The Brokeback Project

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05/06/06- Found this article in a New York Times that someone had laying around the office. It makes the argument that other gay themed projects should have an easier time in New York City because of the widespread acceptance of Brokeback. According to the article this is furthest from the truth.

05/05/06- I found this article about the rise of short stories being the basis of films while I was searching for information about Million Dollar Baby for something I was working on for applications for graduate school. I think it is interesting that Annie Proulx was always in the back of the production crews mind during the awards period. At the same time Larry McMarty is most likely thinking about fellow writers when it comes to these things.

4/25/06- This cover of the February 27th New Yorker is of course a parody of the Brokeback Mountain movie poster. It was released around the time that Vice-President Cheney had shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington. There are multiple ironies of course to this image. Susan decided that she would try her hand at texual analysis that she wants me to include in this post. She believes that Cheney's lips represent a heart, as he is in love with either the President or his gun, place that within whatever context you want in regards to the film and the event. The President on the other hand looks confused or upset, read this in regards to either Cheney's love for Mr. Bush or Cheney's love of his gun, or both.

4/15/06- http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1167767,00.html I have no idea if this is the article that I read while I was waiting for Susan at the dentist or not. I was talking to Susan last night about the project and admitted to her that I was a little worn down by the whole thing. She seemed to think that I meant that finding and recording the references were getting too difficult. I don't think that's it. I suppose I'm just a needy author. Even though I said that I wanted to know that other people were reading it I shouldn't have made this a blog as well. I can feel the palpable nature of my failure. I also don't want to make each one of my entries into anything political. If Ang Lee wants people to see Brokeback Mountain as a love story, so be it. I suppose my problem is trying not to make each one of these blog entities a personal attack on the issues these clips and articles provoke.

5/03/06- Anthony Lane gives a better good overview of 2005 in film in this article from the January 16th issue of the New Yorker. He seems to make the claim that the film is heavy handed in saying that gay men are just like everyone else. I don't know what to make of this. Could it be that in the film male on male violence is a "sign" of the West even while trying to tell a nontraditional "western?"

5/2/06- No new Brokeback references today. Susan and I borrowed one of Susan's friend's cats in order to control the rodent population in our apartment. The only problem is that both of us are deathly allergic to the little girl.

5/1/06- I just saw a program that said that if Ellen had not come out as a homosexual on her sitcom of the same name then a film like Brokeback Mountain would never have been made. This case of hyperbole comes from E of course. I don't know how I feel about history being placed on events that haven't really been contextualized yet.

4/29/06- Still battling the mouse, we're thinking about leaving the door to the deck open tonight because it seems to be too smart to enter the trap by itself. We're also trying to court all the homeless cats on our street to at least try to have the little thing scared out of its wits. But enough about that there was Brokeback today. Found this paragraph in the January 9th issue of the New Yorker, the 9th was my grandmother's birthday.

Yet there is humor in Heath Ledger’s performance. After his powerful work in “Brokeback Mountain,” in which he plays a man all tied up inside himself, it was fun to see him leaping out of bedroom windows and prancing around, sword in hand. His Casanova is seductive yet reserved, and Ledger’s extraordinary baritone voice, which registers clearly at the lowest volume, may be the best asset any actor has had in years. Assailed in court for dallying with a novice in a nunnery, he says, sotto voce, “She was hardly a novice,” a line of no great wit that Ledger turns into elegance by seeming to utter it as a form of self-amusement. The movie’s central conceit—that the world’s most famous lover loses his heart to a battling Venetian feminist—is a little hard to take, but the lady in question is played by Sienna Miller, who has a volatile, fast-moving body and genuine fire in her eyes. When the credits were over at last, I sighed, and took away a moviegoer’s fantasy of Ledger and Miller starting work again, far away from Venice and ball gowns, on something that might be worth seeing.-DAVID DENBY

I realize that's not really the best way to site but I'm not claiming it as my own work in any way, shape or form. I think this paragraph is interesting in light of how much Ledger's acting in Brokeback was mentioned again and highlight a higlight of the film. Hollywood is such an interesting beast. You could have never told me that the star of A Knight's Tale and Ten Things I Hate About You would become a respected actor.

4/28/06- Still no Brokeback update. The mouse is even more wiley then before. I just wish I could enter the mind of the beast and have him leave.

4/27/06- Still no Brokeback stuff and I'm at the point that I don't care. Another sleepless night with that mouse and I think I'm going to scream. I try not to disrespect other living things but I just can't understand why it just won't go away.

4/26/06- No new Brokeback material today. I'm at the point of not caring today because Susan and I have been battling a mouse over the last couple of days. I want to be as humane was possible but it has just infiltrated my pysche. I'm having trouble sleeping because I know that he's out there. We bought mothballs, have been placing chewing gum around the house and have a humane trap but all the mouse seems to be doing is eating the gum. They can't digest it. Susan says that we'll know when he's gone when they stop taking the gum. That's a good idea. I just hate the idea of having a died mouse somewhere in my house. I just want it over with. Several weeks ago Susan and I went and saw a very small art opening of an installation called the "Twenty Bunnies Project." I got a kernel of the idea for this project from it. The artist tried to draw twenty bunnies everyday for a year. By the beginning of February she didn't care anymore. Sometimes I feel the same way about this project there are just days when life gets in the way.

4/24/06- While doing through recipes that Susan and I had clipped from The Cincinnati Enquirer over the last couple of months I found one that had the Oscar annoucements on the back of it. Sure enough there was a picture of Heath Ledger in full Brokeback custom. It's amazing what you can find when you're not looking for it.