Monthly Archives: April 2018

From Memory

Posted on April 22, 2018 by JMN

“Dover Beach,” poem by Matthew Arnold, https://www.poetryfoundation.org Penned by a Victorian on his honeymoon! This is hardly a celebratory poem, but I get from it what the French call a “morne plaisir,” a gloomy satisfaction. Its somber music moves me, … Continue reading →

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Why Learn the Fretboard? (6-23-2012)

Posted on April 22, 2018 by JMN

I learned touch typing in high school and have used it intensively all my life. My dream is to enable my fingers to find the notes they need on the fretboard as automatically and unconsciously as they find the letters … Continue reading →

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This Is Stag Country

Posted on April 22, 2018 by JMN

Carlis McElroy was captain of our Lady Stags softball team her senior year. She had to stop pitching when she injured her rotator cuff. Bobbi Gail thinks that’s when she got pregnant with Mardel Spelvin. Mardel’s taking classes in Kinesiology … Continue reading →

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Social Math — UK

Posted on April 22, 2018 by JMN

Eighteen minutes into Giles’s and Trevor’s trip for high tea with Felicity and Nigella at the Chancery Buttery near Vauxhall Mews, a lorry blocks their way for seven minutes in order to unload its bangers and kidneys at the Fox … Continue reading →

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Adventures in Toponymy

Posted on April 21, 2018 by JMN

King Mswati III of Swaziland proclaims that his country shall henceforth be called eSwatini. It means “land of the Swati” in the siSwati language that predominates in the southern African kingdom. The king has reigned for 32 years over one … Continue reading →

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Didactic Doggerel

Posted on April 21, 2018 by JMN

The Little Comet That Could Note: “Kreutz” is pronounced “Kroits.” Lovejoy, a Kreutz sungrazer, has just done A death-defying feat, and kissed the Sun. Stargazers shook their heads: “He won’t make it!” Lovejoy said to himself: “I can take it!” … Continue reading →

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Written in the 70s — Maned Exeter

Posted on April 21, 2018 by JMN

MANED EXETER (Sontag, 219) Maned Exeter, beleaguered metalunan victor or the victim. The success of such spectacles indicates that most people identify with the victor; they are immortal. I identify with the victim. Screen violence is horrible because I am … Continue reading →

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Written in the 70s — Sontag: There are

Posted on April 21, 2018 by JMN

Sontag: “There are spiritual resources beyond effort, which appear only when effort is stilled.” Porno: passivity; easy [lack of] gratification. Sexual excitement accentuates vitality; an end in itself. One does not know, and it is an agony, whether to fill … Continue reading →

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“Woman Hugging Boy”

Posted on April 20, 2018 by JMN

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“Painting is a lie that tells the truth” (Picasso)

Posted on April 20, 2018 by JMN

“As Amos Oz, the Israeli novelist, once put it, ‘Facts at times become the dire enemies of truth.’ Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ is a poor factual account of what happened in a Basque village on April 26, 1937, and a magnificent rendering … Continue reading →

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