Vegas Scream

Posted on by Thor

Where do the unvaccinated go to gamble? You guessed right, that would be Las Vegas. COVID-19 emergency declarations for Nevada ended on May 20, 2022 as the public health agency for metro Las Vegas noted that the pandemic isn’t over.

While most of the state’s pandemic measures, including business restrictions and mask mandates, have already been lifted, the Southern Nevada Health District said it was important to remind the public that the virus that causes COVID-19 continued to circulate.

“Cases are currently increasing, and new variants are emerging,” said Dr. Fermin Leguen, chief medical officer for the district. “It is as important as ever to protect yourself and others by getting fully vaccinated and boosted if you are eligible.”

CES a tech convention was held in Las Vegas marking a return to in person conventions. The show reported attendance of over 40,000 people, with 30% of those attendees traveling from outside the U.S. Immediately afterward, about 70 show goers from Korea who attended  tested positive for COVID-19. “Many people who attended the CES international electronic product fair in Las Vegas, last week are testing positive for COVID-19,” said Son Young-rae, a South Korean senior health official. It is, of course, impossible to say exactly whether the people were infected on the show floor or in some other part of Las Vegas, such as casinos, where mask wearing is much less common.

Nevada has had over 10,909 deaths attributed to COVID-19 and over 744,000 reported infections. It is a great place to get infected and then return to your home state and infect friends and family.

The Battle of Omicron Variants

Posted on by Thor

Deadline reported that Omicron variants BA.2, BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5 are battling for dominance in America. The share of cases tied to Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5 increased 79% in the past week. The result is overlapping waves of Omicron in various places around the country.

While BA.2.12.1 gained an advantage by being more transmissible than BA.2 before it, the two newer variants are said to be making inroads at least in part because of their abilities to reinfect.

BA.4 and BA.5 is substantially (4.2-fold) more resistant and thus more likely to lead to vaccine breakthrough infections. Hospitalization  continue to slowly rise all across the country. That means the new variants have a much larger population that they can potentially access via breakthrough infections.

Epidemiologist and biostatistician Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, calls this the “battle of Omicron.”

“After our first massive BA.1 wave,” Dr. Jetelina wrote today in her email newsletter, “BA.2 tried to take hold only to be overtaken by BA.2.12.1. Now, BA.4 and BA.5 are gaining traction very quickly and seem to be easily out competing the rest. Given recent lab studies, though, this isn’t a surprise. BA.4 and BA.5 are particularly good at escaping antibodies and reinfecting people previously infected with Omicron, as well as boosted individuals.”

While BA.2.12.1 spread quickly first the Northeast, it’s now the Midwest — specifically Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri — that are feeling the brunt of BA.4 and BA.5. “Once BA.4/5 account for the majority of cases in the U.S., we should expect another (or extended) case surge,” wrote Dr. Jetelina this week.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Saint James Roman Catholic Church

Posted on by Thor

Saint James Roman Catholic Church located at 32 James Street between St. James Place and Madison Street in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, is the second oldest Roman Catholic building in the city, built in 1835–1837 of fieldstone, with a pair of Doric columns flanking the entrance. The building was once topped by a domed cupola.

The neo-classical church is modeled on the published designs by Minard Lefever, and is sometimes attributed to him, there is no hard evidence of this being true.

The parish was established by Bishop John Dubois in order to relieve the overcrowding at St. Peter’s on Barclay Street. He purchased an Episcopal church building on Ann Street, retaining the name of Christ Church, and asked Father Félix Varela to organize a congregation. Varela also established a free school.

In October 1833, it was discovered that nearby excavation had rendered Christ Church unsound. Pending the completion of a new building on James Street, premises were rented at 33 Ann Street. However, some members of the congregation found this too far uptown, and instead purchased the Reformed Presbyterian Church on Chambers Street. This would become the parish of the Transfiguration.

The first Mass was said in the basement of the James St. church on September 18, 1836.

The church was ordered to be closed by New York City officials in 1983, because of the danger of its roof collapsing. It was scheduled to be torn down in 1986, but was saved by the efforts of the community, especially the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the first branch of which was organized in the church in 1836. The building suffered significant damage in a fire on January 11, 2011. In 2007, St. James Parish merged with the nearby Parish of St. Joseph. The combined Parish of St. Joseph/St. James was merged again with the Church of the Transfiguration in 2015.

FBI investigates OMA Basquiat Fakes

Posted on by Thor

Sometimes making painting is like counter fitting money. The New York Times reporter Bett Sokol has been doing some amazing investigative reporting about the apparant Jean-Michel Basquiat forgeries on exhibit at the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA).

Basquiat died at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose in 1988. His art work has skyrocketed in value since then. A canvas by the painter was recently auctioned for $85 million.

The FBI is now investigating the 25 painting on exhibit at OMA. The 25 works are supposed to have been “discovered” in a Los  Angeles storage unit in 2012. The unit was owned by the now deceased MASH screenwriter Thad Mumford who the owners claim purchased the works for $5000. The owners say they met Mumford for lunch and that he gave them a poem on printer paper to commemorate the sale. The problem with this is that Mumford was a techno phoebe who never used printer paper, preferring analog pencil or pen on a legal pad. De Groft included the poem in the museum’s exhibition as proof of the paintings’ authenticity. The story relies on the initials JMB written with thick oil stick below the poem. Those 3 letters they claim would be very hard to forge.  “The poem is almost like a receipt, it refers to the works, it refers to the inscriptions in the works, it refers to the time,” OMA  museum director Aaron De Groft said in an interview. In an interview I saw of the artist back in the 1980s, Basquiat was asked about the words used on a particular canvas. The artist was annoyed and refused to explain what the words that he scrawled and crossed of in the painting were meant to convey.

The back story establishing the paintings’ origins rests largely on the word of Mangin and Force, who have both served time in prison for felony drug trafficking. Mangan was part of a criminal ring that forged documents and illegally issued more than five million shares of bogus stock, earning him over $8 million in illicit proceeds. Mangan was convicted, and his 1999 sentencing included a lifetime ban on working in the securities trade. O’Donnell also has a criminal record, having pleaded no contest to violating campaign finance laws in 2006.

The Times found a designer who had previously worked for Federal Express. He identified the FedEx typeface on a piece of cardboard Basquiat was said to have painted on as one that was not designed until 1994, six years after the artist’s death.

De Groft is staking his reputation on the paintings being genuine, he cited statements from art world experts commissioned by the owners William Force and Lee Mangin and Pierce O’Donnell. who are trying to sell the works. If authentic, the Basquiat paintings would be worth about $100 million, according to Putnam Fine Art and Antique Appraisals, which assessed them for the owners. Exhibiting paintings at a museum can often enhance the legitimacy of works without more established provenance.

University of Maryland associate professor of art, Jordana Moore Saggese was paid $25,000 to authenticate the works on cardboard. Pages where removed from her report where she clearly stated that nine of the 25 paintings could not be attributed to Basquiat. The owners pushed back on her findings which is unheard of and unethical.

In a subpoena to OMA dated July 27, 2021, the F.B.I. demanded “any and all” communications between the museum’s employees and the owners of the artworks “purported to be by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat,” including correspondence with experts regarding the artwork. Museum staff have been told they would be fired if they spoke to media.

Colette Loll, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University pointed out the unethical motives of the owners and museum, “The lack of any real scientific analysis on methods and materials speaks volumes.” In another tweet, she added, “Handwriting analysis and poems don’t authenticate artworks.”

Immune Escape

Posted on by Thor

The pandemic has never followed a simple linear path. New variants pinball around as people ignore the virus, and continually change the game.

In Early May 2022, The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) designated the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants as variants of concern (VOC) and said they could fuel increases in infections in the region in the weeks and months ahead.

At least 24 countries outside of South Africa have now reported the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. In US developments, key outbreak markers continue to rise, especially in the Northeast and Midwest. New daily cases are now over 100,000 and that is of course an under count. If you just go by your social media contacts who have been infected it seems the virus is everywhere.

With 12% to 13% growth advantage over BA.2, the ECDC estimated that BA.5 will become dominant. The growth advantage is probably due to immune escape from earlier infection, including from the original Omicron variant, and vaccination. Vaccine protection against Omicron infection has been shown to wane over time, though it still protected against hospitalization and death. Countries should have plans in place for the rapid deployment of booster doses for individuals who are 60 years and older to combat this immune escape.

COVIDCON Superspreader

Posted on by Thor

Seth Meyers  told the thousands who had packed Radio City Music Hall for NBCUniversal’s presentation, at the Upfronts, “What a historic room to be able to tell people you got Covid in.”

The NBCUniversal upfront, which kicked off proceedings at Radio City Music Hall with elaborate production numbers involving dozens of performers, was a largely mask-free affairs

Ten days later, Covid cases were sweeping through the ranks of those who attended the marathon of events in New York. Top-level executives at virtually all of the major networks and studios were impacted, along with support staff that worked on the presentations as well as media buyers and reporters who attended the string of events.

It is likely the largest Covid superspreader event in the senior ranks of the TV industry since the start of the pandemic.

The majority of attendees did not wear masks most of the time. None of the non-affiliated guests were required to take a Covid test throughout the week. Vax cards were mandated at all venues. On May 16, 2022 New York City health officials strongly recommended that people wear masks when they were in densely populated indoor spaces. But they didn’t go as far as mandating this, and for the next couple of days, there were not a lot of masks seen at the events targeting ad buyers.

So inviting senior studio executives, talent and ad buyers was a great way to spread the virus. How might you infect as many of the worlds billionaires as possible? You invite them to Davos, Sweden for the World Economic Forum. Davos returned to an in-person meeting format this year. Videos I saw showed mask less crowds huddled together gleefully spreading deals and the virus. They might be rich but that doesn’t mean they are smart.

Corsets and Cuties ICONIC at Fringe

Posted on by Thor

After sketching Bullock and the Bandits at the Abbey, Pam wanted to extent the evening by going to the Stardust Lounge (431 E Central Blvd, Orlando, FL) to see the Corsets and Cuties show ICONIC. Stardust is a very small basement space. The main room is perhaps 10 feet wide by 20 feet deep. The venue was jam packed for this performance with standing room only.

Pam her niece and I were perhaps the only people wearing masks that evening. Rather then press into the crowd, I sat off to the side in the aisle that leads back to the dressing room for the performers. At one point the stage threatened to collapse and I was front and center to watch as several stage hands or bar tenders tried to re-assemble a microphone stand using their iPhone flashlight to see what they were doing.

Who’s your favorite iconic star? Troupe co-founder Lady Jaimz warmed up the crowd and also took part in many of the performances.  The one performance that had me laughing out loud was Barbi Rhinestone who dressed as Dolly Parton using two huge pink balloons as her boobs. She had to enter the staging area with her back to the audience for the big unveiling. I could only see a fraction of the performance but when the balloons started popping the audience roared.

I got to sketch the 27 May 2022 performance and it looks like the final performance was 28 May 2022 at 07:00 pm – 08:00 pm.

Bullock and the Bandits

Posted on by Thor

Kangagirl Productions presented Bullock and the Bandits at the Orlando International Fringe Festival. A $10, reusable button is required to enter each performance. You may purchase online or in person at the box office. This show is at the Abbey, 100 S. Eola Drive
Orlando, FL.

Step inside the haunted saloon at the World Famous Bullock Hotel for a rhythm and blues, country, and rock fueled ghost rider romp across the Wild West! Orlando Fringe Festival Lifetime Achievement Award recipient David Lee’s new band performs with special guest stars Tymisha Harris and Eddie Cooper.

“I’ve always been fascinated with Deadwood, South Dakota, which is a world-famous destination for ghost hunters. Sheriff Bullock built a hotel there in 1894. It still stands and is known to be haunted with all types of bandits and heroes of the Wild West”, explained David Lee. The talented Bandits band: David Lee, Eddie Cooper, Tymisha Harris, Tanner Kasier, Bryce Hayes, Matt Lyinx, Tom O’Hern, and Randall Scandal.

Tickets are $15. The remaining show dates are today, Saturday 28 May 2022 at 4:15PM and Sunday 29 May 2022 at Noon.

Complacency Waves

Posted on by Thor

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla warned Wednesday of “constant waves” of COVID-19 caused by complacency around the virus, politicization of the pandemic, and waning immunity.

Cases are rising in the U.S., and the rate at which people are getting vaccinated is falling. In the week that ended May 22, 2022, the US reported 790,000 new cases, more than three times as many as were reported in the last week of March. Of course these numbers are a fraction of how many are becoming infected since testing sites are closed and people test at home if at all.

People are also growing tired of COVID-19 safety regulations, said Bourla, who was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where world leaders and members of the business elite are gathered for an annual summit.

“What worries me is the complacency,” Bourla said in Davos, adding that fewer people were wearing masks and that even people who have already been vaccinated were less likely to get booster shots. The consequences will likely be seen in three to six months, he said.

Bourla said Pfizer believed that antiviral drugs would replace vaccines as the key weapon in fighting the coronavirus, at least until shots providing a longer period of immunity are developed. Pfizer is “doubling down” on producing its antiviral pill Paxlovid, he added.

COVID-19 Dating Game

Posted on by Thor

Your COVID-19 vaccination status is now a deal breaker for many singles. Your vaccination status can determine moral compatibility.

If you are dating a shlub who hadn’t gotten around to making a vaccination appointment, then that person cares only for themselves and isn’t very empathetic to the  health risks to people around them. It is a sure sign of moral ineptitude.

Across the country, about 41% of daters say they would not consider dating someone who is unvaccinated, while just over half say it wouldn’t matter to them, according to a Pew Research poll released in early April 2022. Only 2% report that they would only date an unvaccinated person.

About half of singles in their 20s and 30s are vaccinated, with some requiring that of potential partners and others having a more laissez-faire attitude. On the other hand most singles above 40 have gotten their shots, and they definitely want that in a match, too. OK Cupid, Bumble, and Tinder have added functionality where you can put your vaccination status onto your dating profile. The sites will even boost your exposure as a perk of getting the shot. Dating.com said 86% of its users list the vaccine as a deal breaker – no shot, no date. If someone is unvaccinated, then swipe left.