Category Archives: Commentary

Opinion or analysis concerning whatever’s on my mind.

Taking (Fish) Stock From Bronchial Purgatory

Posted on December 20, 2018 by JMN

Coming off a debilitating relapse of bronchitis I can say the following: These are the days of Catalonia — a month’s worth plus well-lapsed a fortnight — in which I’ve had cockles (berberechos), mussels (almejas, mejillones) and a crustacean called … Continue reading →

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There’ll Always Be an England

Posted on December 18, 2018 by JMN

Persons from the UK had a bit of fun with the NYTimes in responding to a query concerning “crimes” to which they had been victim in their native land. The following tweet, among others, appeared in The Guardian in mid-December: … Continue reading →

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Unsung Heroes, Sung Villains

Posted on December 11, 2018 by JMN

Hannah Arendt lamented the damage done by translators to some of her favorite German poems. (“Remembering W. H. Auden,” The New Yorker, Jan. 20, 1975 — recently reprinted). As best I recall, she as good as said that trying to … Continue reading →

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The Dry Heaves

Posted on December 5, 2018 by JMN

I picked up a colored marker, a sketchpad, and sat down. I looked around the room for a shape, a blade of light, a shadow, an assonance, a blur, something to trigger a spasm in my drawing hand and stain … Continue reading →

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Lexicomania at the Table

Posted on December 4, 2018 by JMN

ABOVE: My first vocab list for Helena (age 10) made at her mother Eva’s request. I’m on pins and needles to show it. Each time I expose Helena to my fetish for coloring the enclosed spaces of letters, I detect … Continue reading →

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The Twombly Effect

Posted on December 3, 2018 by JMN

hereelsewhere.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/0aTwombgal-500×333.jpg Poetic ardor can be exhausting. (As the many quotes from art critics that pepper [Joshua] Rivkin’s book demonstrate, Twombly tends to send writers into lyric overdrive.) (Holland Carter, “A Life of Cy Twombly Brings a Poet’s Eye to the … Continue reading →

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Accents

Posted on December 3, 2018 by JMN

. Nuria spent three weeks in Bristol, UK, to further her study of English. She told me one of her teachers had an especially clear manner of speaking. Asked by a student if his accent was American, he replied vigorously … Continue reading →

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Whatchamacallits & Dingleberries

Posted on December 3, 2018 by JMN

http://www.artfixdaily.com/images/pr/Bonhams_Calder_Maripose.jpg Frank Zappa … compared his music to Calder’s sculptures, describing his cerebral, often atonal songs as “a multicolored whatchamacallit, dangling in space, that has big blobs of metal connected to pieces of wire, balanced ingeniously against little metal dingleberries … Continue reading →

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Rhinovirus

Posted on November 30, 2018 by JMN

A winter rhinovirus has bivouacked among the family like the Russian army this week. This blogger’s immune system has declared chest-cold war on it. Nights of bronchial bull-riding ensue, making for flat days. The only projects I can limp with … Continue reading →

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Civil War Relic

Posted on November 26, 2018 by JMN

A “nido de ametralladora” (machine gun nest) from the Civil War. It’s in an isolated coastal stretch near the old port of Salou. (c) 2018 JMN.

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