David Hall - Published Work Portfolio: 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Victory Ships - 11-30-2011

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Anthropologist Thomas Killion - 10-20-2011

WSU anthropologist builds historic

archaeology career in Detroit

Thomas Killion helps to expand

WSUanthropology department,

increase interest in Detroit history

By DAVID HALL | The South End
Updated: 10/20/11 6:19pm

Thomas Killion’s interest in anthropology ignited at an early age when he and his family moved to the Caribbean island of St. Croix.

While his father was involved in building houses on the tropical island, young Thomas spent the first through fifth grade exploring the ruins of Colonial era sugar plantations.

Those years on St. Croix inspired Killion’s pursuit of anthropology, which led to extensive fieldwork including excavations in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Peru, the American Southwest and Corktown in Detroit.

After graduating from New Mexico University with a Ph.D. in anthropological archaeology in 1987, Killion worked with the Smithsonian Office of Repatriation between 1989 and 2000.

Killion and Tamara Bray, a fellow Wayne State anthropology professor, were the first to work in the Smithsonian Department of Anthropology’s Repatriation office. Bray and Killion were recruited to establish the office as part of the National Museum of American Indian Act of 1989 (NMAIA), and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA). These laws made museums return excavated human remains to their place of origin.

“It was tricky at the time, since the museums didn’t want to give up their exhibits,” Bray said.

Their work together resulted in the 1994 book “Reckoning with the Dead,” edited by Bray and Killion. “Reckoning with the Dead” addresses one of the early repatriation cases where human skeletal remains, excavated in the 1930s, were returned in the early 1990s to Kodiak Island off the south Coast of Alaska. According to Bray, she and Killion were among the first anthropologists to work with repatriation. They founded and developed a model for other museums to follow in implementing the new laws.

On sabbatical during the 2011 fall and winter semesters, Killion is writing a book on human remains repatriation tentatively named “Agency of the Dead: The Cave Valley Mummies of Chihuahua.”

A year before coming to WSU in 2000, Killion became involved in a research project sponsored by the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). His task was to locate the appropriate site , and to locate any living descendants of the Cave Valley mummies. Drawing from his work and research at the NMAI, Killion aims to rework his reports into a book.

Wayne State recruited Killion as department chair in 2001. Killion said that much of his time was spent on administration duties. In the summer of 2006, Killion received a call from Timothy McKay of the Greater Corktown Development Corporation (GCDC). McKay wanted Killion and the WSU department of anthropology for an archaeological survey of Corktown neighborhoods.

“Our department had been very active in Detroit history and archaeology back in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. There had been a sort of hiatus. This [Corktown excavation] was something that we in the department wanted to promote. We thought of that as a good place to start,” Killion said.

Killion wasted no time digging into the 2006 fall semester.

“I became interested in doing something to fulfill a long term objective of the anthropology department to rekindle research in Detroit itself. These were very small-scale operations, anywhere from eight to 12 students involved. We collaborated with the honors college in 2008, and they supported a class at the Worker’s Row house that summer,” Killion said.

Economic Development Director of the GCDC, Timothy McKay described the historic area as subdivided French Strip farms.

“These Corktown neighborhoods were basically the first subdivisions,” said Liam Collins, a Senior Undergraduate of anthropology, “We found artifacts from about 1834 up to the post-Civil War era.”

The student field school was a success, and led to further excavations of Corktown.

In 2009, the State Historic Preservation Office selected WSU department of anthropology and the GCDC for the 2009 Historic Preservation Award. Since then, Killion’s Corktown excavations have led to expansion of WSU’s anthropology department and an increase in professional interest of anthropological history in Detroit.

“Since we had a good idea of one particular house, we wanted to broaden our perspective of Corktown. We decided to start a backyard survey of the whole historic district of Corktown. That’s what we’ve done in the past two summers.” Killion said.

Last summer, Killion and his WSU field school started a new survey of Corktown’s Roosevelt Park by the Michigan Central Station. Roosevelt Park was a neighborhood that 150 families vacated between 1913 and 1918 to make way for the railway staion.

Daniel Harrison, a WSU graduate student in archaeology, worked with Killion during the summer excavations of Roosevelt Park.

“It was a great opportunity to do dry land field work in historical archaeology,” Harrison said. “It’s an area that’s traditionally ignored and we are bringing attention to its existence.”

Killion relates Roosevelt Park to the preservation of the archaeological site of Pompeii, which was preserved beneath volcanic ash.

“It’s very well preserved because they just put a layer of top soil over the neighborhood,” Killion said.

Assistant professor Krysta Ryzewski, who has only been with WSU for a month, already has plans to survey different historical areas of Detroit with her students.

“The Roosevelt Park neighborhood was part of the city before the automotive age – the city before the Motor City – and we don’t know much about that period of time,” Ryzewski said.

As for Killion, he looks toward the future of Detroit historical anthropology with optimistic enthusiasm.

“In a very general way, we’re interested in building out more historic archaeology in Detroit. We’re trying to get people living in the city interested as well. There’s great potential for that here in Detroit,” Killion said.

Published October 20, 2011 in Features

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

9-14-2011 - Steven Wright

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

6-15-2011 - Gilbert Gottfried

Gilbert Gottfried
by David Hall

Gilbert Gottfried walks a line between the offensive and questionably pornographic when it comes to stand-up comedy. One such instant spelled trouble for Gottfried when he was recently fired from Aflac after he made a few jokes about the tsunami in Japan on Twitter.

"It was funny, the media made it like I caused the tsunami. When it first happened, you get all these tweets and e-mails of these psychos wishing you and your family dead. Then it quickly overturned, and people seemed to understand that I'm a comedian and that's the kind of jokes we make," says Gottfried.

Making jokes a little too soon is Gottfried's specialty. It wasn't the first time Gottfried found public scrutiny for making light of the horrific events of the world.

"I got the most recognition for the roast of Hugh Heffner, which was just after 9-11. It was a weird time in the country, especially in New York. It was always hanging over the room. I wanted to be the first one to do a bad taste joke about September 11th.

"After I'd totally alienated the audience, and got them to hate me as much as they possibly could, I went into my 'Aristocrats' joke. They rolled – the audience is like, ' oh good, bestiality and incest, this is OK, this we can relate to.' It's very odd how audiences respond," says Gottfried.

Despite widespread public criticism, Gottfried maintains his duties as a comedian with a self-assured philosophy about his "edgy" material.

"I'm sure people were making jokes in the crowd while watching Christ on the cross. But, in fairness to then, he wasn't Christ until he came back," says Gottfried.

Although Gottfried spent many years in obscurity acting in an array of small movie rolls and television appearances, he found a niche in stand-up comedy at 15-years-old. Gottfried's trademark hollering developed over the successive years of his career.

"I never thought consciously about my style. It was just something that seems to have happened. You wake up one day and realize you have a certain way of talking or saying a joke," says Gottfried.

Through and through, Gottfried has been a comedian for the majority of his natural life, and speculates on what his life would be like had he never pursued comedy and acting.

I think I'd be like in real life what Jerry Lewis was in all those movies -- like bad jobs that he keeps screwing up. I've always felt I was too stupid to do anything else. I've always liked how people see the stupidity and incompetence of successful actors as something wonderful – if you found out that Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't know how to tie his shoe laces, that would been seen at admirable," says Gottfried.

Gottfried isn't as incompetent as he promotes, having written a book of mixed memoirs and satirical tangents entitled, "Rubber Balls and Liquor". His book and recent album, "Dirty Jokes," are available on his website, gilbertgottfried.com

"It got great reviews in New York Times and Publishers Weekly, which amazed me and probably means that standards have dropped really low. But, people have said at times the book gets warm and touching, then it quickly veers off into childish and filthy – so basically it's like talking to me in person," says Gottfried. | RDW

Gilbert Gottfried • 6/17, Early Show 7 p.m.; Late Show 10 p.m. • Magic Bag • 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale • 248.544.3030 • Advance tickets $22