What part of stay home and interact with nobody else, NOBODY, do people not understand?

I was trying to take a day off, but my inbox and the things I’m reading in the paper are driving me crazy.

Let’s start with this article I actually read last night, when I saw it retweeted by Ethan Smith of the “Wall Street Journal.” (Now is the time when Twitter is really shining, it’s the best way to keep up with coronavirus news. Follow certain people and they’ll link you to stories… I’ll admit, I’m following mostly left-leaning people, but start with Maggie Haberman: @maggieNYT Maggie is linking to relevant “Times” stories and other stories you should be paying attention to. And Frank Rich, one of the savviest observers out there: @frankrichny And if you want to keep up with how the youth are coping, follow Taylor Lorenz: @TaylorLorenz Of course you should follow more people, but that would be a completely different article. If you’ve never used Twitter, or thought it was too difficult to use, start now. Download the Twitter app and follow these people. And if you’re on the desktop, I still recommend Tweetdeck, Twitter does not have a desktop app, illustrating where the action is at.)

Whew! I got a bit off point there.

So, Ethan Smith linked to this article from ProPublica:

“A Medical Worker Describes Terrifying Lung Failure From COVID-19 – Even in His Young Patients – ‘It first struck me how different it was when I saw my first coronavirus patient go bad. I was like, Holy shit, this is not the flu. Watching this relatively young guy, gasping for air, pink frothy secretions coming out of his tube.'”

Read this, it’s required. This is what happens when you’re on a ventilator. And they’re already running out of ventilators. And if you think you’re immune:

“12-year-old girl with coronavirus is on a ventilator and fighting for her life”

She had no pre-existing conditions and she hadn’t traveled.

Which brings me to the most important story of the day.

“How the Virus Got Out – The most extensive travel restrictions to stop an outbreak in human history haven’t been enough. We analyzed the movements of hundreds of millions of people to show why.”

This is mostly graphic, very little reading is involved, please take the time to scroll down and read this, because many people are math-challenged and don’t understand what exponential means and sometimes you need pictures to get you to comprehend concepts.

TIMING IS OF THE ESSENCE!

You don’t have to read this whole story

Italy, Pandemic’s New Epicenter, Has Lessons for the World

about how Italy bungled their handling of Covid-19, I’ll just quote the lines that stood out to me:

“Italy is still paying the price of those early mixed messages by scientists and politicians. The people who have died in staggering numbers recently – more than 2,300 in the last four days – were mostly infected during the confusion of a week or two ago.”

Well, then there’s the final sentence of the above-linked article:

“Americans and others, he said, ‘need to be ready.'”

Earlier today I read that people believe they can fight this with “confidence.” As in “I’m healthy, I didn’t travel to China, I don’t live in New York, this doesn’t apply to me and I won’t get it and if I do it won’t be that bad.” WRONG!

If you add the last two stories together, you can see that what appears calm today is insanity tomorrow. Because incubation can take up to 14 days, you hang with people who are carriers, who might appear totally healthy, you yourself might think you’re totally healthy and then BAM!

And then there is this headline:

“Cuomo warns 80% will get virus over ‘9 months…'”

Here’s the bottom line. The odds of you getting the coronavirus are better than even. If you’re a thinking person you know that you want to get it LATER RATHER THAN SOONER! Those who are staying home and interacting with no one are at a distinct advantage, they’ll miss the initial hospital rush and overcrowding and by time they get it there will be enough infrastructure to serve them. There’s gonna be triage, people are gonna be left to die. If you read the initial story linked above, you’ll see that most people on ventilators are in their 40s and 50s at this guy’s hospital, meaning if you’re older…you might not get a ventilator, you might be left to die.

My older sister Jill sent me a must-read article this morning:

“Where Is Joe?”

I was driving last night listening to Fox, and the anchor was harping on the absence of Joe Biden, who when finally confronted said:

“I find myself, literally on the phone with my key advisors, medical advisors and economic advisors literally four or five hours a day, going through detailed memoranda on what we should be doing.”

Huh? Bernie Sanders is proffering solutions, raising money, and Joe Biden is silent?

I GET IT I GET IT I GET IT, BERNIE’S DONE!

But in last week’s debate, Bernie emphasized leadership, and Biden is showing none.

From this same article:

“One other explanation is that Joe Biden is not speaking out because he has nothing to say. Historian Gabriel Winant rightly points out that one reason Biden’s performance is so bad is that ‘the response the situation actually demands would negate the whole logic of (establishment Democrats’) power and lead inexorably to its end.’ That’s because Biden’s whole campaign has been spent attacking the left for demanding massive new public investment, paid leave and guaranteed income, and bold, immediate action to fight crises, plus free healthcare for all – and now we need all of the things centrist Democrats have long said we can’t have or will have to wait many years for. In a Great Depression, you need a New Deal, and we’re facing a Great Depression with a Democratic party that has rejected the foundations of New Deal social democracy. How can proud incrementalists and defenders of the status quo ever hope to fix this?”

And in this “Current Affairs” article they link to another story that brings the truth home:

“The Post-Trump Phase of the Post-Truth Era Could Be Starting Soon – Joe Biden’s relentless lying in last night’s debate, and the media’s astonishingly servile reaction, have made it clear that the ‘post-truth’ era will not be over when the Trump administration ends.”

You may be heartened by the closing of the Florida beaches, the efforts people have made to stay home in Washington, California, Illinois and New York. But my my inbox is littered with writers from these states sending pictures and telling stories of people out and about in close proximity, if not actually touching each other! Let me see, if I told you you could go outside and play for a week or two, but then you would have to stay home for months and the odds were you and everybody you knew would get a horrible, life-threatening illness, would you? OF COURSE NOT!

This is kind of like 9/11, when Bush queried, who could conceive of people flying airplanes into buildings? Well, the same “deep state” that Trump keeps excoriating, they knew. And we’ve seen this movie in China and Italy and elsewhere but somehow we think we’re immune because we’re the good ole’ U.S.A., the land of freedom, home of the American Dream? HOGWASH!

I leave you with this e-mail from Benji Rogers:

“I now have 19 friends and family with Corona symptoms, up from 2. Only one has been tested and had it confirmed.

Mostly based out of the UK and EU.

This is quite a picture: avatorl.org/covid-19/

Be well mate.
Benj”

Craig Newman – Facebook

Craig Newman, agent at APA, tummler par excellence, is having another singalong today, Sunday, at 1:30 PM west coast time (i.e. 4:30 PM east coast time). This is positively a G-rated affair. Craig sings and tells stories along with his daughter Sadie.

We tuned in last week and it was fun, to sing along in front of the computer, like at summer camp.

We are all in this together, and events like this evidence this.

This is not a fundraiser, there is no hype/sales element whatsoever. This is purely to elate you, make you smile and laugh and get your mind off bigger issues.

Here is today’s playlist:

DADDY DAUGHTER DUET SONG – Original

I FEEL FINE – The Beatles

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU – Stealers Wheel

CAN’T STAND LOSING YOU – HORSE WITH NO NAME – The Police / America

DREAM LOVER – Bobby Darin

YOU MIGHT THINK – The Cars

COME ON EILEEN – Dexy’s Midnight Runners

YOU NEVER CAN TELL – Chuck Berry

I KEEP FORGETTIN’ – REGULATE – Michael McDonald / Warren G & Nate Dogg

SOMETHING ABOUT YOU – Level 42

YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND – Carole King

POWERFUL SEAHORSE MEDLEY – Original

THE TP BLUES – Original

BLOWIN IN THE WIND – Bob Dylan

OVERKILL – Colin Hay

THE GAMBLER – Kenny Rogers

REVOLUTION – FREE FALLIN’ – Tracy Chapman / Tom Petty

SWEET CAROLINE – Neil Diamond

OD YAVO SHALOM – Song we sing at our temples and camps

Are you at home?

You should be.

I feel bad for all those who live alone. We need each other. I once had a shrink who told me all we need are food and water, and then he moved away. I believed him, he was wrong, we need human contact, which the internet provides, but only as a facsimile. Then again, I’ve seen my present shrink via Facetime, but unlike at the beginning of the week, I’m having problems with Zoom and Facetime, I believe it is a bandwidth issue, even though I constantly go to speedtest.net to check my speed and it always shows 300 down, which is what I am paying for. Then again, the other night the cable and internet went down, which upset Felice’s viewing plans, our safety and sanity hangs by a thread. Speaking of which, there’s the food crisis. Today we will run out of food. I’m loath to go to the grocery store, because of the infection rate and the lack of product on the shelves, but we ordered on Instacart yesterday and they said delivery would not take place until Wednesday. I guess we’ll use UberEats in the meantime, and last week Instacart delivered a couple of days earlier than they said they would, then again, who is delivering all this food? It’s not only medical personnel who are risking their health for us, but average everyday citizens.

The story of today in the papers and on Twitter is how the media should stop showing Trump’s press conferences live, as they are glorified press rallies riddled with disinformation. This is best laid out by Margaret Sullivan in the “Washington Post”:

“The media must stop live-broadcasting Trump’s dangerous, destructive coronavirus briefings”

Trump used the media to get elected, and he’s trying to use it to get re-elected. Since he’s the president, everything he says is newsworthy, but is it?

Speaking of Trump, the “New York Times” has an ongoing story about the president’s reluctance to employ the Defense Production Act to mobilize production of needed medical supplies. Yesterday’s article was the most interesting, because it featured a war in the White House with conservatives saying they do not want to see the federal government expanded. Yes, even in this time of crisis, ideology is triumphing over practicality. Trump keeps saying it’s the responsibility of the states, which is like refusing to have a coach on your football team and allowing all eleven players to come up with their own individual game plan. After blowback yesterday, Trump said it was a non-issue, because companies were starting production of materials upon their own initiative, even though there are no facts supporting this. You can read today’s report here:

“Trump Resists Pressure to Use Wartime Law to Mobilize Industry in Virus Response – The president insisted he has used the Defense Production Act, but said at a briefing that ‘we are literally being besieged’ by companies ‘that want to do the work and help our country.'”

You’re also probably watching the story about a “cure”:

“Trump’s Embrace of Unproven Drugs to Treat Coronavirus Defies Science – Doctors and patients also worry that the president’s rosy outlook for the treatments will exacerbate shortages of old malaria drugs relied on by patients with lupus and other debilitating conditions”

Know someone with untreatable cancer? Many go wackadoodle, oftentimes implored by their loved ones, who believe the sick want to live when the truth is they’ve made peace with their demise. (Once again, don’t hassle me, I have personal experience with this, unfortunately.) Science goes out the window as people try ANYTHING! Science has got such a bad rap, these people have so beaten up the FDA that the concept of thorough testing has gone out the window. The “cure” might not only not work, it might hurt people, this happens with drugs all the time, ever heard of thalidomide?

And speaking of shortages, aren’t we trying to protect the most vulnerable? While you hoard at home, satiated with supplies you’ll end up throwing out, there are people who actually need those items to survive.

Now if you’ve been following this closely, if we had enough tests, not only would we be aware of who had Covid-19 and who did not, but this would aid us in isolating those who had it, to stanch the spread of the disease. But we do not have those tests. Still, if you’ve got symptoms, and not everyone infected with Covid-19 does, you want to believe you can get a test, but in most cases you cannot:

“L.A. County gives up on containing coronavirus, tells doctors to skip testing of some patients”

This story broke almost a day ago, now we’re finding the same situation elsewhere. We’re giving up on one line of defense while we retreat to the next.

Which brings us to the big story:

“Coronavirus Could Overwhelm U.S. Without Urgent Action, Estimates Say”

You absolutely MUST go to this page and at least look at the graphics if you don’t read the text.

You can see the benefit of control measures right in front of your very eyes.

As you scroll down they go through each and every state in the nation. Bottom line, you may think you’re immune but you are not. The only difference is cases are going to spike later than they are in the states that you’re reading about now. So, if unlike the Administration you want to prepare, you want to institute severe control measures NOW! Just look at the pictures. If we enact severe control measures, which is basically about shutting down the economy and making all but essential workers be housebound, we drastically reduce the rate of infection, I mean DRASTICALLY! If you doubt me, load the above page and scroll down to the graph entitled “How Control Measures Could Slow the Outbreak.”

But according to officials and residents in yet to be heavily infected areas, they have to allow people to leave their houses in the name of freedom, and they don’t want to hurt the economy. First and foremost, if there are no shoppers because they died, this is going to hurt the economy. Second, we’ve learned this lesson already, industry must be allowed to function unfettered, for economic reasons, while the public suffers. I.e. we can’t tell people smoking kills you, or fossil fuel consumption kills the environment or… You not only want government, you want regulations. That does not mean you do not want red tape to get in the way of solutions in a crisis, but presently that’s not an issue because the Administration is doing little.

And to exercise a little optimism, in today’s “L.A. Times”:

“Is Newsom right? Could California see 25.5 million coronavirus cases in two months?”

Bottom line, it appears Newsom was using an old metric, as in Wednesday, before Newsom cracked down and told everybody to self-quarantine, showing that self-quarantining works. However, if you read to the end you will find no one really knows, we are in uncharted territory.

I leave you with an e-mail from Wayne Forte, of Entourage Talent:

“The blind leading the deaf and dumb!

Seriously, it feels like we have a bunch of elderly frat boys running the country.

I spent time with 2 people last week and the week before last who now have it! I’m Counting the days here in self-quarantine. Got tested yesterday but it’s 4-6 days for the results. Seriously!?!?”

You can’t watch it.

There are two immutable internet paradigms:

1. Everybody won’t be aware of what you are doing, no way, there’s no way to reach everybody, the channel is just too clogged.

2. We live in an on demand culture, people want to experience it when they want to experience it. Of course, you can make it a one time only event, which is what live is all about, but when capacity is unlimited, was everybody aware of the show? I mean if you sell out a physical venue, you’re probably satisfied, but if the whole world is your audience, don’t you want to reach more people?

Usually the Luck Reunion garners 4,000 in-person attendees.

The Livestream last night had over 100,000 viewers. How many stayed the whole time? We don’t get the granular data we need, that’s the problem with Netflix views, you don’t have to watch much to be counted.

All this is to say what I’ve actually seen of the Luck Reunion show is FABULOUS!

Funny world we live in. The record industry keeps telling us it’s about beats, that hip-hop is the only thing that matters, and then you tune into something like the Luck show and you hear “wooden music” and pure voices and your soul is touched, your heart pitter-patters, you want more.

So sure, I saw references to the Luck Reunion online yesterday, but I was busy and I did not see it as a priority, I mean I like Willie, I’ve seen him, but do I need to stop everything to watch his show?

And live at home is not a good experience. It’s hard to sit there and watch without surfing, it’s different from being in the venue.

And to tell you the truth, so much live stuff on YouTube is awful. Sure, you can blame it on recording techniques, i.e. an iPhone far away, but even through that you can oftentimes hear how the singer can’t sing in tune, that outside the studio their voice just isn’t that pure, it’s disappointing.

And then you hear Lukas Nelson sing “Turn Off the News (and Build a Garden)” and your jaw drops.

Navigate to here:

How the Luck Reunion Pulled Off Its Most Emotional Year Yet – With No Crowd

You’ll see the pic of Paul Simon right on top, I’ll get back to that.

But scroll down to the video and click to play. You’ll be positively stunned at Lukas Nelson’s voice, this is exactly what is coming out of his mouth, with no effects, no pitch correction, no autotune.

And then you want to hear more, BUT YOU CAN’T!

The article linked to above says the show is still available on Twitch, but then you click through and it isn’t, I tried multiple browsers, is there something I don’t get? I was researching and I just could not find the complete concert, not on YouTube, not anywhere.

But then I went to:

www.twitch.tv/luckreunion/videos

And I clicked on “paul simon, edie & woody,” it was only half a minute, but their version of “All I Have To Do Is Dream” was exquisite, it reminded me of the sixties, when we got together and sang, when the songs were still singable. (Does that make me sound like an old fart? Maybe, but one thing I’ll tell you for sure is melody never goes out of style, and a great song is one that can still be sung half a century later!)

Now when you finish watching that, click back on:

www.twitch.tv/luckreunion/videos

(It’s easier this way, trust me.)

And then click on “View All,” which is in purple, above the clips.

Scroll down twelve rows to the pic of Paul Simon and click to hear an excerpt of “American Tune.” Paul seems to be wearing most of his years, but he can still pick and his slightly weathered vocal adds gravitas and humanity to the song.

So my main point is this Luck Reunion show should be available to be streamed in its entirety, and also be available for song by song streaming, especially because it was a tip-only show.

But my secondary point is this wooden music is treated like a second class genre, but it’s not, it’s primary, it’s the music that’s played in cafes, bars and theatres all over the country. And it’s this music that resonates in this time of isolation.

After this period of isolation is all over, there will be a number of resets.

First, people will stop demonizing technology, will stop complaining about kids on their phones after they realize it’s these devices, this technology, that allows us to connect, that keeps us united.

Second, people will stop demonizing Amazon, our link to products. In an era where the local merchant, if there even is one, is shut down, thank god for Amazon.

Third, we will all remember this experience, how we were alone and craved togetherness.

There’s been a tsunami of live streams in the last week. The problem has become that many musicians are using it for self-promotion, they say they’re giving back, but what they really want is fame. So…we’ve got the paradigm referenced above, so much in the channel that we don’t hear about things and end up overwhelmed.

But this Luck Show is something different, it’s a showcase of what once was, and forever will be, something we need more focus upon, because it’s not evanescent crap, but stuff that speaks to our cores, that keeps us alive.