Book Review: Moon Called

I've decided that I'm going to start posting some reviews for non-manga related reads. I do spend a fair bit of cash on entertainment novel reading, so I want to share with you all some of the best (and worst) stuff I come across.

Patricia Brigg's new book, Moon Called, is an interesting start to a new paranormal series. I would definitely place it in keeping with styles like those of Kim Harrison, Charlaine Harris, and Laurell K. Hamilton. One thing I really liked about this book was that the main character is one tough chick. Her name is Mercedes (Mercy for short) and she's a mechanic. I like that snarky bit of irony. She also happens to be a "walker"--a shapeshifter based on Native American folklore who can turn into a coyote. This ability is quite different from that of werewolves, as we discover in short order. Mercy can shift more easily and has better control of her animal side than werewolves who can lose themselves during shifts in form. The downside, however, is that a walker is not as strong as a werewolf. When push comes to shove, she has to flee or submit to angry werewolves. Or so it seems at first...but as the book develops Mercy learns she may be more powerful than she thinks.

As the novel begins, Mercy lives a relatively normal life. She owns an auto-shop and works on people's cars. Sure, she has some unusual clientele--like a vampire named Stefan--but otherwise things are pretty calm. That is until a newbie werewolf shows up on her garage doorstep looking for work. Soon things get complicated when the alpha werewolf in town (who also happens to be her neighbor) decides to take in the young man. Before she knows it Mercy is caught up in an increasinly dangerous game of cat and mouse with some pretty nasty characters, all while trying to deal with two werewolves who have a decided interest in her and a mysterious vampire who knows more about her heritage than she does.

I really enjoyed this book. It kept a good level of suspense, made me like the main character, and got me interested in the guys as well. I also love the fact that it's the first in a series. I'm a total whore for a serialized narrative. So there are many things left unresolved in this first book, which have me intrigued about the future. Mercy holds her own as a tough independent heroine and doesn't take a backseat to the dudes in the story. I think we're going to see the romantic plot line develop over the course of the series, but it was sort of kept in the background rather than the foreground. Nonetheless, the main story was interesting enough that I didn't mind. And I thought the undercurrent of tension she's building is good. I anticipate more cool things from this series in future and I highly recommend it to anyone who's enjoyed the Kim Harrison, Charlaine Harris, or Laurell K. Hamilton series.

GRADE: A-

Jake's Been Nominated!!!

FINALLY!!! Jake's brilliant performance in Brokeback Mountain is getting the kudos it deserves. He's been officially nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Yay!!! Which means, of course, that I will be glued to my TV for that awards ceremony to catch glimpses of my cutie pie. He was looking mighty fine when he went stag to the SAG awards, although he lost out to Paul Giamatti for that crap-ass film Cinderella Man. Boo!!! I really hope the same doesn't happen at the Oscars. I've got my fingers crossed for you Jakey!

Harlequin Manga (Part Deux)

I've been out of the loop for a few days as my step-mom and little bro came to town for a visit. We had fun and I ate way too much food. But I know what you all really want to hear about is the Harlequin Manga! So let's get down to it:

Harlequin Pink: A Girl in a Million
This manga is based on a Betty Neels Harlequin. For those unfamiliar, Betty Neels is one of those old school veteran HQ writers. I actually read one of her novels a few years ago when I was picking up books at a library. So I was intrigued to see what this manga would be like. You can imagine my complete and utter mortification when I opened up the manga and began reading, thinkinging, hmm, this all sounds vaguely familiar. Hmm, he's a specialist doctor from Amsterdam...she's a young English nurse...they're thrown together in a time of trouble.... Well, folks, it was indeed the same fucking novel I'd read! Talk about uncanny. But I digress. The manga changed a few things of course. Instead of the original WWII setting, they turn it into a more soap-opera-ish 90s version. Like many a Harlequin novel, the heroine is young, virginal, and angelically good. She's a nurse who works in the pediatrics ward. (Gag me with a spoon!) And of course, she has a "gift" with children. The hero is the tall, dark, and handsome Dr. Van Houben. It's weird to see them in pretty classic shoujo style on the pages of this manga. The artwork is only so-so in my opinion. I like the fact that the ink is tinged pink though in relation to the pink line theme. I think that this kind of manga would appeal a great deal to a young female teen audience (12-16). There's some kissing but that's about it. Pretty tame stuff, but in keeping with the HQ "happily ever after" marriage resolution.

Harlequin Violet: Response
This manga is a lot more daring than the other one. I'm not familiar with the novel this one is based on, but let me give you a breakdown. Our heroine, Sienna, is a demure young lady (a bit older than the other heroine--I'd say early twenties) who used to work as secretary to her father (a medieval history prof). But after his death she goes to live with her brother Rob and works as a secretary for his company. Rob is a photo-journalist and goes abroad on assignment a lot, leaving Sienna alone. (Uh oh! Recipe for T-R-O-U-B-L-E!!!) One day a handsome well-known Greek businessman, Alexis Stefanides, comes to the office looking for a secretary while he's in town on business. He hires Sienna, but before long the two are more than just business associates. They start dating and after a brief whirlwind romance, Sienna decides to give up her virginity to the Greek god. This is when the story gets a little bit sadistic. Yes, I said sadistic. It turns out Alexis is merely using Sienna to get revenge on her brother! (Say it ain't so Harlequin!) So he "deflowers" her to get revenge for his own sister, who he claims Rob raped. Yeesh. Yuck. Blargh. Why oh why does Harlequin think these kinds of plots are appealing? I don't know. I will admit, the manga artwork was nicely done throughout this sequence. A lot of soiled flower imagery (petals falling off roses, etc.) common to shoujo for these kinds of things. Anyway, evil Greek man out for revenge has taken Sienna's innocence. But she refuses to believe his story and vows not to tell her brother what happened. Time passes and Rob returns to town. While out for dinner with his sister one night, Alexis and his sister arrive at the same restaurant. Coincidence? I think not. Alexis is surprised that Sienna hasn't told her brother what happened and gets set to reveal all when his own sister reveals that Rob was not the one who raped her, but actually one of Alexis' best friends! Gasp! Alexis feels like he needs to apologize to Sienna, but she wants nothing to do with him. When he tries to confront her she runs away and (gasp!) gets hit by a car. She wakes to find herself suffering from amnesia. She also finds that she is supposedly married to some hot Greek guy named Alexis. Uh oh. He takes her back to his island home (cheezy!) and they spend time getting to "know" each other. They have lots of sex (pretty non-graphically depicted) and eventually Sienna remembers just who he is. Of course, the shit hits the fan folks. She hates him. Won't let him touch her. Yadda yadda. He becomes sad and mopes around professing his love for her. She leaves him and goes home. Then she finds out months later that he is very ill. Maybe even dying. Gasp! He has apparently been deeply depressed since she left and so of course, like a stupid twit, she goes to him. They make up and live HEA. Not a story I particularly enjoyed, except for the malicious glee with which my mind kept tearing it apart. The artwork is marginally better than the other one, but not by too much. I hope they have some better manga-ka for the next few titles they release.

To sum up, I guess you could say the Harlequin manga are like a HQ novel. But the lite version. If that's even possible. They maintain the heteronormative HEA storyline and condense the narrative into the key moments and focus on pertinent dialogue. I'll definitely be intrigued to see what the next few titles are like. I've also seen these two at Borders in the graphic novel section with other manga. So I'll have to start looking into what their sales are like. All in all, this is still a hugely fascinating development.

New Blogging Pal!

Hey folks, this is just a brief shout out to my pal Ming who has started her own blog about food. It made me hungry just looking at the pic of a luscious pecan pie straight from Texas. Yummy! Check her out on my list at: http://hungryhippopotamus.blogspot.com/ Her user name on my list is now HungryHippo.

I'll be back soon to update on the Harlequin manga as I have much to say!

Harlequin Manga Rock my Dissertation World!

OMG!!! This newest revelation came about as a result of dissertation research. Honest. I'd read in some obscure article about the fact that Harlequin had been working with Japanese manga publishers since the late nineties to turn some of their novel titles into manga for Japanese consumers. Apparently they've done this to about 300 or so novels. Well, I decided I needed to look into this a bit more and lo and behold, the capitalistic process has come full circle! God this is so cool! Apparently Dark Horse is translating the Harlequin manga and they've started selling them in the USA. These are the first two titles, which just came out. It's uncanny how I happened to come upon this at precisely the right moment. It gives me this sense of dissertation fate or destiny, which is kinda cool. But anyhow. So evidently Dark Horse, in conjunction with Harlequin, are organizing their releases along two different lines: the pink line (G-rated fare acceptable for the kiddies) and the violet line (more adult themed, although not too smutty). Not surprisingly, I jumped on Amazon and ordered this shit pronto. And today they arrived! I've only had a chance to skim them so far, but I think I've definitely spent my money with purpose. I just know I'm going to be writing about this. Woot! But what I find so entertaining is that they've color-inked each manga to reflect the pink or violet lines! So hilarious and fangirlishly fun!

I'll be back with more details once I've read them. But I just had to share!

Geekdom and my late initiation into the glory that was Firefly

I've always been a Joss Whedon fan. I started watching Buffy when it first aired my last year of high school and I enjoyed Angel as well. But I was actually living in Japan when Firefly had it's all too brief run on Fox. So I never actually saw the show and didn't go to see the movie precisely because I hadn't seen all the important stuff that led up to it. But then my good pal Charlie decided to remedy that situation by getting me the Firefly boxset and Serenity DVD for X-Mas. I must admit, I let them sit around for a while, because I was not quite in the mood for a TV series. Then one day this week I needed something new to watch while I was eating dinner and decided the first episode of Firefly would be a good solution. I assumed it would only be an hour long (forgot about the whole pilot episode thing) and that I could turn it off and watch another episode a different day. Foolish, foolish thinking on my part.

I was immediately sucked in and sat glued to my TV set from 7:00pm until 3:30am. At which point I finally had to turn it off because I needed to get up the next morning for school. I then rushed back home the following day and proceeded to watch the rest of the series and the movie. I am now an official Firefly fan. Not that this should come as a surprise!

So, a couple of thoughts I had while watching the series. 1) I think Joss Whedon ripped off quite a bit from the Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop which was made long before this series--it's also a futuristic, sci-fi, western about bounty hunters in space. Um...sounds like blatant concept plagiarism to me. And I've seen Cowboy Bebop, so I know there are definite similarities. But I don't hold it against old Joshy. I just hope he's acknowledged his debt to the anime. 2) Things set up in the pilot and things that happen later in the series are a bit "off". For instance, in the pilot there is some noticeable tension with Jayne and Kalee. He's seemingly jealous of her interest in Simon and when she gets shot he checks in on her secretly to make sure she's all right. I thought initially the show was going to set up some kind of love triangle with those three. But it never materialized, which was a tad disappointing. I thought in some ways that would have given Jayne's character a bit more depth. Instead they sort of turned him into the schlocky action side-kick with no brain. Kinda redundant, but oh well. 3) I really wanted to learn more about Shepherd Book and what his secret past was (they set this up in the series) but then they kill him off in the movie with these questions unanswered. I get a little irked by narrative threads that are left hanging. 4) I CRIED, CRIED, CRIED, when they totally and unexpectedly killed off Wash! He was such a cutie pie. I really loved the chemistry between him and Zoe, they were a great couple. But I'm thinking that the actor wanted out of any potential future movie projects or something. 5) Okay, Nathan Fillion is one hottie Canadian. I really liked his outfit in the show. Yummy. And that boy has a sweet tatoo on his hip! And the most juicy man-bottom I've seen in total naked glory on screen in a while. For all the fellow fans, they know of which episode I speak....hoo-boy!

I am now forever indebted to Charlie for this gift. Definitely the best of 2005!

Addendum: Well, that and Monkey's decadent and quite delectable box o' Trader Joe goodies. I'm trying to restrain myself from eating all the tasty little ginger spice cookies in one sitting. So good! Especially with a nice cup of tea. Mmmm!

More movie fun with Jake!

To fully embrace my crush on Jake Gyllenhaal, as with any celeb crush, I decided I needed to see his entire film oeuvre. I'm dedicated yo! So, today I got one of Jakey's early flicks October Sky in the mail, courtesy of Netflix. While awaiting a sushi delivery that took forever (almost 2 hours!) I sat down to watch the movie and found myself delightfully surprised. It was a lot better than I thought it would be and of course JG is adorable and earnest. He does have a knack for playing endearing misunderstood youth. I found it rather bizarre also to be watching this film, which is set in a West Virginia coal mining town, after the recent tragedy at Sago Mine. But this narrative was apparently based on a true story, about a young man (Homer J. Hickam) who decides he wants to build rockets after witnessing the launch of Sputnik. Homer faces a lot of difficulty in achieving his dream because so many people in his life have already mapped out a future for him in the coal mines along with everyone else. The only way out of their town is getting a football scholarship to go to college, and Homer isn't the athletic type. He begins making rockets with a couple of his friends and gets some unexpected supporters in the community, including his teacher (played by Laura Dern). He eventually goes on to win a local and then national science fair competition and he and his three friends all get scholarships to college for their achievements. It's quite an interesting story, especially for anyone who's ever lived in a small economically depressed town before. There isn't a lot of hope or room for grand aspirations in those settings sometimes. The film really made me recall living in rural northern Ontario for several years. My mother still lives there and I find it to be one of the most depressing places I've ever been. Don't get me wrong, in the summer it's quite beautiful (lots of trees, a big lake, etc.). But I remember going to school with kids who had no dreams. They expected they'd either go on welfare, like a good percentage of the unemployed in the town, or work at a local factory or retail store. Education wasn't really valued by many and just getting your high school diploma put you a head above a good number of people. I couldn't wait to get away from there. In many ways, I count my lucky stars that I decided to go live with my dad and pursue my academic dreams. If I'd stayed there I don't know what would have happened. The atmosphere of the town itself can pull you under pretty quickly. I only visit there every so many years, but every time I do I feel that weight of hopelessness in the air. I can never stay for very long.

Well, this blog entry has taken a rather somber turn. My apologies. Anyway, I didn't want to slack off in the chronicling my JG obsession and all. I'm totally excited because he's going to be on Jay Leno THIS FRIDAY!!!!!!! And I'll probably get to see him all spiffed up for the Golden Globes on Monday night. *sigh* I'm now officially happy once more!

A new segment I like to call--Yaoi Review!

So, given all the money I spend on the slew of yaoi and shonen-ai titles coming out in the US these days, I have decided to incorporate a regular review section for new boy-love manga. For my first review I have to start by giving mad props to Digital Manga, the press from which all three of these graphic novels come to our English-speaking shores. DMP is a fairly new press, which I became aware of at Yaoi-Con 2004 when I bought Only the Ring Finger Knows. I really enjoyed that particular manga and decided to keep an eye on what DMP would be publishing in the future. Well, in no time flat they were announcing a whole batch of yaoi manga that they would be bringing to nerdy fangirls like myself. I highly recommend peeking at their website, which lists all their upcoming and newly acquired titles. These bitches will be getting a shitload of money out of me over the next year! http://www.yaoi-manga.com/

Ahem. So, onto the review. First up is Naduki Koujima's Our Kingdom vol. 1. Let me just say, hurrah! More volumes to come! I really enjoyed this manga and hoped that it would in fact be a series. It has a 16+ rating, but the sexual content is pretty mild. The premise of the story is that Akira (dark haired lad) is now an orphan, having lost his parents and then his maternal grandmother who took care of him for many years. He unexpectedly discovers that his fraternal grandmother is still alive and wants to meet him (he basically knew nothing about his father's family). Soon he is whisked away to a large mansion (where he frequently gets lost) to meet said grams. It turns out the family is mega-wealthy and he is set to be groomed as one of the potential candidates to take over the family business some day. Shy country bumpkin Akira is initially appalled by his rude grandma however (she's one of those rich snooty matriarch types) and threatens to leave. But he's convinced to stay by none other than his heretofore unknown cousin Rei (the blonde lad) who also lives in the mansion. It turns out Rei is his competition for succession of the family business, but Rei has no interest in that. Instead, he's much more interested in his shy cousin. Okay, he's more than interested. He's totally in lurve with him in no time flat (note: it's interesting that Rei is blonde, because he is clearly being set up as the seme--a role usually assigned to the darker haired one in the duo). Akira is the more oblivious character, not really understanding why his cousin is kissing him all the time. But that's all good, because Rei has time to win over his little cousin...or does he? Enter "evil" competition--Raoul! To add to the already unusual family dynamic, he happens to be Rei's nephew (although they are roughly the same age). Well, good old Raoul has a lot of pent up hatred for Rei (not entirely clear why) and decides to take it out on him by hurting what he loves...namely, Akira. This amounts to kidnapping and attempting to...er...molest the poor young lad. But remember, this is rated 16+ folks, so nothing major happens. It's a lot more innuendo and some partial nudity. Rei of course comes to the rescue just in time, saving Akira from the clutches of evil Raoul and then staking claim to his boy. Cue some kissing and suggestive heavy petting--but no sex, alas. I have a feeling that might come in volume 2 though. Instead, Akira finally realizes that he loves Rei and wants to be with him too. But he's the shy virginal type, so he's not ready for the hot and heavy just yet. We shall see how long that lasts! What I find most interesting about this manga is that the incestuous nature of Rei and Akira's amour is not really discussed or perceived as problematic in any way. I can't wait to see what happens in volume 2, because with the big old gothic Japanese mansion, scary old grandmas, evil nephews, and amorous cousins this narrative reads like V.C. Andrews yaoi style!

If you liked that gothic tidbit, let me now turn to Chigusa Kawai's La Esperanca. I liked the artwork in this manga the best of all three. There are definite shades of Angel Sanctuary at work in some panels and quite frankly the seme is hot. This is the first yaoi manga that I've come across in the US recently that employs the "European boarding school for boys" plot. This was of course very popular with early shonen-ai in the 1970s, but I was a little surprised to see it in a more contemporary manga. The story takes place in a religious boarding school, complete with priests and nuns and the requisite holy chapel with stained glass windows. Enter our uke, a meek and mild blondie named "Georges" (so French, n'est-ce pas?). Georges is all that is pure and good--namely he's a virtous boy who all the nuns love and who the teachers adore. He is perfect in every way. Or is he? Enter our seme, the way hot "Robert." He's a complete and total bad boy. He's also evidently a bit older than the other boys. Immediately speculative rumors begin to circulate about him--namely, he got into some trouble and hasn't been to school in a while (hence the age gap). Robert is remaining mum on the subject, however. But he does project a great deal of hostility about his current circumstances. Not only does he not follow dress code (gasp!) but he ditches class and gets into fights. Not only that, but he causes sweet little Georges a great deal of confusion. Because of the religious setting of the narrative, Robert figures as something of a fallen or dark angel trying to corrupt Georges. He causes Georges to question himself and his character throughout the story. Eventually, however, they become friends and Georges realizes that he has learned a lot from Robert that is helping him to find true happiness in his life (Georges has some major guilt over the sins of his father that haunt him). Georges considers their relationship a friendship, but it's clear that Robert has some...er...unholy urges when it comes to the fair-haired lad. Jealousy rears its ugly head when a new silver haired boy enters the school and Georges is assigned to be his "official" friend by the principal. Our new boy is Frederick (Freddy) the son of royalty! And after some initial angst, takes a liking to Georges as well and doesn't want to share him with Robert. Georges, of course, remains relatively oblivious to the jealous tension between Freddy and Robert and tries to make everyone "get along." But more serious trouble is brewing in the background. A mysterious student seems to know Robert and they get into a bit of a brawl over some past event which is not fully disclosed. We do learn, however, that a young woman died. And Robert feels pretty guilty about whatever happened. It looks like the mystery dude will continue to make trouble in volume 2... This was a good first volume in the series, setting up background and leaving plenty of interesting plot twists that the reader wants to see resolved. There's also quite a bit of drama--of the injured hero sort. Robert tends to get himself beaten and battered quite a bit, and then has to resist jumping Georges whenever he comes to check on his injured friend. Robert and mystery dude are the most interesting characters so far. Georges is a bit too annoyingly saccharine for my taste, but he might improve as the story continues.

Last, but not least, we come to Tomo Maeda's Beyond My Touch. This is a really cute stand-alone text. Rated 16+, I have to say I think it warranted a 13+ rating instead. There's no sexual content, but whatever. This rating system seems rather arbitrary in my opinion. The premise of this story is classic shoujo. Namely, dead classmate comes back to haunt other classmate whom they secretly loved. In this case, however, it's a boy in love with a boy. Plucky, happy-go-lucky Mamoru dies with regret in his heart. He never told, quiet and reserved Mizuno how he felt. When Mizuno goes to his fellow classmate's funeral, he discovers that Mamoru isn't quite gone yet. His ghost is still here and set on sticking close to Mizuno. What he really wants is to kiss Mizuno and then he can rest peacefully. Mizuno refuses and so begins their stand off. The ghost moves into Mizuno's lonely house (mom is dead, dad works and travels a lot) and slowly works his way into Mizuno's repressed heart. It's only once Mamoru seems to be fading away that Mizuno can finally acknowledge his real feelings and kiss the cutie ghost. They then discover that Mamoru can seemingly stay now that Mizuno has confessed his feelings and the two plan to stay together HEA. Quite a cute and romantic story. I could see this going over well with the tween audience. The artwork wasn't super exciting, but the narrative kept me interested. There was one big unresolved issues however. Namely, how did Mamoru die? It's never explained. That kind of irked me. But I like to know details I suppose. There were two little separate stories at the end that were cute as well. I'll have to keep an eye out for any other work by Maeda-san because I'll probably buy it.

Okay, that's it for the manga review for now! I'll be back later this month when BeBeautiful brings out Embracing Love vol. 2!!!! I'm soooo excited, as this is one of my fave new series. And Kizuna vol. 5 as well! Yay!

False Alarms and Cyborg-Related Realizations

I have come to realize that my computer and I are part and parcel of the same being. We have become a conjoined entity, incapable of functioning at full capacity without the other. I believe I am, as Donna Haraway might say, a cyborg. I came to this realization over the weekend when all of a sudden my computer began experiencing "technical difficulties." Namely, my internet connection was acting wonky. So I called my DSL provider and spent about an hour on the phone with a tech operator who tried to assess the problem and concluded that he thought my computer might have a virus and thus he could not help me anymore. End of customer service. In mild paranoia, I did a system scan with my Norton program but it was claiming all was well. So then I ended up calling Norton, only to re-routed to an operator in India. I shit you not. He was very nice and helpful, but we had some difficulties communicating because of pronunciation discrepancies. But he stayed on the phone with me for an hour while I removed my Norton program and downloaded it again (a precaution he apparently deemed necessary). Once it was set up again everything checked out okay. Unfortunately my internet connection was still wonky--namely, my web browsers were taking ages to open. So then I called HP. I spent another hour on the phone with them to no avail. They said my computer was fine and the problem had to be with the DSL provider (who had insisted everything was working on their end). Well of course, by then their tech support line was closed for the night. And they weren't open on Sunday at all. So I'm really freaking out by this point. I don't know what to do other than look at my computer morosely, asking it why it wants to hurt me so. I was starting to think I might need to pay someone to look at it, but I decided to call up the DSL folks one more time today. This time I got a very congenial operator who figured out the problem in no time flat. Namely, I needed to unplug and replug my power adapter on my modem. Who knew it could be that simple? I was somewhat skeptical about this suggestions at first, I admit. But lo and behold, once I did it--presto chango! Everything was working like magic again! So, I have been stressing out the past few days for nothing. My computer and I are once more melded together in harmonious unity. Let's just hope it stays that way, as another scare will give me a nervous breakdown for sure!

Brokeback--Finally!

*Warning: Film Spoilers in this posting* I FINALLY got to see Brokeback Mountain last night when it opened in Gainesville. The theater was packed (I had to wait in line for the 9:55 show!) which says a lot in this neck of the woods. It was also rather disturbing that there was a police officer stationed outside the theater (presumably in case there were any "violent" reactions to the film? ). But as Violet remarked to me afterwards, it was amazing because not one single person got up during the film to leave or go to the bathroom. We were all so sucked into the narrative that we didn't budge for 2 hours straight. The film was beautifully shot (they did a lot of landscape stuff in Canada, which is kind of funny but not surprising). But it's the acting that really draws you in. It's been quite a while since I've seen such universally good performances among an entire film cast. Which brings me to the main focus of my discussion of the movie at the moment--namely, why hasn't Jake Gyllenhaal been getting mad props for his fabulous performance???? I mean, okay, Heath Ledger is very good as the reserved mumbling cowboy who can't envision living his life with a man. I totally agree that he deserves award consideration. But why not JG as well? I found him to be the more raw and painfully tragic character. He has a lot more dialogue than Ennis, but his most powerful moments come when he is silent. Whether it be the poignant glances/covert looks of love that he gives Heath Ledger or the way he caresses and holds him, his physicality speaks volumes. There's something very beautiful and understated,but thoroughly convincing about his body language throughout (he does the cowboy walk quite well incidentally). JG also does a brilliant job of bringing across the idealistic and hopeful nature of his character which is virtually decimated over the course of the 20 year affair as his dreams never become his reality. Let's just say he had me crying at several points in the film because you can practically feel his emotions coming through the screen. In contrast, we only get fully into Ennis' (Heath) emotions at the end when he finds out that Jack is dead (the victim of a brutal hate crime, which was something he always feared based on a similar event he witnessed as a child). This sequence, although brief, was incredibly painful to watch. Most especially because the film makes you sympathize with these men and hope that they can fulfill their dreams of love rather than sneaking off a few times a year to see each other in the isolated wilderness of Brokeback Mountain. To see it end that way was really abrupt and horrifying on many levels. The ending of course had me and Violet blubbering (but we had thankfully brought tissues). Especially the bit where Ennis takes Jack's shirt and holds it, smelling it and crying.

All in all, both Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal's performances were incredibly moving. I just hope JG gets some recognition come time for the Academy Awards, because I think it would be completely unjust if he didn't. There's been a lot of speculation about the silence surrounding his performance in the blogosphere. Is it because his character is more in touch with his queer sexuality? Is it because he is depicted as a bottom in his relationship with Heath's character and actively pursues sex with other men when he can't be with Ennis? One can't help but wonder if Hollywood homophobia wants to blithely ignore JG's performance for all of these reasons and instead acknowledge Heath's because his character is figured as more heteronormative in the film. Talk about taking a safe out. Now I'm firmly committed to watching the Golden Globes and Oscars to see what goes down.

Aside from this award situation, the movie has stayed with me today and I think I'll have to go see it again to really get a full grasp on everything that goes on in the narrative. Props to Ang Lee for his amazingly subtle but powerful cinematic moments. I have some problems with/reservations about parts of the film from an academic and queer theoretical standpoint, but overall I really found it to be a compelling and deeply moving tragic love story. Once I've seen it again I may feel the need to write a more scholarly review, but for now I'm still digesting the depth of this film.

I'm going to New York!

The weirdest thing happened today. I got on my computer and suddenly saw a long lost friend pop up on my AIM list. Well we immediately started chatting and catching up. She's an old friend from undergrad who's currently working on her Ph.D. in New York. Anyway, Ming and I had the best talk and lamented not seeing each other in years and sort of losing communication somewhere along the way (she cloistered in her lab, me cloistered in my apartment writing my dissertation). So, on a whim, I started looking onling for tix during my Spring Break coming up in March. Well I immediately found some great deals totally in my price range. I talked with Ming and she instantly told me I must come and stay with her. Yay! No hotel to worry about. Then she totally sucked me in when she told me she could get me tix to see the Silver Jews on March 17th! So now I'm going to NYC for Spring Break and we're planning to go see shows, museums, and celebrate St. Patrick's day in the Irish pubs! I'm going to have to set aside some money for this trip, but without accomodation to worry about I should be able to swing it without going into any debt. And I'm super thrilled because I haven't seen Ming in years. But it's pretty clear we still love the same kinds of music and are interested in seeing the same art exhibits. Talk about a great way to start the day!

A New Year Means New Jake Pics are Necessary

It's a new year so some new Jake pics are totally needed. Yes, I know. This blog is fast turning into a JG shrine of fangirly nerdishness, but oh well. I likes what I likes folks. And of course, I felt it necessary to offer these up in retaliation for Monkey's cruel comments about JG the other day. He is too cute! As these pictures amply display. That'll teach you to mock my secret boyfriend, yo.

Many Happy Returns for the New Year!

Last night I went to really lovely New Year's party with friends and met some new fantastic people. There's nothing quite like a good night of conversation with intelligent and charming individuals! Not to mention with great food and wine to complement things! I imbibed entirely too much Riesling and Asti champagne, but it was very nice. My friend Lyndsay and I had planned to go dancing after the clock struck midnight, but time sort of got away from us and we ended up staying at the party until almost 3:00, by which time the clubs had closed. But it was totally fine. Now we're making alternate plans to get our groove on Monday night instead. All in all, this was a fun New Year's to remember!

Today, however, I've been feeling a bit restless. I want to go and do something but I'm not sure what. So instead I've been puttering around my apartment and surfing the Net. But I am happy to say that I have now hit the 30k mark on novel #2! It's been slow going these last 30 pages or so. Now I seem to have gotten back into a writerly groove, so hopefully my output will increase over the next few weeks.