UPDATE: It is now Thursday, April 18. Berklee College has been closed all week with a partial opening scheduled for tomorrow. We have lost an entire week of school. We will have a college-wide meeting on Monday to address the attacks. My classes have two weeks left, final projects to do, assignments to complete, all the regularly scheduled stuff. But we will dedicate a portion of next week to addressing the effects on the college community. A Berklee student was injured in the bombings. Many others have donated their time and energy to volunteering at hospitals. We are caught up in the events, and we have the end of the term fast approaching. I want to ask: what would you do with these classes for two weeks? Can I ask for your help in advising me going forward? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Some asshole detonated two bombs on Boylston Street, near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, here in Boston on April 15, Patriots’ Day, “Marathon Monday,” “Tax Day.” Marathon Monday in Boston is a really nice day, typically. It’s a state holiday; everyone here in the seat of the American Revolution has the day off while the rest of the country suffers another shift at work. Thousands of people pile into the city for a really nice thing—friends, family, strangers running 26.2 miles through Boston, the longest standing marathon in the United States. My father ran the marathon when I was four. My neighbor Paul ran the marathon a few years back. My friend Justin ran the marathon two years ago, and I was there to support him (read: drink beers with another friend near the finish line). I’ve always watched the intrepid runners, wondering if I’d ever get up the courage to attempt such a feat. Two Patriots’ Days ago, I was standing and laughing and cheering for strangers and friends—people determined to run an absurdly long distance to prove something to themselves, to get in shape, to triumph, to join in tradition, to go after something cool and weird and respectable and good—right where a bomb exploded yesterday, killing three, including an eight-year-old boy, maiming dozens, and injuring a hundred more. Why? Continue reading →