Author Archives: JMN

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About JMN

I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.

Ways of Looking

Posted on September 29, 2019 by JMN

Benjamin Moser has published “Sontag,” a biography of Susan Sontag. This favorable review of it left me mulling the following remark: “Biography is a metaphor,” Moser said. “It’s not the person’s life; it’s writing about a person’s life. Just like … Continue reading →

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American Dream Nicked

Posted on September 26, 2019 by JMN

Someone recently stole a solid gold toilet from an exhibit at Blenheim Palace, the family home of Winston Churchill. Its Italian creator named it “America.” The toilet was functional. Its theft “caused significant damage and flooding.” Dominic Hare, the chief … Continue reading →

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Possum Mechanics

Posted on September 15, 2019 by JMN

Max Planck invented the term “quantum,” writes Deepak Chopra, a professor of family medicine and public health, in a letter to the NYTimes. He quotes a 1931 interview with The Observer of London in which Planck said, “I regard matter as … Continue reading →

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When Is Kill Not “Over”?

Posted on September 15, 2019 by JMN

The illustration made me read this essay by Michelle Goldberg (“Margaret Atwood’s Dystopia, and Ours,” NYTimes, 9-14-19). On first glance, the picture’s Dairy Queen Blizzard ™ of cartoon imagery made me grumpy. Whatever it purports to symbolize, I thought, this … Continue reading →

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Twice Broken

Posted on September 14, 2019 by JMN

Roberta Smith describes Ernst Ludwig Kirchner as “the best and most versatile of the German Expressionists.” Like many 20th-century German painters, Kirchner was twice broken, by World I, which resulted in his nervous breakdown, and the rise of Hitler, which … Continue reading →

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A Pioneer Gallerist

Posted on September 14, 2019 by JMN

In 1926, Edith Gregor Halpert (1900-1970), an émigré from Ukraine, opened the Downtown Gallery on West 13th Street. It was the first gallery in Greenwich Village and she was the city’s first female gallerist… Horace Pippin, Stuart Davis, Charles Sheeler … Continue reading →

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Grisaille

Posted on September 14, 2019 by JMN

Roberta Smith situates artist Amy Sherald within a group of youngish painters … who have broken with, absorbed or simply ignored modernist abstraction. Instead, they work with the figure as a way of reaching broader audiences; dealing with issues of … Continue reading →

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Don’t Worry: An Original Poem

Posted on September 13, 2019 by JMN

It’s said worrying about the future is paying interest on a debt not owed. Yet, who worries about the past? The essence of worry is that it targets the unhappened. Do not worry about Bahamians in Dorian’s path. Their flesh … Continue reading →

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Sashaying Words

Posted on September 9, 2019 by JMN

As a linguist I collect jargon from exotic domains such as counterpoint, quantum mechanics, cricket — and now, children’s drag. The topic has surfaced in a current article by Alice Hines: “Sashaying Their Way Through Youth,” NYTimes, 9-8-19. I’m currently … Continue reading →

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Nearly Inexplicable Love

Posted on September 9, 2019 by JMN

I used to think that her Professional Texan act was just that, but I see now that it was also a way to show that we Texans were all in it together, and that the things that united us — … Continue reading →

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