January 14, 2004
Queer Eye for the Cowboy
While reading Salon.com this morning, I found this article on director Ang Lee's upcoming project, Brokeback Mountain. Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, the movie will mesh together the Western with queer cinema. Yes, I'm talking gay cowboys, folks, and Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger are rumored to be playing the parts of the cowboys in love. It sounds like a lovely attempt at opening eyes and liberating minds, but I'm afraid that, as usual, Hollywood will get it all wrong.
As far as American movie theatre and film goes, homosexuality is receiving more and more exposure. We are seeing more gay characters than ever before -- just look to the latest installment of The Lord of the Rings (Sam and Frodo, hello!). However, the quality of this exposure is not acceptable as it presents audiences (which are deemed mostly as heterosexual) with a false picture, or rather, an incomplete picture of homosexual life. The problem is, as Gary Morris asserts in his article Queer Kisses, that "Mainstream audiences want their homosexuals but not the details."
Scratching the details results in these false portrayals of homosexual life and love in film. In his article, Morris goes on to cite films like Philadelphia and The Birdcage, which may present gay characters, but ultimately rob them of "their own basic human, homosexual urges."
I'm curious to see if Lee can produce a good film and provide a fair representation of gay romance without causing an uproar. Lesbian romance seems more acceptable to mainstream audiences (ie: the Madonna/Britney stint), but perhaps Jake and Heath will help in reshaping Hollywood's take on gay love.
January 09, 2004
Escalades and BLOGS with 20" rims?!
When I found this link on Polyvinyl's site, I couldn't help but think of our dear NMJ blogs, which are in desperate need of primping and pimping. Forget the color codes; get your bling on!
January 01, 2004
Theory this, theory that
Another strange quiz which is slightly amusing and somewhat accuarate... Share your results!
You are a Theory Slut. The true elite of the
postmodernists, you collect avant-garde
Indonesian hiphop compilations and eat journal
articles for breakfast. You positively live
for theory. It really doesn't matter what
kind, as long as the words are big and the
paragraph breaks few and far between.
What kind of postmodernist are you!?
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