Brokeback Mountain

I saw it tonight. I finally saw it. You know how sometimes when there's a movie you've been really wanting to see, and the hype that surrounds it just makes you salivate even more - and then when you finally do it turns out to be a letdown?

Well that didn't happen with Brokeback Mountain. It was worth the wait, and it is worthy of the hype.

Before I gush about the movie I just want to say that the Rivoli Theater in downtown Hastings is stunning. I've never been to it before and had no idea how beautiful it is. I love the Grand downtown here in GI but I have to say that the Rivoli gave me goosebumps when I sat down. I had a flash of being a pioneer coming to town to watch a play in that old building. It was neat :)

Ok on with the film.

Ang Lee is an artist. A true artist. Of course he had stunning scenery to work with, but Lee is able to infuse such meaning into every angle that you can't help but get lost in it. With every glance from the rigid eyes of Ennis into the soulful, puppy-dog eyes of Jack's the angst levels kick up a notch.

I can't see how this movie could fail to become a classic what with dialogue written by arguably the best western author in the world, Larry McMurtry - I mean he's so damn good even I love to read his books and I'm not much into the Western genre.

So why did I love this movie so much? Because as I might have mentioned before a few dozen times, I love the angsty stories. And this one has the angst in spades. It's not a "gay cowboy movies" as I keep hearing it described. I hate that I have to keep saying it's just a love story. A love story between two men, granted, but for crying out loud, the homophobic idiotic comments I keep hearing and reading just tick me off. My daughter told her friend's mother I was in Hastings to see Brokeback and she said her mother rolled her eyes and made some crack about it being a stupid movie.

Well I'll just roll her eyes right back at her. Shame, she doesn't know that she's missing a truly beautiful, excellent movie. It's moving. It doesn't beat you over the head with their relationship - it's just there as the catalyst that drives them into the lives they lead. They love each other and they can't be together and be *happy* because of attitudes that are sadly still with us today. It's a fucking shame.

Go see it. Well, that is if it's playing where you live. If it's out of town, go anyway. It's worth the drive.

Line art

If any of you three or four who read me regularly also look in on my photo blog you'll know I've been messing around with line art in Photoshop. I did one of Shan over there for my first attempt at it and it's okay. I decided I wanted to try again but I wanted to use my friend Tonya's photo this time. It's a cute pic of her and has good lines :)

Anyway, here's the original:


And here's the pic after I finished lining it:


I really like how this one turned out actually.

Later that evening, I couldn't sleep so I coloured it:


Hmmmmm.... I actually think I like the plain lined one better.

An Offer I Couldn't Refuse

I watched The Godfather, parts 1 & 2 this past weekend. I'd never seen them before. So many jokes I've heard make sense now :) I was talking to my sister about them - she also had just recently seen them for the first time and loved them - but we both remarked on how unrecognizable Al Pacino is at least in the first one. I mean, this is coming from someone (me) who pretty much only knew that Marlon Brando was The Godfather, he made offers people couldn't refuse, and something about a horse head in a bed. I had no idea Diane Keaton or James Caan or even that DeNiro was in the second one.

Yes I'm that ignorant about them. I'm not really into the mafia genre much tho I admit to loving The Sopranos. Even that was not something I sought out to watch though. Glad I did, but if Mike hadn't recommended it and lent me his DVDs, I wouldn't have watched it.

But I got to thinking about the marked change in Pacino as his role progressed. At the start of the first Godfather, he is unrecognizable to me because he's basically playing against type (or his future type anyway, he was still a newbie at this point.) He's young, of course, but because he was sort of shielded from the hard aspects of his family he was fairly innocent. And so because the Pacino I grew up with and know usually plays hardened, scary types for the most part (yes there are exceptions but come on, admit that Pacino's more known for his badass stuff) I didn't realize that Michael Corleone was Pacino. I didn't recognize Duvall either until he lost more hair by the second film :)

This is what I couldn't recognize in the film:


And this is what I know and love:


So you can see why I didn't recognize him.

Anyway, I thought the films were very good - deserving of their "classic" status. Well-made, beautiful cinematography, haunting music, chilling scenes - brutal, chilling scenes. Man.

The thing is, I'm glad I've seen them now and I can stop looking abashed whenever a Godfather discussion comes up and people look at me like I've got "I live under a rock" taped to my chest. But I don't think I loved them enough to make sure I have them in my collection. Maybe if I see them a couple more times and have them grow on my I'll appreciate them more for what they are, but at this moment, I'm just fine with having seen them.

Happiest Place on Earth

I miss Disneyland.

I found a site today about some guy who's currently blowing through 100 Gs and one year tooling around the Walt Disney World resorts. I think it's both nifty and a little weird but hell you only live once eh?

But it did bring back nice memories. I grew up going to Disneyland in SoCal. Not all the time or anything, but we lived near enough to go several times. It is a happy place :) The best part was being able to take Shan a few years ago for her first trip to see the Mouse. It was glorious.

I don't really have anything new to report. I'm feeling better. Still coughing a lot but I think the antibiotics helped and I'm getting rid of the goop. Eeww. Can't wait to stop taking all of these meds though. I hate feeling... fuzzy... all the time. Know what I mean?

This weekend should be cool. I'm meeting up with Aunty Jo and Cousin Hannah :) Shan and I will be meeting Kathryn for the first time. Kathryn would be my.. step-grandmother? I think that's it. I've heard quite a lot about her. I think it will be an interesting evening. Plus it will be nice to see Jo and Hanner again :)

*sigh* I'm tired. I think I'm gonna crash early tonight.

Adventures in the ER

I'm just home from the ER. Too keyed up to go to bed even though I should. Yesterday I had to leave work early because I was in so much pain that hit me out of nowhere. It was on my right side around towards my back. Basically it felt like a charley horse type muscle spasm that kept getting worse and worse. Was all I could do to bolt out of there without passing out. Every breath I took felt as if I was being stabbed in the back.

Somehow I drove to my grandparents, imagining all sorts of horrible things it could be. Once I got there I headed straight for a bed where I could lie down and try to relax in case it was just a weird cramp of some kind. Grampa picked up Shan from school while I laid there waiting for it to ease up. It did a little and I was feeling so guilty about being away from the office and I missed an appointment I had with a guy who wanted a little web lesson.

I began to breathe a little easier and some tylenol I took was helping, so I went back to work. But sitting in my chair there was excruciating again so I asked to go home. Cool boss who probably thought it was a little weird but told me to go anyway. I thought it was all weird too quite frankly and I wasn't happy about it.

Got home and found a position I could sit in that lessened the pain. Went to bed early and had an ok night's sleep.

All of this has a point I swear, bear with me.

Well I've had this stupid cold for a week now, but it's not been anything abnormal. Just a bad cough. Lots of coughing. Well this evening, the pain in my side just completely disappeared. It's just gone. Shortly after that I started coughing up blood. Lots of it. Bright red freaking blood.

As you can imagine, I freaked out. Shannon called my grampa, bless his heart, who came and took me to the ER. I hate the ER. I fucking hate it. Hate the smell, hate the brightness of it. So I'm already panicky about the blood, I'm freaked about having to set foot in the ER - it's just unpleasant all around.

Anyway, they suck my blood, they x-ray my lungs and the long story short (too late!) is I've got pneumonia. In my right lung. That's what was causing the pain yesterday and today. The blood, the doctor said, was caused by a combo of a bloody nose and some ruptured blood vessels from all of the violent coughing I've been doing. Nothing else. Other than the pneumonia, I'm fine. I just have to take antibiotics and rest a lot and drink hella water.

I'm so relieved. I was so scared.

Another year gone

I thought I should blog on this first day of a new year. I didn't do anything exciting - didn't even make it to midnight last night because the cold meds kicked in and knocked me out. I've had this cold you see, since the day after christmas. Thought I was getting better but this weekend it came back to kick my ass.

So Shan and I decided to have a marathon weekend of Forever Knight :) It's been fun. I love watching movies with Shannon. And with FK it's been even more fun because it's a show that just begs for the MSTK treatment. As much as I love my vampire detective, the show is just one big ball of cheese. It's great :)

So anyway, I was meaning to write about 2005 a little. It's been a mellow year. We spent a lot more time with Gary though the circumstances weren't the best. Hanging out and chatting with Aunty Jo and family has been fabulous. Watching my baby girl begin her first year of high school has been both wonderful and sad. She had quite a scare several weeks ago that I don't think she's quite over but she'll bounce back.

I've had a lot of fun working on projects at work, especially IndyKnow. I love my job so much. Actually it was kind of funny because one evening I was at Mike's house for his B-fest and another guest asked me how long I've worked for the paper. So I said, "Well, I still love my job." So she replied, "Ah not long then." I hope I don't reach a point where I don't love what I do. I grew up with journalism and broadcasting from my parents, so I know the pitfalls. Maybe I'm immune to them. Maybe it's too early to tell. All I know is right now, it's great :)

All in all it's been an okay year. No one I love dearly died on me so that's always a plus :) I don't mean that to be morbid or anything. There was just a run of a few years where each year was marked by that. So now I'm happy to make it through a year with my family members in tact.

I'm looking forward to the coming year. If I say I think it will be a great one I'll jinx it. So I'll just say, roll on 2006.