MAG-gaga

In my reading basket are latest issues of the New Yorker - convenient, friendly bathroom buddies to flex those rectal muscles, thanks to J’s recent US trip. Got the anniversary issue (Feb) featuring a grand tribute to John Updike, courtesy of D. The generosity of friends overwhelms, bless them a hundred fold.

Another mag I want to latch on is the August issue of Vanity Fair hitting America’s newsstand this month with the late Heath Ledger on its cover but there’s a sneak preview in VF’s website, that should do it for me. I can’t always get what I crave, can I? It’s sheer decadence for a proletariat like me.

Ledger’s revelatory performance in Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain” showcased genuine talent in a stream of mediocrity in that age-group, save for Ryan Gosling, who else? His passing forces us to wonder what emphatic, sensitive, intelligent performances were yet to unfold. In the old blog (1.23.08), to mark his passing, I wrote: At 28, he has taken us to places of danger and discomfort and by treading on these grounds, we somehow managed to regain our humanity.

I hardly consider myself a devout Ledger fan but there was a flicker of River Phoenix in him. A river of tears I spilled for River’s own unutterably sad curtain call and baduy that I am, my very first email address was dyndyn.rios, obviously for ex-husband #3 Marcelo Rios but partially, it was a corny, flaky, and supply the other adjectives, tribute to the finest actor of his generation, River Phoenix. “Rio” means river in Espanyol if my vague recall of Spanish class isn't betraying me.