Hitting The Links: 6/2/24
It's your weekly link roundup, plus my visit to LACMA, where I got into a Richard Serra
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
BEHIND THE CURVE
I’m in LA, ahead of a big biotech conference in San Diego that starts tomorrow. The first two days have been amazing. I’ve got so much to tell you, but there’s no time; I’m heading out soon to visit a past guest to catch up & take an Instax for My Book Project, then record a pair of podcasts with new guests.
Short version: On Friday I visited a pair of art galleries (Hashimoto, KARMA), and saw a pair of past guests & took some Instax pix at their place. On Saturday, I drove an hour to see another past guest, caught up with her & took one of my best Instax yet, drove back to LA to visit a disappointing bookstore, got a burrito that outweighed my car, and visited LACMA, where I saw the Ed Ruscha NOW THEN exhibition and took in some art that moved me.
It’s all a swirl, and I have questions to write out for today’s podcasts, so maybe I’ll try to put together a monologue about it all tonight when I’m back in the room, packed up for Monday morning’s train ride. Or I’ll just put out a bonus email with a rambling travelogue. I know you guys love those.
For now, here’s Richard Serra’s BAND sculpture, which absorbed me and spit me out. I’d never been up close with a Serra, except for the wedges at Storm King, and they don’t really count.
Also, this guy was at the LACMA ticket counter. I think he was disappointed that they didn’t have more Jasper Johns on display.
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And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Jim Moske • Adam Moss • Randy Fertel • D.W. Young • Jen Silverman • Leonard Barkan • Emily Raboteau
RIP Bill Walton (I saw Walton in the parking lot at the Meadowlands when my pal & I were going to the Celts-Nets eastern finals in 2002; tough to miss a 7’ guy in a tie-dyed T-shirt) . . . RIP Bette Nash . . . RIP Doug Ingle . . . RIP Scott Wampler . . .
Hey! John Kropf has his first book of poems coming out next week!
I’m glad I got to visit Big Sur a couple of times before the tourism and climate-driven disasters made it nearly inaccessible. First time was 20 years ago (next week!) when I rented a convertible and drove the PCH from San Francisco to LA, another for part of our honeymoon. The first time, I visited the Henry Miller Library and met its director, Magnus.
Magnus Torén, director of the Henry Miller Library, in 2004 Speaking of environmental disaster, go read the latest FIELD NOTES from Christopher Brown (2018, 2019, 2020, 2023).
Sebastian Smee wrote a wonderful remembrance/appreciation of Peter Schjeldahl, occasioned by the posthumous collection of Peter’s writing, The Art of Dying (which feat. an intro by Jarrett Earnest).
Speaking of art critics who have been on the show, I have a funny Jerry Saltz link, but that’ll have to wait for next week.
Roz Chast made a comic about her solo trip to Vienna and Oskar Kokoschka’s Real Girl.
Whither the suit? I packed 2 suits and 3 shirts for the 3 days of my upcoming trade show, as day 3 is going to be spent mostly off-site, so they probably won’t call me out for recycling Monday’s.
Current/Recent Reading
SWOLE: The Making of Men and the Meaning of Muscle - Michael Andor Brodeur
I Want You More - Swan Huntley
You're Grounded: An Anti-Self-Help Book to Calm You the F*ck Down - Swan Huntley
That’s Some Business You’re In - Bob Fingerman
“I had gained an insight. At great expense, but it was real and important: I was not a writer. What writers had, I did not have.”
—Karl Ove Knausgaard (tr. Don Bartlett), My Struggle: Book 5.
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
I only got in the first 4 days of my Fri-Tue workout routine last week, because I had to travel to DC on Tuesday. On the plus side, the hotel I stayed in has a (clean) yoga mat in the room, so I was able to do my morning routine Wednesday before setting off on my lobbying meetings. This week’s travel began Friday morning, and I’ve done no exercise at all, so I guess we’ll call it a rest week.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I might be back on Wednesday IF there’s a new episode (again, doubtful), but definitely on Sunday with links, books, & workout craziness, & sure maybe a little profundity or something.
If the crush of your emotions / Leave you lying in the dust / Then take it all right out on me / And leave in the rain to rust,
(Man, I’ve been listening to Workbook a lot these past few weeks.)