Postcards of the Hanging
A new podcast w/David Thomson on TV & The Stream, a postcard evokes Rilkean thoughts on change & stasis, and I draw a crow.
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 573 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. the return of legendary film critic David Thomson, who answers the age-old question: anything good on TV? We celebrate the publication of his amazing new book, REMOTELY: Travels in the Binge of TV (Yale University Press), with a WIDE-ranging conversation about how TV has changed and how it’s changed us. We get into the communal experience of going to the movies vs. sitting on the sofa, the ways his relationship with his wife deepened in front of the tube during lockdown (and why he gave her some of the best lines in Remotely), and the personal, political, & social implications of watching crap over a long period of time. We talk about how advertising was the snake in American TV’s garden, BBC’s very strange exception for its licence fee, the courage in actually writing about what he’s watching (even though Remotely isn’t a critical guide), and what made Ozark special to him. We also discuss Clive James‘ transformation of TV criticism, the importance of live sports events, the joy of seeing Barbie in a packed theater, how everything points to a world where no one is in charge, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read REMOTELY!
Last week, I posted Episode 572 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. cartoonist Sammy Harkham. With his graphic novel, BLOOD OF THE VIRGIN (Pantheon), Sammy tells a story of personal and professional disintegration, against the backdrop of exploitation movies and the Iraqi Jewish diaspora in ’70s L.A. We get into the obsessions and family lore that drove him to make the book, why it took him 14 years to complete it, and how craft is always trying to catch up to ambition. We talk about the need to get past the cliches of the ‘inside Hollywood’ story, what he learned about his process, why he didn’t read his earlier chapters until he finished the story, and the John Steinbeck advice that got him over the finish line. We also discuss his thoughts on the late Joe Matt, the Jim Woodring panels that have haunted him for decades, the joyful anxiety of not knowing what his next project will be, and plenty more. Give it a listen! And go read Blood of the Virgin!
Recent episodes: Ed Subitzky • Chris Silverman • Silence, a monlogue • The Guest List • Jarrett Earnest • Christian Wiman • Danny Fingeroth
Postcardery
(From Sept. 2021)
It’s been 2+ years since I began sending out a postcard every (mail-)day. I love doing it, and love hearing from people who receive them. I also rarely remember anything I write in them. Sometimes, I almost send one to the same person twice in a week, but the muscle memory of writing their address reminds me, “Oh, yeah, you sent them something a couple days ago.”
I keep the incoming postcards in a stack on The Analog Desk as a reminder that I should write back to the senders, which is to say they serve as a visual reminder of how many people I’ve let down by not writing back to them.
Today, after a multi-month gap, I wrote back to [REDACTED], who asked about a line of Rilke’s I must have written him in my previous card, the end of the poem Archaic Torso of Apollo: “You must change your life.” He asked how I thought I’d changed mine “while the world was shifting on its axis”.
I wrote him that I don’t know if “You must change your life” is the same as “You must change your self,” and that I often fear the latter is impossible. Which would make “life” just window-dressing, I suppose, the drapery to spruce up what was fixed in each of us at too-young an age. Running, drawing, weights, podcast, postcards: all cover for what lies beneath?
(As counter-evidence, I present my brother’s recent discovery that he’s a cat person, which strikes me as a change in kind, not just degree.)
(From Dec. 2021)
Like I pondered a few weeks back: “I feel like (my? everybody’s?) life is a flower endlessly blooming, a continual unfolding, but it occurs to me that it might just be a kaleidoscope, where the same set of elements just get recombined in a trick of the light.”
I guess I have nothing new to say even about having nothing new to say, but at least I used my fancy new nib-pen to write that postcard.
Tell me where you stand on this: can we change or are we each just more or less of who we were when we received The Wound?
And, of course, let me know if you want to be on my postcard list. (Financial supporters of the podcast get a hand-drawn/painted postcard as a thank-you.)
Art
Another week without too much drawing. I do have to make some postcards for a few of those paying subscribers, though. As a warm-up on Monday morning, I decided to draw a crow in my bird-book from a photo that Yasunori Kobayakawa posted on IG. I made a quick pencil sketch, then used a fine brush pen, before opting for the big fat Pentel bush-pen for some of the body. I layered that a bit, and used some of the strokes to convey the curves of the body, even though it was all black. I like how it came out; getting the beak down was make or break. The funny thing is, PEOPLE WENT GAGA FOR THIS ONE ON INSTAGRAM. I mean, by my minuscule standards. Don’t think I’ve ever posted a piece that had so many people comment on how much they liked it. Me being me, I have no intention of trying to replicate that, but I am glad that it moved people, even if it CLEARLY betrays how much I adored & absorbed Steve Yeowell’s b/w art on Zenith. 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.
No-one can love without the grace / Of some unseen and distant face,