Good evening, Kibitzers! I really meant to depart from the topic of Covid-19 this week, but I ran across so many good song parodies that I had to do just one more diary from Coronaland. A long one.
I never put videos above the fold, lest they overburden the device of someone innocently browsing the “blog view” of this group. So let’s hop below the fold, and start with one of two famous people in my lineup. Samuel L. Jackson was among those who offered a reading, some time ago, of the smartass “bedtime story” Go the Fuck to Sleep. Jimmy Kimmel had Jackson on recently with a new story which, through the miracle of YouTube, we can bring you uncensored.
So now, let’s dive into the world of Corona-themed parodies of pre-existing songs. This one based on Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody has been around for a week or two, but it’s so brilliant that I could not leave it out. (Note that there are a couple of copies of this on YT, but this specific video is the one from the channel of the vocalist on the piece, Adrian Grimes. If you share the song, please use this one so he gets the views.)
This take on Adele’s Hello is pretty darn good too, including in its takeoff on the original video’s visual style. On singer Chris Mann’s channel, he has several other corona songs — I also recommend the Vogue parody.
I was not previously familiar with the Plain White Ts song Hey There Delilah, but it’s not necessary in order to appreciate this version from The Kiffness.
The Holderness Family is apparently just a parody-makin’ machine. Here, they’ve co-opted Foreigner’s I Want to Know What Love Is.
Singer Shirley Șerban does a great job voicing Julie Andrews and all the Von Trapp children for the full Do-Re-Mi production number, in part 1 of her Covid-19 Sound of Music (see also part 2, My Favorite Things).
Sam Chaplin brings us Tommy James & the Shondells’ I Think We’re Alone Now, even though Sam is too young to know about Tommy James & the Shondells.
MC Hammer’s 1990 U Can’t Touch This gains new meaning in the hands of Nick Savino and his one-man band of hard-to-find household products.
It may take you a minute to connect with these two understated young doctors (she records as Sympholily), but this is a funny and rather charming use of the BeeGees’ Stayin’ Alive.
Comic Maria Wojciechowski takes on Abba’s Dancing Queen.
Zack David warns us to do just the opposite of the advice in this parody of Paul Simon’s 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.
FiveTimesAugust has a whole playlist full of Covid parodies. I liked this one, to Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight.
This isn’t the first offering from the UK we’ve had, but it’s the most obviously British. From Matthew Fearon, to the tune of John Lennon’s Imagine.
Actor Zach Timson begs us, in the YT comments, to disregard that lyric from back when they were telling us wearing masks was bad. His Broadway medley spans the history of modern musical theater.
Musician and camera tech Jon Pumper drew upon the Beach Boys’ Kokomo to earworm his way into your skull.
The Sutton Family offers the Covid version of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables. Mom has a great deadpan, and the kid is good!
We’ll close with the other already-famous person, Alicia Keyes, on Stephen Colbert’s show with her relatively gentle version of Flo Rida’s My House (Flo Rida’s video is nsfw).
It took me a little bit to prune the list of ones I watched down to this size, and then some out there, you know, are crappy parodies. (RW nuts write corona parody songs too, but they tend to neither rhyme nor scan. Also, the lyrics are about some conspiracy theory, or at best they both-sides the whole disaster. I watched some so you don’t have to.)
Last week, we had the second installment of Crashing Vor’s in-progress documentary about New Orleans and its Coronavirus responses. {Part 1 on YouTube / its diary) (Part 2 on YouTube / its diary)
The diary for this week, about the loss of Ellis Marsalis Jr, is at this link. And here’s the video — feel free to go give him some clicks.
🦠 COVID-19 🧫
A collection of information, community responses, and entertainment.
Coronavirus viability timeframes:
- In air: 3 hours
- On copper: 4 hours
- On cardboard: 24 hours
- On stainless steel and plastic: 2-3 DAYS
- On cloth: 6 DAYS
NPR digests the viability study and offers disinfecting advice.
Some more recent information on viability, in this comment by learn.
CDC disinfecting advice.
CDC general COVID-19 information.
Enlightening interview with epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant.
Virus Spread Tracking (terrific website — thanks, eeff!) (profile of the site’s developer)
The Paradox of Preparation: “The only way to get ahead of the curve is to take actions that *at the time* seem like overreactions.” ~ Chris Hayes
Social Distancing
Hand Washing
Shopping for people 60+ and/or with other risk factors
Dealing with Illness:
This is a roundup of items that may be of interest. I am not an MD and this post is not medical advice. Please use your judgment and/or consult your doctor.
My mother is not expendable. Your mother is not expendable.
We will not put a dollar figure on human life.
We can have a public health strategy that is consistent with an economic one.
No one should be talking about social darwinism for the sake of the stock market.
~ NY Governor Andrew Cuomo
Sewing Face Masks for Medical Personnel
OR YOUR USE (because that’s a thing now)
Stuff To Do If You’re Bored
- Watch livecams!
- Online transcribing projects: help make old manuscripts and documents available and searchable online by transcribing digital copies and reviewing others’ transcriptions.
- Library of Congress has many different such projects
- The Smithsonian has a lot too.
- Wonkette has a piece about a project to transcribe old ships’ logs, at the end of which they have a sort of “roundup of roundups” of other transcription projects. (Other useful tips in there too, plus cute animal videos!)
- Are you taking Zoom or Skype meetings these days? Consider FaceRig, software which allows you to appear onscreen as an almost limitless variety of computer-animated characters. Fun, and not expensive unless you want the “Pro” version. I have NO idea if this is the only such product out there.
- Meditation: user Calvino Partigiani advises that online guided meditations are available here. Most run around 20 minutes; here’s a short one you can check out — audio is at the bottom of the page.
- Marissa Higgins shares links to museums, opera and other music, and assorted other stuff being made available free online.
- Both Chris Reeves and Jen Hayden had diaries for sharing cooking ideas and talk about food (names are diary links). Don’t miss Neeta Lind’s totally foolproof focaccia recipe!
- Yo-Yo Ma still has a YouTube channel.
-
Itzhak Perlman on Twitter has helped to lighten the mood with tweets in which he tells a charming little story (usually a sort of musical dad joke) and plays a short passage on the violin.
-
Steak-umm is a brand of frozen thin-sliced sandwich steak, such as one might make a cheesesteak sandwich with. Imagine everyone’s surprise when their Twitter account suddenly produced a long and rather brilliant thread about the nature of data and the urgent need for critical thinking.
Some responses:
-
“This is some heavy lifting from a very surprising source!”
-
“Who knew flat frozen beef sheets could be so astute and articulate.”
-
"Who had steak-umms for 'most trustworthy news source' on their bingo card?"
-
“We live in a time where a Frozen Steak speaks the deep truth. Thank you.”
-
”When there was only one set of footprints, Steak-umm was carrying you.”
-
“In which a frozen meat company becomes more credible than the United States government.”
-
”There are some serious glitches in the matrix right now”
-
”It's the height of my academic career to learn I share epistemologies with a frozen meat brand.”
|
So, everything south of here insists on being centered no matter what I do (it should run for president). The remaining boxes that are usually down here are seriously hard to read with everything centered, so if you would like to see the GOTV links or the Puerto Rico and other aid links, you can find them at the end of last week’s diary. Maybe it’s a sign that I need to make the time to compress all that stuff before next week.
4/12: Ha! Easter miracle.
🌟 GOTV 🌟
🌟 VOTING BY MAIL: Some states (New Jersey is an example) don’t have vote-by-mail as their standard procedure, but issue absentee ballots with no questions asked. Now would be a good time to check into that for your state and those of your Democratic friends and relations — Google can help. In the case of NJ, one has to download, fill out, and mail in an application. I plan to switch over to automatically getting a mail-in ballot for every election from now on, which is one of the options here. No one who does not have to touch buttons in a voting booth should be doing so!
🌟 POSTCARDING: If you are looking for a way to help and can’t do things like canvassing or phoning, consider hand-writing postcards asking people to vote. It’s easy because you’re given specific talking points from the campaign you’re working with, so you don’t have to think up what to say, and no one will be coming back at you with questions. And if you like to color, you can get creative decorating the cards. Note that you are responsible for buying postcards (and stamps if you don’t use pre-stamped ones.) Postcard stamps are 35 cents each; pre-stamped postcards from USPS are 39 cents each; two different pretty designs. If you can spend a little more, the two postcarding sites below sell their designs; or, searching the phrase “postcards to voters” on Amazon will show you many designs.
To get started:
🌟 PERSONALIZED LETTERS: Similarly, you can do more good than you might expect by writing personalized letters (from a template) to Democrats who are unlikely voters, adding a brief personal statement about why you VOTE EVERY TIME. Studies have shown this can boost turnout by enough to make a difference. As with postcards, you get names/addresses for these voters in targeted districts from the website, fill in the letters, address/stamp/fill the envelopes, but then, you hold them and mail them on Oct. 27, a week before election day! Note that, as with the postcards, you are responsible for buying envelopes, paper (no special paper required), and stamps. First class letter stamps are 55 cents each. (A new Gwen Ifill stamp came out recently!) You can also buy pre-stamped business-size envelopes, also two designs.
For more info:
These mail projects also help support the USPS, the latest GOP target!
🌟 CONFIRM YOU ARE REGISTERED, REPEAT REGULARLY, AND GET YOUR FAMILY AND OTHERS TO DO THE SAME!!! FIGHTING VOTER SUPPRESSION STARTS AT HOME!
- Many folks here have been surprised to find that their or a family member’s registration has mysteriously disappeared, even though it had been active. Don’t wait until too late to catch and correct this bullshit.
- HEADCOUNT.ORG will direct you to your state’s Department of State/Division of Elections (or similar) webpage, which is the horse’s mouth, as it were.
- Or, google something like “am I registered to vote” plus your state, and go to your state government’s page directly.
🌟 If you can do more, do it! These are just things you can do at home at 3 am. Some of us have the wherewithal to do more, and we should! No one is coming to save us. Act accordingly.
Remember we need the House and Senate, or no president will be able to help us. If you’re sad your presidential candidate wasn’t nominated, please find some downticket races to get excited about. We all need each other.
|