Final week of my college career. Finals papers, projects, tying up loose ends. Sorry, might be a slow posting week.
Photo credit.
Category: Personal Updates
My life
My last day at the Village of Arts and Humanities
AS ALREADY POSTED HERE, Thursday was my last day serving at the Village of Arts and Humanities in an academic way.
We worked on setting up and filming a scene for the latest film the teens were working on, and Prof. Eugene Martin surprised me with a cake. As touching as it could be, until, like any 13-year-old boy might, one of students broke through the Hallmark moment to shove cake in my face.
Photos of that to come, for now, if only just for me, a look back on my 16-month relationship with the Fairhill rec center at Germantown and Adler.. feel free to play your own sad music.
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See some of our work here.
Goodbye Village: last day of classes of my college career
ANOTHER MILESTONE IN WHAT has been a full week.. with another day to go.
Last night I wrote the last school paper of, likely, my life.
Today is the last day of classes I will, perhaps, ever endure, assuming I don’t cave and go to back for a post-secondary education. That means, after a morning religion class, during which I will hand in the last school paper I’ll ever write, I will go to the Village of Arts and Humanities for the last time as part of an independent study.
That seems particularly strange because I have working with the high schoolers at the rec center off Germantown in Fairhill since January 2007, 16 months, three semesters, a summer, startling.
It’s a hell of class. We mostly work on media projects, filming, editing and more, but I’ve always been more into hanging out with active, young people. A real excuse to beat the hell up on 16-year-old Leon in basketball, as captured by Eugene Martin in the above photograph, at the Fairhill Park.
Now that is something I will most certainly miss. While I have gone there during the academic year and beyond, because I recently accepted a gig in Harrisburg that relationship will almost certainly slow.
Last week of my college career
CAN YOU BELIEVE that today marks the beginning of the last week of my college career.
The transition already has begun, considering today, Wednesday and Friday I will be reporting for the Philadelphia Business Journal. Still, there is no questioning this week will take on some added meaning.
On May 22, I will get to add my own face to stock photography of college graduates, hoozah.
I am also excited to add that, for that May 22 graduation for the Class of 2008 of Temple University, I have been named commencement speaker, a great honor, indeed.
After this week, lot’s of excitement will continue throughout May, all leading up to my final act as a Temple student. A strange feeling, to be sure.
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Former Inquirer columnist Steve Lopez in Philadelphia
EARLIER THIS WEEK Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez was on NPR’s Fresh Air, hear it here. The former popular Philadelphia Inquirer columnist was interviewed by Dave Davies, the venerable political writer for the Philadelphia Daily News who fills in for Terry Gross on Fresh Air from time to time.
He was promoting his newest book, The Soloist, which is already under production by DreamWorks as a movie of the same name to debut in November.
Lopez’s book chronicles his interaction with Nathaniel Ayers (depicted above), a homeless, former musical prodigy who began living in the streets after suffering the effects of schizophrenia. In the end, Lopez became an “unlikely advocate and friend” to Ayers, as the Los Angeles Times put it Monday.
The film casts Robert Downey Jr. as Lopez and Jamie Foxx as Ayers.
Lopez is in town today speaking to media, and tomorrow, in a free event at 2 p.m., Lopez will be at the Free Library. I’ll be there, so should you.
His first novel was the well-received Third and Indiana, set in Philadelphia, and he has also written In the Clear, Sunday Macaroni Club and had his Inquirer columns anthologized in Land of Giants. The last and the first I have read, amazed by his words, but I have also followed his L.A. Times columns and, I’ll say, he sometimes seems to be lacking the color that I think is safe to say few places provide like Philadelphia.
Maybe I’ll ask him about that tomorrow.
Photo courtesy of Obsessed with Film.
The unveiling of my Philadelphia Republican Party honors thesis Web site
I have been busy.
Because I didn’t have the grades to get into the honors school initially, in order to graduate with honors on May 22 – my day of commencement from Temple University – I have to complete an undergraduate thesis project.
I have been steadily working on my paper, due the first week of May, but, in addition to a public presentation and defense of my initial findings at a research forum held two weeks ago, I have nearly put all the final touches on the framework of a blog that chronicles my year-long research on Philadelphia’s Republican Party, the focus of my thesis.
Finally, a home for all of you dying to learn everything there was to know about partisan politics in Philadelphia.
The paper will eventually go up there too, all of my research and notes, as a means for giving the project a permanent, more visible home. For now, I am happy to have a place to organize all of my work, interviews and research.
Give it a look. I’ll keep you posted on its progress.
Interview with former Philadelphia Mayor John Street
Early this morning I interviewed former Philadelphia Mayor John Street, now an adjunct professor of political science at Temple University. I was speaking to him for my honors thesis, which is focusing on the viability of the Republican Party in urban America, particularly Philadelphia.
I’ll post some of my notes later, but for now, check out this video of Street discussing some of the challenges his successor, Michael Nutter, will face.
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You have been incorrectly honored
No, I will not be inducted into the Chi Alpha Epsilon Honor Society next month.
Really, I wouldn’t even mention it if it wasn’t hilarious.
I received an email requesting I confirm that I would attend a ceremony for a select group of Temple University students to be brought into a group of honor. Had I applied for XAE? Had I heard of XAE? Well, no.
The vanity of the young.
Still, the end of the year, even in a university setting, comes with a flurry of awards, honors, acceptances and, for me, lots of rejection. So, I didn’t think twice about calling to confirm that I would come. The woman with whom I spoke seemed confused, couldn’t find my name, but assumed she didn’t have an updated list. She wrote my name down, my guest’s name, and wished me well. The next day I got an email again requesting I confirm my coming. Well, this only made me certain I was the man they wanted. Then I got another of the same request: confirm your coming! Wow, they really wanted me. So I emailed that woman, eager to humbly confirm my coming to this fine honor. She quickly responded to the contrary.
Please accept my deepest apologies for the invitations to the XAE induction ceremony that have been repeatedly sent to you. Your email address is only one letter off from the intended recipient. We have corrected the error and you will not be bothered with confusing emails like these again.”
Hillary at Temple, Barack coming next
Sen. Hillary Clinton was at Temple University today, and I was on hand, taking photographs for The Temple News, though I won’t have them posted until tomorrow morning. I will additionally post some video clips of the speech.
Next week, Barack Obama is coming to Temple.
As Philadelphia and Pennsylvania’s importance increases with its primary coming April 22, we will see plenty of the two candidates in the Quaker City.
My final basketball game
Tonight, the Temple men’s basketball team beat Big 5, A-10 and North Philadelphia rival La Salle 85-66 to claim sole ownership of second place for their conference tournament, set to start this week.
I didn’t go. I was holed up in my apartment doing work, but it sure made me think. I missed the last regular season college basketball game of my career as a student.
I did make it to last week’s senior week, when the Owls beat Duquesne 90-85, the last game at the Liacouras Center I would ever seen as a Temple student.
It was the first tangible effect of my graduation. Afterwards, a few of us, who had been the front row cheering section for the Owls since our freshman year in 2004, took a shot, depicted above, in front of the court. Our last time together, likely.