by Quentin Lewis

Weeknotes: 07/28/24-08/03/24

weeknotes music books family indigenous museum

This Week:

  • I was on mostly full-time kid duty this week, since Alanna was finishing up a massive article. Lots of evening games and complicated bedtimes, but we made it through (and so did Alanna–great job, baby! I’m so proud of you!)
  • We said goodbye to our summer assistants, Ethan and Vaughn. They held the last crafternoons of the summer, and then we took them out to a celebratory lunch.
  • Due to some long drives, I managed to finish reading two wonderful novels, both of which were recommended by the Minister of Intrigue. The first was “This is How You Lose the Time War” by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. It was a beautifully written and deeply romantic epistolary science fiction novel about two enemy soldiers fighting an intergalactic time-war who leave each other notes, first insulting, then friendly, then finally loving. The second was “The Salt Grows Heavy” by Cassandra Khaw, which was violent, strange, and lush. It follows a formerly enslaved mermaid Queen and her companion, a plague doctor while they travel through a barren and desolate fantastical landscape. Both books shared a sense of weirdness and off-stage wonder, and though very different tonally, they explored the experiences of “lovers in a dangerous time” as Bruce Cockburn said.
  • I also finished reading Questlove’s “Music as History”, and was torn about it. On one hand, it’s full of brilliant and insightful discussions of music and black culture that only he could provide. On the other hand, it felt a little limp in its pronouncements, and for someone as brilliant as Questlove, that vibe left me a little cold.
  • I submitted a Notice of Inventory Completion to National NAGPRA, to start the process of sending home two ancestors in our collection.
  • I played too much Hades. Man, that game is addictive.