28 Days Later
A new podcast with David Small, some art, and a 4-week run of birthdays, anniversaries, and a cockroaching greyhound
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 580 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. David Small as we celebrate his brand-new collection, THE WEREWOLF AT DUSK and Other Stories (Liveright). We talk about the beast within (whether that’s within the heart, the psyche, or the body politic), the on-and-off 40-year history of this collection, the themes of transformation and aging that suffuse these stories, and the schism in Leonora Carrington’s estate that nearly derailed the whole project. We get into the the challenges of adapting prose fiction into comics, his move from graphic novels (think Stitches and Home After Dark) to short stories, why he’s come to love drawing digitally, and just how bad most surrealist fiction can be. We also discuss the decline in kids’ books, our respective life changes from 2020’s COVID check-in, his Truman Capote kick, how we deal with monstrous artists, how hard he has to work to make his drawings look like they were done in 15 seconds, and a lot more. Give it a listen (and listen to our 2018 conversation and our 2020 COVID check-in) and go read The Werewolf At Dusk!
Last week, I posted Episode 579, feat. Brad Gooch and his wonderful new biography, RADIANT: The Life and Line of Keith Haring (Harper). We get into the impact of Keith Haring’s art and how it’s grown in the 3+ decades since Haring’s early death from AIDS, the parallels between this book and Brad’s biography of Rumi, how fatherhood helped him better understand Haring, and his surprise at discovering what a serious artist Haring was. We talk about why Haring’s work makes more sense now than in the ’80s, the relationship of Haring to artists of color (among other race issues), and what the younger gay population doesn’t know about the AIDS crisis. We also discuss the incredible memorial of Keith and Howard Brookner at a recent Madonna concert, why 60 is a great age to start having kids, how Instagram reminds him of ’80s social life, the parallels between the AIDS crisis and the early months of COVID, why Barbra Streisand’s memoir reminds him of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle (!), and more. Give it a listen and go read RADIANT!
Recent episodes: Japan, a monologue • Scott Guild • Aaron Lange • Donald J. Robertson • Elizabeth Flock • David Thomson • Sammy Harkham
4-Week Party
Yesterday was the capper of a 4-week run of birthdays — my brother, my dad, my leap-year uncle, Amy, my mom — and wedding anniversaries — my brother & his wife, Amy’s & mine (my parents’ anniversary also falls in that span, but we stopped talking about that after 1981 — plus Benny’s Gotcha-Day-versary. Amy & I celebrated #18 in the modern way: a Blu-ray viewing of Drop Dead Fred.
We had a good time, but I got a lot else going on right now, and had to do a bunch of synthesizing and writing for work today, which has me pretty drained, or at least not in adoring-public mode.
(Oh, but speaking of my adoring public, I plan to attend MoCCA Festival in NYC on Saturday, so if you see/hear me, say hello!)
In fact, I should probably take a page out of Benny’s book and shut it down for a little while.
Art
I didn’t make much art this weekend, except for some sketches on Saturday. I copied part of a sketch by cartoonist Ulli Lust because I wanted to see how she did the leaves on a sorta public shrubbery. Figured that out, but overdid it, as is my wont. That evening, I did a brush-pen sketch of Japanese clothier & style icon Akamine Yukio, kneeling on a pillow. Should’ve drawn the pillow, too, but I just wanted to figure out how to do the legs without making it look like he’s an amputee. This morning, I thought I’d try a quick postcard of a deer w/exaggerated horns, using some new watercolor-brush-pens for the horns. Started out okay, but I should’ve been more careful when I went over the horns with a brush. Still a fun experiment. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Postcardery
Let me know if you want to be on my postcard-a-day list. (Financial supporters of the podcast get a hand-drawn/painted postcard as a thank-you.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & somatic craziness, and Wednesday with a new episode, maybe some art, & who knows maybe a little profundity or something.
Ring a bell that’s broken / That sound is loud inside us / Flowing farther away, far away,