We went up to our friends' cabin in St. Lawrence County, and stayed overnight with them. It’s always tiring to stay in a new place with our kids, but the scenery and the cabin and the company were absolultely delightful. Thanks, Tracy and James!
I finished reading Lisa Goldstein’s “Ivory Apples”, which is a wonderfully dark modern fairy-tale, wicked step-mother and all. The ending left me a little cold, but the ride to get there was genuinely great.
In FLP102, we talked about Greek temple collecting and the origins of Museum tourism, as well as cabinets of curiousity in the middle ages.
We had a great meeting that will move forward our goal of creating an Indigenous artist residency here at the Museum. Stay tuned! I also did some work with the College’s Indigenous DEI Committee to plan some Indigenous People’s Day events.
Our friend Ian, who directed the award-winning film “A Bullet Pulling Thread” came down to screen his film at SUNY Oneonta. Alanna organized everything for the screening, which was a great success, and we got to spend some time with our good friend.
In FLP102, we had the students take the VIA Strengths survey, and then started talking about collecting in ancient mesopotamia.
We did some more design planning for the reservoirs exhibit.
It was Alanna’s birthday this week. We didn’t have time for a big evening to do, so we did cake and presents with the kiddos, and then on the next day, I took her out to lunch.
We bought a car! We paid for and took possession of a 2021 Toyota Prius Prime. The main thing I’ll say about it, other than that it’s quite comfortable to drive and ride in, is that it has an astonishing number of buttons. Good thing I’ve been playing video games since I was 6!
I finished reading “For the First Time, Again” by Sylvain Neuvell, the last book in the “Take them to the Stars” trilogy. It was still good, but I didn’t like it anywhere near as much as the first two books; to my mind, it lost some of the interesting ideas that made the first two books so compelling, in the service of tidily resolving the stories of the main characters.
I also finished reading “Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American life” by Karen Fields and Barbara Fields. It’s a dense book, and I’m still digesting its complex analysis. I am intrigued by the idea of thinking about the American concept of race as analogous to witchcraft, not to mention the utility of parsing race, racism, and racecraft as distinctive but overlapping processes. But there’s a lot more going on here, and I want to digest it a little longer.
I attended a meeting of Hartwick’s Indigenous DEI committee, to work on planning events for Indigenous People’s Day.
We mostly recovered from COVID during the first part of the week.
Tuesday and Wednesday were College-on, school-off days, so Alanna and I traded off the kids. On Wednesday, they joined me at the Museum, which became a hub for a bunch of other kids whose parents had to drag them to work on the last days before school. We had fun, but it was an exhausting day.
In FLP102, we read a survey article by Russell Belk, talked about how to read reference works in college, and then we read excerpts from Amy Azzarito’s “The Elements of Home” about the social history of candles, globes, and mirrors.
I did some more work study coordination, always a full-time job during the first weeks of the semester.
We also did some work on the long-term project of trying to buy a new car.
Our kiddos started school–Kindergarten for Hazel and 6th grade for Dominic! It’s a big adjustment for both of them, and they’re flying like pros. I’m really proud of both of them.
I did some more work on our upcoming reservoir exhibit, particularly design. I also did some long-term planning on our indigenous artifacts exhibits.
The Semester formally started for both Alanna and I…but not for our kiddos, of course. Dominic spent the week jumping back and forth between Alannas and my offices, and Hazel finished up her last week at Bugbee.
To give myself a little musical moment, I picked up Phosphorescent’s 2013 album Muchacho which I had always heard good things about, and was not disappointed.
Lots of just general triaging this week, answering emails, setting up the student employment schedule, future program planning, etc…
Then I got COVID, and so did Alanna (and probably Dominic too), so that kind of put a lid on anything substantive for the rest of the week. Wear a mask and wash your hands!
Dominic came back from a week in Iowa with my folks. It sounds like all three of them had a great old time. They dropped him off on their way out to Massachusetts so I got to see them for a bit and celebrate their wedding anniversary at Bella Michael’s
I spent most of the week finalizing the syllabus for our Flightpath102 class “Collectors and Collecting”. It’s not terribly different from the version we taught before, but I did add readings on baseball cards and antiques, which I’m looking forward to teaching. We had our first meeting with students on Friday, and then the ball gets rolling next week!
I did some work on a title logo for our exhibit on Catskill Reservoirs.
I did some logistical work on implementing our upcoming tribal visit for NAGPRA work.
My wife and I watched “Bullet Train”. Alanna had seen it and thought that I would like it, and as usual, she was absolutely right. This is a stylish, funny and violent action movie that was just smart enough to be compelling. Great stuff!
I finished reading (well, actually listening to) Sylvain Neuvell’s wonderful alt-history/science fiction novel “A History of What Comes Next”. It’s centered around a line of possibly alien women who have been manipulating society for the last 3000 years, with the goal of helping humanity achieve space flight, in advance of some unstated apocalpytic catastrophe. The story is mostly set during the early space race, and involves real historical figures such as Van Braun and Korolev. The prose is written in a tight, first person style that worked well as an audio-book, but might grate when read on the page.
Lots of prep this week. We settled on a title for an upcoming photography/history exhibit about Catskill reservoirs. “‘With that Shadow Over Them’: Constructuring Catskill Reservoirs, Remembering Home” will be installed in mid October and will be available to view at the Museum for the following year.
I put together a draft of the class I’m co-teaching with Doug. ‘Collectors and Collecting’ is a Flightpath course, which combines introductory college-level work with campus orientation, skills assessments, and other stuff. We start in one week!
I continued work on our work-study schedule for the Fall semester.
I did some preliminary work planning how we will use the NAGPRA grant we were awarded.
We all took a vacation to the great city of Toronto and had a great old time. We did lots of tourist stuff with the kiddos, particularly the CN Tower, the Royal Ontario Museum, and Centreville. We also saw many of our good friends (Hi Ian and Liz, Jenn, Monica, and Monika!), and family (Hi Eileen! Hi Nikki and Andrei!). We ate tremendously well, and wore ourselves out walking around a wonderful and interesting city. I love Toronto very much, not for the least that it’s Alanna’s birthplace and the city she grew up in.
While in Toronto, I finished reading “The Jumbies” by Tracey Baptiste, with Dominic. It was fine–an interesting grafting of Caribbean folklore to a young adult yarn–but the characters were a little wooden for my taste.
I also finished reading “How Much for Just the Planet?” by John M. Ford. My reading of this Star Trek novel came from two sources. The first was this profile of Ford in Slate that piqued my interest in this once-heralded but forgotten science fiction writer. The second was that I remember the book from its cover and humorous title back when I used to visit the B Dalton Bookstore in Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids. I recently found a copy in a book sale at the Landis Arboretum. For much of my read I was confused but intrigued, but by the end I had decided that I loved this strange experiment in grafting slapstick musical comedy to the Star Trek Universe.
While away, I received a bit of good news that the NAGPRA grant we applied for was approved. We will use the funds to pay for Ute representatives and knowledge-keepers to visit Hartwick and prepare human remains and objects for return, as well as to pay for the physical transfer of the same remains and objects.
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.
Dominic spent the week at Camp Stomping Ground. We get pictures of camp life from facebook, and it looks like he’s having a good time, but I’m picking up today so I’ll found out on the car ride back.
At the Museum, we had another ‘Crafternoons’, where kiddos made puppets. We had an excellent turnout. One more to go and then we’re done for the summer!
I helped our summer assistants finalize the installation of another hallway display. They’ve put together some really excellent displays of artifacts, and I’m proud of them for the hard work they’ve done.
I finished a draft of a repatriation notice. It needs a few more eyes on it before it goes to the National NAGPRA office for publication, but it’s a good step towards a better future. Slowly, slowly…
