Fierce Luigi
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Intro
In Greek myth, the three-headed dog Cerberus guards the gates of the underworld. When I rang the doorbell of my dying friend last Friday, I was greeted by the loud barking of Luigi.
He settled down by the time John made it to the door to let me in, and gave me a wary once-over before deciding I was okay and could enter the house.
It was the first time I’d seen John since his diagnosis of a grade IV glioblastoma last February. We’d talked two days before the tumor was discovered; at the time he was looking forward to returning to his over-70 softball league after upcoming knee surgery.
We spoke a few times since and text occasionally, but he turned down my previous offers to visit, not wanting a ‘farewell tour’. Things changed, and so I drove 7 hours down to Virginia Thursday afternoon so we could talk for 10 or 15 minutes, which was as much energy as he figured he’d have.
We wound up spending almost 3 hours together, catching up, talking about old times — we met in 2015, so the old times don’t go THAT far back —, getting into The Heavy Stuff about his prognosis, and lamenting the Yankees’ season. Luigi & I played with one of his chew-toys for much of that time, until he got tired out and lay down to watch us.
I brought John one of my watercolors, a bright one that I thought he might like to have around in the time he has left. We talked about that whole notion of the time we have left, and when I was getting ready to leave, we hugged, and I looked deeply at his face, trying to fix a memory in place, because in that instant it struck me so deeply that we’ll never see each other again.
From there, I drove up to the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD, where I spent 48 hours in a near-frantic amount of activity, talking to friends and pals (there’s a difference) and near-strangers, hearing deep secrets from people who feel they can trust me, getting zero sleep, trying to hold onto that morning’s conversation with John while trying not to think too deeply about it, reading comics, recording more episodes. An innocuous “How are you?” became a fraught question, but I did my best to answer it.
There’s so much more I can’t tell you (privacy, emotions). I’d say it was a life-changing couple of days, but you only find that out long after. I’m glad I got to see my friend. And Luigi.
And now, on with The Virtual Memories Show!
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 554 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. Brett Martin as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of his book DIFFICULT MEN: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution (Penguin). We talk about how the TV landscape — prestige & otherwise — has changed in the past decade, how it felt to revisit his book 10 years later, and why this anniversary was more startling than his turning 50. We get into how Difficult Men was lauded for its criticism and analysis at the time but now shines for its reporting and character studies, how the explosion of prestige TV was unsustainable but led to amazing shows, how the #metoo movement intersected with male-dominated writers’ rooms (and which show-creators in Difficult Men looked bad 10 years ago & worse now), and his thoughts on the writers’ and actors’ strikes. We also discuss Brett’s writing career, what he’s learned about interviewing, what food & restaurant media really talk about, his reporting on the history (& racial complexities) of Preservation Hall, why he’s crushed by the retirement of Bartolo Colon, what our favorite eras of M*A*S*H are, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read DIFFICULT MEN!
Last week, I posted Episode 553 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. Peter Rostovsky as we celebrate his debut graphic novel, Damnation Diaries (Uncivilized Books)! We get into the origins of his gorgeously & grotesquely drawn social satire about Hell (& Hell’s therapist, Fred Greenberg), what he had to learn about comics in the process of making his first one, how comics allowed him to wed his polemical nature to a deeply personal story, and why his version of Hell bears an awful lot of similarities to life in NYC. We also talk about what it was like emigrating from Russia to the Bronx as a 10-year-old kid in 1980, how comics helped him learn English, and how he found redemption & a love for maximalism in heavy metal. And we discuss his history in the worlds of fine art, art theory, internet utopianism, and International Art English, whether AI is a McLuhan-esque ‘prosthesis’ for art, his mother’s recent death and how he feels about rendering her in Hell in Damnation Diaries, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read Damnation Diaries!
Other recent episodes: Bill Griffith • Jerome Charyn • Ron Rosenbaum • Karl Stevens • Howard Fishman
Links & Such
RIP Daisy (it’s a sad but lovely read). . .
Great piece by Hugh Ryan on the lyric essay and how the internet made it A Thang.
I’ve never gotten around to reading Zadie Smith despite nudges by several pod-guests whom I respect the heck out of; this piece by Andrea Long Chu implies that maybe I can pass (unless ZS is an avid listener of the podcast & would like to be a guest sometime).
Here’s Jerry Saltz on the Ed Rusha retrospective.
Mindblowing VF piece about a deal-making Rothschild who turned out to be a particularly weird variety of fake. (Sent to me by one of my client companies, because his firm had pitched them on raising investment funds years ago, they turned him down, then saw his name here.) It’s not quite “Clark Rockefeller” / Walter Kirn / Blood Will Out territory, but I kept expecting it to take that turn. GO READ.
This week’s David Marchese NYT interview with Roz Chast (2014, 2018) is some fun.
Neat article on private investment in high-speed rail, made even better by citing the old Amtrak LA to Vegas route, aka the Crapshooters Express.
Also, LA To Vegas was not a great show, but it had some laughs and it brought in Dermot Mulroney to play Dylan McDermott’s nemesis.
In the hotel the morning I visited John, I had this lovely song by Billy Dechand in my head.
Current reading
Mason & Dixon - Thomas Pynchon
UNENDED - Josh Bayer
Brooklyn’s Last Secret - Leslie Stein
Art
Only one sketch of note this week, a quick DOTD of Robert Lowell, which I screwed up as I do with so many of my faces, by starting w/the shape of the head. It never occurs to me in the moment to start w/eyes, nose or mouth, and build out from there, and I wind up with horrendously out-of-proportion features. I feel worse about that than you do. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
Because of the travel for SPX and all, I did ZERO exercise this week, except for my morning routine (I took a yoga mat with me so I could do that in my hotel room each morning), which may be more exercise than most of you do, but still. I hope to get back into my 5-day routine this week, but we’ll see.
Until Next Week
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back next week with a new podcast, some great links, maybe some art, & who knows maybe a little profundity or something.
It’s gonna be a beautiful day, I’m gonna see my long-lost friend,
—Gil Roth
Virtual Memories
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