My wife and I finally finished watching “The Beatles: Get Back”. I’m addingto thechorus, but despite it being 8 hours long, it was completely enthralling, emotionally moving, and delightful in equal turns. I was totally engrossed watching four close friends hang out, crack jokes, and then, on a dime, start playing (and even creating) some of the most gorgeous music you’ve ever heard.
I cleaned the frame of an old painting, with the goal of eventually putting the canvas back in.
Because they were on “Pay what you want” on bandcamp, I filled in some gaps in my Mountain Goats back catalog.
I mourned the death of the great Mimi Parker of Low by re-listening to some of her gorgeous and thoughtful music. Rest in Peace.
I gave a guest lecture on the archaeology of African-Americans in an anthropology capstone class at SUNY Oneonta. It was kind of fun to talk about stuff that I used to think very deeply about, but have moved away from in my turn toward Museum work.
On Sunday, we held the Museum’s Halloween storytelling event “The Horror in the Museum”. It was tons of fun, and a great Halloween tradition.
We took the kiddos out Trick or Treating, and to the Oneonta Halloween Parade.
I made the Museum available for an archaeology class exercise on typology.
I concluded some paperwork for the week-long residency of Jason Medicine Eagle Martinez. His installation “Hybrid: The Kiva Show” in the Herzog gallery is really stunning, and I’m proud and humbled to have facilitated it.
I did some collections research on an old and poorly catalogued collection in the Museum.
I attended the College’s DEI-Indigenous affairs committee meeting.
I finished reading “Voyage of the Dogs” by Greg Von Eekhout. It’s a “lost in space” type story about a group of dogs on a space mission to a distant planet who wake up from hibernation to discover the humans have left. It was very exciting if a bit tense, especially for dog lovers!
Movie-wise, I was on a western kick this week. I finished watching “The Harder they Fall” a revisionist African-American western with a stellar cast. It’s long but very entertaining.
I also watched “High Plains Drifter”, dark and haunting movie about the magnetic pull of evil and the inability to escape violence.
We hosted Hartwick’s Board of Trustees at the Yager Museum.
I did final grades for MUST252: North American Material Culture to 1700. It was a fun class, and I hope the students enjoyed it as much as I did.
We de-installed “Street Stuff”, an installation at the Museum by Roberta Griffith.
I finished reading Scott R. Jones bewildering cosmic horror novel “Stonefish”, about a journalist in the future who seeks out, and ultimately finds an eccentric tech-billionaire who disappeared while searching for cryptids in the pacific Northwestern United States. It’s a dark and explosively written novel that, like most cosmic horror, is about the futility of action in an actively hostile universe, but it steps above the genre with its elaborate and terrifying mythology, rich prose, and understated humanism.
I watched the Marvel/Disney+ feature “Werewolf by Night” which was fun, and a great throwback to the classic horror of the 1940s and 50s.
I also watched the new version of Hellraiser, which was fine. It was certainly better than most of the 11(!) sequels to the exellent original film, but that’s not saying much, given how many of those sequels are verschtunken.
At the Museum, we screened a documentary about rock and roll photographers, in keeping with “Front Row Center” our newest photography exhibit.
In MUST252, we had a guest lecture from Mohawk historian Darren Bonaparte, who talked about Wampum. It’s also the last week of the class, and students submitted their final take-home exams.
I finished reading COG, a wonderful young adult novel about told from the point of view of an android child, which is a funny and sweet meditation on freedom and care.
I also read Infidel, a horror graphic novel about racism and xenophobia set in a run-down apartment building in NYC.
With my family, I spent the weekend on the North Shore of Massachusetts. It’s a part of the world I love very dearly, and we had a great time walking on beaches, eating great food, and visiting places like the Gloucester Maritime Museum.
I did some prep work for upcoming programs, including the Horror in the Museum, and a residency by Jason Medicine Eagle Martinez.
In MUST252, I used brass projectile points and a decorated axe-head to talk about the Fur Trade, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and Thayendanegea, aka Joseph Brant.
I finished reading M. John Harrison’s magical middle-age novel “The Course of the Heart”. It didn’t have the clarity or propulsive mythology of Viroconium or Light, but it was, as always, gorgeously written, and used magic as a vantage point for exploring the decay of dysfunctional relationships and the ways that we flee from aging and history.
I read T. Kingfisher’s energized, terrifying horror novel “The Twisted Ones”. It builds off of the mythology of Arthur Machen’s ambiguous short story “The White People” and pivots its strange world into rural North Carolina. Plus, Bongo the dog is a delight!
While recuperating from a reaction to the Bivalent vaccine, I watched “we’re all going to the World’s Fair”, a genre-defying movie that combines elements of horror, found-footage youtube videos, teenage coming-of-age stories, and drama. Drawing on disposal creepypasta-like internet mythology, it uses these parts as a way of thinking about growing up, alienation, and storytelling.
I celebrated my wife’s birthday…by driving all of us back to Oneonta from Toronto, with a brief stop at the Niagara Butterfly conservatory, and capped off with Japanese take-out and grocery store cupcakes. This is just going to be one of those weird, surreal birthdays banked in the book.
I finally finished watching “The Devil’s Backbone”, Guillermo Del Toro’s haunting and haunted meditation on the Spanish Civil War. It was great and creepy and kind of sweet in its open-hearted enthusiasm for the bravery of children.
In North American Material culture, I talked about Indigenous cities with a focus on Cahokia, as well as tobacco as medicine and as commodity.
In my class, we talked about pottery, with a particular focus on pottery made by Haudenosaunee and Algonkian-speaking peoples of the Northeastern US.
I made some plans for future programs and events at the Museum.
I bought a copy of Richard Thompson’s 2015 album “Still” which is as gorgeously written and played as anything I’ve ever heard from him.
With my family, I travelled to Toronto to celebrate the birthday of my mother in law.
I attended a DEI meeting on Indigenous issues at Hartwick.
I finished reading “Homuncula” by John Henri Nolette. It was a sprawling horror genre-study with a healthy dollop of early 20th century anarchist politics thrown in. A bit long for my tastes, but a really interesting idea.
Classes began at Hartwick, including mine. I am teaching a 2 credit short course on North American material culture, up to 1700 (give or take). This week we talked about material culture and approaches to analyzing it.
With my son, I finished reading “Half Magic” by Edward Eager, a clever and funny book about a group of siblings who find a magical charm that grants wishes…but only half of what you wish for. Hilarity and exploration ensue.
I spent a lot of time just trying to figure out schedules–work study, classes, and my own life for the next few weeks and months.
I installed the labels for our upcoming exhibit “Front Row Center”. I also put up our copies of the panels we developed in consultation with the Stockbridge-Munsee, about John W. Quinney.
