Bareass Jousting

Went to see “Brokeback Mountain” yesterday – I think I detected a slight gay subtext. Fairly satisfying, Ang Lee not relying as much on lush visuals as I had expected. Excellent, restrained performances all round – future generations will look up “taciturn” in the dictionary and the entry will read “See Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain (2005)”. It didn’t prompt a tear until the very end, however. It must be fairly liberating for a screenwriter to have a short story to adapt rather than a novel – plenty of latitude. Can’t wait for the 1980s-set sequel, “Breakdance Island”.

Listened to a documentary on Mozart on Radio 3 last night; as usual with these things, everything we know is wrong – he was no more scatological than most people, the music didn’t always flow effortlessly, he was a fairly well-organised small businessman. I long for a documentary which doesn’t overturn the accepted wisdom – “you always thought Hitler was a vicious nutter bastard – and he was!”

Good to see the Arctic Monkeys getting their second No. 1 single yesterday. One of my TV highlights of 2005 was their appearance on "Later with Jools Holland" when they paid tribute to fellow guest Ms. Dynamite during "Dancefloor". Nice to note that a band can make it based on clever song-writing, committed gigging and just being good, rather than going on some karaoke TV talent show. If only the ‘net was such a foolproof marketing tool as their detractors suggest.