Hitting The Links: 3/16/25
We’ve got a ton of links, Charles Crumb’s Our Town moment, what we can love, my busy week, questions about Captain Ultra, and BIRDY! squinting for the camera
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Goodbye To Clocks Ticking
“A list of things I did in the past that I’ll probably never do again: I’ll never join a theatre guild again; I’ll never act in a play again. I’ll never do my Long John Silver imitation again; I’ll never do my imitation of Bobby Driscoll as Jim Hawkins again. I’ll never do my Treasure Island act again. I’ll never buy records again, you remember all those long-playing records I bought when we were living in Milford and Dover? Well, I’ll never do that again. I’ll never crack Jim and Mabel jokes again. I’ll never crack Jim and Elizabeth jokes again. I’ll never tell Sandy gang jokes again. I’ll never draw cartoons again; I’ll never make a homemade comic book again, will never do a two-man again. I’ll never collect comic books again. Never collect Treasure Island stills again. I’ll never pay atrocious prices for essentially cheap articles again (such as comic books and Treasure Island stills).
“Will never, for that matter, go on any collecting manias again; but I have a lot of books and you may say I collect them, but this is not altogether true, as soon as I finish reading a book I usually throw it out and only rarely do I ever reread. I’ll never go to a movie again (for one thing I can't afford it). I’ll never dance again. I’ll never wallow in self pity again, never indulge in an orgy of righteous indignation again. I’ll never argue about religion again. I’ll never attempt to argue with anybody about anything again.”
That’s from a letter by Charles Crumb, older brother of Robert Crumb, quoted in the upcoming CRUMB: A Cartoonist’s Life, by Dan Nadel (we’re recording later today). Charles was psychotic, medicated, shut-in, and brilliant. This was written almost 15 years before he killed himself, and I almost cried when I read it.
Later that day, a pal sent me this newsletter from Andrea Gibson, A List of Things I Love. If you squint right, it sorta offsets the sadness of Charles’ letter.
I’m headed out for a pharma-conference/business event in NYC today. Well, today I’m headed out for that podcast session and the MOCCA Festival. Then it’s on to twenty-two scheduled meetings, countless bumping-intos in various midtown hotel lobbies & sidewalks, and a whole lot of business pitches and policy/trend discussions, capped off by another podcast session on Thursday in Brooklyn before I head home.
I don’t have a guest lined up for this Tuesday, so the podcast will either skip a week or I’ll record a monologue in a lonely hotel room in Weehawken, NJ, in which case you’ll wish I skipped a week.
Here’s Birdy trying to squint right, speaking of things I love:
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And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Elon Green • Vanda Krefft • Seth Lorinczi • Martin Mittelmeier • Jonathan Ames • Witold Rybczynski • Matt Madden • Fred Kaplan
RIP Geoff Nicholson . . . RIP Junior Bridgeman . . . RIP The Big O . . . RIP Athol Fugard . . . RIP Herman Graf . . . RIP John Feinstein . . . RIP Fred Stolle . . . RIP Kevin Drum . . . RIP Art Schallock . . . RIP Mark Klein . . . RIP Jessie Mahaffey . . . RIP David Ehrenstein . . . RIP Simon Fisher-Becker . . .
Fascinating essay about Daniel Kahneman — the Nobel-winning economist & author of Thinking, Fast and Slow — & his decision to end his life at 90.
New poem by Henri Cole!
I never really tried to get Cynthia Ozick on the show, because I heard she’s not much for interviews. Still, this piece is a doozy.
I do love me some train travel, but never took a train specifically for the scenery/experience. Maybe that’ll be A Thing for me.
This weekend’s Air Mail posted a bunch of neat pieces, about the Waldorf-Astoria, the return of the Silver Fox, Anthony Bourdain’s assistant’s memoir, and fakirs of the early 20th century.
Really touching followup to a WSJ story from a year ago about a lawyer who fell apart due to bipolar & schizoaffective disorder. And theres’s a graphic novel tie-in (sorta).
Turns out last week’s piece on Lisa Yuskavage wasn’t a one-off; Adam Moss is continuing his amazing book, The Work of Art, with a series of occasional pieces in New York.
Also speaking of last week, REMINDER: there’s a screening of David Shields’ new doc, How We Got Here, at the Roxy in NYC on March 22, with a Q&A with Penny Lane! The companion book is fantastic (we’re recording a podcast about it all this week; you should go listen to our 3 previous ones: 2019a, 2019b, 2020).
Current/Recent Reading
Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life - Dan Nadel
How We Got Here: Melville Plus Nietzsche Divided by the Square Root of (Allan) Bloom Times Žižek Equals Bannon - David Shields
Pink Dust - Ron Padgett
To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
One line placed on the canvas committed her to innumerable risks, to frequent and irrevocable decisions. . . . Still the risk must be run; the mark made.
The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil (tr. Wilkins/Pike)
[W]ithout the power of suggestion in his appearance, a man is only a sweet watery fruit without a peel.
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
Meditation hasn’t been too fruitful lately, at least not in ways that are clear to me. Not sure how I’ll keep up that daily practice during this business travel, unless I do it in the morning before heading out to meetings. I don’t really like that timing; I prefer to zone out once the day has had its way with me a bit, and I can take the time to resettle and let my mind process all that activity in its own way. I guess I could when I get back to my hotel each evening; we’ll see.
The travel will also screw with my exercise schedule. I got in 4 days of my weights-yoga cycle, but won’t have time today for weights. I plan to take running gear & my exercise bands on both trips; since I’m driving to the hotel for the NYC conference, I can also pack a yoga mat, but don’t know if there’ll be time for full 45-min. yoga routines.
While I was meditating this week, I flashed back to a childhood issue of the Fantastic Four, where their enemies the Frightful Four were auditioning for a new 4th member. I wondered if in all the intervening years Captain Ultra’s sexuality was ever discussed.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Wednesday with a new episode (MAYBE; like I said, it’ll be a monologue, if I don’t wind up recording with someone today), some Instax throwbax, & maybe some art, and on Sunday with links, books, & workout craziness, & maybe a little profundity or something.
Now we are one in everlasting peace,