I did some planning for future Indigenous programs at the Museum as well as for a couple of future exhibits.
We loaned some objects to our friends at the Galleries at SUNY Oneonta for an upcoming exhibit on political cartoons and political art.
Friday, I attended the Regional Perspectives on AI symposium at SUNY Oneonta, and saw Alanna give an amazing and incisive talk defending critical education against the onslaught posed by genAI. I’m proud of her and remain in wonder that I get to live with and learn from such a brilliant and righteous person.
Good Things:
Alanna and I finished a marathon binge of “Blue Lights”, powering our way through all three seasons in the last week or so. It’s a thoughtful and gripping portrayal of crime and policing in modern Belfast, with a brilliant ensemble cast of cops, criminals, and people caught in between, and I’m not the only one to see parallels with the Wire. Both of us felt like it could’ve used a few more episodes to let the characters and plotlines breathe, but it’s an astonishingly good show for what it is.
We dropped Dominic off at Camp Stomping Ground, a place he loves and that loves him back. I miss my boy, but I’m happy he’s where he is.
My last.fm for this week was filled with the music I bought last Friday, especially the astonishing UK hip-hop record “Dead Earth 1.0” by Dangerous Creatures. I also listed to a lot of instrumental music, including Pelican, Trans Am, and Russian Circles.
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.
While we were there, I read Leonard Cohen’s “Book of Longing”, a father’s day present from Alanna that was funny, sensual, and deeply thoughtful. My soundtrack for much of the trip flew between Spiritualized, Sibylle Baier, Ratboys, and Open Mike Eagle.
Back at the Museum for one week before the next adventure. I spent time planning our upcoming Family Afternoon event, as well as a bit of future program planning, and helping our summer assistant with a new set of displays.
I responded to a NAGPRA claim and began drafting a Notice of Intended Repatriation.
I finished reading Francine Prose’s dark and sharp social satire “Primitive People”. It’s a very funny and sad and subtly weird book about a Haitian woman who flees to the United States and becomes an au pair (and confidante) for an eccentric family in the Hudson Valley. It’s a really startling novel about race, class, and gender, and moves from hilarious to cringe-inducing on a dime.
We ended our Gilbert Lake trip with some friends from France, on the beach at the 4th of July. Unfortunately, Hazel came down with a case of heat exhaustion and she and Alanna went home early.
Alanna and I agreed that the England v. Mexico game was one of the best football matches either of us had ever seen.
artificial intelligence → probabilistic automation
hybrid intelligence → augmented human intelligence
image recognition → image labeling
speech recognition → automatic transcription
the model shows bias → the model reflects bias
model mistakes → model errors
chatbots are good at … → chatbots are good for …
hallucination → undesirable output
Last Friday was Alanna’s and my anniversary, but because it was also the kiddos last day of school, we took them to the Unadilla drive-in to see Toy Story 5. Saturday, Alanna and I went out to dinner, and traded cards and gifts for what has been an exhiliarating and fun 16 years. Love you, baby.
Most of this week we spent at Gilbert Lake State Park, a place we love very much for its wonderful beach, great trails, and comfortable and beautiful CCC-era cabins.
I did log a little time at the Museum, which I largely spent de-installing “The Presence of Poe: The Life and Legacy of a Literary Icon.” This was a great exhibit that I was proud to design, co-curate, and showcase.
I finished reading my way through “The New American Poetry: 1945-1960”, edited by Donald Allen. This was an anthology recommmended to me by Brad Fest as a way to engage with post-war American poetry, especially in its more abstract and innovative forms. This is a big book, with a wide range of poets, and I’m still deciding how I felt about much of what I read.
In the Museum, we had our “half-day fun” programs, for kiddos (like mine!) who had a week of half days before school lets out.
I did some good planning for future indigenous programs, and some work finalizing a response to a repatriation claim. I also helped our assistant do some cataloging of a new collection.
I finished reading Madeline Ashby’s “Company Town” which is a great future noir about post-humanism, the violence that men do, and the spaces of generosity and care we can find outside those dark forces.
Good things:
Alanna and I watched the Edgar Wright version of The Running Man. Overall it wasn’t bad! The ending is a bit all-over-the-place, but the bulk of the movie is viciously, breathtakingly paced and Glen Powell kind of works as an angry, working-class jerk who loves his family. We’re also planning on taking the kiddos to the Unadilla Drive-in to celebrate the last day of school.
Father’s day included a wonderful breakfast of crepes, some gardening, and an amazing present in the form of a touchscreen for my raspberry pi rune audio server. Since digitizing most of my music in the 2000s, I’ve had a dream of having an accessible audio setup where all my music was easily available. Now I have it–thanks hon.
We spent quite a bit of time watching World Cup matches. The England/Croatia game was pretty great, as was the Netherlands/Japan game. Dominic is older (and also a school soccer player himself!) and it’s been fun to watch these games with him and Alanna together.
On Tuesday, we welcomed a visit from Valleyview Elementary school to the Museum. I know a bunch of the kids in this class so it was fun to have them in the Museum and show them around.
I submitted a grant request for funds to bring an indigenous craftsman and regalia maker to Hartwick.
We did some work getting things ready for next week’s “half day fun” event at the Museum.
I did some more repatriation work, finalizing our response to a claim we’ve received.
This was my last week as an assistant soccer coach for Hazel’s team (it was also her last week playing soccer). It was an enjoyable season, and I am greatful to the other coaches for such a positive experience.
I made some good plans for our Fall indigenous artists residency, and for the return of our Indigenous collection to display. We also planned some kids programs for the summer.
We welcomed a visit from the SUNY Oneonta/Hartwick Pine Lake Archaeological Field School. It’s always fun to talk to archaeology students, as a former member of the cloth myself.
I finished reading Sean Ferrell’s “The Man in the Empty Suit” and wrote up some notes. Overall, I found the premise amazing and the delivery bewildering and unsatisfying. A time travel novel that hand-waives away causality problems, and a protagonist with ambiguous and seemingly contradictory motivations made for a book that left me feeling deflated.
Sunday, we took the kids to see The Sheep Detectives which was kind of bland to my taste, but charming and sweet.
We brought some paintings from our collection to the office of our new college president, Dr. Laurel Bongiorno.
On Friday, we had a visit from Greater Plains elementary school, where we talked about archaeology, museums, Indigenous oral history, and geology. I love these school visits, but they are a lot of work!
Wednesday, we went to Dominic’s last 7th grade band concert. The band sounded great, and it continues to be a joy to see my kid on stage playing music with excitement and happiness.
