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There are two things that just keep running around in my head a lot. I am going to ramble about them here in hopes of getting them out of my head.
Brain weasel 1: I keep seeing people anxious for concerts to start again, but even mild covid could end singing careers. A lot who live have lung damage. I want to see Steam Powered Giraffe soon, but I can't imagine them throwing away lifetimes of work on lung capacity and vocal range. One of the band members sometimes covers Rhianna's Diamonds at live shows. David has vocal raaaange. Survivable covid could devastate or end their careers. They are in shitty, shitty positions.
This isn't just an SPG thing, it's all the bands I follow. The Midnight, Orville Peck, etc.
Obviously this is a danger for other performers, too. Not just the singers. (Mild covid could also wreck my future hiking and career plans) I just don't think people get how extra on lockdown some performers need to be and don't want to point it out in fandom spaces because it'll come off as 'well actually' or being overly precious. This may be a one-off comment but David has said he doesn't expect SPG to perform live within the next two years. In the age of Spotify, live shows is how a lot of acts survive. This is a big problem for the music scene, especially anything out of the mainstream.
And speaking of which, the upcoming content in the MMO I play isn't going to have voice acting. They are going to keep putting out content, and adding in the voice acting later.
Brain weasel 2: When I did my trip to Alaska last summer I got in and out before the state was smoky for the rest of the summer from wildfires. I've said a few times that I don't fully appreciate how damn lucky I was. Now, well, that times ten. The state has a 14 day quarantine for people arriving there. The rail line maintenance and all the vintage cars in perfect repair is funded by money from shuffling the cruise ship tourists around. The cruise industry as we currently know it might not exist for much longer. I wish I'd done more on the trip and maybe I should have chased mountain pictures like everyone else rather than being 'tundra is neat', but damn my timing was amazing.
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the trip was funded by my honeymoon fund. When I was young I had a good paying job and had a sense that wouldn't have this mush disposable income later in life. So I put aside some money for when I'd get married, so we could go on a romantic trip of a lifetime. Marriage, and even dating, never worked out for me. So, I broke into the account. Alaska is not cheap. Booking 4 nights in Kantishna was a life choice. I stayed at the air taxi instead of one of the actual lodge. The air taxi is allowed to rent out rooms not currently being used by pilots. It's about 1/3rd the cost of staying anywhere else in Kantishna, but it's still a giant pile of cash. Kantishna being the tiny dot of private land inside the park with a tiny airstrip to fly in lodge passengers, do mail delivery and also rescue flights. And you couldn't brush your teeth with water from the bathroom tap because the was water wasn't potable. Honestly, I'd take tiny airport over fully functional bathroom any day, but even with those quirks it was still a stunning amount of money to stay there.
I'm digressing and rehashing stuff from my trip reports. Anyway, my point is that I was damn lucky and I still think about that fact every day. Stuff went wrong on the trip like getting stuck in Fairbanks for a few days because the one tour I was going to do got cancelled. And right now I doubt I'll ever make it out to Manley Hot Springs. Also some things I would have loved to have done were simply out of my price range.
I kind of dreamed of going again and doing a few more things, but that seems extremely unlikely now.
Anyway, if people do want to read my trip reports or see my arty tundra pictures.
BTW getting to some of the vantage points on Denali that are very nice requires a few thousand dollars. The only way to get access is paid tours only available to people staying at the lodges that start at $2K a night. There is no bus, car or hiker access outside those tours. I'm not really into being dragged out to pre-determined photography locations so I don't really regret it, but also damn.
I have a bonus brain weasel about fandom conventions but this post is long enough. Basically it sucks having a wealth of knowledge about something when people really want to hold into the idea that cons will come roaring back real soon now, even bigger than before. I need not take part in those conversations for my own sanity.
Brain weasel 1: I keep seeing people anxious for concerts to start again, but even mild covid could end singing careers. A lot who live have lung damage. I want to see Steam Powered Giraffe soon, but I can't imagine them throwing away lifetimes of work on lung capacity and vocal range. One of the band members sometimes covers Rhianna's Diamonds at live shows. David has vocal raaaange. Survivable covid could devastate or end their careers. They are in shitty, shitty positions.
This isn't just an SPG thing, it's all the bands I follow. The Midnight, Orville Peck, etc.
Obviously this is a danger for other performers, too. Not just the singers. (Mild covid could also wreck my future hiking and career plans) I just don't think people get how extra on lockdown some performers need to be and don't want to point it out in fandom spaces because it'll come off as 'well actually' or being overly precious. This may be a one-off comment but David has said he doesn't expect SPG to perform live within the next two years. In the age of Spotify, live shows is how a lot of acts survive. This is a big problem for the music scene, especially anything out of the mainstream.
And speaking of which, the upcoming content in the MMO I play isn't going to have voice acting. They are going to keep putting out content, and adding in the voice acting later.
Brain weasel 2: When I did my trip to Alaska last summer I got in and out before the state was smoky for the rest of the summer from wildfires. I've said a few times that I don't fully appreciate how damn lucky I was. Now, well, that times ten. The state has a 14 day quarantine for people arriving there. The rail line maintenance and all the vintage cars in perfect repair is funded by money from shuffling the cruise ship tourists around. The cruise industry as we currently know it might not exist for much longer. I wish I'd done more on the trip and maybe I should have chased mountain pictures like everyone else rather than being 'tundra is neat', but damn my timing was amazing.
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the trip was funded by my honeymoon fund. When I was young I had a good paying job and had a sense that wouldn't have this mush disposable income later in life. So I put aside some money for when I'd get married, so we could go on a romantic trip of a lifetime. Marriage, and even dating, never worked out for me. So, I broke into the account. Alaska is not cheap. Booking 4 nights in Kantishna was a life choice. I stayed at the air taxi instead of one of the actual lodge. The air taxi is allowed to rent out rooms not currently being used by pilots. It's about 1/3rd the cost of staying anywhere else in Kantishna, but it's still a giant pile of cash. Kantishna being the tiny dot of private land inside the park with a tiny airstrip to fly in lodge passengers, do mail delivery and also rescue flights. And you couldn't brush your teeth with water from the bathroom tap because the was water wasn't potable. Honestly, I'd take tiny airport over fully functional bathroom any day, but even with those quirks it was still a stunning amount of money to stay there.
I'm digressing and rehashing stuff from my trip reports. Anyway, my point is that I was damn lucky and I still think about that fact every day. Stuff went wrong on the trip like getting stuck in Fairbanks for a few days because the one tour I was going to do got cancelled. And right now I doubt I'll ever make it out to Manley Hot Springs. Also some things I would have loved to have done were simply out of my price range.
I kind of dreamed of going again and doing a few more things, but that seems extremely unlikely now.
Anyway, if people do want to read my trip reports or see my arty tundra pictures.
BTW getting to some of the vantage points on Denali that are very nice requires a few thousand dollars. The only way to get access is paid tours only available to people staying at the lodges that start at $2K a night. There is no bus, car or hiker access outside those tours. I'm not really into being dragged out to pre-determined photography locations so I don't really regret it, but also damn.
I have a bonus brain weasel about fandom conventions but this post is long enough. Basically it sucks having a wealth of knowledge about something when people really want to hold into the idea that cons will come roaring back real soon now, even bigger than before. I need not take part in those conversations for my own sanity.
thoughts
Date: 2020-05-09 11:47 pm (UTC)From:A friend got us theater tickets ages ago for the end of summer and I'm terribly sulky that it's likely to be canceled. (It hasn't officially been canceled yet, but I fully expect it will be.) But even though I'm sulky about it, I can't think of a place much more crowded than a theater and the actors can't very well wear masks and socially distance from each other or their crew on-stage so… yeah. I think the only reason they haven't canceled yet is that would be a lot of refunds to process at once. (They've canceled all performances through June already and I expect they'll just roll forward with cancelations a month at a time.) Basically, if somehow they don't cancel, I think I'd be worried for all the reasons you mentioned.
I'm sad about some of the things that have been canceled/postponed, but I wouldn't want people to risk themselves to go forward with them. I do not understand the people who are throwing tantrums about the lockdown and I'm especially confused that "I want a haircut" has become the rallying cry for so many of them. Really?! That's the thing you thought was worth putting on your protest sign?
I've never been on a cruise, but I find myself slightly confused that they seem to be such a hotbed of infection. (Before this, it seemed they were always in the news for norovirus outbreaks, etc.) You would think that a cruise ship would be fairly easy to keep clean. The fact that they're so clearly not makes them much less attractive. (I still have this notion from watching The Love Boat as a kid that cruises are supposed to be exciting and fun. But now the impression I get is that they're crowded and not terribly safe.)
I've heard a few drive-in movie theaters are seeing more business. I haven't been to a drive-in since I was maybe nine-years-old. I'm curious what other shifts we're going to see in things we once thought were normal. Will people be wearing masks for so long that it could become a fashion thing?
A friend of mine is talking about having me come over and visit soon since we've both been quarantining for over a month (with occasional grocery runs) and part of me thinks that's perfectly reasonable and part of me feels guilty for even considering it. What if I picked up something on one of those grocery runs? I'd feel awful if I infected her.
Anyway, those are my disjointed thoughts for the day.
Re: thoughts
Date: 2020-05-10 12:47 am (UTC)From:People just want to see the light at the end of the tunnel but if we don't deal with stuff realistically, stuff isn't going to be there. Like I said in my post early on in all this, if there are artists or events you care about it's good to check in on them. We can't just ignore them for a year to two and expect it to be there when the vaccine comes.
Bands these days are highly reliant on touring for income and mild corona could be a career ender. It's a bad combo, yo.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-10 10:49 am (UTC)From:Life will not return to "normal" (for a given value of normal) for quite some time until we have effective treatments etc. (though happy if I'm wrong!) and realising and accepting that is important in allowing society to find alternatives, which benefit not only the bigger fish but also the smaller fish.
Supporting groups, people, charities etc. until then is vital.
Your holiday in Alaska sounds lovely and excellent timing!
The problem with cruise is the general hygiene of the guests...which
is not great (unsurprising to me unfortunately as my mother is a retired nurse, so we always washed hands etc. properly, but the sheer amount of people who I witnessed never washing hands after the toilet or rinsing their fingertips is disturbing).
no subject
Date: 2020-05-10 11:59 pm (UTC)From:I don't want to be harsh to people having trouble dealing with this, but we need to think at least some about the future and adapting. I really like music so I might spend a lot of time with livestreams for the next two years. Not ideal, but artists gotta eat.
I hope we are almost to the part in the film where the scientist has the big break through. There is reason to think treatments and vaccines could come surprisingly soon, and reasons to think that they could be far off. We just don't know right now.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-11 04:06 pm (UTC)From:I don't wish to be harsh either as I have my bad days, and I do think fandom is an valuable escape (it is mine for example). Even so, when the conversation does turn to our current circumstances there should be a thread of realism underscoring said conversations. Your note on how artists will survive is a part of that and if it isn't realised then in two years our creative outlets may just be smaller and less diverse.
Seconding your hope that we are in the part of the film where the scientist has the big break through! We are in a situation where brilliant minds around the world are chasing the same end point and even sharing data, so there is a chance we could reach the goals sooner rather than later and importantly have any treatments and vaccine be safe and effective. As you say, we don't know where we are so it is best to plan long-term so we emerge as intact as possible and able to rebuild effectively.