Thanks

New podcast with Matt Bors, Thanksgiving, headless Leopold & more

Podcastery

This week, I posted Episode 564 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. cartoonist & editor Matt Bors. With The Nib, Matt helped build an online (and print!) venue for political satire, graphic journalism and non-fiction comics that featured some of the best names in comics and gave space to a bazillion up-and-comers. We sat down to talk about his decision to close down The Nib after 10 years, how it felt to bring together the best political cartoonists under a single online umbrella, how tech money giveth and taketh away, and what this fall’s farewell tour means to him. We get into what comes after The Nib (like his Justice Warriors comic), how it felt to see one of his comics displayed on the floor of the House of Representatives, the challenges & rewards of building a diverse roster of cartoonists, why he always wanted a print companion of The Nib, and how mainstream comics and dystopian science fiction have always held an appeal for him (and why he’d love to do more with his Wasteland characters). We also discuss how it feels to have traded America for Canada and how the move has changed his perspective, the ways his post-Nib self spends less time getting mad online, how he plans to catch up on all the comics he’s missed in the last decade, what it’s like having his first two-week stretch as an adult without immediate editorial deadlines, and more! Give it a listen! And go read Justice Warriors and check out The Nib’s archives!

Last week, I posted Episode 563 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. master essayist Phillip Lopate in a conversation about his new collection, A Year And A Day: An Experiment In Essays (NYRB). We get into how he adapted to a short, time-constrained blog-form for The American Scholar, what it was like revisiting those 2016-17 pieces for this book, and whether an essayist can truly write about anything. We talk about Phillip’s integration of the private and public self in his writing, how his wife & daughter felt about being included in A Year And A Day, and how editing the three Great American Essay collections allowed him to leave a canon behind for students & readers. We also discuss how his books and essays add up to a fragmentary, lifelong memoir (and why he’ll likely never write an actual memoir or autobiography), why his multiple myeloma diagnosis was more of a psychological hit than a physical one, how he found himself working on a biography of Washington Irving, his thoughts on present-day personal essay tropes, the career validation of being inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read A Year And A Day!

Recent episodes: Leslie Stein • Josh Bayer • Adam Sisman • Lisa Morton • Daniel Clowes • Rachel Shteir

Thanks

It’s Thanksgiving here in the US tomorrow. Some friends are coming over: Amy’s fantastic cooking will be devoured, wine will be consumed (by everyone but me), belts will be loosened, and breeze will be shot.

As far as being thankful, I try to demonstrate that every day, but just in case:

I’m thankful that Amy, listeners, readers, guests, and PR people allow me to make this whole Virtual Memories thang. I’m thankful my health has held up (pending my onco-check-in next month). I’m thankful my trustees and client companies appreciate the work I do for them and cut me some slack on occasion. I’m thankful my racing pals occasionally hit me up to go for walks & hikes in my semi-retirement from running. I’m thankful for people who send me postcards. I’m thankful for friends, old and new. And this week I’m especially thankful for the garage attendant who decided to do the impossible on Monday (the story is in this week’s show’s intro).

I’m not super-thankful for Sunday night mega-traffic getting to the GWB, but it was in service of seeing old friends, so I’ll take it.

Anyway, time to get to a couple of errands and then extensive house-cleaning.

Art

I didn’t get to draw much this week, for a variety of self-inflicted reasons. But on Monday night, I tried to sketch David Leopold during his Hirschfeld’s Music event at City Winery in NYC. The first one came out okay until I got to the head/face (the lights were down, I had my contacts in, excuses, etc.), so I tried again, and didn’t bother giving him a head. Here it is. I did also spend some time this weekend trying to figure out how to approach a weird concept I came up with. That is, it started as a fragment of a poem, and now I think it’s either the title of a big ol’ canvas or the gallery exhibition I will never have. I’d tell you what it is, but you’d either laugh or steal it. So I’m still cogitating, and maybe I’ll make a postcard and see if it grows from there. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.

Until Next Time

Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workout craziness, and Wednesday with a new episode, maybe some art, & who knows maybe a little profundity or something.

Gonna strike all the big red words from my little black book,

—Gil Roth
Virtual Memories
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