Notes on a Quest....

A column on Brokeback...

Tips for getting over 'Brokeback' hump - from the SF Gate.  This was an interesting take....

The Gay Agenda in films.....

Well, before I went to teach on Friday I inquired with the school as to an emergency loan.  It would have been nice if one of the people I had spoken with on the previous day had mentioned this, but they do have small emergency loans.  I only sold one book in the end, which fetched $70.  That plus the loan should help get me through.  But I still don't have rent money and right now, I'm just avoiding calls from my landlord.  If the money comes through next Friday, I can shoot her a $3000 check for rent for four months.  I'm going to write a letter of complaint to the university.

Anyway, other than that, I slept late today and walked to downtown Northampton where I whiled away the day reading.  Nothing much.  I'm fearful that I can't write right now.  Nothing like finances to kill one's buzz, eh? You'd think one would get used to poverty after a while, but you don't.

Last night I went to see two movies (for the price of one...yes, I snuck into the 2nd one).  Capote and The Matador.  Loved Capote.  I mentioned this to a Northampton local today at a coffee shop and he sneered and said, "oh, another one of them gay movies."

What the fuck is up with homophobes?  First of all, it's a huge turn off.  If I was dating a guy that wouldn't see Capote because it had gays in it, I would dump him.  Just like that.  Why?  Because I would assume he was gay and not dealing with it.  Or, worse, that he subscribed to some deeper agenda he wasn't letting onto with me.

Anyway, Phillip Seymore Hoffman turned in an incredible performance. Great film.  I also liked Brokeback Mountian, even though it seems to be the "in thing" to pick it apart right now and find fault with it.  Not because of its gay theme, but more I suspect that others think people are praising it based on agenda thinking alone.  And ripping it apart as a story makes them seem above this agenda based thinking.  Hell, what can I say except I sort of reached this conclusion because I saw the movie and absolutely loved it.  I liked Ang Lee's subtlety.  I love the landscape.  How it was shot.  the sense of place that was infused into the film.  The acting was off the charts and the story was heartbreaking.  Someone said it was "not glued together well enough" for instance.  I just don't get it.  I thought it was tied together really well.

Anyway, feel free to disagree with me.  I'm curious as to what people really do think about these films and about the reactions of others to the "gay agenda".  Are men fearful of it?  Why?  Why are people so threatened by gays?

Of course this isn't the reaction everyone is having.  Charles Barclay, macho basketball player and all around rebel said the other day on a sports talk show (now consider the audience) that he had "a lot of gay friends, God Bless them all" and no he hadn't seen Brokeback Mountain.  The reason why is because he just doesn't care for the genre of love stories.  He said, "now if they had a couple of gay guys in a kung fu movie that also fell inlove, I'd have no problem seeing the film, 'cause I love kung fu"  He then repeated "God Bless all my gay friends.  I don't know where I'd be without them."

Pretty fucking brave.  It at least gave me some amount of hope that some men could actually be men about all this.

Shaun of the Dead

Watched "Shaun of the Dead" tonight.  And really enjoyed it.  What made it really great was imagining Limey as Shaun.  Anyway, it was funny and all that.