Getting through sick days with “The Hazards of Love” & “The Long Goodbye”

Some of you have noted that the URL for KevinMarshallOnline.com is currently inoperable. I know! It’ll be back up soon, promise.

Anyways, yeah. I’ve been busy with work, the play, and this illness that befell me on Tuesday and knocked me out of commission for much of Wednesday and Thursday. Basically flu-like symptoms with aches all over, splitting headache, cough, and a fever that ran for two days (and boy was it tired HARRRRR HARRRRR HAR). Two days of bedrest did the trick, though I’m still a bit achy and coughy today. But no fever, so here I am at work. Writing a blog entry.

I keep re-listening to this new Decemberists album in an attempt to warm up to it. When I first read about the concept of the album, I was prepared to accept the label of the Unapologetic Decemberists Apologist. After listening to it, though, I realized that all the concerns people had are founded. Listening to the album, it’s almost as if Colin Meloy doesn’t realize how woefully goofy the premise of this story is, nor did he realize that the concept was so heavy-handed it was bound to get in the way of the actual music.

The result is an album that’s proggy for the sake of being proggy and borders on self-parody. Which actually would work if The Decemberists were in on the joke themselves. Instead, what we got was the indie-rock studio version of the “jazz odyssey” Spinal Tap embarks on after Nigel leaves the group.

Okay okay, it’s not THAT bad. It is, however, easily the band’s weakest LP to date. Note to other bands – there’s a reason musical acts don’t do rock operas anymore.

Oh, and yesterday I woke up at 1:00pm and in lieu of dragging my sore and fevered ass out of bed, finally watched Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye.” I’d read a lot of people saying that Gould did a better Marlowe than Bogart, although it’s my understanding that Bogart (and the producers of the Marlowe films) took his own liberties with the character. I’ll say that I loved the movie, although the motif of the one song (“The Long Goodbye”) appearing in various forms throughout the film was too cute for its own good and served as more of a distraction than an effective motif.

The DVD extras are interesting, if only for Elliot Gould’s explanation for why he suddenly disappeared from the Hollywood map in the early seventies. According to him, it was the result of being ignorant of tinsel-town politics and what projects to align yourself with to remain viable in the eyes of financers. I guess it’d be sexier to think that becoming a big star and landing on the cover of Time magazine made him an insufferable douchebag, but his explanation actually made sense.

Alright. Gonna finish this day up, then head to Schenectady for one of our last performances of “Trip to Bountiful.” More info here (I play a Ticket Agent).