Dear Reader
Together with the daily spirited press briefings featuring blue-and-yellow powerpoint presentations from Governor Andrew Cuomo, as well as the nightly clapping, cheering and banging of pots that happens as a means of thanking the essential workers out there still doing their jobs (#clapbecausewecare), one other aspect that’s become a hallmark of this crisis is all the notes in the windows of closed businesses or homes. Or in the case of one Brooklyn resident, on the wall of his whole building — where he’s stitched onto a big piece of cloth, in capital letters, some of the lyrics of a chorus from the BeeGees’ Stayin’ Alive. (He is likely an artist so as soon as I find out who he is, I’ll let you know). It’s been reassuring to see these collective “notes from New York” that’ve been popping up around the neighbourhood.
Born-and-bred New Yorker, Lady Gaga announced yesterday she and Global Citizen have raised $35 million to help the WHO fight the coronavirus. Next weekend, there’ll be a global TV special featuring Gaga, Alanis Morissette, Paul McCartney, Eddie Vedder, Lizzo, Stevie Wonder, Maluma, Billie Eilish and more performing from — you guessed it — their homes. One World: Together At Home will air April 18 at 5pm PST/ 8 pm EST.
Here are other entertainment options for you, happening today:
1. More music shows keep getting added: tonight Melissa Etheridge plays, Phish invite you to Dinner and a Movie and Echosmith over on Billboard’s Facebook page.
2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art had so much planned for its 150th anniversary this year. While some of those are on hold for now, the museum has created The Met 360° Project. The program includes videos covering six of The Met's most popular attractions and spaces, including the magnificent Neo-Classical Grand Hall, the Gothic Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park and the more than 2 000-year-old Temple of Dendur. If you happen to have a VR set handy, this would be the right time to use it.
3. British jazz saxophonist and band leader Shabaka Hutchings will be talking to designer Virgil Abloh on IG at 7pm London time/ 11am PST / 2pm EST, about the “subversion and re-imagining of pre-existing structures in our respective practices.” Shabaka has been doing a couple of really interesting chats with musicians over the past couple of days so no doubt this will be a good one to tune into too.
4. It’s thanks to my brother that I knew who Wolverine was before he became a blockbuster movie character. Artist Todd Nauck will be doing a tutorial on how he draws Wolverine at 3pm EST/12pm PST on Marvel’s FB, YT, & Twitter (simulcast). Then there’ll be a follow up Wolverine Art Livestream on Marvel’s IG an hour later.
5. For those of us who missed Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s stage production of Fleabag, the chance to see it is now upon us. She’s putting the one-woman-show that begat the award-winning tv series online. It’s available to stream in the UK and Ireland first, as of yesterday, on Soho Theatre’s on-demand streaming site. From this Friday (April 10), it’ll be on Soho Theatre on Demand in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, as well as on Amazon Prime Video in the US. It’ll cost £4 to stream, and all proceeds will go to freelancers working in the UK theater industry who are affected by the crisis.
Thank you for reading. If you’re enjoying this, please do subscribe and share it!
I’ll leave you with a Grease-inspired ode to NY Governor Andrew Cuomo, who’s made us all a little cuomosexual.
Stay safe, stay sane
Your neighbour
Nadia