Category Archives: Commentary

Opinion or analysis concerning whatever’s on my mind.

The Eye in Love

Posted on December 30, 2019 by JMN

This review treats several films about gay female love. The reviewer is a film maker. Noteworthy for me is her emphasis on the ocular dimension of romantic attraction. The use of “one’s self” instead of “oneself” for the reflexive pronoun … Continue reading →

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Gallimaufry

Posted on December 29, 2019 by JMN

Inauthentical Inadvertency Twitter and Facebook took down numerous accounts internationally for “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” Twitter disclosed that “email addresses and phone numbers uploaded by users to meet its security requirements may have been ‘inadvertently’ used for advertising purposes.” Trumpical Subjunctivity … Continue reading →

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The Macaroni Line

Posted on December 26, 2019 by JMN

This article is about how a small Texas town near me survived losing its Walmart store. I like it for its local history and photographs. Edna is “a community of about 5,700 people surrounded by rice fields, ranches and grassland.” … Continue reading →

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Horseback Love

Posted on December 25, 2019 by JMN

… The queen’s addresses tend to be broad, anodyne and even a little opaque. “The problem with Yorkie [the Duke of York] is he can be very arrogant and petulant. I think that’s down to insecurity.” [Former palace official] Two … Continue reading →

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Degas: Opéra Superfan

Posted on December 23, 2019 by JMN

This painter who “didn’t like women,” in van Gogh’s estimation, found at the Opéra [de Paris] an arena of desire and depredation that he could translate into pure form — beautiful and stifling, modern and cold. This is the truth … Continue reading →

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Transatlantic Harmonies

Posted on December 22, 2019 by JMN

There are parallels between Conservative “manifesto promises” outlined in this article and actions pursued by American Republicans. … Redrawing constituency boundaries and legislating for voter ID checks, widely understood as locking in Conservative electoral advantage. … Sweeping review of the … Continue reading →

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Benjamin Creme

Posted on December 19, 2019 by JMN

This article introduced me to Scottish artist Benjamin Creme. Mr. Creme, who died in 2016 at 93, was born in Scotland and started painting at age 13. At 16 he dropped out of school to focus on his art… Inspired … Continue reading →

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Tenangos

Posted on December 19, 2019 by JMN

The tenangos, as the embroidered pieces are called, have evolved into richly detailed works reaching a worldwide market. Tenango embroidery is made by the indigenous Otomí community in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, whose main town is Tenango de Doria. … Continue reading →

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Robert Johnson

Posted on December 10, 2019 by JMN

It was in… popular juke joints — segregated stores or private houses that doubled, after hours, as recreational places — that his now legendary music career began… The young musician had trained on a diddley bow — one or more … Continue reading →

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“Do Not Erase”

Posted on December 9, 2019 by JMN

For the last year, Jessica Wynne, a photographer and professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, has been photographing mathematicians’ blackboards, finding art in the swirling gangs of symbols sketched in the heat of imagination, argument and … Continue reading →

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