Hotarugari
This one's got a new podcast about Pilobolus, a close encounter with fireflies, Tintinstax, a greyhound haunch, and more of my inscrutable life!
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week I posted Episode 594 of The Virtual Memories Show feat. author, publicist and partially involved narrator Robert Pranzatelli as we celebrate his amazing new book, PILOBOLUS: A Story of Dance and Life (University Press of Florida). We talk about the origins of the legendary Pilobolus dance company, his transformational first experience seeing them in 1997, the workshops he took with them and the friendships they engendered, and the “itchy fingers” moment when he realized he had to write their history. We also get into Pilobolus’ unique melding of improvisation and dance technique, the joyful challenge of describing their dance pieces on the page, the importance of capturing the time capsule of Pilobolus’ ’70s roots (and covering All The Affairs, along with the friendships and fallings-out), how Pilobolus was taken seriously by dance critics long after audiences flocked to them, the company’s through-line in its 50+-year history and how they managed to continue the tradition of something that was based on overthrowing tradition. Plus we discuss Robert’s history as a writer, how Metal Hurlant & Moebius blew his mind as a teen, how he became a book publicist at Yale University Press, his greatest eBay score, why he got choked up while reading a text he sent Pilobolus’ artistic directors after a performance, and more. Give it a listen! And go read PILOBOLUS: A Story of Dance and Life
Last week I posted Episode 593, feat. cartoonist-humorist-author Bob Fingerman as we celebrate (lament?) his 40th year in comics and his new career retrospective book, That’s Some Business You’re In (Zoop, with an intro by Bill Sienkiewicz!). We got together in LA to talk about that milestone, what it meant to him to bring together decades of his comics, art, and illustration into a single volume, the challenges of writing the narrative to his work-life, and what he learned from looking at the arc of his career. We get into the ‘maybe someday’ vibe of the big projects he wants to tackle, the process of getting over his younger shame at making comics for, um, ‘lower-prestige’ (but well-paying) magazines, the distance he needed on his best-known comic, Minimum Wage, the artist’s retrospective he really wants to see, and his true artistic goal. We also discuss the life-changing stuff — like addressing the tension between narcissism and imposter syndrome, the nature of change, the toxicity of NYC, and the need to leave a better memory — while we talk about life in LA, the way his characters changed from punching bags to people, the joy of hummingbirds and small dogs, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go get That’s Some Business You’re In
Recent episodes: Swan Huntley • Stan Mack • Jim Moske • Adam Moss • Randy Fertel • D.W. Young • Jen Silverman
Fireflies
I took Benny out yesterday for his twilight constitutional, watched greyhound-turn-pointer in his pee-stance near the driveway. He stood still in the yard after that, picking up scents or listening for echoes. I watched the fireflies in their slow, heavy hover, blinking in and out of sight, calling for mates, celebrating their 3 or 4 weeks of adult life.
We started to walk across the dry grass and clover when I felt something on my calf. Thinking it was a mosquito, I slapped at it, only to see it was a firefly, now crushed, lit and dimming in the dirt, greenish-yellow. I stepped down to end its plight, grinding its fluorescence on my sole.
We reached the other side of the yard, where Benny peed again. He posed above moss that was dead and bleached from many an evening’s walkies.
Closer to the trees, more fireflies blinked near and far, punch-drunk pattern. Benny ignored it, out of his spectrum, but I gazed, gentle then transfixed. One landed on my leg, then another on my forearm, and too late I realized they were swarming, the strobe of their blinking tails paralyzing me surer than venom.
The loop of his leash slipped from my hand, but Benny stood by, too loyal or too interested in the evening air to move from my side. As the fireflies continued to settle on me, I tried to remember whether they feed as adults, or if that’s only the larvae.
The blinking kept me immobilized, left to wonder if this was retaliation for killing one of their own just now, or a longer-term revenge for my childhood summertime cruelties. I’ve spent most of my 53 years beside these trees; perhaps I am legend to them. They gathered in my hair.
Other possibilities flashed as they collected on me: useless superpowers, a message of ecological destruction, transport to their beetle kingdom, a warning that the garage light is too bright, a nest for next year’s brood. I could feel the pulsing of their bodies as a slight buzz in my ears.
I remembered a verse of Nick Cave’s Fireflies:
We have lived a long time here in the forest
We lie beneath the heaps of leaves
We are partial to this partial light
We cannot sleep and fear our dreams
There is no order here, nothing can be planned
We are fireflies trapped in a little boy’s hand
And everything is distant as the stars
I am here and you are where you are
Sweet agoraphobic Benny nosed my leg to remind me to bring him back inside, and the spell was broken. The fireflies dispersed and I reached down to take up his leash. We walked to the front door, and I looked back to the woods, saw them blinking in secret harmony.
Artistry
I didn’t do much drawing-painting last week. I started a postcard of a tiger lily, but it was too messy. I made a quick brush-pen sketch of Benny’s rear left leg/haunch + tail, but screwed up the proportion of the lower half. As is his wont, he moved 15 seconds into this sketch, so I literally took his leg and put it back in position. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Postcardery
Let me know if you want to be on my postcard-a-day list. (Financial supporters of the podcast get a hand-drawn/painted postcard as a thank-you. I’m falling behind on those; better get to making some art!)
Kickstartery
Here’s the Instax pic I took at Robert Pranzatelli’s place on Saturday:
I’m going to make a book of these — Instax on left, some sorta writing on right, similar to Jarrett Earnest’s Valid Until Sunset — that I plan on launching via Kickstarter later this year. All the pix will be from my 2024 in-person podcasts, as well as when I get together with past guests; the pix won’t be of the people themselves, but of something of theirs, or something in their environment.
If you’ve got ideas about what sort of rewards I should make for different tiers of donors — like, things you’d love to receive if you contributed, say, $30, $40, $50 OR A WHOLE LOT MORE to this project — let me know. (Plus, ideas for stretch goals, on the remote chance you people actually support this project.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Sunday (from an undisclosed location!) with links, books, & workouts, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some art & more Instax.
We are partial to this partial light,