A Virtual Christmas Carol

 On December 12 & 13, I participated in a Virtual Production of a Zoom version of Dicken's Christmas Carol produced by AlphaNYC, directed by Elizabeth Aquino, assistant director Andrew James Bleidner

The screenplay was written by Flip Kobler and Cindy Marcus.  It took about 1/2 an hour, and was fairly light and child friendly.

Here are some screen shots of  my performance taken by Tenaya Griffin, who played "Fan," Scrooge's sister. 

For this production, I designed two virtual backgrounds

This was the set for the ghost of Christmas Future

This was the set for me (the ghost of Christmas Past)

We had 4 scheduled rehearsals of the whole cast.  I also organized several Zoom rehearsals of the past scene.  This business of being able to schedule rehearsals over Zoom is just sublime -- so easy

Here is a whole cast photo

This was the cast list

Pix from my art show @warnerlibraryny

This is the way the rocks look with the display organizers

This was the way the rocks looked without the display organizers

 

Letter to @mondairejones

  In response to his email thanking us for supporting him, I wrote the following: 

l  am excited that we get a young person of proven intelligence who can represent us, hopefully for years to come, presenting a more progressive approach to legislation.

I am particularly interested in de-escalating our military

I hope you'll remember my little legislative points, which sometimes get lost in the big issues

1) the cap on my HSA should not be less than the out of pocket maximum on my insurance

2) we need new social security numbers, because our numbers have been compromised. We should be able to get new numbers more easily, just like credit cards

3) the FCC needs to take more aggressive action against phone number spoofing, which has allowed widespread scam phone calls and bombing of telephone conference calls

Also spelling reform.

*****

And on November 5 I thought of a couple more points

- hospitals that refuse to take any insurance off the exchange should lose their not-for-profit status;

- we need to reinstate low-cost sea mail, so that we can return packages to China at a reasonable price.

Original Hamilton Cast Reunion | Be in the Room Where it Happens and VOT...

A Trumpist friend liked this article

https://freebeacon.com/2020-election/biden-has-earned-11-pinocchios-from-fact-checkers-during-coronavirus-crisis/?fbclid=IwAR1zx_v_7WYpdlU5IX1T8yRB7Z1WnWPk5KtAG_HX3-U7ZYQtaCusbeEJgR4

Which cites 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/13/biden-ad-manipulates-video-slam-trump/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/24/biden-campaigns-false-claim-top-cdc-official-was-silenced/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/03/how-much-pressure-did-trump-put-china-access-concerning-coronavirus/

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/16/joe-biden/biden-falsely-says-trump-administration-rejected-w/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/20/was-white-house-office-global-pandemics-eliminated/

This is curious since Trumpists normally consider these sources to be fake news.

In the mean time, WaPo identified 20k instances in which Trump lied

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/13/president-trump-has-made-more-than-20000-false-or-misleading-claims/

Meme about filling SCOTUS openings copied from a friend

#ThatWasThenThisIsNow #ResistTheTrumpPenceFascistRégime

#BidenHarris2020 

2016, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): “It has been 80 years since a Supreme Court vacancy was nominated and confirmed in an election year. There is a long tradition that you don’t do this in an election year.” 

2018, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): “If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait to the next election.”

2016, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.): “I don’t think we should be moving on a nominee in the last year of this president’s term - I would say that if it was a Republican president.”

2016, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.): “The very balance of our nation’s highest court is in serious jeopardy. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will do everything in my power to encourage the president and Senate leadership not to start this process until we hear from the American people.”

2016, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa): “A lifetime appointment that could dramatically impact individual freedoms and change the direction of the court for at least a generation is too important to get bogged down in politics. The American people shouldn’t be denied a voice.” 

2016, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.): “The campaign is already under way. It is essential to the institution of the Senate and to the very health of our republic to not launch our nation into a partisan, divisive confirmation battle during the very same time the American people are casting their ballots to elect our next president.”

2016, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.): “In this election year, the American people will have an opportunity to have their say in the future direction of our country. For this reason, I believe the vacancy left open by Justice Antonin Scalia should not be filled until there is a new president.” 

2016, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.): “The Senate should not confirm a new Supreme Court justice until we have a new president.”

2016, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Col.): “I think we’re too close to the election. The president who is elected in November should be the one who makes this decision.”

2016, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio): “I believe the best thing for the country is to trust the American people to weigh in on who should make a lifetime appointment that could reshape the Supreme Court for generations. This wouldn’t be unusual. It is common practice for the Senate to stop acting on lifetime appointments during the last year of a presidential term, and it’s been nearly 80 years since any president was permitted to immediately fill a vacancy that arose in a presidential election year.”

2016, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.): “I strongly agree that the American people should decide the future direction of the Supreme Court by their votes for president and the majority party in the U.S. Senate.”

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Addendum: 

Great speech by Jaime Harrison

Jaime Harrison just won his debate with Lindsey Graham by a landslide. pic.twitter.com/fNZOxpdhfq

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) October 4, 2020

Down the Rabbit Hole: How I got into @EricWhitacre’s Virtual Choir 6

This summer I took FTS 212 at Lehman College, with Professor Ulises Gonzalez.  This course was an introduction to film and television. It involves writing 10 papers. Professor Gonzales liked my papers. He encouraged me to keep writing film reviews after the course. Here is my first after course effort. Maybe I will post what I wrote in class as well.

Why won't this let me enlarge the last page???? So frustrating.