SHORT:
This week, I had the honor of attending the world famous Tisch School Of The Arts graduation at Radio City Music Hall.
The two hour ceremony opened with a dance piece that can only be described as “Greta-Gerwig-ist” and ended with thirty to forty 21-year-olds covering “Empire State Of Mind” (in case you’re wondering, yes, the crowd took out their cell phones, turned on the flashlight setting, and waved them in the air during it).
MEDIUM:
After the ceremony, my parents and I got food at a curtained-off burger place, and my mom, thinking a curtain led to an exit, brushed one aside and walked straight into a brick wall behind it. Wile E. Coyote style. Moments later, she said that it was an example of how she “has fun”. Totally!
Post-burgers, I looked at my phone and discovered that almost every Instagay I relentlessly bullied in 2020 chose to smash like on my graduation post. Nothing brings people together like a bright purple robe and the school that Lady Gaga attended.
The Oreo milkshake and fries I got at the curtained-off burger place win Snack Of The Week.
LONG:
In a surprise to nobody…
On the 9am walk from Starbucks to Radio City, I dropped my MFA hood, which meant that ten mins later, when I realized I didn’t have it, I had to “re-trace my steps” (through a construction zone) where a half-dozen hard-hat guys watched me whisper “oh thank god” as I spotted my crumpled sash sitting in the middle of sixth avenue, flappin’ in the wind — Concrete Jungle Where Dreams R Made Of!
I peeled it off the pavement, trying not to think about the amount of rat ejaculate now likely coating the thing. I had to re-position (and thus, touch) the sash about 100 times as they funneled us through the bowels of Radio City, past the Rockette lockers, and onto the stage to walk.
I also didn’t realize that I was about to walk across the stage, because I was trying to photograph the hundreds of “MAKE UNFORGETTABLE HAPPEN!” signs that cover the undercarriage of RCMH.
Before I knew it, a woman with a headset was whispering HURRY UP! while frantically gesturing to a dark area and BOOM. I was centerstage at Radio City, as confused as a camel in the Christmas Spectacular.
I don’t have a lot else to say about grad, other than big thank you to my professors and cohort for trying to help me get out of my own way these last few years. And shoutout to my TV professor who marched down the aisles of Radio City playing the bagpipes… never thought non-vocal pipes could move me in such a way…
Time to go have the time of my life finishing my thesis, looking for a job, and running head-on into a brick wall.
C U Next Tuesday
Get tickets to my Casual Sax show on 5/31.
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Sincerely,
Reid Pope
Venmo: @rpope-venmo-26
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