Monthly Archives: January 2024

The High Window Reviews: Jonathan Timbers on Andrew Wynn Owen

Posted on January 31, 2024 by JMN

***** Adopting the dialogic form between conflicting parts of the self that Anthony Burgess experimented with in his fantasia, Mozart and the … The High Window Reviews: Jonathan Timbers on Andrew Wynn Owen This review by Jonathan Timbers sets off … Continue reading →

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Brice Marden Believed Looking at Paintings Could Be Transporting

Posted on January 28, 2024 by JMN

Again and again, he showed that art from any time or culture was contemporary and alive, if it offered artists something they could use. (Roberta Smith) Brice Marden died in August 2023, aged 84. The illustration that concludes Roberta Smith’s … Continue reading →

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Notes on Process

Posted on January 25, 2024 by JMN

When I indite a scrap of doggerelI launch five iambs on a fancy verb. So. Post launch, it’s a fight to go all pinche. Listen to the warm; daub raunch on the prissy; cut the crap into the shape of … Continue reading →

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Old Plantocracy and Retrofuturism

Posted on January 23, 2024 by JMN

In this telling, art is a global and porous affair. And far-flung provinces serve as entrepôts to and from the vanguard — not just detours to be “represented” like Nashville hot chicken in the flavor portfolio of Pringles. (Walker Mimms) … Continue reading →

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‘Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961): Poetry Is Everything’

Posted on January 21, 2024 by JMN

This piece clipped back in August 2023 reminded me of my youthful infatuation with the School of Paris, which included the Delaunays, Sonia and Robert, as well as Fernand Léger. The article’s appeal lies as well in the matchup of … Continue reading →

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Just Say Right, It’s Only Weather

Posted on January 17, 2024 by JMN

As long as the nation’s fleet of private jets can take to the skies there’s no call to whine about so-called climate (the Dems’ name for weather). There’s a right way to think about it, just do a thought experiment. … Continue reading →

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Epistemic Hubris: Unwarranted Certainty (About Complex Issues)

Posted on January 15, 2024 by JMN

Greek words are a nerd’s downfall. I’m a nerd, therefore felled by epistemic hubris. Whenever I encounter “epistemic,” as in Maggie Jackson’s essay, I have to mentally re-solder its connection to epistemology, which I barely retain has to do with … Continue reading →

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Robert Andrew Parker (1927-2023): ‘Susceptibility to Happiness’

Posted on January 13, 2024 by JMN

What’s not to like about an artist-illustrator who partnered with poets and loved jazz? Parker played drums in a band called Jive by Five and is survived by five sons, all of whom play drums professionally. (One is an artist.) … Continue reading →

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‘Bare’ with Me: I’m of Two Minds

Posted on January 10, 2024 by JMN

Writer Charles Behlen told me that reading a poem could be like stepping off a plane into Madagascar when you thought your destination was Lubbock, Texas. Things would look different, he said. I took it as his way of chiding … Continue reading →

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‘God, in the Form of Lightning’

Posted on January 5, 2024 by JMN

“Calling myself religious while living a life unbeholden to Scripture doesn’t make sense, of course.” (Temim Fruchter) Temim Fruchter’s essay about her spiritual evolution struck me, another scriptural expat, as full of poetry. I was moved to lift statements from … Continue reading →

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