Pin-ups have traditionally been prominently featured in the chronicles of the lives of boys. However, not everyone who writes about youth pays attention to the fact that girls also feverishly collect pin-ups, clipping pictures of cute boys from teeny magazines and tacking them all over their bedroom walls, ceilings, closets, and mirrors. I didn't quite go all out, preferring instead to reserve my pin-up privileges for what I considered a select few. I particularly had a thing for the brooding artists, especially if they looked like they were brooding in the photograph.
A couple of months ago I went back home to spend the holidays with my parents, and as I rearranged myself back into my old room, I looked around and smiled as I noticed that although my mom has repainted the walls, changed the carpet to a wood floor and arranged the artwork on the walls in a more pleasing way, this particular photograph was still up on the wall. I just found out that it was apparently taken by Kwaku Alston. I remember when I tore it out of a magazine--it was featured in a photo shoot promoting Heath Ledger's new movie, A Knight's Tale. I loved the picture because of the pants. I already thought Heath was cool, but I couldn't get over the awesomeness of a young guy brave enough to wear those embroidered green pants for the world to see. They looked great, of course, because Heath had this particular style that absorbed what he put on and gave it some kind of magical cool aura.
Ever since we first saw him in 10 Things I Hate About You opposite Julia Stiles, my friends and I swooned over his Aussie accent and rebellious-but-sweet attitude. I've seen a lot of his movies since then, and gotten to watch his journey as a serious, talented, risk-taking actor. It was much too late in my life for me to be obsessive about movie-star-fandom, but I always retained a place of preference for the boy who was my last pin-up ever. He never disappointed over the years, always taking interesting and challenging roles. I just read that he had recently been working the role of the Joker in the next Batman movie. Now that he's gone, I have to say that it will be bittersweet. I am overjoyed that an actor I respect and enjoy is going to play such a difficult and well-defined role in one of my favorite superhero stories, and yet not looking forward to what I anticipate will be a feeling much like watching Brandon Lee in The Crow. The eerie capturing of life obliviously in its last moments.
I am so sorry about Heath Ledger. I am so sorry for his family, for his baby girl. I realize that I don't actually know him, that he was a person traveling within a different orbit. But one time, those many years ago, that orbit crossed mine through that photograph. He has made me smile, he has made me ponder, and he has probably made me cry. He was only 28, just around my age. He seemed like one of the good guys...just a decent man making a living doing what he loved and enjoying the company of those he loved. I won't speculate on what happened; I just feel sorry, no matter what, about this very young life, cut off. Here's to my last pin-up.
2 comments:
Awesome tribute.
Sigh (of both the sad and the dreamy variety). There are at least four pages of my old scrapbook dedicated solely to Heath. I'l have to try and post them, but I'm too lazy to write such a prolific tribute, so I'll probably just link to yours. :-)
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