Category Archives: Commentary

Opinion or analysis concerning whatever’s on my mind.

Musico-Logic Circles

Posted on July 1, 2019 by JMN

“Circular argument”: An argument whose conclusion is the same as one of its premises. (Quora) I flail about in music theory, often ending where I started — insufficiently informed and grandly blogging my perplexity. To feed this cause I’ve been … Continue reading →

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Shooting Stardom: When Teenyboppers Write Subheadings

Posted on June 29, 2019 by JMN

Two of the biggest Spanish-speaking global pop superstars discuss joining forces for the first “Watch the Throne”-style pairing in Latin music. (Joe Coscarelli, “How J Balvin and Bad Bunny Made Their Surprise Album, ‘Oasis’,” NYTimes, 6-28-18) In the universe of … Continue reading →

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“Our Blue-Eyed Girl”

Posted on June 29, 2019 by JMN

… Tourism secretary Miguel Torres Márquez tweeted a video of a pristine Cancún beach with the comment: “We’re looking after Cancún, ‘our blue-eyed girl’ and all the beautiful beaches of the Mexican Caribbean.” (David Agren, Seaweed invasion threatens tourism in … Continue reading →

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Power Tool

Posted on June 28, 2019 by JMN

“Superhuman” is an invitation-only email service that costs $30 a month and promises “the fastest email experience ever made.” Its support among fans “borders on evangelical.” “We have insane levels of virality that haven’t been seen since Dropbox or Slack,” … Continue reading →

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Guide by the Perplexed — Concerning Idiots

Posted on June 20, 2019 by JMN

In exposition, where precision is of the essence is in the tight spots — there where you least want ambiguity to clog the flow; where first teachings reside, upon which further teachings helplessly depend. Yet there ambiguity supervenes, often as … Continue reading →

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Surrealism’s Daughters

Posted on June 17, 2019 by JMN

The creature with a “cow’s head” in Carrington’s “And Then We Saw the Daughter of the Minotaur” looks like the minotaur bred a doe, which of course is surreally plausible. The French capital was alive with Surrealism and its contagious … Continue reading →

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Little Fresh Meat

Posted on June 15, 2019 by JMN

It’s diverting to see how evolving styles of masculinity in China can flummox the patriarchy. Redolent translations bubble up from the fascinating goo of rhetoric around the matter. … “little fresh meat,” a nickname, coined by fans, for young, delicate-featured, … Continue reading →

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Suffer the Sugar Ants to Come Unto Me

Posted on June 15, 2019 by JMN

The Divine in ant-drag is having a micro-tiny romp on my kitchen drainboard to remind me how wholly life expresses itself. Sugar ants go everywhere at once in some inscrutable order, regroup around the task of tugging a crumb this … Continue reading →

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An Unsocial Medium

Posted on June 13, 2019 by JMN

Farhad Manjoo is a favorite journalist of mine. I’ve read him from when he wrote about tech on Slate before joining the NYTimes. He touts in this column an “unsocial” digital diary app called “Day One,” describing it as “a … Continue reading →

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The Un-Rosie Side

Posted on June 13, 2019 by JMN

Twenty-five-year-old Guy de Montlaur was a heroic French commando in Normandy on D-Day. Having studied before that for a promising art career, he evoked his war-time experience on canvas until his death in 1977 at 58. The National World War … Continue reading →

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