Your Rights End at My Face

I spent all day working in a clinic to keep as many people as possible safe, only to have a guy walk up to me in Home Depot, no mask, two feet from my face, to tell me I was wasting my time wearing a mask, that the whole virus thing was political shenanigans. Wow. Thanks.

I am hunky dory fine with people having different opinions & views and even embracing looney tunes conspiracy theories, go for it, enjoy , but do not be so disrespectful of me as to literally get in my face, uninvited, out of the blue, Jack.

Here's the thing we've all been grappling with: do you defriend or just unfollow being people being irresponsible on social media?

Oh wait, we are no longer dealing with that - we are dealing with people being jerks in hardware stores two feet from you. Well, one answers the other - I have defriended this doddering malcontent on FB and will steer clear, far clear, should I see him in public again.

Sorry to end the day with an angry post but people need some sort of respect for boundaries.

Arts online - 4/29/20 and upcoming

Tonight at 7pm Opera Memphis presents Opera for Animals - online. 

MSO virtual performance of William Tell – a whole orchestra zooming from their homes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvzLXh2i7_I&feature=youtu.be

Brooks Museum- Still Life Challenge https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgxwHMsWNRSPDZdSsZclkBCwLDNfk

O Mia Bannino Caro – two singers  five parts https://www.facebook.com/operamemphis/videos/227751468312036/?v=227751468312036

University of Memphis Art Museum

The “7,6,5…” exhibit which would have opened a few weeks back is bring incrementally released in May on various social media platforms –

Crosstown Arts Youth Theater Company

Their play, Princess Pat,  which was to have toured senior centers this summer in now online https://vimeo.com/402339291?mc_cid=8d60ae16b0&mc_eid=62beb7d65d

Luna Nova Music’s 14th Annual Belvedere Chamber Music

The Fest set for June 17-20 will occur online. Some of the composers represented will be Bach, Bartok, Debussy, Poulenc, Boulanger, Prokofiev www.lunanova.org

You can volunteer for drive through virus testing

 Very safe.

 Minimal interaction.

 Much needed.






 Message me for more info.

Coming soon on a screen near you!!!

Find all of these on the organization's web site or Facebook page. 

4/22       Happy Birthday, Shakespeare – Opera Memphis – 7- 8 pm

In celebration of the birthday of William Shakespeare, on Wednesday, April 22 at 7 PM CT, 30 Days of Opera:Digital Edition presents an evening of opera and song centered around some of his most beloved works!

4/24       Virtual Tour – Playhouse on the Square – 10-11:30 am

During this tour, you will get a front-row seat to see all the places the public isn’t allowed, like the view from the catwalk, green room, and more. A wealth of knowledge and natural story-teller, Michael will also share with attendees Playhouse on the Square’s rich history

4/24       Live From Royal Studios – Greendot Schools fundraiser – 7 pm

Join us for a virtual concert that benefits Memphis students, musicians and restaurants! Live from the legendary Royal Studios, Green Dot Public Schools Tennessee in partnership with Ditty TV bring you an in home show with dinner delivered to your doorstep. Chef Kelly English will prepare and deliver a fabulous meal (with cocktails) - curated by Cara Greenstein of Caramelized. Support our students, musicians and restauranteurs and enjoy an evening of performances by Marcella & Her Lovers & Stefani Bolton! $65 show + $70 for dinner

4/24 & 25  Wild Bill’s Stay at Home Live Stream - 8:30 pm

Music from you favorite juke joint  

5/3  Blues Music Awards, Blues Foundation – 4 pm

We are excited to bring you a BMA experience like never before. On Sunday, May 3 no matter where you're at in the world, you can stream the 2020 Blues Music Awards on Facebook and YouTube. Enjoy special performances, award presentations, and a few surprises as part of our global watch party.

Sanity in the sudden Work From Home world

My first experience with really trying to work from home was in 1994, two years after I moved into my Reese house; I put out a shingle, drummed up some business, bought a fax machine and a fancy Mac Quadra 605 with an astounding 250 mg of memory, and two days later the ice storm shut off power to my house for about 12 days. I had another stint of home offic'ing in 2010 for about a year - not by choice. In 2012, my new job was excited to have me but literally had no space for me so I spent 6 months working from home.

With a little experience, I  can offer , hopefully, some helpful tips for folks that have not done this:

1)      Be thankful you are working from somewhere – a lot of people aren’t.
2)   Create a workspace – whether in a spare bedroom or just a corner of the kitchen table – so that you can (a) go to work and (b) leave work. Otherwise you’re working all the time.
3)      GO ahead and vacuum  the house and scrub the bathroom. Otherwise every time you get writer’s block , you’ll go look for something to clean rather than work through it.
4)      Have a talk with your dog. He will probably think you took vacation days especially so that you could play with him all day. This will be a difficult talk. Ask your cat to help; she gets it already and could honestly care less whether you are at home or not.
5)      Keep food in the house including snacks. It might be nice to run over to a drive through, but if you are on a roll  writing away at something brilliant, not having to stop your train of thought can be a good thing.
6)      Do leave the house from time to time. Oh, I know there are not many places to go just now, but even the backyard is a welcome break. And you need to get out of a chair and stretch periodically.
7)      Definitely spend time in the backyard and DO NOT take your phone. Blues skies, blooming flowers, and singing bird are nice therapy from the onslaught on doom on social media and traditional media.
8)      Play your in the zone music as loudly as you want to – hooray, no co-workers to complain – but be able to quickly mute it if the telephone rings.
9)      Shower and dress daily. Sorry but this is a much for your frame of mind as anything else. Plus the new Zoom conferencing feature includes a smell component!
10)   Keep as much of a routine as you can, but it is okay if you hours are slightly different from someone else’s.
11)   Talk to someone from time to time who does not wear a flea collar. It is okay to pick up the phone and have a quick chat. We do this all day long in an office setting, right?  It’s a sanity check.
12)   Make sure that you are working on your main focus and don’t rabbit trail too much. It is easy to veer off course.

Turn It Off and Breathe

I did not watch the super bowl, the bowl halftime show, or the pres remarks tonight; from the looks of FB and Twitter feeds, I think I am going to sleep better than a whole bunch of folks tonight. Take a chill, people; its just drama on TV precisely & deliberately created to push your buttons and cause you to want to make remarks to your friends of differing viewpoints which you will (hopefully) regret tomorrow. Turn it all off. All of it. Read a book. Take up piano or try knitting. There is nothing you can do about any of it until you step into a voting booth for the primaries. Meanwhile weeks of stewing boost your blood pressure and hasten your heart attack.

A Christmas (Social Media ) Ceasefire

This morning I read an appalling social media post, meant to stir up anger, on Christmas Eve.  Like the best traps for divisiveness, it was not an outright lie but a partial one, one so twisted and so crafted as to foment turmoil. This clever twisting  on social media can trace a direct path back to the misinformation campaign of  the serpent in Eden.

This particular post came from a friend on the left but could just as easily come from a friend on the right.  Everyone is equally culpable these days, sometimes knowingly, sometime unknowingly.  The fact that Facebook removed 55,000,000 fake accounts last week created by foreigners for the sole purpose of causing dissension in America should be the biggest news story of the decade. It is a blip because every day there is a newer and larger shocker and now tragedies  & crimes of all sorts garner only their 15 minutes. 

My friend who posted the story today (which was a screenshot of some random tweet) could have taken 90 seconds to check out its veracity (so shame on you, Pxxx! ) but hardly anyone does because the of glee we now find in lobbing media bombs. 

As I thought over this,  I thought first to abandon social media.  Humans have survived ice ages, bubonic plague, volcanoes, world wars, and more but our own social media posts which sow distrust could be the biggest challenge yet.  Social media has undermined credible traditional media and returned us to an age of yellow journalism,  partisan and vitriolic.

At the same time there is a power for good – I love to baby photos, pet pics, seeing my friends ‘ kids grow up,  beautiful vacation scenes, and staying in touch with people dear to me even when far away.

Rather than throw out the baby with the bathwater,  I will spend the next few weeks unfollowing prolific political posters.  We may yet salvage from real life friendships if we hide online foibles.

Let’s make the holidays truly happy and leave the rhetoric at the door.  Merry happy!