SBL 2010 in pictures

I managed to snap a few random pics at SBL this year and wanted to share them with you. They are absolutely nothing extraordinary and not exciting but I was brimming with excitement the entire time I was there and want to share these with the spider bots who actually read my blog;-). Thus I begin....

This is a really tall building in Atlanta. Not sure why I felt compelled to take a picture of it. None of the sessions took place here but it was the first building I drove past as I got off the interstate and I had a semi-clear shot so I went for it. 

This is a shot of downtown Atlanta and only a block or two away from the Hyatt where I stayed. When my roommate told me he spent the previous night with the TV drowning out sirens and yells I decided to drive past the $8 parking lots on the street and shell out the $28 a night for parking in the hotel deck. I suppose the outrageous price is worth having a car when you get ready to leave.

This is certainly not the best photo but it captures something of the size of the Hyatt where I stayed. The thing on the right that looks like a space-age phone booth is one of the elevators. Riding up and down on these things all weekend and seeing all the identical rooms reminds one of Star Wars. Actually, it reminded me of that scene from the Matrix where Neo is unplugged from all those weird pod things on that huge wall. It was a bit larger than life.

This is definitely reminiscent of Star Wars. This is the Marriot where many of the sessions were held. Quite amazing.

My professor and I came in late to one of the packed-out Philo/Josephus sessions and heard this gentleman critique the account of Caligula sending idols to Palestine in an attempt to set up the emperor cult in Jerusalem. He doubted the historicity of the event on the grounds that Caligula would have had to been quite a dimwit to think he could pull this off. I am certainly no expert on Philo and Josephus but I found his paper interesting, though I was not convinced.

This is the "top floor" executive breakfast suite. The hotel messed up our check-in, giving us the wrong room, and the second time my professor went to check-in someone else was in the room they gave us! So they apologized by giving us free breakfast while we were there! It was very nice though I felt a bit uncomfortable in such a fancy-shmancy atmosphere. Oh, and this was the only picture I could take without feeling like a total dork who was photographing everything. I might as well have had a big camera hanging around my neck and t-shirt saying "I heart Atlanta" or something.

It was a very fun trip and I wish I had taken more pictures, really (especially of the biblioblogger session--I was on the very front row and had great photo opportunities). Nevertheless, I look forward to going (possibly) to next year's meeting in San Francisco.