Michael Perry's Voice Mail

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 300. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

As we hit 300 episodes I figured it was time to look back and talk about how and why this Voice Mail came to be (including the “unfortunately…” story), why I might be stuck in New York City, the advantages of being a paid subscriber, why all and any subscribers—paying or not—are welcome, what I mean when I say “value-added,” why I listen to the business news more closely than I do to politicians and publicists, and above all…

…above all…

…above all I will continue to sit down to this microphone once a week and do the very best I can to give you a little oasis of quiet, thoughtful, goofy, relaxed reflection.

Sincerely,Mike

MARGINALIA

(Annotations from books Mike is reading, or annotations related to the episode)

Most of the time when you hear me in a Voice Mail episode, it was recorded right here in my little room above the garage…

…but sometimes when I’m on the road or a family trip, I gotta make do. This was a closet somewhere in Montana.

Sometimes I have to negotiate access.

This was the face I made the time the Voice Mail link we sent to everyone didn’t work.

Notes toward an early episode:

The very first marginalia entry:

Marginal entries are a conversation between you, me, and the author in question.

OK. There’s the overview. Next week, back to regular programming. Thank you for looking and listening.

All of Mike’s books (including his two most recent, Improbable Mentors and Forty Acres Deep) are available here. As are can koozies.

If you’d like to receive all episodes of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, click on the button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

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Howdy folks:

Welcome to the Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 299. This one’s subscribers-only. Click the player above to listen.

This one’s also longer than usual, so I just dove right in. It’s something I wrote for the Italians. About the Packers. You’ll see.

There’s always next year. Although Joan Didion would warn you about that.

Mike

MARGINALIA

(Annotations from books Mike is reading, or annotations related to the episode)

And finally, I was sitting at home watching the Packers game one day when this photo popped up on my phone. It was my buddy, texting me from Lambeau to let me know he was reppin’ the brand. You will be perhaps not surprised to learn that his nickname is “Boozy.”

This week I finished Blue Nights.

Mostly this one caused me to reflect more than underline. These sections in particular caught me:

I feel good, but time ticks on, and I have had a couple of minor (truly) health things lately, and it always feels like a surprise when things don’t work right, and what Didion really got me to thinking about is how we accept that we will age and die, but not today. Actually, I am much more open to the idea that I could die at any minute. But aging? That always seems like it’s around the corner. I’m definitely at the point—and these and other passages in Blue Nights reinforced this—where I need to begin work not so much on slowing down or giving up but rather thinking about how I’ll handle it when these things inevitably descend.

I don’t feel grim about, and don’t intend to sound as if I am. It’s just one more thing to engage, and to be engaged is to be alive.

Blue Nights is available at BookShop.org and Amazon. Those are affiliate links, we get a couple cents.

The Sneezing Cow store is always open.

You can give a Voice Mail gift subscription:

PHOTO ABOVE: My nephew attempts to snow surf. He’s actually a very talented athlete, which makes the payoff all the more sweet.

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 296. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In this episode, I reference my recent success on the slopes (sadly only my failures were filmed so I can’t prove it) but then switch to a memoriam for Jerry Apps, a man whose contributions to Wisconsin’s arts, culture, and history are immense. I also talk of the kindnesses he showed me, especially in those early days.

Thank you for listening. Next week, back to regular programming.

Mike

MARGINALIA

(Annotations from books Mike is reading, or annotations related to the episode)

It’s good when grandma’s front yard is a sledding hill:

Birds-eye view of everyone set to go, including the dogs:

Regrettably, while footage of my successful ride to the bottom of the hill does not exist, footage of one of my failures does:

And I did make it to the bottom on this team run before tumbling:

Next week I will return to marginalia from books I am currently reading. For now, in honor of Jerry Apps, I prefer to share the following:

Jerry’s website, with a comprehensive summary of his work.

Jerry’s amazing body of accomplishments.

Links to Jerry’s shows on PBS.

Thoughtful and comprehensive profile of Jerry by Barry Adams.

The email I mention in the podcast:

I was fortunate to have been among the thousands who benefited from this man’s work and example.

The Sneezing Cow webstore has all of Mike’s books, recordings, T-shirts, and merchandise (including the bestselling koozie).

If you’d like to receive all episodes of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, click on the button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

You can share this episode with a friend:

You can give a Voice Mail gift subscription:

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 293. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In this episode I wonder if humans getting back together again might be the secret to a new bliss, even though I wouldn’t call it that. I also explore the balance between the mystery of life and the mystery of what’s under the refrigerator. Scroll down for photos and marginalia related to this episode.

Thank you for your terrific support of the new book, which has also put a bounce in the sales of Forty Acres Deep. Orders placed by December 12 should arrive by Christmas.

In other news, what it’s like to go from pitching straw bales in Wisconsin to pitching scripts in Hollywood? How does an L.A. entertainment attorney take his parrot for walks? Why are people who supposedly don’t read, buying books? Why did the twine snap? What would my mother think of what I said in that meeting? What’s Louis L’Amour got to do with it? Is that really the best use of a snow plow? And what is veracity, and can it heal us?

All of these questions and more are answered in an essay I wrote now available online in the “Stories of America” section at Panoptica. Click here to read (paying subscribers to this Voice Mail received advance readings of early drafts as I developed it).

Once again, thank you for subscribing to Voice Mail.

See y’down the road,Mike

MARGINALIA

(Annotations from books Mike is reading, or annotations related to the episode)

The refrigerator situation:

“Paralyzed,” by S. Carey:

Below, the auditorium (I understand they now call it the ballroom). Imagine it candlelit with the band in the round down there where those chairs are. Oh, and electric candles, Fire Marshal Bill.

The book cited in today’s episode:

Notes toward the essay that may or may not arise from this:

The Power of Myth is available at BookShop.org and Amazon. Those are affiliate links, we get a couple cents.

Improbable Mentors & Happy Tangents is available in print and as an ebook. Also available as an audiobook.

Forty Acres Deep is available in print and as an ebook. Also available as an audiobook.

Prefer to support a local indie bookstore? Let them know we distribute this book through Ingram or wholesale directly through us.

To keep up to date, follow Mike on Instagram. His daughter also finally got him set up on TikTok.

The Sneezing Cow webstore has all of Mike’s books, recordings, T-shirts, and merchandise (including the bestselling koozie). Orders placed by December 12 should arrive by Christmas.

If you’d like to receive all episodes of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, click on the button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

You can share this episode with a friend:

You can give a Voice Mail gift subscription:

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 291. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In this episode I reveal how I agreed to allow my children to have cats only after making it clear the cats would be allowed only under my rules—but of course rather than living under my rules they snuck under them. And over them. And around them. And through them. And that was just the first week. And never mind the house, these days they pretty much run my office (see photos and videos below).

A big thank you to everyone who ordered the new book, which is now also available as an audiobook (read by me). It’s a little different, and that’s turned out to be good, because we’re meeting a whole new bunch of readers.

Okey-doke. Gotta get this cat off my lap and back to work. Not that a cat ever works.

Forward!Mike

If you’d like to receive all episodes of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, click on the button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

You can share this episode with a friend:

MARGINALIA

(Annotations from books Mike is reading, or annotations related to the episode)

The very definition of walking in like you own the place:

Sometimes it’s just creepy:

(The tinfoil-y stuff is a rescue blanket hung to reflect the late-afternoon sun, which otherwise bakes me out. The missing chunks are due to—you guessed it—the cats. And the mildew on the trim? Yes, I see it now.)

They like each other:

One thing we agree on? Office naps:

I continue to read Always Crashing In the Same Car (available at BookShop.org and Amazon) and got a kick out of randomly running into an old friend:

That feeling of familiarity is key to Montaigne and what I tried to convey in Montaigne in Barn Boots…even though he’s been dead for hundreds of years and even though hundreds of thousands (at this point, millions?) of people have read his work, he comes across like your friend. Your confidant.

Improbable Mentors & Happy Tangents is available in print and as an ebook. Also available as an audiobook.

Prefer to support a local indie bookstore? Let them know we distribute this book through Ingram or wholesale directly through us.

For more cats and oddments, follow Mike on Instagram. His daughter also finally got him set up on TikTok.

The Sneezing Cow webstore has all of Mike’s books, recordings, T-shirts, and merchandise (including the bestselling koozie).

If you’d like to receive all episodes of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, click on the button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

You can share this episode with a friend:

You can give a Voice Mail gift subscription:

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 285. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In this episode, I describe how we arrived at the cover design for the new book. And what it’s got to do with rock ‘n’ roll posters.

To see the images mentioned in this episode (and link to the fish story), scroll down.

If you’d like to receive all episodes of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, click on the button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

You can share this episode with a friend:

Forward!Mike

Here’s a link to Episode #207, the one with the story about Andy and me stranded at sea, and the fish picture.

Here’s RT and some of the work he and Chris have done at Knorth Studios. They’re also on Instagram.

Improbable Mentors & Happy Tangents is available in print and as an ebook. Audiobook is recorded and will be available soon (sign up here to be notified).

Prefer to support a local indie bookstore? Let them know we distribute this book through Ingram or wholesale directly through us.

Follow Mike on Instagram.

The Sneezing Cow webstore has all of Mike’s books, recordings, T-shirts, and merchandise (including the bestselling koozie).

If you’d like to receive all episodes of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, click on the button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

You can share this episode with a friend:

THANK YOU.

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 280. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In this episode I discuss my enduring affection for The Rockford Files, how I have failed to recruit my own family as fans of the show (but did introduce them to the music of Isaac Hayes), and share a piece of writing tying the art of Edward Hopper to International Harvester pickup trucks, The Rockford Files, and the Portuguese concept of saudade.

Scroll down for marginalia supplementing the audio portion of this episode, as well as subscription information and book links.

As ever, thank you for listening.

Mike

MARGINALIA

(Annotations from books Mike is reading, or annotations related to the episode)

More on Seven A.M. here.

I also mention Hopper and Seven A.M. in this song. You can listen to it here.

Hey folks, thanks as ever for listening and following along. I’m grateful to do what I do, and will keep at it.

All of my books, audio, T-shirts, and miscellany (from PBS specials to can koozies) can be found here.

The John Prine book is available from BookShop.org and Amazon.

The Koozer/Harrison book is available from BookShop.org and Amazon.

Those are affiliate links, we get a couple cents.

If you’d like to receive all episodes of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, click on the button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

You can share this episode with a friend:

You can give a Voice Mail gift subscription:

See y’down the road.

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 275. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In this episode, I celebrate the return of Truck: A Love Story to Wisconsin Public Radio’s longest-running program, “Chapter A Day,” by revisiting all the twists and turns it took to come up with a cover for that dang book in the first place. I hope you enjoy the behind-the-scenes story, and all the related photos below.

And above all—thank you for subscribing, and thank you for listening.

Double-clutch,Mike

MARGINALIA

(Annotations from books Mike is reading, or annotations related to the episode)

If you’d like to receive all episodes of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, click on the button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

You can share this episode with a friend:

You can give a Voice Mail gift subscription:

Mike’s signed books, recordings, T-shirts, and more available at The Sneezing Cow store.

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 271. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

This episode is in honor of my mom—a mother to many. She passed away peacefully last Sunday.

Mike

An earlier episode about mom (subscription required).

An even earlier episode about mom (no subscription required).

Thank you, folks. We’ll convene again next week.

If you’d like to receive all episodes of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, click on the button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

You can share this episode with a friend:

You can give a Voice Mail gift subscription:

Mike’s signed books, recordings, T-shirts, and more available at The Sneezing Cow store.

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 269. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click the player above to listen.

In this episode I revisit the adventures of two cousins—Herbie and Delmar—and bid Delmar good-bye after over a century of a life well-lived. In the Marginalia section (scroll down) I share related photos and videos.

I also have two announcements. One concerns my goddaughter Amy.

The other concerns some current events.

While recording today’s episode I was reminded for the forty-’leventh time how many rich experiences I have been allowed in this life. I hope I convey them in gratitude and joy, and I hope I convey how grateful I am for the time you take to read, listen, and follow.

I never take it for granted.

Thank you,Mike

MARGINALIA

(Annotations from books Mike is reading, or annotations related to the episode)

After he finished recording, Jaime got a ride:

The hovercraft I bought at Herbie’s auction is tattered and out of commission, but the one in the video below is the exact same model and color (minus Herbie’s crazy modifications):

There’s a little more to the Herbie and Delmar story in Population 485.

The airplane can be heard on the “Tiny Pilot” track of this album.

The hidden track can be heard here.

The airplane also appears in Coop.

If you’d like to receive all episodes of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, click on the button below (it says “Subscribe Now” but you won’t actually be subscribed until you review your options and confirm):

You can share this episode with a friend:

You can give a Voice Mail gift subscription:

Mike’s signed books, recordings, T-shirts, and more available at The Sneezing Cow store.

See y’down the road!