Wings and Runes

On this morning’s walkies with Birdy, I thought yet again about canonicity and why it’s awfully tough to name a Great Twenty-First Century Novel.

That is, I’ve read plenty of great or at least really good novels from 2000 on, but I’m hard-pressed to come up with anything that’ll have lasting significance, culturally, critically, academically, etc. Which, I suppose, is why I continue this weird culture-promoting mission of mine, because I’d rather talk about books than TV.

And which reminds me that I need to start W. David Marx’s new book, BLANK SPACE, so’s we can have a conversation around that and other aspects of cultural stagnation.

In the meantime, I’ve ordered two dozen books in the past week, from Bookshop, BookOutlet, Fantagraphics, Amazon (an out-of-print I couldn’t find anywhere else), and Phaidon (it’s a doozy), virtually none of which are for upcoming/potential pod-guests. I also ordered another tall bookcase from Design Within Reach, in lieu of renting a storage unit for all this.

And some mornings, I put aside my books and read the runes left by birds in fresh snow.

Birdy Of The Week

Sphinx-like this morning

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And now, let’s hit the links!

Links & Such

• Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Prue Shaw • Glenn Kurtz • Jennifer Hayden • Rian Hughes • Josh Neufeld • Dean Haspiel & Whitney Matheson • Ron Rosenbaum

• RIP Elden Campbell . . . RIP Frank Gehry (here’s a bunch of his most influential buildings ) . . . RIP Mel Leipzig (I meant to record with him, but that was fall of 2019, and once I let that slip into lockdown era, I never followed up) . . . RIP Claude the Albino Gator . . . RIP Steve Cropper . . . RIP Erik Bulatov . . . RIP Charles Norman Shay . . . RIP Daniel Woodrell . . . RIP Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa . . . RIP Chuck Kesey . . .

• Also, Eugene Hasenfus died.

• More tributes to Tom Stoppard from NYT, New Yorker, WSJ, New York, and RogerEbert.

• New EP from Lori Carson! EEEE!

• Claudia Roth Pierpont writes long about Dante and praises Prue Shaw’s new book, DANTE: The Essential Commedia.

• LBJ vs. MJ. Coincidentally, after this came out, LeBron’s unbeatable streak of double-digit scoring games came to an end, because in the last second of a tied game, rather than take a shot to try get to 10 pts., he passed to an open teammate who buried the shot for the win.

• Fred Kaplan posted his annual top 10 jazz albums.

• Jerry Saltz wrote about the best art shows of 2025.

• Levi Stahl has some great book-gift ideas.

• AI has been hallucinating some virtual memories for Chuck Wendig.

• The Ladies Man is my favorite SNL spinoff movie.

• I appreciate all the searching they did for this, but they probably should have checked Captain Ultra’s wardrobe first.

• Thoughtful piece on the misreadings of Hannah Arendt.

• Good interview with Salman Rushdie.

• I wouldn’t use Spotify if you paid me, so no idea what my listening age is, but I think we all know it’s Pretty Damned Old.

• I’ve also never seen Kristen Stewart in a movie — I’ve been meaning to watch Crimes of the Future now that I’ve read Knut Hamsun’s Hunger — but I enjoyed this interview with her, even though she mentions, “as I’ve gotten older,” at 35 years old. But then I think of Pete Townshend’s midlife crisis song, Slit Skirts, that starts with “I was just 34 years old and I was still wandering in a haze” and goddamn am I old, man; let’s just talk about something else.

• Like a STEEL CAGE GRUDGE MATCH OF EPIC PROPORTIONS between murder hornet and pond frog.

• Support independent journalists in 2026; here’s a guide from Marisa Kabas.

Current/Recent Reading

Shadow Ticket - Thomas Pynchon

The Invention of Solitude - Paul Auster

After finishing Auster, I dicked around with a couple other books on my Kindle at bedtime, but nothing I’m interest in sticking with just now; I’ll probably return to Solvej Balle’s series this week.

+ the mourner’s Kaddish every morning

Sound Body, Fractured Mind

I missed one day of my weights-yoga cycle last week (yoga on Thanksgiving), but I’m on pace for the full five-day shebang this week. My weight’s starting to come down a little as I try to curtail the compulsive snacking in the evening. It’d be a stretch/unhealthy to get down to my target weight by New Year’s, but we’ll see what progress I can make. I’ll be sure to flex for you again if I’m feeling eumorphic (?).

Still not meditating as regularly as I was earlier this year, but I’m working on making time for that, too.

Until Next Time

Thanks for reading this far! I’ll back on Wednesday, with a new episode, no new Instax, but maybe some art. On Sunday I’ll be back with links, books, & workout craziness, & maybe a little profundity or something.

I’d like you to be schooled and in awe / As though you were kissed by God full on the lips,