Friday Quick Hits and Varia

It’s a sunny and almost summer-like Friday here in North Dakotaland. I’m a solid 75% ready to decamp for summer research leave and might even have time to fit in an afternoon jog today to try to mitigate some of the pre-travel anxiety.

Over the next few days, I’ll be traveling and have plans to keep my nose in a good book and recover a bit from what has turned out to be a hectic end of the semester. That means, regrettably that I’ll miss some of the more compelling games in the NBA playoffs and some decent fight cards over the next month or so. Alas, one of the many downsides of cramming my research time into a stretch of 8 weeks in the summer is that it is all I do for 8 weeks in the summer.

That said, I’m going to try to a better job of keeping up my blogging duty, even if my weekly pursuing of the web for quick hits and varia will have to take a bit of a back seat. (But you can always check out Pasts Imperfect for your varia hit or Joshua Nudell’s weekly quick hits.) 

• Coming This Fall: Beyond Icons: Theories and Methods in Byzantine Archaeology in North America.
• 2024 HALS Challenge.
• EAA Book Prize List.
• The British Museum’s Blockbuster Scandal.
• NYT Book Review’s Best Books since 2000.
• Stop telling everyone life is horrible.
• What I’m reading: See my post from yesterday!
• What I’m listening to:  Wadada Leo Smith and Amina Claudine Myers, Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens.

Friday Varia and Quick Hits

A cool and damp week giving way to a warmer weekend feels like the opposite of most springs here on the Northern Plains where our famous seven-day oscillation typically produces warm week days and cool wet weekends. But, we’ll take it nevertheless.

My beloved Philadelphia 76ers lost last night and were eliminated from the playoffs. They fought bravely to the end, but aren’t quite ready to make the leap. I look forward to free agent magic this summer and another bite at the apple next year. Meanwhile the Phillies are quietly putting together a good start to their season and I look forward to watching them this week. I also will check out the Miami Formula 1 race and, of course, Canelo Alvarez’s annual Cinco de Mayo bout this year features the formidable Jaime Munguia atop a packed undercard of intriguing fights. 

Otherwise, this weekend will be full of grading and putting my life in order before I decamp for my annual research leave in the Mediterranean. In the meantime, please enjoy this rather short list of quick hits and varia:

• Pasts Imperfect.
• (Re)visiting the Past in the Present.
• An essay from Communal Luxury by Kristin Ross.
• Archaeological object interviews as a method to study and engage with finder-collectors.
• Brutalist Churches in ‘Sacred Modernity’
• John Malkovich and the Berengaria Hotel. 
• Studying archaeological or heritage discourses in closed Facebook groups.
• Morely on Narrative and the Paranoid Style.
• Embracing Aural Literature?
• Free John Sinclair!
• Cartier Tank Américaine.
• What I’m reading: Mark Lehner, The Egyptian Heritage: Based on the Edgar Cayce Readings. 1974.
• What I’m listening to: Kamasi Washington, Fearless Movement (2024)

Friday Varia and Quick Hits

It’s a cool and rainy Friday which feels seasonally appropriate for this time of year. I’ve been riding my push-bike a bit outside of town and it looks like planting is well underway and I expect that the farmers are appreciating the rain.

A rainy weekend will make it a bit easier to hunker down and push through my late semester grading, end of the year project deadlines, and some books that are so close to being done. Of course, I’ll also make time to catch the Sixers on Sunday at noon and maybe check out Jose Ramirez fight on Saturday night. Otherwise, it’s full speed ahead into the end of semester iceberg.

This week saw the release of the Nikki Berg Burin’s edited volume Grand Forks at 150: The First Fifty. If you only stop by the blog here for the quick hits and varia, you might be interested in grabbing a copy of the latest from The Digital Press here.

On the quick hits and varia:

• Atari Alamogordo Expedition at Ten
• Why We Dug Atari.
• The Glitch in the Video-Game Graveyard.
• An Early Draft of Chapter 1: The Alamogordo Atari Excavation from The Archaeology of Contemporary America.
• Open Access: Indigenizing Archaeology: Putting Theory into Practice.
• Bronze Age life and landscape at Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus.
• Catholic Group Defrocks AI Priest.
• Holidays in the Sun.
• How two good friends became sworn siblings.
• Apparently Greece Loves Byron.
• Small wins and wicked problems.
• Zandbroz is closing.
• What I am reading:
• What I am listening to: Vampire Weekend, Only God Was Above Us.

Friday Quick Hits and Varia

It’s a blustery Friday morning. Like the few small flurries yesterday, mornings like this are a good reminded us that in North Dakotaland, winter is over when winter is over, not when we decide that it’s spring.

While I was hoping for more springlike weather, a chilly weekend will be a good incentive to stay inside and keep working hard until the end of the semester. Plus, there is baseball, NBA playoff basketball, Formula 1, NASCAR at Talladega, IndyCar at Long Beach, and Formula 1 in China. But wait, there’s more: there’s an epic prize fight on Saturday night: Devin Haney v. Ryan Garcia (well, provided that Garcia makes weight!). 

Otherwise this is a weekend of book making (not the wagering kind), grading, and getting ready for my summer research sabbatical. And perhaps collecting some quick hits and varia:

• Pasts Imperfect.
• Slavic Migrations.
• Four Day Week.
• Flint Dibble’s Pseudoarchaeology Show
• Sapiens.
• Dibble on Rogan.
• Mastering Zotero.
• The poetry of David Solheim.
• What I’m reading: Fred Moten, In the Break:The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition (2003).
• What I’m listening to: Cannonball Adderley, The Black Messiah (1971) and Kassa Overall, Live at Third Man Records (2024).

Friday Quick Hits and Varia

This weekend sounds like it will offer a taste of early summer with temperatures over 70 on Saturday and into the upper 60s on Sunday. This, of course, means spreading mulch, riding my push-bike, and maybe my first outdoor run of the season (depending on how my knee feels and whether it’s too nice out not to go for a push-bike ride).

There is also sport this weekend! Today at 10 am is the fourth T20I between the US and Canada (the third was abandoned for weather). This evening the Sixers continue their quest for the 6th seed in the East and the Phils look to keep doing good early seasons work at the Pirates. The NASCARlers are in Texas, which I’ll probably skip, but is what it is. 

There are also a gaggle of new music including a new Vampire Weekend album, a new album by Shabaka, Dave Douglas, and Kenny Garrett (as well as something from Meshell Ndegeocello with an outfit called Red Hot Org titled Red Hot and Ra: The Magic City featuring Marshall Allen). 

In any event, there’s also, always, some quick hits and varia:

• Coming soon: The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and the Media in the 21st Century.
• Reddit and the illicit antiquities trade.
• Brian Rose on the Phrygians, the Mysterious People of Anatolia.
• Socio-Politics of Knowledge Production in Anthropology & Archaeology.
• Popular on the Prairie.
• NEH Awards to Tribal Communities for Projects on the History and Legacy of Federal Indian Boarding Schools.
• Paris-Roubaix Showers.
• Idris Ackamoor.
• What I am reading: Manuscripts, page proofs, and the occasional article!
• What I am listening to: Lots of good music out today (see above)

Friday Quick Hits and Varia

It’s starting to feel like spring here in North Dakotaland with temperatures soaring into the mid 50s this weekend and no snow or “significant winter weather events” in the foreseeable future. I’m not saying that we won’t get more snow or some kind of dizzying drop in temperature, but there’s reason for hope.

The nice weather this weekend might make it a good time for my first outdoor run of the season (or maybe an outdoor ride), but even if that doesn’t work out, there’s plenty to happening to keep me distracted from my gainful employment. The Phils take on the Nationals for a series that should help their season get some positive momentum. The Sixers face the Grizzlies in their push for the 6th seed (and avoiding the play-in tournament). I’m not saying that they’ll be the 6th seed, but I’m saying that it’s not impossible at this point. More importantly, the F1 circus is in Japan at Suzuka, which is a favorite track of mine (even though it doesn’t always produce riveting racing). The NASCARlers are at Martinsville (drink every time someone says “beatin’ ’n’ bangin’). And, most importantly, Our Star Spangled Cricketers are beginning their T20I World Cup summer with a series against Canada. 

I also have a stack of grading to get on top of (perhaps for a nap?), some reading that requires my attention, and an exciting gaggle of new music that is begging for my ears. Of course, there is always the quest for more quick hits and varia:

• The Latest Kyle Cassidy joint: This is Only Earth, My Dear – Poems & Photos.
• Pasts Imperfect.
• Some good varia.
• Two Youtublers
• The Color of Night in Byzantine Art.
• Inhabiting Byzantine Athens.
• Flexible due dates lower student stress without loss of rigor.
• Got Flows?
• Endangered Greek dialect.
• On Mary Beard’s “Emperor of Rome”.
• What I’m reading: George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music (2009).

Friday Varia and Quick Hits

Up until about ten minutes ago, I had decided to take today off from blogging and to tuck into a bunch of errands and publisher work, but then got itchy fingers and decided to write something.

First off, this is a glorious weekend for sport with opening weekend in baseball, the NCAA tournament, and four championship cards in boxing (two featuring Australian boxers). The Cup guys are at Richmond Sunday night which is one of my favorite tracks. 

This will all be a nice distraction for me since I have both a ton of reading to do and a bunch of publishing related work to do that will keep me super busy. 

This probably accounts for the rather meager haul of quick hits and varia this week:

• The cultural itineraries of the Kythera Gin Bottles.
• Sixty-eight dogs complain to the Virgin Mary about their treatment.
• Morley on Procopius.
• Class is Cancelled.
• The Anthropocene already exists in our heads.
• Best New Jazz from the Winter of 2024.
• Anticipation Town.
• What I’m reading: Anna Komena’s Alexiad. (For class!) and George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. (2008)
• What I’m listening to: I know that I should say: Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter which wouldn’t be untrue, but honestly, I’m digging Amanda Whiting’s The Liminality of Her (2024) and some Paul Motian from the 1970s.

Friday Varia and Quick Hits

Spring on the Northern Plains is pretty confusing. Right now, it looks to be coming in like a lamb and going out like a lion with a big winter storm heading our way. It seems like it will only deliver us a glancing blow, but there is still wintery weather in our forecast.

That said, there’s no better weekend to hunker down inside. Not only are the Formula 1 guys down under for their annual weekend in Australia, but the Cup circus is at the Circuit of the Americas for some road racing chaos. Of course, there’s also the NCAA basketball tournament where I’ll cheer for Big East teams and the St. Mary’s Gaels (for their Aussie connections). It’s a bit hard to stomach, of course, that no Philadelphia schools are in the Big Dance this year, but I suppose this is the world that we live in.

There’s also the long tale of a number of projects that I need to get sorted and I hope to finally get back to some reading projects that have been put on pause lately. All-in-all, there is reason to be excited for the weekend:

Let’s kick it off with some quick hits and varia:

• Pasts Imperfect.
• Evagrius in Florence.
• Lechaion.
• Broneer’s Mycenaean Wall near Isthmia.
• activateCHAT.
• Classicists and archaeologists on Gaza: A (not so) silent archive.
• Urban Heritage and the Theory of Fragmentation
• Teaching:
• Start Teaching Your Students How to Be a Student.
• Walk the Talk.
• Old Bread.
• Board Games.
• What I’m reading: Michael Gallope, The Musician as Philosopher: New York’s Vernacular Avant-Garde, 1958–1978 (Chicago 2024)
• What I’m listening to: Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood.

Friday Varia and Quick Hits

We’ve enjoyed a week of thawing which made our world a muddy mess, but also tempted me to get outside a bit more than I have the past four months. This weekend, we’ll be plagued by wind which should dry out some puddles, but won’t make it very pleasant.

Fortunately, I have a good bit to do this weekend despite the Formula 1 circus having off. The NASCAR guys head to Bristol and there are enough meaningful basketball games to keep me distracted while on my bike or the treadmill. The boxing cards are intriguing, but not essential watching and I can’t even with the NBA right now.

In other words, I’m glad to have a stack of things to read, a smaller stack of things to grade, and some new music to listen to (new James Brandon Lewis, new Charles Lloyd, and some cuts to celebrate what would be Blue Mitchell’s 94th birthday).

And, I can always spend some time restocking the quick hits and varia pile:

• Lost tombs and quarries rediscovered on British military base in Dheklia on Cyprus.
• Aesthetics of Crisis: Political Street Art and Graffiti in Athens, 2013-2023.
• Microplastics and Archaeology.
• Landscapes of Memory and Power: The Archaeology of a Forgotten Kingdom in Ethiopia. 
• Music
• Coltrane House in Philadelphia.
• Shabaka Hutchins.
• Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity.
• RIP Chris Tilley.
• What I’m reading: Elizabeth Jefferys, Digenes Akritis: The Grottaferrata and Escorial Versions (1998).
• What I’m listening to: The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis. 

Friday Varia and Quick Hits

Our brief flirtation with spring ended as quickly as it arrived and we’re now back to the long winter (or “spring December” as I like to call it). I’ve officially given up on waiting for weather to get nice having spent all of “so-called” Spring Break in doors. I’m going to smoke a few pork butts and a chicken tomorrow and pretend that its barbecue season.

Fortunately, there’s Formula 1 racing this weekend, there’s some intriguing boxing this afternoon, and there’s the usual assortment of basketball. Plus there’s the New Zealand-Australia second test which looks to be interesting if not exactly competitive right now.

I also should have a stack of papers to grade, a manuscript to review, and some reading to finish (plus a growing stack of articles that I simply MUST read). In the meantime, here are some quick hits and varia:

• Pasts Imperfect. 
• Why is the British Museum like this?
• Some articles to read:
• Blackface Shakespeare: Thomas D. Rice and the Return of Jim Crow as Otello.
• Journal of Roman Archaeology:
• Thirsty cities? The supply, management, and perception of water in Byzantine North Africa. (2022)
• Sexytime Roman Lamps. (2023)
• Do shape and size matter? The distribution of Amphore Crétoise 4 containers, 1st–3rd c. CE. (2024)
• Backdirt in the JFA.
• Object Biography in Archaeological Dialogues.
• A Couple of Books:
• Temporary Monuments: Art, Land, and America’s Racial Enterprise.
• The Musician as Philosopher: New York’s Vernacular Avant-Garde, 1958–1978.
• Notebooks.
• Cambridge academic escapes toilet.
• Mark Doox.
• What I’m reading: manuscripts… so many manuscripts.
• What I’m listening to: Old and New Dreams, Old and New Dreams (1976), but also their ECM release by the same name in 1979.