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| Indiana Jones on the set photo: John Griffiths |
The media, itself, has no identity crisis, either. Chameleon-like, it adapts to whatever is fashionable or saleable at the moment. We all know this, and we thus do not entirely trust the media, especially the news media. The idea that the news is fearlessly bring the truth to the public might have been popular in the early days of journalism, but now most people think it is something that is designed to grab enough public attention to sell papers and attract advertisers and that, hopefully, something of the truth might yet get through. Media is also a tool of the politician and it does not matter much if the politician is democratically minded or a dictator. But most people do not entirely trust politicians, either.
In recent times there has been much nostalgia for the past, for simpler times. We see more specialty shops; Ma and Pop businesses with that personal touch. Sure, we all go to the big supermarkets and chain stores for convenience or because the prices might be low, but we do not really trust them and we certainly do not think they are just like us. Henry Ford's production lines are no longer our vision of the future and smart businesses are now creating small teams to work on particular projects. Everyone knows each other and the business atmosphere becomes more like a family.
So why does Indian Jones become attractive to archaeological PR men? Perhaps they believe that it is because his role as an archaeologist indicates a public interest in archaeology. He does not particularly act like an archaeologist though. A couple of hours watching him raiding tombs and fighting the bad guys with gun and whip? Yes. Patiently uncovering an archaeological site with trowel and brush? Not so much. Could it be that people go to such movies for the sensation? Might it be a longing for a time when an individual could set out on an adventure of exploration or conquest without first having to be appointed by a committee, filling out the appropriate paperwork and then end up being just a faceless small link in a long chain of command? Cyber-punk gave way to steam-punk. Think about it. The Victorian era was a time of individual study, of individual adventure: Charles Darwin; Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton; and in archaeology: John Evans and his son Arthur; William Flinders Petrie. In my ongoing research into T. E. Lawrence, I can see that his public popularity was an early longing for those times, although back then there were still people alive who could actually remember them.
But there are other visions of archaeologists in the entertainment media too. The media can change in an instant: it is just reflecting what is out there. If you too closely associate yourself with the media, then you will also have to change with it, but unfortunately that is not possible. The media is not promoting itself. The media is promoting public illusions and fantasies. That is what is selling. It dons a short skirt, leans against the lamp post and smokes a cigarette. He who sups with the devil should have a long spoon.
Recently, an iconoclastic sect in the Middle East has destroyed some ancient remains and archaeological PR has been propagating stories of this sect also selling antiquities on the black market in order to finance terrorism. As incongruous and unlikely as that sounds, it was backed up with photographs of objects captured to prove the point. Then it became apparent that the photographs were of cheap souvenirs which have been sold to gullible tourists for more than a century. There were also one or two somewhat better fakes among the lot. Together with that, a number of secular fundamentalist archaeology supporters were showing, on their websites and blogs, objects that had originated in the troubled areas that were now being sold on Ebay and on dealer's sites. Like the marketers of tourist copies, they also wanted to capitalize on public gullibility. Collectors and dealers soon pointed out, however, that such things had been sold for even longer than the tourist fakes and that there was no sudden surge in the market of such things.
Archaeology is being fragmented by sects and it is no wonder that archaeological hoarding is being looked at in both its pathology and in its religious overtones. For example, there are those archaeologists who are vehemently opposed to the Portable Antiquities Scheme because it "promotes metal-detecting" and they are opposed to that as well. Meanwhile there are others who think it is good idea but they are opposed to other such databases and think of the PAS as being "official".Oddly enough, you sometimes come across people who seem to be able to hold both points of view, depending on the context of the moment. This is a clear indication of people using things to their own advantage depending on the circumstances at the time and their real motives must lie elsewhere. This could be either deliberately manipulative or a pathological expression of some unconscious repression. The value in multiple databases and other sources of archaeological information is that people have very different outlooks and importances and we cannot say that any one is more important than any other. Embedded in databases (and other expressions) are these different outlooks as they can move from individual to organizational thought.
Here is an experiment for you to try. Google the following terms for objects in my specialty that are also commonly found by metal detectorists in Britain:
Strap-junction
linchpin terminal
anthropomorphic sword pommel
Bodvoc gold stater
You will find not a fragmented record but different cross-disciplinary viewpoints. You will also find things from the PAS, and other databases; commercial offerings that are shown in neither; and even things from this blog, my Celtic Coin Index and Robert Van Arsdell's online Celtic Coinage of Britain (the last two for the last item on my list.) You might even find connections that you had never thought about before. It is also significant that, as implied by the quote I gave from Ian Hodder in part five of this series, most archaeologists do not include anything from the public web searches in their papers and reference only to within their own group and its publications. Much of that material is not easily accessible by the very public that they purport to serve.
On Monday, why the treatment might be far worse than the disease in the matter of extreme fringe archaeology. Have an individualistic weekend.
John's Coydog Community page
Your blogs in this series are food for thought. As an archaeologist, I fail to see the romantic light the media portrays us being. It is dirty, physical and living in isolation free from distractions. I have been shot at and had fire arms pointed at me where is the romance in that. For those poor souls who purchase souviners maybe they should read Blink.
ReplyDeleteI could not sleep last night, too many ideas running around in my head. I finally gave up. Read a lot of info on Jung from the Internet. When he describes introverts no wonder I choose to study archaeology. I love the bliss of discovery and wonderment one experiences from the digs. To sit where others have been so long ago and view what they saw. The media can not catch this feeling. Enjoy reading Blink.
Funnily enough, I have never had any interest in digging things up (and my back would not allow that anyway). I much prefer to interpret what has been dug up and I compare a lot of material. I am more interested in how things came to be than in what happened to them afterwards. I also give advice to detectorists about where to look from geographical data and can sometimes tell them what geographical features exist nearby just from knowing what they have found. In return, they let me use photos of what they have found; provide even more information, and sometimes even send me samples. With the latter, I have had things analyzed through XRF and discovered yet more things from that. Gradually, bigger pictures emerge.
DeleteI can do all of that without having to go anywhere but the kitchen to get more coffee, and my back is not bothered by that at all.
Did you know that Jungian archaeology does not yet exist? Google it. One or two people use that term when they really mean Jungian mythology. I have actually been doing it for thirty years, but I have a number of ideas on how what I have already done could be greatly expanded. I'll start writing it up soon, first as a blog series then, in more detail, as an ebook. What fun, the idea of inventing my own discipline!
I'll be starting Blink tomorrow.
Too bad you have never had the thrill of finding a cultural item from it final resting place. It gives one an amazing feeling but each to their own. My 68 year old back and knees would complaint if I were to try shoveling and lifting all those buckets of earth. The wonder of being so isolated is to feel nature in its true form. I remember hearing the coyotes howling. Momma was teaching the little ones to repeat after her. We had a kangaroo rat and her babies live in our tent. I told her she could stay, only if she stayed out of our belongings. Every morning, she would give a little goodbye look and then go back to tending her young. I felt this was as pure as nature could be in the way we connected. She never did bother us things.
ReplyDeleteYour reference to the Old Man in the Blackfoot tale reminded me of this event. I once had a copy the Blackfoot tales but I gave it away and along with many other ethnological publications to the historian that worked at Morley so they could start a reference library. It takes courage to start a new discipline. You know what will come with such an undertaking believers and critics but I believe you will survive what ever comes you way.
Finally got back home, I was in a mad rush earlier trying to get laundry done and to get ready to meet a friend for the Elbow river Casino's seafood buffet. I don't know how they can do it for such a low price, I could not have bought what I ate at the store for double what I paid for the meal.
DeleteI did not know you were also an archaeologist. Where were you digging?
I did actually find one thing. Many years ago I was in a friend's car and we were driving across the plateau at Cypress Hills. I was looking at the black line in the earth of a 19th century grass fire about 2 inches below the grass where the road had been cut through the surface when I suddenly saw another black line about two feet below that but it was only about four feet long. We were doing about 30 mph, I suppose. I yelled out "stop the car!". Gary screeched to a halt and I rushed out of the car and ran back to where I had seen the smaller black line. Right at the edge of the road was a very small, black scraper, beautifully flaked on one edge but mostly natural. it was about an inch long. I quickly picked it up and ran back to the car and showed it to Gary. You can imagine the incredulous look I got that I had somehow spotted this tiny tool in the road from a car going about 30 mph. I did tell him the true story about it, though.
Was the kangaroo rat also at Cypress Hills, or was it in the U.S.? That's the only place I know in Alberta where they exist? Strange place. People actually lived there about 10,000 years ago (a lake village at Elkwater, now a parking lot for a wetlands walk). Which reminds me, did you read my post about the sweetgrass braid?:
http://tinyurl.com/d8npu4o
I remember such a night of hearing the coyotes singing near Exshaw. Such a haunting sound. They have so many notes it always sounds like there are more of them than just a single family. Tristan has only howled once, but whenever I leave he starts barking and this soon changes into a series of high pitched coyote yips.
I will start on the Jungian archaeology series after I finish the upcoming T. E. Shaw series (to use his legal name at the time).
I'm not too worried about any criticisms. A lot of people are against Jung's ideas. How they know what his ideas were, I have no idea. It takes years to get a decent grip on them as he did not always explain himself clearly and he talked about everything in different books and papers so the complete picture of any of his subjects cannot easily be seen from any one of them. I think "On the Nature of the Psyche" is about the most complete although it is very "concentrated" and takes quite a few readings.
A Jungian archaeology would have to include the mind of the archaeologist as well as the minds of those who made/left what the archaeologist is looking at. I have seen an archaeological site disturb an archetype in the archaeologist's unconscious and this was then projected as a meaning of the site, itself. It might be a good plan to have several different people make their own interpretations of any site independently without discussion among them as a sort of blind study to help lessen the subjectivity. Certain experiments could be designed to separate the individual and the collective unconscious. The unconscious according to both Jung and Wolfgang Pauli, (also in the book I mention) would contain a fair measure of objectivity. but the collective unconscious would have the archaeological content, alone.
I do this stuff because I enjoy it and it will leave a record in case my grandchildren want to know more about grandpa when they get old enough to understand me. A friend who is an American emeritus professor of history, when I asked him why we do what we do, replied "To exercise the mind and to delight the senses". The best definition I have heard!
The area I studied was Plains archaeology. My first dig was at Waterton Lakes, as a student I learned the skills of field work. Next I worked at Fort Calgary which is classified as a historic archaeology dig. Then I worked out of the country at a placed called Harve, Montana. This was a very interesting site because it was undisturbed buffalo jump. And lastly, a major archaeological survey on the Suffield Military Reserve. There are many interesting stories and experiences, too many to relate through writing. They are best told in person as the facial and body language add to the telling.
ReplyDeleteToday I spent time with a friend who had knee surgery. We had a delicious lunch at Tony Roma's and followed up by discussing the chapters I have read from Blink. I can not seem to settle today to continue reading because I have a bad case of spring fever. Wishing you better luck than I am having.
(part one)
DeleteWas the kangaroo rat at Suffield? I just found a 2013-18 Government recovery plan:
http://tinyurl.com/jvdlctx
which gives their range there but does not even mention Cypress Hills, while another government document on Cypress Hills says they are thereabouts:
http://tinyurl.com/zz4swbe
I sold a rifle stamped NWMP to Fort Calgary. I phoned the Police, first because, not driving, I was unsure of how to get it to them. I thought I would wrap it up but was told that would have been a concealed weapon and that I should take the bolt out. I said that it was a repeater and had no bolt. So they told me just to carry it over there and if they got any phone calls they would know what was going on. A few people crossed the street as I approached! Silly, anyway, because (a) I am a very good shot on and on the rifle range used to get a very tight cluster -- being far sighted helps and (b) it was clearly an old and very rusty gun and one would have to be insane to try and fire it the only dangerous place to be would have been _behind_ the sights!
Fort Calgary is a very sad display compared to Fort Walsh (which is almost in the middle of nowhere). I like to see a rebuilt fort not a bunch of telephone poles. At Fort Walsh you can almost still sense Sitting Bull and his warriors just down the valley a bit (after Little Bighorn). The buffalo jump in Calgary is much more disturbed than it was in 1968 when I saw a buffalo skull there. Now, even the fossil razor clam bed just west of it has gone. The person who showed me the buffalo jump was a collector of stone tools and he could even make them. I don't think such people exist any more in Calgary.
I've had two restaurant meals this weekend: last night's Elbow Casino seafood buffet which is a far cheaper way to get crab legs, huge prawns and salmon than buying them at the supermarket; and this morning I had breakfast with my daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren at Red's in Ramsey. I try to get together with them every couple of months. Later, I gave Tristan more training on how to catch squirrels -- I doubt he will everr catch one, but I've managed to get him to slowly approach them better (he still runs at them from too far away, but he seemed pleased with today's effort). He also played with a small dog (when I first got him he seemed to want to hunt them, too) I must get his rabies booster shot before he gets too good.
(part two)
DeleteI managed to finish Blink a few minutes ago (except for some of the end material (study guide and notes) I did read the excerpt
from David and Goliath. It reminded me a bit of Frontinus Stratagems. I might buy it.
At first it puzzled me as when I read "the adaptive unconscious", I thought of Jung's unconscious which he call compensatory. I did a search of the ebook but Jung is not mentioned. After reading further, however, I could see that modern psychologist are reinventing the wheel because they don't often study Jung except as a historical smattering (Jungian therapists excepted) and the book takes a very different approach than what I was expecting. It was very good and there was barely a chapter that did not contain something very similar to my own experiences. Mostly though, it showed me how what I had done and what had been most successful for me actually had worked. With an INFJ, the working remain mostly unconscious and it is more instinctive. I di understand at the time, how I managed to survive one night in Los Angeles in 1969 when at 2 a.m I was walking down Alvarado at MacArthur Park when a lowrider slowly drove alongside side me and I saw a switchblade glint in the street lamp light. Instead of running, my instinct told me to walk right up to their window and look in. It scared the hell out of them and they drove off really fast. Afterwar, I realised that they must have thought I had a gun, but it was pre instinct on my part, no thought at all.
I also realised why I always look at the material I am researching and try to read very little about it until I have studied it -- of course! right and left brain. Again instinctive, (until now). I was surprised that the author and who he was talking about did not recognize Kim Philby as a sociopath. I can spot such people in an instant whereas most people cannot. It's that fleeting smirk. so quick it bareley registers, but it is also preceded by an indescribable expression that is longer, and that might be what gets my attention. I have seen in twice in my life: once from a wounded sniper under police guard in a hospital and later on the face of the boyfriend of a young girl I was mentoring in her art career. He ended up destroying that by appearing to help her, but doing only bad. He was afraid that she might become independent and he could not have that. Her mother had been a victim of spousal abuse and the offspring of such people are bad judges of character and attact the same sort of abuse. There were several other guys "waiting in the wings" so to speak. I have yet to be successful with such people: she was number three of my failures over the years.
The chapters that spoke about musicians was poignant: an old friend of mine is a singer/songwriter In the recoding studio myslef and the sound engineer were trying to get her to not be too perfect, If I had read the book before then, I could have explained better why that was important. Now she is off in Vancouver. She needed to be less Maria Callas and more Janis Joplin -- edgy, but she was a classically trained mezzo soprano doing rock.
All in all, a phenomenal book!
Wow! outdid myself in typos and I cannot edit comments, only posts (Google works in mysterious ways). It's been a long day.
DeleteAnother sleepless night, I see you have been busy. Grandchildren are such a blessing. I have two wonderful grandsons ages 10 and 8. Their father loves to spend time sailing with them on Glenmore Reservoir because of this they are being encouraged to take sailing lessons. After I saw my friend I stopped by their house but they were off with their mom at the park riding their bikes. They are so fortune to live. ten minutes away from Fish Creek Park in the S.W.
ReplyDeleteThe weather was so glorious being a country girl I just wanted to put the windows down and turn on the rock music and take a drive in the country. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about Blink, especially through your life experiences. I have the last two chapters of Blink to finish.
They were kangaroo rat , they had distinctive back legs. What was interesting about the animals at Suffield was they did not seem to have any fear of humans, even the birds would not fly off the roads. We often had to get out of our vehicles and chase them away. It was like living in an utopia.
Another busy day planned: I have to recycle a lot of books, tearing off the covers and putting the rest in the blue bin. I have piles of books on one desk and the floor and there is not enough room in the shelves. There's a lot I can get rid off that no would be interested in or are in really bad condition. Ebooks are so much more convenient but I still have to buy and keep a lot of hard copy books. I'm not going to overdo it, though. The books and a bit of vacuuming. It's back to writing tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteHere's a bit of synchronicity. Remembering that day in the recording studio, I Googled the song (Moment in Time) and found that Karen did a Moment in Time Variety Show about a week ago in Vancouver. The title song is on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyt-90EMMsg&feature=youtu.be&a=
So I gave it a "like" and left a message. She is now doing country and this version is a lot quieter than the first Calgary studio version which had more musicians(lead and rhythm guitars as well as Karen's acoustic, two female back up singers and a drummer). It was her own Calgary band with a three guests. It also had a very good lead guitar solo from one of the guests. The album has yet another version. Pursuing the arts in Western Canada is tough, but some support for it is only a "like" and a click away!
Fish Creek is wonderful, I used to like hiking downstream out of Calgary from the Bow Bottom Trail entrance. I might try that this summer with the dog and I'll bring my hammock and fishing rod, but if there are any cattle in the fields he will be on the leash! There's a buffalo stone just off the road near the exit from the park there.
Lily, my oldest grandchild just started school. She likes wall climbing. Henry is into dinosaurs.
Best,
John
I hope Lily has an excellent teacher because it is important in that first year to be encouraged and loved by ones teacher. Have you ever travelled to Head Smashed In buffalo jump near Fort Macleod? It is a World Heritage Site and is an amazing archaeology site to visit.
ReplyDeleteWow! I finished the book. The section on facial expression with insightful since I have taught students with autism. Through a lot of hard work with the support of specialists I was able to help these students in recognizing some facial expressions, anger, happiness and saddness. Also, we did a lot of work with having them become more comfortable with looking at people's faces. There is school in Ramsey that works with students with more challenging cases of autism. The students I worked with were quite mild.
Finally, someone stands behind the importance of understanding. Understanding has always been a guiding light in my teaching. I remember teaching the concept of multiplication to a group of grade two students, they were giving me that what in the world look when I instinctively thought this is not working. At that moment, I decided to write the number 9 on a piece of chart paper to cover it. Then I asked them to add all the nines. This lead to a dicussion on different ways of achieving the given answer. Guess what in the end they understood that multiplication is a fast way of adding multiple groups together. I loved teaching math to young children. Gladwell brings a lot of common sense to how people such be thinking and reacting to situations .
How is the book culling progressing? The laundry is progression slowly at my end.
Well, Jasmin has not told me anything bad about her teacher and she says that Lily enjoys school so I think everything is fine. Jasmin is like a mother bear in such matters. If there was anything amiss, I would have heard about it. Their daycare is also very good, but $2,300 per month -- Yikes!
DeleteCarrie always like teaching teenagers best. When she told me that my facial expression must have read "Are you insane!" I have known two people who had autistic kids, they are really a lot of work! Years ago (1970), I had a friend who was an English nanny. She had training with troubled children and had also worked at a school for deaf kids (many of whom were also disturbed in various ways). In Calgary, she worked for a family who lived in Mount Royal mansion. Their kids were fairly well-adjusted. Anna used to make $1,100 a month plus board and was given her own car. I suppose the family just wanted the best, but it always struck me as a waste of talent.
I had to pause for a moment when tearing the cover off a signed first edition. But it was on writing object-oriented organizational planning software and was self-published in 1995. I dare say all the copies were signed.
I did not throw away as many books as I thought I would. There were a lot on colour theory in that pile. But I made room by putting my TV, a VCR, and a DVD player in the alley with a sign that said free and all working. Anything left there tomorrow will go to the electronic recycling depot near Currie barracks. The surface that had all of that on now has books on colour theory at the back with more room to spare for other things. I vaccuumed where the pile of books had been gathering dust, threw outy some more junk and cleaned the bathrooom (which was easy because everything but the washbasin and medicine cabinet had been replaced two days ago - even the floor. No more lino, now cermaiv tile. I am now going to enjoy it soaking all my aches in a hot bath while reading the first edition of T. E. Lawrence by his Friends, 1937. I made tonight's supper yesterday and apart from walking the dog no more work for me this weekend! Damn, laundry. There's all my whites still to do. Oh well, it's not like I iron or anything.
The laundry is finished and now I can enjoy a delicious cup of tea. My great - grandmother would roll in her grave because I like my tea half strength without milk. I guess I like being my own person. Relax in Your new tub.
ReplyDeleteI'm with your great grandmother on that one! Actually, the bath itself was just refinished, the surround was replaced though. whoever did the original plumbing used steel brackets with copper pipes, so the pipes eventually corroded through. That part of the wall had to be replaced. The leak had also gone under the floor, so that had to go, too. Perhaps they saved a couple of dollars on the brackets.... The only thing wrong now is the lingering smell of caulking and tile grout but that should fade in a few more days.
DeleteI just downloaded a free sample of Journal of a Novel: the East of Eden Letters that John Steinbeck wrote each day he was writing the novel. He was writing it for his kids but sent it to his publisher/friend. Essentially he was a pre-computer era blogger! It seems like great plan, maybe I'll blog my next book as I write it. I'm not sure whether I should buy the Steinbeck though because of the potential of influence. In the small sample, he seems to have problems in actually sitting down and writing the book, and aiming only for 1,500 words a day, too.
The housework aches are gone. Time to put the laundry on, make coffee (strong but decaf) and watch Netflix
I am watching the Jonu Awards and the artists are so talented. We are lucky to have such excellent music programs in this country. I look award to reading your blog tomorrow. In the morning I am off to a medical appointment and also have to start working on the income tax forms as they are due soon. I don't like leaving things to the last. Enjoy reading the John Steinbeck sample journal.
ReplyDeleteMy TV is in the alley. I sent off my tax forms last week, used software to do it and had the results printed off. I'm a bit phobic about forms. Apparently, I don't owe anything. The coffee's ready and I think the washing machine has stopped. Enjoy the show.
DeleteOn my way home I listened to the Guns and Roses song called Knock, Knock on Heavens Door. It reminded my of Bill. I shed a few tears.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Bill was able to regain any happiness in Thailand, or if he was there just to be able to teach again. Teaching English abroad is most often a job for younger people who want to see something of the world or want to learn the local language there. I knew someone else who had done that for language reasons in Thailand, although when I knew him he was then immersing himself in French, not just Parisian, but provincial, too.
DeleteBill always like the East, but he was certainly not happy when he had came back for a while before his final return there. He clearly had severe problems. Tashi, whom I have just been mentioning on today's blog entry, was trying to get Bill's friends to be sympathetic to his plight when Bill was doing things that certainly were alienating us all, but Tashi is only one step removed from the Dalai Lama, so compassion is very much his thing. I suspected that Bill had developed a brain tumour, but I'm not certain. One symptom was indicative of such.
A few years earlier, not that long after his breakup, he was really in a dark place. I tried to go for lunch with him but when I went to house he was so strung out on drugs and alcohol that he could barely walk and kept staggering bumping into lamp posts. I gave up on the idea of lunch and just saw him home. A few years later, he came back from the far east (it might have been Taiwan) and seemed much more together but he also had that symptom and appeared to be turning against everyone. That's when Tashi was trying to smooth things over with his friends and saying that his illness was not his fault. Tashi had come over to the house and we were talking about it over some buttered tea one afternoon. I think Tashi knew what the real problem was, but he was not being specific.
Bill always had a hard time reconciling his career as a professor with his personality. Anothe person I know who reminds me a lot of Bill is David MacDondald (Mac), an emeritus professor of History at Illinois State University:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=macdonald
but Mac had been able to successfully be a professor and distance himself from academic politics, power building and unwanted academic attention. It was Mac who said that we do what we do "To exercise the mind and to delight the senses". Bill was just never able to keep his job separate from his life as Mac has done and everything got under his skin. I thin some sort of parallel with Bill and Mac would be Van Gogh and Picasso. With Bill in the role of Van Gogh of course.
I think Don McLean expressed it perfectly with "Vincent" (1972):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wrNFDxCRzU
I think you will see Bill in that, too (and probably shed a few more tears!) Back to the blog...
Thank you for responding. Maybe someday I will tell you the story Bill gave to me.
ReplyDeleteIt would be very interesting to compare notes!
DeleteWhere does Tashi Phuntsok live? It is difficult to contact him.
ReplyDeleteBest to contact at him at his business. Email me at john (at) writer2001.com and I'll give you the contact details ("alternative" email address given as it's not machine readable). With his political history it's not too surprising that he would not want direct contact info on the web!
DeleteThank you so very much. I will email you.
ReplyDeleteApologies for the secrecy. He did allow me to present some of his story with photographs at the 1999 Bournemouth, U.K. meeting of the European Archaeologists Association (to a stunned audience). I was part of Andrew Selkirk's team opposing Britain's adoption of the UNESCO Unidroit Convention in a (so-called) round table discussion. Since then, though, a lot of bridges between the Chinese and ethnic Tibetans have been mended and Tashi has done much to further the Middle Way through Chinese guanxi.
DeleteThank you for the information. My sister is sending you the email so please send her the detail. she will give them to by phone. You are ever complex person.
ReplyDeleteI've replied and added a little advice. More or less to keep things about Bill. He would really be uncomfortable taking about politics to a stranger. I said it was OK to tell him that I sent you to ask about Bill. I forgot to mention that it would be best if you said that Bill had a positive influence on your life. Tashi would appreciate that. I'm not that complex, pretty basic, actually. I've just had a number of adventures -- some good, some bad.
DeleteJohn I forgot to give you her name Judy Evans I hope this helps. Hear from you soon.
ReplyDeleteGoogle's a bit slow, it seems.
DeleteThank you again. I will follow your instruction to the letter because I do not want to cause a problem for you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I was disappointed not being able to any further biographical work on Tashi, but the best people with a real goal in life always change their strategies and their opinions to reflect new realities and so there are areas of their earlier lives that can interfere with the present situation because pasts can be dragged up and used against them in the present by unscrupulous enemies. I wanted to do something on Francois Paulette, too, who I knew when we were both in our twenties, but his path has changed too. Come to think about it, I avoid talking about a lot of things I was doing professionally, from 68 to 71. All good paths are convoluted. Biographies are best written about the dead.
DeleteI found everything I needed on the Internet. I will probably try to contact him on Wednesday since I am quite busy tomorrow. The taxes are finished. I get nice refund. Thank goodness.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing left in my alley this morning was the TV. A friend came over with more stuff to recycle and I dropped the TV and a broken monitor at the recycling depot before going for lunch. There's a pile of stuff going to the dump from the building renovations and I've been told I can add more to it -- so I can get rid of yet more clutter and become even more minimal in my life style. Just bought The Materiality of Magic: An artifactual investigation into ritual practices and popular beliefs:
Deletehttp://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/the-materiality-of-magic.html
but only $15 and change as a Google ebook. I like ebooks, they cost less and don't hurt your back when you move a hundred of them. I'm not going to buy the Steinbeck the risk of influence is too great and I'm already getting interested in multi-layered blogging. Besides, I should really slow down on buying books I want to build a new computer -- a bleeding edge VR capable thing and should start saving for the components (they won't be cheap, especially the 16 Gb video card) I might be able to do it before the year is out without having to sell anything from my peripheral collections. No tax refund for me as I never paid any tax. But a GST rebate will be here soon. I'm like T. E. Lawrence, he never wanted to make enough to pay tax either. If I had lots of money I would probably just enjoy it and do nothing. That's no way to live. The last episode of a Netflix premier series awaits -- The Ranch, starring Sam Elliot and Ashton Kutcher -- there's an odd couple of co-stars!)