Hitting The Links: 10/26/25
We've got a whole lotta links, plus some travel, a strange Halloween decoration, meditation-hijinks, and BIRDY!
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Scattered & Shattered
I head out to Frankfurt late tonight (11pm flight from EWR) for a big trade show, the Super Bowl of the pharma ingredients & mfg. services sector. After the show finishes, I’ll head over to London & Cambridge for a few days to see friends and record some shows, and then get back late next Sunday.
This morning, I told one of my London pals that I’m scattered and shattered, and that as frantic as the week’s going to be, it’ll be good to sit down with them to just take a breath and catch up.
During walkies with Birdy, I tried to really be in the moment with her, not strategizing, scheduling or otherwise stressing over the travel. I did my best to take in the glorious colors of the autumn leaves, already diminishing in their effulgence. I know most of them will be gone by the time I’m back, and want to hold on to that fading faerie gold.
Also, I made sure to finally take a photo of one of our neighbors’ Halloween yard decorations: cartoon Frankenstein’s monster taking a crap while reading a newspaper.
I’ve wanted to share this with you for years, but either haven’t had my phone on me during walkies, or it’s been the wrong time of day (too dark, or the fan’s been turned off).
Seriously, I’ve marveled over this for a long time, trying to figure out the joke. It’s a suburban Zen koan.
I’ll be away for Halloween, so save some candy for me.
Birdy Of The Week
I made her stop for a pic while we were on walkies yesterday morning.
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And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Dean Haspiel & Whitney Matheson • Ron Rosenbaum • Lance Richardson • Tom Tomorrow • Kayla E • Hunter Prosper • M.L. Rio • David Leopold
RIP Dave Ball . . . RIP June Lockhart . . . RIP Sirikit . . . RIP Tanqueray . . . RIP Soo Catwoman . . . RIP Sam Rivers . . . RIP Daniel Naroditsky . . . RIP Francisco Pinto Balsemão . . . RIP Terry Farrell . . . RIP Doug Martin . . . RIP Louie Chaban . . . RIP Greg Newby . . . RIP Jerry Tokofsky . . .
Also, Nebojsa Pavkovic died.
To quote Rick James, DARKNESS IS SPREADING. (But seriously, neat piece about a Buddhist darkness retreat/meditation, and not one of those techbro ketamine things.)
Mark Ulriksen posted about his baseball paintings & illustrations.
I’m gratified by how many writers cited Against The Day in their Pynchon encomia.
Charlie Warzel wrote about the overall shittiness of AI slop & how it’s wrecking human consciousness & the internet.
Being skinny and white isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Kinda interesting interview with Anthony Hopkins, who’s the same age my old man was.
Just in time for my trip, M.L. Rio offers up her book tour/travel tips!
Current/Recent Reading
Dante: The Essential Commedia - Prue Shaw
“Ulysses’ stirring words express an irresistible appeal to all that is best in human nature and human living: the practice of the moral virtues and the pursuit of knowledge. The man who speaks them is suffering eternal damnation. Reconciling these two stark facts is one of the great challenges for readers of Dante’s poem.”
Shadow Ticket - Thomas Pynchon (had to put that on hold while I tackled other stuff)
The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann (tr. John E. Woods)
“His grand physiognomy, only just now animated with Gothic agony, blossomed with luxurious good cheer; even a sybaritic dimple made a brief appearance on one cheek.”
+ the mourner’s Kaddish every morning, in Aramaic
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
Man, is it getting bad. I’m still doing my 15-min. routine every morning before coffee, but outside of a 20-min. treadmill run Wednesday morning in the hotel, I haven’t worked out — weights or yoga — since Oct. 15.
I had planned to do yoga yesterday afternoon/evening, but then I had the idea that I should settle on the InDesign template for my Instax book, generate a 156-page layout, and drop in the photos for each left-hand page. Which took a little while. But now I can start putting the text pieces in the right-hand pages and get a better visualization of how the project is going, maybe help me jump-start the writing, in hopes of getting it all done before the end of this year.
I’ve been so busy, stressed, and okay fine dealing with depression and anxiety that I haven’t been meditating most days, either. But I got to do it yesterday afternoon, and had this beautiful moment near the end. I thought about how I was recording that remote podcast with Dean & Whitney on Friday when my connection went down only they didn’t know that right away and kept talking for a while before they realized I was gone and when I was meditating I understood I will die and the conversation will go on without me and I was at peace.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll back on Wednesday, with a new episode, no Instax, but maybe some art (from Frankfurt). On Sunday I’ll be back with links, books, & workout craziness, & maybe a little profundity or something (from London).
Another misty bus-queue morning / Faces smile down from a hoarding / Stoop to the bin, drop something in / Well you'll soon feel yourself again / And every place is just the same, isn't it?,