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Events updated through Wednesday, May 27. (Latest update: 5/27, 8:09 am
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Notice to readers, Tuesday May 26, 11:45 am
Until further notice, The Guide will cease listing Twitter links for any concerts, musician or event information, or other content. We have taken this step because Twitter refuses to apply its own policy regarding untrue and malicious content. Posts in violation that are routinely taken-down when made by ordinary users without huge numbers of followers are, indeed, subjected by Twitter to its policy. But at least one Twitter user with 8 million followers and 40 million page viewers routinely gets a free pass for blatant, deliberate, malicious and wholly unfounded outbursts of character assassination of persons both living and dead who are not public figures.
Twitter's chairman has been formally asked -- by the widow of a woman whose death, years ago, was ruled accidental -- to take down a continuing flurry of posts alleging she was murdered. Those posts even accuse someone of being her murderer.
But Twitter has said it will allow those posts to remain up and visible to all on its site, and it refuses to stop more such posts by the same person making the allegations.
Anyone making such outrageous and unfounded accusations in any public forum should be answered by civil prosecution. So should any kind of media outlet that aids the accuser by propagating such claims -- especially where said media outlet facilitates the accuser's purpose and intent without clearly reporting the incident as news reportage that indicates the accusations are neither verified nor otherwise have been put forth by any credible source.
The fact that the accuser is the President of the United States, a man whose documented lies have surpassed 70,000 since he took office in January, 2017, should in no way give him a public forum for making malicious claims for his abberant purposes. Or for a media site to make money for itself through being a platform for malicious lies that escape responsible scrutiny.
Because Twitter chooses to facilitate that behavior and give its platform to that use, we refuse to do anything further that facilitates traffic to Twitter. Any references or links to Twitter in our previously published content will remain, because we are a source of record. But unless and until Twitter chooses to be a responsible source that follows its own rules, we are done with them here.
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Below is the complete content of this multipart edition of The Guide prior to the necessity of the above announcement.
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Great new "music listen" now leads-off everything else -- and there's a LOT in here!
Add-in, up-top EXTRA. New content added ON and FOR Memorial Day Monday, May 25, 2020. Another Monday music show -- with all-star lineup -- was added at 2:18 pm Monday to the main section listings. Final changes to up-top Monday add-ons made at 11:53 am PDT, 5/25.
Tuesday and beyond also added midday Sunday.
(The full edition with all the music, news, and other features, follows the up-top Monday additions.)
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A special listen...
Ernest Troost, award-winner as both singer-songwriter and film music composer, sends us
"All the World Before Us"
his song written from the point of view of a statue of a fallen sailor about the people who visit the statue.
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Monday add-in...
Somebody needs to tell these Covidiots: "RE-OPENING" IS NOT A DAMN FREE-FOR-ALL SOCIAL ORGY
Alright, look. It's time to get confrontational. Today we celebrate our dead military heroes. If the military does one thing very well, it's getting everybody on the same page, working together as a team. And then celebrating our freedom after we gave-up some of it to keep everybody else from getting killed.
You should see where this is going.
We've all -- all of us -- just endured longing and loss. And some of us have known family or personal terror or tragedy from an up-close-and-personal encounter with the damn virus that comprises the global pandemic -- which absolutely is NOT over.
Yet our beaches and other places are suddenly infested with impatient, short-attention-span dumbbells bent on packing themselves like termite mounds into unmasked tight proximity and inevitably -- very predictably -- being 21st century Typhoid Marys.
It's the single most inconceivable, unbelievable aspect of this entire Season of Pandemania.
So communicate something to all you know, would ya?
It's the first time an incongruous line from that old feel-good-unity song, "We Are the World," actually meant anything. That line? "We're saving our own lives." Only if we stop the Covidiots and massed Branch Covidians from being personal Plague Ships.
So borrow any of those lines to make the necessary impression on these damn fools.
Or just tell them,
"DON'T BE A MASKHOLE!"
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More Monday add-in...
◇ First, in the skies over the Los Angeles Basin...
Departing from Loma Linda at Noon, a flight of historic World War II aircraft will make the rounds of Southern California skies, flying over numerous hospitals and medical centers in tribute to our health care workers.
The flight concludes when then make their annual pass over the Battleship Iowa Museum, docked at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, to salute military veterans living and dead on Memorial Day.
◇ Second, over the Mojave Desert...
Also at Noon Monday -- by default, because the mission was scrubbed yesterday -- the first orbital rocket launch is scheduled to be made from the airborne Virgin Orbit 747 carrier ship.
The concept is elegantly simple: mount a specialized rocket under the wing of a big airplane, just like the old X-15 rocket research air/space craft that launched in the '60s from a B-52 mother ship. Only this time, take it not just for an up-and-back loop, but into orbit.
Today's rocket carries a dummy demonstration payload, but it must go the distance and reach orbit to prove the viability of this division of Richard Branson's assorted aerial idea factory.
If this is successful, it will be the first aerially-launched liquid fueled booster rocket that takes a payload to orbit.
Watch the video with Chief Test Pilot Kelly Latimer, the woman flying 747 "Cosmic Girl" today:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1264982026832109568
There is a four-hour launch window, so no telling exactly when the two craft will part ways.
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Yes, you can watch the WW II vintage flight extravaganza.
To see the latter, it won't help to drive to Mojave except to watch the 747 go out and return. Not even if you take binoculars. Unless you're on a boat. Virgin Orbit tells us, "After taking off from Mojave, Cosmic Girl will fly due southwest to our drop point just south of the Channel Islands. Once we reach the drop point, we'll enter into a loop that we call the "racetrack" as we wait for final go/no-gos."
But wherever you go? Take your mask and observe sensible physical distancing.
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More Monday add-in...
L.A.'s Meat Packing Plant COVID Cluster
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has identified COVID-19 outbreaks at nine industrial facilities in Vernon, including four meatpacking plants.
The largest outbreak occurred at the Smithfield Foods-owned Farmer John plant — producer of the beloved Dodger Dog — where 153 of 1,837 employees tested positive for COVID-19 between March and May, the county said Sunday.
The other eight facilities with outbreaks are CLW Foods (meat), Vie De France Yamazaki (baked goods), Cal Farms Meat (meat), Takaokaya USA (green tea and other products), F. Gavina & Sons (coffee), Golden West Trading (meat), Overhill Farms (frozen food), and Rose and Shore (deli meat and prepared foods).
The county did not release information on the number of employees who tested positive at those facilities.
(https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/coronavirus-outbreaks-hits-farmer-john-8-other-plants-in-vernon/ar-BB14xst6?ocid=hplocalnews)
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has identified COVID-19 outbreaks at nine industrial facilities in Vernon, including four meatpacking plants.
The largest outbreak occurred at the Smithfield Foods-owned Farmer John plant — producer of the beloved Dodger Dog — where 153 of 1,837 employees tested positive for COVID-19 between March and May, the county said Sunday.
The other eight facilities with outbreaks are CLW Foods (meat), Vie De France Yamazaki (baked goods), Cal Farms Meat (meat), Takaokaya USA (green tea and other products), F. Gavina & Sons (coffee), Golden West Trading (meat), Overhill Farms (frozen food), and Rose and Shore (deli meat and prepared foods).
The county did not release information on the number of employees who tested positive at those facilities.
(https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/coronavirus-outbreaks-hits-farmer-john-8-other-plants-in-vernon/ar-BB14xst6?ocid=hplocalnews)
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More Monday add-in...
"Lucky" World War II veteran escapes doom again
Memorial Day weekend brings historic ship's latest escape, with thousand-degree flames just 50 feet away
The National Maritime Museum on Pier 45 at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf was partly lost in a massive fire Saturday.
That's the still-"lucky" SS Jeremiah O'Brien, aka the "National Liberty Ship Memorial," in the photo, somehow surviving the adjacent flames.
The O'Brien was already a rare survivor of two quickly-built fleets -- Liberty Ships and Victory Ships were the greatest unsung heroes of WW II, along with their crews. America's Merchant Marine seamen suffered higher death rates at the hands of fascist forces than any other branch of the service, including the lauded B-17 crews of the 8th Air Force.
And then, on the very weekend set aside to remember those who gave all, a veteran presumed safe nearly joined those she memorializes.
Here's the story -- in pictures and from on board -- of the O'Brien's latest great escape.
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| The O'Brien somehow survived again this weekend, 75 years after the end of the war. |
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| The flames reached high into the San Francisco waterfront sky, visible far and wide |
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The O'Brien is normally open daily for dockside tours -- and occasional cruises in San Francisco Bay and out through the Golden Gate. Before the virus -- and now, the fire -- she welcomed visitors at Pier 45, San Francisco, CA 94133.
Now -- in the midst of the pandemic -- a temporary new home must now be found for the O'Brien and other historic ships at the smouldering pier. For more, or to make a donation for the preservation and continued operation of the historic ship -- and replace needed materials that were lost in the fire -- go to:
www.ssjeremiahobrien.org
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More Monday add-in...
"Greatest War Movies" include antiwar classics
Some folks always look for certain films on Memorial Day. Others just want to find chronicles of humans and machines run amok in massed conflict under arms -- both when it mattered to stop fascist egomaniacs and when it killed a lot of people in pointless exercises of national ego.
Starting with films of the Silent Era, "Filmsite" lists 'purt near all of 'em, and has descriptions to help you decide which ones to track down on the download sites.
Here's an example. It's their write-up for the first-ever "Best Picture" OSCAR winner, the 1927 epic, "Wings" (a film The Guide highly recommends):
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"Wings" (1927)
[Conflict era portrayed:] US aviators during WWI
This silent and early anti-war film was the greatest of the early aviation epics with spectacular dog-fight combat sequences, and a spectacular reconstruction of the Battle of St. Mihiel. It was the first film (and only silent film) to be awarded Best Picture. It was the first film to introduce sound effects on a separate strip of film, and with dogfight scenes shot in the air (and not in the studio).
Starring both "It" girl Clara Bow (as girl next door Mary Preston) and Gary Cooper (in an early role as Cadet White), it told the twisting romantic story of two aviators Jack Powell and David Armstrong (Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen) both in love with the same girl - Sylvia (Jobyna Ralston).
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Use the tabs at the bottom of their site to find films by decade or era, from 1900 to the present:https://www.filmsite.org/greatwarfilms1.html
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More Monday add-in...
Americans still stranded overseas, ten weeks in
The Guide's editor has dear friends stranded in South Africa since the beginning of quasi- and more seriously real quarantines. They live in the U.S. state of Georgia. At least that was home when last they saw it.
Here's the latest from them, received this morning:
Well, the adventure continues.
The Dutch Embassy organized 2 repatriation flights to Amsterdam, one from Cape Town, the other from Johannesberg. Seats are available for us, but they would not accept our existing Delta tickets, not even the Amsterdam-Atlanta portion!
The repatriation rules require a continuous booking for passengers transiting through (in this case) Amsterdam.
The cost: a little over $3300 each ticket!! Our original round trip tickets cost $1250 each.
We're not going to spend 2 1/2 times the original cost for one way, and then still have two return portions we have no use for.
Also that was going to be a grueling 48+ hour marathon starting with short sleep. We would have had to get up around 0400 to gulp down a quick breakfast, then drive to an assembly point, then be bused to the airport.
That repatriation flight will not fly direct to Amsterdam, but to Reunion [an island in the Indian Ocean] for refueling and crew change (about 1:45, remain aboard the plane), then to Amsterdam arriving 0400 Sunday the 31st. Then a wait of 10+ hours for departure at 1445. Arrival Atlanta around 1830, or another 12 hours in the plane.
By the time we would get home in Lawrenceville it would be about 48 hours form getting up to arrival home.
___And the rest of us are complaining about driving-around to find toilet paper.
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One last Monday add-in...
THOUGHT FOR TODAY from one born on this date...
~ William Henry Channing, American Unitarian clergyman, writer and philosopher, and social reformer (born May 25, 1810, died 1884)
(our thanks to A.Word.A.Day for the quote)
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Here's the complete edition prior to the above add-ons;
Keep reading/scrolling in this main section for the
Memorial Day MONDAY events and MUSIC already in here,
including events from the Battleship Iowa Museum in San Pedro, and Monday music performances.
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The sequencing and format issues are fixed. Sorry this got out the door Saturday morning with mucho problemas. (Oy vey and odds bodkins.) It should be a wunderbar ride now!
Things that happen each day through the long weekend AND BEYOND now appear in sequence. No need for sonar, a decoder ring, a metal detector, or a guide dog to hunt them up -- not now, anyway.
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THREE real-world annual festivals go virtual this weekend, and one is interactive and 'uge!
Explored within, of course, with station stops at hither, yon, Mayberry, Hooterville, Pixley, and the downtown abbey.
What if leaves turned into fish? Illustration (detail) from the children's book "If..." by Sarah Perry (25th-Anniversary Ed.)
Happy Memorial Day weekend!
As we dispatch a variety of things of things we hope you'll appreciate, we borrow a sentiment from this weekend's Getty Museum "Get Inspired" e-missive, "hoping you can read them in a quiet, sunny spot outdoors, birds singing and grill smells wafting." In fact, we include something from the Getty in this edition -- in addition to the illustration above.
In this edition...
We...
• begin with some perspective for this singularly unique weekend; Then...
• get into a bit of essential news of the world, and analysis; Then...
• proceed in detail to news of music and the arts; and...
• provide full coverage of two virtual music & dance festivals happening this weekend!
Let's get started!
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Oh, by the way...
You might want to scroll right to the SATURDAY, SUNDAY, & MONDAY CYBER PERFORMANCES & FESTIVALS -- right after the "news & views of the big ol' world" -- and come back later, while you're listening to music, to read the up-front parts...
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A singularly unique weekend...
Perspective on the "traditional beginning of summer"
Even as quasi-quarantine and "lock downs" begin to reverse -- for better or worse -- across America, THIS is the weekend when absolute cancellation of live music and other performances and events outdoors will be felt the most.
Memorial Day Weekend is THE time most filled with competing big festivals, not just across music genres, but within them. Pounding pop infests the street fairs and Southern California's coastal piers and boardwalks. Folk-Americana musicians and fans alike hit the road for their first major safaris of the season, to the 26 stages of Northwest Folklife in Seattle, or multiple Cajun and blues fests in Louisiana, or festivals with near cult followings in the tall trees of Northern California. There are even riverboat and steam train fests and the mythic music that goes with each. All while many thousands of us scurry between (or among) multiple offerings in Southern California, from Irish and Celtic to acoustic eclectic to bluegrass to beach music. And THIS WEEKEND is when it all happens because it's not too hot yet and it's the first three-day weekend since February. Except in 2020 when every boxcar on the railroad is derailed, the spilled contents are starting to stink, the telegraphers down the line have given up, and nuthin' is leavin' the yard.
This weekend is a big deal, so it warrants multiple metaphors.
There's an old adage that if you keep hitting yourself with a hammer, after awhile it stops hurting. As, when every aspect of normality is gone, one weekend after another, after another, on into the third month, the constant empty space becomes filled with something else that becomes not simply an adjustment, but becomes accepted as routine.
No, you can't go to the movies, or go hear live jazz at Vitelo's in Glendale or at the Blue Whale in Japantown, or catch a concert of great acoustic string music at the Coffee Gallery Backstage up in charming little Altadena, or a show in the famous concert hall in back of McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, or downstairs at the Fret House in Covina, or in the Folk Music Center and Museum out in Claremont, or Boulevard Music in Culver City, or the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, or that little honkytonk hideaway out in the Valley, or the corner bistro with Friday and Saturday live music in West Adams, or the bar that doesn't really have a stage but acts like they do (take your pick of those), or any of the music performance series that long ago became evening fixtures in incongruous places like libraries and Caltech lecture halls... and with the coming of summer, bandshells and temporary stages in parks and botanical gardens and arboretums and racetrack in fields. Obviously, more creeps into the zero-sum equation with warmer weather.
But this three-day holiday, when so much was supposed to happen all at once, it hits like one of those silent collisions in space that really can't have a John Williams score in a vacuum of nothingness.
Oh, we thought we'd adjusted. Keep Calm and Watch YouTube; by now,qq+qqsomeone must have amended the famous British placard. Send comments to the Zoom Meeting turned intimate concert platform so you're "there" and "interacting." You don't need to have your device infested with Facebook spyware to watch that live-from-her-living-room concert? Yes, everyone now knows all about these things.
Music live nightly from Cyberia. New paradigm of performance. Plenty fresh and exciting. Until it's not. And this weekend is when we sense the man behind the curtain is the InstaTubian Emperor with clouds of virtual vapor, lots of hissing levers, and no clothes. Suddenly we retrench in that sense that we have been worshipping a false idol and the world just isn't right.
THIS weekend, with its lack of maneuvering like Grant at Vicksburg to place your blanket turf-claim marker, and lugging your sand chairs, and buying the t-shirt before the best one runs out, and slathering the sunscreen during the first band's set, and batting the inflatable beach ball around the crowd, and getting miffed at the girl on the guy's shoulders who keeps spilling beer on you, is when we feel it acutely.
Part of why is obvious. Because this "start-of-summer" ritual is a cultural overlay that we have all become accustomed to embellishing with our custom-tailored self indulgences.
But being beset with a societal pause -- no, in truth a full-blown hiatus -- we might just recognize that no other weekend could be more appropriate for being clobbered by loss and longing.
Before it was for hijinks and overpriced hot dogs and overamplified pods of suspended speakers, this weekend was long ago about something else entirely. It was set aside, not for individual indulgences and raucous revelry, but because we expected it would warrant enduring observance.
It's supposed to be the time we quietly remember those who aren't here because they gave their lives in service to the rest of us.
And, dammit, it's really time that we begin to express it just that way, and take it back from a marketing orgy for the Military-Industrial-Cybersecurity Complex's insatiable rah-rah warconomy.
Because doing battle in a uniform of surgical scrubs and dying because you were overcome by hostile forces too small to see is just as noble a sacrifice. It is just as worthy of stopping to contemplate, with gratitude. It is time to declare these things every bit as much about the real purpose of Memorial Day as someone who died making a brave charge into the acrid smoke, wearing a military uniform.
And so, too, is a firefighter who perished amidst flames in the battle gear of a turnout coat. And a police officer engaged in an act of protecting public safety and "killed in the line."
And maybe that means we can be cognizant of a whole lot of others who have sacrificed for the rest of our pathetic, bored, complaining-'cause-we're-stuck-home, idled sorry asses. A plastic nametag on a grocery store shelf-stocker's uniform shirt wasn't supposed to be an "I-faced-death" combat medal. The sanitation workers on the garbage truck -- can we finally stop calling them garbage men? -- already had the riskiest job in America before they got surrounded by swirling nose-blows of unknown origin at every stop, along with dumping the bins at every medical office in town.
Now don't get uppity about "those menial jobs" and your education. Reporters don't just get killed covering wars. Some have notably had to fight their way back from COVID-19 infections they caught while doing their jobs, and some have died of the virus. First-year teachers spend that entire year sick because everybody's unclean children cough and sneeze all over them and paw everything in the classroom in any "normal" year. Dentists may wear face shields, but they're literally breathing whatever came out of your mouth and lungs. Oh, you say, they get paid well to do that. Yeah? What about their assistants? Or the hospital orderlies? Or the "hospital safety techs," a job title most of us are just learning because of the toll of the pandemic on those who keep the rest of us safe from it? Can we add their fallen to the list?
Taps will be played by everybody who knows how, on Sunday, nationwide, at 3 PM local time in each time zone.
Yes, play taps this Memorial Day. Which used to be called Remembrance Day, and probably still should be. When you hear those twenty-four poignant bugle notes, stand up respectfully, perhaps with your head bowed. Sound the muffled drums. Put little flags or flowers on the graves of the fallen and pause to read each name and to discern something from the date they died and how old they never got to be. And let's start turning that into a thoughtful exercise and not a reflexive one.
Moreover, let's begin making Memorial Day about ALL those who have given their lives in every kind of service to the rest of us. Because after this unprecedented amount of time to think and reflect, we owe it to them to find meaning going forward. We will never had a better reason and opportunity to find an attitude of gratitude for all those who spared us from what killed them.
For those wishing to focus on the traditional militaristic remembrances, PBS airs an 8 PM Sunday compilation special of its Memorial Day concerts from Washington, D.C. We'll probably watch because the guest singers and instrumentalists alike have so often been formidable.
First we'll play a John Prine song or two, to honor one of music's most esteemed who, years ago, wore the uniform of a U.S. Postal Service Letter Carrier. He fell last month in a Chicago hospital to the virus. And we'll choose one of his songs to help us think of those who cared so lovingly for him and tried to save his live.
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Yes, there IS a double-dose of irony placing this here, after the piece above...
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News features...
Lately we've been asked why there are things in here that are not about music. Well, it's always been that way. From our earliest days here and in the Guide's predecessor publications and on the radio, we've always included "news of interest to artists and the arts community."
We don't take that as a license to talk about anything and everything, but neither does it banish any topic that artists find compelling. And even in the midst of separation through quasi-quarantine, we do stay in touch with what interests arts people and what musicians are discussing.
Lately, a lot of that is about rebuilding and rescheduling tours and wondering whether anybody will come out and buy a ticket, or if a "real" tour now is a short road to losing your hat and your ass. So we have discussed issues pertinent to that, and will do more of it. And we continue to discuss many topics beyond that.
Plus, we have never wanted to be a "peat and repeat" operation here, or simply a "news aggregator" of loose stuff that's already rattling around in many other "someplaces."
In this edition, before we get to a WHOLE LOT of music-and-artist-and-music-biz content, we bring you four "up-top" news stories as "news & views of the big ol' world."
As a quick question, should we keep that "big ol' world" moniker? Well, it might tend to take the serious edge off things. Which can be good or bad. We do live in absurd times. And if we take everything (including ourselves) seriously all the time, we do so at our peril.
As the central question, should we be including things that are not specifically about MUSIC?
Okay, let's think about it. We can't let the bastards be dismissive about what saves them all their money and costs you all of yours. That is, after all, the essence of things in a society where a cynical form of end-game capitalism rules.
So, whether humor and satire risks blinding the edge, it helps keep all of us engaged. Just look at the successes of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Bill Maher, Lee Camp, and John Oliver. Their work proves we need to laugh AT the pompously powerful. But obviously not in eWevery context. There's a time for Roy Zimmerman and a time for Bob Dylan.
But when it comes to entertaining ourselves about people in power who need to seriously perform crucial jobs? We can't let them laugh-off everything about themselves, or pretty soon (take a deep breath) they're laughing all the way to the bank, and they have all our rent money, and their software is installed in the voting machines, and their spyware infests all our devices, and they're preaching austerity using their wholly-owned corporate media subsidiaries, and there's nothing left for transportation or education without financing everything through their banks, and there's nothing at all left for health care. Unless some paltry relief bill maybe gets passed in a pandemic.
We focused that paragraph on money since that's the centerpiece of their world and it's how all of us here mortals need to understand them. Basically "they" are indeed a "they" who find it desireable to behave differently than you and I. And "they" want a way -- think of it as a proprietary "combined universal equation" -- to collect and accumulate and accrue and amass and control and be in charge of how they get to charge even more to ration and distribute literally everything, while getting you to pay for all of it, and to pay them to do it to you.
We advocate that it's much cheaper and infinitely more valuable to pay something else -- attention.
Paying attention has never been more challenging. But in the face of global climate change nearing its point of no return, paying attention has never mattered so much as right now.
No less than Woody Guthrie advocated we should all strive to "help the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." And Woody didn't know yet we would need to apply that beyond ourselves to other species to keep our own place viable in the ecosphere. Or that we would literally need to fight the previously cited bastards at every turn -- as they ceaselessly scheme to overconsolidate and corporatize everything, including megagiant cel phone "provider" commercial cyberspying empires and corporate media that takes payola from Big Pharma to avoid investigation of its practices and obscene profiteering based on exploitation of human suffering and misery that could be allocated for the right price.
Woody could never have imagined that the predatory greed he encountered from a landlord named Fred Trump would get exponentially far out of hand, and, ultimately, that we would face the need to fight the same crowd to save the planet itself.
Thus, we include "news features of interest to artists and the arts community." And our news features go up-front, before we get to the music and arts news and event coverage.
• Whether or not running that first part risks incurring the wrath of the powerful.
• Whether any of it, during the siege of Pandemia by the Branch Covidians and other assorted Covidiots, is hard to report and get necessary confirmations.
• And whether the news of music and the arts and live performance -- as a vital part of society and civilization and keeping the faith for a future worth having -- must be tracked-down in Cyberia or wherever else we to go to bring it back alive and bring you good tunage.
So, yes, there are "up front" features "of interest to artists and the arts community," that you'll continue to see as long as we do this. Whether or not we call them "news & views of the big ol' world."
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Up front: news & views of the big ol' world, # 1
Church Petri dishes and Trump's hallelujah lab experiment
by Larry Wines
When the key Coronavirus plan-and-precautions document from the U.S. government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) seemed endlessly stuck, sections of it began to leak to the press. There was real surprise when the report was released that the most substantial portions had been redacted, and even basic protocols for masks, distancing, and other effective measures going forward were missing.
A key entire section of the report, specifying requirements to re-open churches, was no longer there.
Early Friday morning, word came that the missing section would be provided by CDC for addition to the report. Then, an hour later, that was eclipsed by word of a briefing in the White House Press Room. And within minutes, there was a clarification that President Trump would be the one speaking.
He was uncharacteristically brief, saying only that all churches and houses of worship nationwide would reopen immediately, no matter what any state's governors thought, asserting, "and if they have any questions, they can call me but they won't be successful."
Within moments, the world press was publishing accounts with titles that included, "Trump designates houses of worship as essential, orders US governors to reopen them NOW." Their capitalization, not ours.
If Trump wants to argue that churches are a special case, he could be right -- if he didn't have it all so backwards and hideously deadly.
In Mount Vernon, Washington, after 60 people attended the Skagit Valley Chorale's choir rehearsal at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church, 45 of them -- a full 3/4 of those who attended -- fell ill with the virus and two more were dead of the ravages of Covid-19.
Forty others contracted COVID-19 after singing in the choir at the Church of Liberty Square in Cartersville, Georgia.
A number of cautions were added to W.H.O. and to Trump's own White House Coronavirus Task Force recommendations this week, based on studies showing the projection of large numbers of virus microbes happens easily across a large room from a single loud talker. Questions posed about singing, and group singing, brought warnings that it was an obvious and dangerous multiplier.
Later in the day Friday, the CDC did release the guidelines that had been expected before Trump's proclamations. They are at odds with what he said, recommending that all attending church wear masks and observe social distancing, that singing "be limited," and that church services be held outdoors wherever possible -- with attendees kept apart.
There's just no way to make sense of Trump's ollie-ollie-oxen-free for church pew populations, coming as they do with unfettered encouragement for congregations to, well, congregate.
Was Trump caving to his administration's chief religionistas, starting with Mike Pence, who has publicly said believers should precipitate the Apocalypse? Or was the Commander-in-Tweet simply playing his usual game of keeping anyone off balance before they can ask him a question he doesn't want to answer? He departed immediately after making his proclamation to the press, thus getting around his third usual technique of insulting and demeaning anyone who does ask a substantive question.
Let's get some context. At the time Trump spoke -- in effect ordering an end to masks and safe distancing protocols for those inclined to pack themselves into churches -- total U.S. Coronavirus deaths had reached 95,822, a bit less than a third of the world's total COVID-19 death toll of 334,054. Confirmed global cases were at 5,125,642, of which the U.S. has between 1/4 and 1/3, with 1,599,648 American cases.
Clearly, for Trump the agenda is elsewhere. Though where remains as much an open question as ever. With today's proclamation, he has declared that churches, synagogues and mosques are "essential" establishments. That order may or may not have the force of law to undo governors' orders against public gatherings of more than ten people. In any event, a mid-afternoon announcement on a Friday in Washington, D.C., makes it unlikely the courts will rule before Sunday of a symbolically major weekend in America.
Add to that the earlier move by one Catholic Archdiocese and a prominent Lutheran group, both in Minnesota, that unless that state's Governor Tim Walz relaxed the lockdown, they would begin congregating in defiance of his orders.
"These are places that hold our society together and keep our people united," Trump said Friday, adding that it’s "not right" that some states have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential, but mandated that houses of worship remain closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
One tv reporter was quick to note, "someone may go into a liquor store to make a purchase. They may even mill around briefly. But they don't congregate in there, and in most places they're required to wear a mask."
Trump's assertion about abortion clinics -- if it's even true anywhere -- would describe a medical environment where all mask and PPE provisions would be in place. So it's easily dismissible as another of his red herrings.
Meanwhile, it isn't just states that are now set-up by the reckless Orange Imbecile to face open insurrection from Branch Covidians. Several major cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and the Washington, DC area, all remain under lockdown orders that prohibit public gatherings in close quarters.
While getting this story, a researcher remarked, "Doesn't look like lamb's blood is gonna fix things this time."
Indeed, a cross section of society reacted immediately to Trump's announcement, most predicting the long patient period of isolation will quickly be undone, and more people will get the coronavirus and die as a result. Actress Mia Farrow was among them.
Wow!! Trump has ordered the CDC to label houses of worship as ‘essential’ and they must now admit parishioners. This is madness. Many people will get sick. Many will die. Governors were threatened Trump saying he will override any objections. CDC has lost all integrity.
Up front: news & views of the big ol' world, # 2
From RT America / USA News
Hand sanitizers can cause FIRE if left in car on hot summer’s day
Originally published: 21 May 2020 | 20:42 GMT
Hand sanitizers, the new liquid gold sought after and rationed in the times of the Covid-19 pandemic, may cause even more harm than the virus itself if left unattended under the burning summer sun, firefighters have warned.
While vigorously trying to protect yourself from the coronavirus, which has already infected more than five million people around the globe and killed over 328,000, you could find your vehicle and even life in danger from the means to fend off the virus.
A Wisconsin fire department posted a photo of a destroyed car door on its Facebook page. It looks as if it was fired upon from a shotgun from close range, but the damage was actually caused by a small bottle of hand sanitizer.
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From a Fire Marshal's social media photo and post:
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Let’s start today with a little education!
We’ve chatted in the past about clear water bottles being kept in your vehicle when the weather is warm.
That still holds true and so does hand sanitizer! By its nature, most hand sanitizer is alcohol-based and therefore flammable. Keeping it in your car during hot weather, exposing it to sun causing magnification of light through the bottle, ...
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"Most hand sanitizer is alcohol-based and therefore flammable" the firefighters explained. The content of alcohol in the solution that people generously apply to themselves these days is usually between 60 and 80 percent.
But it becomes a real problem with the approach of summer as sanitizer can be exposed to the sun which causes “magnification of light through the bottle.” It may be particularly dangerous if one is smoking in the car or grilling next to it.
The hand sanitizer market in the US skyrocketed by 1,400 percent in just the first month of the Covid-19 outbreak as people have been encouraged to use them when they have no access to hand washing, like in a car.
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Up front: news & views of the big ol' world, # 3
A health care worker is asking you for help...
"I work with infectious disease every day."
New advocacy / activism call sounded by a front-line medical hero
Sam Larson identifies himself as a "Hospital Safety Tech." Unlike "doctor," "respiratory therapist," "physician's assistant," "nurse practitioner," or "nurse," it's evident there are still other vital positions in today's medical corps that we need to learn.
Sam follows his opening statement, "I work with infectious disease every day," by informatively adding, "That's why I’m a safety tech at a hospital in Michigan. I disinfect patient rooms, many of which have had the coronavirus."
He continues, "Despite that kind of regular exposure, I've had a hard time getting tested. Many of my frontline colleagues have been refused tests. I worry about bringing the infection home to my wife and our two year old son."
"Which is why it bothers me that Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Republican leaders are trying to block or dismantle the House Democrats HEROES act," he says.
Sam gets to why he's talking to us: "I ask everyone -- Democrats, Republicans, or otherwise -- to call your senators. Please. LIVES are at stake."
"Can you call your state's two U.S. Senators? Tell them that you support passing the House Democrats' HEROES Act? Leave a message if you have to."
The phone numbers are below.
Here is Sam's video.
Sam has a second request for our front line health care corps. He says, "...help air the PCCC's TV ad pressuring Mitch McConnell in Kentucky. Make him feel political pain (as he's in a 1 point race) if he opposes this bill. Donate here [to air the ad]."
PCCC is the Progressive Political Change Committee, an organization that's been around awhile.
Whether or not you can -- or are inclined to -- donate to run that, or any ad?
If you're with Sam to get Congress to help our health care workers, you can share his video on Facebook and Twitter.
Sam has more to say about what's in the Congressional legislation and what's at stake here -- in would should be a no-brainer piece of vital support -- but is already a tough fight, in which Trump allies vow to defeat the support package for front-line heroes who have borne to fight against the pandemic, on behalf of all of us.
The capitalized words in the following are Sam's:
"There’s a ton of worker protections in the House Democrats' HEROES Act that Elizabeth Warren and other progressives have fought for, including 12 weeks of paid leave, financial support for child care, and hazard pay for workers who are putting themselves at risk."
"My wife is a small business owner -- a hair stylist. When she goes back to work we will need help paying for daycare, since business will not resume at the levels that it was and it will take time to ramp up," he says.
"Additionally, with elections in Michigan being very contested, we will NEED universal mail-in voting. Ballots will need to be automatically sent to every voter to ensure public safety. I do NOT want to have to choose between my family's health and voting."
"Democrats have put these kinds of provisions into the HEROES act. So the question is -- why would Republicans refuse to pass such an obviously practical bill with obvious solutions?"
"I work with infectious disease every day. We need healthy people in order to have a healthy economy."
"That's why I'm asking everyone to PLEASE call your senators -- Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. LIVES are at stake."
"Can you call your state's two U.S. Senators? Tell them that you support passing the House Democrats HEROES Act. Our lives are at stake."
It's easy to get your Senators' phone numbers and email addresses. You CAN call over the holiday weekend and leave a message. Just state your name and town or zip code and that you are a constituent. Then the message you want to leave:
https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Sam also repeats his ask, that you share his video on Facebook and Twitter.
In the words that would be spoken on the streets, if it were safe to march,
"This is what democracy looks like."
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Up front: news & views of the big ol' world, # 4
Endangered Sea Turtles
(Not Mitch McConnell as Burt the Turtle)
Today is "World Turtle Day." It is also the beginning of hatching season and that's as much a time of great concern as of joy for new hatchlings.
We heard from Tegan Gregory, Digital Ocean Plastics Campaigner at Greenpeace USA, who tells us, "The fate of these baby sea turtles is on my mind." She explained why.
Worldwide, there are only SEVEN SPECIES of sea turtles left in existence — and SIX of them are already threatened with extinction.
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One of those species, the Leatherback, makes an epic 3,700-mile journey from life in the open sea to a beach where she lays her eggs. But that beach is riddled with deadly threats, like choking to death on plastic pollution, becoming bycatch from commercial fisheries, and constant systemic threat of climate change on breeding grounds and reproduction.
Tegan says, "Because of these dangers, the future for sea turtles is in jeopardy, and we must do everything in our power to save them!"
That brings us to this weekend and today, May 23rd, World Turtle Day, a global event to come together to conserve and protect turtles. Tegan asks, "...what better way to honor the fight to save sea turtles than by having your gift TRIPLED to help protect the ocean and planet!" (We told you she's with Greenpeace.)
Turns out they have a group of benefactors who will triple-match whatever you give to help sea turtles up to $260,000, but that's available this weekend only.
So Tegan has this cute graphic for "TRIPLE turtle power" 🐢x🐢x🐢 "to help protect all our favorite turtles: the Leatherback, the Hawkbill, the Olive Ridley, plus power all of Greenpeace’s urgent campaign work."
There's another reason we're helping.
Due to COVID-19, the UN meeting that was set to negotiate a new Global Ocean Treaty is postponed. Delay is often deadly for wild species. Because of three million global supporters, Greenpeace and its allies, says Tegan, "are closer than ever to passing the largest conservation agreement in history to better address ocean conservation," and they'll do that, "by creating a network of ocean sanctuaries that will allow turtles and other marine life the space to recover and adapt to a rapidly changing world."
She adds, "We can’t lose this momentum! The campaign to pass a Global Ocean Treaty is too important for sea turtles."
Brace yourself, because now she's gonna pull your heartstrings.
"With their gentle eyes, and huge shelled bodies, the plight of the sea turtle is heartbreaking for everyone that loves these creatures. Greenpeace won’t stop fighting against the biggest disruptors to their survival and the survival of many of the most threatened species in the ocean, like plastic pollution, overfishing, and climate change. And we know as a friend to sea turtles, you won’t either." (We warned you.)
Globally -- other than the ones directly helping front line medical workers or giving aid to the unemployed poor -- every kind of charity is in trouble. Many environmental organizations doing vital work may soon be unable to continue make-or-break efforts to save species, habitat, rainforests, oceans, breeding beach environments, protected fisheries that are being violated, and even supposedly protected U.S. public lands where the current administration is throwing-out decades-old protections so trophy hunters can kill and stuff wild animals.
It's a critical time to support the watchdogs for Mother Earth. Greenpeace is one of them. Help turtles or help something. Tegan talks of "these next three critical months, we need to make sure we have the resources needed to reignite the fight when this pandemic is over," and things that "make a huge difference in funding our work."
Greenpeace never takes a dime from corporations or governments. Everything they do is thanks to generous support of people like you and me.
To make a TRIPLE gift in honor of "World Turtle Day" to Greenpeace, click here:
https://engage.us.greenpeace.org/onlineactions/e7J--0O1hUK14IcH5wz64Q2
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Memorial Day Weekend events
We've got 'em for you, immediately following in separate sections for each of the three days.
Following that is plenty more, from on-demand concerts and events to new singles, formally produced and impromptu music videos, captured live performances, interactive clicks, and more.
Welcome to your staycation weekend!
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Big-deal MUSIC PERFORMANCES, online Saturday...
"The Fine Art of Self Distancing" featuring Jesse Malin and Lucinda Williams (Saturday)
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Local string wizard...
Sat, May 24:
5 pm Pacific --
RICK SHEA plays live on Facebook. Link:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rick-Shea/142382979141066
* You can see his show from last week here:
https://www.facebook.com/rick.shea.9/videos/10157695095466773/
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The Opry's annual live tribute show is Saturday night, with a tv re-broadcast Sunday evening
Sat, May 23:
4 pm Pacific --
"Salute The Troops Night" at the Grand Ole Opry
featuring Craig Morgan, Kellie Pickler, and Steven Curtis Chapman
taking the Grand Ole Opry stage. Once again, the Opry is coming to you live on Circle and WSM Radio & bunches of other ways. There's so many ways for you to tune in to the Saturday Night Opry so you'll never miss a moment.
Ways to tune in to the Opry this week
- Watch the live stream on the Circle All Access Facebook or YouTube page
- Watch on the Circle TV Network, Sling TV, or Dish Network (visit CirclePlus.com to check your local listings)
- Listen on 650 AM, WSMonline.com, or the WSM app
"All week long we've been honoring the men and women of the United States Military with patriotic music and programming on WSM and there's still more to come! Visit the Salute The Troops Week page on our website for more info." ~ the WSM air staff.
☆ - SUNDAY EVENING, it's rebroadcast on Circle TV affiliates, including in Los Angeles!
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Saturday & Sunday centerpieces...
THREE festivals from Cyberian realms, live this weekend
First fest: the local one in Southern California
This one does different things Saturday before its Sunday main event. Take a look.
Sat, May 23, pre-festival events:
All-day, w/ main act 6:30 pm-7:30 pm Pacific --
"HERMOSA ONE SPRING FEST's VIRTUAL BEER GARDEN" presents LIVE music all week promoting local South Bay breweries and nonprofits, as the build-up to this Sunday's Main Event broadcast May 24 starting at noon.
⊙ All-day "Spring Fest Pre-Party"
⊙ 6:30 pm-7:30 pm PDT - “Live From Home” with Olivia Pucci
* Live links at: www.hermosaone.com
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Sun, May 23:
Noon-8 pm Pacific --
"HERMOSA ONE SPRING FEST" presents LIVE music today following an all-week build-up promoting local South Bay breweries and nonprofits, for today's Main Event broadcast starting at noon.
* SUNDAY:
⊙ Noon-8 pm main acts are:
• JIM LINDBERG of PENNYWISE
• JEREMY BUCK
• BARLEY
• NICK SHATTUCK
• JOKERS HAND
• TRIPLE BUENO
• KARA TURNER & TOMMY
* +
⊙ 11:00 am - 11:30 am PDT - Workout with Charis
⊙ Noon-1:30 pm PDT - Tatiana Erse, via Facebook LIVE
⊙ 3 pm-6 pm PDT - Retrofit Sunday Happy Hour
* The Fest producers tell us, " An 8-hour FREE broadcast here on HermosaOne.com, HermosaMusic.com, and on SmartTV’s through YouTube. In addition to live music from some of Hermosa’s most popular acts, we’ll feature demonstrations from some of our favorite local bartenders, business owners, artists, and talent. We’ll feature interviews with local restaurants, leaders, and retailers wanting to highlight online/window shopping. And of course we’ll have plenty of great local music in the mix."
* Live links at: HermosaOne.com, and HermosaMusic.com
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Second fest: BLUEGRASS and more...
"DelFest At Home" featuring Del McCoury Band, Greensky Bluegrass, I'm With Her, Billy Strings and More (May 21-24)
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Third fest: HUGELY more than you expect!
One of the biggest free music events in the world every year (26 stages!) is scaled-back and cyber in 2020, but still very much happening on this, its regular weekend
Note -- there are performances and events Saturday AND Sunday -- listings are NOT IN TIME SEQUENCE for the day due to multiple virtual "venues" and SIX CHANNELS. Plus, one of our favorites gets a shout-out, up-top...
Sat, May 23:
5:05 pm Pacific --
"NORTHWEST FOLKLIFE VIRTUAL CHANTEY SING" via the Roadhouse Stage from Seattle. This is the storied songs of the sea, some of them hundreds of years old.
TWO OPTIONS -- participate or just listen & enjoy
* To PARTICIPATE and be heard in the online singing, for security purposes, attendees in the live Zoom must pre-register ahead of time at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfjJwi27YpRJP5X-Qcsq3lvNVNqP2Qv4FUn16N9yoZDA02nBw/viewform?usp=sf_link
* Participants will be sent a Zoom link on Saturday.
* TO WATCH/LISTEN & ENJOY, there is NO pre-registration. Just tune-in at:
www.nwfolklifestreaming.org
* The Chantey Sing will be recorded so it also can be viewed at a later time.
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"From Home to Home" the theme of
this year's Northwest Folklife Festival
May 23-25, 2020 online here at nwfolklifestreaming.org
Suggested Daily Donation: $20 per person | $30 per family
Committed to Access for All | Powered by Your Donations
Presented by Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, From Home to Home: Northwest Folklife Festival takes place online May 23-25, 2020 at nwfolklifestreaming.org. Created in partnership with Seattle Center, From Home to Home: Northwest Folklife Festival is a virtual festival that features multiple program channels and a virtual marketplace that will bring together local culture bearers, artists, creatives, sponsors, and merchants all on one platform.
NOTE THAT Saturday and Sunday listings appear intermixed because of multiple virtual stages active both days.
Schedule
All On-Demand videos will be available Saturday, May 23 at 11:00 AM.
To participate in the live participatory dances or workshop on The Roadhouse channel, click here.
MORE on Sunday !
additional live cyber music, etc...
Sunday, May 24...
THOUGHT FOR TODAY from one born on this date...
"After all, it is hard to master both life and work equally well. So if you are bound to fake one of them, it had better be life."
~ Joseph Brodsky (born May 24, 1940, died 1996), St. Petersburg-born Russian Jew declared "pornographic and anti-Soviet" at age 23 in 1963, sent to a mental institution for re-education, expelled from the USSR in 1972, who became an American, and Poet Laureate of the United States in 1991, after winning the Nobel Prize in literature in 1987.
(thanks to Garrison Keillor for bringing him to our attention in the "Writers Almanac" for today.)
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Sunday events...
2 pm Pacific --
ANDY & RENEE, co-leaders of their award-winning band HARD RAIN and performing hosts of the annual "DYLANFEST" present their "Livestream #17" of their own originals, their audience fave covers, and they tell us, "...we'll probably throw in a healthy dose of songs by the Nobel Laureate in preparation for next weekend's Virtual Dylanfest, May 29-30-31!"
* In fact, today is Bob Dylan's 79th Birthday.
* You can request a song today: go to https://www.andyandrenee.com/docs/A-and-R-Song-List-5.6.20.pdf, and email your requests to reneesafier@hotmail.com before the show or doing the shoe via the "Chat Room." Renee says, "We'll get to as many requests as possible."
* WATCH TODAY'S SHOW AT:
Youtube- https://youtu.be/k7lJgTTV0Zw
* They'll be back Wednesday, May 27, at 6 pm PDT for their "Livestream #18" via Facebook Live, at: www.facebook.com/reneesafier
* AND, see the Guide's feature story on "VIRTUAL DYLANFEST," live streaming May 29-30-31 -- that story is in day/date sequence following this weekend's events.
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Sun, May 24:
2 pm Pacific --
KEN O'MALLEY brings another online live concert or authentic and original IRISH MUSIC .
* It's 2 PM Pacific, 5 PM Eastern and 10 PM UK and IRELAND.
* Ken is NOW TAKING REQUESTS FOR YOUR FAVORITES. Send by the end of the day on Saturday (Pacific time) so that Ken can finalize his set list on Sunday morning:
• ON FACEBOOK: SEND A MESSAGE WITH YOUR REQUEST to the page where you'll watch the show.
• BY EMAIL, send a request to ken@kenomalley.com
* TUNE IN at https://www.facebook.com/kenomalleyirishmusic/live
* You CAN watch even if you are NOT on Facebook.
* The show will last approximately 45 - 60 minutes and is free of charge.
* Tip jars:
• Venmo: @kenomalley
• PayPal: paypal.me/twlord.
• Credit card directly at bit.ly/kenstipjar
• Links to all three options are on the website
* WEBSITE: www.kenomalley.com
* Also, watch free: "2016 EASTER RISING CENTENARY COMMEMORATION" video is FREE to watch on Ken' s website. This event took place at St. Cornelius Catholic Church in Long Beach on April 24, 2016. It honors the memory of those who lost their lives in the cause of Irish freedom in 1916. Running time is 75 minutes.
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Sun, May 24:
6 pm Pacific --
ROD MACDONALD plays his weekly live show through May 31, at www.facebook.com/rodmacd
* These are free, live, and archived on that page, so if you missed them or want to see them again, that’s where to do it.
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Enlightening today...
Sun, May 24, not music, but recommended:
7:45 pm Pacific --
Descendants of the Clotilda, the last ship to bring slaves to North America, participate in a reunion called the “Spirit of Our Ancestors” festival in Africatown near Mobile, Alabama, C-SPAN3 & C-SPAN.org
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Memorial Day Monday...
Multiple cyber events, not presented in start-time sequence...
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Yikes! More Corona'd musicians?
Mon, May 25:
6 pm Pacific --
ALBERT & GAGE from their home in Austin, TX, do an impressive archive variant instead of their live, "Not at Don's Depot," and throw us a scare along with it.
* Christine writes, "Chris and I have both been ill since last Tuesday. Although Chris's test for the coronavirus was negative, our physician suspects it may be a false result as I soon followed with the same symptoms. We are thankful that we are not struggling with serious respiratory issues and believe we have turned a corner - whatever this is!"
* She continues, "Chris is feeling well enough to be up at the computer and is putting together a look back at performances throughout the decades with 'Video from the Vault!'"
* WATCH TONIGHT:
• Streaming on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/chrisgageaustin
• Streaming on their website at:
www.albertandgage.com/facebooklive
* In honor of Memorial Day they're also sharing this video of "Wings of War" a song written by Christine Albert, Chris Gage, (ALBERT & GAGE), and Steve Brooks, about Christine's uncle Richard A. Albert, lost in WWII. Here's a story Christine wrote about him for the her Her Texas book.
* The duo is also sharing donations with the Monday bartenders at Donn's Depot, where they normally play their Monday residency in Austin when they're not on the road.
* Chris and Christine say, "Thank you for your support! You all are helping us get through this bizarre time."
* Tip jars:
• PayPal app: mail@chrisgage.biz
• PayPal web: https://paypal.me/ChrisGage464
• Venmo: @Chris-Gage-10
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And...
Battleship Iowa museum to hold virtual Memorial Day activities
The WW II battleship, docked in San Pedro, prepares to open its Veterans Resource Center
While restoration of on-board enclosed spaces and decks to enable visitors to experience more, and allow evermore interpretation, of the giant ship always moves forward, another major goal has been under development the past few years. That's the on-board Veterans Center. Like everything else, it isn't able to open with Coronavirus health and safety shutdowns. But Memorial Day prompts them to remotely open what they can.
Meanwhile, the ship's clever curatorial staff and volunteer corps are holding quite a virtual day to salute veterans and offer outreach for those in need. Here's their plan for the day.
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They also share this:
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| Medal of Honor recipient Flo Groberg |
FLO GROBERG
In a recent article, former Ranger and current Boeing vice president and business director Florent "Flo" Groberg says, "Today I want to share a little piece of me. Maybe, just maybe, it might help someone else. I know that I will think about the Gold Star families and how much I feel their loss. I know that feelings will rise and try to play tricks on me, but I am prepared."
We've included several of the medal of honor recipient's favorite tips below.
We've included several of the medal of honor recipient's favorite tips below.
- I will talk to my wife (or family or friends or pets or colleagues) about my concerns and anxieties. I have learned that keeping things to myself is a recipe for disaster.
- I have made a plan to exercise each day leading up to Memorial Day. To stay healthy mentally, I need to keep my body moving and catch fresh air.
- I will welcome negative feelings, but I will not allow them to control me. I take negative feelings and use them as momentum to move forward.
- I will smile. And when I can no longer smile, I will find a moment to be alone and breathe. Find that one positive in life and focus on it. Some call it a type of meditation. I call it Flo-time.
You can read his full inspiring article here.
An ongoing veterans events calendar is maintained by Battleship IOWA. They note their giant historical object "has visibility," and they "are proud to be able to provide a platform that calls for and expresses unity."
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Post-Memorial Day musicality and more...
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Tuesday, May 26
THOUGHT FOR TODAY from one born on this date...
"Satire should, like a polished razor keen, wound with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen."
~ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, author (born May 26, 1689, died 1762)
~ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, author (born May 26, 1689, died 1762)
(our thanks to A.Word.A.Day for the quote.)
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Tue, May 26:
9 am Pacific --
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Wednesday, May 27
THOUGHT FOR TODAY from one born on this date...
"Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate."
~ Hubert Humphrey, US Vice President, US Senator, advocate for human rights, ptesidential nominee (born May 27, 1911, died 1978)
~ Hubert Humphrey, US Vice President, US Senator, advocate for human rights, ptesidential nominee (born May 27, 1911, died 1978)
(our thanks to A.Word.A.Day for the quote)
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Happy birthday today to TERESA JAMES who leads the band, THE RHYTHM TRAMPS.
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"Practicing"
by Linda Pastan
My son is practicing the piano.
He is a man now, not the boy
whose lessons I once sat through,
whose reluctant practicing
I demanded—part of the obligation
I felt to the growth
and composition of a child.
Upstairs my grandchildren are sleeping,
though they complained earlier of the music
which rises like smoke up through the floorboards,
coloring the fabric of their dreams.
On the porch my husband watches the garden fade
into summer twilight, flower by flower;
it must be a little like listening to the fading
diminuendo notes of Mozart.
But here where the dining room table
has been pushed aside to make room
for this second or third-hand upright,
my son is playing the kind of music
it took him all these years,
and sons of his own, to want to make.
~ "Practicing" by Linda Pastan, from The Last Uncle. © W. W. Norton, 2002. © 2015 by Linda Pastan.
(From today's edition of "The Writers Almanac," available by free sign-up from Garrison Keillor.)
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Something you need to do today
After you put it down, it will go gently into the big flat box of life moments for the family archive.
Here's some of what Brian Stelter says about it in his daily e-newsletter:
"The front page shows the faces of 100 Covid-19 victims, then shows the 100,000 scale. The paper also contains a four-page wrap around the cover, including a Mitch Albom essay that calls this coronavirus 'the fastest killer in U.S. history...'
"Why we must mark these morbid milestones
"Lester Holt said it so well on Tuesday's 'Nightly News:'
"'It's like we're living the stages of grief all at once: denial, anger, bargaining, despair and perhaps, even acceptance. Is it possible we have come to accept 100,000 deaths? Or are we simply unable to process it?' He said 'this, of course, is not over, but we choose milestones to take stock, to remember, to share our sorrows until as a country we can confront the depths of our collective pain, face to face...'"
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Perspective, not just numbers
Coronavirus deaths in America will go over 100,000 in the next few hours.
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Perspective, not just numbers
Somehow the media emphasis is on a lower death rate of late -- which is only true if you average-in New York, where it's falling, with 27 states where it's rising.
Over the three-day Memorial Day weekend alone, there were 3,400+ deaths -- the equivalent in just those three days of another 9/11.
Coronavirus deaths in America will go over 100,000 in the next few hours.
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Dr. Dave Campbell makes an important point this morning: "I don't hear others talking about this and we need to be: if we are going to be exposed to people who refuse to wear masks, we need to wear hospital-grade N95 masks to protect ourselves from them," said Dr. Campbell.
The Guide made the point about N95 filter grid-size being necessary to stop the virus, way back in February. (That was in our first feature story about the then-coming Coronavirus crisis when we told you, before anyone else, that it would cancel all the 2020 festivals and would likely be comparable to the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.)
We said then that trying to filter the virus with a dust mask was like trying to filter muddy water with a tennis racket. THE REASON we have all been wearing lesser masks is because (a) the good ones needed to go to the front lines, and (b) they are all we can get.
True, the lesser ones DO stop moisture droplets that carry the virus. And that's mostly OUTGOING moisture droplets. Meaning EVERYBODY needs to wear some kind of mouth-and-nose cover. But when someone decides to be a MASKHOLE, our bandana-cloth and construction-grade dust masks can only do so much. They'll stop tiny moisture droplets, but not the airborne virus itself.
So we are right back where we were two months ago: wondering why in the HELL the Defense Production Act was never invoked to make proper masks FOR EVERYBODY.
Along with full mobilization for TESTING and CONTACT TRACING. All things STILL NEEDED if there is to be any safety in attempted "re-openings."
There are two good pieces on the psychology and deadly-dumb politicization of wearing masks in today's edition of "The Conversation."
One, written by Michele Gelfand of the University of Maryland, is:
As states reopen, tensions flare between the rule followers and rule breakers
The other, by Jeremy Howard of the University of San Francisco, is:
Masks help stop the spread of coronavirus – the science is simple and I’m one of 100 experts urging governors to require public mask-wearing. He says, "Recommendations around mask usage are confusing. The science isn't. Evidence shows that masks are extremely effective to slow the coronavirus and may be the best tool available right now to fight it."
Plus, there's this, one of their most-read features:
Coronavirus, ‘Plandemic’ and the seven traits of conspiratorial thinking, by John Cook, George Mason University; Sander van der Linden, University of Cambridge; Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol; Ullrich Ecker, University of Western Australia. Those authors write: "Conspiracy theories about COVID-19, such as those advanced in the video 'Plandemic,' tend to pull from the same playbook. Recognizing that can help keep you from falling for this kind of thinking."
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Wednesday web and tv...
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Wed, May 27:
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| The Space X Crew Dragon atop its reusable booster rocket. Weather is expecteted to clear. |
AMERICA RETURNS TO SPACE with NASA astronauts aboard a U.S.-launched rocket for the first time since the final flight of the Space Shuttle in 2011. Several options, depending on your level of interest:
* 9:15 am-3 pm Pacific --Coverage of SpaceX Crew Dragon Launch
C-SPAN networks live coverage of the first manned space mission to launch from U.S. soil since the final shuttle launch in 2011. The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft will launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, C-SPAN2 & C-SPAN.org
* 11 am-2 pm Pacific --
On the Discovery Channel.
* 9:15 am-3 pm Pacific --Coverage of SpaceX Crew Dragon Launch
C-SPAN networks live coverage of the first manned space mission to launch from U.S. soil since the final shuttle launch in 2011. The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft will launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, C-SPAN2 & C-SPAN.org
* 11 am-2 pm Pacific --
On the Discovery Channel.
* Noon-2 pm Pacific --
TV coverage on NatGeo and ABC.
* 1:15-2 pm Pacific --
TV coverage on CBS.* 3 pm Pacific -- NASA Officials Hold SpaceX Crew Dragon Post-Launch News Conference
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and other NASA officials hold a news conference following the launch of SpaceX Crew Dragon, C-SPAN2 & C-SPAN.org
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| The crew at the new spacecraft's "iPhone"-style controls. |
Wed, May 27:
12:30 pm Pacific --
"CONTACT-TRACING WEBINAR" presented in the "CTP Conversations" series by Committee to Protect Medicare.
* With:
• Dr. Rob Davidson, volunteer Executive Director of the Committee
• Tom Sheridan, former Director of Public Policy at AIDS Action
* Tune in on either:
• Facebook Live stream, at: www.facebook.com/CommitteetoProtect/
• Zoom link, at ID: 82541699679
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3 pm-4 pm Pacific --
"THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE" a live Kennedy Library Forum from Boston
* An esteemed lineup: Mary Sarah Bilder, Boston College professor of law; Edward B. Foley, Ohio State University professor of constitutional law; and Jesse Wegman, author of Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College, discuss the history of and contemporary challenges to the Electoral College.
* Jonathan Kaufman, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor and Director of Northeastern University’s School of Journalism, moderates.
* FREE.
* REGISTER at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-electoral-college-registration-104649056144
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Wed, May 27:
6 pm Pacific --
ANDY & RENEE, co-leaders of their award-winning band HARD RAIN and performing hosts of the annual "DYLANFEST" present "Livestream #18" of their own originals and audience fave covers, and they tell us, "...we'll probably throw in a healthy dose of songs by the Nobel Laureate in preparation for this weekend's Virtual Dylanfest, May 29-30-31!"
* WATCH TODAY'S SHOW via Facebook Live, at: www.facebook.com/reneesafier
* AND, see the Guide's feature story on "VIRTUAL DYLANFEST," live streaming May 29-30-31 -- that story is in day/date sequence following this week's events.
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Small fry story & song, live from Cyberia
Join Miss Lauren for storytime at home via Studio City Library's Instagram Live every weekday at 11 am PST. Miss Lauren presents a book, interactive songs and feltboard stories.
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Next weekend -- May 29-31 -- 40+ artists, LIVE, in "VIRTUAL DYLANFEST"
Filling-in for a planned live-audience extravaganza is becoming more common. But almost nobody-- even with a big tv budget-- is doing what these skilled indies are, with FORTU ARTISTS plus their own "house band" members playing together remotely. On top of that, it's not just one day -- it's THREE CONSECUTIVE evenings of livestream music, Friday-Sunday, May 29-31.
Bob Dylan's 79th Birthday is Sunday, May 24. Every year for THREE DECADES, this marvelous tribute festival happens as near as possible to that date, with a whole passel of hugely impressive musicians performing selections from the richness of the Nobel Laureate's catalog -- complete with dancers who choreograph some of the songs in costumes as characters in the songs, and audience cue-cards for the featured singalongs.
DYLANFEST is an annual delight. And even a pandemic can't keep the 30th anniversary from happening -- right there on your couch.
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What you'll see and hear live
"Dylanfest" has always been a delight to attend in-person and the musicianship is superb.
A long-running trademark is no repeats of any song by any of the participating artists, and there has always been a formidable lineup.
Some of the artists invoke Bob Dylan at various times in his life and career, while others bring new arrangements and fresh takes to songs that remain message-laden, powerful, and still, always a joy to experience again.
The set lists for all three days are below.
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How remote cyber fills-in for on-site energy
"We had a mammoth day scheduled at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center May 30th for Dylanfest 30, but because of COVID-19, the show is postponed until September 26th," says Renee.
She continues, "The livestream show will include Andy and Renee 'In Studio' playing music live and facilitating ABOUT FORTY artists who have made videos performing songs by Bob Dylan. Our band, Hard Rain, will also be featured, with the band playing together remotely."
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In this, its THIRTIETH YEAR, Dylanfest can finally "Go Global" through Livestream.
The audience will be able to "hang out" and "Chat" with each other during the shows, so there will be a feeling of camaraderie among the audience.
The shows will be archived on Youtube, so anyone can view the concerts afterwards. BUT THE LIVE ENERGY ALWAYS MATTERS ENORMOUSLY.
The hosts ask you to get the word out and share the links with your friends to watch "together" -- which you will be, with the chat capability.
Watching / preparing to watch
■ Click on the links now and "Set a Reminder"... spread the word... share with friends all over the world
■ Friday, May 29th, 5-8 pm PDT: https://youtu.be/N1KW4wBPuzE
■ Saturday, May 30th, 5-8 pm PDT: https://youtu.be/tfCn-VAjeps
■ Sunday, May 31st, 5-8 pm PDT: https://youtu.be/FBf8zqHh6Y0
ALL THREE days of Dylanfest shows are FREE TO WATCH, and the option to contribute will be there for those who are in a position to do so.
Plus, IT'S A BENEFIT...
A portion of the proceeds goes to the Los Angeles Midnight Mission and to Feeding America.
Renee says, "We are sustained by the generosity and support of the fans who love the music, and who donate as they are able."
You can contribute now, early, at:
http://www.andyandrenee.com/store.php or at
PayPal (paypal.me/andyandrenee) or via
Venmo, (www.venmo.com/Renee-Safier)
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☆ It's a virtual festival with actual t-shirts
DEADLINE FOR SHIRT ORDERS IS MONDAY, MAY 25th
Art is at the top of this feature. Limited Edition "Virtual Dylanfest" T-Shirt has that artwork, crisply rendered.
"Although we can't be together in person for the concert at the end of May," says Renee, "you can celebrate VIRTUAL DYLANFEST with your own Limited Edition T-Shirt! The shirts are black with the logo you see above! The Ladies Shirts will be V-neck, and the Men's are Crew neck. The shirts are 100% Cotton and are great quality. If you have a Dylanfest t-shirt from the last few years, they are the same shirt style this year. Just FYI, the Ladies Shirts run a little small."
• The Guide's editor vouches that Dylanfest ALWAYS has top-quality t-shirts.
¤ DEADLINE FOR SHIRTS:
Monday, May 25th
• Shirts are $20 plus shipping.
• Sizes:
◇ Men’s 3X, 2X,1X, L, M
♡ Ladies S, M, L, XL, XXL.
• Order your T-shirt at the Online Store:
http://www.andyandrenee.com/store.php
C'mon, you know you plan to wear your Dodgers shirt (and no pants) if the Boys in Blue get back in action at Chavez Ravine, with no spectators. So OF COURSE you want to wear your festival t-shirt (pants optional) while you sing along to "Tangled Up in Blue." Besides, WHAT OTHER good souvenir do you have to take into your future years to show what YOU did during the Great Pandemic Quasi-quarantine?
See ya in the good cyber seats, May 29th. We're the ones with the good barbecue.
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SET LISTS:
Friday, May 29th is Day One of Dylanfest 30 (The Virtual Edition), 5-8 pm PDT on Youtube. Click on the Link early, and "Set A Reminder" so you don't miss one minute. And if you want your friends to like you after you haven't seen them in two and a half months, SPREAD THE WORD. Friday's show link is: https://youtu.be/N1KW4wBPuzE
DAY ONE SET LIST, Friday, May 29, 5-8pm:
2) My Back Pages-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
3) Emotionally Yours-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
4) Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues – James Lee Stanley
5) Simple Twist Of Fate - Aimee Mann
6) Workingman’s Blues #2-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
7) Rattled – Dave Leahy
8) Tryin’ To Get To Heaven – Kelly Fitzgerald
9) It Ain’t Me Babe-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
10) Love Minus Zero-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
11) Song To Woody – Davey Allen
12) You’re a Big Girl Now – Al Diesan
13) It Takes A Lot To Laugh-Andy Hill & Renee Safier & Hard Rain
15) I Want You – Patti Orbeck
16) You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
18) If Not For You-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
20) Just Like A Woman – John Hoke
21) Talkin’ WWIII Blues – Jamie Daniels
22) Tweeter and The Monkey Man-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
23) Blowin’ In The Wind-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
24) Subterranean Homesick Blues – -Andy & Renee & Hard Rain (Dave Batti, Edoardo Tancredi, Jeff Dellisanti, John Hoke, Joseph Caccavo, Kirk Makin, Marty Rifkin)
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Saturday, May 30th is Day Two of the 30th Annual Dylanfest-The Virtual Version. Click on the Saturday link early and "Set a Reminder" so you don't miss these amazing performances. Show is 5-8 pm PDT at: https://youtu.be/tfCn-VAjeps
DAY TWO SET LIST, MAY 30th, 5-8pm PT:
2) Don’t Think Twice-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
3) Shooting Star-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
4) Boots of Spanish Leather – Joel Rafael
5) Go Away Little Boy – Ryan Hedgecock (Lone Justice)
6) Florida Key-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
7) Lay Lady Lay - Evyn Charles
9) Queen Jane Approximately--Andy Hill & Renee Safier
10) Knocking on Heaven’s Door-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
11) Rainy Day Women – Wade Preston
12) Sooner or Later One of Us Must Know – Jay Constable
13) Mr. Tambourine Man – Andy & Renee & Hard Rain (Dave Batti, Kirk Makin, Joseph Caccavo, Marty Rifkin, Edoardo Tancredi, John Hoke)
14) Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You – Brax Cutchin
15) Everything Is Broken - Shana Morrison
16) Seven Curses--Andy Hill & Renee Safier
17) Gotta Serve Somebody – Romain Frugé
18) Ring Them Bells – Terry Buck
19) One Too Many Mornings--Andy Hill & Renee Safier
22) A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
23) Sweet Amarillo – Andy & Renee & Hard Rain (Dave Batti, Kirk Makin, Joseph Caccavo, Marty Rifkin, Edoardo Tancredi, John Hoke, Chase Hill)
24) Chimes of Freedom-Andy & Renee
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Sunday, May 31st is Day Three of Dylanfest 30 (The Virtual Edition), 5-8pm PT. Another great lineup... don't miss it! Click the Sunday link early -- https://youtu.be/FBf8zqHh6Y0, and "Set A Reminder" so you don't forget.
DAY 3 SETLIST, MAY 31st, 5-8pm PT:
1) Dark Eyes-Andy Hill & Renee Safier
3) When The Ship Comes In-Andy & Renee
4) He Was A Friend of Mine – Craig Christy
5) When I Paint My Masterpiece – Nathaniel LaPointe
6) Watching the River Flow-Andy & Renee
7) One More Cup Of Coffee – Daniel Leanse
8) To Make You Feel My Love – Leah West
9) Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power-Andy & Renee
10) Tight Connection To My Heart-Andy & Renee
11) Is Your Love In Vain? – Mike Tanner and Flynn Tanner
12) Forever Young – Susie Glaze and Steve Rankin
13) I Shall Be Released – -Andy & Renee & Hard Rain (Dave Batti, Edoardo Tancredi, Jeff Dellisanti, John Hoke, Joseph Caccavo, Kirk Makin, Marty Rifkin)
14) Rocks and Gravel – Amanda Marie Mosher
15) Cross The Green Mountain – Dave Crossland
16) Blind Willie McTell-Andy & Renee
17) Absolutely Sweet Marie – Paul Zollo
18) Sweetheart Like You – Luis Oliart
19) To Ramona-Andy & Renee
20) Silvio – The Maui Beach Boys (Steve Craig)
21) All Along The Watchtower – Homer T. (Scott Gerber)
22) Things Have Changed – -Andy & Renee & Hard Rain
23) It’s All Over Now Baby Blue-Andy & Renee
24) Like A Rolling Stone-Andy & Renee
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On-demand -- Memorial Day Weekend enjoyment or in the coming week...
New out 'n about, & Listenably Noteworthy
- Dustbowl Revival remind us that we're alone together on "Queen Quarantine (A Home Recording)," a playful, harmony-laced offering. Listen here
- Kathleen Edwards practices the art of self-love on "Options Open," a liberating roots tune from Total Freedom (out Aug. 14). Listen here
- Fort Frances make the most out of quarantine with "These Lights Will Shine Again," a feel-good folk jam. Listen here
- Grace Potter teams up with Jackson Browne, Marcus King and Lucius for "Eachother," a powerful take on finding strength in humanity. Listen here
- George Shingleton showers his wife with gratitude on "Handful of Hell," a blazing testament to how people can change their ways. Listen here
- Jaime Wyatt showcases her journey for love on "Goodbye Queen," a grooving country slice of Neon Cross (out next Friday). Listen here
- American Aquarium's BJ Barham stopped by the Hangin' & Sangin' podcast to discuss surpassing career expectations in light of the band's latest album, Lamentations. Listen here
- Maya de Vitry opened up about her latest album, How to Break a Fall, how it and her previous LP were written in a form of isolation, the transformative experience of forgiving yourself and being inspired by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Read more
- Steve Poltz stopped by The Show On the Road podcast to reflect on the many incarnations of his career, his Palm Springs childhood and the pivotal point of hitting rock bottom while on stage. Listen here
- Joe Pug got candid about how COVID-19 has affected his income as a musician and how to monetize live performances from quarantine, including selling out private Zoom concerts. Read more
- Teddy Thompson shared a first listen of his upcoming album, Heartbreaker Please, ahead of its release next Friday and talked about the challenges of producing his own work. Listen + Read
- "The greater hope is that we’re able to share the genuine camaraderie that we have with other musicians and with each other." - Sara and Sean Watkins of Watkins Family Hour gave us insight into their new livestream series and what it's been like to release their album, brother sister, from quarantine. Read more
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L.A.'s best teevee music programming? It's now online to the world
L.A. station KLCS is owned by the massive Los Angeles Unified School District. During the day when school is in session, it airs classroom programming. But at night, on weekends, and anytime school is out, it behaves like a community PBS station, and in Southern California, THE PBS station of a crowded field that cares most about airing both live music productions and Folk-Americana series and artists.
www.stream.klcs.org
now simulcasts the complete KLCS tv broadcast schedule, including the delightful Friday evening roots music lineup.
We've celebrated their programming and acknowledged their courage to do it in a town ruled by big-buck soudalike pop crap.
We often list their Friday fare and performing guests in a lineup that includes:
• "Bluegrass Underground" from the concert hall in a cavern in Tennessee.
• "Sun Studio Sessions" with today's blues, roots and acoustic artists in the studio where Elvis started.
• "Austin City Limits," with both current and archived shows.
• "Front and Center," a multigenre concert show.
• "The Kate" with top Folk-Americana, roots-country, or honkytonk artists -- though it's currently airing in middle-of-the-night, DVR time slots.
We may also see the return of roots music shows that rotate through their schedule, include "Woodsongs," and "Jammin' at Hippie Jack's."
This is a fine addition to web accessibility.
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Newly on-demand...
Two from the Getty
 Portrait of Rachel Rosenthal, about 1990, photo by Steven Arnold |
Rachel Rosenthal, feminist-art pioneer
One of the key figures in the development of theater, performance, and feminist art in Los Angeles, Rachel Rosenthal has left an indelible mark on Southern California. Her archive is now at the Getty Research Institute, and it covers every phase of her career—her early years in Paris and New York, her formative time in the New York art scene in the late 1940s and early '50s, her development of the experimental theater company Instant Theatre in the 1950s and '60s, her awakening into the feminist movement in the 1970s, and her mature performance and theater pieces.
Learn about Rosenthal and other feminist artists »
Learn about Rosenthal and other feminist artists »
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We opened this edition with an illustration from a book.
Here's more about it.
IMAGINE
 In the first episode of Getty's new video series "Kids Reading to Kids," Bowie Sprinkle shows her friends a page from If... and asks, "What if dreams were visible?" |
Romp through a world of limitless possibilities
What if cats could fly? If frogs ate rainbows? If leaves turned into fish? These are just a few of the imaginative scenarios dreamed up by Sarah Perry, author and illustrator of Getty's first children's book, If.... Originally published more than 25 years ago, this enchanting story remains a favorite among teachers and readers alike. Find out how one teacher uses it in his classroom, and hear a young reader share it with her friends.
Listen in »
Listen in »
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New music vids
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New music listens
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Kathleen Grace,
who recently performed on "Americana Highways," speaks for herself about her new album, "Tie Me To You," out for one month:
"⚡️Reviews are coming in!⚡️ I'm sharing a few below. I've also been performing more and more from my yellow couch at home. You can watch my latest "show" here. As we all adjust to our new global reality, I hope you'll stay in touch. We are tied to each other now.
With love - Kathleen ❤️"
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Ye'see, back when Kathleen was making a name for herself as a jazz star, we kept trying to tell her she had comfortably mastered Americana. It sure is satisfying when everybody else figures that out.
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Postponed tour updates...
Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and Limbo,
those were the places to go...
Chris Stapleton has postponed his All-American Road Show until next year due to COVID-19. Read more
James Taylor and Jackson Browne's tour has also been rescheduled for 2021 in the wake of the pandemic. Read more
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Enlightening, on-demand...
"Addressing Hunger in America" with Susannah Morgan of the Oregon Food Bank, airing on "Imperfect Podcast" at:
https://unwastedpodcast.com/oregon-food-bank/
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"Up from The Streets -- New Orleans: The City of Music" available through June 15th
Buy your screen-at-home TIX at:
https://www.jazzandheritage.org/what-we-do/virtual-screening-of-michael-murphys-iup-from-the-streets-i
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On-demand / especially produced for the pandemic
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Archived from various vaults / made available for the pandemic |
"Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert"
Grammy Museum
Still missing your April weekends at Coachella? The documentary Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert should bring back plenty of memories. It debuted on YouTube Originals on April 10, and the film features interviews with performers and clips of all those pop performances.
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The museum in downtown Los Angeles has launched Museum at Home, a program that has made videos of previously unreleased concerts and interviews available. Shows including a 2018 performance by Brandi Carlile and a 2019 set with Billie Eilish and Finneas went online in March, while April releases included Andrea Bocelli and Common. MORE is due this month.
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LACO At Home
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s LACO At Home lets you stream concerts, including new special events and performances from its archives. Concerts include LACO’s November 2019 Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Mazzoli performance from Glendale’s Alex Theatre.
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Pacific Symphony: At-Home-Together Online
Based in Orange County, the Pacific Symphony has produced a selection of “quarantine clips” as part of its At-Home-Together Online series. The videos feature symphony musicians playing notable pieces from their homes, including principal cellist Warren Hagerty performing Sarabande from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major and concertmaster Dennis Kim and pianist Hye-Young Kim’s version of Amanda Harberg’s poignant “Prayer.”___
Henry Miller Memorial Library
The landmark Big Sur cultural hub has an extensive archive of clips from performances held at its outdoor stage beneath the redwoods. Among the highlights are a 2011 video of the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing “Californication” and a 2010 clip of the influential Jonathan Richman, dubbed “the Godfather of Punk,” singing an ode to Rolling Stone Keith Richards.
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More Bruce, long-form live...
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Participate or just watch...
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PYSO AT HOME
Check out the PASADENA YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA's Youtube Channel for virtual music lessons from their All City Orchestra coaches as part of the "PYSO at Home" initiative. Lessons updated continuously, with flute and clarinet coach Emily Kubitsky giving a lesson on note reading this week.
If you have a musician at home who would like to participate, contact Alex Chu achu@pasadenasymphony-pops.org.
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Thanks for joining us here
at the Acoustic Americana Music Guide!
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 site 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.
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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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