No Geography
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Intro
[This began as an Instagram post, but transformed]
On November 12, 2019 I stayed in the Historic Hotel Bethlehem in Bethlehem, PA for a client event the next morning. That night, I wrote Tom Spurgeon an e-mail about a new episode of my show going up. The next day, I got home from the event and received the call that my closest friend had suddenly died a few days earlier.
I visited the same client last week at their site in Allentown. I stopped at Bethlehem on the way home. It was the last place I occupied when I thought Tom was alive, and I wanted to see if the place resonated for me.
It didn’t. Maybe my share of mortal-emotional tumult the past few days made me unreceptive, but I don’t think it was post-Denneny hangover (nor that I’m dead inside, always a possibility); I think it was that I did a good job of finally grieving Tom six months ago, in a story I want to tell you sometime.
A few weeks ago, I’d considered telling you that story from the hotel: rent a room for a weekend and record a monologue about My Week Of Transformation And Grieving. That’s why I made this visit; to see if that place mattered in my soul, if a hotel room could be meaningful.
But “Unto the Dead / There’s no Geography” wrote Emily Dickinson (#479).
I’m in another hotel room for another trade show, watching evening descend on Manhattan across the Hudson, listening to Nick Cave’s Ghosteen, which I’m quite aware is not my best idea.
Back to Bethlehem. I enjoyed walking around Main Street by light of day last week. When I was there in 2019, it was already night, and winter-cold, and most all the shops were closed. I took in the pre-Christmas vibe and the quaint brick buildings. I wanted to bring Amy there one weekend, closer to Christmastime. But then Tom, and the world ending.
This time, a sunny afternoon, I got a coffee at a Bitty & Beau’s Coffee. I wasn’t aware of the shop’s model of employing staff with Down syndrome and other intellectual & developmental disabilities, but they were really cheery about my suit, and about my hair, once I let it down.
After coffee, I picked up a copy of Nina Simone’s Gum, by Warren Ellis (the musician), at “the oldest continuously operating bookstore in the world,” Moravian Book Shop (est. 1745), and some neat olive oils for Amy at a nice gourmet shop, and drove home.
On the road I thought about that night in 2019, when I was enchanted by the place and didn’t know what awaited me at home. When I sent an e-mail that would never be answered. But I didn’t let it get to me.
I’d still like to bring Amy there, but any old time.
And now, on with The Virtual Memories Show.
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 536 of The Virtual Memories Show. Writer & cartoonist Ho Che Anderson rejoins the show to talk about the completing the 2nd volume of his science-fiction adventure GODHEAD (Fantagraphics). We get into how GODHEAD changed over the years, where the idea of a device that lets users commune with God came from, why he likes bringing philosophy & theology to action-adventure, and what the process of making this book taught him about writing and comics storytelling. We talk about why he loves science fiction on the screen, his experiences writing for film-prose-comics, and our Frank Miller experiences & the visual cues of RONIN in GODHEAD. We also discuss the need for religion, his fascination with the ocean, why he donated his pages & materials from his MLK biography to the Billy Ireland library, his notion of legacy, and a lot more. Give it a listen and go read GODHEAD Vols. 1 and 2! (And go listen to our 2019 conversation!)
Last week, I posted Episode 535 of The Virtual Memories Show. It’s an important one. It was going to feature a conversation with gay author and editor Michael Denneny, but he was found dead when I arrived at his apartment to record our session on Saturday, so this episode consists of a monologue 24 hours later of my experience that day, my appreciation of his amazing and important new collection, ON CHRISTOPHER STREET: Life, Sex and Death After Stonewall (University of Chicago Press), my thoughts on legacy, identity, mortality, the AIDS crisis, what it means to bear witness, and more. Give it a listen, please; like I said, it’s important (to me, at least). And go read ON CHRISTOPHER STREET.
I posted a brief followup (11 min.) the following Sunday as a bonus episode. Please give that a listen, too.
Other recent episodes: Noah Van Sciver • Stevan Weine • Priscilla Gilman • Timothy Goodman
Links & Such
RIP Michael Denneny: WP & NYT . . . RIP Barry Humphries/Dame Edna . . . RIP Harry Belafonte . . .
I was giddy to read this interview with style icon Yukio Akamine! I mean, he’s MY sorta menswear style icon, but maybe/probably not yours. I’m still bummed that I didn’t make a trip to his shop when I was in Japan in Feb. 2020. The interview is more than about clothes, so give it a read.
Sebastian Smee on Cotán’s Still Life With Fowl.
Ooh! Big ol’ collection of Dave McKean’s art coming in November!
Neat column from Hillary Frey about the death of BuzzFeed News and the whole digital media ecosystem.
“Unto the Dead / There’s no Geography”: every morning, after my stretching routine & coffee but before my journal and postcard-a-day scribbling, I read 2 pages of Emily Dickinson’s poems, trying to make heads or tails or make up for lost time or something. Some of her lines are weirdly prophetic or have some resonance for me. Others leave me confused.
Current reading
Gone To The Wolves - John Wray
Color Capital Of The World - John Kropf
Art
Will you get off my ass? I didn’t draw anything worth sharing, okay? I can’t bring myself to even try right now. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
I only got in 4 days of my weights & yoga cycle, Friday-Monday, because of Tuesday’s trade-show travel. Next week will be worse because of more biz-travel, although I may get to do some yoga in my hotel room Monday night. I’d post one of my Accountability pix here, but that might violate Substack’s terms of service.
Until Next Week
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back next with a new podcast, great links, maybe some art, & maybe a little profundity or something.
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,
—Gil Roth
Virtual Memories
Mastodon • Instagram • Flickr • YouTube • Twitter • Linktr.ee