The trials and tribulations of a pretentious, self-obsessed, lust-stricken twentysomething, as glimpsed through the throb of pop culture.
Brokeback Mountain, The Proposition, Same-Sex Obsessions
Through a buncha twists and turns and hiccups far too politically sensitive, morally murky and made the fuck up for to go into here and now, I ended up sat weeping 'side the KFC cross the way from the multiplex, and a lass I secretly been in love with for a time waxing all concerned in my direction.
"Come now", she's saying, "Look at yonder eyes all quiverin' an' lip all laced wi sorrow. Look at those big ol' sheets a' melancholy hangin' round your neck. The hell's the matter now, pray tell?"
And me all shrugging.
I tell her it's nothin' much.
I tell her I just seen Brokeback Mountain, is all.
Something in the way she adjusts the beanie up top her head says aye, I know the score, with relation to yonder flick about Donnie Darko has a stupid moustache and falls in lusty man-love wi' him out Home And Away and the thing wi' the skaters.
It took hold my damn heart, I'm saying, took hold the fucker right from out my guts, took hold that throbbin' bobble o' life an squeezed till a fella was near to shittin' his lungs all up that velvet upholstery.
It got the weeps all giddy, I got no shame in relating, for the love a' God it had me in a big ol' tangle o' blue.
"S'ok," she says. "Ain't a thing wrong w'i a fella weeps through such a picture."
Perfectly true, y'unnerstann. Bigger men than me done crawled out that screening screeching the veins out their heads with Upset. Sources indicate Bill O'Reilly had to be dragged out the theater by the hair a' the arse the time he went for to spend a couple hours having Ang Lee tell him all bout a couple shepherds started tickling others under-willies.
But hear me now, I get to relating, hear me here an now while you're still in the country (she's got a passport in the back-pocket burning the flesh off a' her hide). I did some thinking throughout the affair too, oh aye, got me a brain-fulla mind-wax set for drippin' out my maw.
What I got to thinking about is how Brokeback Mountain shares a lot with The Proposition, another flick concerned with men wearin' hats an' ridin' horses an' starin' longingly at sunsets.
The Proposition, she's aware, is the first genuinely brilliant western since William Munny snarled into town for to paint the bar-stools black wi' Gene Hackman's brains.
Article comments
1 - Mary K. Williams
Wow - what a journey you take us on Duke. Speaking of journeys - I love the line:
she's got a passport in the back-pocket burning the flesh off a' her hide
Ya got the gift Lad.
2 - NR Davis
Hard as hell to read, but worthwhile nonetheless. Down with stereotypes! Death to the dominant hate-and-laziness-fueled paradigm!
3 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Sir Mary, thank you. the good thing about this, as opposed to a review of the films mentioned up yonder, for example, is that i can kinda play around with the themes an stuff in them without feelin all sortsa self-indulgent. maybe this is even MORE self indulgent than usual, but at least it's clearly pointed out at the top. heh, but yes, thank you.
Ms. Davis (i'm right with the ms., yes?) thank you also. i made a conscious effort to try an make at least SOME of this more readable than usual. (it felt very odd putting "g" on the end of words like "putting" again). most of the more unreadable gumpf i tried to fling into quotation marks and the like. Nonetheless, i realise it may be a bit of a bother to wade through some of those paragraphs, but thank you for doin so, an yeah, stereotypes - best we set the fuckers alight here and now whilst the momentum's building.
4 - Aaron Fleming
Ah what a bright shinny new feature this is, and one hosted by no less than The Duke!
I agree on The Proposition, a mightily excellent film, unrelentingly vicious on its bludgeons of harshness.
Brokeback on the other hand I will probably never watch, for no other reason that it looks a bit dull to me.
5 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Thank you, Sir Fleming!
i'm still coughin chunks of The Proposition out my eyes!
6 - DJRadiohead
The Duke... this is excellent here. As I just told Sir Saleski offline, I will now be unable to speak a decent AmericanEnglish sentence for at least a couple hours on account of having read your piece here and that just makes a fella start flinging fucks and slurring and swearing and muttering and the like.
Enough about me... Be Here Now? You're joking, right? I am. Sort of. Thing is... there are some good moments on that disc and it is made better in my mind by what followed (that being Shoulder of Giants.)
Can't wait until the next Mind Wax drops.
7 - Flapjack
Aye, here...here, aye....here.
Very much enjoyed that. Just wondering did you order the Proposition over the net or did you see it in yonder cinema somewhere? Surely it's not out yet is it? Dying to lay my McGonnagles on it.
8 - DJRadiohead
And how did this not turn into a gigantic Conorfest?
9 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
DJ - thank you, sorry it took a time to get to this. I dig the hell out Be Here Now, although, to be honest, it always sounds better in my head than it does when i go ahead and press play. Fade In / Out, Girl In The Dirt Shirt, I Hope I Think I know, those are great great songs.
As to how we / i avoided detailing further my hetero-conorist disposition, i dunno, to be honest. i'll make up for it in future.
Flapjack, thank you, m'dear. The Proposition is indeed in UK cinema-holes at this minute. whether or not your local multiplex gets it is, alas, a bit of a "who knows?" Hope you get to see it, though, one way or the other.