In Which I Surprise A CEO
September 30, 2014
I woke up at 9AM for the judging and to put the final touches on my app ‘Plagiarite’, designed to both circumvent censorship and also to provide a proof of concept as to the issues in automated plagiarism detection tools. While I didn’t win, my app entertained a good number of people who came by and was enjoyed by nearly everyone who visited.
There was a Hillel graduate student BBQ after the judging so I raced off to that but realized I was far too asleep to really stay and so went back to my room for a nap. After some sleep and some work I attended dance rehearsal with PD, and then retired after a super busy weekend.
The next week started off in high stress mode with many assignments due and me in a state of panic due to the amount of time I had spent on PennApps that weekend, getting very little done. I only barely scraped through in submitting my homework on time. In the middle of the week, a very exhausted me had lunch with Melody Cooke, a friend who I had yet to catch up with since returning to the USA. We had a lovely time catching up but it seemed she had changed far more than I in the interregnum, and in a way that made her happy too. I had also changed and had more adventures and so it was quite a refreshing break from the never ending stream of work.
Thursday nearly killed me. I was up at 6.45AM in order to arrive at a gig for an international funeral home convention. My voice was hoarse, my eyes bloodshot, but I still managed to sing the heck out of “The Star Spangled Banner” and “O Canada” before racing back to bed. I skipped my physics lecture, as I would’ve fallen asleep in it regardless, and returned later to the PhD “dungeon” (the basement lab) to finish off a group project in machine learning that I had been struggling with.
In the early evening after successfully finishing the homework, a somewhat refreshed me raced off for yet another Glee Club gig. This one was for the World Presidents’ Organization, a high profile performance for Philadelphia local CEOs. We arrived at the venue and relaxed in the green room for a little before bursting through the doors and surprising all the executives with a flash-mob performance of ‘Footloose’. The event itself was Philadelphia themed and as a result all the CEOs were dressed down in tshirts with Philly themes. After the performance we were requested to get on the dance floor and encourage the audience to join us which, after a little prompting they did. The rest of the evening was spent chatting to high profile figures and for some, munching on Philly themed food. I met a number of interesting and friendly people, among them an Aussie CEO who told me to keep in touch.
After our best gig for the year so far, I got home and went to sleep, free of the burden of looming deadlines and ready for an easier Friday.
Thursday/Friday – Day 262/263
April 25, 2013
The next two days were pretty pleasant overall, despite high levels of stress. Thursday was another physics lecture on radiation, not easy but not overly difficult. Then was a group demo for networking. This unfortunately was a complete failure. Our code didn’t compile and even when we submitted a compiling version, it failed all the tests. We received a zero on our project and were sent depressed back to the drawing board, told to redo our project in hopes of at least some partial credit.
Coming away from that a little depressed, it was to Susan Greenberg, a good, Jewish, CIS friend to cheer me up. She did a superb job and I felt I finally got to know her well enough. Despite not spending inordinate amounts of time together, I was glad to have a certain closeness to her, and felt a little disappointed to know I’d be leaving her behind soon. My salad too was almost as enjoyable as the conversation.
I was still in recovery, so I napped a little in the afternoon before a major stuff up: I had accidentally mischeduled a Time to Shine rehearsal clashing with the Brahms Requiem dress rehearsal. I emailed the professor to tell him I’d have to miss it and he let me know that if I did so my grade would be less than acceptable. Thus I was forced to miss a vital part of the Time to Shine rehearsal in which we were filmed for the world tour of the video production.
The Brahms rehearsal was actually quite enjoyable as by now I knew the music well and could both sing and enjoy it at the same time.
Friday was intense. Today was our ‘Time to Shine’ and it began with an early run at 10AM with the full set before our run of it for the largest donors at eleven. The University President Amy Gutmann announced us before we burst onto the stage in our red and blue outfits, singing for Penn. The song itself, Time To Shine, was an upbeat pop number composed by the eminent Sean Altman, of Rockapella fame. I had also previously enjoyed his work on the jewish musical comedy scene and so it was quite an honor to work with him. Additionally, he shared a love of barbershop and so in the backstage rooms he and the members of Glee ran a few numbers together with decent success. The audience greeted us with thunderous applause and through our performance, the stage of the Zellerbach theatre twisted and turned with lights, sounds and graphics projected onto giant screens, glorifying the University.
Getting changed into regular clothes and heading outside, the heat hit fairly hard, so I headed to Hillel for lunch, before a short nap and then off to Penn Park for an on-stage rehearsal for the evenings performance before seventeen-thousand people. It was at this time that dear Sarah Silverberg decided to make an appearance on Penn’s campus, to stay with Julia Poslun’s, another friend of hers, and spend time with the both of us over the weekend.
Following that, back to my room briefly for a change into Khaki Blaze for the PGC performance and then to Penn Park again for the Glee Club Set. Unfortunately I don’t have my own photos of the whole day as I was too busy being part of it by I’ve included some shots taken by Penn photographers.
Following that Train and John Legend performed, and then the Time to Shine chorus that I was a part of. Unfortunately we weren’t exactly well received given the two opening acts and so despite the awesome feeling of being in front of so many people, it could’ve gone a little better. I’ve included below a Penn Communications snapshot of some of the crowd later in the night!
Penn had really pulled out all the stops for this party. Some of my friends in Wharton, the business school at Penn put together an estimate for spendings of around five million dollars on the event. Free food, alcohol, and entertainment for that many people doesn’t come cheap.
From there it was back to Hillel for Shabbat and dinner. Spent some good time chatting to Sarah and Julia, despite being soaking wet from an umbrellaless walk back from Time To Shine in my Shabbat clothes!
I was glad that evening to finally get back to bed and curl up in the warmth.
Shabbat – Day 250
April 12, 2013
The next day I arose bright and early to the warm sounds of Pink Floyd’s stunning album, “The Dark Side of the Moon” as Dan had seen fit to wake us up with is beautiful valve amplified stereo system. I was a little jealous. From there, the rest of the day was divided between singing and walking for me. First up was a full club rehearsal at some studio in midtown.
Rehearsal was a subset of club, joined by a subset of the alums, one of whom was from the Penn Class of ’70! The alums were split 50:50 between those who had continued singing after graduation and those for whom it had ceased to become a meaningful part of their lives. Regardless, all still retained their fine voices and musicality and I am proud to say that our sound was truly excellent.
Following a few hours of rehearsal, I, the older gentleman and Shohom Basuthakur (the vice-president of PGC) walked down to our performance venue. The club had arranged for us to sing inside the grand echoing chambers of the German Evangelical Church on 28th street, only an hours walk away!
The concert was surprising full, and a certain clubber even convinced a guy he message over ‘grindr’ to come see us. One highlights of the show in my opinion were Franz Biebl’s Ave Maria, in which a smaller counter choir sang down from the pews located upstairs, while I and the larger choir sang below. The resonance of the final chord was truly majestic and I only wish I had a recording of it! The other highlight for me was “The Brotherhood of Man” complete with choreography in the church.
Following our performance, Shabbat was out, so the two Dans, Kirk, and I all headed back to his apartment. Him for another exciting evening with friends and us for a night at Reuven’s (also known as ‘Jewbacca’ or ‘Taco’), an orthodox Jewish PGC alum who traditionally hosted fantastic after parties replete with top class mashke (alcohol). I had a very interesting chat with him about how he managed to be ‘frum’ (religious) at the same time as travelling with the club and partaking in all the activities. One thing he mentioned that was of interest to me, was how back in his day, the religious community at Penn was very much insular and un-accepting of diversity. I proudly told him how things had changed and it somewhat seemed to set his mind at ease.
I left the party with one very drunk Clubber in tow, shipping him back to the apartment before flouncing down on the couch for another night at the Pincus Emporium.
