The Subliminal Straightening of Brokeback Mountain

 

Almost two years ago, we at Narnia Dispatches thought we had written about a one-case shot of canon-becomes-fictional-video in our post, "From Our Bleacher Seats:  Taylor Swift's 'This is Your Life and Filmography, Jake Gyllenhaal', AKA All Too Well".  In that post, we wrote about how Taylor Swift, henceforth referred to as the customary "Shifty", based her music video for All Too Well (starring Dylan O'Brien and Sadie Sink) on Jake Gyllenhaal's filmography and several real life moments.  Check that link out, you won't believe the undeniability.

Who would think that something similar could happen again?  No, not recently.  But thanks to a pop culture twitter account which was observing a song's release anniversary, we have now found yet another instance where some folks were "inspired" by canon.  And used a song and its accompanying music video to deceive and/or manipulate their audience.

The anniversary moment?  

In March 2009, Shifty released the single "Crazier" for the Disney film, "Hannah Montana the Movie".  She had a cameo as a club singer, performing the soundtrack song. 

 

Please - have a look see (this is the same 2:08 video in the tweet).  It is from the official music video for Crazier.

@ madsdaydream edit

 

The clip shown in PopCulture/@madsdaydream's tweet was edited (shortened), but the opening scene was already enough to make one begin to wonder to themself, "Uh oh, don't tell me...we're really going to go here again?"  

As the video clip from "Hannah Montana the Movie" progressed, the coincidences were too similar.

 

Travis Brody riding in on his horse to meet Hannah

 

Jack Twist arrives to report for his job and meets Ennis Del Mar

Going for a ride.

The red truck

Jack Twist's red truck in Lightning Flats

(Remember that red shirt)

Woohoo, Travis Brody swinging on rope into lake

Travis Brody into the water

In Brokeback Mountain, Jack and Ennis skinny dip during their working summer together. They are shown running and leaping off of a cliff, down into the water below.  Out of sensitivity for viewership, there's some "editing" in the screenshot from the movie.

Jack and Ennis running and jumping into the water below

And circling back to Jack Twist in his vivid red shirt (in the red truck photo) when he came to pick up Ennis at his house, so they could go on the first of what would be numerous fishing trips.  

And in the Crazier video, it does look like Travis Brody is wearing a red polo, although muted.

                       Looks like one could say loving them is red. 😉

 

In the music video clip, we have her and Travis dancing.

Miley (Hannah) and Travis Brody

And we had Jack Twist and Lureen Newsome in Brokeback Mountain,

yup, dark shirt, dark hat...check ✅

Actually, Ennis also danced as well - with Cassie Cartwright in a western bar.

Ennis and Cassie Cartwright in dancing scene

In the Hannah Montana movie, we have Travis Brody sitting alone in a restaurant when Hannah Montana runs in, excited and happy.

Travis Brody waiting

In Brokeback Mountain, Ennis is also alone, eating a slice of pie in a cafe, when Cassie Cartwright enters with a date. 

Cassie enters the cafe w/ her date as Ennis is eating alone inside.

 

Even in the short music video, we see a glimpse of landscape in the Hannah Montana movie.  The tree-covered hills of Tennessee (in a fictional town of Crowley Corners, TN) form a mountainous line against the sky.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Who could ever forget the beautiful mountains of Brokeback Mountain?  The scenery was endless.

Brokeback Mountain

What should also be pointed out about these undeniable parallels between Hannah Montana the Movie and Brokeback Mountain is the contrast of several of the scenes.

If one hasn't seen Brokeback Mountain, the movie has many poignant and emotionally devastating scenes.  Jack Twist's dancing scene with Lureen was deceiving because while he liked Lureen very much, his heart wasn't fully present.  He had already fallen in love with Ennis by the time he met her, thus the dancing scene, while they were having an enjoyable time, one knows that he would have rather been in the company of Ennis.  In the Hannah Montana movie scene, both she and Travis Brody are quite happy looking.

The contrast in cafe scenes is even more stark.  In Brokeback Mountain, Cassie excuses herself from her date for a moment to go say hello to Ennis.  She asks where he has been and, already realizing that he would never make her happy plus Jack was the one who really made him happy, Ennis gets the message across that it was not going to work for him and Cassie.  She is understandably hurt because she doesn't know the real reason (being queer and in love with Jack) for his reluctance to enter into a relationship.

"I don't get you, Ennis Del Mar."

"I was probably no fun anyways, was I?"

In the Hannah Montana movie scene, Hannah arrives elated into the small restaurant, jumps into the seat opposite Travis, who is equally happy to see her and presents her with a bouquet of flowers.

All kinds of happy

When you look at the clips from the Crazier video/Hannah Montana the Movie, the scenes are all happy and reflective of young love.  In sharp contrast, Brokeback Mountain was a tragic love story, one that has moved many a watcher to tears.  Many of the scenes were dark.  Many of the characters' interactions were not happy ones, due to the story line of two gay men in love during a very threatening time for LGBTQ individuals.

Let's look at the timing of the release of Hannah Montana the Movie (plus the soundtrack song Crazier) and the entertainment company that owned TV show and its characters.

Brokeback was released in 2005.

Hannah Montana the Movie was released in April 2009, but began filming in 2008. Interestingly enough, Jake had mostly finished filming Prince of Persia for Disney in 2008 and the movie would be released in May 2010.  

And what happened by the end of the summer of 2010 after the release of the Prince of Persia? The brief, high-profile, fauxmance between Jake and Shifty. 

And we all know bearding contracts are planned well in advance, so the question should be asked, was there a correlation between that upcoming bearding contract and Disney becoming involved with the hetero version of Brokeback Mountain.

It looks like perhaps Disney studios was concerned about Jake not being able to "shake off" his queer fans associated with Brokeback Mountain.

The subliminal parallels between the HM movie and Brokeback Mountain are undeniable.  

It was as though Disney wanted to "straighten" out the Brokeback imagery before Jake would be seen on the silver screen as the leading man in their summer blockbuster movie. 

And it's probably not so coincidental that Shifty would be involved with the HM project. Because Shifty was an essential part of the master plan to distance Jake from the iconic gay role of Jack Twist as well as to provide cover for the promotion of Love and Other Drugs in the Fall of 2010.

No one is going to forever remember Hannah Montana the Movie.  It didn't open up personal conversations or inspire and impact people, especially those in the LGBTQ community.  

And yet there it was in 2009 - the subliminal imagery to try and re-write a movie's original message about the different ways people love, and visually force it back into a "one-size-needs-to-fit-all".

Disturbing and disappointing to say the least.

 

pic sources:  You Tube, ourculturemag, alchetron, MusicNewChannel on You Tube, josie81 You Tube,

                     screenmusings, LilPuddingCup on You Tube, MovieStillShotsDB, Focus Pictures, altfg

our playlist:  The Wings (from Brokeback Mountain) - Gustavo Santaolalla Shane August

                      Melissa - The Allman Brothers Band

                     Brokeback Mountain Suite - The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

                                    

   

Jake Gyllenhaal Showing Austin Nichols at SXSW 2024: Category: A Different Art Form

 

The Instagram photo was almost like a painting of art.

There's alot going on all around Jake, isn't there?  Lots of cords - SAFETY MOMENT!  Nah, we won't do that, lol.  Jake has always provided opportunities for safety moments, though, I have to say.

First of all, his photo was released on Monday, Mar 11 and interestingly enough, is filed under Miscellaneous/Fan Photos/Promoting Road House at SXSW on I Heart Jake website.  

He is wearing the same clothes as he is in a few other photos released with this one.  The photos are from some kind of CGI filming with some co-stars.  

And so in Jake's photo, we are being told that he is, where - on a set?  Or inside someone's house before leaving for film work promo?  

What do we see in the photo?  We see a hair blow dryer, some make up, and what looks like skin applications.  Those seem like work items.  But that's an antique chair and desk.  Floor moldings.  Is that a glass door knob?  Re-finished wood floors.  Those items make the location look more like the interior of a house.

And upon further examination, we realize that several specific items stick out to us and they scream as shout-outs to Austin.  Remember, Jake did this while he was at SXSW in Austin, TX, promoting his film, Road House.

The following day, March 12, 2016 was going to be the anniversary of what?  Another momentous day for fans of Jake and Austin.

A momentous thing that happened at SXSW Film Festival.  Why, we'll never forget it.

LOOK AT THEM!!!  😍

Remember how they were spotted (quite openly too, now that we are more familiar with how these sightings have been filtered from social media view since 2012) that Saturday morning of March 12, 2016?  They were allegedly seen getting into an SUV together and headed for Banger's, where Jake was going to participate in a Q & A for Demolition?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This "historical" sighting occurred after four (4) years of dried desert land since the previous Jake & Austin spotting, which took place in NYC (accompanied by who was likely one of their nannies) in 2012.  The NYC 2012 sighting was celebrating Baby Tile 11-11-11's birth and the SXSW 2016 sighting was their low-key celebration of Baby Tile Congras, who was born in December 2015.

Fast forward to 2024.  Was it, could it be possible to have another Austin photo bomb at this SXSW, perhaps aided again by a planted account?  😉  After all, there was that Christmas party video a few years ago with Chumley, showing how Jake and Austin were able to be all out in the open with their bud-ship???

Well....SXSW 2024 came and went, and it didn't look like any surprise! Austin photo bomb was allowed.  📸 😞  

But that's okay!  

Because what we received in Jake's photo is still a wondrous treat, especially when you consider Road House is a rough-and-tumble, uber manly, Rock 'em, Sock 'em Robots, smash mouth kind of flick and obviously we're not going to be able to have bromantic, sexual chemistry with a real life partner anywhere near nor any time during film promo.  We can likely blame paranoid, dinosaur-type talent agents and PR managers for this chaste withholding of such forbidden fruit!   

Not to get off track.  Let's see what the guys did.  (apologies for the poorly drawn numbers using the archaic Paint!) 😂  We've got four (4) items to look at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 1.  That's Otis, Austin's dog, and who, by this time, should be considered the family dog (and not a deard! Sorry, Austin, our apologies! 😭).  Same brown markings on the legs, looks like the tail is tucked in.

 

Austin's "They grow up so fast" post - Nov. 2020

 

2.  Now this one is pretty fascinating.  See the painting on the wall, which is only partially visible?  That looks to be a painting of a John From Cincinnati - era Austin.  The ear looks pretty spot-on!  Yeeeesssssiree.

 

  

3.  While these are not the same model of sneaker, they're pretty similar.  Jake often seems to prefer pristine, white sneakers.  But at first glance, these are awfully reminiscent.  Jake's is more of a hi-top.   This author also gives a shout out to Austin's incredibly tight, neat shoelace tying - it continues to blow me away. 👟

 

Austin and Otis, June 2021

  

4.  And lastly, this one was a stroke of luck find, reminiscent of the ol' Leadville find.  Check it out.  They're going to spit.  😁😂

Back on New Year's Day in the afternoon, Methodical Muser and I happened to notice Austin had posted an Instagram story.  He looked not only incredible, but there was a mountainous bookcase FILLED with books behind him.  Before the video could be saved though, it was deleted by early evening.  Fortunately, M&M still had the post open in a browser window and managed to save some screen shots.  This particular capture would eventually prove to come in quite handy!

 

Austin (and Otis not pictured) on Jan 1, 2024

 

[Can't you just picture Austin having a chat with one or two of the Tiles in his office??!  "Now, don't be ignoring Papa like that.  If he asks you to stop playing video games and come upstairs for dinner, we need to do that. 😄]

Anyway.  There is a book behind Austin, "northwest" of his right shoulder, just on the other side of the bookshelf divider.  It has a little white square on the lower part of the binding.

 

 

This is so funny.   Okay, now in Jake's photo, there is a small stack of books. (we have NO idea what the ivory-type paperweight thing is, if anyone has an idea, can you comment below, thank you in advance!)

 

 

Side by side, we positioned Austin's book capture next to Jake's.

 

 

That book is "The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabel Wilkerson.  It is the story of America's migration of black citizens from the south to the northern and western parts of the country.  The author is a Pulitzer-Prize winner and the book was on the NY Times best sellers list.  It is a very highly regarded book.  

Here is the binding:

 

 

That is the same book title.  What. Are. The. Odds.

In Jake's photo, it looks like the book jacket is still on, as it's slightly crumpled at the top.  In Austin's screenshot from his video, it appears the jacket is gone. 

LOL!!  Obviously, the book would belong to Austin. 🕮  It's from his Library!!  

While the guys were assembling the various shout-outs to Austin, the twosome (or perhaps just Jake, we don't know for sure) probably thought a small stack of books would be a great idea.  But they probably didn't realize that one of the books could be matched to one that had been in Austin's Instagram.  

Now, it's very possible that this particular, very nice post from Jake was done as a preceding heads-up or an independent stance, before having to pose with the beard at the London premiere, which would take place days later.  

We're not going to get into any extra preaching about well, you know, you wouldn't have to do any preceding action if etc, etc....

Everyone's well aware and we're all adults in the room.  

No, we at Narnia simply wanted to enjoy this because these two guys don't do this kind of thing, particularly Jake.  There have been a few subtle shout-outs over the years, but this was very loud.  VERY loud.

The photo was pretty cool and discovering the book was added fun, a Where's Waldo as it were.

And so, for any doubters, Narnia says this.

Jake and Austin are still together.  

For anyone who has doubted or no matter how you feel about the situation, the signs are still there.  You just have had to hang in there and pay attention.

And yes, Narnia still cares very much about these two!  We haven't forgotten them, are you kidding? 💕

 

 

 

Jake's bday on The Day After Tomorrow set, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

at Casanova premiere, Nov. 2005

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

at the Lakers game, Feb 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

at Borders store, May 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

at an L.A. gym, May 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

at Leadville CO, August 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sushi lunch in L.A., January 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

at Berlinale Film Festival, Feb 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in NYC, Nov 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

at SXSW Film Festival, March 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May they continue to prove doubters wrong.

 

🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠

This post is dedicated to not only Jake and Austin, but to Wicked, Rest in Peace.  Wicked and Special K, the joint Grand Poobah's of Oh My Godot, the excellent blog they started in 2007 which was all about Jake and Austin.

pic sources:  I Heart Jake, Medium, Biblio, Oh My Godot, Brandon Fuller blog

our playlist:   A Thousand Years - Christina Perri

                      Let's Stay Together - Tina Turner

                      Time After Time - Mark Williams and Tara Morice

                      A Better Love - Londonbeat

                      Once in a Lifetime - One Direction

                      Forever - Vertical Horizon

                      I Have Always Loved You - Third Day

 

 

 

Cutting a Little Off the Top on The Barber - Which One is Travis' Version?

 

In the previous post, "Pothole Patch-Ups:  Rewriting the Narratives of Travis Kelce", readers' might remember that Narnia's third pothole concerned Travis' "go-to" barber, Pat Regan, who seemed to pop up from out of nowhere and caught the attention of several media outlets. The story suddenly being told spread rapidly but for those in the know several glaring inconsistencies began to emerge, which immediately caught the attention of Narnia.  

But after watching a lengthy video where Regan was the star interview-ee, Narnia immediately had a proliferation of questions about the reason(s) for Regan's higher, publicized profile and legitimacy as Travis' alleged preferred bestie barber. Upon closer inspection, something simply wasn't passing the smell test.   

Here's the full interview, which is lengthy (almost 50 minutes).

There is a much shorter clip that was posted on Tik Tok, courtesy of mrbridgerton.

Inside the first 01:25 minutes, the words "six years" is mentioned three (3) times.   Within 03:40, it's mentioned four (4) times.   "Six years" seems to be an awfully important mantra and has been since this farce, I mean debut of Regan's visibility began this past football season.  

This isn't to say Regan is not a real barber.  Or that he hasn't ever cut Travis' hair.  After all, he's got a good thing going with the NFL and is sponsored by Old Spice, one of the NFL's official sponsors and highly visible during Super Bowl weeks.  

At the same time, with regards to Travis, there are questions on what's being sold to the public.

For example, let's go back in time to that magical turning point year of 2017, the infamous "SIX YEARS AGO", the Summer of 2017 when everything happened for Regan and Travis.

• May 12, 2017 - Travis was in Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium, visiting a classroom of 5th graders with some fellow tight ends.

• May 23, 2017 - Travis was recovering from shoulder surgery, and while he wouldn't have practiced, he also was not listed as absent from OTA's.

 

[• May 22, 2017 - This is just a side note.  We received news via TMZ that Travis has a new girlfriend, Kayla Nicole.  The "relationship" was given a six month running start.  👀 ]

TMZ Sports has learned Kelce's been dating model/TV personality Kayla Nicole for the last six months ... and guess what? She's amazingly beautiful. -TMZ, May 22, 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

•  Jun 08, 2017 - Travis is in Kansas City for his 87 and Running 2nd Annual Walk the Walk Benefit.

 

 

• June 13 thru 15, 2017 - Travis is at Arrowhead in Kansas City participating in the mandatory mini camp.  He is listed as present but DNP, "did not practice".

Notes: LB Derrick Johnson participated in the individual portion of practice, roughly six months after surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon. Johnson had been targeting training camp in late July for getting back on the field. "He looked good," Houston said. "He looked fast." RB Spencer Ware left practice with a hamstring injury. CB Kenneth Acker left with a groin injury. LB Tamba Hali (knees), LB Dadi Nicolas (knee), TE Travis Kelce (shoulder) and OL Parker Ehinger (knee) did not practice. - Jefferson City News Tribune, June 14, 2017

•  June 23, 2017 - Travis participates in the Big Slick Charity Softball game in Kansas City at Kauffman Stadium, aka The K.  In fact, he hit a homerun!

credit:  MLB.com

• July 2017 - while the date of his bucket list fly boarding experience couldn't be pinned down, ESPN released the video on July 20, 2017.

 

• July 28, 2017 - mandatory training camp started in St. Joseph, Missouri.

There really seemed to be one reasonable window for Travis to have established a "hair cutting rapport" with Regan and that would've been the first several weeks of July before training camp started.

According to Regan, enough of a rapport with Travis for the tight end to want to begin bringing Regan to Kansas City "every week" during the season, going forward?  Really.

Oh, but wait.   What happened here?   September 5, 2017.  The beginning of the season. And here's Patrick, along with several other teammates, including Travis, were there, at the Purple Label Barbershop!  #thursnightfootball

 

 

Oh - and on October 28, 2017.

 

And on November 24, 2017.

 

 

And of course, in the previous post, we had included a photo of Travis from his own Instagram, of him at the Purple Label on November 11, the same year.

Looks like Regan made quite the "impact" the fall season following that glorious Summer of 2017, doesn't it?  

It also looks like there was someone's Instagram that TPTB forgot to "comb over". (Pun intended!)

For that awkward oversight, Narnia thanks them. 

Please note that US Weekly indicated in a December 12, 2023 article, that Regan "seemingly began cutting Kelce's hair in 2018." There's a glaring math problem with Regan's memory, however, because in the VolumeUp podcast by The Tease shown above, his obsession with six years would have dated their association back to the winter of 2017. It really is sad when liars cannot do basic addition. 

Moreover, on February 3, 2020, the first post on Patty_Cuts' instagram appears which includes Travis. Regan states that he's known "Trav" for almost three years now. Which matches with our 2017 timeline. Boom!

It is a significant mis-match of time.

213 weeks = February 3, 2020.

Looks like more of those involved need to get on the same page when carrying out a narrative rewrite like this. Then ask the question. Why would there even be a need to work so hard to sideline DeJuan Bonds and clumsily try to insert Pat Regan as Travis' longtime barber "of six years" while portraying the former as exclusively working with Patrick. Hmm. Reminds Narnia of stories suddenly placing Travis as living in Leawood, KS last November, instead of Loch Lloyd where he was being placed last summer. For some reason, since Taylor Swift arrived on the scene, there appears to be a need to separate Travis from Patrick. A real curiosity, considering they play on the same team.  Think about it.

 

So which is it?  

"After the summer was over, he asked me if I could start coming to Kansas City every week to cut his hair before games," he told Fox News Digital. - Fox News, Feb 1, 2024

 

vs.

 

"The Philly native is now based in Florida but has reportedly flown out for a few games." – People.com, January 23, 2024

 

Looks like too many barbers in this shop and a bit too much taken off the top, doesn't it?  😉

 

✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂

pic sources:  Giphy, ESPN sportscenter, MLB.com, Jefferson City News Tribune, TMZ, KC Star,

                     Tik Tok mrbridgerton, You Tube, The Tease's VolumeUp podcast, People, Fox News

our playlist:  Atomic - Blondie

                     I Want You So Bad - Heart

                     Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell

                     Behind Closed Doors - Charlie Rich

                     This Time I Need You - Brenda Russell