I read Tochi Onyebuchi’s harrowing sci-fi novella “Riot Baby”, a powerful book about race, violence, psychic power, and freedom, and which calls to mind the best radical and socially-conscious science fiction.
In MUST204, we talked about taking artifact photos for cataloging purposes, and I lectured on the history of collections.
I’ve been assisting in the installation of our newest exhibit of paintings by the great Anna Richards Brewster.
I did some more work moving on NAGPRA and repatriation.
I cemented some plans for our upcoming hosting of a talk by the great Neal Powless. I’m really excited to hear him talk about Lacrosse, Indigenous recognition, and more on April 10th.
My wife and I are working our way through “The League”, a hilarious and positively filthy show about fantasy football, with a stellar cast that manages to make the frankly terrible people they portray human and even occasionally empathetic.
In MUST204, we talked compared the collections policies of a bunch of other Museums from the US and UK, learned how to use Pastperfect to find objects in the Museum, and learned how to label objects.
I showed my daughter how to play Minecraft, and we built an ocean-side house with lots of cool underground tunnels together.
My wife and I watched a bit of Cardinal, a gritty noir set in the cold wastes of northern Ontario.
I finished reading A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill. It’s the kind of character-rich horror that I usually like, but I’m famous for disliking horror and weird-fiction that tip their hand too deeply and I had the same response to this book. It gave me just enough exposition to and explanation to take the shine off what was otherwise a pretty haunting study of family tragedy, wrapped in a love-letter to horror culture.
My son and I finished reading C.S. Lewis’s “The Last Battle” which was kind of a stinker of a book, if I’m honest, and a real let-down for a series that I quite liked, and quite liked reading aloud with my kid.
I spent a lot of this week working on a NAGPRA Repatriation grant. I’m within striking distance of finishing, and hope to get it out in the next week or two.
In Collections Management, I took the students through the processes of accessioning an object into the Museum’s collection, and through the NAGPRA process. The latter is something I had never taught systematically before, and though I think it turned out alright, I am going to tweak it a bit when I teach it next time around.
I finished reading Terry Bisson’s wonderful “Fire on the Mountain”, an alternate history where John Brown’s raid successfully kicked off a rebellion, and the Southern US becomes a multi-racial socialist democracy. The book is well written and hopeful, and I really enjoyed it.
It was Oneonta Schools February Break, plus President’s day, so I had one or both kiddos with me every day. It was a complicated dance, but we made it work.
At the Museum, we held an afternoon program for kids called “World of Water” with games, crafts, activities, and snacks. We had a great turnout and a lot of fun. We were lucky to be joined by educators from Hanford Mills Museum, and we’re happy and appreciative that they could come out and share in the fun.
I finished reading China Mieville’s “Perdido Street Station”. What surprised me most what that, despite being a fixed point in the micro-genre of “Weird Fiction”, and filled with bizarre and bewildering imagery, the story is a fairly conventional urban noir, with a small ragtag band of city dwellers caught up between powerful and unknowable forces. What didn’t surprise was that the ending sucked. I couldn’t get over the grand reveal of the brutality of one of the main characters, with whom readers are set up to build a powerful emotional attachment over 800+ pages. It felt disingenuous,like bad character development, and a sour note on which to end an otherwise decent and interesting book.
In Collections Management, I taught the students about environmental conditions, and collections management policies.
In the few spare moments I had, I worked on some forward planning for an upcoming program.
My wife and I finished watching “Ghosts”, a UK tv comedy about a young couple who inherits a rundown mansion in England, only to discover that it is haunted by multiple ghosts, who reveal themselves to be selfish, wistful, bored, lonely and silly. It’s a charming and occasionally very funny ensemble show that takes nostalgia and the tensions between the past and the future as points of humor, and we liked it. It’s nothing profound, but it’s entertaining and the cast is very funny.
It was Valentine’s day, and our local YMCA had an evening kids pizza and pool party. My wife and I took the opportunity to order some Indian food (which, despite our best efforts, our kiddos have not taken to) and spend some time together sans kiddos.
I made some plans for future programs, exhibits, and class visits.
I bought a guitar! I’ve wanted a G&L ASAT for a long time, and finally found one in my price range. Because of their pickup design, G&L’s are known for being sensitive, subtle instruments. I love the way it sounds, and I’m looking forward to getting to know it better and learning about what it can do.
Hartwick’s semester started back up again. Lots of generaly orientation for work study, getting up to speed with student projects, and more “out of the gate” things.
I’m teaching Collections management with a great and enthusiastic crew, and I’m excited about the projects we are going to tackle this semester.
We did our taxes, making use of Hartwick’s wonderful VITA tax program.
Hazel and I finished reading “Ramona Forever” by Beverly Cleary. It was definitely more mature book than the previous Ramona books. My five year old had lots of questions about childbirth, pet death, and marriage.
I did a lot of repatriation work this week, finishing a research memo on a cultural object and then filing notice of intent to repatriate, which will hopefully be published in the next few weeks.
I did some work getting ready for our Winter break programs, which will be in partnership with Hanford Mills Museum, and will be themed around the “World of Water”.
We had a birthday party for my daughter at our house. Ten kids, nine adults, games, crafts, and food. Whew! it was a great old time.
I splurged on a couple of albums at bandcamp. I picked up “You’re Dead” by Flying Lotus and “Desire, I want to Turn Into you” by Caroline Polachek. The former is an electro-jazz-rap freak out that is daunting, strange, and fun. The latter is a full of spare, catchy pop that I can’t stop listening to, particularly “Bunny is a Rider” and “Sunset”.
I did some work getting the Museum ready for Hartwick’s Spring semester, setting up the work study schedule, and getting my syllabus together for the Collections Management practicum that I will be teaching.
I started working with a student intern from SUNY Oneonta, who is going to help set up some new display cases this semester.
I also did some work on NAGPRA and repatriation, both getting the galleries in compliance with the new “duty of care” regulations, and moving an object in our collection slightly closer to repatriation.
I wrote a rec letter for a student for a summer fellowship. I hope she gets it.
I gave a guest lecture in “Museums and Film” on HP Lovecraft as an author, inspiration, and complicated pop culture figure. I have a long history with Lovecraft, going back to when I first encountered his books on my parents bookshelf, and this guest lecture was a great opportunity to explore some of what drew me to him, and despite his grotesque beliefs, what draws me to him still.
I assisted a student in finishing a display case that was part of their final project in last Fall’s “exhibit prep and design class”
I spent some time doing some prep work for my daughter’s birthday party which will (fingers crossed) happen this Saturday.
The Museum hosted visits from high schoolers from Greene and Oxford, NY, and I gave them tours of the Museum and how it fits into an education at Hartwick College.
I did some more work helping the Museum fulfill its NAGPRA obligations.
I did a lot of NAGPRA work this week, preparing new summaries and getting started on a grant to facilitate the return of some remains to a tribe. We also received a claim from a tribe for an object late last week, and I’m working on writing the Notice of Intent to Repatriate.
Dominic and I finished reading “Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, which I think might be my favorite Narnia book so far.
I also finally read Saga Volume’s 10 and 11, which continues to be the greatest comic series of the 21st century that I’ve read, and is clear-eyed in its commitment to the vision that violence can never be a way out of violence.
I re-watched the original Highlander film, which feels like the kind of film that couldn’t really be made any more–an artistically shot, fantastical film that wears its nonsense on its sleeve.
We gave our new interim president a tour of the Museum and discussed some artwork to hang in his office and at Thornwood.
Everyone in my family, including me, was some kind of sick for part of the week. I stayed home with my daughter on Monday, and both of us kind of took care of each other. The main thing we did was play through Kings Quest V together, which I remember playing as a kid. We used a walk-through (the Kings Quest games are unbearably tough and unforgiving) which made it more like a visual novel, and we had a lot of fun.
At work, I made some progress on our revamp of our archaeology exhibit, meeting with a design team and I already feel much more excited about our prospects and possibilities.
I spent a lot of time digesting the new NAGPRA regulations, and thinking about how they’ll affect the Yager Museum, and other institutions. We’ve been pretty active recently in our NAGPRA work, but this will both speed us up, and change how we do business in that regard.
We also engaged in some consultation with tribes and are moving on the final stages of both repatriation of objects and ancestors with them, as well as the return of both to their territories.
I finished reading Erica Lagalisse’s fascinating book “Occult Features of Anarchism”, which shows how intertwined activism and mysticism have been, since the enlightenment, as well as the role of patriarchy in separating and hindering both trends. A really rich book to which I will no doubt return soon.
I trained two new work study students at the Museum. We’ve been really understaffed this J-Term and it’s good to plug the gaps.
I did some work getting ready for upcoming programs in the Spring.
