the chicken lives!

[domarzione]

* COVID-19 everywhere, most of NYC shut down, and I'm still taking the subway to work because my employer hates paying us not to work exactly that much. Also, it's cheaper for them if we get sick -- they only have to pay us for as long as we have sick days. And being as I am recovering from flu, I have practically none. Is anyone in my department an essential employee? No. Are we so much as being given hand sanitizer? Also no. Have I looked up a copy of my union's Short Term Disability form in case I get sick? Yes. 

Every university is looking like the Good Guys for sending the students home and switching to remote learning to avoid crowds. And behind all of that are the people like me, non-teaching staff at universities that don't give a crap about our well-being because we are a financial drain (i.e., they have to pay us) as opposed to the students (who pay them). In the meanwhile, the official recommendation for my class of serfdom? Wash your hands. 


* Speaking of the virus, however... Support your local small businesses during this time. The big places are gonna be fine -- and in fact are totally necessary -- and so will the folks who work there. But your local Chinese restaurant? Your favorite taco joint? The independent bookstore? Go into those places and ask if they have gift certificates. They get the money from those now, you can redeem at a point in time that's best for you. 

(I just found out a Chinese joint by me does Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts. I am there for those.)


* There's no baseball and no hockey and I'm going to have to watch the three streaming services I have subscriptions to, aren't I.... On the bright side, Chris Kreider will be ready to play if the NHL resumes instead of missing the rest of the season. And Michael Conforto won't come back from his oblique injury too soon and hit .195 and wreck both his and the Mets' season. 


* If you get to self-isolate, or at least work from home, try to be a quarter as cool as the Sicilians. 

Comments

[leonie_alastair]

I'm sorry you're stuck in that position. If you are looking for cool things to stream, beginning Monday the Metropolitan Opera is going to be streaming (for free) a prerecorded opera every night through the end of the month. They're broadcasting Carmen on Monday.

[domarzione]

Oh, nifty! I went to four productions at the Met this season (my first live opera in decades, I overcompensated) so this will be fun. Except La Boheme, which I realized that I am too old for and can never watch again. Thank you!

Meanwhile, I just watched Ip Man, so I go high and low! :)

[domarzione]

And here is a link: https://operawire.com/metropolitan-opera-to-offer-up-nightly-met-opera-streams/

[leonie_alastair]

Which four? I saw Ahknaten and Queen of Spades and loved them both.

I agree with you on La Boheme and would add La Traviata and Madama Butterfly to that list.

Have you heard Rhiannon Giddons podcast Aria Code? It's a 30 minute discussion of a single aria by a singer, a musicologist and a person with some RL connection to the role. There are 3 seasons so far - it's one of my favorite commuting podcasts.

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/aria-code.

[domarzione]

I saw the 'kiddie' version of The Magic Flute by accident, which was adorable and astoundingly beautiful because it was Julie Taymor channeling Kabuki and once I acclimated and remembered that it would be actually close to the original intent, the English translation and Papageno flossing (dancing, not teeth) was charming. I admit to walking out of La Boheme at the first intermission because I realized I hated EVERYONE and they are all awful except for Mimi who dies at the end, but the staging itself was phenomenal. The revival of the twenty-year-old staging of Handel's Agrippina was amazing and I'm primarily a Baroque and Medieval and Renaissance music person, so it was my jam even if Nerone had different stage directions from everyone else and was doing Iggy Pop while everyone else was doing 1940s film but good lord Joyce DiDonato. And while I admit I like Porgy and Bess much better as a straight musical instead of an opera, I am so glad I got to see this production of it because it was monumental -- I caught one of the extended performances, just at the end, and I'm glad of it.

I am still learning to listen to podcasts, so the answer to "have you heard..." to almost anything is "no." But thank you for the recommendation. With no sports to listen to in the evenings, I'm trying to broaden my horizons a little.

[leonie_alastair]

I've seen the family version of The Magic Flute a couple of times and the full length version once. In any version it's fun.

I've never heard Agrippina is but Iggy Pop seems out of period for a staging of Handel - though setting an opera in Berlin in the 1980s would be amusing. Unfortunately the only libretto I can think of that would fit is La Boheme and that would be too much like Rent meets Atomic Blonde. We're supposed to see Joyce DiDonato in Maria Stuarda in May. Hopefully the situation will have improved by then.

[domarzione]

Agrippina is a really odd duck of an opera in terms of what modern audiences are used to -- two counter-tenors and a pants part and they're all principals, there are lutes and harpsichords, etc. -- but staging it in 20th Century dress actually works tremendously well. This staging has a harpsichord onstage and turns it into a nightclub scene that is surreal and amazing.

DiDonato as Agrippina:

[blackrook]

Random comment from a stranger - but I've just reread These old shades, so:)

[leonie_alastair]

Thank you for getting the reference! It is one of my favorite books, and Harriet Vane was already in use when I first went online. ;)

[blackrook]

BTW, Wien opera is doing the same - https://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/en/staatsoper/news/detail/news/the-wiener-staatsoper-is-closed-but-continues-to-play-daily-online/.

[leonie_alastair]

Very cool - thanks for the link!

[blackrook]

Wish you all the strength and patience!

As for what to watch - what do you think about Chinese period dramas (and no, I don't mean Untamed:))?

[domarzione]

I don't know what Untamed is, which I suspect raises me in your estimation. ;)

I love period anything, but if it's some 95-chapter drama, I'm going to tell you that life is too short. If it's a Hong Kong action anything, bring it on. :)

[blackrook]

What I had in mind is 54 episodes of political drama, so I guess it's a pass:).