Commencement Addressed

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Graduation Day!!! Wait, hold on... graduation day. That's more like it. Those of you who know me (both of you) know that I am not so much a fan of pomp & circumstance. So dressing us in slacks, tie and collar, and then topping that with regalia - albeit Rice-coloured regalia, nice touch Wal-masters - was not my cup of tea. Sprinkly in, or maybe downpour in the rain that accompanied our trek down the hill, and you've got a solid recipe for a miserable morning. But I wasn't about to let that happen. Fun times, much in the face of the neurotically destroyed peeps-in-charge. Admittedly, I had little to no responsibility, and as such could easily afford to be non-stressed by the prospect of whatever insane disaster they were envisioning, but damn, come on - I'd put their intensity somewhere between military commander and crack-addled Godzilla looking for a fix. Anyways, everything was pulled off in the mechanics of the ceremony, and save a near mishap with the diplomas themselves, everything went off without a hitch - Ellie and I even managed to walk in straight lines and not take the wrong entrance, maintain our right / left relativity - this was apparently a problem last year. Hooray for the new blood.

So the ceremony itself - nice aesthetics, all the grads in maroon, all the faculty in staff in black gowns and hoods featuring their college colors. The lame-asses among us with only BA's did not get to wear pointy sleeves. The non graduating class members were all decked out in white - a solidly beautiful aesthetic decision, if a dramatically poor practical one, given the whiteness, the rain, and the 14-18 year old femaleness of the bulk of the Walnut Hill student body. Somehow they pulled it off without too much scandal, and to be perfectly honest, the whole spectacle was beautiful - gents in dapper whites, beauts in summer dresses - just a great overall visual vibe.

The ceremony began with a couple of beautiful chorale pieces and a utterly idiotic rendition of the school song, complete with "stomping" in the middle to show that, I don't know, maybe to show that they were youthful and full of spit and vinegar. Ha, ha, spit. A student, elected by her peers I think, gave an outstanding opening speech on the responsibility of the artist as marker of history. I would really like to get a transcript of her speech; it involved a myth of Orpheus the guitar player and the fact that he had to play so that the sun could rise, and how the artist had to act in faith that this myth was true regardless of its implausibility. I will reserve further comment until I get a copy - I thought it may have given too much to the practical job of the artist, and it was trapped in a fair amount of goofy-ass imagistic writing, things like "the giants who smash glass with footsteps creating cracks that let light seep through." Still, I'm devolving into my usual bitchy and critical for no reason self - it was a spectacular graduation speech. This was followed by a 14 or 15 person string section piece which was just awesome - with all the guitar sounds I've been paying attention to of late, I really appreciated those super-resonant basses, cellos and violins on a new level. Great to hear it up-close and in such a small space. Really just stunning.

And... yeah, Took a nasty nosedive from that point on. Horrible "this is what happened on June 8th" speech from a member of the Board of Trustees, followed by the ever-long and ever-painful reading of names / giving of diplomas, and then a colossally moronic "Charge" by (name removed for job security purposes) that was all about SAILING. And it had some bizarre thing going on about 5 words and related words and their strict definitions - it was like someone put the Commencement Speech Writing For Dummies book in a bass-o-matic and hit puree. Yikes. This calamity eventually came to a close, and we were free to exit, head back up the hill, and have lunch.

The lunch scene - craziness. Parents, pictures, gifts (bribes?) from students and parents to teachers, students giving gigantic hugs to all of their students. I got a boatload of nothing - no biggie - but then Alanna found me right before I left and had Miss Murphy take some pictures of us. Very sweet, a good goodbye and end to the day. So I left on a high note. Even saw Kenny on the way out the door and he was excited about summer and next year and taking biology with me. SO that was cool as well. Nice end to the day.

I really say "nice end" because it was largely drenched in badness. This whole inanity over what really amounts to a very simple request for some info via e-mail - it spread like wildfire, and I have the full support of multiple teachers who made a point of talking to me today. But the whole thing, combined with downpour, just put a sour film and tinge on everything. I think i betrayed my mood, too, because Anne told me twice to "hang in there." Seriously seriously, it has less to do with the actual facts of the case and more the principles behind it - that for the umpteenth time, people just let me down on a very fundamental level. This mature world, where people can get over themselves for five seconds - it doesn't exist. On the one hand, I should cave and next time *actually* go ripshit on some correspondence, maybe just inject her with some relative perspective - i.e., that's what it sounds like when I'm *actually* trying to hurt your feelings - but I guess the entire weight of the struggle and value of it all rests in picking it up again and keep on keepin' on. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm not going to feel it when the world decides to rear its ridiculous head and kick me down.

Wow, that was some eight grade diary style obtuseness there. Basically, I was bummed about the entire stupidity going on, but very glad to have the backing of the reasonable people. It may ultimately amount to nothing, but... well, whatever. If they want to meet, great, if not, they're idiots, and I'm hasta la pasta in a year or so anyways, so the ship can sink as it will. And they can continue to have graduations which fail to mention academics even in passing and then pat themselves on the back on what a wonderful institution it is. WTFEver, dude.

The afternoon (which started late, I had to clean up the office and then stop by to discuss summer work with Charlie and then get my health benefit jazz figured out...) I got some coffee, listened to some Robert Solomon 'No Excuses," and all in all had a nice time. I picked up Beck at 5, then we came home, and I've played some guitar and watched Dallas take game one. Oh yeah, and I put together the U.S. versions of Beatles albums on iTunes - and it's (rather stupid of me, methinks) like having brand new albums. Anyways, it's nice every once in while to contemplate just how ludicrous it is to claim that the Beatles were not the best band... EVER.

Don't touch that dial - lest you break the "Ne'er turn JPGR off the Radio" rule - we'll have more and VERY EXCITING stuff this weekend. The summer of Nyet is t-minus 11 hours to being in session.