Author Topic: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings  (Read 2530542 times)

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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The Snappy Lunch
« Reply #310 on: October 20, 2006, 01:14:25 pm »
I got an email from my friend Vickie LaVern that had "Imo" in the subject line, so I knew she had a plan.

"go to the Snappy Lunch this Thursday something I've been aiming to do for 100 years and Imo just do it taking the day off" she said. I quickly emailed her back: "I'll meet you there if you like."

The Snappy Lunch (http://www.thesnappylunch.com/) is located in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, about an hours drive for both of us coming from different directions. Mt. Airy is the home town of Andy Griffith, and is plumb eat up with all things Mayberry. It has an active tourist driven downtown, but the Snappy Lunch predates TV.

As I was nearing town Vickie LaVern called me and told me the people she had encountered told her if we waited till noon we'd have a long wait, so we agreed to go right then and have lunch at 10:45 AM, we're always ready to eat. Even at this earlier time we had to stand in line 20 minutes to get a table near the photographs of Oprah Winfree's visit. While we were inline we marveled at the guy cooking pork chops on the grill  in the front window. Nothing about the place was greasy spoon, they must clean it with degreaser every night.

We each had the fried pork chop sandwich with mustard, slaw and tomato, with a bag of chips and sweet tea, delicious! And the friendlies people you ever seen. I am glad we went early, a bus pulled up while we were there, full of pilgrims looking for the nearest approximation to their Brokeback.

The store windows were filled with photos of the cast of The Andy Griffith Show, there is Opie's candy store, Floyd's barber shop, and a vintage car fixed up like the Mayberry cruiser that you could tour the town with. We didn't do that.

Mt. Airy, North Carolina is also known for being the final resting place of the original Siamese Twins, Eng and Chang Bunker, and for their wide variety of oversized concrete lawn sculpture.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2006, 01:29:26 pm by shakestheground »
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Katie77

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #311 on: October 20, 2006, 04:09:42 pm »




We each had the fried pork chop sandwich with mustard, slaw and tomato, with a bag of chips and sweet tea,




OMG.......isnt that what killed Elvis.......
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.

It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfection

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #312 on: October 21, 2006, 08:40:39 pm »
Elvis probably downed his share, but I understand his all time favorite was deep friend peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Probably ddep freind in lard. Add to that an endless supply of barbituates. I wrote a really bad song about him once that had a line in it: "He fell off of the toilet seat and died for me and you."
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Katie77

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #313 on: October 21, 2006, 09:09:50 pm »
I wrote a really bad song about him once that had a line in it: "He fell off of the toilet seat and died for me and you."

You sure have a tender streak in ya, Truman...!!!!!
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.

It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfection

Offline Lynne

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #314 on: October 21, 2006, 09:57:05 pm »
Here are the not very helpful fruits of my research:

From Wikipedia:
The town dates from about 1840, when the Estill family, which owned considerable property in the area, donated a right-of-way for railroad construction. Mineral springs in the area had been long been known to the Native Americans. The combination of mineral water, which was much in vogue as a health remedy at the time, and convenient rail access caused the settlement to develop as a small-scale spa town and eventually gave it its name.

From the Chamber of Commerce:
As we begin, let me give you a brief history of our town. Estill Springs is the fourth largest town in historic Franklin County.  Before 1840, the Estill family had acquired considerable property in and around the area that bears their name today. Frank Estill offered the railroad company a right-of-way for the construction of a railroad track through his land. After the railroad was completed about 1850, there was much attraction to the area.

The mineral springs were probably first discovered by the Cherokee Indians who inhabited the area and hunted along the Elk River. Originally, the springs contained Sulfur, Chalybeate, Limestone and freestone water. Those remaining springs are still the source of the town's water supply. Thus the name..... Estill Springs.

And from RootsWeb:
Frank Estill was a very prominent member of the Winchester bar for many years prior to his death.

So....not very interesting, I'm afraid...unless your friend was somehow a relative of this Frank Estill....
"Laß sein. Laß sein."

Offline Wayne

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #315 on: October 21, 2006, 10:37:17 pm »
Estill Springs is the fourth largest town in historic Franklin County.
:o    It must be a very fine town indeed !!  Lots of skyscrapers, a monorail, and international commerce!     :)
« Last Edit: October 21, 2006, 10:45:35 pm by wdj »
When you put people in charge of the government who are committed to proving that it doesn't work, you can be sure that they will cause it to not work.

Don

Offline Lynne

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #316 on: October 21, 2006, 10:42:42 pm »
:o    It must be a very fine town indeed !!  Lots of skyscrapers, a monorail, and international commerce!     :)

LOL Wayne...try two proper stoplights and two flashing yellows :).  And Franklin County...don't even get me started...it has the honor of being the only county to secede from TN and join AL because TN wasn't joining the Confederacy fast enough.  And naturally, there is a very nice marker commemorating this noble heritage on the courthouse square.
"Laß sein. Laß sein."

Offline Wayne

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #317 on: October 21, 2006, 10:52:29 pm »
 :)    Sounds like a sweet little town !!     :)
When you put people in charge of the government who are committed to proving that it doesn't work, you can be sure that they will cause it to not work.

Don

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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The Collectors Edition
« Reply #318 on: October 26, 2006, 10:07:48 am »
"If we're gonna be workin' together, we might as well start drinkin' together"

I remember those words come out of my TV months ago, as my eyes fixed on what my brain was catching up to. Two guys I didn't know from Adam, riding in a truck as one of them dubbed in: "If you can't fix it...."

You can go to the movie's websight now and watch the trailer, the faces of stern looking mechanics, persumably at a garage someplace. That has been the only place you'll see them, tantilizing clues we draw upon to try to make sense of what happend to our Jack. That is what they have become, our Jack and Ennis, who we have loved and cared about and cried over like they were our own children, our own lovers.

Now, the marketing people have promised us additional footage, "they" seeing a bottom line, "us" hearing a promise of answers. My expectation is that we will have access to a deleated sceen that will go into some detail about that last day and that flat tire. We will watch helplessly as he goes off with them, not knowing what danger he is in. In his world, we are the ghosts that can do nothing to stop the physical violence about to happen.

I am not looking forward to it. But it will be alright.

As I write in my own journal, I am always conscious that I am reporting to some unknown authority where I have been, what I have done, what I hope to do. I am conscious every time I close it that I am entering the dark, the land of the unknown, and whoever I am writing to will know nothing until I tell them. I know to one day I will not come back to tell anyone anything. I will go off into that dark and the reader will be left to piece together what happened. It is like when I lost my sister in the crash of a small plane some years ago now, I asked the authorities why there was no black box in her Cessna. It would double the price of the plane I was told. From my perspective, it didn't seem like that much of a burden, if I could have a few more clues. 

I do look forward to the Hippy Rescue. While I think the story as written and as originally depicted on film is as perfect as you can get, I want to see this sceen. In all their time together we see Jack and Ennis in the company of only 4 other people, all known to at least Ennis: Aguirre, Alma, Alma Jr. and Jenny. Each of these encounters are brief. How are our two boys going to interact with a bunch of hippies in a (supposed on my part) stuck microbus. Is that were they got that joint?

"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Lynne

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Re: The Collectors Edition
« Reply #319 on: October 27, 2006, 03:18:39 am »
Hey, Shakes...

I can never (or rather don't want to) get over the profound effect of the two itinerant sheepherders going up on Brokeback and coming down forever transformed...I see what you mean, though, anticipating that scenes we've only had glimpses of in trailers or promo shots, are likely to be included uncut in deleted footage, and I'm afraid they may somehow taint/tarnish our understanding of the original as intended by Ang Lee.  I firmly believe the original movie is the Director's Cut.  My greatest wish is for a director's commentary to essentially reassure us that so much of what we've analyzed to the n-th degree these past months was, at his level also intentional, much as Annie Proulx responded to Lee/Front-Ranger, that the parallels with classical Greek mythology were intentional, for those familiar with the allusions.

I think you're prob'ly right to anticipate more graphic/explanatory details of Jack's death...especially with clues of the three mechancs having individual credits.  It's going to be hard to prepare ourselves for that.  I've always been in the camp that Jack died at the hands of homophobics because he was careless after he lost hope of a future with Ennis.  But there's always been some ambiguity, and I think you're right to think that if there is additional footage of the events leading to Jack's death, it will serve to close - or at least narrow - that space between what we want to believe and what we know.  For me that space wasn't very wide , but I know that others viewed it differently.

If there is the 'rescue' of the hippies included, I look forward to it also.  The reporting about Schamus favoring the scene to show Ennis and Jack, interacting with and helping travelers, I think is probably accurate.  It's classic Greek mythology, again, that one of the greatest goods a man can perform is to be a good host to travelers - the sacred guest/host relationship.

Of course, this is sight unseen, and may never be seen, but I keep thinking that it's the late 60's early 70's...If Jack and Ennis were born somewhere else or raised just a little bit differently, they could have been freer to head west (presumeably like the hippies) and start a new life together in the counter-culture movement that was going on at the time. Obviously, that's not the story...but it's, in a way, evocative of the bus station scene where the cowboys in the black and white hats are buying tickets to somewhere, while Ennis eats his pie alone.  Ennis is able to see what could have been with Jack...again if some circumstances were different.

I did not realize that you lost your sister so tragically - Please accept my condolences.  It seems you have a great deal of experience in understanding the difference between what you want to believe, the story you are told, and some nebulous 'what you hope' happened, and for that I am truly sorry.

Love,
Lynne

--Edited for typos...Lynne
« Last Edit: October 27, 2006, 01:11:04 pm by Lynne »
"Laß sein. Laß sein."