The edicts have come down from on high, we are ordered to shelter in place. What alternatives do we have?
I have gathered a few for your consideration.
My buddies in Napa Valley have pointed out that Sheltering In Place is short for SIP…a good strategy when it comes to wine, no matter the source.
Did you know that Shakespeare created one of his most compelling works while in quarantine? Perhaps now is the time for you to put pen to paper, or the digital equivalent and create your masterpiece. You may not come up with “Macbeth” or “King Lear,” but only time will tell. To get you started, how about an inspired webinar about The Bard?
Are you struggling to to fill the time with your kids at home with worthy activities? The Museum of Making Music is helpfully providing a series of marvelous webinars.
Although our physical museum location is closed, the spirit of our museum is still definitely open! We’ve been hard at work (from home!) putting together some exciting ways we’ll be gathering together (online, of course!)
Covering great topics like what it’s like being a conductor to building acoustic guitars to building your own instruments, MMoM has you covered.
Speaking of music, there is a cascade of videos being posted by musicians. Jackson Browne, himself diagnosed with corona virus, has released a heartfelt song recorded months ago. He refers to Judith Own as a “a master class on how a show should be done,” quite an accolade. Her song “Italy Unbroken” is tremendous.
Your house may be like our house: consistently loading items in the freezer over the last many months and losing track of your what you have. We just spent 12 minutes and drafted an inventory into a shared Google doc; now we have a bunch of meals on deck we had not expected.
La Jolla Playhouse announced new online content offerings to connect and engage with patrons while its theatres are dark. The content will be available on the website at LaJollaPlayhouse.org, as well as on the Playhouse’s social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. La Jolla Playhouse has provided us endless enjoyment, from the world premieres of Pete Twonshend’s rock opera “Tommy” (on which I grew up) to Randy Newman’s “Faust” (which provided a song for our wedding, one of Newman’s few love songs “Feels Like Home”). Founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, the Playhouse is currently led by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse, and La Jolla Playhouse Managing Director, Debby Buchholz. The Playhouse is internationally renowned for the development of new plays and musicals, including mounting 105 world premieres, commissioning 52 new works, and sending 33 productions to Broadway – including the hit musical “Come From Away” – garnering a total of 38 Tony Awards, as well as the 1993 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.
Another museum with intriguing online offerings is the San Diego Natural History Museum. I have been absorbed in their exploration of the San Diego region without leaving home.
You have been putting off for too long the effort of organizing your photos, slides, home movies, and family histories. Now is the perfect time to tackle what will become a satisfying project. Check out Collectionaire. This site gives you all the tools to bring all your disparate assets into one place, archived and sorted no matter what happens after we are done sheltering in place. The site is currently running a very informative series on how to move your home movies to the cloud.
Helping teachers be awesome.
In a brilliant display of charity, Classkick, the leading virtual learning app that shows teachers in real-time exactly what students are thinking and learning, announced today that they are immediately offering the Classkick Pro School Membership for free for Coronavirus COVID-19 affected schools (a $1499 value). Because of the widespread U.S. school closures, in one weekend alone in March 2020, over 3,000 new schools signed up for Classkick’s remote learning app, with over 1,000 schools unable to pay immediately. With many more schools expected to close soon and children’s education at stake, Classkick is offering Classkick Pro School for free for all schools in need. To sign up, go to: https://classkick.com/coronavirus.
Are you hankering for a visit to a museum? Here are some stay at home alternatives.
- The National Hellenic Museum in Chicago (NHM) offers a free digital museum archive that features a rich repository of 20,000+ Greek American artifacts, photos, historic newspapers, books and more than 450 recorded oral histories to explore. This is the largest collection of its kind in the entire world. Dedicated to preserving and protecting the Greek American experience and Hellenic Legacy, the portal allows access to the Museum’s catalog online from anywhere in the world via digitized artifacts and archival materials. The portal can be found here: https://collections.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/
- Paper Source invites us all to do something creative every day, and especially during this time. Their team will be inviting children to join them for “Craft Recess” daily — hosted on their Instagram page, @papersource. With projects in fun and unique themes, the crafting experts will showcase projects that can be made with common household items.
- Marriott Theatre, located at 10 Marriott Drive Lincolnshire, IL, is streaming videos from their cast of “Kiss Me, Kate” to create a “video scrapbook” during this period of isolation and quarantine. Fans have the opportunity to connect with their favorite artists, and can be viewed daily on Marriott Theatre’s YouTube channel by clicking here.
- Caledonia Senior Living & Memory Care, 2800 Des Plaines Ave, North Riverside, IL, has announced the implementation of a new online portal for residents and their loved ones to stay connected throughout the current COVID-19 pandemic. With precautions in place to keep residents and staff safe, Caledonia has introduced this program in order to continue their tradition of providing compassionate care and a true sense of home to those that live there.
- For those looking to do a little online shopping at home, Amdur Productions’ e-commerce site, ArtZipper.com, features up-and-coming artists selling unique, handcrafted pieces directly to consumers. From paintings to sculpture, hand-blown glass and fine jewelry, ArtZipper.com features expertly curated works in every medium you can imagine, and ships internationally. Additionally, Amdur Productions will hold live-streamed virtual seminars sharing tips on how to prepare to exhibit at an art festival this coming summer.
Isolation is a real concern, even for the most seemingly stable of us. I have written before about the great work that VET Tv is doing, and the company’s creator has a great video for all of us, worth watching. Check it out here.
Have other ideas? Please share them in the comment section!