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.

The Dry Heaves

Posted on December 5, 2018 by JMN

I picked up a colored marker, a sketchpad, and sat down. I looked around the room for a shape, a blade of light, a shadow, an assonance, a blur, something to trigger a spasm in my drawing hand and stain … Continue reading →

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Lexicomania at the Table

Posted on December 4, 2018 by JMN

ABOVE: My first vocab list for Helena (age 10) made at her mother Eva’s request. I’m on pins and needles to show it. Each time I expose Helena to my fetish for coloring the enclosed spaces of letters, I detect … Continue reading →

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The Twombly Effect

Posted on December 3, 2018 by JMN

hereelsewhere.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/0aTwombgal-500×333.jpg Poetic ardor can be exhausting. (As the many quotes from art critics that pepper [Joshua] Rivkin’s book demonstrate, Twombly tends to send writers into lyric overdrive.) (Holland Carter, “A Life of Cy Twombly Brings a Poet’s Eye to the … Continue reading →

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Accents

Posted on December 3, 2018 by JMN

. Nuria spent three weeks in Bristol, UK, to further her study of English. She told me one of her teachers had an especially clear manner of speaking. Asked by a student if his accent was American, he replied vigorously … Continue reading →

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Whatchamacallits & Dingleberries

Posted on December 3, 2018 by JMN

http://www.artfixdaily.com/images/pr/Bonhams_Calder_Maripose.jpg Frank Zappa … compared his music to Calder’s sculptures, describing his cerebral, often atonal songs as “a multicolored whatchamacallit, dangling in space, that has big blobs of metal connected to pieces of wire, balanced ingeniously against little metal dingleberries … Continue reading →

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Hannah Arendt on W. H. Auden

Posted on November 30, 2018 by JMN

http://www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/persons/509349/509349_v9_ba.jpg [… Auden] was blessed with that rare self-confidence which does not need admiration and the good opinion of others, and can even withstand self-criticism and self-examination without falling into the trap of self-doubt. This has nothing to do with … Continue reading →

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Rhinovirus

Posted on November 30, 2018 by JMN

A winter rhinovirus has bivouacked among the family like the Russian army this week. This blogger’s immune system has declared chest-cold war on it. Nights of bronchial bull-riding ensue, making for flat days. The only projects I can limp with … Continue reading →

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Civil War Relic

Posted on November 26, 2018 by JMN

A “nido de ametralladora” (machine gun nest) from the Civil War. It’s in an isolated coastal stretch near the old port of Salou. (c) 2018 JMN.

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Cheese

Posted on November 26, 2018 by JMN

Many of the savory cheeses made on this farm are from goat’s milk. It’s on the coast near Al-Metlla de Mar. The goat milk soap was prominently hyped, but missing from inventory. (c) 2018 JMN.

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The “Mas”: Water

Posted on November 26, 2018 by JMN

Of old, clothes were washed in this outdoor area. The water supply for the “mas” comes from this 60-meter-deep well. (c) 2018 JMN.

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