The Kindly Ones
A new podcast feat. Elizabeth Flock, short thoughts on knowability, & some watercolor birds
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 574 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. journalist Elizabeth Flock and a talk about her incredible new book, THE FURIES: Women, Vengeance, & Justice (Harper), which explores the lives of three women who responded to violence with violence, and how they run up against the social institutions that seem designed to grind them down. We get into how the book grew from her interest in female vigilantes and her own experience of sexual violence, how she wound up reporting on the YPJ all-women army in Syria (but didn't tell her mom until a few days before flying out there), how we try to reconcile revenge and a just world, and how cultures of honor wreak havoc on women and men. We talk about how she balanced reporting with the near-mythic characters of some of her subjects, what she's learned over 15+ years in journalism (including how not to re-traumatize her subjects as they tell her their stories), how women and men have responded to The Furies, the time her dad took her to a murder scene when she was a kid (tbf, he was a journalist), guns & gun culture (& my embarrassing gun story), having her first child after finishing the book, whether things are getting a little better for women, and more. Give it a listen and go read THE FURIES!
Last 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, the courage in actually writing about what he’s watching, 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, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read REMOTELY!
Recent episodes: Sammy Harkham • Ed Subitzky • Chris Silverman • Silence, a monlogue • The Guest List • Jarrett Earnest • Christian Wiman
In the Details
I wrote a pal last week about “my decades-long practice of not really talking about my life or work beyond generalities that don’t reveal anything meaningful.”
I didn't mean it in a harsh way, esp. as this is someone I've known ~30 years. It’s funny how little we know about each other, and ourselves.
I wrote a more recent pal this morning about how sometimes it’s just inertia that keeps me going, but that there’s still plenty of inspiration & propulsion out there/in here, professionally, artistically, podcastally, workoutittudeinally, etc.
Speaking in generalities, I’m fine, and hope you are, too. It’s the details that can get tiresome.
Postcardery
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 much drawing. I started trying to draw/paint a postcard from a photo that Yasunori Kobayakawa shared on IG of a Japanese White-Eye among Ume blossoms. I was using a new watercolor set a friend gave me for my birthday, and decided I’d experiment/play with some pigment mixes on a sheet of watercolor paper. They, of course, came out infinitely better/more interesting than the postcard, which I still have to finish. Yesterday was the 3-year anniversary of when I started drawing; all I got around to was a quick recreation of that crude drawing of three trees in my backyard, just before bed. 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.
Old man, don't lay so still, you're not yet young, there's time to teach,