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Fresh news, cyber concerts, why today is special, and more, updated, all within.
WELCOME as always to our international readers! Including, in the hour as this edition was being published (most of you then still reading previous editions) a near-record number from the United Arab Emirates!
And also during that same previous hour, our readers in Canada, France, Hong Kong, Belgium, Germany, the UK, Russia, the Ukraine, and of course, our readers in the USA.
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It's Tuesday, May 5th
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Coping / Giving / Celebrating by Acknowledging
Today is the annual "Giving Tuesday"
Don't blow past this one.
It isn't just that the Guide encourages you to take part and join in the "#GivingTuesdayNow" movement. It's not some ego-based "win" for us. We have no way of knowing if you contribute anything and we certainly do not get a "cut."
This is important to us because it's important to everybody who has serious needs and to everyone trying to do something about individuals in need, populations in need, wildlife in need, habitats in need, and a planet that has been pushed beyond its natural carrying capacity. The huge needs of this annual day are made far more important in 2020 by the presence of something too small to see under an optical microscope. Last year, "Giving Tuesday" was in December. It was moved-up this year because so many needs are so great right now, directly because of, or indirectly being exacerbated by, the Covidcrisis.
Each of us must response to the urgencies created by the COVID-19 health crisis. Not "it would be nice if" we all pitched-in. If you don't see that we are very far past that, where have you been the last six weeks?
We MUST all do something to help. Because each of us is on this planet eating food grown and harvested and transported and made available by someone else. Each of us is here, consuming finite resources, and each of us can make a difference.
The worldwide "Giving Tuesday" movement manifests in just one day a year, when every kind of charity and "good cause" tells all of us -- all who will listen -- that they, we, and you and I, can use the collective power of generosity and kindness to make a positive impact.
And that is inarguably true in literally every sense: for our world, our environment, the air, the oceans, having enough fresh water, preservation of woodlands, grasslands, wetlands; preservation of vanishing species in what is already a human-caused mass-extinction; preservation of critical habitats, and the atmospheric balance that might still prevent the planet from becoming a runaway hothouse with inundation from rising seas and vast uninhabitable places.
We can commit our time and resources to fighting for a decent standard of quality health care for all, as a right of citizenship and a human right.
We can make a difference in and for our communities -- from the macro of the human community that is filled with so much basic need to the micro of our neighborhoods.
We can preserve our artistic, architectural, engineering and industrial heritage that is the fabric of our cultural legacy. We can join in advocating for the 21st century we were supposed to get, with monorails and high-speed trains and unprecedented amounts of leisure time and fulfilling ways to spend it.
We can join together to end war and dethrone the oligarchs of the warconomy.
We can join our voices with others to demand we spend a small share of national wealth to reach for the planets and the stars.
We can end homelessness. We can achieve freedom from grinding poverty and relieve basic needs, and in so doing, prove ourselves worthy of claiming we are, indeed, an advanced civilization.
"I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do." ~ Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909).
We can each -- meaning we can all -- make a difference by direct action, by volunteering, AND by supporting organizations who need you the most right now.
Local food banks and global hunger and failure to enable harvesting farm workers to get to fields and orchards may be called "economic impacts" but they are immediate human needs. More people will be hungry as a result of pandemic. But that's not a final judgement. There are organizations getting food to food banks.
Everything cannot be fixed by money, but a lack of money can prevent critically needed things from being done.
Think about it a moment. Then, do not shake your head and sigh and move on to binge-watching Netflix, or searching YouTube for music videos. Stop. Do something to help someone else. We published an extensive guide of deserving organizations, by category of what each does, in 2018. It's right HERE, and all those organizations are still worthy and still needy.
Or give to something that's more visible due to the pandemic. We have published lists of organizations that are helping musicians and artists in this current tough time, HERE, and here, and with a petition to Congress to help those helping us, here.
Okay, you're saying, "But I need help now, too. How can I be expected to help anybody else?"
That is precisely why you can. Because we're all in this together.
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Simple gifts...
Taylor Swift surprised a nurse with gifts and a handwritten note to mark the frontline worker's 30th birthday and to thank her for traveling across the country to help Covid-19 patients.
(Taylor Swift item from Lisa Respers France.)
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Yes, everything IS connected to everything else...
John Miller, NYPD officer who has recovered from the virus, told Gayle King, "When all else fails, people call the police. We see it all and we get exposed to it all."
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As for what it takes to get "exposed to it all?"
"You can't have a pee zone in the pool."
~ Dr. Zeke Emanuel
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Today is "Teacher Appreciation Day"
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you've seen any of those news stories about educators working from home to provide online instruction to their students? And spending their own money for what they need to do it? Perhaps you, like us, are having your faith renewed by ordinary, everyday heroes for whom "above and beyond the call of duty" has always been part of why they wanted to be teachers in the first place.
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THOUGHT FOR TODAY from one born on this date...
"That's the terrible hypnotism of war, the brute mass-impulse, the pride and national spirit, the instinctive simplicity of men that makes them worship what is their own above everything else. I've thrilled and shouted with patriotic pride, like everyone else. Music and flags and men marching in step have bewitched me, as they do all of us. And then I've gone home and sworn to root this evil instinct out of my soul. God help -- let's love the world, love humanity -- not just our own country!"
~ Christopher Morley, writer (born May 5, 1890, died 1957)
(with thanks to A.Word.A.Day)
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Show biz outlook...
An op-ed from Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos: "How film and TV production can safely resume in a COVID-19 world..." (L.A. Times)
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It's better to laugh (and sing!) than cry...
"The Liar Tweets Tonight" --
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TkU1ob_lHCw
The sound production with the chorus from all points of the compass and the video cuts and montages are all award-worthy. As is the song. Don't try to drink anything. You'll spray your screen.
Join Roy's mailing list and participate in hid next Virtual Sing-In: http://www.royzimmerman.com/contact.html
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More fun song parodies include...
"Jolene Lockdown Parody" by Vintage Blue Duo, lyrics by Jenny Payne --
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=lRA590HGLT8
(That girl can SING!)
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Lowry reviews two docu projects --
three air this week
Brian Lowry writes: It's a big week for documentaries, beginning with PBS' two-part "George W. Bush" from American Experience, a project as notable for what it omits as what it includes. That's followed on Tuesday by HBO's "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind," a deeply personal look at the star's life and career produced by her daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner, which fumbles the portion inevitably devoted to the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death. It's made with a daughter's love, but could use a journalist's eye.
Those will be followed later this week by "Becoming," Netflix's fly-on-the-wall access to Michelle Obama's book tour, co-produced by her family's production company; and "Spaceship Earth," which jumps back to the Biosphere 2 experiment in the 1990s, a rather timely test, as it inadvertently turned out, of people trying to exist together within a confined space...
(Thanks to Brian Stelter for the above.)
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Honoring Pulitzer Prize winners...
The most prestigious awards in journalism have been announced for 2020 -- amidst the craziness and far-too-deterministic roles of corporate cash, mega-merger consolidations, newsroom layoffs, and oligarch owner's protection rackets for big advertisers / sponsors.
Journalists were capable of becoming exciting, dashing figures, once upon a time. Garrison Keillor's feature in the section below, for Nellie Bly's birthday, evokes but that era AND serves to note that women achieved respect and wide followings as journalists long before other high-visibility professions were open to the female gender. (And Nellie Bly very notably wrote for Joseph Pulitzer's newspapers.)
Dashing figures covered by journalists made romantic idols of the writers themselves. Quiet integrity came-in after that, and the "Fourth Estate" finally fulfilled its function as the informal fourth branch of government, playing watchdog on everything else. But very public opinion poll about the profession shows that's largely been lost, for myriad reasons ranging from valid concerns to outrageous and unfounded allegations, muddying differences between some who manufacture sensationalism and others who are villified by the real villains they unmask.
Somehow, in an age of short attention span and "managed impression," the profession still produces heroes, and the Pulitizers still honor and celebrate them:
Journalists were capable of becoming exciting, dashing figures, once upon a time. Garrison Keillor's feature in the section below, for Nellie Bly's birthday, evokes but that era AND serves to note that women achieved respect and wide followings as journalists long before other high-visibility professions were open to the female gender. (And Nellie Bly very notably wrote for Joseph Pulitzer's newspapers.)
Dashing figures covered by journalists made romantic idols of the writers themselves. Quiet integrity came-in after that, and the "Fourth Estate" finally fulfilled its function as the informal fourth branch of government, playing watchdog on everything else. But very public opinion poll about the profession shows that's largely been lost, for myriad reasons ranging from valid concerns to outrageous and unfounded allegations, muddying differences between some who manufacture sensationalism and others who are villified by the real villains they unmask.
Somehow, in an age of short attention span and "managed impression," the profession still produces heroes, and the Pulitizers still honor and celebrate them:
* The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica received this year's Pulitzer Prize for public service for their collaborative investigation into sexual violence in Alaska. The NYT won 3 awards. The New Yorker and ProPublica won 2. Other honorees included the Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Seattle Times and the Palestine Herald-Press in Texas. And "This American Life" won the first audio reporting prize. Full list in Brian Stelter's CNN writeup…
* Nikole Hannah-Jones essay from ‘"The 1619 Project" won the Pulitzer for commentary, stoking outrage on the right...
* Dana Canedy, Pulitzer Prize administrator, said in the live broadcast: "Despite relentless assaults on objective truth, coordinated efforts to undermine our nation's free press and persistent economic headwinds, journalists continue to pursue and deliver essential facts and truths to keep us safe and to protect our democracy…"
* Poynter has a great roundup of the Pulitzer Prize celebrations... Many newsrooms celebrated the way the L.A. Times did, on Zoom:
Three today from Garrison Keillor
Uno...
Today is Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the Mexican victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla in 1862, but is, in a more general way, a celebration of Mexican heritage and culture in the United States.
After a series of wars in the mid-19th-century, Mexico was reeling. President Benito Juárez announced that payment of foreign debts would be temporarily suspended in 1861, and the French navy showed up to demand repayment. As long as they were there anyway, Napoleon III thought it would be a good idea to replace the current government with one more favorable to French interests — and France could also establish a base of operations to aid the Confederacy in the American Civil War. In a David-and-Goliath battle, the 8,000-strong, well-armed French army was routed by 4,000 ill-equipped Mexican soldiers, and though it wasn’t a decisive battle in the course of the war, it became a symbol of Mexican pride. It also kept Napoleon from aiding the cause of the Confederacy.
Cinco de Mayo isn’t widely celebrated in Mexico outside the state of Puebla, but it has been adopted by many Americans regardless of their heritage, much like St. Patrick’s Day and Oktoberfest. It’s been celebrated in California since 1863, and grew in prominence in the rest of the country along with the Chicano movement of the 1940s. It wasn’t until beer advertisers decided to promote the holiday heavily in the 1980s that American celebration of Cinco de Mayo became widespread.
Dos...
It’s the birthday of journalist Nellie Bly (books by this author), born Elizabeth Jane Cochran in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, in 1864. She was 23 when she went to New York in 1887, and talked her way into an opportunity with Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. Her assignment was to cover the notorious Blackwell’s Island Women’s Lunatic Asylum, and she went undercover, convincing doctors and judges that she was mentally ill. She was committed to the asylum and lived there in appalling conditions for 10 days. She wrote: “I have watched patients stand and gaze longingly toward the city they in all likelihood will never enter again. It means liberty and life; it seems so near, and yet heaven is not further from hell.”
In 1889, she proposed a new story: She would beat the fictional Phileas Fogg’s record for a trip around the globe, from Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Traveling east, she made the journey in 72 days, six hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds. She was, by now, an international sensation, but The World refused to pay her any kind of bonus in gratitude for their increased circulation, and she resigned.
In 1895, she left her career to marry 70-year-old industrialist Robert Seaman. When her husband died in 1904, she took over the business, the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company, and became one of the leading female industrialists in the country. Employee fraud, her lack of experience, and a series of legal troubles forced the company into bankruptcy and Nellie Bly went back to journalism.
In 1914, she went to work for the New York Evening Journal as America’s first female war correspondent. She wrote from the front lines of World War I for almost five years. She returned Stateside in 1919 and died of pneumonia in 1922.
Tres...
It’s the birthday of Monty Python alum Michael Palin (books by this author) born in Sheffield, England. He’s enjoyed a second career hosting travel shows for television. He began in 1980 with a series of train trips around Britain and Ireland, and in 1989, he attempted to recreate Phileas Fogg’s Around the World in Eighty Days journey using only transportation that would have been available in Fogg’s time, including hot air balloons, dogsleds, and garbage barges.
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Tuesday's "on-linery": concerts, etc...
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Tue, May 5:
Available through today's performance...
"What Do We Need to Talk About" -- If you love theater, head to The Public Theater website which says, "The Public Theater is theater of, by, and for all people. Artist-driven, radically inclusive, and fundamentally democratic, The Public continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today."
* Public Theater has some wonderful plays available, including this one made especially for these coronavirus times. But this one is available only through May 5.
* Learn more here.
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Tue, May 5:
9 am Pacific --
"The 'New Normal' FREE webinar series" continues live, presented by HutDogs.
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Tue, May 5:
1 pm Pacific --
Amythyst Kiah* via the New York Guitar Festival’s Facebook channel, exploring the music of Reverent Gary Davis, the start of a 12-day series with various artists benefitting MusiCares
* click here
* click here
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| Tue, May 5 | John Rankin | Folk/ Blues/ Original from New Orleans | 4 pm-4:30 pm PDT |
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| Tue, May 5 | Mia Borders | R&B/ Soul from New Orleans | 4 pm PDT |
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| Tue, May 5 | Matt Lemmler | Jazz from New Orleans | 4:30 pm PDT |
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| Tue, May 5 | Casey Saba | Rock (’60s through ’90s) from New Orleans | 5 pm- 7 pm PDT |
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Tue, May 5:
5 pm Pacific --
"Go Fact Yourself,” a special first-time-ever live video edition of the hit quiz show podcast "that makes smart celebrities look dumb... and then smart again," as “Ask Me Another” host Ophira Eisenberg and singer-songwriter-podcaster Jonathan Coulton are in the hot seats for the show’s debut on KPPC's virtual stage. Hosts J. Keith van Straaten and Helen Hong invite super-secret guest experts to try to stump Ophira and Jonathan in their self-proclaimed areas of expertise. Info from Monica Hubbard's "Wired Women" Pasadena. Tune-in to KPPC online, here.
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Tue, May 5:
6 pm Pacific --
Switchfoot
* weekly show
* via YouTube
* click here
Tue, May 5:
5 pm Pacific --
"Go Fact Yourself,” a special first-time-ever live video edition of the hit quiz show podcast "that makes smart celebrities look dumb... and then smart again," as “Ask Me Another” host Ophira Eisenberg and singer-songwriter-podcaster Jonathan Coulton are in the hot seats for the show’s debut on KPPC's virtual stage. Hosts J. Keith van Straaten and Helen Hong invite super-secret guest experts to try to stump Ophira and Jonathan in their self-proclaimed areas of expertise. Info from Monica Hubbard's "Wired Women" Pasadena. Tune-in to KPPC online, here.
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Tue, May 5:
6 pm Pacific --
Switchfoot
* weekly show
* via YouTube
* click here
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Tue, May 5:
6 pm Pacific --
"MALONE AT HOME 6" is BOB MALONE's sixth live cyber concert.
* A member of JOHN FOGERTY's band and formidable performing/recording artist with his own band, Bob always delivers a fine fun show.
* Bob says, "I'll be playing some more tunes for you on StageIt. * "Tuesday (5/5) was the night I was supposed to be playing NYC, so I'll be throwing in a couple of New York songs. It's also Cinco De Mayo, so keep the tequila close at hand - that is, of course, if you weren't doing that already. And keep the requests coming - it's been fun excavating the back catalog."
* TICKETS HERE - "Pay as little or as much as you want!"
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| Bob says, "The Malone At Home playlist has just been added to my YouTube channel. Here's one of Karen Nash (that's my wife!) and I harmonizing on Lyle Lovett's "Closing Time," which we've been singing together, well, since before we were married. Be sure to subscribe while you're there - we'll be adding videos weekly!" |
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| Tue, May 5 | Alex McMurray’s Faraway Lounge | Roots Rock from New Orleans | 6 pm PDT |
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| Tue, May 5 | Jon Cleary’s Quarantini Happy Hour | New Orleans piano from New Orleans | 6 pm PDT |
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Wednesday, May 6th
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THOUGHT FOR TODAY from one born on this date...
"Thinking is an experimental dealing with small quantities of energy, just as a general moves miniature figures over a map before setting his troops in action."
~ Sigmund Freud, neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis (born May 6, 1856, died 1939)
(our thanks to A.Word.A.Day)
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On this day... two quick tidbits from Garrison Keillor
"On this day in 1862, Henry David Thoreau died of tuberculosis. He was 44. Before he died, his aunt asked him if he was at peace with God, and Thoreau replied, 'I was not aware that we had quarreled.'"
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"It was on this day in 1994 that the Channel Tunnel ('Chunnel') opened, connecting Britain and France via an underground tunnel beneath the English Channel. It was the first time Britain had been connected to the European mainland since the last Ice Age, more than 8,000 years ago. ... The 31-mile tunnel cost more than $15 billion to build. It is now possible to journey from London to Paris in less time than three hours."
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Facepalm, but ya can't touch your face...
On late-night TV, Stephen Colbert said, “This tweet I posted last Cinco de Mayo has not aged well: ‘Happy Cinco de Mayo 2019! I can’t wait to go to a crowded bar and get some Corona in me!’”
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"But seriously" meets utter imbecility...
Titled, "‘I believe I am treated worse,’ Trump says. As if."
It's Dana Millbank's column in the Washington Post:
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There IS no "politics-as-usual" anymore
One:
"Burt the Turtle," aka Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is embarked on an obsessive ambitious strategy for remaking the federal courts. His refusal to do his Constitutional duty to confirm many nominees during the entire four years of President Barack Obama’s second term created a huge shortage of federal judges, simply due to retirements. But McConnell went from utter obstructionist to a turtle on steroids for the current administration, helping Trump appoint more than one-quarter of all appellate judges.
Two:
A New York Times investigation shows how Jared Kushner and a team of young volunteers fumbled the job of chasing down medical supplies. (The other shoe dropping will be the upcoming investigation that shows how manipulators got rich off creating shortages, then routing supplies when the "shortage" made the price went up.)
Three:
The Orange Imbecile, in Arizona, said yesterday: “Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open and we have to get it open soon.” He also indicated the Coronavirus Task Force would be "disbanded" by the end of May -- though the White House contradicted that this morning. (We'd have gone over there to Arizona to carry our sign that says, "I won't DIE to protect your stock dividends!" Or the one that says "Your reopening death panel will kill grandma!" Except we would be mixing with those maskless red-hatted Branch Covidians.)
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If you pay ANY attention to Big Pharma's profiteering and coziness with cable news channels and the powerful, this will not surprise you...
US Government Fears China will Give Away COVID-19 Vaccine for Free
MintPress News, by Alan Macleod
(via "Redacted Tonight" host Lee Camp, from today's "Lee Camp Ledger")
The number of official global coronavirus mortalities surpassed a quarter of a million people today, including over 69,000 in the U.S. [it's topped 71,000 at the Guide's press time - ed.] (although this is very likely an undercount). Polls show that the American people are extremely worried about contracting the virus. However, the government has a much bigger concern: that if they find a COVID-19 vaccine, China will copy it and distribute it for free.
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Today starts "National Nurses Week"
National Nurses Week runs Wednesday, May 6, through Tuesday, May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday. And THIS year, with health care workers in the spotlight and on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s going to be more of a high-visibility occasion than ever before. That, even as the pandemic alters the way nurses can celebrate.
In some places, official proclamations mark today as "National Nurses Day."
The Guide brings you a profile of one very special nurse, then links to stories on several others who have become America's new heroes. Here's our profile:
"Given that today is National Nurses Day, it seems fitting to say that, in a generational crisis like this pandemic, I know exactly the person I want at the front of our response: Lauren Underwood," says John Sarbanes.
"Lauren's a nurse, she's a first-term member of Congress, and she understands the importance of a compassionate, science-based response to the coronavirus," he adds. He should know. John Sarbanes is Lauren's colleague in the House of Representatives, where his "PAC-Free Member of Congress" status is America's longest.
He continues, "Lauren won for the first time in 2018 by upending the political establishment. She promised to do better by the people of her district and America, and has she ever delivered. Health care as a human right? Yes. Ending the culture of corruption in Washington D.C.? Lauren's right there with us. And now, she's leading the charge for a people-first response to the pandemic — not one that bails out big corporations or ignores science while putting lives at risk."
National Nurses Week runs Wednesday, May 6, through Tuesday, May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday. And THIS year, with health care workers in the spotlight and on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s going to be more of a high-visibility occasion than ever before. That, even as the pandemic alters the way nurses can celebrate.
In some places, official proclamations mark today as "National Nurses Day."
The Guide brings you a profile of one very special nurse, then links to stories on several others who have become America's new heroes. Here's our profile:
"Given that today is National Nurses Day, it seems fitting to say that, in a generational crisis like this pandemic, I know exactly the person I want at the front of our response: Lauren Underwood," says John Sarbanes.
"Lauren's a nurse, she's a first-term member of Congress, and she understands the importance of a compassionate, science-based response to the coronavirus," he adds. He should know. John Sarbanes is Lauren's colleague in the House of Representatives, where his "PAC-Free Member of Congress" status is America's longest.
He continues, "Lauren won for the first time in 2018 by upending the political establishment. She promised to do better by the people of her district and America, and has she ever delivered. Health care as a human right? Yes. Ending the culture of corruption in Washington D.C.? Lauren's right there with us. And now, she's leading the charge for a people-first response to the pandemic — not one that bails out big corporations or ignores science while putting lives at risk."
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| Lauren Underwood, nurse and first-term Member of Congress. |
He concludes by warning of "...holding the line against the big Republican attacks that are coming [against her]. Because you can bet they're going to do everything they can to try to defeat Lauren."
Most everyone knows a nurse. Not so many really know a doctor in America, where, unlike say, the UK, doctors tend to run in more elite economic circles. But nurses are the ones who do it all. They double-up to make rent on the apartment next door. They're in line in their scrubs at the supermarket, behind their masks, looking exhausted.
We smile from behind our masks, giving a nod of gratitude, figuring they appreciate respect for their solitude more than having to say anything in acknowledgement if we spoke.
More than anything in a very long time, the Coronavirus crisis has reminded a rancorously divided America that we're all in this together and we share the same very genuine heroes.
Accordingly, we're reaching across the continent to America's East coast, to the very fine Baltimore Sun newspaper, which kicks-off their coverage of Nurses Week with several timely feature stories. Here are the links for each of those.
Baltimore-area school nurses are helping health departments track and contain the coronavirus
In Baltimore County and other jurisdictions, school nurses are helping health departments track coronavirus cases and educate patients about how to keep the virus from spreading.
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‘They never cease to amaze me’: Carroll Hospital nurses on the front lines, in the spotlight during coronavirus pandemic
National Nurses Week begins Wednesday and runs through May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday, and with health care workers in the spotlight and on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s going to be a very special celebration this year, even as the pandemic alters the way nurses celebrate.
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‘This is what we trained for:’ Nurses at Baltimore’s Mercy Hospital volunteer for coronavirus duty
Nurses at Baltimore’s Mercy Hospital cross train to help save coronavirus patients.
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‘I’m afraid it’s going to walk its evil head through that door’: Harford assisted living nurses on frontline of coronavirus pandemic
Nurse Karen Briggeman has been on the frontlines of two wars — one human, the other viral. But the fight against the coronavirus is nothing like what she, or other Harford County assisted living nurses, have experienced before.
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Wednesday's online performances
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Wed, May 6:
JEWEL, the acoustic singer-songwriter who grew up in the Alaska wilderness, knows a thing about social distancing. Tonight, she’s holding a guided meditation — and performing some new music — for a New York Times event.
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Wed, May 6:
1 pm Pacific --
Fantastic Negrito* via the New York Guitar Festival’s Facebook channel, exploring the music of Reverent Gary Davis, the start of a 12-day series with various artists benefitting MusiCares
* click here
* click here
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Wed, May 6:
2 pm Pacific --
Robyn Hitchcock and Rhett Miller
* via Paste’s YouTube
* click here
* via Paste’s YouTube
* click here
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Wed, May 6:
5 pm Pacific --
"Whiskey Sour Happy Hour" with Ed Helms and artists TBA
* presented by the Bluegrass Situation
* presented by the Bluegrass Situation
* via Facebook
* click here
* click here
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Thursday, May 7th
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1 pm Pacific --
Bill Frisell* via the New York Guitar Festival’s Facebook channel, exploring the music of Reverent Gary Davis, the start of a 12-day series with various artists benefitting MusiCares
* click here
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5 pm Pacific --
Robbie Fulks
* via Mercury Lounge Tulsa’s Facebook, Instagram and YouTube
click here
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Friday, May 8th
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1 pm Pacific --
Don Flemons* via the New York Guitar Festival’s Facebook channel, exploring the music of Reverent Gary Davis, the start of a 12-day series with various artists benefitting MusiCares
* click here
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Fri, May 8:
1 pm Pacific --
Hayes Carll and Tommy Emmanuel
* via Paste’s YouTube
* click here
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Fri, May 8:
1 pm Pacific --
Hayes Carll and Tommy Emmanuel
* via Paste’s YouTube
* click here
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Fri, May 8:
Time tba
Monthly "NORTHWEST SEAPORT CHANTEY SING"
* The long-running monthly chantey sing at Seattle's maritime museum has successfully gone online.
* There were 75 participants in April, hailing from as far afield as Alaska, Maryland, and Denmark.
* The next online chantey sing is May 8. Get an invite by registering for their maritime music emails here.
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Saturday, May 9th
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5 pm Pacific --
Allison Moorer
* via Facebook
* click here
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5 pm Pacific --
* via Circle Media’s Facebook
* click here
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Sat, May 9th:
6 pm Pacific --
Brandy Clark
* via Martin Guitars’ Facebook
* click here
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Sun, May 10, on tv:
8 pm-9 pm Pacific --
"SATURDAY NIGHT OPRY" is a re-run of last night's "Grand Ole Opry LIVE," this week with BLAKE SHELTON & GWEN STEFANI, TRACE ADKINS and DUSTIN LYNCH
* via Circle TV entertainment network, broadcast in L.A. on KDOC.
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* via Martin Guitars’ Facebook
* click here
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Sunday, May 10th
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8 pm-9 pm Pacific --
"SATURDAY NIGHT OPRY" is a re-run of last night's "Grand Ole Opry LIVE," this week with BLAKE SHELTON & GWEN STEFANI, TRACE ADKINS and DUSTIN LYNCH
* via Circle TV entertainment network, broadcast in L.A. on KDOC.
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Thanks for joining us here at the Acoustic Americana Music Guide!
CHECK BACK HERE, at the BOTTOM OF THE CURRENT CHRONOLOGY, for more events, added until a new edition takes over... the basic url always takes you to our latest word.
With a few fine exceptions... most artists are not giving much notice (hint-hint, swift kick in the ass!) before they suddenly decide to do a cyber show. For the present, we keep up the best we can.
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We have lots of MUSIC NEWS
features in the works, and they'll
be along as we get them dressed,
shoes tied, cowlicks combed down,
bowties cranked straight,
and strings tuned.
Find a comfortable spot by the
wood stove -- you'll prob'ly need to
grab the cards for solitaire, since you
can't have somebody over for a round
of checkers. But we'll be along...
directly, from a safe social distance.
Direct from Cyberia.
features in the works, and they'll
be along as we get them dressed,
shoes tied, cowlicks combed down,
bowties cranked straight,
and strings tuned.
Find a comfortable spot by the
wood stove -- you'll prob'ly need to
grab the cards for solitaire, since you
can't have somebody over for a round
of checkers. But we'll be along...
directly, from a safe social distance.
Direct from Cyberia.
_________________________________________________
On to the necessary boilerplate...
Boilerplate? What "boilerplate"? Where's the main pressure gauge? And the firebox? How do you add water so it won't blow-up?
Who came up with that goofy term for the basic essential informational stuff? ...obviously some dumbass...
Alright already, it's right down there...
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LEGALESE, CONTACTING US, 'N SUCH...
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Direct to the Guide's current editions /
MOBILE-DEVICE-FRIENDLY
editions load quickly at
Or at
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CONTACT US -- Post Comments / Send Questions / say Howdy at:
Tiedtothetracks (at) Hotmail (dot) com
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OR USE THE COMMENTS FUNCTION on the Blogspot site.
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Entire contents copyright © 2020,
Lawrence Wines & Tied to the Tracks.
All rights reserved.
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♪ The ACOUSTIC AMERICANA MUSIC GUIDE endeavors to bring you NEWS – and views of interest to artists everywhere – more specifically to musicians and the creative community and music makers -- and fans of acoustic and Folk-Americana music. That includes both traditional and innovative forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues (now undergoing a major update), and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues from the monumentally large to the intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops, conferences, and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds o’ things in the world of acoustic and Americana and accessible classical music. From washtub bass to musical spoons to oboe to viola to banjo to squeezebox, from Djangostyle to new-fangled-old-time string band music, from sweet Cajun fiddle to bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the swamp water roots of the blues and the bright lights of where the music is headed now.
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The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell. The cyber porch'll be here anytime you come back from the road.
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We'll be back again soon with music news and more "News of the Non-Trumpcentric Universe." (c)
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Til we catch ya again on the flip side
in this new decade...
in this new decade...
as Buford the Wonder Dog looks on
and in our best Kathy Baker
"Hee Haw" voice: "THAT's all!"
"Hee Haw" voice: "THAT's all!"
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Here's a reprint of important info from one of our February editions:
COVID-19 Coronavirus PRACTICAL PRECAUTIONS
(good for avoiding the "regular" flu & colds, too)
• Coronavirus lives on inorganic surfaces anywhere from two hours to NINE DAYS; it all seems dependent on temperature, unless it is killed by disinfectant. When tests revealed that, even health care workers were surprised. It brings more emphasis to many of the following points.
• Get the flu vaccine -- ordinary flu will likely mimic Coronavirus, so avoid being ostracized and quarantined.
• Wash your hands, a lot: scrub for 20 seconds and wash them often.
• Stop shaking hands. Don't do "fist bumps" because that's still hand-to-hand contact. And don't become a mad elbow-bumper, because of the next point.
• Cough into the inside of your elbow, ANY TIME you cough.
• Stop shaking hands. Don't do "fist bumps" because that's still hand-to-hand contact. And don't become a mad elbow-bumper, because of the next point.
• Cough into the inside of your elbow, ANY TIME you cough.
• Keep your hands away from your face -- touching your nostrils, eyes, or mouth brings-in every germ your hands picked-up.
• Get a little bottle of hand sanitizer on a miniature carabiner. Clip it to your belt loop or purse strap and use it frequently. (Be sure you snap the lid shut, or it'll drain all over your clothes.) You can refill it from the pump bottle by the sink.
• Make your own hand sanitizer if the stores are out. Formula, from a doctor who makes it with her kids: two parts isopropyl alcohol (drugstore alcohol, at least 70% alcohol), one part aloe vera gel, a dash of any essential oil. Works just ss well as store bought stuff.
• Make your own hand sanitizer if the stores are out. Formula, from a doctor who makes it with her kids: two parts isopropyl alcohol (drugstore alcohol, at least 70% alcohol), one part aloe vera gel, a dash of any essential oil. Works just ss well as store bought stuff.
• Stay home if you're sick -- even if you don't get paid, DON'T be the "Typhoid Mary" that brings a pandemic of this or ANYTHING contagious. If you're "taking one for the team," make it the big team -- ALL of us.
• Don't be a transporter. Immediately remove shoes inside your front door and change clothes when you get home. Don't plunk-down on the couch until you shed what you were wearing at work or in the store or on the bus or in the coffee bar. Stop tracking everything from the sidewalk onto your kitchen and bathroom floors and your rug.
• Be mindful of your car. Everything you touch, everywhere, is on your steering wheel. Everywhere you sit is on your car seat. Keep 'em disinfected -- Clorox wipe the wheel, Lysol spray the seats, often.
• Don't be a transporter. Immediately remove shoes inside your front door and change clothes when you get home. Don't plunk-down on the couch until you shed what you were wearing at work or in the store or on the bus or in the coffee bar. Stop tracking everything from the sidewalk onto your kitchen and bathroom floors and your rug.
• Be mindful of your car. Everything you touch, everywhere, is on your steering wheel. Everywhere you sit is on your car seat. Keep 'em disinfected -- Clorox wipe the wheel, Lysol spray the seats, often.
• Everything you wear goes in the hamper. No multi-day wearings between washings.
• Keep track of where Coronavirus and other flus are headed, the latest ways to avoid contagion, and what symptoms go with what disease, by putting the CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL in your favorites: www.cdc.gov
• Call your doctor or public health officials if you become symptomatic, and DON'T "just go" to the doctor or urgent care or ER; everybody else in the waiting room does not have what you have, and vice-versa.
• Don't buy-up all tbe masks that medical responders need. Nearly all the masks in the stores are Dust Masks, made to keep carpenters and other tradesmen from inhaling sawdust. Expecting those to protect you from tiny viruses is like trying to filter water with a tennis racket. Plus, wearing masks everywhere is not a good idea -- without training and lots of practice, you'll contaminate the thing and then breathe a stewpot of microorganisms up-close and personal.
• Get proper nutrition and plenty of sleep to support your immune system. THAT is THE best way to stay healthy.
• REALLY IMPORTANT: Think about what you routinely ignore:
~ your phone or tablet, which you constantly handle while you're touching everything else in the big, wide world, then keep handling when you're eating (keep your devices disinfected).
~ the Kleenex or cloth hankie you pull out of your pocket -- this time your nose or eye gets the side your dirty finger got last time (yeah, duh!)
~ door handles & knobs, especially "pull-to-exit" on the restroom door, and all door handles you grab or push.
~ gas pump handles -- whatever was deposited on them is now on your steering wheel, and marinading on your hands as you snack while driving.
~ gas pump handles -- whatever was deposited on them is now on your steering wheel, and marinading on your hands as you snack while driving.
~ restaurant menus, salt and pepper shakers, ketchup and mustard and hot sauce bottles that every unwashed hand touches. Same goes for bins of packaged condiments at fast foodies or convenience store / gas stations (Use 'em, then use your hand sanitizer.)
~ lunch buffet serving spoons, spatulas, tongs that every unwashed hand uses in the food bins (your freshly-washed hands just got contaminated). And if sneeze guard glass panes aren't at the right height or aren't clean, demand a refund and leave.
~ coins in change and money, in general -- coins and folding money are germ transit systems. (Back to your little bottle of hand sanitizer.)
~ airline & train tray tables -- who knows when they were last cleaned and to what extent? When we saw a baby being changed on one... (bring a little plastic box of Clorox wipes when you travel).
~ bring your own food on the airplane -- you're probably doing that, anyway, since they stopped feeding you back when they started charging for carry-on luggage and made you ride with your knees in your armpits. Flight attendants have tested positive -- their hands pour drinks, dispense snacks, and pick-up everybody's garbage.
~ airline & train tray tables -- who knows when they were last cleaned and to what extent? When we saw a baby being changed on one... (bring a little plastic box of Clorox wipes when you travel).
~ bring your own food on the airplane -- you're probably doing that, anyway, since they stopped feeding you back when they started charging for carry-on luggage and made you ride with your knees in your armpits. Flight attendants have tested positive -- their hands pour drinks, dispense snacks, and pick-up everybody's garbage.
~ remember to think and act consciously. There is an acute need to be mindful of others, so neither be paranoid reactive nor obliviously ignorant. There was great advice in the old cop show at the end of every briefing: "Be careful out there."
Read AND SHARE The Guide's complete feature story on the COVID-19 Coronavirus in the edition at: https://acousticamericana.blogspot.com/2020/02/leap-day-weekend-leaping-into.html
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