAS a slum.

The crime wasn't so much in the redevelopment of Bunker Hill (it needed it) as it was the nuclear leveling of the place.