Thighs Wide Shut

Colonel Harland Sanders’ final driver’s license, issued by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in August of 1979, and the Colonel’s wife, Claudia L. Sanders’s license, issued on September 20, 1989 [ha]

In 1828, when Andrew Jackson was running for president, his opponents were fond of referring to him as a jackass (if only such candid discourse were permissible today). Emboldened by his detractors, Jackson embraced the image as the symbol of his campaign, re-branding the donkey as steadfast, determined, and willful, instead of wrong-headed, slow, and obstinate. Throughout his presidency, the symbol remained associated with Jackson and, to a lesser extent, the Democratic party 

In 1874, cartoonist Thomas Nast, represented the Democratic press as a donkey in lion’s clothing (though the party itself is shown as a shy fox), expressing the cartoonist’s belief that the media were acting as fear mongers, propagating the idea of Ulysses S. Grant as a potential American dictator. In Nast’s donkey-in-lion’s-clothing cartoon, the elephant –representing the Republican vote– was running scared toward a pit of chaos and inflation. The rationale behind the choice of the elephant is unclear, but Nast may have chosen it as the embodiment of a large and powerful creature, though one that tends to be dangerously careless when frightened. Alternately, the political pachyderm may have been inspired by the now little-used phrase “seeing the elephant,” a reference to war and a possible reminder of the Union victory. Whatever the reason, Nast’s popularity and consistent use of the elephant ensured that it would remain in the American consciousness as a Republican symbol

[Political Animals: Republican Elephants and Democratic Donkeys]

The Flatiron by Edward Steichen, 1904

just one of a zillion buildings me and the crew saw when we walked the entirety of Manhattan’s Broadway!!

A Private War
Duty For Reporting
Official Site | Trailers & Mo
R | 106 min

Journalist Marie Colvin went to some hellish places and lived to report about it, until her luck ran out. Matthew Heineman‘s biopic about her – A Private War – starring Rosamund Pike as the fearless writer – shows us where she went and what she did, but we never really get a real sense of her or her work and why it was so vital.  Bombs go boom.  She loses an eye.  She drinks heavily.  She wins awards.  She drinks more.  She’s a mess.  And yes she keeps going into the arms of danger to let the world know about other atrocities.  Bombs continue to go boom and the rest of the cycle in the movie keeps going on and on.  It’s not until the very end where we hear her reporting from the field, in a call into Anderson Cooper on CNN, that you start to appreciate and feel for her, her work, and her struggle.  Everything else that came before that just felt like a struggle to watch 

Verdictgo: Sum Merit But No Stinkin Badges

War wages today in limited release

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

A Star Is Born
Duo-Over
Official Site | Trailers & Mo
R | 134 min

He can sing!  She can act!  For the first hour – they owned my heart and soul.  For the next hour and so, not AS much, but they still had a lot of it!  Man, that music was great! (and the trailer still gives me chills!)  But I still prefer the 1937 original cause (I was born in the wrong era – and) it’s the version I saw and loved first!  And it’s about movies!  And oh, that Academy Award scene – I’m still cringing!  But yeah, the new one has Andrew Dice Clay!! AND SAM ELLIOTT’S MUSTACHE!!!!!!!!!!!  Hmmm, you got me there!!!

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Born is conceiving currently at a theater near jews and white nationalists

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…