“Drive-In”RoyBuchanan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons The Ten Best Summer Films of All Time Finally. After fourteen months of quarantine, confinement, isolation, boredom, and loneliness, we appear to be on the brink of beating the pandemic and getting back into a—somewhat—normalized social existence, which could mean a real summer—one with concerts, crowds, fun, and traveling. …
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Category:Michael DiMilo
Too Far Gone
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Perseverance is usually a virtue. The determination to keep going—no matter what the odds—until a goal is reached, a task completed, or a dream attained is usually a noble aspiration. But when determination swells into blind ambition or becomes nothing more than a single-minded fixation, it can result …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to Hard Times
Film Review of Borat Subsequent MovieFilm By Geoff Carter Historically, during times of hardship and duress, people have tended to look to movies as vehicles for escape and diversion. Musicals like 42nd Street and Dancing Down to Rio and Busby Berklee’s dance extravaganzas were quite popular with audiences during the Great Depression. While The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind, as well …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to Dressing Up
By Geoff Carter Artwork by Michael DiMilo As of May 1st, over thirty percent of the American population has been fully vaccinated from COVID. New York City, Chicago, and other major cities are beginning to reopen businesses and theaters. Kids are going back to school. As we inch our way back toward normalcy, one of …
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Slaughterhouse North
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter There was a time, not so long ago, when Wisconsin was considered to be a national leader in conservation. We had a long and storied tradition of vigilant stewardship for our lands, waters, and wildlife. Former Wisconsin Governor and U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, a longtime environmental activist, was …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to the Big Leagues
By Geoff Carter I sighted my first robin a few weeks ago. The daffodils and crocuses are peeking through the earth. After possibly one of the longest winters in the history of the modern world—at least subjectively speaking, spring has arrived. We can enjoy walks in the sunshine, digging in the garden, and talking to …
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Cheeseheads
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter I used to be proud of being a Wisconsinite. There was a time when our state was a national leader in education, clean government, and public works. We used to have one of the country’s best state-run university systems. Wisconsin had a progressive tradition reaching back to the …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to Blood Money
Artwork by Michael DiMilo Film Review of Judas and the Black Messiah By Geoff Carter Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah is not only a gripping biopic about the betrayal and assassination of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, and William O’Neal, the FBI informant who betrayed him, but it is also a thoughtful work that examines …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to Getting Even
Artwork by Michael DiMilo Film Review of Promising Young Woman By Geoff Carter It’s the woman’s fault, right? If they dress provocatively, flirt, drink too much, or go out by themselves, then they get what they ask for, right? Unfortunately, this neanderthal mentality still persists in frat houses, bars, locker rooms—and boardrooms—everywhere, and indeed, has …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to the Road Less Traveled
Film Review of Nomadland By Geoff Carter Nomadland is a movie that, like the people that inhabit it, travels unmarked roads into strange new territory. The movie is based Jessica Bruder’s book detailing her experiences traveling the country with a group of itinerant workers, mostly older Americans forced to go on the road in order to …
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Left Out in the Cold
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoffrey Carter A polar vortex descended upon the lower United States last week, bringing freezing temperatures across the South. While the entire region had to deal with shoveling snow, cold temperatures, and relearning how to drive, the great state of Texas found itself in a full-blown crisis. The extreme cold …
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Injustice For All
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem Finch, a young boy, is shocked when, in the face of overwhelming evidence proving his innocence, a white jury convicts a Black man of raping a white woman. It seems, however, as if nearly everyone else in the novel (with …
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