Pantograph and Pandemic Tracing

Day One of Quarantine

Well the day started out well imagining a 5th season of Mozart in the Jungle (see below). At 10 I checked with my friend with the mill as to the availability of the forklift tomorrow. He was out all day and I really needed to know. Then I found out why. One of his grandchildren gave his wife the gift of a breakthrough infection. They both tested negative last week as she was fighting her cold. They retested and she got her results last night and we are waiting on his.

So I am scheduled for testing on Monday (they say wait a week and watch for symptoms) and will be arranging for monoclonal antibodies should I test positive. I also added the seasonal flu shot when I see my PCP in 4 weeks. I spent much of the day contract tracing. Also I got a nap in, cried during the 2nd act of Porgy, and had two very wonderful calls with my dear friend and great moolluscan paleobiologist Carole Hickman and my old bicycling buddy Faith Conroy who is like the other sister I wish I had besides Carole. We can go years without talking and then connect as if the last time was yesterday.

Faith made it to Hollywood after we bundled her off to Bozeman for journalism school. She went to work for the paper and they sent her on assignment to report on A River Runs Through It when it was being filmed in Idaho. She and Robert Redford immediately became friends and she became a script supervisor at his suggestion. She and her parter Jim Wilson produced the movie 50 to 1.

Holy Ivermectin! I know several horse people who will enjoy this! Check out both of them in Imdb.

Last night I did a little better on the sleeping front and woke up thinking about my friend Craig Verm’s immersion into an opera production done in the time of Covid resulting in a suoer condensed version of Don Giovanni. Throw in the entire orchestra going on strike, but encouraging the opera performers to sing (they are in a different union) so that the picketing orchestra members can watch it from the audience perspective. This sounds like something right out of Mozart in the Jungle. By the time Nancy woke up we were discussing the 8 episode season 5 with a cliffhanging ending that I conceived and emailed to her. See below.

So I called Faith to see how one would pitch such an idea to someone in Hollywood. She said don’t. The lack of new ideas there has nothing to do with Covid. instead everyone is suing everyone else because they had nothing else to do. For example, Kevin Costner is suing her partner for $15 million currently. See https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/kevin-costner-files-15m-suit-against-former-business-partner-4115747/

I have a bone to pick with Kevin Costner which I will save for another time.

Instead I will produce this as a Graphic Novel or audiobook which I will then submit to the Mozart in the Jungle Fan Base. So far I am the only one who has watched this visually - in my Cyclothymic Cinematic imagination. The scene with the English Horn is particularly graphic! Enjoy Season 5.

Meanwhile, I am socially distancing from the 5 flutes in progress until 2 negative test results (2 week delay). The mill may not happen until November. I’ll carefully put gloves on and hide the flutes away where I won’t breathe on them and continue cleaning and organizing my workshop, and start writing for my other Substack journal that I still really want to call “Winter Nurse” - autocorrect jargon for “Woodturner”.

Mozart in the (COVID) Jungle - Season 5 Summary (look up the Wiki for more info on this show if you haven't seen it. Seasons 1-4 are on Prime). Throughout the season they are working on Dvorak's New World Symphony, with Hailey (Oboe) working on the important English Horn solo in the Adagio

Episode 1 - PANDEMICONIUM. Flashbacks to 2020 when it was all shutting down. Death of some orchestral members including . Charlie the Piper is introduced at a memorial for the former piccolo player and Union rep Union Bob(the actor passed away). The piper is based on my friend Charlie Rutan in Philly who is very Philly Italian and charismatic and humorous. He mostly performs at funerals.

Episode 2 - FALLOUT. How everyone survives isolation and tries to stay musically inspired. Carpetland (Gloria, general manager) implodes. (We will be using that term that my friend Rich at CAS created, It needs to go viral)

Episode 3 - TOO MANY BUBBLES. Charlie becomes part of Hailey (Oboe) and Rodrigo's (Conductor) Covid bubble, to Rodrigo's discomfort. Other isolation survival failures and Carpetland implosion

Episode 4: ZOOM FOR DUMMIES: Carpetland is imeptly trying to create a virtual concert performance. The computer illiterati amongst the orchestra thwart it. Hailey and Charlie solve it by doing it the Isolation Pub Session way - and getting romantically twisted in the process giving Rodrigo nightmares where he thinks he's catching Covid 

Episode 5: DEWORMING THE BRASS SECTION WITH BLEACH UP THE ASS: Vaccinations give a new hope - except for the antivaxxers (all trombone players) who take up Ivermecten, led by emeritus conductor Thomas's Trump-fashioned example which changes weekly. 

Episode 6: FALSE SPRING: Some of the more-aware orchestral members such as Hailey and Cynthia (Cello) are increasingly freaked out by Carpetland opening too soon. Rodrigo is freaked out by Hailey's and Charlie's near romantic plunge which doesn't quite always succeed. Rodrigo has a nightmare that he's in the hospital with Covid. The doctor (Charlie) is about to viciously intubate him with Hailey's English Horn, keys and all (They have been rehearsing the Dvorak New World Symphony)

Episode 7: EVERYTHING SOUNDS BETTER AT 435: After a few breakthrough infections in the Flute and Viola sections, the Union led by Cynthia becomes alarmed and involved and insists on socially distant rehearsing - outside in the weather which is unusually cold. All the woodwinds are so cold that the orchestra has to tune down to A-435 causing all sorts of whining - especially when they go inside where its too warm and unventilated and the instruments freak out. This doesn't help with the out-of-shape musicians struggling with their instruments and the fallout of isolation. Meanwhile Thomas is struggling in the hospital and making a pain in the ass of himself. Rodrigo keeps having nightmares about being intubated with bassoons and contrabassoons! Hailey and Charlie go off on a Covid bubble trip just to blow off some steam.

Episode 8 (Season Final): SUPERSPREADER EVENT FROM THE NEW WORLD: The New World is finally performed! A few weeks later several in the orchestra start testing positive with various results, with the worse outcomes happening for the ones most cautious and the better outcomes for the ones who threw caution to the wind (Thomas) who also falsely claim that Ivermectin saved them. The performance is blamed in the media for a new variant called the Dvorak Variant that targets the vaccinated, especially woodwind players. Charlie is identified as Patient Zero - this is something similar to the diseases bagpipers catch from their unhygenic bagpipes! The the new peak in NYC and is characterized as a SuperSpreader event. Carpetland is sanctioned and faces lawsuits and union troubles. Hailey and Charlie are almost at that romantic point of no return when they both start coughing and Rodrigo is going crazy when his ex-wife shows up to calm him - unsuccessfully. Multiple cliffhangers....

This will all require resolution in the final Season 6 when and after the Pandemic ends. If it ever ends.