Hitting The Links: 3/3/24
This one's got the enablers of my postcard-habit, a ton of links, a little health-update, my Blu-Ray plunge, sociopaths & C.H.U.D.s, & more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Going Post(card)al
I’ve mentioned it a bazillion times already, but I started mailing out a postcard every mail-day as a 2022 New Year’s Resolution. I’ve kept up the practice since; if I miss a day for whatever reason, I make up for it when I’ve got time. I occasionally make a watercolor postcard for supporters of the show and various friends. When I’m traveling, I try to pack some pre-stamped cards, and write one in my hotel room each morning.
Yesterday, I wondered what the postal carriers think about the sheer, monotonous consistency of My Whole Postcard Thing.
I imagine them driving up the hill and seeing the red flag up on my mailbox: “Another postcard? Is it one of those Sibley bird ones, or a Criterion one? Did he paint one this time?”
Do the images catch their eye, or do they just put them in the outgoing box for processing at the post office down the street? Do they read them before putting them away? Do they notice my hand-made ones and take a moment to appreciate or critique my art? Do they wonder about the days when there’s no card, fret if it stretches into two or three days? “I’d like to call in a wellness check; he hasn’t mailed a postcard all week.”
I like to think it’s at least a little meaningful to them, this anonymous person writing his thoughts on a card for the world to see. Maybe they’re glad that someone’s using the postal service for something other than bills or circulars.
Maybe they just look to see that there’s a stamp, and go on to the next house.
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And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Japan, a monologue • Scott Guild • Aaron Lange • Donald J. Robertson • Elizabeth Flock • David Thomson
RIP Ramona Fradon . . . RIP Richard Lewis . . . RIP Iris Apfel . . . RIP Jacob Rothschild . . . RIP Jaime Lee Moyer . . . RIP David Bordwell . . .
Dean Haspiel’s got a neat new Kickstarter going (through March 28)! You should support that! I’ll get him on the show to talk about it soon.
Willard Spiegelman (2013, 2016, 2018, 2023) wrote about an amazing collection of glass invertebrates of Mystic, CT.
If a human being wrote this piece on iconic ‘90s menswear moments, I suspect that human being wasn’t actually alive in the ‘90s.
Speaking of/alluding to AI, I don’t know; I guess it’s nice that someone wants to read my old blog posts.
Apparently, Sports Twitter is dead, per Will Leitch.
Scott Guild wrote about the music in his novel, PLASTIC, being in a new wave band, and trying to read Finnegans Wake on tour.
I just ordered a Blu-Ray player and a bunch of discs, because Criterion was having a half-price sale, and I thought I'd finally take the plunge. Trying to pick a few first discs reminded me of when I bought a DVD player back in the early ’00s. The first DVDs I bought were Three Kings, Stop Making Sense, and (duh) The Matrix. This time around, it was The Tree Of Life, Local Hero, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Ikiru, and (duh) Miller’s Crossing.
Go watch Ikiru David Marchese had a neat conversation with Patric Gagne about being a sociopath. There’s a part where David wonders whether “the skills that I’ve learned from doing my job over the years are basically just forms of interpersonal manipulation”, which I’m totally in tune with. I mean, I’ve said before that the best aspect of making the podcast (last Tuesday was the 12th anniversary of my first interview for the show!) is how it’s taught me to listen to other people and ask questions to get them to go deeper. You could easily argue that what I’ve learned is manipulation, even if my goal isn’t “bad”.
This piece on the NYC subway’s repair shops has beautiful photography by Christopher Payne, an admission that C.H.U.D.s lurk in the tunnels, and the implication that there’s at least one Subway Car Of Theseus out there.
I enjoyed this profile of Alan Ritchson, even though I haven’t watched Reacher yet (I saw the s2 trailer and decided I need a wider TV just to fit him on screen). Also, when I was at the movies a week or so ago, I laughed very hard during the trailer of Ordinary Angels, because they dress him in human clothes and make him handle human-sized props.
Sorry it’s dark, but this is the best screencap I could get of the trailer
Current/Recent Reading
The Werewolf At Dusk, and Other Stories - David Small
Frank Johnson, Secret Pioneer of American Comics Vol. 1: Wally's Gang Early Years (1928-1949) and the Bowser Boys (1946-1950) - Frank Johnson, ed. Chris Byrne & Keith Mayerson
Facing Down the Furies: Suicide, THe Ancient Greeks, and Me - Edith Hall
“Children were life, and who would turn their back on life? And writing, what else was it but death? Letters, what else were they but bones in a cemetery?”
—Karl Ove Knausgaard (tr. Don Bartlett), My Struggle: Book 2
Fractured Body, Fractured Mind
I’m feeling guardedly better (that whole neck-shoulder thing), so I started doing my morning routine again last Thursday, after almost a month without any exercise beyond walking. Decided to play it safe & swap out the 75-sec. plank & 20 pushups (10 fist, 10 palm) with 20 exercise band rows and 10 prisoner squats. Feels good to get that in again at the start of the day. I might try my 45-min. yoga workout today, but I worry my pre-cobra hold may not be good for me. I’m at my heaviest in almost 2 years, so I need to get active. I mean, I look okay (in mid-waist pants), but still:
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Wednesday with a new episode and some art, and on Sunday with links, books, & non-workout craziness, & who knows maybe a little profundity or something.
Somewhere in a lonely hotel room / There’s a guy starting to realize / That eternal fate has turned its back on him / It’s 2 a.m.,