Witless Odin
A new podcast with Tom Tomorrow, a little art, more thoughts on anhedonia, mortality, vision, wisdom and the new Pynchon novel, and a more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 657 of my Virtual Memories Show, and political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow (a.k.a. Dan Perkins) is back as we celebrate his new Kickstarter project, OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE (closing Oct. 30, 2025), collecting 5+ years of weekly This Modern World cartoons! We talk about how he keeps his sanity (well, tries to), what it was like to look back at the past half-decade week by week, why he decided not to go down a rabbit-hole of extra material for the project, and what it means to have a bookshelf of his strips (and not just pixels on a screen). We get into the importance of his Sparky’s List newsletter as the media landscape keeps withering away, his writing process and how the, um, of this administration compels him to build some flexibility each week, and the realization that he’s made a major body of work over the past four decades. We also discuss his major life changes since we last recorded, the good and bad of Being Very Online, his love of Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko mystery novels, what makes him a New Yorker, and the impossibly fraught question of what brings him joy. Give it a listen! And go support OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE!
Last week I posted Episode 656, featuring a conversation with artist and designer Kayla E about her debut graphic novel, PRECIOUS RUBBISH (Fantagraphics), which explores and investigates the trauma of her upbringing, the fragments of her memories, and the process of reintegration. We talked about why comics were the perfect form for this project, how she found her iconography and the postwar children's comics style for it, what it was like to uncover her memories and get them on the page, and how she's learning to respond when her readers share their trauma with her. We got into her comics-roots, how she felt the moment Mark Newgarden told her she had a book on her hands, why Harvard is bad for getting a comics education, and how her work as a graphic designer dovetailed with the incredible production of Precious Rubbish. We also discussed her recovery and her conversion experience, why her Bible kinda begins and ends with the Book of Job, her years of worry that she'd turn out as psychopathic as her parents and brother, why the Sopranos is her favorite work of art, and more. Give it a listen! And go read PRECIOUS RUBBISH!
Recent episodes: Hunter Prosper • M.L. Rio • David Leopold • Dmitry Samarov • Ask Me Anything • Dan Goldman • David Levithan/Jens Lekman
Witless Odin
In a couple of hours, I’ll be driving down to Maryland to host my annual two-day pharma outsourcing conference. I seem to have a lot invested in the event. Not in terms of it going well, but more like “once it’s over, surely my stress levels will go down.” Yeah, good luck with that, Gil.
~50 hours from now, I’ll be back on the road, chasing my GPS’ ETA. If past performance is any indication of future results, I’ll spend the first hour or two basking in the praise of my clients, glad to have put together a great conference for them. We’ll see if that manages to bust through the anhedonia.
And if that fails, I do have a little something waiting for me on my return:
Everything being resonant and fraught, I will note that I saw the publication announcement for Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket last April while I waited in the lobby of the ophthalmology clinic where my dad was getting cataract surgery. (Don’t tell me you forgot.)
A little while later, they wheeled Dad out of recovery; he was slumped in his chair with one eye bandaged, like some witless Odin. On the drive home, he told me that he was glad that his wife had come along that morning — she drove separately — because he’d been scared about the procedure. The tenderness and vulnerability in his voice were jarring to me.
He never got the second surgery. He was afraid they’d screw it up and wreck his “good” eye, and by the time he relented, he was already on the way out. He & Pynchon were just about the same age.
For too many years, when I’d ask him how he’s doing, Dad would tell me, “Every day is the same. I am just waiting to die.”
I, on the other hand, still like having something to look forward to.
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Instaxery
I shot one during my session with Tom Tomorrow, but it includes some stuff in the background that he doesn’t want shared with the general public, so no go.
Artistry
On Yom Kippur, I did a brush-pen sketch of Birdy, then used the same page to scrawl some notes, as I was staying offline all day.
The next evening, I managed to sketch her paws before she moved. It conveys neither the meatiness nor the sandpaper-y texture of her paws, but I’ll work on it.
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 more art & new Instaxes.
Once he starts it’s hard to stop / He’s keeping up a pace like a tight wound clock / Be sure you don’t step in his way / He’ll keep those numbers rolling / This may be his last day,