Tag Archives: language

Profound Word Funk Unlocked

Posted on December 7, 2018 by JMN

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/dec/07/earl-sweatshirt-some-rap-songs-review Beats-wise, it’s a little like one of Madlib’s Medicine Show mixes, where grainy, sample-driven productions blurt like a haunted radio searching for a frequency in the past. Soul, funk and disco samples are cut up with blunt safety scissors, … Continue reading →

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Hello, Non-America

Posted on December 6, 2018 by JMN

nyti.ms/2DZufmq The WASP virtues … included a cosmopolitanism that was often more authentic than our own performative variety — a cosmopolitanism that coexisted with white man’s burden racism but also sometimes transcended it, because for every Brahmin bigot there was … 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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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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“A Painter in Sound”

Posted on November 21, 2018 by JMN

http://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/books/review/claude-debussy-stephen-walsh-biography.html It is not easy to write meaningfully about music without resorting to technical terminology, and the list of those authors who can find accessible language to convey its subtleties to the nonspecialist is depressingly short. Walsh is a deep … Continue reading →

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Strong Thoughts on the Internal Accusative

Posted on November 19, 2018 by JMN

From high office in these Untied [stet] States came yesterday a promise to soon have a “strong opinion” about something (the Khashoggi murder?). Well and proper. One breathes a bated breath. At last, an opinion is to be had. May … Continue reading →

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Lyrics Again

Posted on November 8, 2018 by JMN

One of my playlists I call “aMix” is an eclectic selection of some 50 songs from various genres and periods. (There’s also a list called bMix.) This morning I heard Jacques Brel singing “Ne me quitte pas.” As the poignant … Continue reading →

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Since My Baby Left Me

Posted on November 6, 2018 by JMN

Since my baby left me, I’ve found a place to dwell, at the end of Lonely Street in Heartbreak Hotel. I get so lonely, baby. I get so lonely. I get so lonely I could die. Elvis sang those words … Continue reading →

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Word Solace

Posted on November 6, 2018 by JMN

… Jewish prayer is not primarily personal or spontaneous. It is communal reading. Public recitations of ancient words, scripts compiled centuries ago and nearly identical in every synagogue in the world. A lot of those words are about exactly this. … Continue reading →

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Freedom from Meaninglessness

Posted on November 3, 2018 by JMN

I’m not a supporter of Boris Johnson. I have no interest in him or his political ambitions. [But] I do defend people who make jokes about religion. I was part of a campaign to oppose a Parliamentary bill [the Racial … Continue reading →

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