It was a week with lots of holidays, and kids off school, so a lot of it I spent at home or out adventuring. I took the kiddos to Binghamton to run an errand, and we also went to Robot City Arcade, and the Binghamton Discovery Center. On July 4th, we also attended the Oneonta Parade and Festival in Neahwa park.
I watched “The Golem”, a historical horror movie about antisemitism, motherhood, and community. It wasn’t particularly scary, but it was well made, well acted, and astonishingly violent.
At the Museum, we had our first Summer Crafternoons, which had a good turnout. I also had a meeting with a tribal rep about repatriation issues, and did some work on future program planning.
It was the last week of my kiddos 5th grade. Monday he had his graduation ceremony, and he won a couple of awards, particularly a creative writing prize. I’m immensely proud of him and all the hard work he’s done in the past six years. On to the new challenges and opportunities of middle school!
One of the truisms of Oneonta schools is that the last week is basically all half days. This affected me in a number of ways. First, we traded off kids with some other parents last week, and this week, we had a bunch of kiddos at our place on Monday. It was wild and fun to have so many little people in the house.
Another modification of the week is that we held “Half Day fun” at the Yager Museum. Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, we had games, crafts, activities and snacks for kids K-6. We had a decent turnout, and a good write-up in our local paper.
Following the shenanigans of Half -Day fun, our family packed up and drove up to Gilbert Lake to spend the back half of the week. It’s a place we have visited many times before, and even though it’s quite close to us, it still feels like a far-away adventure every time we go. We stayed in one of the CCC cabins, and spent our days walking around the lake, swimming, grilling, and lazily reading and playing board games. It was delightful, even on rainy or cloudy days.
Wednesday was also Alanna’s and my wedding anniversary. Though we went out to dinner last week, on the actual day we traded gifts and cards, and spent the evening in front of a roaring fire.
I took the opportunity to finish reading two books. First was Nick Mamatas' “Sensation”, a Dickian paranoid satire that wanders through a bewildering 21st century, full of conspiracy, impersonal violence, and super-intelligent parasitic insects–Great stuff! The second was “Locklands”, the final book in Robert Jackson Bennett’s Founders trilogy. It served as an exciting ending to an inventive and energetic series.
Last week, Dominic had his 5th grade dance, which was tons of fun to chaperone. He danced way more than I would have at his age! We also made a doctor’s visit to Albany, and tried in various ways to beat the heat that flattened central New York this week.
Saturday night, we hit up the Unadilla drive-in to watch Inside Out 2. It was absolutely packed, and we had a pretty good time.
I also juggled some doctors appointments, and divided my work time between preparing for future kids programs and long term program and exhibit planning.
I marveled over a delightful gift from my folks–a catalog from the Kathe Kollwitz exhibit that my dad and I saw at the MOMA a few weeks ago. I felt as moved by her artwork on the page as I did on the gallery walls. Thanks Mom and Dad!
Alanna and I tried, in various legal and quasi-legal ways, to watch some Euro cup matches. Though not deeply invested football fans, we love the exuberance and excitement of the international tournaments. It’s also a nice bonus that they fall near our anniversary; I have fond memories of catching World cup games both before and after our wedding.
Speaking of our wedding, tonight, we’re going out to dinner for an early wedding anniversary date. Our actual anniversary (#14!) is next week, but we’ll be in the thick of a week-long camping trip at Gilbert Lake State park, so this will have to suffice for a solo celebration. Love you, baby.
I finished reading the great Tom Scharpling’s memoir “It Never Ends” which was funny and personal and hopeful. It’s also wonderfully, engagingly written; not a surprise, given Scharpling’s career. For fans of the Best Show and Double Threat, it’s a must-read.
The biggest thing is that Alanna came back from Mexico. It sounds like she had a productive and edifying trip, and I’m glad she got to go, but it’s been wonderful to have her back here with us. Love you, baby!
Sunday, as a treat for helping to clean up, I took the kiddos to see “The Garfield Movie”, which they liked, and I didn’t. How do you make a movie about a lazy cat and their relationship with their owner? You make the cat go through Mission-impossible-style heist scenes and mostly leave the owner out of the movie. Content!
We welcomed our summer museum assistants, Ethan and Vaughn, to the Museum. They’re going to work as visitor service assistants, as well as working on major collections and display projects. And they’re helping with our summer programs for kids!
Friday, we welcomed a visit from Valleyview elementary’s 4th graders. We love having kiddos in the Museum and teaching them about art, history, and archaeology.
In the meantime, I did some work on exhibit planning, repatriation planning, and program planning for the fall.
With my folks, we drove out to Castkill, NY to visit a friend, and spent an afternoon playing at Dutchman’s Landing park.
My dad and I put a gutter on our garage, so we can more easily collect rainwater for gardening.
After that, it was back to work. I spent some time getting ready for a 4th grade class visit next week, as well as some future program planning for kids, and for adults.
I did a little work updating our condition report forms to better align with our computer system data fields.
I spent some time re-organizing my organizational system. I continue to use my own modified version of bullet journaling, but hopefully will give me a little easier time breaking bigger projects into smaller, manageable tasks.
My folks said their goodbyes and headed back to Iowa after a wonderful week helping us out. I miss them, and so do my kiddos. Now it’s only a few days flying solo, until Alanna gets back this weekend.
It was a very busy and bewildering week. Last Saturday was commencement at Hartwick and SUNY Oneonta. I had the great delight of taking the kiddos and seeing Alanna be presented with her Chancellor’s Award. I’m so proud of her and all the scholarly and research work she does.
AND….she’s doing some of that now. On Sunday, we spent the day in Albany, visiting the New York State Museum, and the Rensselaer aquarium, and then dropping Alanna off for a research trip to Mexico. She’s there for two weeks, and I’m holding down the fort, with some help from my parents, who are visiting.
I finished reading Brian Evenson’s wonderful short story collection “Song for the Unraveling of the World”. He’s one of the best contemporary horror and weird fiction writers, and is in the same league as Shirley Jackson in his ability to fill his stories with quiet, understated dread.
Post-commencement, it was quiet at the Yager Museum, and I used the time to get some work done that had fallen by the wayside during the semester. I followed up on some potential new collections acquisitions, as well as some exhibit planning and summer program planning. I also attended a workshop on teaching our Freshman experience classes, and took in a job talk in the History department. Whew!
At the end of the week, I surprised my dad with a short trip down to New York City. He turned 80 a few weeks ago, and I thought that seeing some world-class Museums would be a nice way to celebrate. We visited the Met, and had a delightful tour of the fabrication and conservation labs from my good friend Nisha (thanks Nisha!), and then spent the afternoon exploring the bewildering and beautiful European painting galleries. Today we’re going to visit the MOMA, and then try and visit the Cloisters before heading home. My dad is in his element here, and then even more so when we had a wonderful glass of Cotes du Rhone at Benoit.
It was finals week at Hartwick, and my Collections Management students had their final class, which largely consisted of them finishing up the project they spent the last month and a half working on: cataloging the excavated material from Hartwick Seminary. They did a fantastic job, working well together and individually. I’m really proud of them and the work they did.
I spoke to some students about summer internships and projects that they are working on.
We did some planning for our summer programs and activities at the Museum.
I did some work on collections research for a potential set of acquisitions.
I finished reading Cory Doctorow’s “Walkaway” which I liked overall, though found the characters to be a little wooden–not unusual for a utopia. Mostly, it made me want to 3d print giant things, like houses, furniture, and clothes.
I finally finished and submitted a NAGPRA repatriation grant, to help pay for the costs of returning human remains and a cultural object back to the Ute tribes from whom they come. It was a lot of work, and I’m glad to have it out the door. Fingers crossed, but I’m optimistic that we can get this done in the Fall.
My Collections Management students had their final class on Thursday. We’ll do some more work on their project during their final exam period next week, and then we’re done!
On Saturday of last week, I went to my daughter’s ballet recital. She’s been taking ballet lessons for the last few months, and really enjoys it, and it was great to get to see her onstage. I’m so proud of her!
This semester, we hosted an intern this semester named Peyton Legg, and among many other things, she put together a wonderful display of objects of personal adornment in one of our hallway cases. She also took over the Museum’s instagram account this week and is showing off pieces from her display. Great job, Peyton!
Like so many people, I was shocked and saddened to hear of the death of Steve Albini this week. He made music both in bands (Big Black, Shellac) and as an engineer (Nirvana, Slint, the Jesus Lizard, and so so much more… that has been vital to me throughout my life. I never met him, but I’ve found myself quite affected by his death. I think it’s because, despite the image of him as a cantankerous hater (which the many tributes this week have completely blown apart), he clearly loved music, and believed in its power to move people and change them, and bring them together. This belief held together his own approach to making and recording music, his anti-capitalist politics, his feminism, and by all accounts, the way he comported himself with the people around him, and his commitment to sharing what he knew about music. My heart goes out to the people who did know him, family and friends and colleagues, and to everyone who loves and respects music and musicians.
More diligent work from my Collections Management students on the Hartwick Seminary materials.
I’m in the final stretch of finishing the NAGPRA grant…which is good, because the deadline is next Thursday!
My wife and I finished watching “The League”, a funny, filthy show that used a friends fantasy football league as a vantage point for talking about adult friendship, sex, parenting, and aging. It’s also a cartoonish show about fairly terrible people getting up to madcap antics, and works in that regard as a kind of zany romp. The last season was definitely not as funny as the first few, but the last few episodes had both of us laughing quite a bit, so we don’t feel particularly cheated by it.
My dad turned 80 on Monday. He’s over in the Czech Republic right now, and my mom threw him a party, which we called in to to wish him a happy birthday.
I did some last minute touch-ups on the art we installed at the President’s house on Friday.
I watched with sorrow and horror as students, staff and faculty around the US were arrested and assaulted by police and others, while (by and large) peacefully protesting. While such protests are not outside the norm for most colleges, the near-instantaneous crackdown and the deployment of police by University administrators seems to be fairly novel. Stay safe, friends.
For reason’s I can’t exactly articulate, I’ve been listening to Bob Dylan’s 1979 album “Slow Train Coming”, which is the first of his “born again” albums. Nick Cave famously called it “the nastiest Christian album” ever made (and he would probably know!), and its combination of genuine faith with damning indictments of the selfishness and violence of the world is really something only Dylan could pull off. “When He Returns” is an astonishing and rich gospel number, full of rage and blood and hope.
