One day flows into another. It’s Saturday, right? We have a madman in the Oval Office. COVID is surging once again. The election seems months away, yet it isn’t.
We’ve gone back to The Great British Baking Show. We watched several seasons a few years ago. Then we stopped watching for a while. Every once in a while I would suggest it, but Don wasn’t in the mood for it. Recently, he rethought that. So, we’re back. I love that show and it’s just the antidote to all the insanity being spewed at us every day. We’re still watching Frasier, as well, but we’re nearly to the final season, so we’re dragging it out a little.
Sad news: Broadway shows/performances remain suspended through May 30, 2021.
This is devastating to the performing arts. Just devastating. If everything starts back on June 1 (and that’s doubtful) Broadway will have been closed for 16 months. That has never happened before. So many people out of work, so many shows that will not survive this and will never reopen. So many restaurants impacted. So many businesses. Careers halted. Will agents survive this? Will producers?
And this is a harbinger for off-Broadway and regional theater, as well.
It’s heartbreaking. I can’t even write about it, it’s so upsetting.
We may rake leaves today, but I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather. Wind events seem to screw up my sinuses and we had two days of that this week. So I’m feeling rather foggy and out-of-it.
But it’s beautiful out there today and it’s going to be in the seventies. So, we may take a little drive and enjoy the fall color.
Stay safe.
Happy Saturday.
And so it goes…in the last couple of weeks, a dear ex-sister-inlaw died (Covid supposedly), a former beloved student died…a dear friend died (all in my home state…I moved here three years ago)…and so it goes…and so it goes…tests that don’t do well…tests that do…health…and so it goes…we just get up; we are thankful for another day; we continue…prayers…thank you for this blog…I am thankful for you…
Thankful for you, too!
Stay safe, Brenda.
to brendab …
so sorry for your losses.
i agree that we need to get up and give thanks for another day, but i also think we need breaks and hope you take as many as you need. and that you get good news soon.
prayers for peace, rest, wellness and safety.
kathy in iowa
Well, happy Saturday to all. It’s been a long week for us. Meanwhile we’ll be moseying south, getting ready to learn all about lymphoma. Yuk. 2020, you’re not playing fair.
What’s going on, Shanna? Are you or Fred ill?
If you want to sent me an email and speak privately, please do. If you don’t, I understand.
xo
Stay safe.
He’s just been through a bunch of stuff and got a diagnosis. We’ll know more after getting a doctor in FL. He goes in Wednesday.
It’s much more treatable now than when my brother had it 30 years ago. The prognosis is usually quite good. I’ll be thinking of you both.
Much love to you and Fred.
xoxo
💕🙏
I agree…2020 not fair…prayers and thoughts
💕🙏 Thanks, Brenda.
hej, shanna …
will pray more for your husband, you and the rest of your family … for all good things, including easy treatments, complete remission and peace of mind.
kathy in iowa
💕🙏 Thanks, Kathy.
wowee; what a beautiful photo to greet my eyes this morning … all that happy color and a very happy bee! :) thank you!
very sad news about broadway, related businesses like restaurants and especially all the people affected. sorry, claudia and don. prayers, too.
i cannot understand why people who don’t wear masks, who gather in close quarters and call this a hoax can’t see that they are expanding and prolonging the very problem that they complain about. ):(
glad you have some “frazier” left and the british version of that baking show. i don’t have cable tv or great tv reception here (i get abc most of the time but not cbs or nbc; also get a couple fox channels, two religious channels, a canadian true-crime channel from the 80s and home shopping channels). thanks to my sister’s help, i can watch things on hulu. i will re-watch britain’s skyarts “portrait artist of the year” on youtube, also the “landscape” version … saving them for wintertime.
hope you take it easy and feel better soon! i won’t bother to get tested, but think i might have hay fever and an allergy to dust.
i need to get going on the grocery shopping so i can spend some socially-distanced time with family members.
hope you enjoy that pretty weather and dollhouse today!
stay safe!
kathy in iowa
I don’t understand it either. It’s selfish. So typical of Trumpers.
I have both those things: hay fever and allergies (one of which is dust.) I understand.
Stay safe, Kathy.
Dear Claudia, I am thinking of you and Don, along with all the magical moments of make believe that Broadway has given us. And not just on Broadway, but, for me and many others, the Broadway stories that have made Broadway come alive through film. The talents of so many who have entertained and inspired the rest of us. The future is the great unknown. Keep the faith, keep hope alive…mantras for 2020. Truth will out.
Thanks so much, Leslie.
Stay safe!
I was thinking of you two yesterday, when I heard the news about Broadway…and all that encompasses on down the line. So sad…and so preventable.
Since we feel bombarded by all that is news today…we are going to venture out for a country drive to see the colors! It is time for us to get lost in Mother Nature’s beauty, and ignore the chaos that surrounds us.
Stay safe! ;)
A drive sounds lovely, Donna. Enjoy!
And stay safe.
It is a beautiful day here, and for that we are so thankful! 80* yesterday and hubs and daughter kayaked at Devil’s Lake, most probably the last kayak adventure of 2020. Today he loaded up the power washer and took it into Madison to help both kids power wash their houses and do windows. Our house is up this next week. Since they work, weekends are the only time for them. Our days are all “weekends”, I guess. Tomorrow we are doing a ride to see colors. So looking forward to that! On the news this AM, they said the lows on Thurs & Fri will be around 31*, so that horrible 4-letter word was uttered, but only in the form of flurries. ugh.
Trying not to watch any news today. It really isn’t even news, it is simply an assault. So very tired of all of it. Take care everyone!!
A pox on that four letter word!
You’re so right. It’s an assault. I feel like someone has been beating me up for four years.
Stay safe Chris.
I’m taking it easy today. Spent time with the Grands last night and they always cheer me up. Today I’m reading and relaxing. I hope you can clear your mind of all the mess and hopefully get some rest. Hugs!
I’m resting. Did a little work on the dollhouse. I’m reading, doing a few chores, and that’s it!
Stay safe, Linda.
Claudia, I read an uplifting article in AARP last month about the history of the theater in London. It reminded me to have hope for Broadway and all other theater.
“In the mist of William Shakespeare’s career, all of London’s theaters were shuttered
for over a year, in an effort to halt the plague’s spread. From late 1592 to early 1594,
the bubonic plague killed more than 10,000 people living in London. But when theaters,
including Shakespeare’s Globe, reopened, gate receipts were huge, according to James
Shapiro, Shakespeare in a Divided America. Soon afterward, Shakespeare wrote Romeo
and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and he continued to write plays through a
second wave of the plague in 1603, completing King Lear and Macbeth a few years later.
“If Shakespeare’s age offers any model of consolation, it’s how quickly numbers were
back to normal and people were living their lives again. Shapiro observes, “Cities bounce
back, and people crave theater.”
I couldn’t figure out how to set italics on this computer and not sure if I cited it correctly, but
this was a good article for me that I wanted to share with you.
Lottie
AARP The Magazine, Aug.-Sept. 2020 “How About a Little Good News?”, Lankford, Kimberly,
“Shakespeare in a Divided America,” Shapiro, James.
Thanks, Lottie. Bless you for sharing this.
I know all about Shakespeare writing during the Plague and bless him, he and his troupe escaped to the country where there was safety. Unfortunately, there’s no place in this country that is safe from COVID. We’re in a different world now.
Tickets are wildly expensive, productions cost a whole lot more to produce, large theaters are standing vacant with no money to sustain the cost of the building itself – it’s not like it was when there was a limited amount of theaters back in the 1600s. Also, it just costs so much to live in NYC, so much to exist, that actors have had to leave town, give up their homes, move back in with family, try to scrape by when unemployment benefits have ended. Yes, theater will come back, but the careers ended by this pandemic will not come back, nor will bankrupt agents and producers and restaurants and costume companies and prop shops and scene shops. Lives will be forever impacted.
I was fortunate to meet Shapiro once when he visited our rehearsal and he’s a brilliant scholar. He’s right: The Arts always come back. We need them. Audiences will come back. But in the meantime, many, many professional artists and designers and actors and dancers and musicians and small theaters will not. Unfortunately, that is the reality.
xo
Stay safe.
When you get down to the nitty gritty, the impact of this virus on the theatre and hospitality industries, it’s really heart breaking. So many feel, woe is me, there are no shows and the restraunts are so restricted and expensive that I guess I will just have to… whatever comes to mind. But, the reality is the impact becomes really a personal attack when it is your life, your source of income and you have no other means to support yourself and your family.
I have a friend who is an actress at a playhouse and she bakes fabulous cakes and cookies for events. Those events are curtailed too so a double whammy. She is one of the lucky ones though, a family inheritance has her set up in a place many only dream of.
There are other industries in similar situations too and coupled with the other issues impacting our country, now is when we have to say “Please God, we need your help! This enemy is too big for us, we are no match. Lord help us!” And I bet He will.
Take care,
Kellhy
hej, kelly …
i agree with your last paragraph, adding i know He will!
stay safe and well, have a nice weekend!
kathy in iowa
Thanks so much, Kelly.
xo and Stay safe.
I also have read and studied that…I asked my daughter where we might go for awhile…safely…where? No where right now. I wanted to leave in 2016…but the grands are here…another four years is not in my thinking…and now Covid…my favorite city…and Broadway dark…can’t imagine…but it is so…prayers
Prayers to you, dear Brenda.
xo
My heart hurts for Broadway and all who are part of the community, onstage and off. Yes, there will be repercussions around the country.
We’re north again and it is so windy but so far has been sunny, if cool. And, it is breathtakingly gorgeous. I needed to escape to get away from the stress of OM, Covid, the Michigan mess, and so much more. Up here it’s just the radio and we stay away from talk. No TV. So we stream, and like you are into the new season of the Great British Baking Show. I love these people, how they help each other. Not that fond of the new comedian but then no one made me smile more than Mel and Sue. And I miss Mary Berry but like Pru, too. In any event, it makes for a wonderful viewing.
I hope you can enjoy the rest of the weekend. Keep the news off. What will happen will happen. But give yourself a break.
Yes, I miss Mel and Sue but I’ve become used to the other hosts and they’re lovely – a bit gentler humor, but just fine.
Stay safe!
We live near Disneyland, and know many artists and musicians who are part of the shows there. My daughter worked for South Coast Repertory, was poised to be Costume Supervisor for the youth theater when the pandemic closed everything down. Many of the actors she worked with also worked for Disneyland. She found out today that “Frozen” live at the Hyperion has shut down. Many of the actors she worked with at South Coast Repertory just lost those jobs. My heart aches for the actors and musicians and backstage personnel.
It’s simply terrible. So many out of work. So many scared and frightened.
Sending my best to your daughter, Linda.
Stay safe!
So sad about the theatres all over the US. Last Sunday Parade magazine had a cover story on Jerry Seinfeld. He said he doesn’t expect to perform live in front of about 3000 people before mid 2022. That seems years away. Although I’m sure performers could fill a venue now with all the Trumpets who believe this is a hoax plus now that their king has discovered a cure……
It is literally years away! Unbelievable. He’s probably right. I’m not sure how we will recover.
Stay safe, Mary.
Claudia, I hope you and Don had a nice ride yesterday. It was beautiful. I was also upset about the news from Broadway. In addition to the lives lost, the businesses, the jobs, we are losing a huge chunk of our culture, which is vital to human society. I can and never will forgive Republicans for being party to this. Those who take me to task for lumping Republicans together can go to hell. Anyone belonging to that organization who has not vociferously spoken out against the outrages is complicit. I know we are being urged to come back together again as a country, but I am not willing to forgive and forget. I don’t expect the Jews or the Cambodians or the Syrians are ready to forgive and forget the terrors they endured. I don’t blame people for being Republicans–as I’ve said, I’ve voted Republican before–but I blame them for sitting back and permitting this “stuff” to go on without complaint. I watched Unfit (right name) yesterday, and while it was a well-made film with interesting insights, it left me with PTSD. I don’t mean at all to diminish this condition which afflicts brave military people, but I do believe we have suffered a devastating trauma over the last 5 years. The film sort of opens with Trump and Melania riding down the golden escalator where he immediately condemns all Mexicans as rapists. From there…well, it’s unspeakable.
I am working hard to try to keep at least a tiny thread of hope, but it’s exhausting, especially as no one in my immediate circle thinks it’s as bad as it is, as if electing Biden will magically heal everything. Coming here has been a big comfort, and once again, thank you and Don for actually working towards hope instead of just thinking it. Take care of yourselves. Someday I guess we’ll be on the other side.
BTW, I have the boxes ready for you. I just can’t seem to find the energy to slap a mailing label on them. I’m sorry.
It’s all exhausting and, like you, I will never forgive the GOP and Trump for what they’ve done. And ‘not done.’ It is unforgivable.
Don’t worry about the boxes. Whenever you can send them is fine.
Stay safe, Nora.