Greece

I arrive in Athens to meet old college friend Duane, whom I have not seen in 20 years yet we shared our dorm-unit. Those memories run deep. Duane has since gone on to be a film producer and touring rock-star but more on him later. Right now my head in 1985 when I pulled up to Keeney Quad on college hill in a taxi with everything I owned a black trunk packed several weeks before in Berkeley. Fresh... man... Ivor and I spent the prior two weeks in New York at my Aunt's house not doing much since we had no money. Somehow we had the place to our own. Manhattan then was a sweet, unobtainable temptation so we watched James Bond and ate Wonder Bread-Velveta cheese sandwhiches. I recall the low-level anxiety and excitement which peaked from the way weird train ride connecting Grand Central to college station, Providence, Rhode Island. So Brown: the Quad for freshmen and my "house" Poland which is also where I met Roger, our Resident Counsellor wholly underqualifed to deal with the emotional dramas of 18 year olds set free - sex and drugs and all that, poor fellow. We had a pretty interesting dorm to - as Duane and I reminisce - including celebrity children, athletes, the rich, the weird and the stoners. Ah, yes. There was a lot of pharmaceuticals (it was the mid-80s) though I was mostly outside that excitement thanks to swimming and personality, oh boy. I was also trying to pass three entry science courses my first term which is something otherwise not recommended. Brown offered an orientation and for a moment I felt my uniqueness coming from California, which did not seem a liability on the preppy East Coast.

My competition, after all, prep-school kids shipped from the Upper East side by parents too busy nor caring to bring them up. The entitled were plenty, and I see them today from time-to-time, though not always from Brown, and usually useless. The college had many good people to, of course- and this what makes our memories special. Duane catches me up on guys and women we knew who have gone on to make their mark: Doug Liman (film director, "Swingers", "The Bourne Identity"), Susan Motamed (film producer, "The Smartest Man In The Room" and the fist person I met); Rory Kennedy (actor, "Ghosts of Abu Ghriab"); Amy Carter, Marci Klein (SNL producer), Cosmo von Buleau.. What a crowd. Certainly I will never be exposed to such dynamic group again. Better, I am proud to call many my friends.

Photo uncredited of Helena Paparizou from the WWW- I have no idea what the ad says but thought more interesting then putting up another shot of a city skyline. More interesting to me, at least.