It has been three weeks since I came back to Buffalo so apologies for taking so long to write about my trip to NYC for my kid’s college graduation. Having had their HS graduation ruined by the first wave of COVID-19 in 2020 I was very worried that the Mideast war protests might affect their college graduation. Luckily, unlike some other schools, their graduation proceeded on schedule!
I finally found some time to write this morning as I am watching the T100 pro-triathlon race from San Francisco (free on YouTube and with almost no commercials).
I did the Escape from Alcatraz race there 5 or 6 years ago, that is tomorrow with a few thousand racers, the T100 is just 20 men and 20 women pros. The pro course is mostly the same but with a slightly shorter swim and much longer bike, and they don’t run on the actual beach or have to climb the feared sand ladder.
I had an uneventful flight down to JFK on JetBlue.
There were some fluffy clouds but I got a good photo of Central Park and the Upper East Side
Lately, JetBlue flights have taken a huge loop going south of Manhattan to the Jersey Shore and then circling out and around to approach JFK from the northeast. I think this is literally around 1/3 of my flying time 😉
It was “only” a 70-minute drive from JFK to Midtown. My room had a slight view of the Hudson, but a great view of the M+M store!
Alex invited me to come down to NYU to be a guest on their radio show. They have been DJing one or two shows for the last two years for WNYU.org (89.1 FM). The Sunday 11:30 pm one I have to listen to on the archive webpage but the Monday 4:30 pm sometimes live and sometimes on the archive. I think they will be doing some shows over the summer when they are in the City but not while they are up here for 6 weeks. The studio was even cooler than I had imagined! Alex played a song that had just been released for streaming by their friend Ethan’s band. Alex took the photo that is on Spotify and Apple Music for the song.
The full album was just released (Alex went to Pittsburg for the release party) and is excellent. Ethan wrote all the songs.
https://embed.music.apple.com/us/album/duck-hollow/1748026399
The next day Alex needed me to carry something home from Barney Hall, the arts building where they had studied and worked for a lot of their time at NYU. The building was VERY old but the studios were very nice.
I got a tour of the photography studio. Alex worked the last two years at “The Cage” so it was nice to see it for the first time.
Alex showed me the spot where they were when they felt the big earthquake a few months ago. We had been on the phone talking at the time and I told them it was “probably just some construction work”.
They had a super cool rotating door for darkroom entry!
Alex brought me out to Brooklyn to see the apartment they will be moving to soon and meet their roommate. It is a wonderful apartment in a nice row house near Williamsburg, I took a bunch of photos but in the interest of privacy, I’ll just share one of the pond in the enclosed backyard. I was disappointed not to get to meet the cat who lives in the basement.
Alex stayed in Brooklyn while I headed back to Manhattan for a nap. It was “Grad Alley” night at NYU where they closed off several streets around the “campus” and had free music, food, etc. for grads and friends and family with wristbands.
I wandered around Washington Square Park for a while as I got there a little early. It was at full NYU grad photo levels!
I shared my free snacks with a new friend (and then used Purell).
I took the subway up to Times Square to see The Who’s Tommy.
Here is a one-minute YouTube video of highlights…
The show was not at all what I expected but it was excellent. The 11 pm walk home through a rainy Times Square was very scenic. When I saw the off-duty “characters” I wondered how many Tisch graduates with degrees in acting will be there in a few years 😉
Wednesday, May 16 was the BIG day. And it was RAINY. But we had ponchos and umbrellas and made sure to get there extra early so we would get the best seats which for today would be COVERED ones. All the seats had good views of the JumboTron and there was no walking across the stage for the 8000 graduates. Just one or two representatives for each school. As a lifelong Yankee fan, it was great to be there for Alex’s graduation. I remember bringing Alex to the current stadium when it opened and going to Monument Park in the outfield with them. We had also been to the old Yankee stadium together and also seen games in Toronto. My dad went to the final game at the old Stadium.
They had a nice musical performance by two NYU grads who had been in Wicked which was celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. There was no real graduation speaker as the students had decided to not have one due to possible “controversy” over politics. So no Taylor Swift for us like they had 2 years ago.
I wished they had just re-played Seinfeld’s graduation speech (on the Jumbotron) at Duke from a week earlier or maybe Steve Jobs’s famous 2005 Stanford one or even David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” one to Kenyon College in 2005 that was made into a great video after his death.
I KNOW that no one reading this has an extra hour to watch these 3 videos right now, BUT you should at some point take the time and do so.
They had a bunch of NYU alumnus celebrity brief videos on the screen and repeated PSAs from the Yankees saying “Congratulations… but don’t go on the field” as if the NYU parents and grads were British soccer hooligans!
Alex had plans with friends so I took the subway downtown.
I had some takeout in my room while watching Seinfeld’s recent Netflix movie about Pop-Tarts’ origins. It was the perfect pleasant comedy I expected. The Empire State Building was lit purple for NYU but as soon as the Rangers won their series it changed to those colors!
On Thursday morning I did my long run for the week. 13.1 miles at an easy pace. I took a bunch of photos and made a Relive video of the run.
https://www.relive.cc/web/view/vr63QGBe78v
Here are a few photos if you didn’t take the 2 minutes to watch the movie.
A few photos from the NY Public Library and Bryant Park where I had lunch.
The Gallatin School of Individualized Studies would have its graduation at the Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side.
With only 300 students it was much nicer than the stadium experience. And a gorgeous venue.
It was very special for Alex that their only surviving grandparent (my mom) could be there.
The speakers were great too. One was a Gallatin alumnus who is the Massachusetts House representative (and majority leader) from Cape Cod and an advocate for LBGT rights. The faculty speaker was a full-time Gallatin theatre professor (and Gallatin alumnus) who was the partner of Alicia Keys in creating the Hell’s Kitchen Musical which has over a dozen Tony nominations this year. I saw her on Colbert recently and look forward to eventually seeing the show.
Here is the 37-second video that cost $300,000!
The confetti was great!
Despite my bias, I do think that Alex had the most creatively decorated cap. Trolls in a forest/garden.
Friday morning I took the subway down to Greenwich Village as Alex had asked me to take some “real” cap and gown photos. I was honored as they are a professional photographer. I was a little early so I got some nice photos of the scenic area between Barney Hall and St. Mark’s Church.
I had wanted to visit the Pele store in Times Square for a while but it wasn’t convenient on my last two visits to NYC. The interior is beautiful. I imagine it will be super busy soon with the World Cup being here in 2026.
Alex’s favorite squirrel. I named her “mittens”.
After some initial reluctance, Alex agreed to have a family graduation dinner. I arranged it to be at the Bowery Road restaurant in the Hyatt near Union Square where I had often stayed while visiting Alex over the past 4 years.
Alex with their cousins Ben, Maisey, and Jon; my sister and mom.
We ended up having a nice area just for ourselves.
Saturday morning I went for a run with my nephews Ben and Jon who are running their first half-marathon tomorrow.
Since my 60th Birthday was that weekend and family was already gathered we also did another dinner on Saturday night that also included some friends of mine and my mom and my Uncles Stephen and Richard and my sister’s in-laws.
The official graduation photos…..
