Keeper of the Clown Bell

The critical battlefield was outlined by POTUS 44 with the mid-December release of  his annual list of favorites  from the closing year (2025) which includes the top movies he has watched in the hours that remain after reading many books and listening to a lot of music. Because he's a capitol (D) donkey I figure Barack gets to watch all of these pictures for free plus hear the industry chit-chat about what celebritards are paid to promote. As longtime KOTCB readers know, I do NOT usually watch the films critiqued here because, for the most part, I don't need to but unlike Barry I do give commentary regarding the themes in these flicks to explain WHY they make anyones list. The Enigma just lobs his picks skyward like he's shooting hoops with LeBron and hopes the rock falls into the hole.* For me it's one battle after another in the cinephile war and in the spirit of years past I humbly submit my reviews. Through a series of odd circumstances, I have actually watched a mo...

I like the Winter Olympics. I attended the 1976 Insbruck games and saw  Franz Klammer and  Dorthy Hammel win gold.  All a hazy 50 year old memory for me now but I was there, hight of the Cold War , surrounded by spooks fighting for control of Europe and the future of the West. There was some great hockey at the '76 games which I also saw along with Alpine ski jumping and some other sports I can't remember. I was 14 years old and after a few days at the Olympiad I wandered around Austria with my grandparents swooshing the slopes of  Kitzbühel  and  Zürs. A lot has changed in the world over the past 5 decades but the Winter Olympics are mostly the same except for goofy snow board races and big air  loop-de-loops. Thank God we won the Cold War! A year and a half earlier President Nixon had resigned his presidency and I'll always remember the tears I wept watching this man address the nation on a black and white TV my grandfather had gifted me. It was a...