THE MYSTERY OF D.B. COOPER
Coverage of the Nashville Film Festival, by Jason T Sparks Here’s what we know: on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 1971, a nondescript, middle-aged man in a dark suit boarded Northwest Orient Airlines flight...
ANNAINAUSTIN...and Company! Blog
THE BEE GEES: HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART
By Jason T Sparks as seen at the Nashville Film Festival 2020 Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb were not unsung heroes of the music business. They weren’t eccentric geniuses toiling in obscurity, mainly known...
Nashville Film Festival 2020*
BY JASON T SPARKS About a year ago, on this very website, I wrote the following: Going to a film festival is its own experience. For the most part, it’s a positive experience. By...
The Vast of Night
While the Pentagon just confirmed the sighting of UFO’s, that hadn’t yet happened in 1950s America. There were rumors, mysterious objects in the night sky and starchy government confirmations of…weather balloons. This film places...
THROUGH SPACE, TIME, AND MIDDLE AMERICA PART TWO: POLISH FORTUNE TELLERS, DENNY’S, AND SOLITUDE
As I roll through another international neighborhood, I begin to notice the locals are mostly in Cubs gear, and all walking towards the same thing. Turns out I’m driving towards it—Irving Park intersects with West Addison, as in 1060 West Addison, AKA Wrigley Field, AKA the official address of one Elwood Blues. I can’t believe my luck—I wanted to experience this town, and this one road appears to be giving me Peak Chicago.
Bad News Outside The Bar
On the Saturday where Space X became the first company to launch astronauts into orbit while my friends were out protesting the murder of Floyd George, I was out on an errand between Houston...
Why Do We Enjoy Movies In The Park?
via Jason T. Sparks, Our Man in Nashville ed note: This was written in the Before Times, then held until the summer movie season rolled around. Things changed. July 2019: It’s a beautiful June...
History in the Soup Aisle
by Jason T. Sparks, Our Man in Nashville Nashville, Tennessee, March 26, 2020 Staff Sgt Edgar T Sparks, Jr, my grandfather, late of the US Army Air Corps and the China-Burma-India theatre of combat...
On #SXSW2020
See Anna’s column on the SXSW that didn’t happen, in today’s Dallas Morning News. Click here to read about “Not by Not West.”
Tool Kit For Life
I have tried to keep a similar cigar box—sometimes a literal cigar box, next to my own recliner, sometimes (usually) a briefcase or backpack that I carry with me everywhere I go. I have compiled a list here of the 42 things I’d ideally have in my cigar box (or carry in a backpack; all 42 would not fit in a cigar box, but most would)—the things that, as far as I’m concerned, will prepare you for whatever you encounter.
