Less Than A Feeling
A new podcast at last!, + the Quiet Car to Boston, the upside of anxiety, the week ahead, a little art, and my vanishing point
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week I got off my butt and posted Episode 591 of The Virtual Memories Show! Legendary cartoonist & artist Stan Mack pioneered documentary comics and bought New York’s multitudes to life every week with Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies (RLF) in the Village Voice, and now he joins the show to celebrate the publication of STAN MACK’S REAL LIFE FUNNIES: The Collected Conceits, Delusions, and Hijinks of New Yorkers from 1974 to 1995 (Fantagraphics)! We talk about winnowing down 1,000+ RLF strips to 275 for this book, the comic’s secret origin and how we share some Milton Glaser conceptual DNA, what he learned about cartooning and storytelling, the creeping realization that people were actually reading RLF, and how he and the comic grew over 20+ years. We get into whether Real Life Funnies and its snippets of street dialogue could work today when everybody just stares at their phones, how his pre-Voice stint as art director at the New York Herald Tribune made an editor out of him, how he became an activist and used RLF to highlight the squatters’ rights movement, the AIDS crisis, and more, how important the Village Voice was to NYC and America in the ’70s and ’80s and why we need to bring it out of the pre-digital memory hole (a la DW Young & his new documentary, UNCROPPED), Stan’s failure as a backup dancer for Lionel Richie, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go get STAN MACK’S REAL LIFE FUNNIES: 1974-1995!
Recent episodes: Jim Moske • Adam Moss • Randy Fertel • D.W. Young • Jen Silverman • Leonard Barkan • Emily Raboteau
Vanishing Point
Last week at the biotech trade show/meeting in San Diego, I spoke too authoritatively about a big legislative policy affecting my sector, and for my sins one of my member companies asked me to come up to Boston to speak about that at an event they’re holding today. It’s the start of what promises to be a taxing week, although of course other people have real jobs/problems.
My session is 11:30 a.m., and my plan was to hit the road at 5, get to Boston 9-9:30, drop my stuff in the hotel, and walk over to the event space, because the only train that would get me there in time leaves Stamford at 5:52 a.m., and that’s ~1 hour from my house. Much as I hate driving in Boston, nothing else made sense (except going up the night before, but hotel rates are through the roof this week and I didn’t want to hit the client with a bill for 2 nights).
The upside of my crippling anxiety, of course, is that I got up even earlier than planned, was on the road by 4:30, made it to the train station with 25 minutes to spare, and am now sitting in relative comfort in the Quiet Car of the Acela to Back Bay.
That’ll give me time to refine (haha read: continue to expand) my several-thousand-word script, written yesterday while listening to the buzz-saws, hammering, and salsa music of the kitchen renovation happening above my office-library (it’s looking great; the noise can just be a bit much).
As we drift into New Haven, here are some of the highlights of the week ahead, for those of you playing the home version of our game:
Wednesday - up to Boston, give presentation 11:30, schmooze, Fenway tour, Phils-Sox game
Thursday - train to Stamford, drive home [this is the easy day, except for the ~4 hours in transit and the fact that I’ll likely have had a crap night sleeping in the hotel in Boston]
Friday - work + oncologist appt. to see how my leukemia’s doing [presumably still dormant and not requiring treatment, but you never know] [oh hey speaking of anxiety]
Saturday - Catskills Fire Tower Challenge W/Old Friend, Part 2: Hunter Mountain hike [4.7 miles, 2,000' climb, which is why I will laugh when the oncologist asks if I’ve been feeling anemic or otherwise low-energy]
Sunday - podcast in NYC 10am, maybe take Dad out for late lunch?, edit next week’s show
Monday - train to DC, give 10-min. presentation at FDA workshop, hope no one asks me anything on my panel
Tuesday - lobbying visits on the Hill, potential meetings with [REDACTED] and [REDACTED], train to NWK, drive home
Thrills aplenty. Again, other people have real jobs/problems. See you on the other side.
Art
I didn’t do any drawing-painting at all last week. I was so bummed about that yesterday evening that I made a quick, kinda weird/jagged Japanese White Eye postcard, just for you. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Postcardery
I caught up on my postcard habit after I got back from California. 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.)
Kickstartery
I didn’t record with anyone or see any past guests last week, so no new Instax pictures for my 2024 art-book: sorry!
But yeah, I’m going to make a book that I plan on launching via Kickstarter (unless you know a publisher who’s interested in my weird vision). 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. (Thanks to a listener/reader who sent me over to look at Craig Mod’s model for doing this sorta thing.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workouts, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some art & more Instax.
You can dress in pink and blue just like a child / and in a yellow taxi turn to me and smile / We’ll be there in just a while,