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.

Is Soccer Sick? I Keep Hearing of Catarrh

Posted on November 20, 2022 by JMN

“We all have difficult lives…” (Infantino) Bent like Beckham, rich as Croesus.This Bud’s for you, now let ‘em fleece us.He marinated in the sauce,pronounced himself the biggest boss.“I’m fed up with your utter gall.Zip it now and kick the ball.” … Continue reading →

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Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Sober Soccer

Posted on November 19, 2022 by JMN

“I feel 200 percent in control of this World Cup.” (FIFA lord Gianni Infantino) With four games per day in the opening group stage, all played in what is effectively a single city-state, Infantino said the movement of large groups … Continue reading →

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Hardcore Arabic: ‘Treble Formation’

Posted on November 19, 2022 by JMN

The language has astonishing sweep and granularity that are explicit and penetrative to a degree redolent of lore and legend. The open-sesame to Arabic’s magic for this English speaker is Wright’s majestic grammar. (1) Here, of an early morning on … Continue reading →

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View from the Low Side of Town

Posted on November 16, 2022 by JMN

My illustration is an abstraction derived from the layout of structures and spaces on my squat down by the Big Muddy. The turgid Waddy Loopy is a conduit of Texas Hill Country drainage that lumbers past me on its way … Continue reading →

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The Charm of Sharm Is Lost Upon the Gentleperson from Sweden

Posted on November 14, 2022 by JMN

“It’s like being in Las Vegas, but somehow worse.” (Swedish COP27 Delegate) It’s possible the fossil-lobby-infested, desultory yak-a-thon held at a glittering tourist watering hole in The Tonino Lamborghini International Convention Center — let me repeat that for its delicious … Continue reading →

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‘A Writer Who Composed Prose Like Poetry’

Posted on November 13, 2022 by JMN

Considering the toll it takes on me to construct a writing boiled down to within an inch of its life about something I think, punctuate it punctiliously, then figure out too late what I’ve said, much less thought, if anything, … Continue reading →

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‘It’s More Than It Initially Appears’

Posted on November 11, 2022 by JMN

The comment attributed to a museum director about Jennifer Guidi’s painting reminded me of Mark Twain’s remark that Wagner’s music is “better than it sounds.” “I’m thinking of color as a way to connect — a way to engage — … Continue reading →

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Rough Handling of Paint

Posted on November 9, 2022 by JMN

[His] early Sugar Bowl, Pears and Blue Cup (1865-70)… shows Cézanne seeing and painting in a relatively traditional way. Apart from the rougher handling of paint, it is a close relative of traditional scenes like Harmen Steenwyck’s… (Matthew Wilson) I … Continue reading →

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The Zephyr Soughs My True Love’s Name: Saoirse… Saoirse… Saoirse…

Posted on November 8, 2022 by JMN

Step aside, Italian. Fair English, most mellifluous of tongues, is queen of poesy and opera. (c) 2022 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved

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‘O Thou There, Who Barkest at the Bènū ‘s Sīd’

Posted on November 5, 2022 by JMN

Below is jargon improvised for gauging how a translation navigates its source text. Note how the verbiage is strewn with hedging adverbials, conceding a priori that the labels are judgments, which by definition are subjective, privative, compromised, blinkered and fallible. … Continue reading →

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