Heaux-Heaux-Heaux
This one’s got holiday wishes from Cajun Country, the annual Guest List episode with LOTS of great book recommendations, some Instax from the weekend, and more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 618 of The Virtual Memories Show, celebrating its twelfth anniversary of my year-end tradition: The Guest List! I reached out to 2024’s pod-guests and asked them about the favorite book(s) they read in the past year, as well as the books or authors they’re hoping to read in 2025! Twenty-two guests responded with wonderful, idiosyncratic, and illuminating book recommendations: Roland Allen, Shalom Auslander, Laura Beers, Sven Birkerts, Mirana Comstock, Leela Corman, Nicholas Delbanco, Benjamin Dreyer, Eric Drooker, Randy Fertel, Sammy Harkham, Frances Jetter, Ken Krimstein, Jim Moske, Robert Pranzatelli, Jess Ruliffson, Dmitry Samarov, Dash Shaw, David Small, Benjamin Swett, Maurice Vellekoop, and D.W. Young (and me)! This annnual episode of The Virtual Memories Show offers up a huge list of books that you’re going to want to read in the new year! Give it a listen, go check out all the great books they talk about, and visit the archive page with all of The Guest List episodes back to 2013!
Last week, I posted Episode 617, feat. author/photographer Benjamin Swett as we talk about THE PICTURE NOT TAKEN: On Life and Photography (NYRB), his subtly beautiful series of essays that explore memory and identity and what we really see in the viewfinder. We talk about the role of photography in his life, how Musil, Sebald, and Knausgaard and taught him to trust digressions, how working in the NYC Parks Dept. led him into some strange career choices, and the challenge (& reward) of photographing trees. We get into our respective rebellions against our fathers and linearity, the loss of his daughter and how her shadow looms over the book, his idea for a negative-autobiography, how his family felt about being included in the essays, and the moment he felt comfortable moving from film to digital. We also discuss his 9/11 and what it revealed to him about himself, how the constraint of Instagram captions can lead to good storytelling, the ~30-year gap he took to finish his MFA, and a lot more. Give it a listen, and go read THE PICTURE NOT TAKEN: On Life and Photography!
Recent episodes: Ken Krimstein • Eddie Campbell • Caitlin McGurk • Frances Jetter • Roland Allen • Eric Drooker • Simon Critchley
Heaux-Heaux-Heaux
Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc., dear readers! I’m in Louisiana with my in-laws, eating way too much Cajun fare and enjoying a respite from the freezing weather in NJ.
We went to a party yesterday for Amy’s dad’s side of the family. I’ve joined Amy on these trips since 2005 (mainly for Christmas, but occasionally other times of year), and this time I was a bit verklempt at how many of the adults I’d first seen as little kids, how many toddlers I once knew now had families of their own, and how the years had treated the older generation.
One of the nicer moments was when they got 6 of the remaining siblings together for photos by the tree; I stayed out of everyone’s way to take this pic
The extended family’s always welcomed me, laughing at my wariness about eating crawfish or boudin, and asking about Life Up North. As someone who grew up with no nearby family — most of our relatives were in England and Israel — I marvel over it all, even as I screw up people’s names and connections to each other. (I don’t know what I seem like to them, but it doesn’t matter, which I guess is the point.)
People will be waking up soon and Amy’s dad will be getting to work on the seafood gumbo for today’s party (her mom’s side), so I’ll leave you in peace after One More Thing:
I know the holidays can be rough, be it from family anxiety, loneliness, not getting that one present you’d been hinting at all year, or whatever. If you’re in that cohort, know that you’re not alone, this’ll pass, and that I hope you’re able to take it easy on yourself.
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Instaxery
I visited Philadelphia on Saturday to record a pair of podcasts and came away with a couple of decent Instax, above. The center and right one are from the same session, and I was undecided about which one will make it into the book. I settled on the 2 chairs, because that image has some resonances specific to the guest. I also took the one below at his place (digital, not print-scan), but I’ve got some roe-deer antlers a few pages earlier, so I’ll likely stick with the chairs.
This Instax project will end with 2024; the idea is to make a book out of the Instax I shot for this year’s pod-guests and drop-ins with past guests, as I’ve mentioned before. Not sure what I’ll do in the new year; I like the mini-evo camera and maybe I’ll keep shooting around my pod-sessions, or find some other milieu in which to shoot, like museum/gallery visits or something.
Artistry
I brought a sketchpad, pens, and watercolor pencils with me on this trip, but haven’t drawn a thing except my daily crappy sketch of something I saw that day, in a cheap notebook with a rollerball pen. 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-craziness, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and I hope just a few more Instax.
You mean you forgot cranberries, too?,