New York City. Magnolia Trees.
Finally got a chance to go back to Columbia’s campus yesterday evening and spend some time shooting the cherry tree in bloom at the entrance to Earl Hall. Brought back fond memories.
Broadway and Amsterdam. New York, the year 1999. Cherry trees in full blossom, sunny afternoons, and Sundays. That’s how I remember the beginning.
Sunday is the only day to experience Columbia’s Riverside campus as a first-timer. Tucked between Broadway and Amsterdam with Riverside Church and the Manhattan School of Music on one diagonal end, it looks down on a street sprinkled with delis, corner shops, watering holes, and ethnic restaurants on the other. Walk a little farther towards downtown, away from the campus, and you will come across an old church squatting in the midst of 20th-century construction. Where the church on Riverside is sleek, tall, and elegant, St. John the Divine is flat, broad, and wide. Both will catch your eye.
Canvassed against the façade of Earl Hall, white blossoms would stand out in the reddish haze cast by the dying sun. On my short trek to Room 310, I would step inside and they would be there. Most days I would sneak a look for signs announcing the arrival of spring.
For me, the first bloom of blossoms, before the leaves filled out the contrast, would always be associated with the first draft of our business plan.
The second bloom with the search for our name and incubation; the third and final with our demise.
Reboot, 3rd edition, for the iPad, will be available on the ibook store on April 25th 2013.