ToNT.oRg
Our theme - "There's Gold in them Hills."
Due to a forced period of coalescence, sitting and doing very little became my best friend so I might heal & in doing so finally pressed play on "Yellowstone" and actually got past the shooting of the horse. I am ALL HAT and no cowgirl (but held on, and well, when the other rider (out of Beth's playbook), kept shoving her horse aggressively into mine when he finally took off galloping. I know she wanted desperately to see me thrown from the horse or at least dragged along by the stirrups, dead, would have been ideal for her. Well, sorry and "Yee-haw" lady, I've got God. Having traveled to Bozeman and sitting in some of the scene's settings both in and outdoors; majestic and hunter-forward-fabulous though the decor may be, I am not especially allured by the magic of Montana because it's just too cold. The clean, clean water is wonderful, and it is with hope that this lauded asset is maintained no matter how many of the privileged faction of power players come to desecrate what was and give cowboy boots a bad name.
Enough of my mini-screed. Having seen the cowboy attire contagion infect the masses for the last several years I was truly surprised as I have been geared up for the last quarter of a century in this vein and was met most frequently with a tilted head kind of curiosity in response. In other words, "Whatcha doing in that getup?" It wasn't so much a fashion choice as costume in the eyes of most of the country -- and who would want to portray themselves as some dumb-hick rural rube anyway? New Yorkers, all in black, would deride and chide (as is the hallmark of a New Yorker) but, now, cowboy hats abound without a smattering of shame or embarrassment -- chic -- it's become, shockingly, but after watching Yellowstone, I don't know if I'll care to be chic again in this manner for some time, if at all. This may change with time, because, we do change, but for now seeing a hat causes an emetic response and if I never see another cow/calf being made neurotic by someone on a horse trying to stop him/her at every turn, run only to be trapped & roped them happy will I be. This is part of reality, but HOW MANY times do we have to see this scene OVER and OVER again?
What makes Yellowstone easier on the mind are the sumptuous vistas and long shots so glorious we can almost feel we're there breathing in that mountain air. Nature on that scale has the ability to refresh our should despite everything or, shall I say almost everything, as Wilde says, "It is the distance that gives the view it's charm", and we are UP CLOSE & personal with the Duttons and their enemies who exhibit such ugliness, let us forget the depeche mode dictates and soon-to-be passe accoutrements, what has the behavior exhibited on the show done to the much-longer darker contagion of the psyche? The 100th monkey was to show how, as a collective, how we evolve suddenly and without effort due to mass mind. What happens when this phenomenon is influenced to devolve? How can a viewer fully discern these actions when pain after pain, damage after damage is inflicted with repercussions created only by make-up artists? When actors act, reality is sacrificed because real damage and pain tell it's own story, reveal more of the truth to us than pretending could EVER do. Pretending does not know karma, nor love, nor does it put anything of value at stake because what's at stake is pretend. Still, as spectator, behavior is too easy to emulate, to follow, and as women are randomly being punched in the street, violence escalating to a personal, hands-on level, vigorous and cruel, can we not see some correlation between these actions and those portrayed on this popular show?
Beth Dutton begins as such a likable character, her flaws easily ignored or embraced. This is due to the actress who bears not the grit nor grief, bitterness and outright psychosis required to be the sociopath that Beth unmistakably is. NO ONE likes sociopaths, as people get to know them, one-by-one they're burned off as the sociopath reveals his/her true nature. Does anyone like getting bit by a snake? It's the snake's nature to bite and we are repelled at that point if we haven't tumbled to the obvious clues before. Since the actress is so likable, a viewer could become confused, especially a younger viewer, once again due to the lack of consequences present within the character and the level at which an individual of those actions and motivations would resonant. Scary psychotic people are SCARY and PSYCHOTIC. Actors tend, above all, to want to be liked. Rip, resident muscle hitman takes out the trash so often it might as well be a literal "taking out of the trash." There is no real indication of what it means to kill, to kill constantly and without impunity. He still gets to be likable, decent arbiter of "fairness" and the cowboy code. He is still the model cowboy. My God, what a quagmire. Great actors asked to portray despicable acts but not asked to embody despicability? Land, land, land is the unquestioned sacred directive in all this: to preserve its glory even at the desecration of your soul is worth it. How is the obsession with the material any different than making "money" your God?
Kevin Costner carries a benignity also misleading. He's essentially the head of a crime family, different hats, different mode of transportation, but a gangster nonetheless and there's nothing, nothing about Kevin Costner that reads as cutthroat calloused harbinger of scorched earth his character is. Even the branding which began so egregiously turn into gimmick on this show. Human branding becoming ho-him? Alright gang, let's all get branded! The actors are so far out of their depth by that point when it comes to scenario -- what could one parlay from experience to give that some convincing credence? So they go on guffawing and doing their bits, being charming and funny -- all while recovering from branded burns -- does this make sense to anyone??! Does mild-mannered Kevin Costner look like the kind of guy who could BRAND SOMEONE & then let Jimmy go back to the 4 6s, too? Has Taylor Sheridan been bounced in the head too many times on the back of a horse? Side note: Sheridan is a hobbyist and horse enthusiast nonpareil, but, scene after scene juxtaposed with the professionals, no spinning (on the horse or otherwise) of his abilities can compare with those pros.
As the extreme of both actions and threats against the family heighten from ruthlessness to monstrous on a Caligulan brain tumor level scale we at least comprehend the reasoning, perhaps necessity, behind the offense and defense measures employed, especially when trying to protect those you love, but it descends into caricature, and the wise and wounded Beth becomes mere caricature too, same mistakes, same marred paradigm, the character are not allowed to evolve or learn: one of the sadder aspects of the show as it continues without compass in the deeper seasons. Hope for some revelation could be placed in Wes Bentley's, Jamie, a wormy wilted-salad of a man, confused & confounded, desperate for approval, crying out for help. Help comes in the form of con man mother-murdering father & we think, at last! The con man will break his heart, too, and he'll learn that being adopted was a gift! Even if he felt and was unloved it was still a gift considering what other future he may have had. He would learn that his real father didn't love him anymore than he could love anyone else and was just being used instead of finally accepted as he always longed to be -- redemption!! But, no that couldn't possibly the story line. If all you know is conflict and stultification, then that's what you'll write and what you repeat and we see the results -- do you like them? Do you like being constipated? The show stalls and constipates, what if they do save their land -- are they justified in being the off-the-chart jerks they've been to make it happen? This really is playing Cowboys & Indians and somewhere, in many places, little boys (and possibly girls) are re-enacting scenes of branding one another. What a thing to be playing at.
What can I say about the expletives peppered throughout, forget gratuitous, they are not dialogue so much as the cadence rat-a-tat-tat of a drumline. F-ing this, f-ing, f-ing, f-ing, f-ing. They are used in any and every situation where silence would be of better use, like facial tics that "prove how tough we are" (I mean f-ing are). Used almost to the point of comedy, like Gary Cooper's ridiculous theme song annoying viewers throughout "High Noon". They're used so much they just bec0me a joke. I sometimes find this catching. My father would thrill and clap his hands with delight when I would swear here and there as a child because to his Thai ears, they didn't impact culturally, they were sounds with attachments to vulgarity he did not compute, they were just funny words to him. Swearing often indicates a constant state of frustration with words bubbling forth and popping out to release some of the pressure of that frustration. Ideally we should strive to change our inner environments so there's no longer I need to release frustration. Hearing these words used again and again, as if normal, is a lot like inuring of our culture to violence, to lunacy, to playing dirty then power washing excrement laden halos of tin, chagrined should any one notice, anyone calling us out made villains.
And then there's Wes Bentley's character... this wormy wilted salad of a guy, confused, confounded, within him we placed some hope.
For years I have espoused that what matters in the end is not whether you "won" or "lost" but how you behaved along the way. What we'll remember, and be remembered for, is the way we treated people and the way we treated ourselves. Our greatest regrets the ways we withhold love from others, from ourselves. The way we took so much beauty for granted, ignored it or minimized its value when there was so much beauty within us and without but we stubbornly looked only to the pettiness, no glory but vainglorious, standing a top scattered dirt we clung to, showing the world how important we were because we felt so unimportant, so removed from our authentic identities
Enough of my mini-screed. Having seen the cowboy attire contagion infect the masses for the last several years I was truly surprised as I have been geared up for the last quarter of a century in this vein and was met most frequently with a tilted head kind of curiosity in response. In other words, "Whatcha doing in that getup?" It wasn't so much a fashion choice as costume in the eyes of most of the country -- and who would want to portray themselves as some dumb-hick rural rube anyway? New Yorkers, all in black, would deride and chide (as is the hallmark of a New Yorker) but, now, cowboy hats abound without a smattering of shame or embarrassment -- chic -- it's become, shockingly, but after watching Yellowstone, I don't know if I'll care to be chic again in this manner for some time, if at all. This may change with time, because, we do change, but for now seeing a hat causes an emetic response and if I never see another cow/calf being made neurotic by someone on a horse trying to stop him/her at every turn, run only to be trapped & roped them happy will I be. This is part of reality, but HOW MANY times do we have to see this scene OVER and OVER again?
What makes Yellowstone easier on the mind are the sumptuous vistas and long shots so glorious we can almost feel we're there breathing in that mountain air. Nature on that scale has the ability to refresh our should despite everything or, shall I say almost everything, as Wilde says, "It is the distance that gives the view it's charm", and we are UP CLOSE & personal with the Duttons and their enemies who exhibit such ugliness, let us forget the depeche mode dictates and soon-to-be passe accoutrements, what has the behavior exhibited on the show done to the much-longer darker contagion of the psyche? The 100th monkey was to show how, as a collective, how we evolve suddenly and without effort due to mass mind. What happens when this phenomenon is influenced to devolve? How can a viewer fully discern these actions when pain after pain, damage after damage is inflicted with repercussions created only by make-up artists? When actors act, reality is sacrificed because real damage and pain tell it's own story, reveal more of the truth to us than pretending could EVER do. Pretending does not know karma, nor love, nor does it put anything of value at stake because what's at stake is pretend. Still, as spectator, behavior is too easy to emulate, to follow, and as women are randomly being punched in the street, violence escalating to a personal, hands-on level, vigorous and cruel, can we not see some correlation between these actions and those portrayed on this popular show?
Beth Dutton begins as such a likable character, her flaws easily ignored or embraced. This is due to the actress who bears not the grit nor grief, bitterness and outright psychosis required to be the sociopath that Beth unmistakably is. NO ONE likes sociopaths, as people get to know them, one-by-one they're burned off as the sociopath reveals his/her true nature. Does anyone like getting bit by a snake? It's the snake's nature to bite and we are repelled at that point if we haven't tumbled to the obvious clues before. Since the actress is so likable, a viewer could become confused, especially a younger viewer, once again due to the lack of consequences present within the character and the level at which an individual of those actions and motivations would resonant. Scary psychotic people are SCARY and PSYCHOTIC. Actors tend, above all, to want to be liked. Rip, resident muscle hitman takes out the trash so often it might as well be a literal "taking out of the trash." There is no real indication of what it means to kill, to kill constantly and without impunity. He still gets to be likable, decent arbiter of "fairness" and the cowboy code. He is still the model cowboy. My God, what a quagmire. Great actors asked to portray despicable acts but not asked to embody despicability? Land, land, land is the unquestioned sacred directive in all this: to preserve its glory even at the desecration of your soul is worth it. How is the obsession with the material any different than making "money" your God?
Kevin Costner carries a benignity also misleading. He's essentially the head of a crime family, different hats, different mode of transportation, but a gangster nonetheless and there's nothing, nothing about Kevin Costner that reads as cutthroat calloused harbinger of scorched earth his character is. Even the branding which began so egregiously turn into gimmick on this show. Human branding becoming ho-him? Alright gang, let's all get branded! The actors are so far out of their depth by that point when it comes to scenario -- what could one parlay from experience to give that some convincing credence? So they go on guffawing and doing their bits, being charming and funny -- all while recovering from branded burns -- does this make sense to anyone??! Does mild-mannered Kevin Costner look like the kind of guy who could BRAND SOMEONE & then let Jimmy go back to the 4 6s, too? Has Taylor Sheridan been bounced in the head too many times on the back of a horse? Side note: Sheridan is a hobbyist and horse enthusiast nonpareil, but, scene after scene juxtaposed with the professionals, no spinning (on the horse or otherwise) of his abilities can compare with those pros.
As the extreme of both actions and threats against the family heighten from ruthlessness to monstrous on a Caligulan brain tumor level scale we at least comprehend the reasoning, perhaps necessity, behind the offense and defense measures employed, especially when trying to protect those you love, but it descends into caricature, and the wise and wounded Beth becomes mere caricature too, same mistakes, same marred paradigm, the character are not allowed to evolve or learn: one of the sadder aspects of the show as it continues without compass in the deeper seasons. Hope for some revelation could be placed in Wes Bentley's, Jamie, a wormy wilted-salad of a man, confused & confounded, desperate for approval, crying out for help. Help comes in the form of con man mother-murdering father & we think, at last! The con man will break his heart, too, and he'll learn that being adopted was a gift! Even if he felt and was unloved it was still a gift considering what other future he may have had. He would learn that his real father didn't love him anymore than he could love anyone else and was just being used instead of finally accepted as he always longed to be -- redemption!! But, no that couldn't possibly the story line. If all you know is conflict and stultification, then that's what you'll write and what you repeat and we see the results -- do you like them? Do you like being constipated? The show stalls and constipates, what if they do save their land -- are they justified in being the off-the-chart jerks they've been to make it happen? This really is playing Cowboys & Indians and somewhere, in many places, little boys (and possibly girls) are re-enacting scenes of branding one another. What a thing to be playing at.
What can I say about the expletives peppered throughout, forget gratuitous, they are not dialogue so much as the cadence rat-a-tat-tat of a drumline. F-ing this, f-ing, f-ing, f-ing, f-ing. They are used in any and every situation where silence would be of better use, like facial tics that "prove how tough we are" (I mean f-ing are). Used almost to the point of comedy, like Gary Cooper's ridiculous theme song annoying viewers throughout "High Noon". They're used so much they just bec0me a joke. I sometimes find this catching. My father would thrill and clap his hands with delight when I would swear here and there as a child because to his Thai ears, they didn't impact culturally, they were sounds with attachments to vulgarity he did not compute, they were just funny words to him. Swearing often indicates a constant state of frustration with words bubbling forth and popping out to release some of the pressure of that frustration. Ideally we should strive to change our inner environments so there's no longer I need to release frustration. Hearing these words used again and again, as if normal, is a lot like inuring of our culture to violence, to lunacy, to playing dirty then power washing excrement laden halos of tin, chagrined should any one notice, anyone calling us out made villains.
And then there's Wes Bentley's character... this wormy wilted salad of a guy, confused, confounded, within him we placed some hope.
For years I have espoused that what matters in the end is not whether you "won" or "lost" but how you behaved along the way. What we'll remember, and be remembered for, is the way we treated people and the way we treated ourselves. Our greatest regrets the ways we withhold love from others, from ourselves. The way we took so much beauty for granted, ignored it or minimized its value when there was so much beauty within us and without but we stubbornly looked only to the pettiness, no glory but vainglorious, standing a top scattered dirt we clung to, showing the world how important we were because we felt so unimportant, so removed from our authentic identities
"Be faithful in small things because it's in them that your strength lies." - Mother Theresa
3 Truths &...
1. Take up a happy hobby.Give yourself a rest. If you create more problems for yourself and are the source of much of your misery - it's time to stop being so productive! Take some time off and pile on less nasty and more happy. WHY CHOOSE MOUNTAINS WHEN YOU CAN HAVE MOLEHILLS? |
2. Unlearn FearAnd take up Faith. Fear is something that's usually indulged. If you've spoiled your mind, and thus your life, by entertaining your fears, then you need new dinner party guests. Try inviting Faith in and see how pleasant company can be without all the drama. NO RELIGION NECESSARY: JUST PEACE OF MIND. |
3. Honor the StruggleBy giving thanks for all the little things. Did you know that once you start doing that, you can be grateful for the big things, too? Perhaps even the things that appear to be terrible? When we stop resenting something, our circumstances for example, we stop giving it power over us. When we can accept that there is love present & an opportunity for growth, we transcend our current reality and it becomes something beautiful and noble. WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE. |