thanks for the memories

Tonight Glenn Reynolds expressed his desire to see an indie film called Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea. Here's the synopsis:

In the middle of a harsh desert valley in California's southeast corner, lies a glimmering blue jewel - the Salton Sea. Along its desolate shores stand boarded-up motels, dusty rural towns, half-flooded vacation homes, and miles of sun-crisped fish carcasses. Amid this surreal and apocalyptic landscape survives a most unusual and unexpected group of eccentrics, who have carved out their own slice of paradise on the shores of this ecological disaster. Through their perceptions and misperceptions, the strange history and unexpected beauty of the Salton Sea is revealed.

While PLAGUES & PLEASURES covers the economic, political, and environmental issues that face the sea, it more importantly offers up an offbeat portrait of the eccentric and individualistic people who populate its shores. It is an epic western tale of fantastic real estate ventures and failed boomtowns, inner-city gangs fleeing to white small town America, eternal optimism thriving among the remains of failed vacation destinations, and the subjective notion of success & failure amidst the landscape of the American Dream.

“Slice of paradise”? Now that is putting lipstick on a pig. And I should know.

I lived there once. Ten of the worst months of my life.