| WHAT IS BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN? Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Shipping News, has written some of the most original and brilliant short stories in contemporary literature, and for many, “Brokeback Mountain” is her masterpiece. It tells the tale of Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two under-educated ranch hands that come together while working as sheep herder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line on Wyoming’s Brokeback Mountain. At first they share only a comradeship, but it soon deepens into a relationship that neither man comprehends. At the end of their idyllic time on the mountain, the two men part ways, marry and have children because that’s what is expected of them by the society in which they live. But over the course of many years and frequent separations the relationship between the two men becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it. “Brokeback Mountain” was originally published in “The New Yorker” magazine in October 1997 and eventually published as the final story in an anthology of Wyoming stories by Ms. Proulx entitled Close Range. In gorgeous and haunting prose, Annie Proulx depicts the difficult, dangerous affair between two young ranch hands that survives everything but the world’s violent intolerance. | Now a brilliant film by Ang Lee, “Brokeback Mountain” has had profound effect on the lives of countless people around the world. The Oscar®-nominated performances of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal have vividly brought to life the heartbreaking tale of Ennis and Jack and how their love for each other affected all those with whom they shared their lives. WHAT IS THE BROKEBACK READING PROJECT? For many people, “Brokeback Mountain” is the name of the brilliantly poignant Ang Lee film. These people never read or never had access to the original short story. For these “film-only” people, the short story offers significant enough differences to exist sideby- side with the film, offering the reader the no-nonsense prose style of author Annie Proulx, as well as vividly descriptive imagery of the Wyoming mountain country. Add to that the aural experience of actually listening to Annie Proulx’s epic short story read by a skilled interpreter, and “Brokeback Mountain” takes on new and added dimensions unknown to “film-only” people. It’s very possible that readers of the short story will hear new and added dimensions previously unknown to them as well. This is one of the indescribable qualities of this timeless and timely story. Something new can be experienced with each subsequent reading of the story or viewing of the film. |
| WHO IS RODNEY GILES? Musician/actor RODNEY GILES is a resident of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and Cherry Grove, Fire Island, New York. By training he is an accomplished organist/church musician and concert artist; by avocation he is an accomplished stage actor/singer, with a career which began in high school and continues to the present day four decades later. Recent theater appearances have been at his summer community on Fire Island, in which he has appeared in Paul Rudnick’s “Jeffrey,” A. R. Gurney’s “Love Letters,” Paul Harris’ “You Look For Me” and Sal Piro’s “Panzi and Philomena Meet Frankenstein.” As a senior in high school, he starred in the very first US high school production of “My Fair Lady” as Henry Higgins, and has been in the spotlight as a musician or actor ever since. Then came “Brokeback Mountain.” Rodney’s life was indelibly changed on December 16, 2005, when the film opened at the Gateway Theater in Ft. Lauderdale. Like so many countless others, he experienced that emotional gut punch that defied all logic and sensibility, and not until he located “The Ultimate Brokeback Forum” (www.brokeback.davecullen.com) was he able to sort out and articulate what he was feeling as a result of the Brokeback experience. Obsession began and continues to the present day. From the very beginning of this new chapter in his life he craved anything and everything having to do with Jack and Ennis’ moving love story. An initial acquisition from | eBay, which was a gigantic movie poster, opened the tap for what has become quite an amazing watershed collection of Brokeback memorabilia, much of which has been featured several times on the Forum’s Memorabilia thread and several editions of “The Daily Sheet.” Many of the items are autographed, and some are original and unique treasures, including all six of the available versions of the screenplay, and the most recent acquisitions–Ennis’ fishing net and creel case–are the crown jewels of the collection. Rodney’s musical acumen allowed him the ability to transcribe portions of the film’s musical score for keyboard performance, and he has also sung “A love that will never grow old” on many occasions during the summer of 2006 on Fire Island. Rodney’s launching of a one-person dramatic reading of the short story is the result of dayafter- day reading aloud of Annie Proulx’s magnificent and powerful prose, hence “The Brokeback Reading Project.” A good many people in the world were first introduced to Jack and Ennis by way of Ang Lee’s outstanding film, never having read the short story. Rodney is one of those film-first persons who subsequently devoured the text of the original. He may have given himself the moniker of “Script Boy” in some of his posts on the Forum, but he claims that Annie Proulx’s remarkable short story needs and deserves to be experienced by hearing it read dramatically: “The sounds of her unique prose add yet a further dimension to the Brokeback experience, whether for a first-timer or repeat viewer/reader.” |
It causes the Campbell Scott version to pale by comparison!!
I'm listening to Brokeback Mountain read by Rodney Giles! Who else is listening right now?
Pat has posted some wonderful images on the DC thread:I see you're at work getting us all mixed up with those Chilean sheep!!
http://www.davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=21074.0
Now, it's on to the LIVE reading at the BBQ in Colorado!
Rodney: From the parts I was able to hear, I loved it! Thank you :-*.
But the best part is still to come:
I'm looking forward to it. I'm so happy I'll be there with you all and hear and see it live (and no kids will be screaming for me then ;)).
Thank you Rodney and Eric and everybody who added to this :D :-* :D
I am so glad that I logged into Bettermost to hear the news of the BBM Radio reading. Cried like a baby all the way through it. Awesome! Now I have this 900Mb Wav to dissect... THANK YOU to all who made this possible.
peace :)
br. patrick
Did she say, "Mama, I need crayons!!"
From Rodney:
So sorry to hear of the domestic disturbances that kept you from being totally captivated by the story. I'm really looking forward to meeting you in Colorado! No temper tantrums there, just peace and quiet and open air and the mountains!
:Dfilledsuffused with a sense of pleasure
as a cocky graduate student.
:D
...brought his hand to...
Rodney, you have rendered me totally unfunctional this afternoon at work!!!
;D
Hey, everybody, good evening. I wanted to say thank you to everyone like Eric and Rodney who are thinking about ways to bring us together and ways to celebrate the gentle and joyous spirit of Brokeback Mountain. I had a wonderful day. Not only did I hear Rodney's gifted voice saying Annie Proulx's formidable words, but I also downloaded the new Google Earth at the suggestion of Truman (shakestheground) and looked at my Shangrila--Brokenback Mountain in North-Central Wyoming. It was a Day in Heaven! Something I'm getting quite used to these days!!
Not yet--I'm not ready to go there. You guys are stronger than me!!
| WHAT IS BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN? Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Shipping News, has written some of the most original and brilliant short stories in contemporary literature, and for many, “Brokeback Mountain” is her masterpiece. It tells the tale of Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two under-educated ranch hands that come together while working as sheep herder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line on Wyoming’s Brokeback Mountain. At first they share only a comradeship, but it soon deepens into a relationship that neither man comprehends. At the end of their idyllic time on the mountain, the two men part ways, marry and have children because that’s what is expected of them by the society in which they live. But over the course of many years and frequent separations the relationship between the two men becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it. “Brokeback Mountain” was originally published in “The New Yorker” magazine in October 1997 and eventually published as the final story in an anthology of Wyoming stories by Ms. Proulx entitled Close Range. In gorgeous and haunting prose, Annie Proulx depicts the difficult, dangerous affair between two young ranch hands that survives everything but the world’s violent intolerance. | Now a brilliant film by Ang Lee, “Brokeback Mountain” has had profound effect on the lives of countless people around the world. The Oscar®-nominated performances of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal have vividly brought to life the heartbreaking tale of Ennis and Jack and how their love for each other affected all those with whom they shared their lives. WHAT IS THE BROKEBACK READING PROJECT? For many people, “Brokeback Mountain” is the name of the brilliantly poignant Ang Lee film. These people never read or never had access to the original short story. For these “film-only” people, the short story offers significant enough differences to exist sideby- side with the film, offering the reader the no-nonsense prose style of author Annie Proulx, as well as vividly descriptive imagery of the Wyoming mountain country. Add to that the aural experience of actually listening to Annie Proulx’s epic short story read by a skilled interpreter, and “Brokeback Mountain” takes on new and added dimensions unknown to “film-only” people. It’s very possible that readers of the short story will hear new and added dimensions previously unknown to them as well. This is one of the indescribable qualities of this timeless and timely story. Something new can be experienced with each subsequent reading of the story or viewing of the film. |
| WHO IS RODNEY GILES? Musician/actor RODNEY GILES is a resident of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and Cherry Grove, Fire Island, New York. By training he is an accomplished organist/church musician and concert artist; by avocation he is an accomplished stage actor/singer, with a career which began in high school and continues to the present day four decades later. Recent theater appearances have been at his summer community on Fire Island, in which he has appeared in Paul Rudnick’s “Jeffrey,” A. R. Gurney’s “Love Letters,” Paul Harris’ “You Look For Me” and Sal Piro’s “Panzi and Philomena Meet Frankenstein.” As a senior in high school, he starred in the very first US high school production of “My Fair Lady” as Henry Higgins, and has been in the spotlight as a musician or actor ever since. Then came “Brokeback Mountain.” Rodney’s life was indelibly changed on December 16, 2005, when the film opened at the Gateway Theater in Ft. Lauderdale. Like so many countless others, he experienced that emotional gut punch that defied all logic and sensibility, and not until he located “The Ultimate Brokeback Forum” (www.brokeback.davecullen.com) was he able to sort out and articulate what he was feeling as a result of the Brokeback experience. Obsession began and continues to the present day. From the very beginning of this new chapter in his life he craved anything and everything having to do with Jack and Ennis’ moving love story. An initial acquisition from | eBay, which was a gigantic movie poster, opened the tap for what has become quite an amazing watershed collection of Brokeback memorabilia, much of which has been featured several times on the Forum’s Memorabilia thread and several editions of “The Daily Sheet.” Many of the items are autographed, and some are original and unique treasures, including all six of the available versions of the screenplay, and the most recent acquisitions–Ennis’ fishing net and creel case–are the crown jewels of the collection. Rodney’s musical acumen allowed him the ability to transcribe portions of the film’s musical score for keyboard performance, and he has also sung “A love that will never grow old” on many occasions during the summer of 2006 on Fire Island. Rodney’s launching of a one-person dramatic reading of the short story is the result of dayafter- day reading aloud of Annie Proulx’s magnificent and powerful prose, hence “The Brokeback Reading Project.” A good many people in the world were first introduced to Jack and Ennis by way of Ang Lee’s outstanding film, never having read the short story. Rodney is one of those film-first persons who subsequently devoured the text of the original. He may have given himself the moniker of “Script Boy” in some of his posts on the Forum, but he claims that Annie Proulx’s remarkable short story needs and deserves to be experienced by hearing it read dramatically: “The sounds of her unique prose add yet a further dimension to the Brokeback experience, whether for a first-timer or repeat viewer/reader.” |
Seems I can't hear BBM radio any more... :-\
Keep playing around with it and see if you can get it to work....
If anyone wants to hear anyting in particular, I'm taking requests right now for the next 10 mintes or so...