Witness
Intro I’d like to write about something else this week, but I can’t. The guest I was going to record with on Saturday, Michael Denneny, was dead in his...
Trainwriting
Intro I’m on a train to Washington for some afternoon lobbying visits. The wifi’s awful today (it’s been better recently), so no idea when I’ll be able to...
There Is A Light
Intro I’m going to St. Louis to see my family this weekend. I haven’t seen my brother since 2018, nor my mom since 2017. Which, when I say, “I’m a horrible...
Cave, Man
Intro “[L]ife is mostly spent putting ourselves back together. But hopefully in new & interesting ways. For me that is what the creative process is . . . the...
Spelunking
Intro Last Saturday I watched 20,000 Days On Earth, the 2014 doc about Nick Cave. I don’t know Cave’s work, except for a song he did for the soundtrack of...
Et In Acedia Ego
Intro As a Jew, I treat the Seven Deadly Sins as a clinical curiosity, and maybe as a set of self-help/self-assessment guardrails, but as a member of...
Kerouac and Zeno and maybe next time
Intro My dad bought me a Hyundai Excel when I was in college. I ate a guardrail with it a few months into my ownership — missed a car in my blindspot on 91...
Library of Babble
Intro Thanks for the well-wishes, prayers, etc. for my pal I wrote about last week. I can’t tell you any more about that just now, but as a sign of how my...
Worry and Hope
Intro My pal John is having brain surgery today or tomorrow. He was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor last week after a seizure episode, with no real symptoms...
Tribe of Zero
Intro I attended a support group meeting a few nights ago. First time I ever did that. It was for people with stage zero chronic lymphocytic leukemia (that...
Lobby Boy
Intro I’d hardly call anything I do triumphant, but I did make my return to Capitol Hill yesterday, for a series of meetings with Congressional staff (a few...
Accept the Mystery
Intro “Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing...
Capitol Idea
Intro No time for a real update this week; sorry. Yesterday I took the train to Washington, DC. This is my first trip since Feb. 28, 2020. I’m here for a...
Death & Seltzer-Bottles
Intro On Saturday, I visited the funniest cemetery ever. I had just finished recording this week’s podcast with Ross Benjamin about his new translation of...
52 Pickup
Intro My future wife & I had our second date at the Hi Life Bar & Grill on the Upper West Side. It was a Sunday, and we watched an NFL playoff game while we...
Two Gentlemen With The 'Rona
Intro Welcome to the first Substack edition of my Virtual Memories Show e-mail! I put up a post last week about why I’m trying this platform instead of...
Welcome To My Virtual Memories
Subscribe now Why Substack? Why Now? I’m Gil Roth and I’ve been making The Virtual Memories Show podcast for more than 10 years, posting weekly conversations...