Doings and Diggings
My last post was made in an extremely hectic period at the end of the summer semester. I gave an exam on Monday (7/24), a lab final on Tuesday (7/25), and the course final on Thursday (7/27). The "Hooray for Hollywood" dress rehearsals were Tuesday and Thursday nights. I slept only a couple of hours Thursday night and took off at around 3 AM to drive down to Telfair County, Georgia.
Here is what I was doing down there in Telfair County:
I started fieldwork this summer with Dennis Blanton of the Fernbank Museum in his search for mission Santa Isabel de Utinahica along the Ocmulgee River. We had a multidisciplinary team describing the stratigraphy of a cutbank at the base of which Dennis had found a fossil plant bed. We think the plant material is probably late Pleistocene, while the focus of the archaeological fieldwork was a possible Spanish mission. Since relatively few people have any idea where Telfair County is, here is a map that comes from an AJC article on the fieldwork from earlier this summer.
I could only stay until noon at the site at which point I had to turn around and drive back to Athens to make the first "Hooray for Hollywood" performance. Needless to say, I took a lot of ribbing from my archaeology and geology colleagues for that one. After the Sunday afternoon performance, I met up with some of my old professors at a memorial for Dr. Vernon Hurst. We also had a cast party Sunday night at the director's loft over in east Athens. I was quite surprised to see such a nice place over in a part of town that used to be extremely sketchy.
Monday morning (7/31) I was off to Nashville to spend some time with both my brother and my dad in very cramped quarters at my dad's new place on 20th Street. My birthday (8/4) was not much of an event, although dad did enlist my help to completely revamp all of his electronics to cable television, internet,.... We also went to a very interesting showing of The War Tapes at the Belcourt Theatre. What was supposed to be a question-and-answer session with one of the soldiers turned a bit testy as various community activists stood up to make statements against the war. I recommend the experience of the film. There is gore, but not much more than many dramatic action films.
I drove back to Athens on Sunday (8/6) and have been enjoying the peace and quiet here as students trickle back into town. Another nice feature around here of late has been the beautiful lizlips who has been working at Athens Regional Hospital as a nurse.
Here is what I was doing down there in Telfair County:
I started fieldwork this summer with Dennis Blanton of the Fernbank Museum in his search for mission Santa Isabel de Utinahica along the Ocmulgee River. We had a multidisciplinary team describing the stratigraphy of a cutbank at the base of which Dennis had found a fossil plant bed. We think the plant material is probably late Pleistocene, while the focus of the archaeological fieldwork was a possible Spanish mission. Since relatively few people have any idea where Telfair County is, here is a map that comes from an AJC article on the fieldwork from earlier this summer.
I could only stay until noon at the site at which point I had to turn around and drive back to Athens to make the first "Hooray for Hollywood" performance. Needless to say, I took a lot of ribbing from my archaeology and geology colleagues for that one. After the Sunday afternoon performance, I met up with some of my old professors at a memorial for Dr. Vernon Hurst. We also had a cast party Sunday night at the director's loft over in east Athens. I was quite surprised to see such a nice place over in a part of town that used to be extremely sketchy.
Monday morning (7/31) I was off to Nashville to spend some time with both my brother and my dad in very cramped quarters at my dad's new place on 20th Street. My birthday (8/4) was not much of an event, although dad did enlist my help to completely revamp all of his electronics to cable television, internet,.... We also went to a very interesting showing of The War Tapes at the Belcourt Theatre. What was supposed to be a question-and-answer session with one of the soldiers turned a bit testy as various community activists stood up to make statements against the war. I recommend the experience of the film. There is gore, but not much more than many dramatic action films.
I drove back to Athens on Sunday (8/6) and have been enjoying the peace and quiet here as students trickle back into town. Another nice feature around here of late has been the beautiful lizlips who has been working at Athens Regional Hospital as a nurse.