Monthly Archives: February 2019

Dress in Peace

Posted on February 23, 2019 by JMN

The couple’s closets were filled with immaculate clothes. (Bonnie Wertheim, “Marella Agnelli, Society’s ‘Last Swan’ and a Passionate Gardener, Is Dead at 91,” NYTimes, 2-23-19) All respect to the Agnelli family and condolences for their loss. The clothing reference struck … Continue reading →

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Netflixing the World

Posted on February 23, 2019 by JMN

… Netflix has discovered something startling: Despite a supposed surge in nationalism across the globe, many people like to watch movies and TV shows from other countries… A list of Netflix’s most watched and most culturally significant recent productions looks … Continue reading →

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Dangerous Music

Posted on February 21, 2019 by JMN

In 1919, jazz, or “jass,” as some still called it, was a peculiar word with musical and sexual connotations. It could be noun, verb or adjective, indicating pep, liveliness and noise. Jazz was the new counterculture dance music replacing ragtime … Continue reading →

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“What you see is what you see” (Frank Stella)

Posted on February 18, 2019 by JMN

Explaining the works he has amassed, Mr. Stella said, “Artists collect differently from other people… I wouldn’t bother making art if I didn’t like what the people around me were doing, too. It wouldn’t be any fun.” (Ted Loos, “The … Continue reading →

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Decree 349

Posted on February 18, 2019 by JMN

The decree requires artists to obtain government approval before performing or displaying their work, while also regulating the artwork itself. For example, it prohibits audiovisual content that contains “sexist, vulgar and obscene language” or that uses “national symbols” in ways … Continue reading →

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Massive Attack

Posted on February 18, 2019 by JMN

“Gigs have become very formulaic these days,” adds [Adam] Curtis. “Not just gigs but all of culture – and that’s the challenge. The way you make people look again is by finding a different sort of image. And so the … Continue reading →

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“Stubbies” Defined

Posted on February 18, 2019 by JMN

Laconic residents [of Queensland, Australia] are interviewed every wet season standing in the debris of their cyclone-battered homes, clad in Stubbies (shapeless gabardine shorts that expose bum-cracks and, on a bad day, drooping genitals), drinking stubbies (small brown bottles of … Continue reading →

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This Is America, Too

Posted on February 18, 2019 by JMN

Since 1991, the Bronx Conservatory of Music, a nonprofit arts organization, has provided low-cost education in classical music to a constituency that has been historically underexposed to the tradition. And at a time when music classes are being cut from … Continue reading →

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“Moral Multiplier”

Posted on February 18, 2019 by JMN

… The effects of individual lifestyle choices are ultimately trivial compared with what politics can achieve… Buying an electric car is a drop in the bucket compared with raising fuel-efficiency standards sharply… That is what is meant when politics is … Continue reading →

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Maurice Sendak’s Allure

Posted on February 16, 2019 by JMN

“Reaching the kids is important, but secondary,” Sendak once said. “First, always, I have to reach and keep hold of the child in me…” With their flattened perspective, the book’s pages have the allure of the poster, brazen, sleek and … Continue reading →

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