Friday Varia and Quick Hits

We live in a strange part of the world when a day in the 20s (F) feels like a spring thaw, but considering the recent visit of the Arctic to our humble corner of this continent, I’ll take every 20 degree day the earth has to offer.

The one good thing is that the warming trend coincided with the collapse of my post-holiday attention span. And this makes it a good time for some Friday quick hits and varia. 

• Byzantium still thrives in a strange corner of popular culture. Not a year goes by with some Byzantine themed book, novel, blog, podcast, movie, or what have you. So maybe this blog will by the next big thing in pop Byzantium.

• The Image Collection and Fieldwork Archives at Dumbarton Oaks has a new online exhibit called “A Truthful Record: The Byzantine Institute Films.”

• Ever few years someone gets interested in the idea that some Romans settled in China.

• Egyptian Space Iron.

• Here’s the wrap up post for the second month of this years SAA blogging carnival. The theme was the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly about archaeological blogging. My post is here. 

• People smoke in Bulgaria and Greece.

• Check out 3D models as analytical tools. 

• Some modern architecture on Corfu.

• Workspiration a cool site for your techy types. 

• Visualize your email with Immersion.

• This has to be the best music review I’ve read this year.

• The last house on Holland Island. This is really a remarkably bizarre story. It’s not that islands disappear, but that someone who do so much to keep nature from running its course. It’s Herodotean.

• RIP Amiri Baraka. 

• Along similar lines, this is what the Earth sounds like when you drill a 5 mile hole into it. 

• David Beer’s Punk Sociology is out and chapter 1 is available for free. I refuse to pay for anything punk. I liked that the author decided to call himself “David Beer.” 

• People make fun of the ‘Peg, but they are doing some cool stuff up there. 

• Goodbye cameras.

• Here’s something read all week: Bob Boilen’s 116 Favorite Concerts Last Year.

• The speech accent archive from George Mason. This is what my wife sounds like.

• Sam Wineburg on using history courses to teach the common core.

• What I’m reading: Lyle Owerko, The Boombox Project: the machines, the music, and the urban underground. (2010); John Parker, Structuration. (2000).

• What I’m listening to: Frank Sinatra, A Swingin’ Affair; Laura Marling, Once I was an Eagle.