Hitting The Links: 11/2/25
Lots and lots of links, my travel winds down with a visit to The Scene Of The Crime, and more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
The Scene of the Crime
I’m flying back to NJ tonight, air-traffic control staffing permitting. That’ll make it one week on the road, between the trade show in Frankfurt and a 72-hour stay in the UK. I’m tired but full of potential, despite the midweek insomnia-despair from my previous email.
I haven’t had any time to myself in London, except for hour-long train rides — LCY->Ealing, Ealing->The City, The City->Cambridge & back — because I’ve been recording with people and visiting friends. It would’ve been nice to see some galleries or museums, but at the same time I’m glad I didn’t spend time meandering Jermyn/Savile and hemming & hawing over clothes I’ll never wear. Would’ve been nice to hit Hatchards, but I’d have wound up weighed down by more books when my luggage is already pretty close to bursting. The downside of leading a double-life is having to pack for two.
But I did get to see some art at my friend Celia’s studio, and I had some wonderful conversations, and I got to listen to/lose myself in music on those train rides (I wasn’t on the line where that awful stabbing attack happened last night).
And I DID have a little time to myself yesterday in Cambridge, arriving 90 minutes early for a podcast with Prue Shaw. Hauling my tote bag of pod-gear, Prue’s new hardcover, my Instax camera, and the binder of photos for my book, I returned to the scene of the crime: the place where Clive James & I recorded what may have been my greatest podcast, back in 2015.
Memories of that day — my Reggie Jackson in the ’77 Series day, when I recorded with Clive, Prue, and Anthea Bell — broke through the immanence and the frantic nature of the now, and I walked along Jesus Green and wondered what Gil of ~11 years ago would think of this present self.
But now I have to prep for another podcast, then finish packing so I can head out to visit another friend/past guest, before making my way to Heathrow.
Maybe 2015 Gil would have hoped I would have learned to slow down by now, but I think he’d have known better.
Birdy Of The Week
This week’s Birdy is courtesy of Amy Roth. I can’t wait to wake both of them up when I get home tonight.
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And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Josh Neufeld • Dean Haspiel & Whitney Matheson • Ron Rosenbaum • Lance Richardson • Tom Tomorrow • Kayla E • Hunter Prosper • M.L. Rio
RIP Prunella Scales . . . RIP Pierre Robert . . . RIP Nick Mangold . . . RIP Ron Tiner . . . RIP Anthony Jackson . . . RIP Marcyliena Morgan . . .RIP Jack DeJohnette . . . RIP Alison Knowles . . . RIP Björn Andrésen . . . RIP Tchéky Karyo . . . RIP Uni Watch . . .
Ana Marie Cox wrote about how indy-journalism (newsletters) can’t fix the news.
Oh, yeah, also we’re heading into post-literacy and it ain’t pretty.
Langdon Hammer reviewed the new biography of James Schuyler.
TextEdit is AWESOME. (That said, I use iA Writer to compile this newsletter, and Bear for note-taking and to-do lists. But TextEdit is my go-to for immediate note-taking at work, for scratch stuff, etc.)
Aaron Lange explored the solar system, deep space, and Cleveland.
Arthur Hoyle wrote about attending the Henry Miller in the 21st Century conference and where his interest in Miller began. (You should go read his book on Miller & Big Sur.)
W. David Marx reminds us that we get the geniuses we deserve. (During one of my off-mic conversations this week in London, we talked about great art, and the vanishing concept of greatness. Which, as you know, is a longtime preoccupation of mine.)
Things you should pre-order/help Kickstart: Typeractive: Thirty Years of Device Fonts, by Rian Hughes (episode about it coming this week); Every Day Is Today, a new comics collection by Anders Nilsen (whom I hope to record with sometime next year); Tom The Dancing Bug: The Early Years, 1990-1998, by Ruben Bolling.
This trip, for all its running around, has me rejuvenated about my own to-be-crowdfunded/-kickstarted book project, GUEST/HOST.
“If I (biblically) know Clive Warren, and I think I do. . . .”
Current/Recent Reading
Dante: The Essential Commedia - Prue Shaw
Shadow Ticket - Thomas Pynchon (I’LL GET BACK TO IT WHEN I’M HOME, OKAY?)
The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann (tr. John E. Woods)
+ the mourner’s Kaddish every morning, in Aramaic
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
HAHAHA no workout since mid-October, no running on this trip, and no yoga mat, so I can’t even do my morning stretching routine. Also, no real meditation time. Combine that with a number of crappy nights of sleep (the final two nights have been good, now that I’m staying at a higher-end hotel and am not drinking 87 cups of coffee in lieu of food on a trade show floor), and I am beat to crap. And I have 7+-hours on a plane ahead of me.
I’ll be getting in the door at like 11:30 or midnight tonight, and then immediately getting back into work mode. At least there’s no travel until Thursday’s yo-yo roundtrip to FDA.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll back on Wednesday, with a new episode, a TON of Instax, and maybe some art. On Sunday I’ll be back with links, books, & workout craziness, & maybe a little profundity or something.
Eviscerate your memory here's a scene / You’re in the back seat laying down / The windows wrap around to the sound of the travel and the engine,