Wheels Without Wheels
This one's got a new podcast w/Seth Lorinczi, my latest oncology check-in and A Moment in the parking lot, a little art, an Instax update, & more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 627 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. a conversation with Seth Lorinczi about his DEATH TRIP: A Post-Holocaust Psychedelic Memoir (Spiral Path Collective Press), which explores how trauma can be transmitted over generations, and how an ancient (& new) form of treatment can help overcome it. We talk about finding his family’s story of the Holocaust, trying to understand why so much of it stayed hidden, how badly it warped his life, and how he & his wife found answers in psychedelic medicine (MDMA, ayahuasca, toad (!)). 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, why Death Trip is a series of surrenders, how his family responded to the book, and why he thinks I should leapfrog 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 some married couples take up salsa dancing but he & his wife took up ayahuasca, how his daughter responded to all this, whether a person can change, how once you get the message you should put down the phone, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read NAPLES 1925!
Last week I posted Episode 626, where Martin Mittelmeier traced the roots of the Frankfurt School in southern Italy and we celebrated his new book NAPLES 1925: Adorno, Benjamin, and the Summer That Made Critical Theory (Yale University Press, tr. Shelley Frisch). We talked about, the years he spent poring over Theodor Adorno’s writing and Martin’s epiphany on the lip of a volcano, how Walter Benjamin’s principle of porosity arose from both the tuff stone & the way of living of Naples, and the challenge of evoking the Naples of a century ago and how it led to a theory of society. We got into Critical Theory’s attempts at understanding populism and oligarchic takeovers and why Adorno is having A Moment in Germany, the fun of speculating about meetings among great thinkers, the complexities of reputation and destiny, and whether Critical Theory can hold up during the hyper-internet era. We also discussed why I need to read Hernán Diaz’ Trust, his new work about Thomas Mann working with Adorno on Doctor Faustus in Pacific Palisades (a.k.a. Weimar Under The Palm Trees), how he’s changed in the decade-plus since writing the book, and more. Give it a listen! And go read NAPLES 1925!
Recent episodes: Jonathan Ames • Witold Rybczynski • Matt Madden • Fred Kaplan • Mia Wolff • Damion Searls • 2024 Recap
Wheels Without Wheels
I had an oncology check-in this week. Despite fighting a sinus infection, my WBC #s came back okay: up, but not drastically so. The oncologist thinks she noticed a swollen lymph node (armpit), which means some of my crappy lymphocytes have found a home to call their own. And some related #s weren’t trending well, so we’ll see how they look in 3 months, and decide whether I’d benefit from an IgG infusion.
I held the door for a woman on the way out. She was younger than me and seemed healthy, so I don’t know if she was another patient, or there to take care of someone else. Her Mini was two spots over from mine in the parking lot, with none in between and as I looked over, I saw a decal in the right rear-passenger window:
I tend to focus on agency, the notion that “something good” doesn’t just happen, that we must act, and that our inaction just invites “something bad.” But as I’ve said before, my CLL experience has been about learning not just to let go of the steering wheel but to let go of the idea that there is a wheel.
Which is to say, in that moment I was okay with the sentiment: I hope something good happens to you today.
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Instaxery
No in-person podcasts, no Instax moments this past week. I did get some writing done for my book of Instax, with one piece coming out of a meditation session that day, so that was nice. Here’s the one I wrote about, from my pod-session last July with Mirana Comstock.
Artistry
Didn’t make any art this past week, just a daily sketch with a rollerball pen in a cheap notebook. Below is yesterday’s, from a photo of a cardinal who was taking a bath in my backyard. Drawing the face/eye/beak made me long to get back to drawing birds again. 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.
You are a messenger from God. / You are the angel I forgot. / And who’s to say that it isn’t real?,