Hitting The Links: 7/20/25
Lots of links, a weekend of impromptu deep reconnections, some BIRDY!, and more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Audibles
This dispatch comes from a hotel room in Burlington, MA. I’m up here for Readercon, a literary science fiction/fantasy convention. In past years, I’d record a bunch of episodes during the weekend, but I didn’t schedule anything this time around. All I wanted was to catch up with some friends I’ve made through the podcast, and have my annual dinner with my old pal from college at a convenient halfway point between hotel and her home.
I called a couple audibles on this trip. On the way up Friday, GPS sent me up the NY Thruway, presumably to avoid sending me anywhere near Boston. Going over the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, I decided I’d stop in Beacon, NY, stretch, get coffee, hit a bookstore, etc. As I took that exit, I realized I was also close to Wappingers Falls, so I texted a friend from high school (c.1988) who lives there. We used to get together regularly before COVID, but haven’t seen each other since 2019 or ’18 or thereabouts.
He was home, so after Beacon (and a Doctor Who-themed restaurant I accidentally walked into for lunch), I drove to see him, figuring we’d have an hour together and then I’d get back out to Boston. We wound up spending ~4 hours catching up. He’d lost his father about 10-12 years ago, and we talked through our experiences, what I was going through in the immediate aftermath, how his kids have grown (now 19 & 16, and taller than me), and a lot more. It was good for my soul.
And, as it turned out, setting back out at 4:15pm meant there was absolutely no traffic on the Mass Pike. I thought maybe I was in that Twilight Zone episode where the driver doesn’t realize she’s dead, but no: I cruised for 3.5 hours and got to the hotel, dropped my bags, and stopped in at the hotel restaurants, where my pals were clearly excited to see me:
The next day, I got to see the one other friend I’d hoped to catch up with at the ‘con —
— then spent the next few hours doing some writing for my Instax book out on the patio, where I made some new friends. I got a few pieces written/finished for the book, which felt really good.
Late morning, I texted an old friend from grad school who lived somewhat close. We also hadn’t seen each other in many years, because time slips by like that if you let it. I let her know that I had to be at dinner at 5:30 in Acton, but if she was home, I’d get over there first. She hadn’t checked her phone, so she got the message at 1:45, at which point I hurried back to my room, cleaned up & repacked, and hit the road for her place, figuring I’d go straight from there to dinner.
That conversation, too, was good for my soul.
And then it was on to dinner, with aforementioned college friend. We had a deep conversation over my Korean grilled cheese, spent almost 3 hours in the restaurant talking through our lives, reflecting on each other’s changes and our own, sharing our worries for the state of the world, and letting each other in.
I don’t know if anything ‘helped’ with what I’m going through, but spending time this weekend talking with old friends — and with middle-old friends here at the ‘con — fills me with love, tells me that I have so much in my heart, that not only do these people care about me, I let them care, that I feel all these blessings alongside the void left by Dad’s death.
I’ve gotta attend a panel two of my pals are on this morning, then I’ll hit the road and stop in on some more friends in Providence, before making the long drive home.
Birdy Of The Week
The blobfish, and her pretty eyelashes
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And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Eulogy • Rachel Cockerell • Paul Karasik • Kate Maruyama • David Denby • Peter Stothard • Cecile Wajsbrot
RIP Connie Francis . . . RIP Lee Elia . . . RIP Andrew Kassoy . . . RIP Andrea Gibson . . . RIP Jewel Thais-Williams . . . RIP Fauja Singh . . . RIP Audun Groenvold . . . RIP Steve Benson . . . RIP Rosalind Fox Solomon . . .
Also, John MacArthur died. So did Felix Baumgartner.
Birdy has a penchant for swiping Amy’s slippers whenever she leaves the house, but this fox takes the cake (and all available footwear).
Neat photo-essay by Jim Moske about the artistry of early jet-era design.
Ooh! David Leopold has a new book coming on Hirschfeld’s Sondheim!
Amazing review by Brandy Jensen of the big William F. Buckley, Jr. biography (& conservatism).
The big conference I attend every March in midtown NYC used to be centered on the Waldorf Astoria, until that closed in 2017 for renovations. It’ll be reopening soon, and this is a pretty gorgeous way of showing it off. (I’ll continue to stay at the Envue in Weehawken, NJ and take the ferry over each day.)
Seems like AI summaries & the like are destroying traffic to all sorts of online media. Jason Koehler at 404 Media (subscribe!) has thoughts about media’s “pivot to AI”.
For my part, I don’t keep track of the podcast’s downloads or YouTube views, for reasons related to life being too short. This newsletter goes out to 1050 addresses, and the only tracking function is # of opens, which is generally like 50-55%. I do wonder if anyone’s fed my show into an AI service for a summary, because that would be pretty funny: “I don’t know; two guys just talk about stuff for an hour. The intro was pretty long and I tuned out. . . .”
No matter what my frame of mind, I AM HERE for any & all stories about how NEOM is going. Not sure I’d take a job as a consultant on the project, though. . . .
Current/Recent Reading
Authority: Book 2 of The Southern Reach - Jeff VanderMeer
The Feeling - Whitney Matheson
The Elfland Prepositions - Henry Wessells
Another Green World - Henry Wessells
Kaddish - Allen Ginsberg (& mourner’s kaddish every morning)
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
Another derailed week. Too much work + emotional stuff on Wednesday, so no weights, got in yoga on Thursday, spent all of Friday in transit, so no weights. Brought my yoga mat to Readercon so I could at least do my morning routine & meditation, but no room for yoga in the hotel room.
Didn’t get to meditate as often as I wanted, but it still helped disconnect me from myself. On Friday, at the end of the night in the hotel room, I put on my AirPods and in the dark I sat on my bed & listened to O Superman by Laurie Anderson, and breathed.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll try to be back on Wednesday, but I don’t know if I’ll have a new episode to share. On Sunday I’ll be back with links, books, & workout craziness, & maybe a little profundity or something.
I let my skin get too thin / I'd like to pause, no matter what I pretend / Like some pilgrim who learns to transcend / Learns to live as if each step was the end,