Good Ship Storm Queen

Two days ago was the last day of school (as I type this, many of my friends are at graduation, being held at a church near Lang College), and as a nice end-of-the-year activity, so to speak, I helped move a boat yesterday.

For the last two semesters, Lang on the Hudson, a New School class, has been building a whitehall gig, which would eventually be named The Storm Queen (terrible name, I know), at the Boat Shop, located on 14th Street, near Union Square. The whole shebang is being looked over by Rob Buchanan, who also serves as the faculty adviser for the New School Free Press, and is just generally an awesome man.

I'm not actually a part of the class, but I did help them move the boat from the Shop down to the Hudson River and eventually to its final resting place at Pier 40. Luckily, the weather was beautiful, and the looks of people seeing us roll a boat down fifth avenue was worth it alone.

At one point, a man rolled down his window and said to me, "I came over in a boat like this. Very few of us made it." To which I responded, "I'm sorry?" Not quite sure how you respond to something like that.

Nadia also happened to notice that we passed Waris Ahluwalia, who was in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic, going down 11th Street. I make note of this because Rob bought everyone who helped launch the boat a Team Zissou-esque hat, referring to Billy Murray and his gang in Life Aquatic.

When we finally got it down to the pier, The Storm Queen and last year's boat, the Quixotic, had a race. I was in the Quixotic, and luckily, we won.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday, taken by Mr. Buchanan: