44 out of 410 Days: Neighborhood Delights

July 31, 2013July 31, 2013 ~ Liv Yarrow ~ Leave a comment

I sent the wire transfer for the deposit on the Istanbul place. SDA said to me first thing this morning ‘there’s no one I’d rather have adventures with’. It will be a grand adventure, but Ditmas Park is pretty fabulous too.

This morning I cramped up between 1.5 and 2.5 miles and had to walk, so I did an extra loop at the end of my route around a long block. At the end of that very last loop a school crossing guard, who I swear I’ve never seen before, stopped me and with a big smile said “You made it round really fast! I was watching.” I love the eye contact and smiles along the way, but that comment takes the cake.

And, the other day I noticed this fabulous mystery item:

What is it? It’s a single work boot with a very large rock in it that has been bound in an exceptionally complicated pattern and placed just inside the perimeter of a church yard. Art? Binding Spell? Symbolic Catharsis? Joke? All of the above? You choose. No, I did not touch it. No, I’ve not gone back to check on it.

And then this:

The sign reads “Hey Pretty Lady who bought my table and stools on Sunday… I found a missing piece!!! I really hope you find this!!” And yes, that is a piece of wood taped to a lamp post. The toothy smile drawn on the sign is really the best part.

I’m going to miss this place.

43 out of 410 Days: I’m liking my numbers

July 30, 2013June 6, 2014 ~ Liv Yarrow ~ 1 Comment

So first, I averaged 8.28 minutes per mile for 3 miles. Yes, I did I fist pump at the end. And, Yes, that’s even stopping at traffic lights. In six weeks that’s a 50% increase in speed and my recovery time felt good too. The other more important number was 750 words. I put it in easily and then some. It felt good to writing in linear fashion knowing that if I didn’t have exactly the right word for a concept I could fix it later. I also was able to start seeing the huge number of cross references the book is going to contain. Something I already new from my image lists and notes on what chapters they needed to be mentioned, but I really I found myself writing about a type that might end up being mentioned in every chapter. I am opening chapter 6 on Imperators (Marius, Sulla, Pompey and co) with a contrast between M. Aemilius Scaurus cos. 115 and his son of the same name. The former has no coins and his deeds are not commemorated on coins, even thought Cicero tells us he ruled the world with a nod of his head, by contrast his son as just an aedile brags about his own accomplishments! The type is illustrated above. Notice the big REX ARETAS legend on the obverse. This is Scaurus claiming to have brought the king of the Nabataeans to his knees during his side excursion while under Pompey’s command in 62. According to Josephus his ill advised trip to Petra left his army suffering famine and resulted in Aretas simply bribing him with some 300 silver talents to go back from whence he came. Not a very glorious deed all in all. This morning I was struck by the contrast between Aretas III’s self presentation and Scaurus’ desire to show Aretas as an outlandish foreigner (Camel, trousers, long scruffy hair):

This of course plays on some Roman stereotypes and may have even created a new typology. Compare this type of three years later (55 BC):

[Who exactly Bacchius Judeaus is is a problem for another day. Maybe Dionysius of Tripolis? Or maybe the High Priest himself?]

And yet this same monarch went farther than any other Nabataean ruler to craft a self image in line with Hellenistic standards:

It’s not just the diadem or the tyche its the actual inscription labeling himself as a Philhellene! His successor kept Hellenistic imagery and even used a Greek regnal year, but he returns to Nabataean Aramaic to name himself and identity. I wonder how they’ve resolved his successor’s regnal years. Is it circular? did they decide he must have taken the throne shortly after Scaurus’ campaign and thus year 26 must equal 35 BC? Or is there an outside confirmation of this and thus we know Aretas III lost his throne shortly after Scaurus’ campaign. I must find out…

But that’s a little off topic for the book. So back to where else does this type fit in:

First it an issue by two aediles, not regular moneyers. Why? Does it have to do with their games? Scaurus lived long in the mind of Romans for the extravagance of these ludi. Or, is it because aediles might also over see the grain supply? Then there is sheer volume of this issue. It would need to be part of a discussion of estimating mint outputs and possibility of correlating that with state expenditures. And then there is the reverse with the capture of Privernum. The should get a mention in the conquest of Italy section but the moneyer’s family connection is fanciful at best so that goes nicely with my discussion of familial legends. Oh and it’s one of the rock solid coin types for dating as we have independent testimony regarding the issuers aedileship, meaning lots of other types are dated by relation to this one. It’s like a book in one damn coin.

Okay. Now that I’ve got that out of my system I’m going to go write 750 words or more for the actual book.

42 out of 410 days: Thoroughness

July 29, 2013July 31, 2013 ~ Liv Yarrow ~ Leave a comment

I picked up a set of sermons on my way out of church yesterday. Muncie has been preaching a series on authentic living this summer. He does a very good job of bringing nuance to the two sides, positive and negative, of PRIDE, amongst a number of other useful insights. [Reading sermons on the subway does not, by the way, attract nearly as much attention as Roman History.]

Many vices and virtues can be equally two-faced. Thoroughness can be a paralyzing standard for an academic endeavor and yet most necessary for the validity of the results. Chasing obscure bibliography, the fear of finding one key piece of scholarship post production, endless combing of catalogues and databases can result in rock solid peer-review worthy work, but also grind the process to a snail’s pace. Searching a database can be easier than actually articulating words what one thinks. I indulged in so much collection of bibliographical references over this weekend that the Inter-Library Loan Librarians must be cursing me this morning. A disgusting number of requests were filed. In due course they will need to be incorporated into the book, or not, as the case may be, but waiting on their arrival or spending more time on the bibliography will not actually move the book forward or make the final product stronger at this point. I’m usually a ‘measure twice, cut one’ type of writer. Why compose a sentence until one can write the footnote that guarantees the accuracy of the statement? This makes writing slow, nervous work. The author of another book in the series wrote to me that he was trying to draft chapters: “very very fast (aiming at 750 words per day), in order to get something down on paper which I could edit”. Ah editing. Being open to self critical revision. That is certainly a virtue I could due to cultivate. So we’re going to try something like that this week: just writing from the notes on file and the ideas in my head. If this blog has proved noting else, its that I don’t suffer from a lack of words.

40 and 41 out of 410 days: The Dangers of Reading Roman History on the Subway

July 27, 2013July 28, 2013 ~ Liv Yarrow ~ Leave a comment

I took Rosenstein with me on my way to apply for the Turkish Visas yesterday. This drew more attention than reading porn in public. Apparently in the age of private Kindle reading selections having a real book with a few pictures in it is an open invitation to conversation. On my way there a nice man decided he must give me a section of the NY Times with an article about Egyptian Cats at Brooklyn Museum. He was nervous to break the code of subway silence but couldn’t repress his desire to engage about culture. He explained he tried to take an art history course or similar every summer. I said I wished more people did that. He responded fervently that the world would be a better, more humane place if they did.

On the way back, it was standing room only and I was smashed in next to a police officer, Officer O’Reilly his badge said. He wanted to know if I was an avid reader and how he should go about becoming a reader himself. He was bored with video games and the like. He wanted substance. I asked him what subjects interested him, history? science? Definitely science. What kind of shows did he watch on television? Did he need plot resolution? a narrative arc? mystery? intensity? I settled on recommending The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. One wasn’t good enough. So I moved on to describing the writing style of Erik Larson. Apparently my narration of the Devil in the White City was so gripping that a nearby junky (I know making such assumptions is less than PC, but if he wasn’t a junky, he certainly had adopted a similar aesthetic for his self-presentation.) interrupted and demand to know if I was describing the book in my hand. I said, no, another book. He needed all the details straight away.

I love New York. I adore public transportation.

The visa application process was nerve wrecking I had to fill out by hand my CV including publications. Four to eight weeks for any answers. On the bright side, I met a nice girl going on Fulbright to paint Seljuk carpets with whom we might connect in Istanbul. This morning I identified a coin set into jewelry for a friend of a friend. A fun little test. Now onto coins. SDA is away and as today is 10% of my sabbatical complete I hope to make it a good one…

And I almost forgot, my beloved is on the radio on our favorite show, Splendid Table. Start listening at minute 36.30, if you want to skip to the good part.

39 out of 410 days: Progress not Perfection

July 26, 2013July 26, 2013 ~ Liv Yarrow ~ Leave a comment

The weather was cool. This helped. It helped many things. I averaged under a 10 minute mile for 3.4 miles. I’ve never ran that fast anywhere but a tread mill. That is something.

I spoke to the Turkish consulate. 6-8 weeks for the visa. Yikes. Tomorrow will not be a coinfest, but a bureaucratic love-in. SDA wants me to renew my driver’s license too.

Today while trying to learn about coins and the Decii, I instead ended up back deep in the literature on the oath scene coins. No bad thing really. A false start on writing a narrative but a start. I worked until after 8 pm and then made whole wheat pasta from scratch. Just sayin’. A pretty nice day all in all. Oh and banking. I spent a chunk of the morning on the phone with my bank. I hate talking to humans. Good thing they were nice ones.

38 out of 410 days: Still Drowning, but Poetry Helps

July 24, 2013July 26, 2013 ~ Liv Yarrow ~ Leave a comment

I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel my mood is good and I’ve discovered a few treasures. Including the above under appreciated poem. It’s been hanging on my bulletin board for perhaps five years. This is the other poem I had pinned before me.

37 out of 410 days: Drowning in Paper

July 23, 2013February 2, 2022 ~ Liv Yarrow ~ Leave a comment

Today I had to clean out my work space on campus. Or part of my workspace. I had to clear off a 3.5 x 6 foot bookcase that had random stacks of paper on it and the top of my filing cabinet and empty four desk drawers. Partly because we’re getting some new (to us) glass fronted shelves instead of institutional gray and partly to make room for my substitute. I told myself it would be a few hours. Its been all day and most depressingly I’m not done. I’ll be back here tomorrow. Found some good scholarship in the stacks related to the book, but mostly it was the detritus of older projects, published or not as may be the case. Thank goodness for the digital age and search functions. I feel I’m working over a major transition in practical methodology.

I also had a Skype tour of our house in Istanbul. Very exciting.

32, 33, 34, 35 & 36 out of 410 Days: Framing

July 22, 2013July 26, 2013 ~ Liv Yarrow ~ Leave a comment

I started looking for an image of someone fallen down face first to top this post. And, then I stopped. I might feel like I fell on my face but that’s hardly an accurate descriptor and it’s good be ruthlessly honest about one’s behaviors. Thursday was all about coins. Amongst other things I was given a list of all the scholarship that variously re-dates republican coins post Crawford as well as annotated copies of much of the concordance tables. Very useful. I tracked down the die study of Malaca and started plowing through the Spanish (not as bad as German but still not my strongest academic language). Look for an update on the previous post. And I spend time studying a very mysterious provincial type that will be my next post. Friday was a disgustingly hot (115 heat index) and I took a mental health day. I talked with a colleague through my thought processes and behaviors regarding my work, personal issues, and travel. Decent insights emerged. I got a colleague to send a reference to our Turkish hosts and another to draft documentation for the visa application. I also sorted lots of personal paperwork and generally tidied. And then SDA and I fled the head for the AC and garden in PA. The weekend was cooking and pruning and weeding and cycling. This morning was a routine doctors visit. All of it was important self care. I’ve not completely digested the draft book proposal I was asked to read but my first impression is that it is much more thematic than mine. At 4.30 am (sleep is not my strong suit) it dawned on me that the brilliance of thematic organization for this type of work is that one may stop obsessing about completeness and aim at just the best illustrative examples. I need to borrow some of that mentality for my own approach.

31 out of 410 Days: Avoidance

July 17, 2013July 26, 2013 ~ Liv Yarrow ~ Leave a comment

Ostriches do not stick their heads in the sand to avoid danger. They do appear to have the good sense to runaway from charging baby rhinos. I spent five hours revising the substance of the book review today, even after SDA gave me copy edits (bless him!). That’s work. I sent it off and the proceeded to update the mirror lists:

Article Due End of September
The Coin Book
New Review
Funding for Next Project

That’s rather different and much shorter than where we started exactly a month ago. There is also another list with mess details about getting ready for Turkey out on the living room mirror. I have a huge urge to avoid anything related to both Turkey and the Coin Book. Case in point: another author in the series (an exceptionally clever guy) sent me his proposal and some chapter drafts which he knocked out in like three weeks. He wants my feedback. That’s nice, even flattering, possibly inspiring and helpful for my own writing, but part of me is so intimidated that I don’t even what to open the damn file. I could research how to fill out our Visa applications for Turkey but that seems equally terrifying. Although, I tell myself that I don’t want to do that because it will take time away from my research and writing. So here I am talking about ostriches. Which is also why I have a blog: to keep me accountable and honest about my work habits. I suspect that I might need to chunk out the book project into discreet steps and make a list of those AND I’m going need to schedule time to make Turkey happen.