Rebound

Posted on by Thor

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, caught COVID-19 and experienced a recurrence of symptoms after taking the Pfizer’s oral antiviral medication Paxlovid as a treatment for COVID-19.

Fauci reported that he had initially experienced only mild symptoms upon becoming infected with COVID-19 in mid-June 2022. “When [the symptoms] increased, given my age, I went on Paxlovid for five days and I felt really quite well, really just a bit of (runny nose) and fatigue,” said Fauci, 81.

After finishing his course of Paxlovid, Fauci claimed he tested negative for COVID-19 on antigen tests for three days in a row. But on the fourth day, he again tested positive. He also began to experience worsening symptoms. “It was sort of what people are referring to as a ‘Paxlovid rebound,’” Fauci said. Fauci is currently on another course of Paxlovid, he confirmed.

The phenomenon, known as COVID-19 rebound, has been acknowledged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In May, the CDC issued an advisory on the potential recurrence of symptoms and possibly a “new positive viral test after having tested negative” within two to eight days of finishing a five-day course of Paxlovid.

Rebound

OMA Director Fired after FBI Raid

Posted on by Thor

Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) director Aaron De Groft was apparently missing in action as FBI agents raided his museum. He has been on the lamb ever since. In a bold move of incompetence or malicious greed, he mounded an exhibit of 25 works that were claimed to be by Jean-Michel Basquiat. The authenticity of that work quickly came into question.

The New York Times reported on the shady provenance of the works with one painting done on Fed Ex cardboard with the company logo being done in a typeface created nine years after the artist’s death.

De Groft did nothing but defend the work citing the flimsy excuse of a poem as proof of authenticity. The misguided OMA board also defended the work noting OMA gift store sales had gone up.

In an email, De Groft threatened an academic (subsequently identified as University of Maryland art historian Jordana Moore Saggese) who was seeking to distance herself from a report she was commissioned to write assessing the authenticity of the works in Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Thaddeus Mumford, Jr. Venice Collection. Saggese, who was reportedly paid $60,000 for her report, requested that her name not be tied to the exhibition, De Groft wrote, “You want us to put out there you got $60 grand to write this? Ok then. Shut up. You took the money. Stop being holier than thou.” He added, “Do your academic thing and stay in your limited lane.”

The clueless board in an effort to protect their own asses fired De Groft on 28 June 2022. No one seems to be able to admit they dropped the ball and failed with this misguided show. The work had never been clearly authenticated. The board’s  clear incompetence and complicity in what could be a criminal attempt to raise the value of fake art works means that if they have any morals, they will resign from the board. Orlando is now the laughing stock 0f the art world, internationally. More heads need to roll if this crippled institution is ever to recover. In a press release the board said that the museum is not under investigation, but the FBI is still investigating. The museum very well might face criminal liability.

On 24 June 2022, the FBI swooped in before the work could be shipped over seas. As the FBI investigation plays out we will get to see just how clueless or greedy OMA’s board and director were. Besides seizing the cardboard scribbles, they also seized “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.

Did the Orlando Museum of Art commit fraud in an attempt to raise the value of forgeries? The work was slated to go on exhibit in Italy next. A week ago one of the owners of the work walked into the museum lobby hoping to walk away with five of the works on cardboard. You would have to think he hoped to sell the fakes for millions before the gauntlet fell.

The OMA Board:

Chair of the Board
Cynthia Brumback

Officers
Ted R. Brown
Carolyn Fennell
Patrick J. Knipe
Francine Newberg
Sibille Hart Pritchard
Winifred Sharp
Andrew Snyder
Robert Summers
Lance Walker Jr.
Michael Winn
Nancy Wolf

Trustees
Leslie Andreae (Ex Officio)
Shari Bartz
Dustin Becker
Caroline Blydenburgh
Jeffrey Blydenburgh (Ex Officio)
Kathy Cardwell
Allison Choate
Earl Crittenden Jr.
William Deuchler
Mark Elliott (Ex Officio)
Elizabeth Francetic (Ex Officio)
Chase Heavener
Joan Kennedy (Ex Officio)
Amelia McLeod
John Martinez
Zakir Odhwani
Jennifer O’Mara
Paul Perkins Jr.
Valeria Robinson-Baker
Daisy Staniszkis

DeathSantis Piper

Posted on by Thor

Florida Governor Ron DeathSantis spoke against COVID-19 vaccines for young children on June 16, 2022, saying that Florida won’t provide state programs to administer vaccines for toddlers or infants. “I would say we are affirmatively against the COVID vaccine for young kids,” he said during a press conference. “These are the people who have zero risk of getting anything.” PUBLIX Supermarkets have stepped in and refuse to vaccinate children. Of course PUBLIX also helped fund the insurrection.

The Governor is of course misguided and ignoring the science. In January 2022, there were 1,150,000 cases of COVID in children in Florida. For the week ending June 23rd, nearly 68,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported. Children represented 18.8% of total accumulated cases.

Florida is the only state in the nation that didn’t order new doses of vaccines for children before the FDA decision on June 15, 2022 to approve the Pfizer and Moderna shots for kids under age 5. This week’s approval opened fast-track distribution, and kids could begin receiving shots as soon as June 21, 2022, Politico reported.

The Florida Department of Health, which is overseen by the DeatSantis office, is headed by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who has been an outspoken critic of COVID-19 vaccines. He previously said he opposed vaccine use in young children and has questioned the safety and efficacy of the coronavirus vaccines, Politico reported.

Right now Florida is a COVID virus hot spot. It is the bloody skin tag of America. DeathSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw is staunchly anti vax and they believe that by removing a parents right to choose if their child is vaccinated, the governor could be on the road to a possible presidential bid. A few dead children is accessible collateral damage in a bid for political power.

10,144 cases of COVID-19 per day were reported in Florida in the last week.  Deaths have increased by 60 percent. Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 1 in 3 Florida residents have been infected, for a total of 6,447,100 reported cases. Anecdotally more people I know are being infected and re-infected than at any other time during the pandemic. At least 1 in 284 residents have died from the coronavirus, a total of 75,671 deaths.

Florida ranks 46th in the nation for the highest number of children (aged 0-4 years) who died due to COVID-19 with 11 children dead. The only states with a higher death toll, are Texas with 19 children dead and California with 14 children dead. COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the U.S as DeathSantis forces death on children.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Saint Joseph Evangelical Lutheran

Posted on by Thor

Saint Joseph Evangelical Lutheran Church at 81 Christopher Street, is in the West Village which runs from Sixth Avenue to the Hudson River, between W 14th Street and W Houston Street. Almost all of the neighborhood is protected by landmark status, preserving centuries of history. As the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission noted:

“Greenwich Village is one of the oldest sections of Manhattan which was laid out for development in the years following the American Revolution. Today, it contains the greatest concentration of early New York residential architecture to be found anywhere within the five Boroughs of the City.

The church was built in 1821,  on Christopher Street, between West Fourth and Bleecker Streets. The name of the architect has been lost, but the sophisticated design was worthy of the best of the period’s architects. The octagonal belfry above the triangular pediment was a near-match to the one found on the Newgate State Prison, that once stood four blocks away near the river, designed in 1796 by Joseph-Francois Mangin.

It was built by built by the Eighth Presbyterian Church, organized in 1819. The group worshiped in its dignified, Federal-style structure until April 1842, when they sold it to the trustees of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church. Manhattan churches often closed during the hot summer months when their more affluent congregants left the city for country homes. On October 25, 1846 a newspaper notice announced its reopening, saying “St. Matthew’s Church, in Christopher street, is open for Divine worship on the evening of every Sunday, and will so continue through the ensuing winter.” In 1858 the trustees sold it to St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church for $13,000.

In 1868, the Parsonage was constructed next door, at No. 79 Christopher Street, designed by John M. Foster. Rev. Held lived here, and remained pastor of St. John’s until ill health prompted him to step down in 1879.In 1886, the congregation hired architects Berg & Clark to remodel the Parish House, giving it a new Romanesque Revival brick facade, and to touch up the church itself. A plaque within the pediments that announced Deutsche Evangelish-Lutherische St. Johannes Kirche. The broad-ranged congregation of the German-language church included tenement-dwelling immigrants and wealthy businessmen.

Cirque: Drawn to Life

Posted on by Thor

Cirque at Disney Village is presenting Drawn to Life during a pandemic which has killed over one million 300.000 Americans. Pam has been wanting to see this show for several years but we have held off because of the pandemic. With her niece in town we finally relented and went down to Disney.

I packed my smallest sketchbook and minimal supplies. I knew Disney guards would be on the lookout for any sign of creativity to shut down. Our plan was to have Pam carry in my sketch bag. We ended up being pulled over and checked anyway. The bag was fully inspected but they didn’t confiscate any art supplies. I had to empty all my pockets and my mountain of snot wads filled the bin along with my phone and wallet. I then had to be metal checked by a wand and my crotch kept beeping. We did eventually did get into Disney Springs.

After we parked, I thought I would get away with just wearing my cloth mask while we were outdoors, but when I saw the insanely packed throngs crowded together, I had to layer in my KN95 as well. Literally no one in the crowd was masked. It was a dystopian nightmare. This was the perfect place to spread disease all around the world. It is a small world after all.

Pam did her homework and found seats that were at the back of a section on the aisle, so we didn’t have people breathing down out necks. No one sat in the caged off section next to me but Pam’s niece had to deal with a rude dude who was “man spreading” and leaning into her. With so many empty seats in the theater, I don’t know why he had to sit right next to her. That kind of detracted from her enjoyment of the show.

Oh yes, the show. The set was like a Disney animators desk, and since I sit at mine every day it felt familiar. The story involved a dead dad telling his daughter she should create. There is always a dead parent in any Disney tale. The villain was a wad of crumpled up animation paper and the Disney executives were represented as two foot high trolls who carried large garbage cans on their backs. Some actors wore masks which I appreciated.

The thing the production truly got right was a crew of guys who shot large rubber bands at each other. One of them shot a large rubber band out into the audience and mimed for the audience member to shoot it back. The audience member tried but shot it backwards into the row behind him. Scenes in the paper animation days were held together with large red rubber bands, There were many rubber band wars in the Disney studio and you could build a reputation not just by how you drew but how accurately you could fire off a rubber band. Animation desks were barricades in an endless ongoing rubber band war. Out of nowhere a rubber band might bounce off the ceiling and land hard on the drawing you were working on to remind you that there was no truce or cease fire.

The athletics in this show were rather tame compared to other Cirque shows Pam and I have seen. There was a lot of actors “acting” like they were drawing and plenty of projections from past animated scenes. The show actually made me a bit sad. Disney built it’s reputation on creating amazing hand drawn animation and then threw that tradition away. This felt like looking at a quaint bygone era of ancient vaudeville, and an ancient, lost, hand drawn art form.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Church of the Holy Communion (Limelight)

Posted on by Thor

The Church of the Holy Communion at 656–662 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) at West 20th Street in the Flatiron District of Manhattan, New York City, was the first church in New York to have free pews. It was also one of the first to have weekly communion services. Its sisterhood of women church works, begun in 1852, opened new fields of church social ministry for women.

The Gothic Revival church building was constructed in 1844–1845 according to a design by Richard Upjohn, and was consecrated in 1846. In 1853 Upjohn completed the Parish House and Rectory on West 20th Street, and in 1854 he built the Sister’s House. The design of the church, which features brownstone blocks chosen for placement at random angles. Upjohn designed the building to resemble a small medieval English parish church.

In 1975 the declining parish merged with those of Calvary Church, on Park Avenue South at East 21st Street, and St. George’s Church, at Stuyvesant Square, and the combined parish of Calvary-St. George’s the Church of the Holy Communion granted a ninety-nine year lease to the Lindisfarne Association. The church became a cultural center in which there were poetry readings, and concerts, as well as lectures on theatre. The Lindisfarne Association, however, was unable to raise the funds to restore this historical landmark, consequently, Lindisfarne moved to Colorado, and returned the church to the Episcopal parish.

The parish subsequently sold the building to Odyssey House, a drug rehabilitation program, in order to meet its fiscal obligations. Odyssey House, in turn, sold the buildings to nightclub entrepreneur Peter Gatien, who opened the New York Limelight club there in 1983. After frequent problems with the police and charges of rampant drug abuse in the club, it was closed, but reopened in 2003 under the name “Avalon”. It closed permanently in 2007.

On May 7, 2010, the building was reopened as a retail mall called the Limelight Marketplace. Conceived by Jack Menashe, who formerly owned SoHo retail store Lounge, James Mansour of Mansour Design, and Melisca Klisanin, Creative Director, the marketplace was a three-story venue consisting of more than 60 small, high-end shops, selling jewelry, clothing, organic goods and other items.

In the fall of 2014, the church was converted to a David Barton Gym. On December 21, 2016, this location as well as all four other David Barton Gym locations in NYC abruptly closed their door for business. In June 2017, it reopened as Limelight Fitness.

The church is a New York City landmark, designated in 1966, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It is located within New York City’s Ladies’ Mile Historic District.

Beauty and the Beast: Poster Evolution

Posted on by Thor

Beauty and the Beast opened at the Orlando Shakes on June 23, 2022. This show isn’t based on the Disney version of the fairy tale but on the original book. In this tale the relationship between the sisters becomes as important as the relationship between the Beast and Beauty.

Written by local play write and actor Brandon Roberts, this show is an interactive joy for the kids in the audience as well as for the kids at heart. The play runs through July 24, 2022.

The first poster design I did for the show was build around showing the rose that is symbolic of the curse of the beast. However this rose is only hinted at in this theater production and I am told it is more of a Disney thematic invention. That idea had to be scrapped.

A second pass at the poster involved showing a mysterious castle in an enchanted forest. In the play, children are invited onto the stage an given fairy wings. As promoted fairies they have control over the inner workings of the castle. Unfortunately the audience members seldom know how to work their magic. It creates charming and delightful moments.

So the second poster idea had a fairy flying through the forest with plenty of pixie dust illuminating the scene. I knew it was a long shot, and it didn’t fly. I liked the blue lighting and yellow illuminated title, but bottom line, I had to figure out how to show Beauty and the Beast in a way that was unique to this production. I watched last year’s production  to get a feel of what I should do for the poster and I can say, you are guaranteed to laugh when you go to this show. The author of the play is one of Rolando’s funniest actors and this production highlights that strength splendidly.

After seeing these two posters I was given photos of past productions and therefor I had an idea of what beauty and the beast looked like in the production. That   mad my job a whole lot easier. I had specifically avoided sketching the beast since his appearance could vary widely. There was a request for some more swirly title treatment, so I had fun getting lost in researching fairy tale style typefaces.

My castle research turned to interiors and the concept developed of showing the beast as a dark silhouette against a light background column of light and beauty would appear a a bright color against the castles darkness. I used the actors from the previous production but they were not re- cast. So I had a last minute request to replace the beauty I had painted with the new actresses. I also did horizontal compositions of each of the posters since most social media use is rather horizontal. This involved giving the art department the ability to isolate sections of each poster and to allow them to create horizontal versions.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Trinity Church Interior

Posted on by Thor

Trinity Church is a historic parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City.

The current building is the third constructed for Trinity Church, and was designed by Richard Upjohn in the Gothic Revival style. The first Trinity Church building was a single-story rectangular structure facing the Hudson River, which was constructed in 1698 and destroyed in the Great New York City Fire of 1776. The second Trinity Church was built facing Wall Street and was consecrated in 1790. The current church building was erected from 1839 to 1846 and was the tallest building in the United States until 1869, as well as the tallest in New York City until 1890. In 1876–1877 a reredos and altar were erected in memory of William Backhouse Astor Sr., to the designs of architect Frederick Clarke Withers, who extended the rear.

The tower of Trinity Church currently contains 23 bells, the heaviest of which weighs 2,700 pounds. A project to install a new ring of 12 additional change ringing bells was initially proposed in 2001 but put on hold in the aftermath of the September attacks, which took place three blocks north of the church. This project came to fruition in 2006, thanks to funding from the Dill Faulkes Educational Trust. These new bells form the first ring of 12 change-ringing bells ever installed in a church in the United States.

Trinity manages real estate properties with a combined worth of over $6 billion as of 2019. Trinity’s main building is a National Historic Landmark as well as a New York City designated landmark. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district created in 2007.

3 Commercial Plane Crashes a Day

Posted on by Thor

The United States is experiencing the equivalent death rate of 3 commercial plane crashes a day due to COVID-19. Your average commercial aircraft might have about 90 passengers on board. In a horrific crash all 90 might die and that is happening 3 times every day as most wrongly think the pandemic is over.

The pandemic is not over. The virus is till an ongoing challenge. The pandemic is not like a hurricane, or other natural disaster that quickly passes, it is an ongoing war and the end is not yet in sight. How the war ends is unclear.

In January of 2022 over 2 thousand people were dying every day, now hundreds are dying every day. Is that success?  Over 200,000 children have lost parents and care givers due to the virus. Is this  acceptable collateral damage? For those who are done with the pandemic, the answer is a resounding yes!

There is a lot of virus out there right now. Honestly it keeps hitting closer to home, with people I know getting infected. BA4 and BA5 are to blame. These new variants have a heightened immune evasion. Previous infection from the original Omicron variant offers little to no protection against re-infection. Re-infectionss can result in serious infections, hospitalizations, long COVID and deaths. Portugal is experiencing a surge in cases due to BA4 and BA5 and the deaths rates doubled to equal the worst days of the pandemic for them. Will the same happen in America? Only time will tell. Hospitalization have been slowly rising but not spiking like the last surge in January 2022. Israel is also experiencing a surge and they have reported their highest case rates since April 2022. Seriously ill patients in Israel have doubled in the past week.

Complacency and ignorance are our worst enemy. Vaccines are offering less protection against BA4 and BA5. Breakthrough deaths are becoming more common due to waning immunity and the ability of these new variants to evade our immune response. Before the Omicron variants became predominate, vaccinated individuals over the age of 65 were 9 time less likely to die of COVID. Those who were vaccinated and boosted were 20 times less likely to die. In the last 60 days, with BA4 and BA5 predominant, vaccinated people without boosters were only 1.1 times less likely to die. Vaccinated with boosters are only 3 times less likely to die. The odds of survival if infected have substantially dropped.

 

 

 

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Saint Savior’s Church

Posted on by Thor

Saint Savior’s Church is on the fringe of an industrial neighborhood, the house of worship stood for more than a century on a tree-lined block at the corner of Rust Street 57th Street Maspeth Queens.

St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church, was one of the oldest and most cherished landmarks of old Maspeth. The church was organized by Judge David Jones, son-in-law of DeWitt Clinton. DeWitt Clinton designed the New York City grid structure. He was joined by other well-known pioneers of Maspeth, including James Maurice, in obtaining the land. The church was erected upon the estate of Dr. Frederick Maurice, for whom the avenue is named.

The Gothic style church, constructed out of redwood, was copied from an old English country church that the Maurice family had seen on their European trip. The building was designed for St. Saviour’s by the architect of Trinity Church, Manhattan, Richard Upjohn, and the cornerstone was laid on Nov. 1, 1847.

During the expansion of the 20th century, Maspeth became increasingly industrialized. The congregation decreased over these years, with so many young people leaving the community. A small, but spirited, nucleus of 57 church members remained. In December of 1970, just three days before Christmas, a fire ravaged the church, destroying much of it and leaving its members numb. Under the leadership of its new rector, the Reverend John M. Mills Sr., St. Saviour’s was rebuilt. The bishop of the diocese rededicated it on April 30, 1972.

The congregation folded in or about 1995 and merged with nearby St. James Episcopal Church in Elmhurst. A Korean church took its place at the former St. Saviour’s site and remained there until selling the church and land a decade later. In January 2006 the church closed for good, and the property was sold to developers. It triggered a long battle between a local civic group, the new property owners, the city and even a local lawmaker as to the sites future.

The holding company that purchased the site, known as Maspeth Development LLC, sought to clear the block and develop warehouses. News of their plans stirred interest from the Juniper Park Civic Association, (JPCA) then led by current Councilman Robert Holden, and other preservationists. In the spring of 2008, after a major fundraising effort, the JPCA worked to have St. Saviour’s Church dismantled. piece by piece, frame by frame. It was carefully taken apart like a jigsaw puzzle.

The civic group arranged to have the pieces stored off-site until raising enough funds to rebuild it at another site. The plan was to re-erect the church on an unusable plot of land in All Faiths Cemetery, off the corner of 69th Street and Juniper Valley Road, in Middle Village. Though the group was successful in saving the physical church, the efforts to have the city turn the Maspeth site into a public park fell apart.

To this day, the church remains stored in a warehouse — and its former home is now occupied by warehouses that may be there for many decades to come.