Keeper of the Clown Bell

  When I was a young man I had the opportunity to travel around the world on a 9 month odyssey with a crew of cinephiles under the direction of an organization called  The International Honors Program .  The tale of this extravagant boondoggle will be told another day but for the purposes of this commentary I will say that the expedition took place in a mid-80's cold war world when movies, radio and television (even newspapers) actually had cultural and political impact - that is to say, before the digital age. I started scribbling these musings weeks ago and (in my mind) went down many paths; some lead to the past, others to the future and still others to places that don't exist. How did I get to the paragraph I'm presently composing? Well, it started with Noah Hawley and the TV series Fargo which he writes and directs because, as it happens, this talented auteur graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1989 and that means he might have known one of the Steve's on the

  It’s been a few years since I did my last Oscars review because I don’t watch these movies anymore and ever since the “Moonlight” win I’ve lost interest in the spectacle but this year… this year I’m back. Still haven’t watched any of the movies (except Oppenheimer) but I did see a film that should have won but didn’t. Read all about it. BEST PICTURE NOMINEES AMERICAN FICTION -  Black Lives Matter. West World season 1 on HBO was okay, and Jeffery Wright’s awakening to the fact that he wasn’t what he thought himself to be was moving and sad. We’ve all been there - realizing a truth that everyone else already knew but were too embarrassed to mention. I wish these guys would make a movie about Kanye. ANATOMY OF A FALL -  Guerre tout le temps. I just don’t care. Die. Go to jail. Or be free. Whatever you need to do but don’t drag me into your horrible dramatic life with massive disfunction and French ennui.  BARBIE -  White Loves You. Great memes. I mean, honestly, who cares about the mov