Being Boring
This one's got my new podcast with Paul Karasik, a train trip through The Heat Dome, some thoughts on my book, and more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
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This week, I posted Episode 644 of The Virtual Memories Show, about the thirty-plus-years-in-the-making graphic adaptation of Paul Auster’s THE NEW YORK TRILOGY (Pantheon)! Paul Karasik rejoins the show from Yaddo Artists Retreat to talk about the process of adapting Auster’s postmodern crime novels into comics, how he collaborated with David Mazzucchelli and Lorenzo Mattotti on the first two and why he wound up drawing the third book, how these novels possessed him for decades, and the moment when he understood what each novel was really about. We get into how he met Auster at a parent-teacher conference shortly after the New York Trilogy came out, the moment of truth when Auster first saw the pages for City of Glass, the freedom (and restriction) Auster offered for the project, and whether Auster got to see the finished pages before his death in 2024. We also discuss Paul’s comics upbringing, how his mother supported his habit (and maybe melted her son’s brain by getting him a book of R. Crumb comics at 12 or 13), his lack of confidence in his drawing and his supreme confidence in his teaching, how meeting Art Spiegelman changed his life, why he’s starting an online graphic novel workshop, the immense inspiration of staying at Yaddo (and how he learned The Two Rules Of Yaddo), and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read THE NEW YORK TRILOGY!
Last week I posted Episode 643, feat. one of my fave guest/friends, Kate Maruyama, as we celebrated her new novel, ALTERATIONS (Running Wild Press)! We talked about the book’s long gestation & publishing history, Kate’s love of old Hollywood & costume design, closeted movie stars and how she told the story of a gay relationship in the ’30s & ’40s, and how it felt to write a non-horror horror story. We got into her own Hollywood experience in the ’90s and how it felt to repeatedly smash into the glass ceiling, as well as how ghosts creep into everything she writes, and how important it was to have a champion in Toni Ann Johnson for this novel. We also discussed present-moment Los Angeles, the craft book about novella-writing she’s co-writing, the need to decolonize her writing students, the (maybe non-existent) influence of Jodie Foster’s Home For The Holidays on Alterations, the essay (PDF) she wrote around the decline & death of her mother, Kit Reed, and more. Give it a listen! And go read ALTERATIONS!
Recent episodes: David Denby • Peter Stothard • Cecile Wajsbrot • Keiler Roberts • Peter Kuper • Vauhini Vara • Craig Thompson
Being Boring
Looks like I made it through the latest Heat Dome intact, though Monday afternoon’s hour-plus train delay at a VERY un-air-conditioned Newark Penn Station made my trip to Washington, DC (and me) A Hot Mess.
I packed my linen suit for Tuesday’s conference in an overnight bag, so as not to sweat through it the day before, and bought a lightweight short-sleeved polo shirt at the Uniqlo in Union Station after I arrived.
I’m already a day late with this email, and have some client calls and meetings to attend to, so I won’t prattle on.
Here’s a little view of the courtyard of Constitution Center, where that workshop was held.
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Instaxery
No new pix, but as mentioned in Sunday’s newsletter, I got some writing done for the book, which is still to be called GUEST/HOST. I’m way overwhelmed with other stuff right now — work, podcast reading, my dad’s health — so of course idea after idea arrived last night & this morning for entries in the book (the prose that’ll face the photos). I’ve been diligently scribbling them down on notepaper I keep on every island in my archipelago of desks.
It’s a real struggle to keep all the plates spinning, but work grows more and more complicated (pharma industry, advocacy/lobbying, I can’t even), and the podcast & these emails just have to come out or the world will end. Plus, actually writing & publishing the book will make me vulnerable or exposed in a way my other pursuits don’t, so I’m sure there’s some avoidance going on. (Oh, and on the train Monday, I had the idea for getting one of my subjects to write a foreword for the book.)
So, when I wrote above that I wouldn’t prattle, I guess I was saving it for this section.
Artistry
Did a little sketching this week, but nothing worth sharing. 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 or painted postcard as a thank-you.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far. I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workout-/meditation-craziness, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some art and/or an Instax.
Now I sit with different faces / In rented rooms and foreign places / All the people I was kissing / Some are here and some are missing,