broken

Greg's post deserves a picture to go with. The original Annie Proulx story describes one of the characters as "cave-chested." Didn't quite understand that, myself, but one gets the idea that these two dudes were not modern gay perfection.

Novelist David Leavitt, whom I have admired and consumed since his first collection of stories, "Family Dancing" in 1983, points out (in a deftly written piece that covers much more) that the actors chosen for the film are more handsome/beautiful than the characters described by Proulx. No matter. One can easily understand the need/desire for Ang Lee to make the actors who carry his film at least look stunning.

One cannot easily deny him this. And yes, who among us is not grateful? What, Lee should have cast some geeks? We want the visuals, man!

Still, the power of the story can come through.

Brokeback Mountain

I saw it on Saturday during the big sellout weekend with a group of boys. We all walked out tentatively and talked about the movie a bit over drinks but it needed to seep in. On Sunday, I found I really needed to talk about it as the layers and layers of the film shook me. Later that night I finally cried.

Heath Ledger. Amazing.

Looking forward to seeing it again soon.

over the swamp land & through the woods ...

so, Chris, Jacob and I ran an 8K (5 mile) cross country run last Sunday on a horse farm an hour northwest of Chicago. It was hilly, not San Fran-hilly, but hilly (c'mon, our only hill within running distance is man-made!), slick with snow and cold ... how cold? To paraphrase Ligotti, quoting one of his fav films: "It was 11."

But the cold meant that the swamps and the creek were frozen; that is good. I wasn't looking forward to wading up to my hips in cold water then running several miles ...

Jacob has run the race before and yes, ran without sweatpants. Brrr. But several high school boys ran without shirts.

Happy Holidays...1967 Style

Plastic covered furniture...more than just an Italian stereotype.

Andrew Sullivan and the Future

Andrew Sullivan's blog has become difficult to read in recent months. He's on a crusade to get the Bush administration to reverse its torture policy. Most days consist of long rants. I admire him taking on this important issue and perhaps as a Republican he understands how very poorly history will look upon this administration and the irreparable damage it has done. Nonetheless, Andrew also wrote an interesting article about the future of gay life. Today he quotes an email from an 18 year-old who thanks him for the article and the appreciation it has given him for the struggle that gay people had to go through in the past. He himself does not have that struggle today; Out to friends and family and absolutely no issues. Now self-congratulation is total Andrew ( I feel I can call him that because I seem to constantly be reminded here that he is a friend of X or Y) but if this is the direction of things, I am warmly impressed.

I am reading Thomas Friedman's "The World Is Flat" about globalization. It's hard to believe that Netscape went public only 10 years ago and how quickly technology has changed and is changing or world. It's heady and scary.

Speaking of which, what is going on in the world of the Tribune, Joe? The newspaper industry seems to be going through some shocks of its own.