Hitting The Links: 11/10/24
We've got plenty of links, this week's episode, a couple of forest fires, my live podcast this Thursday in Princeton, another in my series of transformations, & more (incl. some abs)
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Lichen Skulls, Turkey Vultures, Spicy Soy
I don’t want to write about the election here; I hope you understand.
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Want to see me at a live podcast session this week? Come to Labyrinth Books in Princeton on Thursday, Nov. 14, at 6pm and watch me interview Ken Krimstein about his wondrous new graphic novel, Einstein in Kafkaland! It’s free, and I’d love to see you there!
(CAVEAT: I’ll be speaking at a client event in Lexington, KY that morning, racing to the Cincinnati airport to catch a flight to Newark, and then driving to Princeton for the event. So there’s a chance I might not make it, but I promised the Labyrinth folks that I’ll send them all my pithy questions in advance. There’s also a chance I’ll be Extremely Punchy, which should be entertaining. Oh, and I’ll likely be in my suit from the client event.)
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They opened a little hiking trail near me last week, so Amy & I tried it out. Above a blaze, I saw lichen shaped like a one-eyed skull, because of course I did.
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I took my father out for lab work & some vaccinations on Friday afternoon. He did fine, but I found myself walloped & drained after. Then I got an email from a friend, replying to some of the over-complex BS that was in my head after my previous medical run with Dad, and this pal — a writer — considered what I’d written him and fashioned an image that helped me understand what I was feeling. Getting his email just as I was inside one of those null-modes was absolutely perfect timing, as it gave me a tool for digging into this and bringing something important up to the surface. (He said, vaguely.)
It’s a high-wire act, being more open with people about myself, improving my behavior, not letting my past dictate how I act, and not Stuffing It All Down. Glad I’ve got friends to help.
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After dropping Dad off on Friday, I stopped in on my old tailor to find out what hours he’s keeping, and to see if he thinks he can do anything with the suits that I wore when I was 20-25 lbs. heavier, which would give me some more variety for trade shows & lobbying visits. He’s optimistic.
I also stopped at a new Korean fried chicken place, got takeout (spicy soy), and ate some of it in the parking lot behind the apartment where I lived 1998-2003.
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We’ve got multiple forest fires going in the towns on either side of mine (no rain in 5+ weeks), and that’s making the air quality godawful.
I was walking Benny around the corner a little before noon yesterday, and the smoke (one of the fires is maybe 4 miles away, in a former DuPont plant) obscured the hills and lake. In a tree above, 9 or 10 big turkey vultures were perched in the branches. The sun above and the silver cast of the sky rendered them and the tree as silhouettes, black masses poised on black limbs. They took in the sun, unperturbed as Benny shuffled through the leaves below.
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And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Eric Drooker • Simon Critchley • Doug Brod • Sven Birkerts • Christopher Brown • Dmitry Samarov • Stephen B. Shepard
RIP Quincy Jones . . . RIP World’s Strongest Man . . . RIP Dorothy Allison . . . RIP Judith Jamison . . . RIP James Ledbetter . . . RIP Tony Todd . . . RIP Jim Hoagland . . . RIP Kazuo Umezu . . .
KICKSTARTERY! Jonathan Baylis launched the Kickstarter for his next issue of So Buttons on Election Day, so you may have missed it; go support that! And there’s still time to support Dean Haspiel’s Kickstarter for his new comic, CHEST FACE!
Neat piece by Dmitry Samarov about playing Russian Scrabble (Erudit).
Some good news about my CLL: taking vitamin D supplements may help stave off progression for a few years.
The toughest part of my condition — dormant, non-aggressive CLL that might take decades before it needs treatment — is accepting that nothing I do will affect its progression. So I’ll take a grain of salt with my vitamin D supplement, even though it’d be nice to know that there’s some factor that actually matters, some minute vestige of agency.
Speaking of middle-aged men’s health, Will Leitch ran his first marathon (NYC last weekend), which ONCE AGAIN has me thinking I should get back to running and try to get a marathon under my belt before [whatever happens, happens].
That said, my body’s in awfully good shape, and in many ways my life keeps growing fuller with the years, which apparently is A Good Thing. (Sure, pace Tennyson, much is taken, but much abides, as you’ll see below.)
Benjamin Dreyer had some book recommendations, post-election.
Nicolas Heller made a video short about Barry Blitt.
Shalom Auslander wants a new drug.
Current/Recent Reading
Hunger - Knut Hamsun (tr. Robert Bly)
“All at once, one or two remarkable sentences occurred to me, good for a short story or a sketch, windfalls in language, as good as I had ever come on.”
The Picture Not Taken: On Life and Photography - Benjamin Swett
Einstein in Kafkaland - Ken Krimstein
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
I got back to my weights-yoga routine, but missed Friday’s workout. I was out until mid-afternoon taking my dad to his appointments, then had lunch late, and weights + Korean fried chicken would not have been a good combination. Plus, as mentioned, I was ruminating on some things. But I got my yoga in on Saturday, and hope to get in weights today. Next two weeks will be more chaotic w/biz-travel, but I’ll try, just for you.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Wednesday with a new episode, some art, and maybe some Instax pix, and on Sunday with links, books, & workout craziness, & maybe a little profundity or something.
Now I'm cycling all my video tapes / I’m crying and I'm joking / I’ve gotta stop drinking / I’ve gotta stop thinking / I’ve gotta stop smoking,