Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
<-- Introduce Yourself -->
Ray:
Hello folks. Yet another IMDb refugee here. Thankyou for this wonderful place. I was getting to the point were I had lost track of why I went into the forums over there. I have been exploring here for several days now and posted a few times in the more familiar territory of the Chez Tremblay section, but I'm very happy to once again put that overwhelming consciousness of stranger danger behind me.
I am Ray.
Libran - The worst kind of Libran with all but one planet plonked in Libra! Always striving for balance, sometimes there just seems to be too many options and I decisively procrastinate. Whilst I tend to be self focused and overly sensitive much of the time, I'm way too generous with cash and possessions, and way too selfish with time and space. Perhaps it's cheesy, but my greatest pain is to know someone is in pain.
Living in Brisbane Australia - Born in Broken Hill, a town on the boarder on New South Wales and Victoria, I grew up around Sydney on the East Coast and spent my early adulthood in the heart of Sydeny itself. After losing a restaurant to..., let's say enjoying the fruits of that amazingly fast city a little too much, I headed North to lick my wounds and ended up in Brisneyland where the pace is gentle, the weather's perfect, and the attitude is warm.
41 years old - Wasn't coping at all with that leap. All of a sudden it becomes apparent that all the adage It goes too quickly, has credibility. Soon I realised that racing around chanting It's too soon, It's too soon, It's too soon was only using up more valuable time. Coinciding with this shift in attitude came BBM.
Gay Male & Very contentedly single - I have known that I am gay since it is possible to know you're gay, but I didn't live in an environment that made coming out easy, so I didn't until I was 25. Even then I had no intension of acting on my gay instinct until my parents had died a natural death. On the first day of my second year of uni, that was to change. I walked into class and standing there was the man who would make it not only possible to come out, but he made it absolutely necessary. I finally felt that all absorbing love that no one can ever quite describe accurately. We spent some wonderful years together and my life changed unrecognisably. Circumstances saw us part with him moving across the other side of the world and time saw us lose touch. Until recently. I simply googled his name, and by mid 2007 we will reunite as friends. I consider myself very lucky to have felt that level of passion about another person, many people reach the end of their lives without ever having done so. I guess I'm a bit of an Ennis now. I'm open to sharing life again, but they have to be pretty special. As I always say, the next relationship I have will be the one that makes me want to stop being single. I realise that I never gave my parents enough credit. They re evaluated all their prejudices when i came out finally, and whilst they aren't totally saved, they are certainly aware and accepting of diversity now.
Cartoonist / illustrator - After losing my restaurant I was at a loss as to what to do next. I had a Nursing Degree, but didn't want to go back to that, I had a Creative Arts degree, but found after 5 years in the acting and Directing profession that I didn't have the talent to make the grade, I had enough of the working gay bars as the fun had somehow drained out of it after so many years and nothing was exciting me anymore, and I ssssoitenly didn't want to go back into another restaurant. So I started drawing. And it turned out that I could make a living with it. Once I decided that the world is my oyster at 40, I took a part time job at the post office to boost the travel funds, and now I'm looking toward the end of the year to sketch my way around the planet.
BBM - I've watched it over 50 times. Need I say more? Astonishing film, with astonishing realities, and because of it, and these forums I have made some astonishing new friends. Looking forward to including all of you in this. Thanks for having me.
ednbarby:
I am loving all of your stories.
Kea, my dear. I know very well from art literally saving one's life. For me, it was at 13, when a particular song by a particular rock band was the *only* thing that felt right in my life. The rest of it felt like the sky was falling - an alcoholic parent who drank herself into oblivion every day to the point where I was cooking for my older brothers and myself when I was five, looking and acting different from everyone else in school and being called on it constantly, just feeling utterly alone. I think I'm a closet extrovert - I think my social conditioning taught me how to be really good at being alone, but yet I love and crave human contact.
Ray, I envy you (but in a good way) your talent. In The Book of Questions, when it's asked what one talent above all others you wished you possessed, for me it's drawing. I can't draw myself out of a paper bag. Can't sing, act, play a musical instrument, write, or paint myself out of one, either. But the people I've known who could really draw have always been the most fascinating to me.
I connect with Ennis *and* Jack. I see myself so much in both of them, though more in Ennis than in Jack, I'm sorry to say. I am not an optimist like Jack is. It's something I've been trying to train myself to be for years, now. Having a child has aided considerably in that effort. But I still think that overall optimism is as innate as asthma. Maybe I've just learned not to sweat the small stuff as much as I used to because doing that when you're raising a child will drive you absolutely over the edge. I thank my lucky stars that I have this child to, among many other things, save me from a life of terminal self-indulgence. Which is not to say that I think that anyone who doesn't have children for any reason is terminal in that way - what I'm saying is that for me, it took that kind of life change to shake me out of my complacency.
But I digress. (And digress and digress...)
What Brokeback has done for me is twofold. First, it's raised the bar on what I deem as a good movie. It's ruined it for me, where "it" is enjoying mediocre films. And that's OK. Any experience that ratchets up our taste a notch is always a good one. Second, like many have said here but on a much lesser level, it's made me no longer afraid. No longer afraid of telling my beloved husband *exactly* what's on my mind, even when it's hard as nails. No longer afraid of telling people who utter bigoted epithets in my presense that I'd really appreciate it if they don't say that word or talk that way in front of me any more. No longer afraid of baring my soul to people who share my love for this extraordinary film. No longer afraid of telling people who haven't even bothered to see this film and who never will and who go out of their way to disrespect it precisely where to get off.
I used to not be able to begin to know what it's like for people to live their lives in a closet - to have to repress the very essence of their beings because society and social conditioning have told them so. Now I do. Because of this movie.
Denyys:
Hey Ray, G'day,
Always nice to welcome another Aussie! I love Brisbane, home of abc-tv's outstanding "Australian Story." I vacationed in wonderful towns of Ipswich and Marburg and enjoyed Surfers Paradise, Sunshine Coast. My dad's WWII Army 360th Quartermaster Bakery Unit set up shop in Townsvlle, January of 1943 baking bread for the troops. I consider Australia my home away from home a real heaven on earth! I found Sydney and Melbourne to be extremely gay friendly and glad to see
the BBM has done so well at the Box office down under....thanks in good part to you.
You watched BBM 50 times! :o
That's quite a diverse background you have, Please share some of your cartoons and illustrations with us. Sketching your way around the planet is quite the lofty goal....as we say in the southwest deserts of Arizona....Happy Trails To You.
Good on you regarding you "contentment, so few ever attain that gift in their lifetimes, quite an achievement.
Cheers Mate,
Denyys
Ray:
Hello Denyys. I would love to boast that I've watched the film over 50 times At The Cinema, but had I actually done that, I wouldn't even be able to afford this computor to tell you with, let alone afford to travel. I am a guilty owner of a screener. I have, however, had 8 big screen experiences, the last of which was last night, and I went with a fellow Brokie that I met on line. She and I both agree that sharing with a Brokie enhances the entire experience 200%. Thanks to BBM, I now have a wonderful new friend that I feel will be long term.
On my cartoons, I have posted a few that i drew in response to a thread on the old IMBd board called "What did you learn from BBM about Food & Drink. It was a very funny thread contributed to by some amazingly witty people. I have now reposted these cartoons over in the Chez Tremblay section if you're interested in taking the trip across.
Arizona hunh? The friend I refer to now lives in Dallas Tx, so I'll be over next year. Have some elk hanging for me won'tcha!
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=337.0
Ray
bbm_stitchbuffyfan:
Hey, everyone. I am very excited to have joined BetterMost. I've migrated from the IMDB boards, where I am under the s/n stitchbuffymoulinfan. So, yes, I know some of you guys already. Like all of you, I'm a big, big fan of Brokeback and I look forward to many good discussions on the subject.
P.S. Love the layout to this site; it's very majestic.
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