Today, April 25th
CONNECT WITH A QUIZ! One thing that has helped keep me busy AND connect with family/friends is to create online, multiple-choice quizzes for various groups in my life (my circle of cousins; my sister and her family) at FlexiQuiz.com. To start, I simply ask each in the group to send me 5 facts about themselves They can be things all should know: i.e. "What street did Jason live on as a child?”; Or things all should be able to guess at from among 4 multiple-choice answers: i.e. "Who is Cathy’s favorite artist?" I make up the 3 wrong answers, source Facebook for any pics I might need, and “publish” once done (sending link to all participants).
The quiz is great fun—even if participants don’t get all the answers right (“Seared Tuna”)
With many seniors having to cut the school year short, it’s a great way for them to memorialize their high school years. And while the four I’ve created have been huge hits (my sister exclaiming, “You gave us 20 minutes of laugh-out-loud fun”), it’s been just as much fun, if not more, for me. How else could I have learned which of our rooms my cousin Kevin sneaked into as a kid!
TOAST THE FIRST LADY OF SONG. If it is possible for a 10-year old to be a devotee of jazz, then I was one. But my appreciation of Ella Fitzgerald (born 103 years ago today in Newport News, Virginia) was unexplainably slow in coming. Perhaps my finding her angelic, agile voice and masterful phrasing so natural and void of effort made me dismissive of it. But no longer.
I don’t know when that changed. But I do know the ONE video clip guaranteed to give me my Fitzgerald fix: a TV performance of her and Sinatra singing, “The Lady is a Tramp.” (Interestingly, I was slow to warm to Ole Blue Eyes, too—surely for the same reason). It’s not just their facility with the song that I love here. It’s the delightful volleying of verses. The playfulness that Ella brings out in Frank. And their clear affection for one another above all.
Movie-goers will have to wait for the new documentary, Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things—its 2020 release was postponed due to the Covid crisis. But as with all things Ella, they’re guaranteed to discover a clarion voice. And truly classy lady.
SEE SOME POSITIVE SIGNS. Those rare souls who find themselves walking through Times Square—the majority of whom are essential workers—will find a reason to smile thanks to #CombatCovid, a public art collaboration between Poster House, Times Square Arts, PRINT, and For Freedoms. The crossroad’s digital billboards and kiosks illuminated with messages of positivity, solidarity, and gratitude are just a few of the 1,800 that were donated for the project across the five boroughs.
One of over 20 public art pieces offering safety advice & support for the NYC community.
“Posters have always been an important means of mass communication, especially in times of crisis,” says . Inspired by Steven Heller’s PRINT Magazine article about posters commissioned during the polio epidemic, the Museum and Magazine asked twenty-two prominent artists to contribute work (Paul Sahre, Matt Dorfman and Debbie Millman among them). Feeling the same effects of lost income as the Museum, the out-of-home companies willingly offered up their media space.
Likeminded grad students at the School of Visual Arts rallied, too, finding the need for—and consequences of—their imposed isolation primary themes.
The initiative’s varied concepts represent our shared experience of the pandemic. And our collective thanks to everyone who continues to help keep the city running.
Click to read The New York Times’ article, “Keep Calm & Draw Together.”