The Disney Concert Hall

Getting to the Disney Concert Hall for the graduation yesterday was easier said than done. It is right on top of Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles...a distinctive looking building designed by Frank Geary.  Ending up in a sketchy neighborhood where we were directed by some traffic app, Matt pulled over and said, 'When I typed in Disney Hall, the app must have thought I meant Disney Pool Hall'. Putting in Disney Concert Hall got us to the right place, through horrendous traffic with some aggressive driving, and a fair number of bad words on Matt's part. We could see the place but because some installation for the Jurassic Park opening was going in in the courtyard, finding the parking lot underneath the concert hall presented another challenge. We entered the crowded lobby of the hall with ten minutes to spare and a desperate need for the loo. We slid into our seats (in the second row) just as the prelude was beginning on the magnificent organ*.

The academic processional, followed by the graduates, were piped in by the Cabar Feidh Pipe Band, and Claire once again as incoming student body president carrying the cross. (somebody got a picture of her struggling to put it into its stanchion, and when the picture was passed around later at dinner, leave it to OilMan to shout, 'it looks like a pole dance'. ) The Headmaster  gave the invocation which began with a reference to the graduates in their 'bright robes and precarious shoes' and the ceremony proceeded through some excellent student speeches, the presentation of awards and of diplomas. And at the end of the Alma Mater, during which the entire class put their arms around each other as they sang probably for the last time, caps were thrown in the air* and we all filed out into the crowded forecourt for pictures and congratulations.*

* extras