The pictures with this post features two of San Francisco’s most famous landmarks, the Coit Tower and the Transamerica Pyramid. The Coit Tower was built atop Telegraph Hill in 1933 at the bequest of Lillie Hitchcock Coit to beautify the City of San Francisco. The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest and most recognizable skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline. Today’s header features the sign atop Ghirardelli Square. Ghirardelli Square is a landmark shopping district, with shops and restaurants in the Fisherman’s Wharf area of San Francisco.
Anne and I met Dan and Annie for dinner on Monday night. Dan wanted to start making his travel plans for going to California next month. In response to his applications, he has received the following news. He has had a phone interview with CCA (California College of the Arts), that he thinks went well. CCA has two campuses, located in the Bay Area. He didn’t visit this school on his last trip to California, which was limited to southern California, but on his previous trip out there. This would be the trip that he saw my folks and Liz on. It is also the trip that his friend Cat drove up and down the state of California several times for him. On that trip he did not get to see any of the southern California schools due to forest fires.
On Monday night, Dan was a little down, because he had just received a rejection letter from UCSD, University of California – San Diego. This was a blow, because this is where he saw himself most likely going to school. UCSD is a state school and the California state university system is under a lot of stress these days.
The reason that Dan is traveling to California this time is because he has an interview at CalArts (California Institute for the Arts). They’re calling him in as a finalist. Dan has applied to continue his studies in sculpture, but CalArts is most famously know as a school of the performing arts. This is not too surprising considering that Walt Disney founded the school. CalArts has a handful of alumnus among this year’s Academy Awards Nominees. They are primarily associated with animated films, not too surprisingly. Most of the nominations are associated with the movie Up. I heard elsewhere that at one point ninety percent of Pixar’s artists were alumni of CalArts.
OK, I let the glitz of Hollywood overwhelm me there. Dan has applied to two other schools, that he has not heard back from yet. There is UCLA which would be even harder to get into than UCSD and there is Claremont Colleges, which is also located in the LA area. Annie, who has applied to most if not all of the schools that Dan has, plus a few more, is still waiting to hear from them.