Lots of smiling faces. (Click on graphic to enlarge)
Board Prez Nancy Padberg, VPI Craig Justice, engaging in serial beamage
IVC Commencements are very blue. We're the blue state to Mission Viejo's red state
Sun glasses on a professor are like sun glasses on a cop
"WTF"
Is it just me, or are people showing up to ceremonial events wearing less and less? I don't mind, but it is odd
The lone cameraman (on BSTIC). He shot everybody from there
The invocation/prayer (chosen by Commencement Planning Committee). "Let us pray," boomed the charismatic preacher.
The usual blue and white balloons, representing (if memory serves) "avarice" and "self-absorption"
Some teachers of the year
Some in the audience played "Commencement Bingo." Click on this and read the boxes.
Bingo page #2. Funny stuff.
For some reason, my shots of this building always make it look like The Aluminum Monolith on the Moon. The scene is all very dystopian, post-apocalyptic.
The harsh sun seemed to sap everyone of their intelligence. Faculty seemed like black goo, with yellow streaks
One guy kept yammering on a cell phone, "this thing just goes on and on!" But he was a jerk, one of those people who doesn't care how loud he is
A long day for administrators; these two nearly broke out into a fistfight (well, no)
The event as seen from inside the Performing Arts Center. From there, the world seems divided up by some Grand Geometrician
A well attended event, I guess. A good time was had by all, except the guy with the cell phone
Lots of little ones
Little ones next to a big one
Note the kid climbin' around under some guy. Gotta be careful you don't take pics up ladies dresses when you do this kind of thing. (Sorry, Dianne)
Trustee Fuentes was absent. Prez Roquemore sent him well-wishes
Guest speaker Martin Smith noted that the world will end tomorrow: "this could be the last advice you'll ever get."
He spoke about how, late in his journalistic career, he finally started writing fiction, inspired by the likes of Marjorie Luesebrink, an IVC instructor. He's been successful.
I think they should institute a Q and A after these speeches, make these darn kids pay attention
Awaiting their moment in the sun
Melting in the sun. Cursing the brightness
Few snafus. One kid tripped, going up the stairs, but she handled it well. One shoe went flyin'
An evidently serious young man
From this angle, the PAC looks like a large container for white rats. The throng was reflected in the hot glass
The student speaker was a remarkable young man with Asperger's. He theatrically tore up his prepared speech, saying we probably didn't want to hear such a thing. (But, um, the previous speaker read a prepared speech. Sheesh. I wonder if he was pissed.) The kid did pretty well, I think.
More little ones. They were climbin' around like they do. Sometimes, they were spinnin' on the grass
Students from the Early College Program. Their Superintendent showed up, beaming furiously, as though he were about to receive valuable cash prizes. People stood back from him, so furiously did he beam
No doubt this fella will go into botany. Or arranging.
Lots of faculty retirees this year. Don't know what they were yammerin' at me about. I was pretty much deaf and blind through most of this. And I didn't say a goddam thing. Don't mean to be mysterious
Some friends of mine
Instructor Wendy E, with her student, headed for Berkeley. He seemed nice
The after-ceremony scene: iced tea and cupcakes and weird-assed yellow sculptures. Not that I'm complainin'. It all seemed to work out fine
