Author: Gil

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Podcast: Here at the Western World

Virtual Memories – season 2 episode 7
Tom May – Here at the Western World (The Piraeus Tapes II)

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Back-to-back episodes of The Virtual Memories Show! Who’d a’ thunk it?

Around Memorial Day, I took a little vacation to my alma mater, St. John’s College, for a seminar on Flannery O’Connor, and got to interview two of my favorite tutors: David Townsend and Tom May. Because they both had so much to talk about, I decided to split this month’s show into two parts.

St. John's College, Annapolis, MD

This episode contains my conversation with Tom May, the first St. John’s tutor I ever met (that’s him, conducting the freshmen chorus, above). I find Mr. May — sorry, but I can’t get over those Johnnie traditions — fascinating and intensely thoughtful, and I was glad to learn some of his history, how he’s seen the college change during his three decades-plus as a tutor, how we should never read a book for the first time, and and he had to get a note from his priest to read books from the Vatican’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

It all makes sense here:

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Check out the previous episode, in which tutor David Townsend talks about education and the American project. There are also episodes with tutors Peter Kalkavage (2014) and Eva Brann (2013)!

Follow The Virtual Memories Show on iTunes, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and RSS!

If you’re interested in seeing some of Annapolis, check out my photoset from that trip:

St. John's College

Credits: This episode’s music is Steely Dan’s Here at the Western World. I recorded the intro on a Blue Yeti mic, and the conversation with was recorded on a pair of Blue Encore 100 mics, feeding into a Zoom H4N recorder. (Also, there’s a Flannery O’Connor pun that I won’t bother to explain.)

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Podcast: My Old School

Virtual Memories – season 2 episode 6
David Townsend – My Old School

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The June episode of The Virtual Memories Show is ready to go! Around Memorial Day, I took a little vacation to my alma mater, St. John’s College, for a seminar on Flannery O’Connor, and got to interview two of my favorite tutors: David Townsend and Tom May.

Because they both had so much to talk about, I decided to split this month’s show into two parts. This episode has my conversation with David Townsend, and it’s a remarkable take on education in America, the nature of good conversation, and the poetry of the Koran (among other topics)!

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Check out the followup episode, in which tutor Tom May talks about a dizzying array of topics. There are also episodes with tutors Peter Kalkavage (2014) and Eva Brann (2013)!

Follow The Virtual Memories Show on iTunes, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and RSS!

If you’re interested in seeing some of Annapolis, check out my photoset from that trip!

Spa Cove

Credits: This episode’s music is Steely Dan’s My Old School. I recorded the intro on a Blue Yeti mic, and the conversation with was recorded on a pair of Blue Encore 100 mics, feeding into a Zoom H4N recorder.

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More Bookbuys

Waiting for Amy’s train this afternoon (long weekend: woo!), I stopped at the Barnes & Noble on Rt. 17 South in Paramus. That store has a used books section, which also includes reviewers’ copies that are usually marked down half-price from list. There was a 50-75% sale on, so I, um, pillaged.

Used & Reviewers

Here’s what I got, for a grand total of $43:

That last one’s a gag gift for a pal of mine. No, really.

I make no excuses about Born To Be Brad, except to say that it makes my Simon Doonan collection look butch.

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Escape (from) artistry

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again: “Life is too short for shitty novels.” Years ago, I tried to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and found myself bored silly. I gave up at the 100-page mark or thereabouts, and said, “If you write a novel about comic books, Jewish immigrants, golems, and escape artistry and you lose me, you’ve seriously fucked up.”

However, a pal of mine mentioned it as a book she came back to and learned to appreciate a lot. Since I’m interviewing her next month for another podcast, I thought I’d give Chabon’s novel another shot. After all, maybe I was just being overly critical way back when; maybe I was jealous that someone else had tackled a bunch of topics that I’d love to have written about.

Alas, no. I made it around 40 pages further this time, nearly a quarter of the way through the novel, before giving up. The writing is still boring; the story structure makes no sense, with its nested flashbacks without triggers for the sake of building a symbol; the characters are uninteresting; the four-page exposition about the early history of comics may have been necessary, but it was a tedious info-dump. The final straw? A mere footnote, an asterisk that led to a 4-line aside.

Why did that push me over the edge? Because it served no purpose that couldn’t have been achieved within the third-person narration. Even if it was meant as an homage to David Foster Wallace, all it did (for me) was demonstrate that Chabon’s writing sucks and his editor was stealing paychecks.

And really, that latter point could be proved simply by looking at the page count: 640 pages! Was it meant to be a Great American Novel or something? How do you write 300 pages longer than, say, The Leopard, but say so much less?

(Don’t get me started on the chapter-long origin story of the superhero that Kavalier & Clay create. A long paragraph in that story begins with the lead character standing at the door of his mentor, then explains exactly why none of the mentor’s entourage would knock on the door, before explaining that the mentor’s mistress is the one who compelled the lead character to knock on the door. Which he was about to do at the beginning of this lengthy parapgraph and gets around to at the end. Mind-bogglingly shitty, cumbersome writing.)

I felt like I was cheating myself every time I read a few pages, like it was some sort of burden. Good thing this one only cost me $2.62.

NOTE: If you’re interested in a good novel about escape artistry, go read Carter Beats the Devil instead. You’ll thank me once you’ve come up for air.

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Podcast: Look in Your Heart

Virtual Memories – season 2 episode 5
John B. – Look in Your Heart

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The May episode of The Virtual Memories Show is up and ready to go! This time around, my guest is John B., a pal of mine who died last year (but got better!)

There’s also a little rant about the publicity-industrial complex, the Avengers, the new book by Robert Caro, and the redemptive powers of a certain margarita-soaked musician.

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Credits: This episode’s music is tied into the conversation with John, so you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out what it is. I recorded the intro on a Blue Yeti mic, and the conversation with John was recorded on a pair of Blue Encore 100 mics, feeding into a Zoom H4N recorder. The conversation was recorded in an exhibit hall during a trade show, so getting the sound quality up to snuff was a little work.

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Bookbuys

Since we’re building a library downstairs and adding a bunch more shelf-space, I’m no longer quite so constrained in my book-buying. I’m still on an austerity plan for 2012, so I’ll generally only pick something up on the cheap. Here’s what I’ve bought lately and why.

AbeBooks

The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon – I’m planning to read this for a Secondhand Loves podcast with one of my old college pals. I detested it the first time I tried it, complaining, “If you write a novel about comic-book history, Jews in eastern Europe, escape artistry and the golem-myth and you lose me, you’ve seriously fucked up.” We’ll see if I’m still as uninto it. It cost me $2.62, plus shipping

The Last Leopard – David Gilmour – It’s the biography of Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, who wrote The Leopard, one of my favorite novels. Cost $6.75

The Anatomy of Influence – Harold Bloom – I’m sure I’ll spend a little time with it. $8.31

Labyrinth Books

I stopped in Princeton for lunch on the way home from a client visit in Philadelphia, so I hit Labyrinth, which used to be Micawber Books. I found a used copy of Little, Big for $12.74. Amy lent hers out, and I’m hoping to interview the author soon for the podcast, so I picked that up. Still, $12.74 is kinda high for a used paperback. I balanced things out by finding a backup hardcover of George, Being George for $2.

Raider

There was a street fair in Suffern, NY last weekend, as Amy & I discovered when going out to our favorite hole-in-the-wall taqueria in town. We meandered through that, and discovered a little used bookstore in the same building as the Lafayette theater, this great old movie house where I once saw The Empire Strikes Back. The stock wasn’t really my sorta thing, but then I noticed a copy of Mr. Crowley’s Four Freedoms for $4, so I picked that up.

The Strand

While staying in NYC for a conference last week, I hit up the Strand Bookstore on my last night, since my wife & I are content to do that sorta thing. I decided I wouldn’t buy anything over $10, but managed to get by without crossing the $8 barrier:

Wise Blood – Flannery O’Connor – I read it in the big ol’ Library of America collected works last year, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a portable copy. $7.95

How Fiction Works – James Wood – I generally like his literary criticism and book reviews. $7.95

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City – Nick Flynn – My pal Elayne loved this one, and implored me to give it a shot. $7.50

The Lost Books of the Odyssey – Zachary Mason – Praised in a recent Five Books interview, I figured I’ll read it some weekend this summer. $5.95

Role Models – John Waters – I’ve always liked John Waters in theory much more than in practice, so I’m hoping the printed page works better for me than the movie/TV screen. $7.95

And that’s my recent book-buying binge. We’re still a few weeks away from having the library finished, but once it’s wrapped up, I’ll be sure to post a ton of pix.

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Baseball & Shakespeare Update

PDA conference in PHX done! Now to close the “Shakespeare plays read to ballparks visited” spread!

Shakespeare Plays Read

  1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  2. Antony & Cleopatra
  3. As You Like It
  4. Coriolanus
  5. Hamlet
  6. Henry IV I
  7. Henry IV II
  8. Henry V
  9. King Lear
  10. Macbeth
  11. Merchant of Venice
  12. Much Ado About Nothing
  13. Othello
  14. Richard II
  15. The Tempest
  16. Winter’s Tale

MLB Parks Visited

  1. A’s
  2. Angels
  3. Blue Jays
  4. Braves
  5. Diamondbacks
  6. Mariners
  7. Mets (old)
  8. Orioles
  9. Padres
  10. Phillies (old)
  11. Red Sox
  12. White Sox
  13. Yankees (old)

20120417-185326.jpg

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April, Fool!

It’s been a long time, dear readers! Sorry for the absence, but I’ve been undergoing some strange anxiety/depression stuff for the past month, with no clue how to shake it. Part of it was work-related, with some work-worries waking me up at odd hours. To compensate for lost sleep, I fell back into my habit of adding a mid-morning coffee to my normal caffeine regimen. (I normally drink a 2-cup mug around 5 a.m. when I get up, and a 2-cup French press around 2 p.m.) My biochemistry started getting worse, of course, with more anxiety and less sleep, which compounded the need for coffee and . . .

That’s exactly how I ended up with heart palpitations that resulted in an ER visit last September. So I’ve been consciously cutting back the caffeine intake, and trying to get more sleep. And now, with my wife immersed in the season premiere of Game of Thrones, I figured it was about time I started writing things down again.

So: last month. I had a business trip to San Francisco that was pretty entertaining. I’d tell you more, but I’m planning to ramble about in the April installment of my podcast. Which may be delayed a little bit, but I promise it’ll come out this month (or your money back!). See, I’m really intent on getting at least one interview/conversation into each new podcast, and I’ve sorta failed at lining one up. But I’m going to see a pal of mine next weekend, and I think we can have a good conversation for the Virtual Memories Show.

In fact, this weekend I picked up some good microphones and a recorder so I can do remote interviews with good sound quality. So if I show up at your door with a Dopp kit, don’t be afraid that I’m planning to move in; I’m just making a temporary studio in your living room. (Speaking of: lemme know if you want to record a book-oriented conversation sometime!)

I guess the biggest news I have is that we’re building a library. I mean, I’ve been building a library for decades, but now we have a handyman in doing the actual building of a library. We’re taking two rooms downstairs — the rec room and “The Shack,” a guest bedroom where Dad used to keep his HAM radio stuff when we were growing up (short for “Radio Shack,” in other words) — building shelves into the walls above the foundation, tearing down the wall between ’em, installing lights, and putting in some Pergo faux-wood flooring.

I’d kindasorta wanted to do something like this for years, but it was only when Handyman Lou finished the first phase, installing and painting the bookcases in the rec room, that I really started to get excited. As I started taking my books off the multitude of Ikea Billy bookcases and organizing them on the new shelves, I thought, “This is going to be my home.” (It’ll also have a photo-studio area for Amy to use; no man-cave here.)

So, I suppose my anxiety about this stuff — having someone in the house a lot, having to trust that he’s going to do the job right, having to trust that I’m asking for the right thing — has also preyed on me. I took a couple of “before” pix, but I’ll wait on posting stuff till “after” is ready.

Anyway, that’s the tale I have to tell, I guess. Last week, Amy & I miscommunicated about when her train from NYC was going to arrive at the station in Radburn. As a result, I got there half an hour early. I considered driving over to Garden State Plaza and meandering around for 15-20 minutes, maybe looking at some clothes.

Instead, I drove in the other direction and hit Well Read, a nice indy bookstore in Hawthorne. I’d been doing well with my 2012 austerity plan (admittedly blown up by this weekend’s audio recorder / mics purchase), but all this shelf-space I’m about to gain left me thinking I could pick up some new books. I grabbed used copies of Housekeeping (Marilynne Robinson, the subject of last month’s podcast) and Rabbit, Run (I’ve never read Updike) and a new copy of Inherent Vice, Pynchon’s stoner detective novel, which I’m enjoying. I suspect I’d enjoy it more if The Big Lebowski didn’t exist, but whatever.

What I’m saying is, I want a place to read, even if I have more books than I’ll ever get around to.

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Podcast: Good Housekeeping

Virtual Memories – season 2 episode 3
Ann Rivera – Good Housekeeping

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It’s time for a new episode of The Virtual Memories Show! I finally managed to get a guest to come all the way out to deepest, darkest New Jersey to record a conversation for this one!

Ann’s a 20-plus-year pal of mine from college, and I was happy to have her be my very first pod-guest! Our conversation was for a new segment on the show: Second Hand Books. The theme is that you tell me about a book or author you once hated but now adore. (Because it’s too easy to talk about books/authors you once loved but are now embarrassed by.)

Give this episode a listen, and if you have a book or author you wanna discuss on the show, drop me a line! I love to learn about how people’s literary tastes change and what those changes say about the way we grow. (No, I don’t have a very interesting life, I admit.)

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Credits: This episode’s music is Coralia, by Mark Adler, from the Henry & June soundtrack. In the comments, I’ll put a link to this episode’s m4a version, which has my cutesy headshot embedded. Let me know if you have trouble playing the files; I’m still figuring out how to optimize the audio and I’m not sure I’ve got the meta-data correct to file this stuff in iTunes.