Hitting The Links: 12/31/23
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Unfold
I feel like (my? everybody’s?) life is a flower endlessly blooming, a continual unfolding, but it occurs to me that it might just be a kaleidoscope, where the same set of elements just get recombined in a trick of the light.
Last year at this time, I was getting through my first and only bout with COVID, and just getting past a “should I end the podcast, email, etc.?” crisis. This year, I seem to have avoided COVID, and I got that crisis of faith outta the way a few weeks ago. I’ve already recorded the first 2 shows of 2024, and have 2-3 more lined up for my upcoming California trip (business, then me-time), so it looks like we’re stuck with each other.
As far as resolutions go, I don’t know what to tell you. This was a very tough year for me, mentally, but I don’t think any of my regular habits or goals exacerbated that, so I’ll stick with them. And it wasn't only bad times; I had some wonderful experiences this year, made some new friends, found deeper bonds with older pals, and had conversations I'll treasure for the rest of my days.
As far as living up to resolutions, commitments, goals, etc., this public face of mine — the podcast & these emails — helps me stay accountable for some of this stuff, even if (virtually) nobody’s paying attention, so I’ve got that.
Keep up my 5x/week workout routine, and maybe add more running (see below)
Keep up the daily morning routine
12-13 min. of exercise
read 2 pages of Emily Dickinson
write in my journal
send out a postcard every mail-day (speaking of, if you want to be one of my postcard recipients, drop me a line)
Make 50 episodes of the podcast, because it’s a nice, round number
Send the newsletter out 2x/week
Make more art
Make a new issue of Haiku for Business Travelers (if you didn't receive yours yet, also drop me a line)
Make the [SECRET ART-PROJECT], although that’ll be an end-of-the-year thing, because of [SECRET PARAMETERS]
I don’t want to get into professional-life stuff here, nor domestic/family stuff, so I guess that’s as good as it gets. I hope your 2024 is full of good health, blessings, and love. If you don’t have the former, then I really hope you’ve got the latter.
Here's probably the best piece of art I made in 2023:
Oh, hey: this new email setup runs $29/month, so if you want to help out with it, you can support the Virtual Memories Show with a contribution of any size.
And now, let's hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Silence (monologue) • The Guest List • Jarrett Earnest • Christian Wiman • Danny Fingeroth • Matt Bors
RIP Robert Andrew Parker (no obit yet, but here’s our 2018 conversation and here’s a showing of his paintings & other art from earlier in 2023, to celebrate his 96th birthday) . . . RIP Tom Wilkinson . . . RIP Herb Kohl . . . RIP Bill Granger . . . RIP everydamnbody . . .
And the Collections Of The Dead . . .
Michael Dirda’s (2012, 2014, 2015) got a wonderful year-end column about books & style, the passing of time, & why we keep going.
Also, here’s a harrowing Air Mail article about how terrible sales are for contemporary American fiction debuts, esp. debut novels with giant advances.
This piece on how The Flying Scotsman locomotive is still rolling after 100 years reminds me that The Black Locomotive by Rian Hughes should’ve gotten a mention in last week’s Guest List episode. My bad.
We have to dump Benny's food onto his bed sometimes to get him to eat, so I worry about where this is headed.
Matt Bomer’s career supports my belief that every casting decision in The Nice Guys was perfect (except one).
I’d love to have a conversation about Canada’s assisted death laws, how they’re expanding to include the mentally ill, and what it all means, culturally. But this isn’t the venue for that.
I won’t say the NYT has a pro-death agenda, but the day after that Canada piece came out, they published this op/ed by Steven Petrow about his sister’s medically assisted death. I didn’t know we had a law supporting that in NJ.
NOT THAT I’M IN THAT BOAT. In fact, one of my friends suggested we hike the Catskills Fire Tower Challenge next year, so that’s one more 2024 resolution for the list.
I mean it, though: having a moderate regular exercise routine will do wonders for you.
I dig Warren Ellis’ 2024 intentions/resolutions, in terms of spending less time with one’s mouth to the figurative firehose.
Let’s close out 2023 with a remembrance of northern NJ past, & pour one out for Jungle Habitat.
Current/Recent Reading
Bleeding Edge - Thomas Pynchon
The Book of Disquiet - Fernando Pessoa
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
As expected, my workout routine didn’t happen while I was in Louisiana for Christmas, but I did get in my 12-13-minute routine each morning. I restarted with weights on Friday, missed yoga yesterday because my pod-session and subsequent gabfest with our guest went long, so I did my yoga workout this morning. I plan to get in weights this afternoon, in hopes of entering 2024 with a sports injury. (I’ve had a weird thing in my right knee since the Louisiana trip, maybe a delayed effect of last Saturday’s 11-mile run, or maybe something else. Either way, I’ll hold off on running for a bit while I try to get that back into shape.) As year-end wrap-ups go, I feel good about my body. Belly’s a little too much, although my weight’s pretty stable from the past year. I’ll be 53 soon, I’m not huffing, puffing, or in pain when I have to do anything physical, most everything else looks good, so all things considered I’m doing okay. My weekly Accountability pix show a guy who’s fit but not going crazy about it, not that I’ll flash those pix around.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Wednesday with a new episode, maybe some art, and Sunday with links, books, & workout craziness, & who knows maybe a little profundity or something.
This world is beautiful / Held within its stars,