Hitting The Links: 11/3/24
I've got a whole ton of great links to (maybe) take your mind off of things, + my quick trip to the Hill, current books, workout-cycle, and whether I should offer some "Gil-curated guidance"
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
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If you’re anxious, sleepless, full of dread over the US election on Tuesday, I want you to know you’re not alone. Be kind to yourself, and let’s be here for each other.
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In related news, I spent Thursday morning doing some Congressional lobbying. They’ve already fenced off the Capitol, and are building the seating for January’s inauguration.
And as a followup to Wednesday’s email and your recent concerns about my wellbeing/mental health: yesterday was one of the best, most peaceful days I’ve had in a long time. I gave myself some time to breathe, didn’t look at a device for 2+ hours, and recentered myself in some ways.
Today? Meh, but not bad (just not as good).
Thanks for being here, and I hope this newsletter helps you in some way.
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And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Simon Critchley • Doug Brod • Sven Birkerts • Christopher Brown • Dmitry Samarov • Stephen B. Shepard • Benjamin Dreyer
RIP Eva Brann (here’s our conversation from 2013) . . . RIP Teri Garr . . . RIP Greg Hildebrandt . . . RIP Paul Bailey . . . RIP DJ Clark Kent . . .
KICKSTARTERY! Dean Haspiel just launched a Kickstarter for his new comic, CHEST FACE; go support Dino! Jonathan Baylis will be launching one soon for his next issue of So Buttons; I’ll letcha know when that’s live. (And I’m getting to work on my GUEST/HOST book, for which I’ll be launching a crowdfunding campaign at some point; I expect $ outta you.)
Brian Dillon reviewed Simon Critchley’s new book, Mysticism, over at 4Columns.
Y’know, I spend plenty of time prattling on about my manlyman midlife crisis/es, so here are some books about women’s, via Frenchtown Bookshop’s weekly newsletter.
Lovely essay by Errol Morris about L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz (movie and books), and . . . window dressing? (Yeah, I should restart my efforts at recording an episode with Morris.)
Speaking of books/authors of our childhood, Chris Ware wrote a lovely and thoughtful piece about Richard Scarry, on the 50th anniversary of Cars And Trucks And Things That Go.
Here’s a fantastic essay by Langdon Hammer about the late poet Reginald Shepherd (with a more-than-cameo by Samuel R. Delany).
Comparative Thanatology sounds like an episode of Community, but okay.
Sven Birkerts wrote a wonderful essay about memory, homeland, and his parents’ ashes.
I have probably mentioned this before, but I find the aerospace industry fascinating. Here’s a piece about supply chain problems at Boeing and Airbus and how those will ripple out over decades at the airlines.
This NYRB piece focuses on the work of Sunil Amrith & the Anthropocene era, but closes with nice words about A Natural History of Empty Lots, the amazing new book by Christopher Brown. (You should go read/subscribe to Chris’ FIELD NOTES newsletter.)
Jerry Saltz reviewed an exhibition of KAWS’ collection of ‘outsider’ art, including a piece by Joe Coleman.
Whitney Matheson lists her fave NYC bookstores. (Speaking of Whitney & books, go order her Trudy Sellout collection!)
Neat piece by Kyle Chaska at The New Yorker about “human-curated guidance” (recommendations) vs./in cahoots with algorithmic ones.
When it comes to Gil-curated guidance, I always get you these links, and fill you in on what books I’m reading and the generalities of my workouts (and, sure, I occasionally rant about my current brand of journal notebooks), but I deliberately avoid mentioning TV shows, because people treat TV recommendations as either a declaration of war or a sign that I’m interested in what you’re watching (I’m probably not; best not to find out), and it’s never occurred to me to share my dietary, skin/haircare, or wardrobe staples with you (Okay, if you must know.) I suppose I could start a What I’m Wearing feature, but I wouldn’t want you to try to look as cool as me.
Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before The podcast itself is a sort of barometer of what I find interesting, in terms of who I record with and what we talk about. Sometimes that’s because a publicist or author or someone contacts me about a book/project/guest, but I still have to say, “Sounds neat!” or, “Not really my thing.” (Or, often enough that I feel like a goddamned heel about it, I just don’t reply.)
But beyond that, what I really recommend is unique, deeply felt experience. For me, that comes primarily through the act of making the podcast, which means reading, research, and writing questions, but primarily the act of sitting down with someone and sharing a conversation for an hour or so. For the in-person ones, there’s always more than what’s said, memories of that moment, that day. I keep something from all of them. (That’s what GUEST/HOST is about, as you’ll maybe see.)
That doesn’t have to be all, though. There’s also the way some of these conversations have continued in time. Last week, as I mentioned in the intro to the Simon Critchley episode, I stopped in on Jerry Saltz to take a picture for my book. And at one point, I talked about getting to see the bronze sculpture The Boxer At Rest last month in Rome, and how Jerry’s 2013 piece about it had moved me (along w/Thom Jones’ story, The Pugilist At Rest, 20 years earlier, as I wrote about). And Jerry told me about seeing the Boxer when it was at the Met a decade ago, and the overwhelming aesthetic experience — the transport — he felt in its presence. Our experiences with the sculpture — and our sharing of them with each other — are Irreproducible, Unrecommendable, Indispensable.
Which now that I think about it would make a great title for my recommendations newsletter-website-empire.
Take that back
Current/Recent Reading
Hunger - Knut Hamsun (tr. Robert Bly)
“The fall had come, that cool and delicious time of year when everything changed color and died.”
Or
“I sat there on the bench and thought about all this, and became more and more bitter against God for His constant persecutions. If He wanted to draw me nearer to Himself and make me better by pushing me hard and laying obstacles in my path, He was going about it the wrong way, I could assure Him of that.”
The Picture Not Taken: On Life and Photography - Benjamin Swett
“You say I am so silent, and you wonder what I’m thinking, and it is true that through experience I have learned to cut myself off, there are things in my heart I would hide, because they would scare you. They scare me sometimes, even though I keep them well locked up. I am not an evil beast, just a very selfish and self-destructive and stupid and sometimes sad one. . . .”
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
Because of work-travel, I missed working out on Wednesday and Thursday, but got back to weights Friday and yoga Saturday. I also got a massage on Saturday morning, for the first time in a million years, which left me feeling much more aware of/deliberate in my movements. Not in a tentative way, just feeling more fluid. I also didn’t touch my phone, computer, iPad for a couple hours after, happy not to be checking in. I’ll try to get in weights today, and maybe I’ll do Mon/Tue workouts too, to get a 5-day cycle in. (Probably not, maybe a run with The Guys instead.) My body looks great, coiled like a whip, which I’m proud of.
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.
I pull my shirt off and pray / We’re sacred and bound to suffer this heatwave,