by Quentin Lewis

Weeknotes: 08/01/2026-08/07/2026

weeknotes truethings goodthings music books

This Week:

  • Saturday we had our “Family Afternoon at the Museum.” I roped in a bunch of current and former Hartwick students to help with crafts and games, and we also had a delightful visit David from Birchwood Archaeology who showed everyone how to throw an Atl-Atl.
  • It was our assistant Ethan’s last week in the Museum, and we spent a lot of time getting things cleaned up and ready for the Fall. We cleared the galleries of the leftovers from “Family Afternoon”, boxed up the remains of a new collection of Indigenous beadwork for future cataloging, built a storage box for a clay and foam bust of Edgar Allan Poe, and otherwise put things away in their proper place. Ethan’s been great; I’m sorry to see him go.
  • I also started the process of hiring student workers for the Fall semester, ordered some new collections supplies, and met with some folks from other institutions about future collaborations.
  • I finished reading “Everfair” by Nisi Shawl, a beautiful and hopeful alternate history of Africa where a group of anti-colonial Fabians set up a new country to take in refugees from the violence of Belgian Congo, and due to some early technological innovations, manage to create an African-led industrial revolution. It’s a fascinating and exciting book, and the only reason I didn’t completely embrace it was that I had a hard time keeping track of all of the dozen-odd primary characters.
  • I also read Charles Bukowski’s “PLAY THE PIANO DRUNK LIKE A PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT UNTIL THE FINGERS BEGIN TO BLEED A BIT”.
  • Good Things:
  • True Things: