Picture a Saturday in late August 2004: Groups of frosh are arriving in the coolest city in southwestern Connecticut to begin a four-year slog through the best university in the world. In glorious Vanderbilt Hall, Aaron and Danny spend the day pushing their beds closer together, Paul has our entire suite smelling like it just spent six weeks on the Appalachian Trail, and Brian is artfully dodging chairs tossed by an enraged caveman.It's a tough day for us fresh-faced youngsters, what with the stress of moving in, dealing with parents for the last time in a while, fretting about orientation and shopping period. But leave it to New Haven to find a way to get us all together, stress-free, for our first evening together: Isaac Hayes in concert on the Green.
Isaac Hayes died Sunday at age 65. Although this first outing wasn't the best thing ever to happen in college, or even the best concert, it was the first thing that got us all out of our new rooms and chatting like roommates, or, dare I say, friends, after just a few hours. We found common ground in a love of South Park and good music—especially the "Shaft" theme song, which would later decorate a pivotal scene in the groundbreaking "Van Hellsing" series.
I didn't know Isaac Hayes personally, of course, but I want to thank him for that experience. I want to thank him for being the first of many things we shared as friends in New Haven, and for giving us a great start to our Yale careers, on that humid Saturday in August 2004.
Requiescat in pace.
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2 comments:
Yeah that was a pretty good concert for New Haven. It's too bad that I'm mostly going to remember Hayes for his departure from South Park to become a Dianetics cultist.
"Requiescat in pace" was originally Van Helsing's catchphrase, Jay. Stealer.
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