Brokeback Mountain

LOVE IS A FORCE OF NATURE

It's probably the most discussed movie of recent times but that isn't going to stop me having my say. This is a story that's very dear to my heart (and I don't care how soppy that sounds). I first read the short story by Annie Proulx that the movie is based on in 1999. The effect it had on me was devestating: for days I couldn't get it out of my head. The wrenching closing scenes just penetrated me to the core of my being in a way no other story ever has. The writing is sparse and almost rudimentary - potential faults that are its greatest strength. So much is conveyed with so little. I've re-read it numerous times since then and it never fails to move me just as deeply.

I had been following the progress of the movie adaptation for a number of years so my anticipation had well and truly peaked by the time I finally got to see Ang Lee's film. I'm not going to go into detail about the storyline (if you don't know it already then the movie probably isn't for you - i.e. you're not gay/friendly or a movie fanatic). The movie is terrific with outstanding performances from the entire cast. Heath Ledger is simply superb (who would have thought it possible?) as Ennis del Mar. He conveys the tightly wound core of a tortured man in a way that is 100% believable - you stop seeing 'acting' and start seeing 'being'. It's a triumph of film acting.

Ang Lee manages to maintain the sparsity of the original writing through a langrous pace (slow but not dull) and lingering shots of the spectacular mountain scenery. It was an immense relief to feel that I was watching the work of a director who thoroughly understood the source material and, somehow, brought to life my vision of the story. I walked out of the screening feeling as though I'd just read Proulx's story again - and that's the greates praise I can give the film.

The Milky Way Galaxy & Me

This is an infrared mosaic picture of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy (that's our galaxy) taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. If you click HERE for a link to a NASA article about the pic (and HERE for a truly amazing 30mb version of the pic). From the article:

The region pictured here is immense, with a horizontal span of 890 light-years and a vertical span of 640 light-years. Earth is located 26,000 light-years away, out in one of the Milky Way's spiral arms. Though most of the objects seen in this image are located at the galactic center, the features above and below the galactic plane tend to lie closer to Earth.

I look at a picture like that and just feel such a sense of awe. The scale is brain-freezingly massive. I wonder how anyone can look at it and still think we're alone in the universe. There are billions of stars in that galaxy (our galaxy need I remind you again) which is only one of billions of galaxies in the universe. The Milky Way is, effectively, only the local neighbourhood of humanity. It's ludicrous to think we're the only life, let alone intelligent life, in all that enormity.

I look at that picture and know I was born at the wrong time. Ever since I can remember I've had this pervasive feeling that there had been a mistake, that I wasn't meant to be born for another thousand years. The future is where I want to be now. Pictures like this and the feeling of displacement I've always had are why I read so much science fiction. All those imagined futures feel like home to me.