Living in cornavirusworld 60: I shall be released

5/21

North of the Meer

When at the edge of my awareness I catch a story about lone children being deported or immigrants with covid19 being sent back to their countries of origin or packed together in detention centers, when I half hear them and go on with my life, maybe I know what it’s like to a be a German in the late 30’s/early 40’s, these half heard stories about what’s happening to Jews….

I worry about the  characters sitting on lawn chairs between the deli and the liquor store, no social distance, maybe one mask, passing joints and bottles…

Spend most of my day getting ready for my “showcase.”

Lockdown showcase #2

Making sure I’ve got all the tech issues squared away. Working with the lighting. All what my boys would call “bootleg.”

Walk through the north end of the Park. Along the shore of the Meer. 

at the Meer

Some people playing paddle ball. Some reading. Some just sitting in the sun. I stop at Maxwell’s for a margarita. Stop at the  empty “show” court at the King houses. 

the "show" court

 And make my way home.

One more street memorial....

too many memorials

Finish setting up. Open up for Steve and Lizzie. Go over the details. Then open up for the public. Live streaming link on Facebook works!  (https://www.facebook.com/robert.l.brashear/videos/10158101976508361/) Friends arrive. My boys arrive. All three of us performers have songs that relate to the virus. Steve has been writing a song a day. I’d like to be  done with my  “Don’t roll that way” song, but the President keeps giving  me new verses. I feel good about having produced a good night of music. We end the show with Dylan’s “ I shall be released.”  A prayer, a fervent hope....

                                                  "I shall be released"

I end the day by watching “The Death of Stalin,” Ianucci’s darkly comic telling of the struggle for power following Stalins death. Fascinating to see one of my favorite actors Steve Buscemi, playing Nikita Kruschev, who I remember from childhood ….the kitchen debate with Nixon, the famous shoe incident, the face off with Kennedy over Cuba when we all thought for a few days we might die in a nuclear holocaust. Fascinating to reflect on the combination of terror and love inspired by Stalin’s seemingly random brutal rule. Equally interesting was a character like Molotov, ready to confess or to offer up his own wife. I have read that true believers would confess over their own sense of  real or imagined guilt over what they had done. Maybe some day in the future some of today's elected officials will look back and wonder how they agreed with, or silently went along with policies  as tens of thousands died unnecessarily while truth and science was denied for the sake of political expediency. May it be so.      

                                                                   Death of Stalin