The Never-Ending Roller Coaster Ride

The ups-and-downs thing continued to this Sunday. I actually picked Pittsburgh to beat Indy in the NFL playoffs in my work pool but was actually kind of hoping for the Colts to win (sorry, though, $100 beats any standards I have about hating the Steelers). Then, I went to see Brokeback Mountain (see review below) with Cindy, only to be driving home and calling my brother to tell him about it and have him yell at me for calling in the middle of 24. Being 100 miles away from home and 20 minutes after the show ended I missed the first two hours. So, there went any fun I had watching a horribly depressing indie movie in North Dakota. Plus, it never feels good to realize that for as much as you think you have your life in some sort of control or order that just as simply as the blink of an eye you can forget very important things which makes you realize that you actually have no control whatsoever. Or, maybe I'm a little melodramatic these days.

Anyway, the movie. I loved it. I'm sure there are a lot of Christian conservatives and homophobes who would hate it without seeing it or spend too much time judging the characters actions to actually appreciate what they were seeing, but to me, it was a tragic love story, nothing more, nothing less, well more in the fact that it was heartbreaking to realize that if people were a little more accepting of two men (or women) in a relationship that maybe many of the couple's troubles could have been averted. The reviews saying how amazing Heath Ledger is rang absolutely true. I know Jakey G. (as he's called in my fantasy world where we have lots of passionate sex) was fantastic as he is in everything but Heath really did shine, and played a character unlike anything I've seen him do before. I didn't watch the Golden Globes (which I think were on tonight) but I do hope he or the movie got something. As for Ang Lee's directing, I'm not going to even pretend I get the vast scope of what it takes to be a filmmaker, but I will say this, Lee (that's the journalist in me using last names after the first reference) does an amazing job of capturing real emotion without being sentimental or sappy. I don't know if it's accurate at all to say, but I'd call it very minimalistic. Hell, Heath Ledger as the silent Ennis speaks volumes about his emotions without hardly saying a word. I was proud of myself for not crying all that much, but tonight when I took a shower, I was thinking about the movie and literally brought myself to tears again thinking about the end. If that's not strong storytelling I don't know what is.

Aside from football and a homosexual cowboy movie, I also went on a downloading spree. Plus, on my 100+ mile drive, I have finally come up with my 2005 top five list for albums. I aim to have a few honorable mentions and very briefly I think I must do a top ten songs section, because there were a couple hits that I'll have in my head till the day I die that don't make the best of list. I'll save that for another post, as I haven't quite come up with the 10 singles, and well, I want to make my review writing as sharp as possible.

And with that, I'm off to read my liberally biased literature. Xo.