LAX & Relax
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 571 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. the great cartoonist and humorist Ed Subitzky! Ed has received his long-delayed due with the new collection, POOR HELPLESS COMICS! (New York Review Comics), so we sat down to talk about his amazing career at National Lampoon, how he developed his 'can’t draw' style after taking a cartooning class with RO Blechman & Charles Slackman A DOZEN TIMES, how the Rapidograph became his Excalibur, and why this collection includes some of his favorite prose pieces alongside all the comics. We get into how he began experimenting with the form & structure of comics, his lifelong fascination with science and philosophy and how that led to him getting published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies, how he juggled all these great comics and humor pieces with his longtime career writing direct marketing pieces, and how it took preparing this book and looking back at his work for him to realize his comics were really funny. Give it a listen! And go read Poor Helpless Comics!
Last week, I posted Episode 570 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. artist Chris Silverman! For his #notesArt project, Chris has been making gorgeous, weird, haunting artwork daily for more than 2 years, using only his iPhone’s Notes app and his fingertips. We get into how #notesArt began, how it’s evolved, what his drawing process is like, what it’s been like to build an audience for his art, and how viewers bring their own meanings to his #notesArt. We talk about the challenges of keeping up a regular art practice (daily!), how upgrading to iOS 17 jump-started his new creative phase, whether Undo is his friend or enemy, and the subconscious burbling that gives birth to the images he draws. We also share our thoughts on mortality, authenticity and identity, what it means to share your art with the world, the pressure that comes when someone is watching, and more! Give it a listen, and go check out #notesArt!
Recent episodes: Silence, a monlogue • The Guest List • Jarrett Earnest • Christian Wiman • Danny Fingeroth • Matt Bors • Phillip Lopate
LAX & Relax
Crash
Flash
Delete the cache / dreams fall out
"Happy Birthday Gil!" —4:16 a.m.
"❤️"
53rd birthday - 5:30 a.m. - 5.3km run
Off the figurative treadmill, on the literal treadmill
Pick up car, see the Getty, watch the Lakers
Or don't
No plans for a day on my own
70' palm trees beside the pool, LAX hangar & runway across the street
reLAX
I feel bad that I didn't set anything up with friends in LA for this visit, but if I can't spend time on my birthday thinking about how I let lots of people down, am I even alive?
Art
I hoped to draw more on this trip, but didn't (so far). On the flight to SFO on Sunday, I made this flower from a photo, with ink + watercolor pencil + pen-brush (that is, a nylon brush in a pen-body w/a water reservoir so you can wet it). I like how it came out, given the constraints: long-ass flight, contact-lenses in & dry eyes, airplane tray space, etc. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workout craziness, and Wednesday with a new episode, maybe some art, & who knows maybe a little profundity or something.
I will give you diamonds by the shower / Love your body even when it's old / Do it just as only I can do it / And never ever doing what I'm told,