Covid-19: Getting Through, Together

I’m sort of trying to compile a list of all the cool projects that are out there to entertain, educate, enlighten during this pandemic. Here's what I'm aware of so far:

• My friend Natasha Marin (Tashi Ko on FB) has started SOL(idarity) TV (www.facebook.com/groups/solteevee/), “a platform for escape and engagement—a space to create and share content from the solitude of quarantine, self-imposed or otherwise.” She posts short homemade videos, by many contributors from all over the world, of play, meditation, singing, reading, learning, practicing, exercising. It’s really lovely.
• Patrick Stewart is reading a Shakespeare sonnet every day (Twitter, @SirPatStew, #ASonnetADay): today it was Sonnet 6, because “Sonnet 5 is too hard”
• Rebecca Solnit is reading a fairy tale every day (FB Live, daily at 5 PDT), and just generally talking about . . . it all
• Dolly Parton is reading a bedtime story every evening on YouTube (entry added 4/2)
• WxW just launched a weekly reading series, on Zoom (https://www.writingxwriters.org/readings-by-writers); it will be every Thursday (it began today, with Pam Houston) at 5 PDT
• Heather Cox Richardson is doing a FB Live “video chat” twice a week: on Tuesdays at 4 EDT she’s answering questions that FB followers ask her about politics and history; on Thursdays at 1 she’s giving an informal history lecture, drawn somewhat from her new book, How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America
• Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing funny little PSAs on Twitter, assisted by his pet mini-donkey, Lulu, and mini-horse, Whiskey (Twitter, @Schwarzenegger); he says, “I’ll keep sending Whiskey and Lulu updates, and you send me your favorite stories of doctors, nurses, truck drivers, grocery store stockers, people who check in on the elderly—anyone who gives you hope. I’ll share in this thread throughout the crisis. Stay safe, stay at home.” (Arnold as governor, maybe not; but as citizen, I'm rather fond of him—and Lulu and Whiskey.)
• If you like music, my friend Dave recommends "amazing" daily piano improve concerts by Jordan Rudess, accessible via his Facebook page (entry added 4/2)

Chris O'Dowd reading Arnie the Doughnut

There's one I’m not quite sure about: I believe it's called Operation Storytime and/or Save with Stories, where book authors and celebrities (SwS was launched by Amy Adams and Jennifer Garner) read a favorite children’s book, (maybe) every day at 3 p.m. EDT (Instagram, #OperationStorytime; https://www.instagram.com/savewithstories/). But (if I’m understanding correctly), these are also archived in various places—Twitter, YouTube, FB, IG, depending on the poster’s own preferences (maybe?). It’s all a bit mysterious to me. Anyway, yeah: stories! celebrities! if all else fails, try hashtags! (Here's an LA Times story about it, with IG links to various of the stories, some of them ongoing apparently.)

Then too, various institutions have jumped in, putting things online, and/or people on social media are posting links to available resources that we can divert ourselves with. Like:
Watch a Globe Theatre Shakespeare production
Listen to musicians all around the world create songs together, on Playing for Change
Take a virtual tour of a world-famous museum
Enjoy a moment of Zen thanks to dozens of museums worldwide (Twitter, #MuseumMomentofZen)
Swim with the jellies in a Monterey Bay Aquarium live feed

I know there must be other such initiatives and resources out there, but . . . how to find them? If you know of any, please write a comment!

Meanwhile, an English friend we met in Costa Rica wrote on FB today, “I’m just off to clap! Well, on the doorstep anyway.” I asked what that was about. He said, “At 8pm we were asked to go out into the street and applaud all the emergency services to show our appreciation for the sacrifices they are making for the rest of us.” Apparently there was a lot of noise. Good noise. Grateful noise. This is one of the things I do like social media for: making good things go viral.

I subsequently learned that my sister-in-law in Seattle also went out to hoot and holler at 8 o'clock. This is a thing? I don't think it's reached Monterey, if so. (Ah: next day, she sent me a WaPo story about it. Mystery solved.)

In any case: we will get through this (most of us)—and emerge on the other side more erudite, more literary, and best of all, more united. All this sharing lifts my heart.

Finally, here's a video that Max Brooks, author of World War Z and son of director Mel Brooks, posted on Twitter today—about distancing, especially from older people (like his 92-year-old dad). It's worth a look. (I'd embed it, but I don't know how.) (Thanks to my friend Kim, from Kauai, for mentioning it in today's blogpost about what they're experiencing there with this epidemic.)

Stay home! Stay safe! Stay well!