supercheesegirl: (stop - don't stop believing)
So, it's been a while. I definitely don't have time to maintain a journal online like I used to, and with giving myself the freedom not to post all my books, I also haven't been keeping up with event posts. But the thing about that is that I've got Goodreads for book tracking, but I genuinely use LJ/DW for capturing memories about events. So here's the abbreviated, compromise-with-myself version of stuff that happened over the past six months or so.

Friday September 22: Josh Ritter Free at Noon concert at World Cafe Live/WXPN: This was the first free at noon I ever went to, which is silly because I can walk to XPN from my office in about 20 minutes along the river, and it's a concert, for free, and not at 10:00 at night. I loved seeing Josh Ritter - he's always such a treat, so happy to be performing, and he really seems to like XPN, too. It was my first time hearing the songs from his album Gathering, which was actually launching that day; it's about like any Josh Ritter album. But the show was good.

Sunday September 24: The Magic Flute at the Academy of Music: I saw this as part of Opera Philadelphia's inaugural fall opera festival. I've never seen a performance quite like this before. The set was basically one big screen, and it used animation and technology to make the story unfold. Performers sort of stuck their heads out of cutouts in the screen to sing, and certain characters got animated bodies instead of human bodies (like the queen of the night was a giant spider). Totally interesting, fun to watch, a really different take on opera.

Friday September 29: Rainer Maria at Underground Arts: I was so excited to see Rainer Maria, who were one of my very favorite bands back in the day, but I went about going to this show all wrong. I'd never been to Underground Arts before, and I forgot about opening bands, and that bands tend to play really late at night. So I arranged the sitter to come and put Freya to bed, thinking F and I could get some date time in before the show, and told her we'd be home around 11. We did have a nice time at a bar near the venue (seasoned popcorn yum), but then we suffered through two different opening acts.

Callowhill was fine and listenable, but Olivia Neutron-John was just cringe-worthy. We couldn't help live-posting to Facebook about it, and notable quotes included "It was the hair of Robert Smith, and an attempt at the vocals of Ministry, all over synth space pop." And "Alas, it was more gothy, electronic screaming with hints of new wave, a dash of disco, and a pinch of anguished art school performance theatrics." And "I mean, there were melodic moments, but overall I spent the set wondering what her mother thinks of her life decisions. I would like to see this woman comb her hair, stop screaming, and sing a nice song for once. So if anyone was doubting my mom cred, there you go." So yeah, I didn't buy her album.

And then we waited and waited and waited for Rainer Maria to come on, and kept texting the babysitter to extend our time, and by the time they came on we got to see four songs before we had to leave to get home by midnight. So thumbs down on that. If I'd planned it better, I would have had the babysitter come at like 10pm-1am and skipped all the crappy bands. Sigh. Next time.

Friday October 20: First Aid Kit Free at Noon concert at World Cafe Live/WXPN: I really love this band, they are two sisters from Stockholm but they have a really countryfied jam. And I got to see them live and not have to pay to go see their actual show when they came back to Philly in February (a decision influenced in no small part by the OMG I hate opening bands experience described above). But the free at noon show was great. Which reminds me, I need to pick up the new album.

Saturday October 21: Goat yoga at Mad Lavender Farm in NJ: This was seriously the best. I went with my friend Sarah. Yoga class is held in the goat paddock, and the inhabitants climb on you, eat your hair or your mat, demand to be petted, and of course pee wherever they feel like. But the great part is that you absolutely have to be "present moment" when you're doing yoga with goats around. Goats don't let you get distracted, they want to be petted right now. So much fun.

Saturday December 16: The Nutcracker: This is now a Freya-and-Mommy annual tradition. We went with friends (Freya's best bud Eva and her mom) again this year, but we went to a different production: the last two years we did Nutcracker 1776, performed by The Rock School in Haverford College's Centennial Theater, but this year we saw one by the Academy of International Ballet performed at our local middle school. The change was partly due to poor planning, and partly due to Freya having a church friend in the performance. It was good, but I don't think as good as the one by The Rock School (Freya's friend notwithstanding, as that little guy did a great job).

December: Dogfish Head Beer Talk and Tasting at the Penn Museum: I can't remember exactly when this was in December. I went with my friend Archaeology Wife for the first time in a while. This was a really cool event: the owner/brewer of Dogfish and a Penn professor talked about their collaboration to brew ancient ales based on analysis of remains scraped from the bottoms of ancient pottery. I already loved Dogfish's ancient ales, so it was just cool to hear them tell the behind the scenes stories. There was also a beer tasting, with some snacks paired with the various beers. Really cool event.

December: Terracotta Warriors exhibit at the Franklin Institute: We joined the Franklin
this year specifically for this exhibit. They had a special new members reception that was free, so F and I did that as a date night so we could see it ourselves. Then we went back with Freya and my parents. Really interesting exhibit. The first half was about the history and the figures themselves, the second half about the archaeology involved. Freya had read a book about them (go Magic Treehouse) and was excited to see them. The Franklin also had a cool phone app where you could take photos with terracotta warriors wherever you were, so we played with that. Now if we go back to the Franklin even once more, we'll have gotten our money's worth out of the membership.

Saturday January 20: Women's March: I was excited to go to the Women's March for the second year in a row. This year we got a lot closer and could actually hear some of the speeches. Just so much great energy.

Sunday February 18: Written on Skin at the Academy of Music: I have never seen an opera like this before. Incredibly intense, incredibly dark. Really fresh. Older operagoers seemed confused (overheard from nearby seats: A: "No one's been applauding for the arias." B: "What arias?" and also, "Are we there yet?"). And it was confusing, but also enormously well done; we heard from a lady that her friends had seen it in NYC and then come down to see it again here (so they must've liked it to begin with) and thought the one here was even better. The ideas of illuminated manuscripts, glowing boxes, what it means to create a book, what it means to be in a human body. A definite wow.

Movies:
I saw Star Wars in the theater with friends in December. We were all pretty torn about it; there was a lot to love, and also a lot that was unexpected. I thought at the time that I wouldn't want to watch it again, but I'm now looking forward to a rewatch. I think people who liked it liked its ability to reimagine how things work in the Star Wars universe. I also saw Black Panther a few weeks ago, and that was undeniably excellent.
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
Last night the AW and I finally got back to a museum lecture! Here's the description:

Gilgamesh: Journeys to the End of the World
Steve Tinney, Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania
Gilgamesh was a figure of legend in ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) from as early as 4,500 years ago. The tales of his travels were not only stories of adventure in places no human had ever seen, but also reflections on questions of life and knowledge. In this lecture, Dr. Tinney recounts some of Gilgamesh's greatest journeys and revisits discussions about what they meant back then, as well as what they mean today.


I really enjoyed the lecture. Dr. Tinney was a good storyteller - he used images of archaeological artifacts and ancient texts to help tell the story of Gilgamesh and his journeys. (He also used a slide of an artist's depiction of Uruk as a placemarker at different points in his lecture, to differentiate when he was going to begin a new section of discussion - he loses some points for pointing out that he was doing it, but not enough to outweigh the fact that he actually organized his lecture in the first place.) It was cool to hear what someone who can actually read Sumerian and Babylonian has to say about the Gilgamesh legend and the different ancient versions of it.
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
Last night the Archaeology Wife and I attended a lecture on the Trojan War at the Penn Museum. It's the first lecture I've been to since the baby, and if I had to pick one lecture to go all year, this was the perfect one. The speaker was our favorite archaeologist, C. Brian Rose, who gave the very first lecture that AW and I attended back in 2010 and started this whole thing. Dr. Rose is totally adorbs and we kind of want to squee like teenage girls at a Twilight preview when we see him. Here's the lecture description:

Was there a Trojan War?: Assessing the Evidence from the Most Recent Excavations at Troy
C. Brian Rose
In the course of the latest campaign of excavations at Troy, in northwestern Turkey, archaeologists have uncovered a wealth of evidence that enables us to situate the site within the political and military history of the late Bronze Age (14th/13th centuries BCE). The recent discovery of a large defensive ditch cut from the bedrock needs to be considered with the monumental fortification walls around the citadel, both of which shed new light on the history of warfare at the site.


The lecture was excellent: Dr. Rose is a very good speaker, owing to his natural enthusiasm and personability, plus his extensive knowledge of his topic (he's been excavating at Troy for 25 years). Other than the fact that people are apparently still sacrificing sheep over new excavation equipment in Turkey in the present day, I don't know that I learned much that I'll retain, but the lecture itself was really enjoyable and fun.

Since the train is still at 7:11, we didn't get to stay for the Q&A, but it was a good compromise considering that I abandoned F for the evening with the baby. As it was, I got home just in time to help out with the bedtime routine and the lunch-making.
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
Lecture Description:

Ötzi the Iceman: The Puzzle of a 5300 Year-old Alpine Mummy
by Dr. Thomas F. Tartaron
In September 1991, two German tourists discovered a frozen body emerging from the melting ice of a glacier in the South Tyrolian Alps along the Italian-Austrian border. Although it was initially believed to be a modern corpse, it was quickly realized from the associated clothing and artifacts that the body was quite ancient, mummified naturally in the frozen environment. The discovery set off a frenetic regime of examination and testing, as well as a series of disputes about the discovery and ownership of the mummy, and even claims of a "mummy's curse."

Nicknamed "Ötzi" after the Ötz Valley in which he was found, the male mummy has been dated to approximately 5,300 years ago, during the Chalcolithic (Copper) Age. His extraordinary preservation and the full complement of clothing and belongings he carried with him have given archaeologists and other scientists a unique window onto life and death in that remote period.

Dr. Tartaron will recount the story of the discovery and subsequent investigation of Ötzi, separating fact from fiction, discuss his belongings, and summarize the results of scientific analyses. There is much that is now known about Ötzi's life, including his health, injuries and illnesses, diet including his last meals, his tattoos, and aspects of his daily activities. Recently, Ötzi's DNA has been tested to address his relationship to modern populations. The body also revealed much about how Ötzi died and how he came to be preserved for thousands of years in the ice. Much abut Ötzi remains a puzzle, but thanks to this single discovery we know infinitely more about life in the European Alps more than five millennia ago.


This lecture was pretty awesome. I really enjoyed hearing about how Ötzi was found and what they've discovered about him. I only dozed off during some of the DNA discussions. The AW liked the lecture a lot too. We did keep wondering why Dr. Tartaron was chosen to do/chose to do this topic, because other than the fact that he does a nice presentation on it, he doesn't seem to be an expert in either mummies or the culture of the people who lived in this area during Ötzi's time. But it was a good lecture, and we learned a lot, so it's all good.

The only downside is that this was my last archaeology lecture! Now that I have an official paying yoga teacher gig on Wednesday nights, I can't cancel class once a month to go to archaeology lectures. Sad face. The AW is sorry that yoga got in the way of our marriage, but I told her that maybe we can reconcile things and get back together someday.
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
Last week was the first Penn Museum event of the new year! This one was made extra special by the fact that Heather was in town and joined the AW and me for the lecture. Yay! Here's the description:

El Dorado in the Americas: a Wild Dream or Actual Fact?
by Dr. Clark L. Erickson
Conquistadors, explorers, treasure hunters, and many others have long sought the famed El Dorado or Golden City. Throughout history, elaborate stories and myths have circulated about the existence of such a place and bits of evidence assembled to attempt to prove its reality. Professor Erickson explores the origins of El Dorado, the complex narratives that circulate, and the historical, ethnographic, and archaeological information that may help us understand the popularity of the concept of El Dorado through time.


It was an interesting lecture, but not my favorite. I like it when they can show us pictures of neat actual objects that they found. But this was cool and Dr. Erickson knew a lot about random conquistadors with wild personalities. Some of what he talked about reminded me of the book about the City of Z. It was definitely informative, and Heather seemed to have fun and it was supercool to show her what we do every month. :)
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
Last night I attended this month's Penn Museum lecture: Merlin's Magic Circles: Stonehenge and the use of the Preseli Bluestones, from special guest speaker Timothy Darvill of Bournemouth University in the UK. Here's the description of the lecture:

Stonehenge in central southern England is known the world over as an iconic symbol of Europe’s prehistoric past. In this lecture Professor Timothy Darvill of Bournemouth University, UK, will show that while Stonehenge’s origins as a ceremonial monument were conventional enough its later history was exceptional. Key to the transformation was the arrival of about 80 pillars of Bluestone rock brought a distance of around 250km from the Preseli Hills of southwest Wales to Salisbury Plain. But why were these stones important? And what did they mean to Neolithic people? Using archaeological evidence from Stonehenge itself and from recent work in the Preseli Hills, and folklore and oral tradition dating back to the 13th century AD, a new picture of Stonehenge is emerging in which the stones themselves can be seen to have perceived magical properties connected with healing. Their re-use in later and ever more elaborate structures at Stonehenge show something of their power and significance and illustrate how the landscape of the Preseli Hills is constructed in microcosm at Stonehenge. People were attracted to the area from continental Europe, and what started out as a local focus became a celebrated place for prehistoric pilgrimage.

This lecture was well-organized and interesting, though it did run a little long. Professor Darvill spent just a little too much time on the geology of the bluestones and lost us a little bit. They're all rocks from this one area but not the same kind of rock, got it, 'nuff said. Professor Darvill was obviously knowledgeable and passionate about his subject. He wasn't over-the-top funny, but there were a few little moments of humor. The lecture was organized in such a way that Professor Darvill was telling one coherent and cohesive story, and I really appreciated that. I think the neatest part is that he's the first guy to be allowed to excavate at Stonehenge since the 1960s, and I got to hear him speak. Overall, I was really happy with the lecture and glad we attended.
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
This week's archaeology lecture was fantastic. Here's the description:

Of all bible stories, perhaps the story of Noah's ark and the world-ending flood are the most widely known. Modern scholars have noted the resemblance of the story to one which appears in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh dating back to the seventh century BCE. While believers and adventurers try to find proof of the ark itself on Turkey's Mt. Ararat, scientists instead look for evidence of the localized flood that inspired the stories. Dr. Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic Explorer was part of a team that discovered evidence of man-made structures 300 feet below the surface of the Black Sea, adding credence to theories that this was the location of the flood that inspired the biblical and Babylonian stories. Dr. Hiebert will discuss his discoveries and other modern evidence helping to shed light on the story of Noah's ark.

I'd seen Dr. Hiebert give a talk before last spring, so I'd been raving about him to the Archaeology Wife, and so I was really glad that he delivered a great lecture again. The AW and I both really enjoyed the talk: Dr. Hiebert is really engaging, really passionate about his work and the cool technology he's gotten to use (one of the benefits of being a National Geographic Explorer, I guess). He even had video clips of their robots under water finding things under the Black Sea!
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
On Wednesday night the Archaeology Wife and I went to this season's first archaeology lecture at the Penn Museum! This year's theme is Great Riddles in Archaeology, and this week's topic was King Arthur, Camelot and the Quest for a Holy Grail. Here's the description:

For centuries, the legend of King Arthur, Camelot and the quest for the Holy Grail has captivated the world. The Grail, usually thought to be the cup Jesus drank from at the Last Supper, was first introduced into the Arthurian legend in the 12th or 13th century. Since then, countless authors have re-imagined the story, creating tales of adventure, romance, friendship and betrayal. But what is the truth behind the legend? Was there really a Holy Grail, and how did it find its way to Britain and the Arthurian legend? Were Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table real historical figures? What does the archaeology of this era tell us? Dr. Richard Hodges, noted Medievalist and the Williams Director of the Penn Museum, will discuss the various legends of King Arthur and the Holy Grail, and how modern archaeologists and historians interpret them.


This topic sounds pretty interesting until you realize that most of the content you've heard before from a History channel special you half-watched once, but it was still a good lecture. Dr. Hodges told us about Mediterranean pot sherds found in Cornwall that date to the mid 500s AD, which I definitely didn't know about before. Based on the archaeological record, King Arthur (to save you the suspense of wondering) was likely a leader of the Romanized Britons rebelling against the spread of Anglo-Saxon pioneers (who weren't warriors but rather farmer types in search of more land). I thought Dr. Hodges was at his best when he talked about the archaeology; I was less interested in his discussion of the Camelot legend in literature, since he even admitted that that's not his specialty. I would have liked a little more in-depth look at the archaeology and a little less Chretien de Troyes and Tennyson. Overall, though, a good lecture and a good start to the new year at the Museum!
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
I realized that in all the hustle and bustle of the last two weeks, I never posted about the archaeology lecture! Here's the description:

Looking East from Constantinople: Byzantium and the Silk Road
Medieval Constantinople was the greatest emporium of the eastern Mediterranean, where East and West came together. After a brief overview of the Byzantine capital, the talk will chart the routes merchants took traveling eastward from Constantinople, as well as the cities, sites, and landscapes they passed along the way. It will also examine the luxury goods and exotic commodities they brought back with them.

This lecture was pretty excellent. The speaker, Robert Ousterhout, was interesting and engaging and gave a really good talk. Also, I love Constantinople and have a major thing for it. I squirmed with glee every time he mentioned Justinian and Theodora or the hippodrome or the Hagia Sophia. (Thank you, Guy Gavriel Kay, for making me feel like I know these people personally.) It was cool to see the maps of the area and learn about the different trade routes.

ArchaeologyWife went with me to this one, which made me happy. AW is having some rough times lately, so we talked all about her for once, which also made me happy. I really miss seeing her all the time. I had to leave the lecture right at 7:05 so I could catch the 7:12 train home, because we had so much to do to get ready for the trip, but I'm really glad I made the time for this.

Oh, and we got the schedule for next year's lecture series! The theme is "Great Riddles in Archaeology", and so we're going to hear about Camelot and Noah's Ark and Stonehenge and Atlantis! And our two favorite archaeologists, C. Brian Rose and Fredrik Hiebert, are both giving lectures! Should be so much fun.
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
This lecture was really terrific! Here's the description:

Dr. Fredrik Hiebert, Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C., and curator of the exhibition "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul", provides the back-story to the Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul recent re-discovery of the masterpieces of the Kabul Museum. These artifacts, long-thought missing during two decades of civil war in Afghanistan, were actually hidden, not destroyed or looted. It is a powerful double story - that of the rich heritage of Afghanistan as seen in its ancient art and artifacts, and that of the heroic efforts of the Afghan museum personnel to preserve these treasures during the chaotic recent history.

Dr. Hiebert was an engaging speaker and obviously truly excited about the work he was presenting to us; his talk was well-structured, and he had some great slides to show of the objects. Really an inspirational story: the museum workers, in face of great danger (from Communism in the 1970s-80s and from the Taliban in the past decade) hid the great artifacts of Afghanistan's past so they would be kept safe. Dr. Hiebert described opening these boxes to find artifacts that everyone had assumed had been destroyed decades ago, and you could tell from the tone of his voice how intense and amazing it must have been to be there. A really good talk.

Unfortunately, my archaeology wife is in England this week so I had to go to this lecture alone. I was able to stay until the end of the lecture but had to leave partway through the question and answer period to catch my train (better than waiting an hour by myself for the next train). Definitely worth the trip!
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
Last night's lecture at the Penn Museum was excellent. Maria Iacovou (ya-CO-voo), a visiting scholar from Cyprus, gave the lecture and it was fantastic. Well structured, well delivered (much better than the last lecturer, and Dr. Iacovou clearly isn't a native English speaker), with really interesting content. She told us about the ancient city of Palaepaphos (which sounds much cooler when she says it) on the island of Cyprus, and how it was the mythological birthplace of Aphrodite, making it a holy site for pilgrimages. The kings of Palaepaphos were both kings and priests of the goddess. Dr. Iacovou's presentation not only included interesting historical details but also described how she and her team have struggled to excavate and explore the monuments of Cyprus while also protecting them from developers. In order to work faster and thwart the people who want to develop the land (thus destroying the artifacts), she's turned to GIS and other high-tech forms of mapping to know better where to dig and what she's likely to find there. Once they have confirmed a site's importance, it's protected by Cyprus's government and she goes on to try to save another site, in the process learning about the land's history. For example, the people in this part of Cyprus today have been growing cane sugar for generations, but they have no idea that their ancestors were mining copper. Also, due to silt carried by the rivers, the ports keep getting blocked in, which is what led to Palaepaphos being abandoned and a new Paphos being built farther north on the coast.

This was a really interesting talk with an engaging speaker. People had lots of questions and she answered them beautifully. K and I were wishing that we could go to her other lectures this week. Her lecture today is on the ancient Cypriot syllabic script, which you know is right up my alley, but I don't think I can really get away from work for three hours this afternoon.

After the lecture, K and I had some time to wander, so we checked out a small gallery on the Lenape that neither of us had seen before. Really neat stuff--I hadn't known that the local Lenape had intermarried with German farmers in the 1800s (which the German farmers welcomed, thinking, hey, hard-working women!) and hid their native culture for generations. Only in recent decades have the local Lenape been able to open up and meet with Lenape from other regions. Interesting stuff.

Yesterday was the last day of the mummies in the Silk Road exhibit, so we avoided that end of the museum entirely. Very crowded. Where we were, though, was nice.
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
Last night's lecture was only so-so. There wasn't really a description of it other than the title on Penn's website, so we weren't sure really what the topic was. Basically, the lecturer talked about the relations between the Arabs and Turks in this particular region of the Middle East, 600-800 or so AD, and how this affected trade on the Silk Road. And if she had put it that way, the whole lecture would have made a lot more sense. Instead she showed us a lot of maps, and said a lot of things that were way over my head, when if she had just told it more like a story (the Turks fought for a while, but then some Turkish princes took their retinues and bodyguards and joined up, and this had a major affect on culture in that area, as demonstrated in these neat excavations that have been going on), it would have been much more interesting to everyone. Another classic case of someone very intelligent and very knowledgeable not being able to distill it down to a layman's perspective. By the time she got through all the maps and started showing some photos of the amazing wall paintings, I was dozing. She's also doing a lecture on Samarkand in March, which I think I'll be skipping, although if it's just Samarkand then maybe there won't be so many maps and she'll get to the interesting stuff sooner.

This lecture was held in the second-floor lecture hall, which I'd never been in before and in fact didn't know existed, which is interesting considering that the second floor lecture hall is gigantic and built out of stone like a gothic cathedral. Kind of an amazing room. The reception afterward was held in the rotunda, which is the huge room with all the Chinese art. It's a great place for an event, but not when that event's main appetizer is tunafish on a cracker. Seriously. There was also lemony cheese on a cracker, a bowl of nuts, and some sort of fried balls with mayonnaise to dip them in. For all the several hundred people who attended the lecture, that was it, no cheese, no pastries or anything. The smell of the tunafish was gross. However, I still had a good time dissing the whole thing with K, and of course we'll be back for another one at some point. I really wish I could go to the plague lecture next month, because that's one of the things I'm REALLY interested in about the Silk Road, but I will be at AWP. K says she might try to go and report back.
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
This event was only okay. I had tried to get F to come with me, but it was his yoga night. My usual museum buddy, K, has been sick all week and opted to go right home after work. I'm glad she did, because it would have been no fun at all if she'd been there trying to be fun when really she was just sick. But it made for a lonely event for me, even more so because this was a "Young Friends" event followed by a cocktails and socializing.

Here's the description of the event: Ever wonder where all the vampire hype started? Long before Twilight and True Blood, even before Dracula, there were myths of fanged creatures and fiendish monsters circling the ancient worlds. Explore ancient Egyptian and Mediterranean legends of vampires and demons with Penn Museum scholars Dr. Jennifer Wegner, Associate Curator of the Egyptian Section, and Dr. Peter Struck, Associate Professor in Classical Studies. Leave your wooden stakes and silver bullets at home and venture out into the night with more ancient monsters. Enjoy cocktails and mingling with other young friends after the program.

I think I would have preferred a more in-depth talk from either Dr. Wegner or Dr. Struck, rather than a short talk from each of them. They both had lots of interesting things to say, and squeezing both of them in meant each of them could only present so much. Dr. Struck went first, and then Dr. Wegner, and neither of them talked about vampires at all. When the “hey where are all the vampires” question came up at the end, Dr. Wegner told us there were no bloodsucking monsters in ancient Egypt, and Dr. Struck had had to leave before the end, so he wasn’t there to talk about vampires at all. With all the vampire hype in the event description, I was expecting more.

The cocktail party after was pretty cool, but the wine was pricey, and it wasn’t as much fun without K. They had a raffle for some cool gift baskets, and I bought tickets for the TrueBlood basket because it had the first two seasons on DVD, but then I realized it was a “you must be present to win” raffle and they weren't doing the drawing until 8:00, so I had to hang out for 45 minutes. I looked at a couple exhibits, chatted with a nice guy named Adrian who turned out to be a police officer, and ate a few snacks. I was hoping for cheese but there were lots of orange-frosted cupcakes. Eventually I retreated to another room and read my book until the drawing, and then I didn’t win. I caught the 8:11 train out of University City station and was home around 8:45, at which point I wolfed down a corn dog and a toaster pastry because I hadn't had any dinner.

Overall assessment: it was okay, but it would have been much more fun with a friend. I won't go to another of the Young Friends events unless I have somebody else to enjoy it with.
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
Tonight I went to a lecture at the Penn Museum on the Roman Theater at Corinth. The lecturer, Charles Williams, was clearly incredibly knowledgeable and intelligent--he used to direct the excavations at Corinth and is leading another dig there this spring--and he seemed really nice and funny. Sadly, he wasn't the best public speaker in the world--he stuttered some, got lost in his notes, and was perplexed by the slide projector on a few occasions. The material was still really interesting, and I think I would really enjoy reading a book by Williams, but the lecture wasn't as interesting as I'd hoped. It started at 6:00; I had trains at 7:11 and 8:11, and when he ran a little over time, I snuck out early to catch the 7:11 train. (Luckily I discovered that the University City station is right behind the Museum, so I was able to catch most of the lecture and still make the train.)
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
Yesterday K and I took a long lunch to go to a lecture at the Penn Museum! The lunchtime lectures are 12:30-1:30 this year, as opposed to 12-1 like it was last year. K and I planned ahead and left the office by 11:45 and arrived at the Museum around 12:20--unlike at the two events last spring, we were so not late, we were actually early! We got good seats and were there for the beginning of the talk and everything. Score.

The lecture was titled "Scribes and Dwarves and a Toad, Oh, My!: Conservation of El Peru Figurine Group". Lynn Grant was a really engaging speaker, and her topic was fascinating. She's not an archaeologist but a conservator of ancient objects, and she's often consulted about how to conserve various items properly. In this case, a group of really neat Mayan figurines was discovered at a site in northern Guatemala, and Lynn was brought in first of all to conserve them and secondly to teach a young Guatemalan conservator how to do it. So her mission was doubly cool (working with unique objects, and educating the local talent). She talked about how she was recruited into doing this, how it was done, her experience in Guatemala, and all kinds of information about the figurines themselves. She was funny and smart and we totally loved her talk. And K and I were both all grumpy about work yesterday and considered not going, but then we were so glad we did.

Note for next time: pick up some lunch for K on the way over, even if she doesn't feel hungry, or otherwise her stomach may rumble dramatically halfway through the lecture.
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
Last night K and I went to the Penn Museum to attend:

Great Archaeological Discoveries: The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial and the Origins of the English Speaking Peoples, by Dr. Richard Hodges

Description: Dr. Hodges will examine the extraordinary objects found in these excavations which reveal a story of how the English peoples began to have a new identity as well as new ambitions.

The event started at 6 PM. We left the office at maybe 5:15, and then stopped for a quick dinner, which turned out to be delicious but less quick than we'd hoped (although we wolfed those salads down and felt a bit sick afterwards). So we ended up being 20 minutes late. Apparently that was a pretty crucial 20 minutes. We saw slides of the extraordinary objects, and heard about the story of the English peoples, but we missed most of how the find came to be, um, found, and who found it and why. We got the gist of it, but as Dr. Hodges continued to refer to those people, we kept feeling like we were missing the joke. Still a really good talk, and we both enjoyed it, but we agreed that we liked the intimate feel of the lunchtime lecture more. This event was crowded!

Also, this website about the lecture series states that there will be a related gallery tour after each lecture, as well as light refreshments. We got the light refreshments (which included several tasty cheeses!), but there was no gallery tour. We were a bit sad. However, I did catch the earlier train home, so I guess it was for the best. I guess I don't really need to spend all night galivanting around archaeological finds! (At least, not until I'm independently wealthy and can afford that PhD.)

No more lectures for the summer, apparently, although we picked up fliers about next year's lecture series. Hopefully all the archaeologists will spend their summers digging up cool stuff that we can then go hear them talk about next year. We've decided that next year, we will leave earlier and arrive on time.
supercheesegirl: (indy - rare antiquities)
Today K and I went to a lecture at the Penn Museum! The subject was "Recent Fieldwork: Troy, Gordion & the Granicus River Valley", and not much other info was offered on the website, but it was free and at lunchtime so we went. It turns out that C. Brian Rose (Deputy Director, Curator-in-Charge of the Mediterranean Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the James B. Pritchard Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Classical Studies) is an engaging speaker! We sadly arrived ten minutes late and didn't realize we could bring our lunches, but I mostly forgot about that as we listened to Dr. Rose's talk. He's been excavating at Troy for like 25 years. He works with a German collaborator--Dr. Rose's expertise is the later Mediterranean, and the German guy focuses on Bronze Age, which is the moneymaker in Troy, but it means that wherever the German guy wants to dig, Dr. Rose has to get there first because as you dig down you hit all the Roman and Greek stuff before you get to the Bronze era. He talked about all the interesting things they've found, and the controversies they've had to deal with, and he was bright and funny. Now I know about defensive ditches and contentious Germans!

I am so sad that I didn't know about this lecture series before! I think this is probably about it for the academic year, too, because everyone will be off to their excavation seasons for the summer. There's an evening lecture in June that we're going to try to hit, but I don't see anything else after that.

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