constraint and fulfillment

On Prop 8

europe endless (next)

soft reprise

(last year at Soft in Shibuya)

they still creep up on me, too

It is, I suppose, in part a matter of temperament, whether one shouts or weeps at happy transformative moments. But I also think it’s a matter of what has come before. The young people joyfully frolicking in front of the Bush White House never knew the universe whose passing was marked by Obama’s victory and Jackson’s tears.

This moment of triumph marks the end of such a long period of pain, of indignity and injustice for African-Americans. And for so many others of us, of the trampling and debasing of our most basic ideals, beliefs that we cherished every bit as deeply and passionately as those of the “values voters” around whose sensibilities we’ve had to tiptoe for the past 28 years.

The election brought the return of a country we’d lost for so long that it was almost forgotten under the accumulated scar tissue of accommodation and acceptance.

For me, this will be the enduring memory of election night 2008: One generation released its grief. The next looked up confusedly, eager to please and yet unable to comprehend just what the tears were about.

Judith Warner via the NYT.

europe endless (next)

Geoffy in Naples

....and you take your bo's to a bo-tel

(Warsaw)

or a Serb-tel

(Belgrade)

Dour, sour, or shy?

(Krakow+Istanbul)

(Sarajevo)

At least we can end on a graceful note

Geoffy in Pompeii

fall colors at Malinowski's grave

Friday marked this year's visit to Bronislaw Malinowski's grave by a group from the anthropology department. Malinowski was one of the founding fathers of anthropology and by not much fault of his own ended up buried here in New Haven after a fitful three years at Yale. For the past several decades, groups of students and faculty have toasted BM in various ways, some more apt than others. This year was more cider and doughnuts, less drunken grave-jumping. But all in all a good time. I'll hold back on much writing now (procrastination! but only to a vague degree), but here are two websites about Malinowski that should satiate anyone looking for more infomation. The first is one I made for a course my first year here about Yale collection of his letters and documents: The Malinowski Papers at Yale. It has a wide range of original documents and an overview of Yale's Malinowski holdings. Thanks to Ryan for the website help. And here is a website Allison Alexy put together for our joint project based on LSE's Malinowski collection for a AAA meeting poster session a few years back: Malinowski's Two American Homes; featuring a timeline of BM's American exodus and his rough ride across his wartime academic job search and a host of physical ailments. I know it is exciting.
Try to contain yourselves!

last night's sunset