Hi, everyone. Yesterday contained one of those “life comes at you fast” mornings for me (in a genuinely positive way). I found out that I won a grant to attend a meeting in France this December, and I just pried open my wallet to register for the AAG meeting in Denver next April. This week, though, I’m excited to head down to a conference taking place a short drive from me: the meeting of the International Society for Landscape, Place, and Material Culture (ISLPMC) in Detroit.

(via CitiesofDesignNetwork)

This will (finally) be my first time in Detroit proper. I’m looking forward to doing some exploring, eating pierogies, and paying a long-overdue visit to Hello Records. I’m also looking forward to reuniting with some old friends and colleagues at the conference, especially RJ Rowley (an erstwhile collaborator from Illinois State), Ethan Bottone (an old nemesis from Tennessee), and Steven Donnelly (a punkademia collaborator all the way from Belfast).

If you’re at the conference or in the Detroit area, I’ll be presenting some brand new research on “Antique Postcards and Urban Privatization” on Friday at 2:40pm in the Fort Gratiot Room at the Double Tree Hotel downtown. Full Schedule.

NEW INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT

To coincide with this presentation and ostensible research trip, I’m also going to start up a brand new Instagram account dedicated to the Ben Irving Postcard Project! If you’re interested, give it a follow at https://www.instagram.com/postcardsfromirving/. Let’s see where this goes.

Thanks for reading.