Talking drugs
New podcast with Brian Dillon, Silver Springing, + links, train-art & more
Intro
Yesterday I had this pretty high-level FDA meeting for my trade association. Eight of our members came in for it (from VA, NC, NJ, IN and WA), representing 6 of my member companies, and we prepped for 4 weeks, working through draft upon draft of our presentation & getting our talking points straight.
It all got me pretty frazzled, and my anxiety about it kept me from getting much else done (which is why I don’t have a guest scheduled for next week’s podcast yet).
I fell into my default doom-spiral of assuming this would either just be a check-the-box formality for FDA (wasting my members’ time), or that we’d have a confrontational meeting where Things Might Get Said that would cause problems. Worse, I feared I might be the person saying those things.
I could spend quite a while prattling about the roots of my doom-fixation, but as it turns out, I was totally wrong. The FDA side was engaged & amenable, we got in a real conversational groove, they supported a bunch of our ideas and shared some lessons learned from the pandemic response, and most importantly, they seemed to get how the guys I represent differ from actual drug companies and why we should continue meeting.
All my member-reps got to speak up/chime in about the stuff that matters to them, and we came away with this really fantastic sense of Getting Something Done. (Just after posing for that photo above, my guys reminded me that real success will be based on how well I follow up on the meeting.) (Which I’ll be doing right after this.)
Of course, the world doesn’t stop: I’m kinda burned out from all the buildup + yesterday’s travel, I’ve got a virtual meeting with another part of FDA tomorrow (less stressful), we’ve got some health-worries for our dog-boy Bendico, and I STILL don’t have a guest lined up for next week’s show. But I was awfully elated on the train ride home, and I’ll take the win.
And now, on with The Virtual Memories Show!
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 539 of The Virtual Memories Show feat. Brian Dillon about his new book, AFFINITIES: On Art & Fascination (NYRB), which completes a “loose trilogy” around his connections to art, writing & the world, this time through a series of amazing essays about photography, dance, video, and other art forms, as well as the drift-nature of affinity itself. We get into the tendrils of influence (and how he has to shake himself loose of the reticence of Barthes & Sebald), his family history of close looking, and why he embraces mood over argument in his essays. We also talk about his decision to rewrite by hand the previously published pieces for this book to see if new connections revealed themselves, the challenges in wedding the critical & the memoiristic, how much personal info is too much in an essay, the writers he discovered late, why he doesn’t shy away from calling Affinities an essay collection, and more! Give it a listen and go read AFFINITIES (+ Essayism & Suppose a Sentence)!
Last week, I posted Episode 538 of The Virtual Memories Show feat. John W. Kropf and his new book, COLOR CAPITAL OF THE WORLD (University of Akron Press), which explores the history of the American Crayon Co., Sandusky, OH, and his own family, while telling a bigger story about America. We get into the family lore that led him to write the book, what crayons meant to him as a kid, and when he realized that the story would involve the history of American immigration, innovation, chemistry, industry, public education, labor, and the rapaciousness of finance. We also talk about how he met the challenge of including personal memoir in the story of a company town, the contrast of his multi-multi-generational history in America with my rootless cosmopolitanism, who he’s been reading lately, and more. Give it a listen and go read COLOR CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!
Other recent episodes: John Wray • Ho Che Anderson • Finding Michael Denneny (+ followup) • Noah Van Sciver
Links & Such
No deaths jumped out at me this week, which is a relief.
Ann Telnaes won the 2023 Herblock Award! Here’s her acceptance speech.
Cullen Murphy has an amazing piece about after-hours at the Vatican Museums.
Lovely appreciation by Sebastian Smee of Felix Gonzalez-Torres's Perfect Lovers artwork.
Neat interview w/Tom Ford, who sold his fashion company & considers himself retired, on losing his husband and his father in recent years, and being a single parent.
Neat semi-profile of Steven Wright, on the occasion of his first novel.
Current reading
I finished my re-re-re-read of The Crying of Lot 49 this morning, and am momentarily between books, which is bizarre to imagine. Again, the last few weeks have been pretty disrupting.
Art
No art this week, except for a quick sketch of the guy ahead & across from me on the train yesterday on his phone. It was a bumpy ride. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
Because of Tuesday’s travel, I only got in 4 days of my weights & yoga cycle, Friday-Monday. The week ahead looks clear enough to allow me to get in all 5 days. My weight’s been creeping up, I think mainly from anxiety-eating in recent weeks/months, and I hope to decondition myself from that routine, because the older I get, the tougher it’ll be to lose excess weight. Or emotional baggage.
Until Next Week
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back next with a new podcast, great links, maybe some art, & maybe a little profundity or something.
They say, Martin, maybe one day you’ll find true love,
—Gil Roth
Virtual Memories
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