This is a week old, so I apologize, but I've been meaning to get to it because UCLA, sworn rival of my alma mater, fucked up not once but twice when it comes to their commencement speaker, and I have to note it. This university wanted actor and Bruin alum James Franco to give the address to their Class of 2009. He's not a bad actor, but (in a nod to the reasons Arizona State gave when it didn't want to award an honorary degree to their commencement speaker, President Barack Obama) his achievements are in the future, not the past. And even the 31-year-old Franco seems to be a cool guy and was in the great show Freaks And Geeks as well as the Spider-Man trilogy, everybody knows being a cool guy isn't enough of a qualification to give advice on how to live the rest of your life. Shit, Franco only got his degree from UCLA last year. What can he tell the class graduating just after him what the world is like?
But then, for some mysterious reason, he drops out of the engagement a week and a half before Commencement. OK, so UCLA is scrambling to find somebody, and they're probably pissed because, believe it or not, Bill Clinton cancelled last year (something about striking labor unions on campus). So who do they find? Brad Delson. Who? Exactly. He's the fucking guitarist for Linkin Park. That's right -- the slinger for the obnoxious, vastly overrated torch-holder of rap-rock gave the most important and momentous speech this year's Bruin seniors will remember. OK, so he's set up a scholarship fund at UCLA, and from what I've read he and the other members of Linkin Park are extremely nice guys. But I have to believe that Delson himself thinks him being commencement speaker is a awful, awful joke.
Just for shiggles I checked out who USC's Commencement Speaker this year was. The Governator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger. And the Commencement Speaker the year I graduated? Cosby.
The difference, my friends, is clear.
No comments:
Post a Comment