@vmspod
I make a weekly podcast feat. talks w/writers, artists, cartoonists & other culture-making people, at https://chimeraobscura.com/vm Also: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-virtual-memories-show/id531173075 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VMSpod
photo of a bride & groom sharing a kiss on a dance floor; she is in a white wedding dress and has red hair, and he is in a tuxedo with a silver tie.
tintype photo of a white man and white woman in ornate Mardi Gras masks
How It Started / How It's Going: 20th wedding anniversary edition!
#tintype #photo #wedding
There are around 750 more conversations (incl. ~60 daily ones from 2020 lockdown), so go groove on those; I’ll be back to my regular pod-schedule . . . someday chimeraobscura.com/vm/
And then this great one with Sven Birkerts, where we go deep on #writing, #reading, and reaching an audience in these weird-ass times: chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-6...
I’ve only made 2 podcasts this year — hiatus, heavy workload, book leave — but they’re awfully good, so you oughtta listen. Here’s me & Rachel Tzvia Back talking about #depression, #poetry, #art, and life under rockets: chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-6...
Buy books from @mzspress.bsky.social! They curate an amazing collection, you’ll be supporting the arts & cinema culture!
New #podcast last night means new #newsletter today, even if I'm sitting in a caucus room at FDA HQ ahead of a negotiating session: buttondown.com/vmspod/archi...
Photo of cover of memoir THE DARK-ROBED MOTHER, featuring a cairn on a stony path
Photo of poet Rachel Tzvia Back, wearing a black cardigan and a light-blue wrap; she’s smiling and looking off to the right
And go get THE DARK-ROBED MOTHER from the publisher www.weslpress.org/978081950214... or your fave bookshop bookshop.org/a/4669/97808...
New #podcast: #RachelTzviaBack & I talk about her new #memoir, THE DARK-ROBED MOTHER! We talk about high-functioning #depression, #mythology, #poetry, #motherhood, life in Israel, & more, so GO LISTEN: chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-6...
@weslpress.bsky.social
New Patreon post, only for Patrons (because it's got a piece of my book in it): www.patreon.com/posts/guest-...
End of month, so a new newsletter from hiatus-ville
buttondown.com/vmspod/archi...
And check out my past conversations with Sven:
2017 chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-2...
2020 chimeraobscura.com/vm/covid-che...
2021 chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-4...
2024 chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-6...
I've just started in on Julian Barnes' DEPARTURE(S), which he has publicly billed as his last novel, and that announcement plays out as a key theme in the novel, which steers, as so many novels now do, between memoir and roman a clef, with some latitude for creative tweaks. I'm fascinated so far, but also unsettled, not only by the fact/fiction interface, but also by what I assume are the real-life aspects, which have the author with a blood cancer he's holding at bay with chemo, and announcing that this is his last. Could that just be a plot element? But no-how could a writer follow a plot element like that with some 'next' book. I believe what Barnes is saying and it has me, as I said, unsettled. I felt a similar confusion years ago when Philip Roth announced he was done with writing. I worried that. What do you mean you're done with writing? I chastised. There is no being 'done, no end to filtering experience through the mesh of language. I think about these writers, but really I'm wondering what this means to me-the notion that a person who has built a life of words might draw a line, decide to just stop. I see this not as a career decision-quit while you're ahead, etc.—but an existential one. Is it really possible. Really? What does it mean for a writer to decide to leave writing behind? Is the decision really a cover for no more inspiration coming? But this is something bigger than writers' block. It sounds like the writer saying I'm going stop engaging the world as I've always engaged it. Can I even envision such a choice? I have, it's true, stepped back some in recent years, no longer pursuing assignments or sending query letters, no longer-this more serious-writing things with the thought of publication (though posting on Substack is, of course, a form of publication). Could I whittle down further, could I cancel the public side of the vocation and just write for the drawer? A gratifying martyrdom, but I can't see it. How else-really-would I carry on?
And go subscribe to Sven’s daily newsletter svenbirkerts375678.substack.com
follow his Instagram www.instagram.com/sven.birkert...
and check out his rare bookseller site www.ebay.com/usr/birkbooks
First new #podcast of 2026! #SvenBirkerts rejoined the show to talk #writing, #art, #mortality, #resistance, #technology, & selling rare #books, so GO LISTEN: chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-6...
Poem by Frank O’Hara: “POEM Light clarity avocado salad in the morning after all the terrible things I do how amazing it is to find forgiveness and love, not even forgiveness since what is done is done and forgiveness isn't love and love is love nothing can ever go wrong though things can get irritating boring and dispensable (in the imagination) but not really for love though a block away you feel distant the mere presence changes everything like a chemical dropped on a paper and all thoughts disappear in a strange quiet excitement I am sure of nothing but this, intensified by breathing 1959
Frank O’Hara
Red letters on white background reading, "I'm going to try to take some time off from social media (& podcast & newsletter). Email if you need to reach me."
Final newsletter of the year (and for . . . a while), with lots of good stuff, incl. BIRDY! celebrating her gotchaversary, some art, in-process of my book, & more, so GO READ: buttondown.com/vmspod/archi...
Start spreading the news...
Thanks, friend! All I can hope for!
I have been listening to Gil’s podcast since 2013 or 2014, back when podcasts were still a relatively new and unfamiliar format. Over the years, it has become a constant presence in my life, a unique project sustained not by an economic venture but by genuine curiosity and generosity. Thanks, Gil!!!
I'm putting The Virtual Memories Show on hiatus, so this is my last #podcast for a while! I talk about that decision and wrap up 2025; GO LISTEN: chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-6...
It's the last linky-newsletter of 2025! Tons of great reading, plus put-upon BIRDY!, so GO READ: buttondown.com/vmspod/archi...
Mine are at the end of the episode (along with some weird anecdotes), but I forgot to mention a whole bunch that I enjoyed the heck out of this year.
Looking for #books to read during the New Year's break or as 2026 aspirations? Look no further! The annual Guest List episode of my #podcast features a TON of faves from this year's pod-guests, so GET LISTENING/READING! chimeraobscura.com/vm/the-guest...
Birdy sends regards (I think; she's tough to read)
2024 for me. Give it a shot!
Christmas Eve newsletter, feat. the annual Guest List episode, so GO READ: buttondown.com/vmspod/archi...
I think it was Gabriel Byrne who updated the actors’ advice to, “Never work with children, animals, or Denholm Elliott.”
Guests incl. @jonathanames.bsky.social, @dangoldman.net, @deanhaspiel.bsky.social, @davidnleopold.bsky.social, @katemaru.bsky.social, @whitneymatheson.bsky.social, @joshneufeld.bsky.social, @lancerichardson.bsky.social, @mlrio.bsky.social, @tomtomorrow.bsky.social, @wolfffish.bsky.social & more!
It's the annual GUEST LIST episode! Find out which books 26 of this year's pod-guests loved the most & what they hope to read next year! (I participated, too, and tell some stories at the end.) GO LISTEN (& check out the list of books!): chimeraobscura.com/vm/the-guest...
TBF, John Waters has always leaned into the "perverts" thing, but I get what you mean. Plus the Iraq War thing is kinda enough to get you Also'd.
Enjoying the Chabon K&C but not too deeply, about a quarter of the way in.