So, this evening we graduated 41 seniors, with none of the church-state drama some other Kentucky high schools are suffering through. In fact, our ceremony was, as usual, quite pleasant.
Being a small school helps, since reading only 30-40 names goes a lot quicker than 300-400 or more, but we have honed the ceremony down to the essentials.
Herewith is a summary of the evening’s festivities. Times are approximate, since I was not really keeping track of time.
At 5:45, students enter auditorium to precessional by brass quartet, followed by faculty.
Invocation, very non-denominational, by female Episcopal minister. (3 minutes)
Head of school offers welcoming remarks and addresses class. (About 10 minutes)
Alumni award is given to a member of class of ‘84. (About 15 minutes)
Featured speaker is departing history teacher, who recalls his youthful optimism of the late ’60s and charges the seniors with the task of retaining theirs. Then he sings the Bob Dylan song, “Forever Young,” accompanied by one of the seniors on guitar. Who knew he could sing? [Last year, a math teacher danced during his speech. Don't ask.] (About 15 minutes)
Honors graduates are recognized, Commonwealth Diploma graduate recognized. (10 minutes)
Awards are given to five students. (20 minutes)
Five students speak. Each year, these speakers are self-selected and their speeches are never screened ahead of time. So far, none have been embarrassing. Aside from the diploma handoffs, this part takes the longest, maybe 30 minutes.
Student 1: One of the awardwinners and the sole Commonwealth Diploma holder glosses on the eternal question, “So you’ve graduated. How do you feel?” She did a great job, weaving the typical vague teenager answers with more topical discussion, similar to those in their history and English classes.
Student 2: Following a hard act to follow, he admits that he has no prepared notes, but offers a heartfelt thank you and “I love you” to students, teachers and family. Completely characteristic of this guy, who is usually never at a loss for words.
Student 3: One of our transfers, she chokes back tears as she relates how coming to our school from a much larger one was at once scary and entirely worthwhile, and thanks the classmate who welcomed her to the “family” two years ago.
Student 4: Another transfer relates how the school helped turn her life around, from a disaffected gothgirl who slept through classes (including mine, hah!) to an unabashedly confident nerd who loves AP classes and Quick Recall.
Student 5: Another awardwinner, this guy has written a poem, almost like a hiphop lyric, describing his feelings toward classmates, teachers, school, family. It’s actually quite good, and funny.
Diploma handoffs (30 minutes)
Benediction, also very non-denominational. (3 minutes)
Recessional music by brass quartet is, conspiratorially, drowned out by an oldies Motown hit.
And that’s that. Idiosyncratic, organized chaos.
Yosemite and the High Sierra
Bush is not the only CiC with low ratings
Published April 19, 2006 Commentary , The media , Uncategorized 2 CommentsBut of the two, I’d rather keep Geena Davis/Mackenzie Allen around for a while.
OK, I admit it. I am a sucker for TV. I have given it up several times in the past, but always end up returning to suckle at “The Glass Teat,” to use SF author
HarrisonHarlan Ellison’s phrase.ABC premiered Commander in Chief last fall, starring Davis as a female vice-president who ends up in the seat of power. She is a political independent, a former academic with three kids and an understanding, politically savvy husband. Her running mate, a Democrat, picked her to appeal to that demographic, but as he lies in his sickbed, makes it clear to her that she has to step aside to let the Speaker of the House (played by Donald Sutherland) take charge.
After some internal conflict, she refuses, taking the oath of office at the end of the first episode.
The second ep was also pretty good, as we get a glimpse of the problems Allen and her family face professionally and personally as she settles into office.
Later eps lost the initial lustre and viewers bailed out. There were apparently some problems between the creator/writer/producer Rob Luria and ABC, too. They sacked him, replacing him with veteran TV writer/producer Stephen Bochco of NYPD Blue fame.
Then CiC went on hiatus, which is thinly disguised TV biz shorthand for, “we’re not too sure what to do now. We don’t have enough episodes in the can to run while we figure it out. So we’ll pull it off the air, run some other drivel in its place, and try later.”
It’s a sure way to kill a show off. It happened with Witchblade, so I figured CiC was as extinct as T. rex. But, lo! It returned last Thursday with a so-so plot (still unrealistic, but it’s TV after all) and will be on tomorrow.
TV pundits, however, predict CiC will disappear before the current TV season ends. The show has lost half its original viewership, and in commercial network TV, ratings dictate policy. Unless the current producers and writers (Bochco left, too) can pull a rabbit out of a hat, Geena Davis and party will be out of jobs by May.
It’s a shame, because the show had great promise. While TV and movies have portrayed female presidents before, this show had a spin on it that made the premise more appealing. The verbal and political sparring between the SotH Nathan Templeton (Sutherland) and Mac Allen (Davis) was entertaining, since the actors involved can make even bad writing appealing. The plots sometimes veered into the outlandish — a teenage party at the White House, with necking in the Oval Office?!? — but at times had some decent political commentary.
As Ellison noted years ago, we cannot expect network (corporate) TV to produce works of high art, but we can hope they can try. Sadly, ABC dropped the ball on this show, so it may never recover.