Blogs: Quarter to Three

The Crab, the Crocodile, and Love in Cuba

By Sparrow 12/03/10

In an outlying district of Havana called Jaimanitas, the artist José Fuster has created an ever-expanding outdoor artwork consisting of mosaic sculpture, murals, fanciful arches, ceramic roosters and dozens of painted staring eyes.

Tree Painting

By Sparrow 09/23/10

How did Stone make bark — which is inherently curved — so pleasingly flat?

Alisha Kerlin

By Sparrow 06/29/10

Each card Alisha depicts has a paint-aura (I mean an aura made of paint).

The Whitney Biennial 2010

By Sparrow 06/09/10

Beauty is cautiously making a return, in contemporary art.

The New Word

By Sparrow 05/12/10

The Top 10 Films of 2009

By Sparrow 01/14/10

“Sherlock Holmes” is last, because it was released on Christmas (which struck me as hubristic) and was therefore the last movie of 2009 that I saw. Also, it should cling to the very bottom of a Top 10 list.

Woodstock Film Festival 2009: "Against the Current"

By Sparrow 11/10/09

My biggest unasked question: Did Callahan get product placement money from Coca-Cola? (Paul is addicted to Coke, and drinks it throughout the movie. When they stay at Mary Tyler Moore’s house, where only Pepsi is available, he’s visibly annoyed!)

Woodstock Film Festival 2009: "Mighty Uke"

By Sparrow 10/09/09

Tiny Tim was highly talented. Hearing “Tiptoe through the Tulips” again after many decades, one is struck by the daring and grace in Tiny’s voice.

15 Recommendable Books

By Sparrow 08/04/09

Question

Who is your favorite English Buddhist?

My E-Mail Rewritten by the Major Poet Mikhail Horowitz

By Sparrow 07/30/09

“May I quote you in my blog?” I asked Mr. Horowitz, by e-mail.

“You may quote me, but only if you do so scoggishly,” the bard enigmatically replied.

Sparrow's Yearly List of the Best Films

By Sparrow 02/25/09

Avid blog-watchers wait each February for the 10 Best Films of the Year in “Quarter to Three” (this blog). As you probably know, I only see about 10 movies per year, so I’m happy to compile them into a list.

Woodstock Film Festival Part Three: An Interview with Tom Gustafson

By Sparrow 02/24/09

Sparrow: Best Music in Nashville! Jesus!

Gustafson: Yeah.

Sparrow: That’s a coup!

My Conversation with Laurie Anderson

By Sparrow 08/21/08

Sparrow: At the Gator Growl, the pep rally. He would begin a song, then he’d stop himself and tell one of the dumb jokes his writers handed him. He was great.

Anderson: I wish I had writers.

Bo Diddley In History

By Sparrow 07/06/08

Tombstone hand and a graveyard mind;
Just 22 and I don’t mind dying.

Flo Rida

By Sparrow 05/23/08

“Flo Rida,” incidentally, is a brilliant name-invention. Rap is about “flow”: the organic movement of words.

The 10 Best Films of 2007

By Sparrow 01/21/08

Perhaps here is a good place to reveal my palindrome about the Coen brothers:

No Coen’s neocon.

John Ashbery's 80th Birthday

By Sparrow 12/20/07

Yes, they are alive and can have those colors,
But I, in my soul, am alive too.

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Laura Bush Visits Abu Dhabi

By Sparrow 11/20/07

First Lady Laura Bush meets with breast cancer survivors in pink tent…

Woodstock Film Festival: The Second Day

By Sparrow 10/12/07

(I know one doesn’t typically speak of movies having authors, but believe it or not, someone wrote each one of them.)

Woodstock Film Festival: The First Day

By Sparrow 10/11/07

And so once again
Oh, America my friend
And so once again
You are fighting us all

Eating Disorder

By Sparrow 09/21/07

Eating Disorder

I am
eating
disorder.

Alex Katz

By Sparrow 06/20/07

“I don’t like the portrait of Denby,” my friend Tom said, as we walked through the show. “He looks so angry!”

Cheney At Home

By Sparrow 05/18/07

Cheney: Hey, Bob, this is Dick. Cheney. How the hell are you?

The Almighty Dollar

By Sparrow 03/29/07

Quotation

“I wear a cross around my neck because I love right angles.”
- Lana Turner

Paint-By-Letters

By Sparrow 03/09/07

Have you heard this new expression: “Sometimes I feel like a Marxist at Wal-Mart”?

Sparrow's Seven Favorite Films

By Sparrow 02/23/07

Which movies of 2006 got the coveted Golden Egg?

All Saints

By Sparrow 02/20/07

All saints are curious about…

After Super Bowl

By Sparrow 02/15/07

A thought on Super Bowl Sunday.

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Not Everyone

By Sparrow 01/28/07

Poems and pointed prose from Sparrow.

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Wavy Gravy

By Sparrow 12/29/06

Sparrow meets countercultural icon Wavy Gravy at the Woodstock Film Festival.