Category Archives: Commentary

Opinion or analysis concerning whatever’s on my mind.

Random Woke Affect & Filth Squirting

Posted on December 8, 2019 by JMN

A phrase from the past has pungent currency today. In 1896, an editorial in the Guardian mentioned a derogatory rumor about Lord Rosebery. Quoth the lord: “… The allusion in the Guardian… gave me the opportunity that I had long … Continue reading →

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Exquisite Vapors

Posted on November 30, 2019 by JMN

These are voices echoed by Spencer Bokat-Lindell recently in the NYTimes. Some of [Buttigieg’s] ideas… don’t fall neatly on the ideological spectrum… Mr. Buttigieg’s triangulations are more banal… Displays a facility with rhetoric … His appeal, in aesthetic terms, is … Continue reading →

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Glitter Jitters

Posted on November 29, 2019 by JMN

Here are nuggets tweezered from a story about heartburn in the high-dollar art market. This time around, there are few museum-quality works by the most famous artists to tempt billionaires — no painting or sculpture is estimated to sell for … Continue reading →

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Hoodie Apocalypse

Posted on November 26, 2019 by JMN

Tyler, the Creator, 28, started the Camp Flog Gnaw Festival eight years ago in the parking lot of LA’s Nokia Theater. Music is performed, but I found the fashion statements “culturally interesting.” Overall, Camp Flog Gnaw found a way to … Continue reading →

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Elderly Rubbish

Posted on November 26, 2019 by JMN

Exiled Thucydides knew All that a speech can say About democracy, And what dictators do, The elderly rubbish they talk To an apathetic grave; … (W. H. Auden, “September 1, 1939”) Do dictators skew elderly? In 1939: Stalin 61; Mussolini … Continue reading →

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Magamobile

Posted on November 25, 2019 by JMN

1910 Ford Model T, 20 horsepower, top speed 40 mph — in any color, as long as it’s white. Henry Ford famously said “black”; however, things are rarely black-and-white except in Magaville. A Wiki-dip discloses the following: In his autobiography, … Continue reading →

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De Niro Sr., Artist

Posted on November 25, 2019 by JMN

I did not know, until encountering this article in The Guardian, that actor Robert De Niro’s father was a professional painter. Born in Syracuse, New York, into an Irish-Italian household, De Niro Sr was a child prodigy. In 1933, aged … Continue reading →

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Accents

Posted on November 24, 2019 by JMN

Roger Cohen writes opinion for the NYTimes, is a naturalized American citizen raised in Britain, and in his own words “a Jew, the son of South African immigrants.” Cohen writes about another naturalized American, Fiona Hill, who emigrated from County … Continue reading →

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Pumpkin Fun

Posted on November 22, 2019 by JMN

This is the best pumpkin painting I’ve ever done (the only one for now) and the most fun I’ve had doing it. It’s the fruit of a swell evening of social painting staged here in The Shed Art Studio on … Continue reading →

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Military Notes from Down Under

Posted on November 22, 2019 by JMN

Army Vehicle Disappears An Australian Army vehicle worth $74,000 has gone missing after being painted with camouflage…. From “Military Humor” — Thanks to GP Cox, Pacific Paratrooper! (c) 2019 JMN

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