Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Open Thread

Okay. Here's an experiment. I will say this is an "open thread." If you don't know, that means you can comment on anything you like. The weather, ancient Roman aqueducts, how to tell the future by looking at bird entrails, sports, how George Lucas is feeling since Star Wars only got nominated for a makeup Oscar, favorite movies from the 80's. Whatever.

You better write a comment or this is the last open thread, people. It will just be me talking and talking otherwise.

8 comments:

  1. Hey Matt...what do you think about Brokeback mountain? ...just so you know I've not seen it.

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  2. Well, as President Bush said at the University of Kansas, "I haven't seen it. I'd be glad to talk about ranching, but I haven't seen the movie."

    I haven't seen it, either. From all reports it is beautifully written, directed and acted.

    I think what is most difficult for me about the film is the constant references to it as a "love story." You know, "Love is a force of nature." It's this unstoppable thing that might force us to love someone we aren't married to, someone of the same gender, a small child, an animal, a tree, a lollipop. Whatever. The key word being "force." You know, the cowboys don't want to be in love with each other in the movie. In fact they tell each other that they "aren't queer." They just can't help that they are "in love".

    The story is meant to be a tragedy. I think the author's point of view is that the tragedy is caused by the society of the 60's not allowing men to express this love to one another (sexually at least), and that causes lots of trouble and heartache for everyone.

    From my point of view the real tragedy comes from the human condition. There are plenty of relationships just as messed up (and not just gay ones) without the social taboo angle today. The reality is that these men are seeking something to fill the emptiness, and just not finding it. In that sense, the movie is practically Christian. I don't know how it ends, though... if it ends with the happy cowboy couple (which I doubt) then it's not reflecting the real world. Romantic relationships of any kind simply cannot bring eternal satisfaction.

    A more disturbing question is why Christians create sub-par art (Mel Gibson, I assume you are reading this. You know I am not talking to you.) We supposedly have acces to the secrets of the universe and the transcendent God, but our ability to tell stories seems lesser than that of others. These guys come along and make a movie about a secret gay love affair between two cowboys and are going to win a bunch of Oscars. Hmmm.

    Anybody out there actually see the film? I'd be interested to hear your insights.

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  3. The movie guy on the Today show...I can't think of his name...he has a crazy mustach, he didn't like it at all.

    I agree with your thoughts about love. From the preview of the movie it sounds like a skewed view or slightly disturbing perception of love. I'll take love that is a choice...self sacrificing, unconditional, rather than love that was 'forced' to give with the giver having no control.

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  4. Statistically speaking, people with weird mustaches are much less likely to enjoy movies in general.

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  5. Maybe I'll post a picture of me with a mustache on my blog...perhaps it would lead to an increase in hits (or comments from my wife like, "eeewwww grosss."

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  6. I think it's important that you take Jodi to this site: http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/

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  7. One of the reasons I believe that Christians create sub-par art is because there doesn't seem to be support in the Christian community for creating art in general. I'm not sure *why* this is, but it disturbs me.

    It seems to me that the Christian community just doesn't tolerate artistic expression very well. I remember very distinctly going to see "The Prince of Egypt" in a theater during opening week... and being almost the only person there. It was a sad, sad commentary - the followup movie went straight to video, to a much smaller audience. A similar thing happened to Veggie Tales' "Jonah" and they were forced to sell out to another company to survive.

    I can't say for certain if Christians objected because it wasn't a strictly literal telling of those stories, so they didn't go, or if they just don't think Moses and Jonah are as interesting as Star Trek or Tom Hanks, or if there just aren't very many Christians in this country, but any way you look at it I think it's a sad indictment...

    ... and might very well put *me* off of creating Christian art, if I even had that ability to begin with.

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  8. Hey "praying for porn in portland"... as you can see I put a link in the main part of the blog to your entry. I saw that you made a new blog for it because you said you were getting abusive e-mail or something. What the heck happened with that?

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