Lollapalooza

Posted on by Thor

Lollapalooza was a four day concert event in Chicago which wrapped up on August 1, 2021. An estimated 100,000 people attended.

Leading up to the festival, Chicago’s COVID-19 daily case rate was quintuple what it was a month ago. It does not take a seasoned epidemiologist to see that this will be a super spreader event. You can be sure that there will be a sharp increase in cases of COVID-19 in Chicago and the surrounding area in two weeks time.

Concert goers had to show proof of vaccination or a COVID test that was negative to attend. Videos posted showed staff barely checking vaccination cards on entry. The Delta variant is proving quite successful at breaking through and infecting fully vaccinated individuals. When a vaccinated person get the virus they may be asymptomatic or just show symptoms of a common cold. Their airways however can carry as much of the virus as an unvaccinated person and they can easily spread the virus to 8 or 9 other people. The ancestral strains of COVID -19 only spread to 2 or 3 other people

A study from Israel shows that the Pfizer vaccine is showing decreasing efficacy over time. The study found that there was only a 41% symptomatic protection against getting infected. The original protection against symptomatic infection when the shots were first given was 90%. Dr. John Campbell from England speculates that the timing between vaccine doses accounts for this reduction in efficacy. Israel had 3 weeks between shots. The UK had 8 weeks or more between shots and the efficacy is over twice as high. In the United States we have 3 weeks between doses just as in Israel. It is fair to assume that vaccinated individuals in the United States have an increasing chance of infection over time but remain safe from severe disease and death.

In May 2021 Lollapalooza festival goers were told they needed to show a negative COVID-19 test taken 24 hours or less before entering, that number was increased to 72 hours, allowing a much longer window to theoretically contract the virus before the festival. Earlier this month, the Verknipt festival in the Netherlands admitted unvaccinated attendees as long as they had a negative test taken within 40 hours of entering. The festival was later linked to 1,000 COVID-19 cases among its 20,000 attendees. So if that math holds up Lollapalooza may result in 5000 or more infections. Now lets say those 5000 people spread the virus to 8 friends and family. That would be 40,000 people infected.

At the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival in Miami two weekends ago. Tens of thousands of people showed up daily to the festival, which did not require masks, vaccinations or negative tests. Last week, the rapper Dess Dior and the actor Alexa Leighton, among others, announced on social media that they had tested positive for COVID-19. Their infections coincided with a larger spike in Florida at large, in which COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have risen dramatically.

Lollapalooza was an outdoor event but the hundreds of thousands of people were packed in like sardines. Delta has also proven effective at spreading better outdoors. It has spread at soccer matches. Basically anyone who went to Lollapalooza who was not vaccinated is at a very high risk of getting infected and having severe symptoms. When I saw photos of the crowds I just could not believe what I was seeing. This was absolute insanity and Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot seemed to think it was a great idea.

Post script: As of September 6, 2021, according to Chicago City officials there are 200 confirmed cases of COVID-19 associated with the Lollapalooza concerts.

Tiffany Chapel

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The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, (445 N Park Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789) Was open to the public for free on Christmas Eve. Guards in the museum seemed more relaxed. The guard in the Tiffany Chapel expressed how mush she liked seeing me work on the sketch.

In 1893 Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibited the chapel interior at the World’s
Colombian Exposition in Chicago that brought him international acclaim
few American artists enjoyed at the time. The chapel demonstrated the firm’s artistry and craftsmanship in
producing ecclesiastical goods ranging from clerical vestments and
furnishings to mosaics and leaded-glass windows. It so moved visitors at the time, that men removed their hats in
response. The woman seated in front of me kept her bonnet on for the duration.

The ornate chapel is Byzantine in design, built up from simple
classical forms, columns, and arches, which are huge in size relative to
the chapel’s intimate space (1,082 square feet). When the World’s Fair was over, the chapel was brought to the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in NYC. It was kept  is a squat basement crypt and was then ignored when the choir was completed upstairs. Unchecked water damage took it’s toll, and in 1916 Tiffany offered to remove the chapel at his own expense. It was reinstalled and restored at Tiffany’s own Lauriston Hall Estate.

Tiffany died on January 17, 1933. In 1957, Tiffany’s abandoned estate was ravaged by fire. Hugh and Jeannette McKean of Winter Park, Florida, were notified by a
Tiffany daughter that some of his most important leaded-glass windows
were still intact. They visited the devastated Laurelton Hall site, and Jeannette
decided they should buy all of the mansion’s then-unwanted windows and
architectural fragments. Two years later the McKeans purchased the
components of the chapel that remained at Laurelton Hall.

A team of architecture, art, and conservation experts were assembled to begin
the more than two-year project of reassembling the chapel. The chapel
opened to the public in April 1999, the first time since it was open at
the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago. It is a rare gem in the heart of Winter Park.

Catherine Hineman wrote: This year, because Christmas Eve falls on a Monday, we will have a
holiday weekend open house just prior to Christmas Eve. That’s two days
of free admission
to the one and there will be live music on Sunday. This only happens
every seven years or so, but it is always confusing to a few who have
made the December 24 open house a tradition.

Shin Sushi

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On Friday February 28th, I went to meet Julie Anderson at Shin Sushi (803 N. Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL) to discuss the Orlando Sentinel‘s new “HypeOrlando Blogs.” This can be found on the Sentinel website on the “Home” tab at the top of the page. Several months ago, Terry and I bumped into Julie and her husband Lars at an outdoor cafe in Winter Park. Over drinks, Julie first described the “Hype” concept. A newspaper in Chicago first developed the idea where a large group of bloggers all contribute to the same blog site. None of the contributors is paid, so the newspaper online site gets plenty of creative content for free.

In return, “Hype” contributors would get, a daily newsletter from an experienced blogger
on how to build audience (Search engine optimization, optimizing
Facebook, writing headlines that make people click, etc.)

Offline blogger community meetups. 

Free platform and technical setup.

Ongoing technical support.

Monthly incentives and contests for writing and audience-building.

I got to the Sushi restaurant a bit early since I had just done an interview with Seth Kubersky a few blocks away for a write up in the Orlando Weekly. The head waiter at Shin Sushi told me I would have to wait an hour before I could get inside. I had hoped to sketch the interior and fill the sketch with patrons as they arrived for the lunch hour. Oh, well, it was a nice day outside, so I sat across the street and sketched the barren exterior. As I was finishing my sketch, I saw Julie approach the restaurant and go inside. I packed up the supplies and rushed across the street. The restaurant was bustling now. I ordered some sushi combo which turned out to be much more food than expected.

HypeOrlando in it’s first weeks had about 30 contributors. Julie hopes to push those numbers up into the hundreds. My impression is that “Hype” is a great opportunity for beginning bloggers. All the layouts for the blogs are identical making it hard to tell one blog from another. The one established “Hype” blogger that I recognized was  Kristen Manieri who runs Great Dates Orlando. Over lunch, Julie pushed for the idea of having me channel all my future content over to the “HypeOrlando” site. This seemed like an extreme notion which would likely result in my loosing many readers in the transition. I can’t imagine giving up a site that I’ve built up over 5 years. Kristen still maintains her original site while occasionally contributing to “Hype”. The fact that I post creative content every day means that I would have to write a new article any time I wanted to contribute to “Hype.” I would have to add an 8th day to my work week! I asked about just posting an article on “Hype” that already ran or simultaneously ran on Analog Artist Digital World. Julie said that the Google search engine would label any re-purposed article as spam thus all content would have to be new.

I fired of a long list of concerns. I didn’t like having to give up a large header on the new site. Apparently the “Chicago Now”  site learned that letting contributors create their own headers resulted in some very bad and amateurish designs. The “Hype” site limits each contributor to a one inch square avatar. It results in trying to create a recognizable brand on the size of a postage stamp. I was also concerned that there is no right click copyright protections making it easy for Sentinel Surfers to copy any sketches I post to the site. This is an ongoing concern since even the Downtown Arts District and the City of Winter Park do not realize that it is wrong to copy and republish work without permission. The Internet is a lawless Wild West for theft and ripping. The fact that City organizations have no clue about copyright makes it appear that Orlando is a second rate city. Terry seems to feel there is no advantage to posting on “Hype”. Even the name seems to imply vacuous content with little substance. I’m still weighing the options. I might even cut back submissions to Analog Artist Digital World to 6 days a week and submit one article a week to “Hype”. I’ve been making adjustments to try and allow for more family time and contributing free content to “Hype” could be a step backwards. I was surprised and pleased that Julie paid for lunch.

Let me know what you think. Should I stay the course and keep AADW a daily, or should I also contribute to the “Hype”? Leave me a message below. One last note. Something I ate at Shin Sushi didn’t agree with me and I had the runs all afternoon. Not a good sign.

Stars and Stripes and All That Jazz

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The Central Florida Sounds of Freedom Band and Color Guard held it’s premiere concert, called Stars and Stripes and All That Jazz at the Orlando Shakes Theater on June 10th. The mission of the band, close to 50 members strong, is to inspire community and connect people whether they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or straight. Their goal is to unite, serve and educate through music, entertainment and arts. The concert was free although they accepted donations. Juan Canasi dreamed of a LGBT Community Band over ten years ago, and it was finally formed just one year ago thanks in part to contacts made with friends on social media. Some band members took their dusty instruments out of the closet to join and others are professional musicians.

Conductor Lee Sellers addressed the audience before the performance. He taught band at several middle schools and said he liked stepping up to conduct this mature group. “A band member in middle school might announce that he was getting braces the day before a performance. Oh, wait one of the Sounds of Freedom band members just got braces…” he said and laughed. The Color Guard wasn’t on stage, they volunteered by handing out programs and acting as ushers.

The band began with selections from Chicago. I was pleased to see Emily Lindahl stroll out performing a trumpet solo, using a mute to flair the jazz filled notes. Emily is the director of public relations for the Orlando Philharmonic and I had no idea she played trumpet. I worked feverishly since I knew it was a fairly short concert. Band members switched seating positions between songs which added to my challenge. The band performed a rendition of Over the Rainbow, dedicated to Bob Imlah and ended with some traditional John Philip Sousa.