Two Crows
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 586 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. the return of author-playwright-screenwriter-poet Jen Silverman as they celebrate their amazing new novel, THERE’S GOING TO BE TROUBLE (Random House). We get into how Jen accidentally stumbled into the 2018 Gilets Jaunes protests in Paris and triggered this new book, the ways we’re shaped by our parents’ failures and secrets, the many routes of radicalization, and the theatricality of protests, how they draw people in (with a boost from Théâtre du Soleil), and how they contrast with theater itself. We also talk about the role of art in understanding the times, how Jen’s stories start with character, their work on Tokyo Vice and how TV writing differs from other storytelling modes, what it means to protest alongside someone whose politics you disagree with, and what the pandemic era has taught them about community. Plus we discuss the nirvana of MacDowell Colony, learning to use research without being beholden to it, ways to be an effective, engaged human (not just engaged/enraged), the contrast between book and theater critics, the existential question of the past few years, and, oh yeah, whether or not people can change. Give it a listen, and go read There’s Going To Be Trouble! (& go listen to our 2021 conversation!)
Last week, I posted Episode 585 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. professor Leonard Barkan as we celebrate the paperback release of READING SHAKESPEARE READING ME (Fordham), which blends memoir and deep reading of Shakespeare’s greatest plays to explore his lifelong relationship with literature and the way(s) we use art to construct our identities. We get into what it means to read, hear, perform, direct, teach Shakespeare, why it took him a lifetime to get to this book, how he contrasts himself with a radically naive reader (and why it’s important to try to capture our naïveté), the stories he couldn’t tell until his folks were gone, and the role Shakespeare played in Leonard’s gay coming of age. We also talk about his next book (about the loss of 434 paintings by the Great Masters (!) at the end of WWII), the on-stage therapy session he held at his career-celebration, and his stint as a theater director and what it taught him about teaching. Plus we discuss the strangeness of King Lear’s opening scene, the eerie humor of Hamlet, and a lot more. Give it a listen, and go read Reading Shakespeare Reading Me!
Recent episodes: Emily Raboteau • Trillian Stars & Kyle Cassidy (bonus) • Leela Corman • Keith Mayerson • Edith Hall • David Small • Brad Gooch • Japan, a monologue
WINGS
Two crows flew overhead when I was walking Bendico yesterday morning. They were so low that I could hear their wings beating the air.
We stood still and watched them. No cars were nearby, and the other birds’ songs receded into ambiance as the crows passed us. It remained so quiet that all I heard in their wake was Benny sniffing as he took in the spring morning.
I wrote about it in a postcard and mailed it to someone I’ll never meet.
Art
Speaking of postcards, I didn’t get back to that forsythia one, and the green leaves have already come out on the forsythia in my backyard! But on Sunday, I did a quick brush-pen sketch of a bird on a wire to warm up (below), then made a watercolor-pencil + brush postcard of a bird from a picture that I have no metadata for (which means I don’t know where I got/stole it from). It came out okay, but I wasn’t happy with the blues I used for the shadows on the body. Still, it got made. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Postcardery
Also speaking of postcards, let me know if you want to be on my postcard-a-day list. (Financial supporters of the podcast get a hand-drawn/painted postcard as a thank-you.)
Kickstartery
I took another Instax photo for my art book last weekend while visiting Jen Silverman. I’m planning to make a book of Instax photos + text, similar in format to Valid Until Sunset by Jarrett Earnest (photo on left page, text on right), and once I figure out production pricing etc., I hope to get a Kickstarter going for it. If you’ve got ideas about what sort of rewards I should make for different tiers of donors — like, things you’d love to receive if you contributed, say, $50 to this project — let me know.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workouts, and Wednesday with a new episode, maybe some art, & who knows maybe a little profundity or something.
You know marrying money is a full-time job / I don’t need the aggravation, I’m a lazy slob,