Giggity Leadership?

I found this sign on the SAU campus today...wow! You might be asking yourself, "What the...?!?" I know I did.

This sign points the way to the Leadership Academy associated with the SAU's Becoming a Mulerider program (BAM!).

The BAM! website explains that:

"Nothing even comes close to all of the fun, good times, new friends, learning, and excitement that you’ll find at the Southern Arkansas University Leadership Academy..."

and that the "Leadership Academy is a 48-hour leadership experience designed to enhance your career at SAU. Southern Arkansas University is committed to providing students with opportunities to become involved with the campus and the community...Leadership Academy offers you the opportunity to begin this involvement and to continue your high school success into college life and beyond...At Leadership Academy you will have the opportunity to meet and interact with campus leaders, to explore the inner workings of university organizations, to improve your time management and team building skills, and to tap into your leadership potential."

All this reminds me a lot of parts of My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, an ethnography I use in my Cultural Anthropology class at SAU. In My Freshman Year anthropologist Rebekah Nathan (or Cathy Smalls) explains that university programs all over the nation are falling over themselves to create a sense of "community" along with a air of fun, spontaneity and individuality...the thought is that a greater sense of community will increase student retention.

Of course the problem is that real communities are forged on shared experiences and the modern university (wanting also to cater to your sense of individuality) offers an ever expanding set of choices to students...requiring common experiences is vastly unpopular...hardly any students share a set of classes or experiences that link them together--even in small colleges like SAU...talking with my students, the REAL communities that last are ones based on shared experiences--sports, Greek and even sometimes experiences within your major (depending on the major)...The image of Quagmire above selling "fun" and "individuality" along with "leadership" and "community" strikes me as a bit odd and contradictory...and...well...stretching it a bit...it might be better to be truly spontaneous and fun (instead of evoking an image of fun)...that might forge some university community...but then again, real spontaneity and community can be a dangerous thing in the eyes of some...maybe we better stick to Quagmire...

John Barleycorn Lives, Part 2

Last night...I took visiting friend and researcher Carl Carlson-Drexler to Bayou Bistro after a long day looking at Civil War-related sites in Hempstead and Nevada Counties...

and I bought my first legal Magnolia beer! I said I would believe it when I saw it so...John Barley Corn Lives!

John Barleycorn Lives!

"Prohibition officially ends in Magnolia next week"...these words were met with thunderous applause by those present...the words were even more humorous as they were spoken by Ben Johnson, historian and author of John Barleycorn Must Die: The War Against Drink in Arkansas (The companion book to the Old State House Museum exhibit linked to at the right)...As Johnson himself said, the back of the book claims that "[n]obody knows more about drinking in Arkansas than Ben Johnson."

Ben was talking about the fact that at long last a Magnolia business (other than the Country Club) had obtained a liquor licence....after a public debate that seemed like it lasted forever, The Bayou Bistro (pictured below) has been granted a liquor licence...making Magnolia a better place for archeologists.

BTW: Although it may have been maligned in the press of late, I would point out that The Bayou Bistro was named the business of the month by the Magnolia Chamber of Commerce in March 17, 2006...and it is some of the best food in town (regardless of the fact that it is now wet).

Mag-Town Music

Magnolia is in a dry county...and therefore has few venues for live music...I am therefore surprised to find a bunch of videos from Magnolia bands and hip-hop groups on YouTube...It has to be a real indicator that the digital age is allowing more folks access to the technologies to let their creativity be heard...man, I wish I could have done this in Eva, Tennessee in the 1970s!

At any rate, check out the video below...JDBfromtheMAG Presents "Mingle": The Ode to the Block...I like it because its raw and it shows lots of scenes of Magnolia neighborhoods...It was posted in March of 2007.

Rotarians...

Well ...Next week I'm becoming a Magnolia Rotarian...

I'm sure that a great number of my friends will be floored by that prospect. I know...somehow it seems incongruous--an academic anthropologist joining an organization that evokes images of business...perhaps smokey rooms in hotel dining rooms in the 1950s...Please...put those images out of your mind (Although I do have the right build and glasses to fit into that mental image...I just need a cigar). The modern rotary is first and foremost a service organization with surprisingly broad-minded objectives.

I am not going into the organization blind, you see...I have given many Rotary Club programs on archaeological work in my day and I have been surprised myself at some of the ideas promulgated by Rotary International. First, anybody who knows me can easily see how I would find the Rotary motto "service before self" attractive....Additionally, the stated object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service, to encourage high ethical standards, and to help build understanding, goodwill and peace in the world...

Well, that sounds pretty cool...not to mention pretty anthropological.

The final straw, of course, is that many of the interesting SAU folks I have met are members of the Rotary (and networking was, of course, what was behind Rotary's founding). I figure I can also use "make up meetings" in other southwestern Arkansas towns (i.e., Hope, El Dorado, Texarkana, and Camden) as a way to "spread the gospel" of archeology....

At any rate...wish me luck...

Next stop: IOOF (*grin*).

Happy Holidays from Magnolia!

The image in this post is SAU's signauture Bell Tower all "lit up" for the holidays (it usually looks like this).

It's hard to believe that I'll be finishing my first semester as the AAS-SAU Research Station Archeologist...time goes by quite quickly.

My first semester here I've dealt with the Cedar Grove Collection theft, started raising money to secure and refurbish our station and the future SAU Museum and begun the process of reviving the Kadohadacho chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society. I attended three conferences, gave two conference papers and did two public talks, three radio interviews and several TV and newspaper interviews. I attended two weekend public outreach events (Texarkana Archeology Fair and Civil War Days at Old Washington) and wrote an article and a book chapter.

By far, my favorite parts of this semester have been getting to know my station territory with the help of Vernon Perry, Anthony Clay Newton and Peggy Lloyd...I've gotten to see a lot of sites (both prehistoric and historic) and a WHOLE LOT of cemeteries.

To all my friends and family--both in Magnolia and elsewhere--Happy Holidays!