Hitting The Links: 11/5/23
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
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I got to record with Phillip Lopate yesterday. That episode will air in a few weeks — in the meantime GO READ his new essay collection, A Year And A Day (NYRB) — but I just figured I’d gab about it now, because he’s one of my all-time favorite guests (2013, 2017, 2020), and because our conversation helped me in my ongoing struggle to explain — to myself if not you — what I’m actually doing with this podcast.
What I think I’m doing is a biographical/autobiographical project, encompassing the lives of my guests and myself. I know I do a good job capturing/conveying a little of my guests’ psyches in our conversations, but I remain uncertain as to how real my own persona is, and whether what I shudder to call “the real me” comes out in these talks and my intros.
Phillip & I had A Moment — or two or three — where we talked about life’s work, our responses to mortality, the unitary self and the fulfillment of purpose. He’s spent his adult life writing personal essays and wondered whether a memoir or autobiography is feasible, because it’d mean finding a greater pattern than the ones he’s already rendered in his essays, that Jamesian figure in the carpet. I imagine I’ll talk more about it when I record the intro to that episode.
For my part, I considered my own terminal point for this project, what constitutes fulfillment. I know there’s no “if I just get THIS guest” that will fulfill my purpose and give me call to end it. I know that, as long as I last, I’ll remain like Diogenes with microphones, searching for a good conversation. (Yes, this is an idea I had for a tattoo.)
Which, I suppose, may be the true persona I’ve been searching for, a half-self occasionally made complete by talking with another.
And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Josh Bayer • Adam Sisman • Lisa Morton • Daniel Clowes • Rachel Shteir • Patrick McDonnell • Keith Knight
RIP Ady Barkan . . . RIP Bobby Knight . . . RIP Frank Howard . . . RIP Thomas K. Mattingly II . . .
Happy NYC Marathon, to all who observe! I started running 5+ years ago (I don’t run much now), & I laugh because on my best day I could never run at the top runners’ average marathon pace even for one mile, much less 26.2. As it turns out, you also can’t drive at that pace on a weekday in NYC.
I haven’t read very much by Jeanette Winterson, but I really enjoyed this NYer interview with her.
Dan Clowes got interviewed by John Kelly in TCJ. John’s interviews are phenomenal, and this one’s no exception.
Brett Martin profiled Chris Stapleton, so obvs go read.
It has never occurred to me to keep my phone in my bedroom.
Speaking of borders, Marina Warner writes about them in a NYRB review.
This co-op newsletter model sounds pretty neat. Maybe you should contribute to their Kickstarter.
Looks like there’s a new staging of my fave modern play, Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, in NYC! Which led me to this 2013 appreciation on the play’s 20th anniversary, which you oughtta read.
Speaking of things to do in NYC, Molly Crabapple has a new exhibition opening on Nov. 11!
Scott Meslow wrote about some WAY meta aspects of video game universes. Last week, re Matthew Perry’s death, I noted that I’ve never seen an episode of Friends and “there’s a lot of the ’90s I skipped out on.” Well, I also have zilch to offer as far as video games, on console or computer. I think the last thing I played was NBA2K w/my late buddy Sang, so that’s like 20 years ago. Given my compulsive personality, I long ago figured it’s for the best to avoid that entire world. That certainly leaves me with some blind spots — my episode with Cassandra Khaw about her game-writing experience was pretty theoretical on my side — but just like when I quit drinking in 2012, it gives me a lot more hours in the day than other people have.
My pal went to see Duran Duran a little while back. Nile Rodgers & CHIC opened, and they played a medley of JUST the #1 hits that Nile Rodgers wrote. He (my pal) texted each song title to me and the list just blew my goddamned mind. I mean, LE FREAK, dayenu. So here’s half an hour of Nile & CHIC on Tiny Desk Concert.
Current/Recent Reading
Mason & Dixon - Thomas Pynchon - 100 pages left!
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
I got in 4 days of my workout routine last week, Sat.-Tue., and so far I’m on schedule for my full Fri.-Tue. routine. Didn’t want to do my weights workout on Friday evening — tired, felt blech from overeating or something — but I had just gotten back from taking my dad for some vaccines, and talked myself into it. Felt good after, which is the point. I was feeling shot out of a cannon this morning, what with the extra hour for the return to Standard Time, so I got my weights in at 7:30 a.m. It was rough, working out before breakfast, but I did fine.
Here’s me in a new shirt & sweatpants, with a lot of books:
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back Wednesday with a new podcast, maybe some art, & who knows maybe a little profundity or something, and Sunday with more great links, current reading, and this broken down ol’ body of mine.
AWWWW, FREAK OUT!,
—Gil Roth
Virtual Memories
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