Brevard County – Analog Artist Digital World

300 Brevard County, Florida students of an outdoor graduation ceremony ere told to quarantine for 14 days after an attendee was diagnosed with COVID-19. Each student could invite 2 guests, so overall 900 people could be affected.

Bayside High School in Palm Bay, Florida, held an outdoor graduation ceremony for seniors last Saturday, an event that appeared to mostly adhere to safety guidelines. Students wore masks as did attendees in the bleachers and seats were placed almost 6 feet apart on a football field. When students walked out to the field however they clustered tightly together in a line. After the ceremony the students then clustered together in tight groups to chat which could be another chance for the airborne virus to spread.

The health department didn’t confirm whether the person who tested positive for COVID-19 was a student or adult. About 30 adult school and district staff were present at the event as well. Faculty wearing gloves and masks handed students their diplomas as they walked across the stage. Only speakers removed their masks when they took the podium. Anyone who attended the graduation ceremony was advised by letter from the Florida Department of Health, to self-quarantine and monitor their symptoms for 14 days. On student interviewed mentioned she had invited both her grandparents and her mom and dad. It would seem the two guest limit was just a suggestion.

Florida continues to set new records in COVID-19 cases and deaths as the state passes 450,000 cases. Over 6,300 residents have died, and this week, child COVID-19 hospitalizations rose 23%. Brevard County has a total of 5477 Cases of Covid-19 with 108 deaths. 13 people have died today July30, 2020. I am shocked that Florida school officials thought an in person graduation ceremony was a good idea at the height of the pandemic. Faculty and students around the country are finding creative ways to celebrate virtually. If only that creative spark existed here.

27 Blue Boxes are painted on sidewalks in Downtown Orlando. These boxes are for panhandlers and buskers. Busking is possible only during day light hours. Although set up for panhandlers, police often insist street performers must use the blue boxes. Performing outside the boxes can result in 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. I set up the Blue Box Initiative to get talented Orlando artists from all creative fields to occupy a blue box while I sketch.

To date, I have completed 16 sketches. I have about 9 more sketches to complete. If you know a talented local performer who might want to share their talents on a street corner for a couple of hours, please let me know. Originally the city ordinance only allowed busking in the blue boxes during day light hours, but now the ordinance was changed to allow their use at night.

Blue Box 8 is located near the Lynx bus station downtown. Local film makers Jen Vargas and Jay De Los Santos occupied the box as a form of protest for how the city discourages film production in Orlando. Most southern films are created up in Georgia since there are tax incentives up that way. It was a blistering hot May day with little to no shade when I completed this sketch.

A space-themed film titled “Hidden Figures,” is about three African-American mathematicians who overcome racial and
gender bias to help launch American into space in the early 1960s from Florida’s Space Coast. But the irony is that no scenes from the film were shot at Kennedy Space Center, or
anywhere else on the Space Coast, for that matter, except for historic
stock footage.

Space Coast Film Commissioner Bonnie King said people
connected with the film had contacted her to talk about locations for
filming on the Space Coast. But, largely because Florida no longer
offers incentives for film and television productions, “the higher-ups
decided not to film here.”

Instead, much of “Hidden Figures” was shot in Atlanta and other locations in Georgia, a state
that has “fantastic film incentives” that make it attractive to shoot
movies there, King said. Those incentives include transferable tax
credits for the film productions. Film
Florida estimates that Brevard County‘s economy lost $10 million
because the film was shot in Georgia, rather than the Space
Coast. It seems like Florida was on the verge of amazing change in the 1960’s but today the state falls back on a lazy status quo as if we are just fine with our heads in the sand.