Latest news with #BrendanKelley
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
More than 2,400 graduates participate in CSU's first campus-wide commencement in 27 years
More than 2,000 mortarboards were tossed into the air May 16 as the cannon fired at Colorado State University's Canvas Stadium. Then, the 2,418 graduates began high-fiving and hugging one another as they posed for pictures and waved to family and friends in the stands. 'It was enjoyable,' said master's degree recipient Brendan Kelley, as he filed off the field afterward. 'I think it's important to recognize everyone at CSU that graduates. I think it's really fun to have everyone together.' That was the big draw for many of the participants. Although CSU still held its usual recognition ceremonies by college and major – there are 37 scheduled from May 15-18 – where individual students' names were read as they walked across the stage. The university-wide ceremony at Canvas Stadium, with about 12,000 family members and friends in the stands in a ticketed-only event, gave those same graduates the chance to celebrate en masse. Nearly half of the 5,000 graduates eligible to participate in the all-campus event chose to do so. Officials delayed the start by about 10 minutes because of traffic delays that were slowing guests' arrival. More: Members of von Trapp family, popularized in the 'The Sound of Music,' visit Fort Collins 'I say I'm proud to be a CSU Ram,' they chanted at the urging of the featured speaker, Eugene Daniels, a former CSU football player and MSNBC's senior Washington correspondent. They all held up their hands, clinching their middle fingers tight while curling the outer ones to form the CSU Rams' horn symbol popularized at the school's sporting events, when Vice Provost Michelle Stanley asked them to as she took a selfie from the stage. There were loud cheers at multiple points throughout the 80-minute ceremony, creating the same kind of game-day atmosphere inside the on campus-stadium that opened in 2017 that there had been outside in the hours leading up to it. It was sunny and warm, but not too hot. A beautiful spring day in Fort Collins, several graduates said. "It's fun to see everyone in one place and see how big our school actually is," said Rachel Ross, who was receiving a bachelor's degree in theater. "The weather's nice, and I'm excited to be here." CSU hadn't held a university-wide commencement ceremony since the spring of 1998, when graduates gathered at the former Hughes Stadium, 3 miles west of campus below Horsetooth Reservoir. Students, wearing robes in black, green and gold – the green and gold were to recognize those graduating with honors – along with hoods and stoles of various colors were walking around campus with friends and family a good two hours before their scheduled 4 p.m. processional into the stadium. International students, many of them receiving master's and doctorate degrees, also wore stoles with the colors of their national flags. Cesar Reyes was standing in the shade with his wife, Fernanda Luna, before getting in line with the other graduates for the processional. He was wearing a pink hood, as a master's degree recipient in music, and a stole with an orange, white and green stripe, like the flag of his native Mexico. 'This is the first graduation event I have ever attended, because when I graduated from the conservatory in Morelia (Mexico, where he earned his bachelor's degree), they don't do such big things,' said Reyes, a violinist who had to leave early to get to a dress rehearsal later that night with the Boulder Symphony. CSU President Amy Parsons spoke of the important role journalists occupy in a democracy while introducing Daniels, who earned his bachelor's degree in journalism and technical communication in 2012. And Daniels spoke of the difficulties he had breaking into TV broadcasting as a man who is gay and Black, noting that he was able to persevere and now has his own weekly network TV show on politics. And he was recently elected, by his peers, as president of the White House Correspondents' Association. 'So, remember, Class of 2025, you are not the next generation of leaders starting at some vague point in the future; you're leadership starts now,' Daniels said. 'You are the ones who have the power to hurt or to help. You are going to take the reins of this world, and you will be guiding us. The question is where will we go together?' Loud cheers also went up when Kim Jordan, co-founder of New Belgium Brewing and a member of the CSU System Board of Governors for eight years, received an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters. And toward the end of the ceremony when Kristi Bohlender, CSU's senior associate vice president for advancement and executive director of the alumni association, reminded the graduates that they were the newest members of a worldwide CSU alumni base of more than 265,000 members. A few minutes later, they flipped the tassels on their mortarboards in the customary fashion of graduation ceremonies. And most then tossed those mortarboards high into the air as the historic 'Comatose' cannon was fired. They danced as the CSU fight song was played, then filed out of the stadium as 'Don't You Forget About Me' by Simple Minds played on the public address system. 'It's really exciting that we're all doing this together with our friends who have other majors,' said Zander Cohn, who was graduating with a bachelor's degree in health and exercise science. Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@ and This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: More than 2,400 CSU graduates celebrate in university-wide ceremony
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Where the Menu Is Always Changing
Restaurants worth visiting again and again Sometimes I have to remind myself that I don't eat like everyone else. The average person, maybe even the average New Yorker, might go to the same restaurants over and over again, throwing in a new dining spot every few months. I am in perpetual pursuit of novelty. And, my dear readers, I'd love to move you in my direction. Outside my comfort zone, I've discovered new favorites and developed a far more discerning palate. I'm not so easily impressed anymore, and I'm a better diner for it. A good place to start your journey to enlightenment? Restaurants where the menu is always changing; it's like listening to a new album by a band you already love. Here are three spots worth the listen. The first thing you need to know about Confidant is that it's in Industry City. The second thing is that it's a fine-dining restaurant. Industry City is known for many things — furniture outlets, Japan Village, Sahadi's — but fine dining has never come to mind. And yet, it works at Confidant, where for the length of your meal, you'll forget that you're adjacent to Brooklyn's only Costco. Since March, the chefs Daniel Grossman and Brendan Kelley have been spinning up a seasonal, date-stamped menu in a space that's longer than it is wide. Current menu highlights include a slice of sourdough dressed with piped trout mousse, little clumps of trout roe and dill; the chicory salad with wild rice; the sweet and salty beets and boquerones; and the prawn potpie, which is every bit as visually arresting as you might imagine. Confidant also has a dedicated pastry program — thank you — run by Mariah Neston, an alum of Le Rock. Go for the malted mille-feuille. 67 35th Street, Building #5 (Third Avenue) Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
18-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Confidant Brings Fine Dining to Industry City
Opening This much-anticipated fine-dining addition, a first for Industry City, is about to open in a setting that combines polished cement, wooden accents, napery and an open kitchen. The chefs Brendan Kelley and Daniel Grossman, who worked at Roberta's, have brought on a few hospitality veterans as partners. A seasonal menu emphasizes dry-aged fish and meats, some from Industry City merchants. Trout mousse, tuna prosciutto and tuna belly crudo can also precede prawn potpie, steamed monkfish with brown butter crumbles, and a whole crown of duck with duck confit salad. The pastry chef Mariah Neston offers a rhubarb upside-down cake and, move over charlotte russe, an updated biscuit tortoni. (Opens Wednesday) Industry City, Building No. 5, 67 35th Street (Third Avenue), Brooklyn, 929-252-0205, This 257-seat Korean barbecue palace on two floors is most of the iceberg. The space will soon accommodate the rest: DubuHaus for tofu and Musaek, serving cocktails with a raw bar. The specialties are steaks, domestic and imported, including Wagyu, to order à la carte ($55 to $95) or in set arrangements. All come with banchan and lettuce ssam. There are also seafood naeng-chae, spicy cold noodles, kettlepot rice, kimchi stew and, for dessert, green tea soft serve. 7 East 31st Street, 347-504-5401, They nailed the season for the opening of the New York branch of the Parisian megastore, Printemps. All but the flagship restaurant, Maison Passerelle, opening in April, will be ready to serve and pour by the end of the week. Alongside boutiques, shoppers will find a Champagne bar; Café Jalu, open all day for coffee and pastries; Salon Vert, with raw bar items; and the Red Room Bar, for cocktails, adjacent to Maison Passerelle. The food is the province of Gregory Gourdet, the culinary director, whose approach to French fare includes tastes of Haiti, West Africa, Vietnam and French Canada. Art Nouveau and Art Deco designs are by Laura Gonzalez. (Friday) 1 Wall Street (Exchange Place), An uncommon Nikkei vibe comes to Carnegie Hill from Jorge Dionicio, a native of Peru who worked at Uchi in Austin, Texas, and whose New York experience has been in Japanese restaurants like Morimoto and Sushi Noz. He makes liberal use of ají amarillo in gyoza, maki and tiradito, and is serving Peruvian lomo saltado, a beef stir-fry; and parihuela, a kind of Peruvian bouillabaisse. The dining room deploys Peruvian textiles for vibrant accents, and there's an omakase counter on the upper level. 1312 Madison Avenue (93rd Street), 646-833-7033, A tropical jungle fantasy that has parked its leopard prints, lush greenery and disco balls in pop-up locations in New York and elsewhere, now has a permanent home on Pier 17 in the seaport district. It trumpets its taste of Tulum, the late-Mayan archaeological site on the coast of the Yucatán that now has the vibe of St. Barts. Tulum is where the parent group, Grupo Gitano, run by James Gardner, got its start. An installation in Dubai preceded New York. The menu here is long on Mexican crowd-pleasers. It has taken over parts of two levels of the pier; a private club will open upstairs. Pier 17, South Street and Fulton Street, Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
