How do you spend your Friday nights?

AKA "How I met Indiana Jones"

The National Geographic Society recently partnered with the Embassy of Peru on a series of lectures touching down in various cities across the USA. With the NGS HQ five blocks from the office, I managed to swing by for the DC event last Friday. The event's marketing was relatively spartan, so I was delighted to find ceviche, empanadas, and pisco sours in plenty pre- and post-lecture. Plus a raffle which I happened to win.

Anyway, around 8PM the audience shuffled into the NGS auditorium and was introduced to Dr. Wade Davis by the Ambassador of Peru. Unfortunately, Dr. Davis' name was a new one to my ears as of eight weeks ago, when I read a mini-bio on the lecture website that involved living 3 years in the Amazon, conducting a thorough investigation of Haitian zombie potions, and a few other "too-Indy-to-be-true" tidbits. Wade spoke for about 90 minutes, lucidly transitioning through a series of observations and historical anecdotes around indigineous life. The "explorer-in-residence" included material on astronomy, botany, coming-of-age rituals, architecture, etc etc etc..... all with the skill of orators of years past and accompanying by a startlingly beautiful set of photos that were all taken with his own eye. The man seemed to combine elements of Victorian-era explorers with the chemical awareness of a hippie and the activism of the modern global citizen. He wasn't particularly eager to speak in person, but on stage, his earnest plea to respect and preserve cultural diversity and indigineous wisdom proved quite inspiring--enough to instill a deep regret in my heart that I never poured myself into cultural anthropology coursework.

Here are four great links to give readers a taste of Wade Davis' very interesting life and body of work:
Wikipedia
Quill and Quire
Promotion for One River
NPR Interview

On a related tangent, two great global bands I've been listening to a bit of late:
Forro in the Dark (Brazil)
Bembeya Jazz National (Guinea)