{"id":4055,"date":"2005-12-19T08:27:09","date_gmt":"2005-12-19T13:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=4055"},"modified":"2026-04-13T21:11:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T01:11:52","slug":"snapshots-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=4055","title":{"rendered":"Snapshots"},"content":{"rendered":"

— Walking on 9th Avenue last night, and I passed one of those sidewalk Christmas-tree vendors. All the trees tied up and leaning against a fence – a guy with huge gloves handling the trees – it was outside a busy CVS – with flourescent lights and automatic doors – but as I walked by, the scent of pine was just intoxicating. Amazing – how evocative the sense of smell is. Of all the senses, it is truly transportive. I was on a bustling Manhattan street, but one whiff of that pine and I was walking through through the woods by Potter’s Pond.<\/p>\n

— Also because it was in Chelsea, all of the people buying Christmas trees, were gay couples. For some reason, it touched me. One couple in particular, with their wool scarves, their little glasses … walking up and down the row of trees, looking for which one would be right. Excited, laughing.<\/p>\n

— I am now reading The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 2: 1945-1957<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. After my Tennessee Williams orgy over the last couple of months with the daily excerpts – reading this has been quite appropriate. I’m not ready to leave Williams’ universe yet. Volume I is wonderful – it takes you up to the moment when Glass Menagerie<\/i> opens in 1947. He is on the cusp of success. Volume II now takes you into the world of success itself. Now we’re getting into Streetcar<\/i> – the development of it, his relationship with Elia Kazan, finding Marlon Brando … It’s FASCINATING. He was a wonderful letter-writer. Gore Vidal just made a cameo. Very funny stuff – Williams met Gore Vidal in Rome. Vidal was 23 years old and had just come out with his first book. Williams describes in a letter to someone else how Vidal was literally obsessed by Truman Capote. All he could talk about was Truman Capote – whose first book had ALSO just come out – and how he didn’t like his writing – and how HE was better than Capote, etc. etc. Williams is turned off by that competitive spirit amongst writers – he didn’t like it – but the glimpse you get of Vidal is very funny. Williams thought Vidal was gorgeous, a young Greek god, (and he really was, back then) – but he did get tired of listening to Vidal bitch about Capote’s undeserved success.<\/p>\n

— I watched an old episode of Sex and the City<\/i> last night – one I had never seen. Matthew McConaghey shows up in it – as himself. He was absolutely HYSTERICAL. Has anyone seen that episode? I was laughing out loud at his portrayal of himself as an overly eager actor, who gets right up into people’s faces, and talks too much, and is way … “too much” in general. He was hysterical.<\/p>\n

— I bought the latest CD by the Trans Siberian Orchestra – haven’t listened to it yet – but I’m really excited. I love their first one – which I have.<\/p>\n

— I saw Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe<\/i>. I was tremulous. I was actually NERVOUS. Jen and I both said we were nervous about it, because we loved the books so much. What if they messed it up?? I’ll do a longer post about it if I feel like it – but suffice it to say I do not think they “messed it up”. All the Christian websites being all triumphalist (and really really literal) about this movie is kind of annoying – although I understand it – and I know that to THEM they wanted to make sure that the Christian message was intact. Fine. That’s not my concern. I didn’t read the book as a Christian allegory when I was 10 – although now, of course, I can see that it is an “allegory”. But what 10 year old wants to read an allegory? Bah. It’s too literal. CS Lewis himself said he wanted it to just be a rollicking good story – although he wasn’t as ANTI-allegory as his good friend Tolkien. I read Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe<\/i> as an unbeLIEVABLE story which caught me up in its spirit and did not let me go. Also: if the special effects took over, if there was too much CGI, if they weren’t done in just the right way… you would completely lose one of the main elements of the book – which was its pre-modern pre-Judeo-Christian world of Narnia. It’s a world where fauns run around, where nature (in the form of perpetual winter) has taken over, where magic is used – but in a very raw rough pagan way. If you have glittery special effects – and they don’t work – then … you suddenly know you’re watching a modern creation. I didn’t have a problem with any of the special effects – and the beavers (my two favorite characters as a kid) looked as real as if they were … you know … real. I forgot I was watching something digitally created. The battle at the end is a bit … uhm … VIOLENT … I had to cover my eyes a couple times – it was like we were suddenly seeing Henry V<\/i> or something – but my main concern was with story and character. And they did not sacrifice character for style, or effects. Lucy, the little actress, was amazing. I wouldnt’ call her an ‘actress’ at all. She seemed to just be alive in those circumstances. And Tilda Swinton … She is not at ALL what I pictured for the part. In the book she has jet-black hair. Tilda’s version of the character is more like a giant icicle. Her hair is blonde – and kind of piled on her head in a huge way – as though it has frozen into that shape. And her eyes … I have no idea what she “did’ as an actress, but those were not human eyes. She was as terrifying and unpredictable and AWFUL as the “queen” in the book. Anyhoo – I’ll post more on it later, but in general, I was very glad with what they did. They lifted entire sections word for word from the book. It’s a little goofy to SEE animals talk – Aslan had a couple of very goofy moments. When you read the book, you accept that animals talk, and you can imagine it – but to SEE it somehow makes it a bit TOO literal, and there was some silliness. Also, the centaur guy with the black hair was way too cheese-cake Hollywood for my taste. And Peter – as a grown-up King – in the second to last scene – has the GOOFIEST Prince Valiant hair I’ve ever seen. He’s wearing tights, for God’s sake. The audience snickered when they saw him – which is not quite the effect I think they were going for. It had some of that goofy Renaissance-Fair silliness in the production design. Oh, and the opening – with the children being shuttled off into the country as the bombs fall on London – was spectacular. Somehow it was done in a way that was NOT realistic – although you’ll have to see it to see what I mean. It was obviously a real event, it happened in real life – but … there’s something heightened about the planes in the sky, the clouds behind the planes, the volley of bombs falling in slow motion … It sets it up that this is going to be some kind of heightened realistic style. There’s a strange violent poetry in it.<\/p>\n

— I have to re-read the book. My favorite section, as I said, is when they stay with the beavers in their cozy dam … It just seemed soooo cozy in there, with the white frozen world outside … and they had food, and a roaring fire, and thick butter (I remember the part about the butter), and they could sleep, and relax … and the beavers were just charming and amusing. I loved them. I loved them in the movie, too. Therefore – I am pleased. My needs are simple in that respect.<\/p>\n

— I also saw Brokeback Mountain<\/i> – what can I say – I have been in hibernation since September, what with the show. Now I can catch up. I was resistant to seeing it – I told Emily <\/a>I wouldn’t see it – because, like Narnia<\/i>, I had read the short story and it cut me to the BONE. That story really means something to me, and I just couldn’t bear to see it if they fucked it up. Also – Hollywood RUINED Annie Proulx’s other story The Shipping News<\/i> which is one of my favorite books – and I found their version of it unforgivable. Unforgivable. So did she, apparently. She didn’t want to let them adapt Brokeback Mountain<\/i> because of her experience with what they did to The Shipping News<\/i>. I remember when Brokeback Mountain<\/i> came out. I read it in The New Yorker<\/i>. The writing is so good that you want to put down your pen forever. I love her. But the reviews I read seemed to suggest that Ang Lee has captured what was in that story. It’s not a ‘gay cowboy’ movie. It’s a love story. It’s a painful beautiful love story that happens to occur between two men. Oh, man. The short story, people … It’s up there on the list of the greatest short stories I’ve ever read. Argh. Annie Proulx is so damn good. The movie is heartbreaking. I am still processing it. I left the theatre in tears. And again – they got all the elements of the story that I felt were the most resonant, the most powerful. (Of course, they never asked me for my opinion – but oh well – everyone’s an expert, ain’t they?? It’s like the Harry Potter books, too – we all have read them, we all have opinions on what should be included, what could be left out … how they executed these already beloved stories.) Brokeback Mountain<\/i> was like that for me. Are they really going to capture Ennis’ taciturnity? Will they let him be as gruff and as wordless as he really is in the story? Will they cut out his line, “You know I ain’t queer”? Will they put a modern sensibility onto the film – to please the PC crowd? Or will they just let it be in 1963 – with that context? Will they embellish? Please no embellishments!! They did not embellish. And let me just say this: Heath Ledger’s performance, as Ennis, is nothing less than remarkable. It’s a breakout performance. It’s THE breakout performance, as far as I’m concerned. He broke my heart. Without even saying 2 or 3 words. I always thought Ledger was pretty good, whatever, never gave him much thought. But now? He will be a MAJOR player after this film. It’s his movie. It’s an old-style really masculine performance – reminiscent of old cowboy movies, with the gruff silent guy squinting at the horizon. He’s like Steve McQueen or something. He has that same kind of quiet strength about him – but he is able to suggest entire worlds of emotion going on – stuff he would never ever be able to articulate (or even want to articulate) – stuff he is barely aware of himself. Ennis is a man who does not analyze, does not angst (at least not consciously), does not speak, does not open up to people. Everything must be suggested. Ledger is phenomenal. The movie was devastating. Just as devastating as the short story – and that’s really saying something.<\/p>\n

— I wish it would snow again.<\/p>\n

— The other night, out in a pub, Allison and her friend George explained sodoku to me, showing me how it all worked by the light of a tiny candle in a glass jar. They went over the concepts with me, finishing each other’s sentences, and answering my questions in unison, and they both had the glazed eyes of addicts, . It was hilarious. But I think I understand it now. I’m afraid to even start getting into sodoku because it seems like a deep deep pool of addiction that I might never come out of.<\/p>\n

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