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.