The Haze
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Intro
I was going to tell you a story this week about a guy I kindasorta left for dead many years ago, and how I found out on Sunday he’s still alive. But I decided to hold that for the third issue of Haiku for Business Travelers.
The second issue is supposed to arrive from the printer today, so if you want 32 pages of my poems, essays, art, comics, photography, an excerpt of my great conversation with Clive James, and my step-by-step guide to making great coffee, then make sure I’ve got your mailing address. (If you never got the first ish, let me know; I just reprinted 150 copies of that.)
It’s print-only and it’s free, but if you want to give me some money to help defray the costs, then either become a paying subscriber to this here Substack, kick me some cash at paypal.me/vmspod, or mail me a check. I’ll start mailing ’em out in mid-June.
So what am I going to write about? The wildfire smoke here in NJ is bad, although not as visually scary as it is over in NYC. I was up in Boston for the BIO annual meeting this week, and the smoke really wasn’t bad at all. But the ~4.5-hour drive home yesterday got progressively bad, and I wound up wearing a KN95 mask for the last 125 miles. Crossing the Hudson on the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge was pretty freaky; the span itself was visible, but everything else was disorientingly obscured.
While I could feel it in my eyes & throat during the drive, I didn’t think the in-car smoke was that bad (the fan/AC was on recirc), but when I put on that mask this morning to take my daily postcard to the mailbox, it stank of smoke. Blech.
I hate Boston for a variety of reasons, but the BIO show was good; I got to see/catch up with member companies of my trade association, pitch other companies on joining, gossip with folks, and reconnect with a couple of great friends of mine I hadn’t seen in person for years. The three of us had dinner and got in some personal conversation among the work-talk, grooving in a way that Zoom or phone calls just don’t permit, busting on each other over the relative amount of hair we all have in our 50s, getting past any cliche about how men don’t talk to each other about anything that matters.
The only downside is that we had this dinner & conversation at the same Brazilian steakhouse where I’d had a solo dinner the night before, so I don’t think I’ll be eating meat again until 2025 or so.
And now, on with The Virtual Memories Show!
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 541 of The Virtual Memories Show feat. author Jonathan Papernick as we celebrate his fantastic new short story collection, Gallery of the Disappeared Men, and new novel, I am my Beloveds (Story Plant). We talk about his writing life, the weirdness & joy of retracing the footsteps of his characters in Israel, his move into playwriting and how it contrasts with writing novels & stories, and how a failed novel sparked a very successful novella. We also get into his career teaching fiction writing, what he’s learned from teaching, how his students have changed and how he learned to appreciate trigger warnings, and the Tobias Wolff story he uses in virtually all of his fiction-writing classes. Plus, we discuss Judaism, his multi-generation Canadian roots, why he likes living in Providence after leaving Boston, the very embarrassing time he met Margaret Atwood, and more! Give it a listen and go read Gallery of the Disappeared Men and I am my Beloveds
Last week, I posted Episode 540 of The Virtual Memories Show feat. philosophy professor Scott Samuelson & his wondrous new book, ROME AS A GUIDE TO THE GOOD LIFE: A Philosophical Grand Tour (University of Chicago). We get into how he fell in love with Rome, what it means to engage with the city philosophically, and how he blended place, history, philosophy, art, poetry, religion and more in his exploration of Rome and the vita beata. We talk about the way Roman philosophers remind him of jazz musicians, why the city of Rome itself is its best defense against its colonial-critics, and what he’s looking forward to when he returns to the city after a 3-year hiatus. We also discuss his experience teaching philosophy to non-traditional students, his love of cooking and the last meal he made for a dying friend, the importance of forgetting, whether my “Virgil is to Homer as Kobe is to MJ” comp holds up, and more! Give it a listen and go read ROME AS A GUIDE TO THE GOOD LIFE
Other recent episodes: Brian Dillon • John Wray • Ho Che Anderson • Finding Michael Denneny (+ followup)
Links & Such
RIP Astrud Gilberto . . . RIP Françoise Gilot . . . RIP The Iron Sheik . . . RIP Pat Cooper, one of the all-time greatest guests on Howard Stern . . . Not-so-RIP Robert Hanssen . . . Also Pat Robertson . . .
Joan Marans Dim took the occasion of the Brooklyn Bridge’s 140th anniversary to propose some new ideas.
Jerry Saltz wrote about what it means that the former Whitney building has been bought by an auction house.
Speaking of museums, Sebastian Smee reminds us to get up close.
Lovely profile of Phillip Lopate (2013, 2017, 2020), with whom I’ll be recording this fall for his upcoming collection, A Year And A Day. Getting to talk with Phillip a few times (& correspond with him) has been one of the great blessings of making the podcast.
My wife’s new Substack talks about balancing professional projects with personal ones. And, of course, food.
Current reading
Gravity’s Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
Art
Made some little sketches, and tried doing some color (ink pens & watercolor) on one of last week’s peonies, but nothing to share. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
Just a goddamned mess is what it is. I only managed two days of my weights/yoga thang, Friday & Saturday, because Sunday morning got fractured by a podcast-reading emergency (the guest I was supposed to record with in Boston on Sunday had to postpone late Saturday evening, but I was able to line up this week’s guest that night & read his new short story collection Sunday morning before hitting the road), and Mon/Tue I was away at the BIO show. I’ll get back into the routine on Friday, or maybe I’ll even start a day early w/yoga, and do a 6-day cycle on instead of 5. I did bring a yoga mat on the trip and kept up my daily 12-15-minute morning routine, at least.
Speaking of the whole recording on the road phenomenon, my hotel room faced out on a semi-busy road, so when it was time to record the intro to this week’s show, I had to take somewhat funny measures:
I hope you people appreciate the lengths that I go to bring you a podcast every week.
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.
Maybe I ride, maybe you walk / Maybe I drive to get off, baby,
—Gil Roth
Virtual Memories
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