Hitting The Links: 11/23/25
We've got a whole lotta links, Saturday's Stories From A Stranger, my attempt at getting off the depression track, BIRDY! looking up at the sky, and more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Dog-Pony Show
I hate my teeth, and I while I did take other shots where I’m smiling with my mouth closed, this one looks the most honest. (The bad teeth are semi-attributable to second-child syndrome + the timing of my parents’ split.)
Yesterday, I went into NYC to record a video with Hunter Prosper, with whom I did a remote podcast in September for his Stories From A Stranger book. His production folks set up cameras and lapel mics and then Hunter asked me questions, near the arch in Washington Square Park. I tried to focus on him, but there were an awful lot of visual distractions, including a guy who was walking a dog that was the size of a pony.
I talked a lot about Tom Spurgeon, whose six-year deathiversary was ~2 weeks ago, and a LOT about my father. The latter was no surprise, as Hunter & I talked about our problematic and/or absent relationships with our fathers during (and after) our podcast. I talked about the combo of grief and the trauma of watching Dad in his final moments of life.
I talked about a lot of other stuff, like reassessing my life in the lead-up to my leukemia diagnosis, my inability to write fiction, and why “two truths and a lie” is beyond me because I can up the stakes pretty heavily with the true stories, and any lie would just be banal. We got interrupted by a police helicopter for a bit, and I told him that line about how you used to be able to find the Black Flag shows in LA by following the police helicopters.
We had a good time, and there was something about my relationship with Dad that made me start to cry, an admission of a weird, messed-up feeling of mine about (not) having kids that had occurred to me in the past week, but that I’d never verbalized until yesterday. There were also a bunch of laughs, because even when I’m talking about important stuff, I can get across the humor or absurdity of it. We went for about an hour.
I don’t know if the “after” part was recorded. Our mics were still on, and I was in front of the camera, so who knows? Hunter & I talked about his issues with the father he never met, and I gave him some advice and reassurance and such about who he is, what he owes his father, and how proud he should be about the life he’s made and what he’s done with Stories From A Stranger. When we hugged, I felt real.
After that, I met a pal for non-lunch at a wine bar, meandered around the Village a little, stopped at the Strand, then took the subway back up to my secret parking garage on 96th, and headed home. On the drive, it occurred to me that if I’d had a kid when I was 25, he’d be Hunter’s age.
When they make a video out of all this, I’ll be sure to post the link. Here’s me keeping my mouth shut.
In the name of vanity, I’ll tell you that the partner of the person Hunter was recording with before me told me, “I like your style,” and when I was walking to meet my friend after our session, a young guy with face piercings and tattoos said, “Your hair is FIRE.”
Birdy Of The Week
She looked up at a plane during our walkies on Friday morning
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And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Glenn Kurtz • Jennifer Hayden • Rian Hughes • Josh Neufeld • Dean Haspiel & Whitney Matheson • Ron Rosenbaum • Lance Richardson
RIP Rodney Rogers . . . RIP Burt Meyer . . . RIP Michèle Audin . . . RIP Ward Landrigan . . . RIP Dorothy Vogel . . . RIP Henry Todd . . . RIP Alice and Ellen Kessler . . . RIP Homayoun Ershadi . . .
Portrait of a Typewriter Repairman. (Trust me; it’s a blast.)
Sundiving and Suncaffeinating. (Both of these were via Warren Ellis’ blog.)
My oncology check-in this week went fine — numbers not outrageous, come back in 3 months — but that didn’t stop multiple friends from sending me Tatiana Schlossberg’s essay about her terminal leukemia diagnosis, and the impact her cousin, RFK, Jr., is having on healthcare. Um, thanks.
Semi-speaking of, here’s a great piece by Marisa Kabas about the Nuzzi-RFK-et al. mishegoss.
After the oncology appt., I visited Dad’s grave. I hadn’t gone in a while, but my depression and exhaustion were really doing a number on me that day, so I didn’t stay long; just read the Kaddish and took a couple of pictures, including this one of a tree nearby
AMTRAK LAPEL PINS! (But not one for the Acela or the Pacific Surfliner? Boooooo. . .)
Hayley Campbell profiled Cynthia Erivo, so go read.
Go, Team Anxiety!
Speaking of anxiety, I’ve never read or watched John Green’s work, but I liked this interview with him.
Speaking of ir/religious experiences of the numinous, Nick Cave has A Morning.
He also has a virtual museum exhibition.
Neat interview with Michael Urie on speaking Shakespeare (he’s currently playing Richard II).
NYT looks at W. David Marx’s new book, Blank Space, and the right-wing counter-culture.
Speaking of past guests with new/recent books, here are a bunch you oughtta check out (I hope to record with some of the authors, but):
Current/Recent Reading
The Master of Contradictions: Thomas Mann and the Making of The Magic Mountain - Morten Hoi Jensen
+ the mourner’s Kaddish every morning, in Aramaic
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
If I get in a weight workout this afternoon, then I’ll have done full weights-yoga cycle from Wednesday through Sunday for the first time in quite a while. As I’ve mentioned in past weeks, the combo of work travel, laziness and depression has knocked me off of my exercise routine in recent months, so I’m really hoping I can get my act together in another hour or two and move them dumbbells.
I meditated a little this week, which is better than nothing, but the exercise also helped in some ways. Still, I need to make sure I get that ~15 min. session in every day, to give myself even a moment of unworry & unbeing.
This piece about breathwork seems a bit much, but whatever you need to get you out of yourself, friends.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll back on Wednesday, with a new episode, a new Instax, and maybe some art. On Sunday I’ll be back with links, books, & workout craziness, & maybe a little profundity or something.
Mother was an incubator / Father was the contents / of a test tube in the ice box / In the factory of birth,