BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum
Our BetterMost Community => Chez Tremblay => Topic started by: RouxB on October 30, 2006, 09:56:15 pm
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Feeding my obsession for everything Brokeback/rural west related, I went to a ranch nearby me for an afternoon of horseback riding. I have so romanticized this obsession of mine that I just couldn't wait to be in Ennis' environment.
Well, not all "cowboys" are Ennis and Jack. Yeah, they smoke but they chew and spit and are missing teeth. I'm glad I had this experience before I packed up my Honda CR-V and moved to Wyoming. 8)
And my ass hurts.
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wait til tomorrow!! LOL!
and sorry...reality sucks doesn't it!
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RouxB honey,
I know, my head sweats when I wear that Resistol, and my poor dogs ache when I wear my Lucchese boots.
The fantasy is better than the reality, it seems.
Take a nice, hot bath, and you'll be feelin' better.
Cheers,
Paul
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Feeding my obsession for everything Brokeback/rural west related, I went to a ranch nearby me for an afternoon of horseback riding. I have so romanticized this obsession of mine that I just couldn't wait to be in Ennis' environment.
Well, not all "cowboys" are Ennis and Jack. Yeah, they smoke but they chew and spit and are missing teeth. I'm glad I had this experience before I packed up my Honda CR-V and moved to Wyoming. 8)
And my ass hurts.
I know this is meant to be funny, and I appreciate the humor, Roux, but I do think that many of us need a dose of reality with our romanticized versions of Ennis and Jack (or whatever cowboy, lobster fisherman or whoever else we may be fantasizing).
I live in Maine, a state that is often described as having "two Maines," roughly divided by an interstate (in one direction) and a line of latitude (in the other). In "my" Maine we are happy being Maine hippies, wearing Birkenstocks and clothes from LL Bean, going hiking, canoeing, and kayaking, and basically living life "the way life shoud be" according to our tourist slogan.
Then there is the other Maine, where people do not have health insurance and there are not enough dentists; where, in a family, graduating from HS is an accomplishment and no one has ever gone to college; hunting is not done just for sport, it is the way you put something in the freezer to have food for the winter; and then the darker side...abuse, alcoholism, suicide...
I grew up in the suburbs of New York City. I moved to Maine 26 years ago (after stints in Baltimore and Chicago) and I have basically created a suburban experience here. Yes, "suburban" Maine is way more rural than Long Island, NY, but all in all, I live 6 miles from downtown Portland, I have every modern convenience known to personhood, and we are waging a huge campaign in my small (suburban) town to keep a big box store from building a supercenter.
I don't have to go far to see the other Maine, though. I volunteer at a Free Clinic here in Portland and tonight I cared for a lobster fisherman (the Maine equivalent of a cowboy). Sweet man, handsome in his way, but reeking of cigarettes and missing a few teeth. I do think that we need to re-evaluate our Hollywood hunkiness of Heath and Jake and try to remember the real Ennis and Jack and what they were up against. Sometimes, I get frustrated in discussions about the movie/story, and think (believe) that people are using the wrong picture frame.
Not to say you shouldn't try riding.
L
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The book Ennis and Jack were at least seemingly closer to reality.
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Sounds like fun, Roux! 8)
*Hands you a nice, soft goosedown pillow for your sore arse* ;D
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But did you have fun riding?
You know what you need now, a Massage! :o
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My experience with horses is zero. Haven't even been intoduced to one yet.
Just yesterday a friend and I might have been horseback riding if the weather had cooperated - it rained torrents and blew a gale. He told me the horses were 1800 pounds, heavier than a moose and that I would not be able to drive that afternoon from the saddle experience.
So I retreated to the Equinox instead. Ennis and Jack would have had to get on the horse, get wet, work hard and get little pay. Nice theme for a while here at Bettermost.
Driving home, listening to Emmy Lou Harris, I sized up the snow in themountains, there has been no snow for me yet. I thought of camping there to be safe from civilization and to have time alone with a fishing buddy. I'm glad I don't have to escape like that.
I agree tht Annie Proulx's boys were more in touch with those reality things than the movie shows us. I wonder if showing all the drudgery of their lives would have made the movie too dark and inaccessible for us townies.
Now I have another reason to feel like crying when I think of Jack and Ennis, especially Ennis.
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Yes, Truman, I did have a good time. I bought riding lessons at an auction so this was my first "toes wet" experience in many years.
Leslie-my point exactly. I am grateful for this Brokeback "thing" as it has opened me to a way of life far outside my own experience-some similarities to my short, young years in Alabama but very different from my city (if you can call Santa Barbara a city) life. I have such mad love for the whole Ennis/Jack romance, it has taken on a reality of it's own and that reality is far from the real thing. This weekend pulled me back a few paces into some truth about that kind of life-trail dust on my rose-colored glasses.
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It is all too easy to romanticize characters from film and books. ... So much so we deny the truth even when know and live the truth. But isn’t that part of what draws us into a film or story ? Our ability to disconnect from that often harsh reality ? If I want grit and realism, if I want stark grief and pathos I can watch the 6 o’clock news. In fact I think it is essential for our mental and spiritual health that a person knows and experiences through those rose colored glasses sometimes. We would all be very dour and unpleasant folks if these dreams and fantasy’s were stripped away from us. Sometimes you take the experience a little farther and get slapped in the face by reality, like your horseback riding experience. But sometime you take it a little farther and find the gold at the end of the rainbow like I did when I fell in love with the stark beauty, peace and blessed silence of the high desert country. The best times in life are when art, fantasy and reality can overlap like that.
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I think I remember some sour-dispositioned critic or other describing Heath and Jake as "improbably handsome" for Ennis and Jack.
No, every ranch hand isn't a Heath, but some of them professional bullrider fellers ain't too hard on the eyes! ;D
Check this one out.
http://www.justinmcbride.com (http://www.justinmcbride.com)
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Well, not all "cowboys" are Ennis and Jack.
On the Gay Rodeo circuit they are. :D
And my ass hurts.
Same at the Gay Rodeos, riding or not... :laugh:
Reno Gay Rodeo Finals Nov. 10th-12th:
http://www.renogayrodeo.com/
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Rouxb, hope that part of your anatomy feels better now.
I had a complete different experience today, but similar thoughts about it. When I went out to the backyard for the first smoke of the day, it was damn cold this morning. For the first time this fall. I sat on my stairs and thought about how hard life and work must have been for Ennis just because of the weather conditions.
Five minutes of freezing was enough to come to the conclusion there's nothing romantic at being a ranch hand.
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Same at the Gay Rodeos, riding or not
Eric, you slay me!
O0
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Sometimes you take the experience a little farther and get slapped in the face by reality, like your horseback riding experience. But sometime you take it a little farther and find the gold at the end of the rainbow like I did when I fell in love with the stark beauty, peace and blessed silence of the high desert country. The best times in life are when art, fantasy and reality can overlap like that.
That is so true. BTW I love your avatar.