Working, movies

Well, this has been quite a long week overall. I worked three days, did quite a bit of work on my third progression paper for Writing the Essay and had a generally hectic week. This semester is winding down, but I feel the pressure of finals and the final push to the end starting to build up. On the other hand, things are doing pretty well.

On Thursday night at midnight, I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with Ally, Christina, and her boyfriend, Richard. We had a really good time. The movie was pretty good, though I thought some of the villains were laughable. It was kind of like Lord of the Rings for kids. For her birthday and Christmas, Ally and I got her a pair of really neat glass earrings and a book about Festivus (for the restuvus) with a forward by Jerry Stiller. She seemed to generally like both. It was great to see Christina again. Last weekend, we also went to Rockefeller Center and did some shopping together. Rockefeller Center is crazy around this time of the year, particularly on the weekends. All of the older tourists come in from all over in their fur coats acting as if they own the city, thinking of the Radio City Christmas Show as if it were the highest art available.

I got some good new stuff for myself: a coat from Gap that I saved a lot of money on, a pair of corduroy pants, a new white shirt with some ruffles on the front that I like, and a brown pinstripe hat. I also got the Billy Elliot London cast recording, which I paid more than I should have for. However, it's really good. Some of the songs are a little silly, but, its being a musical and all, you do have to suspend disbelief a bit.

Tonight, I went to go see Brokeback Mountain on my own. It's the first time, I think, I've gone to a movie alone, but it was nice, because, rather than picking up a conversation right afterwards about something other than the movie, you're left to reflect on the story after you leave the theatre. I have to say it was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. The acting was just great all around, and the story was one of the saddest ever, up there with Philadelphia, which still packs the highest emotional punch for me of the "gay" movies I know. I have to agree with my roommate David when he says that, as long as movies are made about gay people just about their being gay, there's not a whole lot of a breakthrough occurring, but I still can't help but feel that someone straight who didn't quite understand the life of a gay person could have watched that movie and perhaps seen something they hadn't seen before. Plus, it's still important that movies that take gay characters seriously are seen, particularly in a world where it seems we want to make gay characters the butts of jokes.

I couldn't help, watching the movie, but wonder if that could've been my life if I hadn't come out of the closet, and it seems as if that's the way a lot of people would've felt watching it who are gay. I thought about the guy I met at the Attic, a gay youth center I went to the night before I came out to my parents, who was in his fifties and who had only recently come out of the closet after having been married, and his life was essentially the life of these characters. There are probably so many people out there who, even if they aren't in the same situation exactly, have the same emotions as those characters. It was just so good.

Anyway, I definitely recommend Brokeback Mountain. I also want to go see Memoirs of a Geisha and The Producers soon. This Wednesday, I'm going to see Rent (movie) for the third time with Ally, Christina, Christina's roommate Olga, and Len, the same guy I met at 2 AM earlier in the semester with his friend and walked around with. I'm quite excited to see it for a third time. Rent definitely earns my pick for sentimental favorite movie of the year if Brokeback, so far, would win my best picture award.