A Cobweb on the Soul
This one's got a new podcast about the Algonquin Round Table, some housekeeping, a couple pieces of art, one of my greatest Instax pix, the promise/menace of an Emily Dickinson poem, + more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week I posted Episode 599 of The Virtual Memories Show, and it’s all about legacies: familial, literary, cultural & institutional! Mirana Comstock joins the show to celebrate the publication of The Algonquin Round Table: 25 Years with the Legends Who Lunch (Excelsior Editions/SUNY Press), by her grandfather, the late literary lion Konrad Bercovici. We get into how Mirana discovered this manuscript, what it took for her to edit it & write the intro, what it was like to help bring the Algonquin scene & Konrad’s writing to life for a new generation of readers, and her experience of growing up in a multigenerational household of compulsive artists & writers. We talk about why her grandfather’s immense literary stature diminished, the nature of charisma and The Aura, the scandal of Chaplin stealing Konrad’s script for The Great Dictator, how the Algonquin habitués were the influencers of their time (only with something to say), Mirana’s discoveries as she researched the figures in the book, and why there’ll never be another book like this one. We also discuss the New-York Historical Society‘s acquisition of Konrad’s papers, her New York and how it’s changed, her idea for transforming her family’s writing into a meta-stage production, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read The Algonquin Round Table: 25 Years with the Legends Who Lunch!
Last week I posted Episode 598, feat. the return of artist & illustrator Anita Kunz to talk about how art saved her life, as we catch up on her newest books, ORIGINAL SISTERS and STRIKING A POSE: A Handy Guide to the Male Nude. We talk about Anita’s passion for figure drawing, how disconcerted some male viewers were by Striking A Pose, the difference between drawing women and men and all the tension and dynamics that go into making art from each gender, and why Winston Churchill’s granddaughter was none-too-pleased by his appearance in her book. We get into how her 2020 lockdown project of painting one portrait of a badass woman every day evolved into her Original Sisters series, how it feels to be closing in on 500 portraits (!), and how she keeps finding more badass women to paint. We also discuss her transition from an acclaimed illustration career into big art projects, how Barbara Nessim helped her find a gallery, how it feels to see Original Sisters in museum exhibitions (and how much she’s looking forward to their big show at the Norman Rockwell Museum), the burden of having to be A Nice Girl In A Small Town growing up, how she makes great art while being racked with self-doubt, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go get ORIGINAL SISTERS and STRIKING A POSE!
Recent episodes: Shalom Auslander • Maurice Vellekoop • Laura Beers • Robert Pranzatelli • Bob Fingerman • Swan Huntley • Stan Mack
Housekeeping
My email service unsubscribed ~150 recipients in the past week or so because of some weird spam-algorithm they use. I pointed it out to them, and they said they’ve reinstated everyone. But if you missed the last couple of Wednesday/Sunday newsletters, you can catch up at https://buttondown.email/vmspod/archive/.
A Cobweb on the Soul
Crumbling is not an instant’s Act
A fundamental pause
Dilapidation’s processes
Are organized Decays —’Tis first a Cobweb on the Soul
A Cuticle of Dust
A Borer in the Axis
An Elemental Rust —Ruin is formal — Devil’s work
Consecutive and slow —
Fail in an instant, no man did
Slipping — is Crashe’s law —
This morning’s Emily Dickinson reading — poem 1010 in my Belknap/Harvard edition — reminds me that deterioration is a long time coming. If you’re lucky.
I’m frazzled and raw, but I think it’s just The Unnameable pulling wires in my head. I’m trying not to let it get to me, suggestive/oracular poems notwithstanding.
After all, there’s a flipside to this, right? “Consecutive and slow” is also how I’ve gone about making the show for the past 12 (!) years, and that’s going to hit a Big Round Number next week: 600 episodes. (Yeah, yeah, not incl. the ~60 daily COVID lockdown ones.)
I know everything can be taken from us, whether in an instant or over time, but it’s not all disintegration. I’d say more, but
Don’t talk about injured limbs.
That’s from The Compassion Book, by Pema Chödrön. A friend-I-made-through-the-podcast gave that to me recently. I should make it part of my routine, consecutive and slow.
Instaxery
I shot two Instax during Saturday’s podcast. I’m undecided about which one to use in my alleged book. I think the US Army tunic captures a personal vibe about the guest, but the more deeply I look into the pic of the stained glass window on the stairs, the more it ripples and shimmers and feels like a magic mirror, a portal that I’ve traveled through, and that might be more in keeping with the spirit of this book project. Maybe I can use it for the cover or the endpapers.
Meantime, I need to write some of the prose pieces for the book. I’m thinking of renting a small office down the street this fall, so I can spend an hour or so in there in the evening to write in a different environment.
Artistry
I drew/sketched a little. The two pieces I scanned are: a Japanese White Eye that I started Saturday morning, then tried to give a little background color to, but lost enthusiasm for (maybe I’ll get back to it); and a BOTD brush-pen sketch of Guy De Maupassant, who came out looking a bit like Joseph Stalin. 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, & workouts, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some art & more Instax.
Through the glass of the roof / Through the roof of your mouth / Through the mouth of your eye / Through the eye of the needle,