Well goodness, it’s now been almost a month to the day since I’ve posted. I really am a wandering steer, aren’t I? Where are the lasso boys when I need them…

Anyway, surely everyone is aware that Brokeback won big at the Golden Globes last night? Here’s the list:

• Best Motion Picture (Drama)
• Best Director of a Motion Picture: Ang Lee
• Best Original Song in a Motion Picture: “A Love that will Never Grow Old,” (Music by : Gustavo Santaolalla, Lyrics by: Bernie Taupin)
• Best Screenplay of a Motion Picture: Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana

For other awards and honors, the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards announced its nominations. Here are the ones Brokeback caught:

• Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role: Heath Ledger
• Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role: Jake Gyllenhaal
• Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Michelle Williams
• Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture: “Brokeback Mountain” - Linda Cardellini, Anna Faris, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Heath Ledger, Randy Quaid, and Michelle Williams

And, many congratulations to the nomination of Ang Lee for best film director by the Directors Guild of America.

I have a ton of articles I want to post, as well as a bunch of “lesser-known” award to post, but those will come in a roundup later this week. Until then, my sincerest apologies for my absence lately — but I am ever-so appreciative of your continued visits!

Well, I hope everyone had a great weekend. Apparently a lot of you jerks went to see Brokeback and none of you invited me to go. I hate you all. Nonetheless, I will continue to blog like a good soldier.

The biggest news, of course, is that the movie was available at 69 theaters across the U.S.. Astonishingly, it actually broke into the 10 ten movies (at number 8), and grossed $2.4 million! Way to go, boys!

In other news, Brokeback took home four awards at the 10th annual Satellite Awards, including:

• Best Motion Picture, Drama
• Best Director (Ang Lee)
• Best Original Song (”A Love That Will Never Grow Old”/Gustavo Santaolalla, Bernie Taupin)
• Best Film Editing (Geraldine Peroni, Dylan Tichenor — Brokeback Mountain)

Not much to be added to the archives, though. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve got:

• Heartthrob’s turning heads again : More about Heath and how he extended himself oh-so-much to play this role.
• Why Ennis and Jack will fall flat: Blog post about why the movie won’t do well.
• Jack and Ennis won’t flop: Direct response to the article above, asserting that the movie will do just fine.

Things are probably going to quiet down around here now that the movie’s opened up into so many more theaters, and it won’t open up in too many more until January. So I plan to be blogging fairly intermittently as I find new news to post. Feel free to subscribe via the RSS feed to the right, or just check in on a regular basis! I will, of course, be blogging about all the Awards the movie will be getting at the big shows. Until then, ride-and-rope ‘em, boys!

Okay, I know I said there wouldn’t be an update today, but I couldn’t resist on this one. Looks like the book Annie mentioned in the article I posted on yesterday’s update will be released on December 27? Take a look:

Save a horse — ride a cowboy! edition

Let’s start with a list of Queer Cowboy bars in the U.S., brought to you by the UK edition of Gay.com (what the hell do they know about cowboys in the UK?). That way, even the heterosexuals among us can get a little feel for the gay-cowboy scene after they see the movie. Enjoy.

And now for another good actor-reflection piece from the USA TODAY, this one about Heath: “Ledger not the same actor.” I’m not quite sure what the title is referring to specifically — my best guess is that they’re saying he’s not the same as he was before the movie — but overall it’s a nice little bit about how he had to commit to the part and so-on. A good anecdote about his own experience with closet homosexuality — his gay uncle.

Even better, though, is “Heath Ledger: At home with his range,” which is a much more detailed look at Ledger, his career, and his role in this movie.

‘It’s not a gay movie’ is a very nice interview with Ang Lee, by Kirsty Lang in the Independent Online. Lots of good stuff about Ang’s past, his movie-making career, and how they made the movie. Just one small, small nitpick:

Tom Hanks role as an Aids sufferer in Philadelphia went some of the way…

It’s AIDS — an acronym!! “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.”

And while we’re at it, howabout “Author Annie Proulx discusses the origins of her Brokeback,” a really, really wonderful little interview with Proulx about the story. She even mentions that there is, apparently, a book in the work with the two screenwriters of the movie that will apparently cover more about the background of Brokeback. I loved her brief discussion of the actor’s interpretations of the characters:

I thought they were magnificent, both of them. Jake Gyllenhall’s Jack Twist … wasn’t the Jack Twist that I had in mind when I wrote this story. The Jack that I saw was jumpier, homely. But Gyllenhall’s sensitivity and subtleness in this role is just huge. The scenes he’s in have a kind of quicksilver feel to them. Heath Ledger is just almost really beyond description as far as I’m concerned. He got inside the story more deeply than I did. All that thinking about the character of Ennis that was so hard for me to get, Ledger just was there. He did indeed move inside the skin of the character, not just in the shirt but inside the person. It was remarkable.

… which just about wraps it for today. Tomorrow’s Friday, and there’ll be no update tomorrow night, but you will see a weekend wrap up late Sunday night that’ll look at the wide-audience reaction to Brokeback. To all of you who are going to see it tomorrow: I hate you terrible bastards. But please, enjoy it, and be sure to report back on how much you pity me for living in the cuntry! But that’s okay, because just like Christmas, when I wake up after hibernating all weekend, I’ll find out that Brokeback was #1 for the weekend at the box office, right? Right!

“Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’, keep them dogies rollin’, man my ass is swollen, Rawhide!” (City Slickers)

That was dirty and ironic. I shouldn’t have said that. Sorry!

Anyway, some new stuff for the archives. Remarkably, this is the first time in like the last week that we don’t have any awards to talk about, which is okay by me.

I just have to start with “The Hidden Language Of ‘Brokeback’ Swag,” on Defamer, which is mightily amusing. For you breedin’ folks who don’t understand the left-right thing, here it is in plain English: Ennis is a top, Jack is a bottom. If you’re still clueless, and you’re not at work, click here for the Wikipedia article that explains the whole thing.

Next, we have a decidedly more focused USA TODAY article (see yesterday’s roundup for my USA TODAY Hatorade) about Michelle Williams. Nice to see that the supporting cast is getting some media love too. Here’s an interesting quote:

Williams won’t say whether she has talked to Tom Cruise’s pregnant fiancée and her former Dawson’s co-star, Katie Holmes.

“That’s the million-dollar question,” Williams says. “Everybody wants to ask it. I feel like I’m turning into a party trick.”

Turning into a party trick? Today really is a dirty day for this blog.

Next up is a dissapointing article beating that dead horse: the heartland. It asks, like many others have, “Can ‘Brokeback Mountain’ move the Heartland?” Apologies for the long quote, but I have to dissect:

This year, “Capote” attracted consistently good reviews but has grossed $10.4 million in about 200 theaters. Within movies that have gay themes, the stronger the sexuality, the weaker the films tend to perform. Although toned-down gay-themed movies such as “The Birdcage” and “Philadelphia” were hits, the far more explicit — and Oscar-winning — transgender drama “Boys Don’t Cry” sold $11.5 million in tickets.

“I really don’t think America is ready for a homosexual love story like this,” said Peter Sprigg, vice president for policy at the conservative Family Research Council in Washington. “I’m sure it has a great deal of appeal within the Hollywood community itself, which is already committed to a pro-homosexual ideology, but I can’t see it as a big box-office success.”

Added Dave Bossie, who was the executive producer of the anti-Michael Moore documentary “Celsius 41.11″ and heads the conservative grass-roots organization Citizens United: “‘Brokeback’ will not only encounter resistance, but empty theaters. My wife and I watched the trailer in a theater a few days ago and sensed an audible revulsion to two men passionately embracing and kissing on the big screen.”

Alright, first and foremost: $10.11 million is nothing to balk at for Capote, when this article mentions that it’s only showing in 200 theaters. Derailed’s been out for 5 weeks in 1128 theaters and it’s only made $34.66 million. And that’s got a much bigger set of stars (Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen). Pride and Prejudice, has been out for the same length of time in 1335 theaters and has only made $26.47 million.

Second, could we ask someone any MORE biased about whether the film is going to do any good? The Family Research Council does not, despite their assertations, have their finger on the pulse of America. That’s like asking an Atheist group how they feel about The Passion of the Christ. They just aren’t qualified to be saying whether America is ready for this kind of film.

Third, why don’t we ask good ol’ Dave Bossie how well his “Celsius 41.11″ did? Was it packing theaters?

Finally, why does anyone care that Bossie and his wife “sensed an audible revulsion”? What is he, a human E-Meter? I sense stupidity from his quotes.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not trying to take a political stance here. While I’m sure a good deal of my readers are probably fans of the movie, my intention is not to pander. I only ask that if you’re going to write an article about how well America is going to respond to a non-mainstream movie, howabout you ask “real” people who aren’t actively anti-gay, anti-liberal activists? Why not just take a random sampling on the street in Tulsa, OK and see what you come up with?

To wrap things up, take a look at Dave Letterman’s underwhelming (as usual) Top 10 about Brokeback.

Starch your jeans, boys!

Very big news: Dave Cullen, of Dave Cullen’s Blog, has very graciously allowed me to post his updated (and insanely complete) list of showings on December 16th, which was compiled by a reader (Parenthetical Greg). Check out the Release Dates page to see if the movie is going to be in your area this weekend.

Many thanks to Dave and Greg!

Howdy, padnahs!

Today’s biggest news is obviously the SEVEN Golden Globe nominations. Way to go guys!

I’ve also added three cities to the release schedule, as I found out here that the movie will be opening in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver this Friday.

You’ll also find a new page called “Awards & Honors List,” which is simply a compiled list of awards and nominations. I will keep it updated as new information becomes available.

Featured additions to the “media roundup” are as follows:

ABC News has a video about what “real” gay cowboys think about the movie. As far as I can tell, most of them are afraid that they’ll be stereotyped by the movie — but I question, don’t their assless chaps already stereotype them in some ways? Hm.

Great article in the Toronto Star by Murray Whyte which discusses the fact that there are high-hopes in the gay community that this will be the breakthrough in terms of not always looking at gays as solely comedic touchpoint. Once again, Heath shows his soft side when he and Jake were asked what it was like to kiss each other:

The actors exchanged glances, Ledger’s alarmed, Gyllenhaal’s wearied. But armed with his million-dollar smile, Gyllenhaal leaned forward and played along. “I’ll answer with one word, and that word is `exfoliate,’” he said, as laughter filled the room.

Ledger sat silently. “Heath?” Behar prodded. The actor glared, and cleared his throat. “I’ve got nothing funny to tell you,” he said flatly. “There was nothing funny about it. It was one of the most beautiful screenplays I’d ever read. That was it.”

What a character, eh?

Claudia Puig writes a muddled, ambiguous, jack-of-all-trades piece in USA TODAY that, well, I can’t really figure out. Can’t expect much else from that rag, though…

Finally, an interesting article in the San Francisco Examiner by David Germaine about Oscar predictions discusses Brokeback’s chances. The question is, will the traditionally less gay-friendly Oscars be receptive to the movie? Time will tell, of course.

Hope you’re enjoying the coverage. Please don’t forget to pass on the word or link to the site. Every little bit helps!