Reference Material For The Soul
This one's got a new podcast w/Vanda Krefft, a weird piece of art, an Instax Throwbax, a weird realization about my library/life, and of course: BIRDY
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 628 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. biographer Vanda Krefft’s return to celebrate her wonderful & illuminating new book: EXPECT GREAT THINGS!: How the Katharine Gibbs School Revolutionized the American Workplace for Women (Algonquin Books). We talk about the turn of the (20th) century origins of Katharine Gibbs & her school, the legacy of her executive secretarial course for generations of women, “Gibbs Girls’” descendants’ desire to honor their family members, the incredible quality of faculty Gibbs was able to recruit, and the risks women had to take to enter the professional workforce. We get into Vanda’s desire to write about people who were overlooked in their time, how this book required a different mode than her biography of William Fox, the challenges of century-old research into women’s lives, what she had to learn about the history of women in America, and her interest in mid-century America. We also discuss how the Gibbs school declined when the family finally sold it in the late ’60s, what she’d like her next book to be about, her experience living in Santa Monica during the LA fires, a lengthy aside about publishing and the changes I’ve seen, getting inspired by Howard Fishman‘s book on Connie Converse, and plenty more. Give it a listen! And go read EXPECT GREAT THINGS!
Last week I posted Episode 627, a conversation with Seth Lorinczi about his DEATH TRIP: A Post-Holocaust Psychedelic Memoir (Spiral Path Collective), which explores how trauma can be transmitted over generations, and how an ancient form of treatment can help overcome it. We talk about finding his family’s story of the Holocaust, how badly it warped his life, and how he & his wife found answers in psychedelic medicine. We get into the long-term damage of unmetabolized trauma and untouched grief, how psychedelics allowed him to recognize patterns in his life, family history, and the universe, the challenges of researching his family’s Holocaust experience in Hungary, how his family responded to the book, and why he thinks I should bypass therapy and try psychedelics first. We also discuss growing up in the punk scene of Washington, DC, how coincidence becomes important after psychedelic experiences, how his daughter responded to All This, how once you get the message you should put down the phone, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read DEATH TRIP!
Recent episodes: Martin Mittelmeier • Jonathan Ames • Witold Rybczynski • Matt Madden • Fred Kaplan • Mia Wolff • Damion Searls
Reference Material For The Soul
Maybe it’s just the dissociated/debilitated state I’m in from 2+ weeks of a sinus-related cluster headache — and it’s really bad today — but I had A Moment this morning when I realized how absurd my library actually is. (And, by extension, my life, I guess.)
That’s not to say I don’t have a great collection of books. If anything, what hit me was that it’s too great. That is, I looked at all of these books piled into the built-in shelves, windowsills, book carts, vertical shelves, and storage room under the stairs, and it occurred to me that it’s all just for me, that none of this has anything to do with my job. (Except The Nonprofit Board Answer Book; that’s for work.)
I’m not in publishing, journalism, academia, “the arts,” or the like; I run a trade association for bio/pharma contract development & manufacturing organizations. So how’d I end up with
[I’d insert a picture, but there’s no way to capture it all, which is the point.]
Because it’s not about accumulating books, but about cobbling together a soul.
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And now, Birdy & the last day of the Mardi Gras tree:
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Instaxery
I wrote a few more pieces for my Instax book, which makes up for my not taking new pictures this week. I’m recording in person on Saturday, so I hope to have a new one to share with you. Here’s one from 2024. I staged very few of them, but had to with this one at Ellen Datlow’s place:
Artistry
I drew a daily sketch with a rollerball pen in a cheap notebook, and a couple were okay. I did make art in another way, though, by pouring some hot candle wax onto a mound of snow in the backyard. The snow’s all melted; what’s left is below. Reminds me of Solaris (not the movies). I thought about bringing it inside and preserving it, but I’ll let it melt in the rain today. 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-/meditation-craziness, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some art, maybe some Instax or an outtake.
My home is a shelter from language and race / A wonderful mixture of grace and emotion and growing pains,