Artwork by Michael DiMilo The Wide Wild World: Film Review of Poor Things By Geoff Carter The films of Yorgos Lanthimos tiptoe the blurry lines between fantasy and reality as they explore the tenuous relationships between subjectivity, reality, and existentialism. They are beautiful, but anything but typical. His films The Lobster, The Killing of Sacred Deer, …
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Month:January 2024
Kickass and Manure Sleigh
Attribution: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, says the keeper suggests that only a few dog walkers could identify with the keeper’s reminisce of frigid winter mornings when his youthful presence in northwest Wisconsin was dictated by the necessity of dealing with animal waste. Nothing …
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Kickass and Snow Removal
Attribution: Oto Zapletal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in enjoying the current winter excess from behind thick panes of glass while watching the scurrying and beeping and blinking of the army of snow removal machines. Never intending to make trouble, but the question …
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Kickass and Leopold’s Dog
Attribution: Pacific Southwest Region 5, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper’s plan to spend this stormy day inside with Phyllis, doing a post birthday party for Aldo Leopold who was born on Jan. 11, 1887 and died Apr. 21, 1948 at the age of 60 …
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Catch-45
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter We live in perplexing times when an ex-president, presently under indictment for over ninety felony charges, is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. And—even more strangely, when his alleged crimes include (but are not exclusive to) instigating an insurrection against the very government he ruled and seeks …
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Kickass Sues His Mother
Attribution: Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper having recently survived a debilitating genetically conditioned cough through the kind administrations of Phyllis, has decided to sue his long-departed mother for her role in handing off a family cough that she in turn had inherited from her father—dear …
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Kickass Says Goodbye, Bernie
Attribution: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports on a recent lunch gathering at which a discussion of the conversational use of “per se” was on the table after a precise definition by Bernie Cohen got the matter up for grammatical grabs. Bernie has been bringing such …
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Kickass and Ejection Recliner
Attribution: DelmerViramontes, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper has established that he and Phyllis will be dealing with all future severe winter weather issues from their control recliners and adds that the keeper is hard at work designing an “ejection-recliner” which uses sound activation to forcefully eject …
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Kickass and Blizzard Prep
Attribution: Photo by Patino Jhon on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s insightful suggestion that in surviving the upcoming winter storm it is important to have appropriate equipment ready for the worst blizzard conditions, hence a careful check on the living room recliners used by Phyllis and the keeper to deal with …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Film Review of “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Gangsters of the West: Film Review of Killers of the Flower Moon ★★★★★ Attribution: Fernando de Sousa from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Martin Scorsese is one of the most versatile and gifted film directors working today. He has directed movies in a variety of genres, including psychological thrillers (Shutter …
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Kickass and Flat Earth
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in their efforts to live on the same planet with those who are convinced that the Earth is flat, and truth is the end product of a cultural digestive system out of whack from a diet of green apples …
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Kickass and Winter Badgers
Attribution: Gary M. Stolz, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is unable to prevent the keeper from stirring up the garbage in the typical Wisconsin winter life he and Phyllis share with all the rest of the Badgers: 1. A dictator named Vos leading a minority-representative legislature that is kept …
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