Category Archives: Commentary

Opinion or analysis concerning whatever’s on my mind.

Incandescent Kandinsky

Posted on December 4, 2020 by JMN

I’ve lost the article from which I clipped this painting — something about vicissitudes and provenance. No matter, the painting is the thing. It trips and snares me. It’s like a knotty, naughty doodle done with psychedelic syrups from a … Continue reading →

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‘High-End’ Jinks in ‘Opulent’ Joints

Posted on December 3, 2020 by JMN

Ninety-one people broke the state’s 50-person limit at an October wedding held at the North Fork Country Club in Cutchogue, NY. Afterwards, 30 tested positive for the virus and 156 wound up quarantined. In a second New York event in … Continue reading →

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Pictures Matter

Posted on November 30, 2020 by JMN

Richard Frishman is a photographer based near Seattle. You can follow his work on Instagram. (Photographs and Text by Richard Frishman, “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Ghosts of Segregation,” NYTimes, 11-30-20) (c) 2020 JMN

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The King’s Alphabet

Posted on November 28, 2020 by JMN

… [Thai protestors] have… called for the king, Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, to… (Richard C. Paddock, “Thai Hotel That Put American in Jail Gets New Label on Tripadvisor,” NYTimes, 11-11-20) (c) 2020 JMN

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From Concept to Chrome

Posted on November 27, 2020 by JMN

“Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City, 1950-2020,” an exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts, opens this month and runs through next June. … The D.I.A. exhibition set out to communicate the journey that started with a designer’s … Continue reading →

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Cat of Many Names

Posted on November 21, 2020 by JMN

This article reports a sad event, the snatching of a family dog by a mountain lion. That misfortune notwithstanding, it solves a longstanding puzzle for me by clarifying that mountain lions, pumas, cougars, panthers, and catamounts are the same animal, … Continue reading →

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Whiteout

Posted on November 18, 2020 by JMN

Lord Kilclooney, crossbench peer in the UK House of Lords, tweeted: “What happens if Biden moves on and the Indian becomes President. Who then becomes Vice President?” Later he tweeted: “I’m very fond of India myself, I’m a member of … Continue reading →

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‘Kate Is There in the Shadows’

Posted on November 17, 2020 by JMN

Here is narrative from a 1960 American novel. A character ascends a staircase to the mezzanine of a house to join another person there: There comes to me in the ascent a brief annunciatory syllable in the throat stopped in … Continue reading →

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‘Explicit and Mysterious’

Posted on November 12, 2020 by JMN

I’m a child of ranchers. Because of how misshapen and reactionary mythic cowboy culture is in America, I’m a fool for painting that introduces what Roberta Smith terms the “subversive theme of the gay black cowboy.” And as usual, Ms. … Continue reading →

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Opportunities to Panic

Posted on November 10, 2020 by JMN

Ben Ehrenreich writes: The current pandemic has already given many of us a taste of what happens when a society fails to meet the challenges that face it… The climate crisis, as it continues to unfold, will give us additional … Continue reading →

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