Wacky Wavy New Year

Posted on by Thor

Back when I lived in New York City, I remember seeing a show with a friend which let out just moments before midnight on New Year’s Eve. We walked out on the immense crowd in Times Square. There is an energy to being in such a crowd that is hard to define. It must be experienced in person. At the stoke of midnight the ball dropped and the song, New York New York began to play. We ripped up out programs to add to the confetti of the evening.

Last night Pam and I rang in the New Year while doing family history research on the couch. I knew the ball drop would be virtual so we turned on the TV ten minutes before midnight. fireworks were gong off all night in our neighborhood and the dogs sought comfort by curling up on the couch beside us.

The images of a largely deserted Times Square were surreal. Even more surreal was the choice event sponsors made to populate the once crowded event with Wachy Wavy Inflatable Tube Men. The tube men bore advertising as did every screen in Times Square. As the clock counted down in the final moments a truck ad played below the countdown clock. It was a strange way to visually ring in the new year but we made it better with a very real cup of prosecco champagne and a kiss.

Virtual Ball Drop

Posted on by Thor

Times Square is empty on New Years Eve. As the number of coronavirus cases continues to climb across the country, event organizers will host a virtual ball-dropping celebration.

Police   have set up a perimeter around Times Square to keep spectators out. Garbage trucks and buses are parked at intersections to keep vehicular traffic out. There will be no public spectator viewing areas. Even people in local hotels are being told to stay inside.

The event will be broadcast online. The ball will be raised at approximately 6 p.m. to the top of One Times Square. There will be musical performances by Andra Day, Gloria Gaynor, Jimmie Allen, Machine Gun Kelly, the USO Show Troupe and more. Additionally, first responders, front-line and essential workers will be celebrated as special guests and heroes of 2020. They will be some of the privileged few to celebrate the new year from Times Square.

Mayor Bill de Blasio will press the button to send the Waterford Crystal ball on its one minute descent and finally the horror of 2020 will come to an end. Last year when the ball dropped, the first case of COVID-19 were just being reported.

The New Year’s Eve ball has dropped every year since 1907, except in 1942 and 1943, when the dropping was suspended because of the city black-out during World War II.Even then people gathered in the dark to celebrate. COVID-19 has created a much greater black out on social gatherings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging people to stay home and celebrate virtually with friends and family. The COVID-19 death toll is projected to be as high as 419,000 by mid-January.

Pre-Pandemic: Best of Orlando

Posted on by Thor

Each year the Orlando Weekly hosts the Best of Orlando Party at The Beecham (46 N Orange Ave, Orlando, Florida 32801). I sketched as they put the lettering up on the movie marquee sign out front.

This is definitely the most crowded club scene I tend too sketch each year. There was no Best of Orlando party in 2020 due to the pandemic. People did vote however and the Weekly put out a Best of Orlando Issue for when life returns to normal.

The best visual artists in 2020 were:

1st: Synthestruct synthestruct.comThe website featured interactive light displays.

2nd: Crystal Dombrosky crystaldombrosky.com Featuring mermaids and water.

3rd: Eric Pabon facebook.com/artofericpabon Featuring Comic and sequential art, graphic design and branding and caricature.
Far more important, the Best Burlesque troupe was 1st: Corsets & Cuties, a Burlesque Cabaret corsetsandcuties.com. They continue to perform with safety precautions in place, but I am holding off sketching them on location until this pandemic peters out.

Strategy?

Posted on by Thor

This piece was originally started as a demo for my virtual digital illustration students at Elite Animation Academy. As I was painting, I started thinking about the strategy of chess, where you sacrifice many pawns to win the game. To date about 336,000 have been sacrificed as the POTUS practiced a strategy of herd immunity.

By politicizing the wearing of masks the POTUS guaranteed deaths. By contradicting public health experts, he created a divide among those that practice safety precautions and those that ignore all safety guidance. The nation has never been so divided, there is only black and white with no middle ground or swaying opinion with reasoning or thought.

Rather than swim upstream, health expert are quitting because they can not face the antagonism and threats of violence. Hospitals are being overwhelmed by people who refuse to accept that they have contracted the virus. The crisis could have been avoided but it continues to get worse just as the promise of vaccinations are on the horizon. People are scrambling to try and get the vaccine before it is too late. The rich are trying to bribe their way into getting the shots and in Florida those 65 and older are being offered the vaccine before front line health workers. My doctors office just sent out a mass e-mail letting everyone know that they do NOT have the vaccine. They must be getting an overwhelming number of requests. My older sister in south Florida has been trying to find where she can get her shots but keeps running across brick walls. There is a site set up to schedule appointments for vaccine shots and it was overwhelmed and shut down from all the traffic. COVID-19 broke the internet.

When Van Gogh shot himself in the corn field, black crows rose up from the crop, their black wings cutting across the sky. Mitch McConnell put a hold on a COVID relief bill for Americans unable to decide if each person should get $600 or $2000. For many it is too little too late.

COVID Prayer

Posted on by Thor

A California man murdered a fellow COVID-19 patient with an oxygen tank. 37 year old, Jesse Martinez became upset when the 82-year-old man sharing his hospital room started praying, according to Los Angeles police.

Martinez allegedly grabbed an oxygen tank and bludgeoned the elderly patient.

The victim died the following day.

The police said the two men did not know each other, and they were receiving treatment for coronavirus in a two-person room in Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster in southern California.

Jesse Martinez, was arrested and charged with murder, a hate crime enhancement and elder abuse,” a statement read. The victim has not been identified. Martinez was moved from the hospital room to a jail cell and is expected to appear in court in Antelope Valley on Monday December 28, 2020. The investigation is ongoing.

Pre-Pandemic: Auditions for Chess Match at Orlando Renaissance Festival

Posted on by Thor

I went to Cypress Grove Park, 290 Holden Ave., Orlando Florida to sketch the auditions for Chess Match at Orlando Renaissance Festival. The show, produced by Lance was a stage combat production which was the headline show in the Orlando Renaissance Festival, and was comprised of over 20 roles (both combat and non-combat oriented) that will brought the epic lore of the Grimm Brother’s Fairy-tales to life in a Living Chess Match. No experience was required. 

The rehearsal took place on a scenic lake side spot at the edge of a forest. Groups of actors were selected to go through scenes together. I got to watch various actors go through the same scenes and I fell in love with certain performances. It was a fun and inspiring morning.

Pam came with me with her two pups and walked them around the park while I worked. One actor had his pup with him as they watched the rehearsal. By the time Pam returned I was finishing up the sketch. My challenge was to catch the ever changing crowd of actors as the moved around the open field performing.

The Orlando Renaissance Festival announced that the 2020 Orlando Renaissance Festival has been cancelled. This decision was not been made lightly, and was made with the safety of guests, participants, and workers in mind. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, they closely monitored the situation, and they do not believe that we would be able to operate safely this year and in full compliance with local ordinances.

They will be returning in December of 2021! They were prepared to open a second week of operation in honor of the 5th anniversary, and they do plan to move forward with that in 2021. Our dates for 2021 are December 4-5, 10-12, 2021.

This year, (2020) they plan to premiere a virtual event on Zoom and Facebook Live on  December 5-6, 2020.  The event is free of charge to participants and patrons, and is their way of offering an opportunity for  all to come together and experience the magic of the festival.

 

Pre-Pandemic: HoodSTOCK-in tribute to 1969

Posted on by Thor

I went to Nora’s Sugar Shack to witness HoodSTOCK, In tribute to 1969!The event happened mostly behind the Sugar Shakc in partnership with Mills 50 and the Ivanhoe Village Community.

The events over the course of four days were to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original Woodstock. Local creatives were showcased from Orlando through music, art, performance, spoken word, film, dance, and more.

Attendees could obtain special discount offerings on food, drink, services, and products. Also, Hoodstock was opening the conversation about establishing a permanent location for street performers, and buskers to perform in the future.

I went hoping to sketch one of the many musicians but I timed it wrong.  Vendors were just beginning to set up in the parking lot and attendance was light. My assumption is that it might have gotten much more crowded as the evening wore on. I miss these innocent days of documenting local gatherings. Hopefully after vaccines, life will slowly return to normal.

The POTUS has announced that he intends to hold a Woodstock style rally right here in Florida on the same day Joe Biden is inaugurated. Prepare for the super spreader event of the century! They are bound to have mind altering drugs!

#txtshow

Posted on by Thor

As part of Melbourne Fringe, Brian Feldman performed #txtshow (on the internet) via Zoom. He live streamed the event from Washington D.C.

The show was described online as:  “This completely immersive multiscreen performance features a mysterious character called txt (pronounced “text”) who recites a script written anonymously in real-time by a live audience (on the internet).”

“As the content is based entirely upon what audience members write in anonymity, this limited capacity show may contain mature themes, profane language, and explicit sexual content. Happening on Zoom, audience members must keep their camera and microphone on the entire show.”

I have sketched live TXT shows many times in the past when Brian performed in Orlando. It was a nice change to see the audience reactions by seeing them on the computer screen.

It was late here in Orlando when the performance began, so I had the bright idea of enjoying the show from the hot tub. I hadn’t considered the logistics of having to do a watercolor sketch while in the tub. I sank down mid chest and had to raise my elbows to try and keep the sketch pad above the water. Another thing I hadn’t considered was that the lights might not be on while I sketched. I worked with the ambient glow from the computer screen and balanced the sketchbook on the edge of the hot tub. Another thing I hadn’t thought about is that the moderator wanted us to keep our camera on. The problem was be were not wearing bathing suits. Modesty forced us to keep the camera off for part of the performance but then we went ahead and turned it on. Since the lights were off, it didn’t matter.  The flesh tones didn’t appear in the darkness.

Pam started typing a complex text for Brian to perform and in her haste, she dropped her phone in the hot tub. She pulled it out immediately and dried it off with a towel but the damage had been done. She turned it off and ran to the kitchen to put it in a container of rice. She explained that turning it on with water inside might short circuit it. She did sent off some more texts via computer as the show went on. She had Brian do some physical performances like pretending he was stuck to the back wall of his set.

His set was surprisingly stark. I love sketching from Zoom since people don’t usually think of the camera angles and they often have the camera pointing up a the ceiling. This creates some fun sketches of people in their homes from strange angles. Brian must have hung a pure white sheet behind him because his dark black suite stood out from a pure white backdrop.  One woman was laughing with delight the whole show. We scrolled to her several times to watch her laugh. Another woman frowned the entire show, she never seemed amused.  This made for a fun performance. Since I was sketching live, I discovered I couldn’t spend much time sketching each audience member since Pam was enjoying scrolling through the faces to watch reactions a swell. As  in a live performance people on occasion remarked about each other, like when someone complimented one audience members hat.  TXT made such a seamless adaptation to the new technology offered by Zoom. This was a fun night with absolute social distancing.

The next day several buttons stopped working on Pam’s phone, but over time the features returned and her phone made a full recovery from its dunk in the tub.

Not a Creature was Stirring

Posted on by Thor

Twas the Night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse. – Clement Clarke Moore.

Crede Baily, a top White House security employee who contracted the coronavirus has lost his right foot and lower leg in his three-month battle against COVID-19. Crede who is in charge of the White House security office, was the most severely ill among dozens of coronavirus cases known to be connected to the White House, Bloomberg News reported.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo  invited 900 people for a mid-December holiday party to be held indoors at the State Department. Only 75 mindless souls sent back RSVPs. The State Department canceled its holiday party on December 16, 2020 after Pompeo was forced to go into quarantine after exposure to someone with the coronavirus.

The formerly infected POTUS arranged 20 indoor holiday parties at the White House despite the CDC saying such events pose a great risk of COVID-19 transmission. Videos and photos taken at these parties show many guests not wearing masks. Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis, who posted a photo of herself at a party December 4, 2020, has tested positive. It is unclear whether Ellis posed a risk when she attended. She did not wear a mask. If she was infectious then the White House hosted yet another superspreader. Ellis likely caught the virus from Rudy Giuliani in Lansing, Michigan at an Election Integrity Hearing.

 

Days Apart

Posted on by Thor

A Douglas County, Colorado couple in their 70s died within days of each other from COVID-19.

An Oklahoma couple married 45 years, died days apart. They texted each other “I love you” before going into coma.

In Jacksonville, Florida a mother and daughter died 19 days apart from COVID-19.

A Wisconsin couple married for six decades died from COVID-19 just 2 days apart.

A California couple married 35 years died from COVID-19, 11 days apart.

The wife and husband behind Seattle’s Kona Kitchen died from COVID-19 just days apart.

A South Carolina couple married for 66 years died days apart from COVID-19.

A Louisiana woman lost both of her parents days apart due to COVID-19.

An Atlanta, Georgia couple married for 49 years died days apart from COVID-19.

Three members of a Freehold Township, New Jersey family died days apart after contracting COVID-19.

Just as the United States is rolling out COVID-19 vaccines, the numbers have become gloomier than ever: Over 3,000 Americans died in a single day, more than on D-Day or 9/11. One million new cases in the span of five days. More than 106,000 people in the hospital. The U.S. recorded 3,124 deaths Wednesday, December 9, 2020 the highest one-day total yet, according to Johns Hopkins University. Up until last week, the peak was 2,603 deaths on April 15, when New York City was the epicenter of the nation’s outbreak.