Tag Archives: rhetoric

Adoration of the Cat

Posted on June 1, 2021 by JMN

This gallery contains 1 photo.

A hoary plot line of melodrama reduces the hero and heroine to dire straits; they’ve tried everything in their power to escape doom; the soundtrack crescendos in a minor key. “Pray,” he says. “It’s in God’s hands. Only a miracle … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Shows and Prose

Posted on May 28, 2021 by JMN

Along comes more NYTimes torqued and taut art talk of the sort that sweeps me up. … Several gorgeous self-portraits made toward the end of his life. Their precision is astonishing… It’s clear that what most interested Ellis about ink … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘A Fisherman Holds Up a Trout He Caught’

Posted on May 26, 2021 by JMN

El hijo de su madre has stumbled upon an El Dorado of found poetry in the “Outdoors” fishing column of a local newspaper. Bink Grimes’s lavish rundown of the piscatory scene pulses with staccato verve, inside lingo, and riptide granularity. … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

E Pluribus Nihil

Posted on May 24, 2021 by JMN

Archaeologists of the far future sifting through America’s plastic ashes will peg the collapse of its civilization to two insidious language events: (1) When America dissolved “talking about problems” into “having conversations around issues.” (2) When America demoted “national” security … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Adverb Rebellion

Posted on May 23, 2021 by JMN

This passage from a fellow blogger (cap doff to) caught my eye: Reality? Well it starts to mock back at your face, you get surrounded by the clouds of regret, cry on the ashes of your pretentious bliss and feel … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Rock Pile

Posted on May 14, 2021 by JMN

Dwight Garner’s review of a new biography of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings* evokes a foible-wracked genius: It’s a pleasure to meet this cursing, hard-drinking, brilliant, self-destructive, car-wrecking, fun-loving, chain-smoking, alligator-hunting, moonshine-making, food-obsessed woman again on the page. The passage that hits … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Resistance Is Futile…

Posted on May 9, 2021 by JMN

… when it comes to quoting Matthew McConaughey. “I’ve found that a good plan is to first recognize the problem, then stabilize the situation, organize the response, then respond.” “Knowin’ the truth, seein’ the truth and tellin’ the truth are … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Gloopy Glory’

Posted on May 5, 2021 by JMN

The paintings of 90-year-old Frank Auerbach, “last surviving member of a pathfinding generation of postwar British figurative painters,” are up my alley. Auerbach’s iterative pigment attacks are savage and astonishing, and Jason Farago is always good for a blue-streak of … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A-Theology

Posted on April 20, 2021 by JMN

A poke at Ludwig’s nonsense adumbrates an a-theology that circumvents the mortiferous belch of cassock-and-biretta evangels. There’s an amount of life which abounds so abundantly it’s incommensurate with measurement. It amounts to the livelong life force of aliveness that explodes … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Business in Great Waters’

Posted on April 17, 2021 by JMN

I jotted on the fly several snatches of phraseology that resonated with me today as I watched Prince Philip’s live-streamed funeral service on the BBC. May what power that is deal graciously with those who mourn, and those who go … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment