The front half of the week was a long Memorial Day weekend, which we used to visit Toronto. We avoided the rainy weather by visiting the Royal Ontario Museum, seeing some friends, and then, when the sun came out, paying a visit to the Toronto zoo. What a wonderful city, and a wonderful way to spend some time with my family.
Back at the Museum, we formally took possession of the objects that we accessioned last week, including a massive collection of modern Native American crafts that is both daunting and exciting.
We had some car trouble that took time and money to deal with
In the small bits of time between everything else, I worked on repatriation stuff, exhibit planning, and grant reporting.
Alanna and I watched “Spy”, another strong piece of evidence for Melissa McCarthy being one of the greatest comic actors in the game. We also watched “Speed” which I had never seen, despite its ubiquitous place in the pop-cultural landscape of my youth.
I made some progress on our Indigenous exhibit, which I feel closer to finishing than I have in maybe a year.
I finished reading McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. I may write a few thoughts about it, but I’m mostly overwhelmed in equal parts by its breathtaking prose, horrific violence, and keen insights about America and its character.
Good Things:
Sunday was Dominic’s birthday party. He wanted to have some friends over to play Dungeons and Dragons, and asked me to DM. Alanna and I did a ton of work getting ready, and the day went great. I ran The Wild Sheep Chase which was the right combination of humor and adventure.
We’re leaving for Toronto Friday for the long weekend. I’m looking forward to being in a city I love and seeing friends and family there.
It’s finals week at Hartwick. My collections management students wanted to hear about NAGPRA, so I did a brief How-to lecture on the nuts and bolts of the topic. We also did the usual group de-briefing about the class, and I had my students to their final grade assessment meetings, which I continue to use as part of teaching the class Un-graded.
Thursday, Dominic turned 13. I love him so much and I’m so proud of all the amazing things he does, says, and is.
We had a collections committee meeting at the Museum. We voted to accept a number of wonderful objects for our collection, and to de-accession some material to help us respond to a NAGPRA claim.
Good Things:
I read “The Conditional”, a short, dark and hopeful poem by Ada Limon
Say tomorrow doesn’t come.
Say the moon becomes an icy pit.
Say the sweet-gum tree is petrified.
Say the sun’s a foul black tire fire.
Say the owl’s eyes are pinpricks.
Say the raccoon’s a hot tar stain.
Say the shirt’s plastic ditch-litter.
Say the kitchen’s a cow’s corpse.
Say we never get to see it: bright
future, stuck like a bum star, never
coming close, never dazzling.
Say we never meet her. Never him.
Say we spend our last moments staring
at each other, hands knotted together,
clutching the dog, watching the sky burn.
Say, It doesn’t matter. Say, That would be
enough. Say you’d still want this: us alive,
right here, feeling lucky.
My friend Bill and I saw Hokum, a wonderfully creepy haunted house movie. I have a high bar for horror movies and this one met it with a tight storyline, a gorgeous and immersive setting, and fantastic use of lighting and sound. A physically wild and irrascible performance from the always terrific Adam Scott anchors the movie, which, like all great ghost stories, is ultimately not about the supernatural, but about human tragedy.
In MUST204, students worked a little more on the textile cataloging project, and also helped me with some NAGPRA documentation. It’s the last week of classes, and they’ve done a wonderful job working through their collections project.
Hazel had her first soccer game, which I am delighted to once again help coach.
In MUST204, we continued work on our textile assessment and condition reporting project, and the students also assisted with assessing some paintings that had been on display and were returned to the Museum.
A couple big groups this week. Monday, we had a visit from educators from BOCES. Wednesday, we had a visit from SUNY Oneonta’s public history class. It’s always wonderful to show people the Museum.
I did some work getting information for reporting our CFOC grant, which paid for the Arts Camp.
My Folks were in town, largely to help us get through ballet recital week! It’s great to have them around, even if it feels like a real whirlwind.
I roped the Minister of Intrigue into helping me get my new laptop shipshope for posting this blog!
It was cleanup after camp last week. I’ve got a big to-do pile that has sat on my desk for a while, and it was time to pick through it.
To kickstart my week with some new tunes, I bought the album “The Window” by Ratboys. It’s a wonderful serving of jangling power-pop and I’ve been spinning it pretty constantly.
I finished reading “The Graveyard Apartment” by Mariko Koike. It’s a strange, creepy piece of domestic horror, with a wonderfully satisfying ending that doesn’t give anything away.
In MUST204, we started working on our final project; examining, photographing and condition-reporting key objects from the Museum’s textile collection.
After years of being impressed with their mission, I finally bought a Framework laptop. Unlike most laptops (which are practically designed to be thrown away after a few years), Frameworks are as close to “Buy it For Life” as you can get in the consumer electronics space. They’re fully repairable and upgradeable, and their goal is to reduce e-waste. Their CEO has also taken a stand against the proliferation of AI, which I also appreciate.
I did some planning on future Indigenous programs on campus.
It was Spring Break Arts Camp week at Hartwick. Meghan Sheehy and I and three Hartwick students tromped all over campus with 24 elementary school kids, making art, crafts, noise and fun. It was exhausting, but we had a great old time.
In my small scraps of downtime, I listened to Mike Duncan’s “Revolutions” podcast, specifically the newest season about “the Martian Revolution,” which is a kind of speculative history, but clearly draws on his knowledge derived from his other seasons. It’s fun, well thought out, and dynamic. That was my toe-dipping for the rest of the podcast (which focuses on actual historical revolutions) and I’m not going to go back to the beginning!
In MUST204, we talked about paintings, prints, and drawings, and also about the history of Museums as repositories of colonialism under the guise of “ethnographic collecting.”
We’re getting everything ready to go for our Spring Break Arts Camp next week. I’m really excited for all the fun activities we’re going to do, and I just hope the weather holds up!
I finished reading Nick Mamatas’ “The Planetbreaker’s Son.” I also finished, and am still contemplating “Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law” by James Q. Whitman.
In MUST204, we talked about caring for metal and textile objects. We also performed our annual washing and waxing of Bojan Konaver’s statue of Eurydice in front of the Museum.
More camp planning! We got a completed schedule together, full of fun craft activities and games. We’ll be ready to go in just two weeks.
I finished a couple of books. Sunday, I listened to the audiobook of “The Princess Bride” by William Goldman. The movie is a part of my cinematic DNA, but I’d never read the book. Turns out, it’s great and funny and exciting, and also kind of sexist! I also finished reading “101 Poems Against War,” an anthology I stumbled across as the US began its war with Iran. I wrote up some notes, mostly about the poems that resonated with me.
I love the folks at Good Enough, who make simple, usable web tools for everyday use. Their music logging tool Album Whale has just gotten a major upgrade and I look forward to playing around with it!
