Hitting The Links: 6/22/25
Tons of great links, a little time in the Quiet Room, some new reading, an update on where I've been, progress on my book, and Birdy gets slatternly
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
The Topless Towers of Ilium
Picking up where we left off: I met up with Karl Stevens Wednesday morning for coffee & conversation (off-mic), spent a few more hours at the BIO meeting, then drove 4.5 hours back to NJ.
I got to see some glory on Thursday morning walkies with Birdy:
And on Friday our sparse, too-shaded tiger lilies made their triumphant return:
Astonishingly, I managed to write a bunch of pieces for GUEST/HOST on Friday and Saturday, which makes me feel like I can actually finish this book and get to work on production and crowdfunding. Last week, I alluded to taking some time off from All This so I could work on it, but then things just opened up and I found myself actually putting words on paper (and then typing them into my reMarkable 2 tablet).
One of the pieces is about how, even though all the Instax photos in the book were from 2024, there’s almost nothing in the writing that indicates when this is happening. My journals are largely like that, in terms of not referencing current/world events all that much.
It’s not because I find myself so fascinating — I mean, I do — but because I have nothing I want to share in writing, even with myself.
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As far as world events go, I did ask Fred Kaplan last December whether we were slow-walking into WWIII. Go listen to that one for his assessment at the time. And keep up with Fred’s War Stories column on Slate.
Birdy Of The Week
She’s a classy lady.
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And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Kate Maruyama • David Denby • Peter Stothard • Cecile Wajsbrot • Keiler Roberts • Peter Kuper • Vauhini Vara
RIP William Langewiesche . . . RIP Leonard Lauder . . . RIP Anne Burrell . . . RIP Dave Scott . . . RIP Dan Storper (about a month ago) . . . RIP Lou Christie . . .
Mimi Pond (2014a, 2014b, 2017a, 2017b) critiques the TV series Outrageous from her perspective as a Mitford Sisters biographer. (I hope to record a new podcast with her this fall when her bio, Do Admit, comes out.)
Zombie malls deserve a decent burial (after you destroy their brains, of course).
Speaking of zombies, I’ve seen nearly all of Danny Boyle’s movies, and this list by Tim Grierson and Will Leitch is pretty close to how I’d rank them.
ELECTRIC NEBRASKA?! Sure, why not
Michael Dirda (2012, 2014, 2015) reviews Zachary Leader’s biography of James Joyce’s biographer, Richard Ellmann.
Steven Heller (2018, 2019, 2022) interviewed the curators of the new Ben Shahn exhibition, which I need to get into the city & see.
Great Bluesky thread by Derek Guy about “ugliness” and changing perceptions of male beauty.
The great designer Michael Beirut retired a little while back. I’ve wanted to get him on the show for a long time, but the one time we briefly met, I was under my self-imposed “don’t pitch the podcast at someone’s memorial service” edict (Sandy McClatchy’s, if you must know). In the meantime, you should go read his Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design (and anything else he writes).
I know it’s desperate times for authors, but “I’ll publish my book through an ephemeral video platform with national security risks” did not seem like an advisable course of action.
A pal of mine looked me up in some newspaper archives, and sent me this blast from the past (2003, specifically) from when I was a) a micropress publisher with a new novel about 9/11 from Paul West, and b) far wittier than I am nowadays. You’ll have to read to the end to get what I mean. (Here’s a link to the jpg.)
Also, I’m sure I cited him while being interviewed for that piece, but the reporter didn’t include it: Voyant Publishing wouldn’t have existed without the efforts and connection of Vincent Czyz.
Current/Recent Reading
Great Books - David Denby
Annihilation: Book 1 of The Southern Reach - Jeff VanderMeer
Melting Point: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Promised Land - Rachel Cockerell
The Man Without Qualities, Vol. 2 - Robert Musil (tr. Wilkins & Pike)
“Well, because of that hullabaloo in the street outside my house that afternoon, which you observed, we’ve set up a Commission to Ascertain the Desires of the Concerned Sections of the Population in Reference to Administrative Reform,” Count Leinsdorf told him. . . .
With a straight face Ulrich assured him that at any rate the Commission’s name had been well chosen and was likely to have a certain effect.
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
Well, I blew my workout routine again. I brought a yoga mat with me to Boston, so at least I could do my morning 15-min. routine, but I missed weights on Wednesday because I was in transit from Boston, yoga on Thursday because of a call from a (work, but also personal) friend, and weights Friday because I was in a writing groove for GUEST/HOST. I did get in a full yoga workout yesterday, and doing weights today for the first time in like 2 weeks is gonna suck, but I have to get that rhythm back, or things will go downhill.
I didn’t get to meditate back in my hotel room during the conference, but on Monday I arrived about 30 min. before the exhibit hall opened, so I decided to check out the Quiet Room. It lived up to its billing; it was a conference room with a couple projectors putting up animations of microscopy images, like cells and such. There were 3 people in there: 2 guys working on their laptops quietly, and one guy asleep in a chair. I took a seat, doffed my jacket, put my phone in Do Not Disturb, and spent about 15 minutes meditating as the cell-animations passed by. It felt pretty good, got me relaxed before heading to the trade show.
Been keeping up with meditation at home, but I still find myself tripping into sorta hallucinatory/dream scenarios, though I don’t think I’m actually falling asleep. I’ll keep riding it.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Wednesday with a new episode, maybe a new Instax, & some art, and on Sunday with links, books, & workout craziness, & maybe a little profundity or something.
Birds and snakes and aeroplanes / And Lenny Bruce is not afraid,