Monthly Archives: March 2024

Bombay Beach, On California’s Dead Sea (The Salton)

Posted on March 31, 2024 by JMN

When I was there, I walked the streets with Denia Nealy, an artist who goes by Czar, and my friend Brenda Ann Kenneally, a photographer and writer, who would shout names, and people would instantly emerge. A stranger offered a … Continue reading →

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‘Beauty Kicks In’

Posted on March 27, 2024 by JMN

I would dislike him if I could build a case from the visible evidence equal in strength to my itch to dislike him. But beauty kicks in. (Peter Schjeldahl on sculptor Richard Serra) (c) 2023 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights … Continue reading →

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Don’t Mess with My Irrational Exuberance

Posted on March 22, 2024 by JMN

I like its silky feel against my skin.It gets me through the days when Fury, Fearand Grief are signing autographs. Of coursea quality of underthings is theyneed airing. That’s what I came here to say. (c) 2023 JMN — EthicalDative. … Continue reading →

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The Caped Grammarian

Posted on March 19, 2024 by JMN

The linguist’s mind ripples with muscle beneath his unprepossessing skull. Most days, reclusive and modest, he contemplates exotic texts in his remote book-cave. Occasionally, however, an English specimen from Digital City issues a cry for help. The linguist springs into … Continue reading →

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What’s in a Name?

Posted on March 16, 2024 by JMN

Ask César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, holder of the Gregory Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at Ohio State University. Ask Atahualpa Yupanqui (1908-1992), born Héctor Roberto Chavero Aramburu, holder of a guitar in Argentina. Ask Helen-Marie Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, wife … Continue reading →

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‘Romer’s Gap’ by Tian-Ai

Posted on March 13, 2024 by JMN

‘Romer’s Gap’ by Tian-Ai is published in Poetry, January/February 2024. Romer’s gap, supratidal, intertidal, subtidal, fly agaric, snailfish, and aphotic are terms I boned up on in scaling the text. Italic print sets off three sections, headed by the tidal … Continue reading →

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Savage Women

Posted on March 10, 2024 by JMN

The plasticity of the modeled flesh; the acuity of the subject’s skeptical gaze distorted by skillfully hinted pince-nez spectacles; the wristwatch: the rich blacks of garb against a brushy olive background: these excite notice in the expressive portrait of Berthe … Continue reading →

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An Alternative Social Medium

Posted on March 8, 2024 by JMN

We all have moments when we’re prone to paraglide on feelings in lieu of actually knowing a thing or two. Here’s a way to break out of your stasis quo: Park your smart phone. Knock back a snort of tequila. … Continue reading →

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Who Would, You Know, Think It?

Posted on March 6, 2024 by JMN

“People who are coming from parts unknown, countries that you’ve never heard of. Languages that nobody in this country speaks. We don’t even have teachers of some of these languages. Who would think that we have languages that are like … Continue reading →

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‘Artistic Project Born from Disastrous War and Political Disenchantment’

Posted on March 5, 2024 by JMN

“I have been drawing,” Beckmann wrote to his wife one evening, after a day caring for men who’d survived the trenches. “That protects one from death and danger.” Though he never served at the front, Beckmann had a nervous breakdown … Continue reading →

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