Hitting The Links: 4/21/24
This one's got notes on notepads, book-hunting, Basque cheesecake, a ton of great links, multiple choice Knausgaard, and more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
CHOOSE LIFE
Last month I finally ran out of the Calepino notepads I’d been using for my daily journal since July 2019. The maker’s out of stock, w/no sign of more coming in. Though I enjoyed Bruce Chatwin’s The Songlines, I had no desire to shift over to Moleskine notebooks, because I’m a goddamned snob.
Instead I opened the drawer in The Analog Desk, took out a notepad I bought in a Tokyo newsstand in Feb. 2020 — LIFE’s Vermilion A6 graph — and tried it out. The paper’s smoother/less toothy than Calepino’s, and the pages are a little larger, which makes my daily-page practice slightly tougher, but I like it enough that I just bought another 10 of them. So, yes, “I only write in notepads from the South of France Gil” has become “I only write in these strange Japanese notepads Gil”.
This isn’t to say that I write anything profound — or even legible — in those pages, but at least it’s a routine.
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And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Leonard Barkan • Emily Raboteau • Trillian Stars/Kyle Cassidy (bonus ep.) • Leela Corman • Keith Mayerson • Edith Hall • David Small
RIP Akebono . . . RIP Whitey Herzog . . . RIP Patti Astor . . . RIP Dickey Betts . . . RIP Daniel Dennett . . .
I slipped this in a few weeks ago, but it deserves pride of place, so I’m including it again: Michael Dirda’s 14 tips for shopping in used-book stores.
During my trade show in NYC, I had a free evening, so I went down to Strand Book Store looking for a couple things that I didn’t find. I went around the corner to Alabaster Bookshop, in search of used books, didn’t see anything I wanted, and headed for the exit. THEN I noticed a hardcover of Lampedusa’s The Leopard in a dust jacket I’d never seen. I opened it and saw that it was the first US edition. I thought, “That’d complement my first UK edition perfectly!”, and $95 + tax later, I had my 7th copy of one of my favorite novels.
After that I went over to the B&N at the top of Union Square to find the books I’d been looking for at Strand. Here’s the whole stash:
MOAR BOOKS Matt Zoller-Seitz interviewing Giancarlo Esposito? Sign me up!
Maybe THIS is the year I win the Extracorporeal Immunomodulation Award! (Whatever that is)
While I’m always glad to see a piece on men & women in their 50s (and a little younger) discovering the benefits of working out, the stereotype of Wall Street traders means that this will likely devolve into a competition that’s going to become rife with steroid abuse and debilitating injuries, AND I AM HERE FOR IT.
Another one of those NYRoB issues where a ton of my past guests have great pieces: Darryl Pinckney wrote about the Met’s new exhibition on the Harlem Renaissance, Anahid Nersessian reviewed the novels of Constance Debré, and Jarrett Earnest wrote about Tom Of Finland (!!!!).
I shot a few Instax pix during visits to Tom Tomorrow & Jesse Sheidlower this week for that weird art book I hope to run a Kickstarter for later this year. (I didn’t record with either of them this time; apparently, it’s possible to just hang out with people and not actually make a podcast out of it. Who knew?)
Yeah, yeah, I’m making a book
Current/Recent Reading
There’s Going To Be Trouble - Jen Silverman
I‘m torn between “When we were together I always left early so that he wouldn’t discover how boring I really was”,
or, “Oh, this is the song about being sixteen years old and sitting on a bus and thinking about her, the one, not knowing that feelings will slowly, slowly, weaken and fade, that life, that which is now so vast and so all-embracing, will inexorably dwindle and shrink until it is a manageable entity that doesn’t hurt so much, but nor is it as good”,
but I should probably just go with, “But, if I knew Jøgge, he would be lying on his water bed listening to Peter Gabriel.”
—Karl Ove Knausgaard (tr. Don Bartlett), My Struggle: Book 4
Fractured Body, Fractured Mind
Last week’s workout plans were derailed by travel (not by laziness: that’s my story and I’m sticking to it), but I’m hoping to get my full 5-day cycle of weights-yoga in this week (Friday-Tuesday). I also did a 3.75-mi. walk with a few of The Guys this morning, which was a good start to a Sunday. I did a ton of walking during my trade show in NYC last week, so yay me, but I ate a lot more than I was expecting to (incl. 3 slices of Basque Cheesecake at Little Spain Mercado), so I feel like an amorphous blob.
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, & workout craziness, & who knows maybe a little profundity or something.
And I have no religion / And I don’t know what’s what,