House Finches House Finches
To watch the pair of house finches that frequent the neighbor's feeder, I leave the charcoal blinds pulled up. The berry-splashed chest of the male-- each morning--make...
Oct 5, 2000 / Books & the Arts / John Poch
A One and a Two A One and a Two
I have two films to tell you about in this column, one of which I recommend to your attention because it's beautiful, absorbing, touching and droll. It will involve you in the ch...
Oct 5, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
The Cartography of Death The Cartography of Death
Certainly...get him hanged! Why not? Anything--anything can be done in this country. --Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness So here we are, barely into the next century, and...
Oct 5, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Tom Engelhardt
A Riot of Personality A Riot of Personality
The first time I saw Anna Deavere Smith, I realized a new meaning had been given to the term "body politic." She was appearing in Fires in the Mirror, her show about the conflict...
Sep 28, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Circus Maximus Circus Maximus
We don't have a TV at home, so we've missed the much-drubbed NBC Olympics coverage. So when a little friend of my son's said she'd been watching, I asked her if any of the event...
Sep 28, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Patricia J. Williams
Walker in the Imagined City Walker in the Imagined City
Ben Katchor had been a bit of a cultural phenomenon for nearly a decade before he became a MacArthur fellow--a first for a cartoonist--this summer; is this the beginning of comic-s...
Sep 28, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Paul Buhle
North of the Border North of the Border
One of the most haunting images in David Riker's film La Ciudad is of the New York City skyline seen from a work site miles away from midtown. There, a group of Hispanic dayworke...
Sep 28, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Michael Ugarte
Rereading Old Writing Rereading Old Writing
Looking back, the language scribbles. What's hidden, having been said? Almost everything? Thrilling to think There was a secret there somewhere, A bird singing in the heart'...
Sep 28, 2000 / Books & the Arts / David Ferry
Nocturnal Nocturnal
It is always among sleepers we walk. We walk in their dreams. None of us Knows what he is as he walks In the dream of another. Tell me my name . Your tongue is blurred, ho...
Sep 28, 2000 / Books & the Arts / David Ferry
from ‘That Evening at Dinner’ from ‘That Evening at Dinner’
By the last few times we saw her it was clear That things were different. When you tried to help her Get out of the car or get from the car to the door Or across the apartme...
Sep 28, 2000 / Books & the Arts / David Ferry