If you are an introspective guy like I am, you learn a couple of things about yourself as you age. One of the lessons I grasped years ago is that I naturally make things harder for myself than they need to be.
Last night, Sherry and I greeted a small reunion of friends for a dinner party and a step back in time to my days at NYU film school. It was a lovely evening and we really enjoyed the company of Christina, Sean and Rita, Ed and Orly, who I had not seen or been in touch with since graduation in 1982. Another classmate, Frank was able to join us via zoom from LA for a short time.
There was much to catch up on. Careers, children, siblings – and of course comparing notes on those dozens of classmates that we keep in touch with. Post-graduation, everyone worked in the industry and I enjoyed hearing those old stories and understanding current projects.
The food was yummy – as we tried some new recipes and our guests brought way too many delicious deserts. The evening started off with sushi from a local restaurant, then we added home-made dishes to the Japanese theme: Thrice seared steak with grilled tomatos & avocado, spicy tofu with bok choy , stir fried vegetables, and soba noodle salad rounded out the meal. The wine and beer flowed freely.
Paying Tribute to our Teachers
A touching part of the gathering was time spent honoring our teachers Mark Chernichaw (of blessed memory) and David Sirota, whom I am still in touch with. Towards the end of the evening I shared some old videos from our film school days, which included cameos of some of us (boy were we young!) and included a show I produced which included professor David playing “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor on his guitar.
Each of us made an enjoyable career in television born of a passion for the genre that was nurtured in us by our teachers and we all expressed our thanks for this motivation.
Professor David Bobby Sirota 1979,
“The Bobby Awards”
How it started
This was by far my most challenging adventure of the year to arrange and I have been nervous about it for months. In hindsight, I drifted back to my old habits of making the event harder than it needed to be.
The vision began with a story about our lake house. It is where Stevie Phillips, Hollywood talent scout extraordinaire spent her summers. She used to project her movies (including “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”) onto a screen suspended from the trees. I thought, how “cool” of an adventure would it be to gather a group of my classmates and project our NYU films onto a screen and recreate this history.
What I failed to realize was just how much of a reach this was. How “cool,” indeed.
To begin with, there were no class lists. I did not have everyone’s names or emails and no one’s phone numbers. Even our yearbook was only a partial guide, so I was working from memory. Social media was helpful – but tracking people down just based on their name and school was very difficult. Some people had common names, others changed their names when they married or perhaps I could not get the spelling quite right. I was shocked to discover that several of the people I was trying to find had passed away (Alex, Ed), and others were in the middle of medical or family issues. I was also sure I would forget to invite some of my closest class-mates (which of course I did).
Secondly, summer is a terrible time to host a reunion. People are traveling. Others have work and family commitments.
Besides, Connecticut is a long journey. Luckily we realized that part before it was too late and re-venued the event to be in White Plains. I am grateful for our guests who did join. Journeying from Rutherford NJ, the Catskills and even Staten Island, it was nearly a 2 hour trip each way for some them.
Ultimately, we ended up with a perfect, intimate evening, I learned a little bit more about myself and saw the passion I share for this industry, embedded by NYU, reflected so strongly in my peers – thank you all for coming – it is amazing to re-connect with you.