New Leash On Life
This one's got the year-end recap episode, the newest & fluffiest member of the Virtual Memories family, the final Instax pix for my book, and more
The Virtual Memories Show News
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This week, I posted Episode 619 of The Virtual Memories Show! It’s the end of the year, so I decided to take stock of 2024 with a big ol’ year-in-review monologue! I get personal while talking about what I’ve learned from the podcast & his guests this year, how we continue to change each other’s lives, the moment I found my Spirit Jacket, my communion with a Roman sculpture, the validation of my year-long Instax-book project, the joy of hiking the Catskills with an old friend, my big work-anniversary, the thrilling circumstances of my debilitating neck injury, the best non-clinical moment one can have in an oncology setting, the new addition to the Virtual Memories family, my 2025 wants (NOT resolutions), and above all, the question of whether a person can really change (and okay, above that, the question of what ‘change’ means). (Me being me, there are plenty of digressions & other topics over the course of 50 minutes.) Give it a listen!
Last week, I posted Episode 618, the twelfth anniversary edition of a Virtual Memories tradition: The Guest List! I reached out to 2024’s pod-guests and asked them about the favorite book(s) they read in the past year, as well as the books or authors they’re hoping to read in 2025, and 22 guests responded with wonderful, idiosyncratic, and illuminating book recommendations: Roland Allen, Shalom Auslander, Laura Beers, Sven Birkerts, Mirana Comstock, Leela Corman, Nicholas Delbanco, Benjamin Dreyer, Eric Drooker, Randy Fertel, Sammy Harkham, Frances Jetter, Ken Krimstein, Jim Moske, Robert Pranzatelli, Jess Ruliffson, Dmitry Samarov, Dash Shaw, David Small, Benjamin Swett, Maurice Vellekoop, and D.W. Young! (I kicked in my own faves & goals, as part of a rambling monologue that feeds into this week’s recap episode)! This annnual episode of The Virtual Memories Show offers up a huge list of books that you’re going to want to read in the new year! Give it a listen, go check out all the great books they talk about, and visit the archive page with all of The Guest List episodes back to 2013!
Recent episodes: Benjamin Swett • Ken Krimstein • Eddie Campbell • Caitlin McGurk • Frances Jetter • Roland Allen • Eric Drooker
New Leash On Life
Happy New Year! In last year’s NYE newsletter, I listed a bunch of goals/resolutions for 2024. Amazingly, I managed to deliver on all of them, except for putting out a new issue of my Haiku for Business Travelers ‘zine. That’s the triumph of low expectations, friends.
This week’s monologue episode goes into some of what I want to do in 2025 — along with lots of other digressions — so just listen to that sometime to get a sense of where I am and such. (And check out The Guest List episode from the week before, as that’s got great book recommendations from 2024’s guests and a whole monologue on my selections & how they’ve changed me.)
I did leave the year-end episode with a bit of a cliffhanger, which I oughtta resolve here.
I recorded the morning of Dec. 30, and mentioned that, 6 weeks after losing Benny, we were going to welcome our new rescue doggo that evening. And so, Nova / Birdy / (Nervous) Nellie has become part of the Virtual Memories family.
It’s been a little more than 36 hours, and we’re all getting to know each other, but by last night she seemed to be possessed by Benny’s ghost, getting up on the leather sofa & cockroaching away. (Later on, she demonstrated that she’s a lot smarter than Benny, by somehow opening up her crate after we put her to bed post-New Year’s celebration.)
After 15+ years of greyhounds, it’ll take me some getting used to having a dog that isn’t all angles and gawkiness (cue “people who look like their pets” jokes), but I discovered a lot of fluidity in myself this past year, so I’ll keep rolling with the changes in 2025.
Here’s me last Friday, when I was feeling my bliss.
I hope — world situation notwithstanding — that you’ve got a great year ahead of you, & that you can bring some joy, kindness, & art into the wold.
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Instaxery
As mentioned in the last couple of newsletters, my big Instax project was 2024-centric, so the above are the last ones I’ll shoot & share (unless I start up something else, but I don’t want to initiate another major project until I’ve finished the writing & production for this one). Starting from top left, the first two were from NYC on Friday, where I had my Signs & Portents day; the next one was at an old friend’s here in NJ on Saturday; the bottom tier were from Sunday in NYC, after which I had a lengua burrito from my favorite taco truck, on 96th St., and devoured it while driving on the West Side Highway, GWB, and Rt. 4 (I finished it while passing the Riverside Square Mall).
One of the ‘rules’ of the book I’m making is that these pictures will run in chronological order, so that means you’re seeing the final five images. I planned #s 2 & 5, in terms of my knowing what I wanted to shoot. The others — every other picture I took for this project — was part of The Moment, with no plan in mind.
Let’s find out what comes next.
Artistry
I’m just making a sketch every day with a rollerball pen in a cheap notebook, but no ‘real’ art, except for everything else I do. Which is to say, I haven’t made any other drawings or watercolors. 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 or painted postcard as a thank-you.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workout-craziness, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some art, but no more Instax (at least, not for the book project).
Though torn in two / We can be one,