Music critic Alex Ross, whose evocative and nuanced writing is welcome at any time, is outdoing himself during the Covid crisis. This week in the New Yorker he is once again writing about online performances, but prefaces the article by saying,

Any discussion of this activity…must take into account that it unfolds against a backdrop of misery. The livelihood of thousands of musicians has been shattered overnight….There should be no talk–I have seen some–of classical music “thriving” on the Internet. No one is thriving. No one is making money. No one is free from fear. 

I’m feeling this stress and grief myself, on behalf of my son and all the established and nascent performers I know and admire. When I hear anyone talk about the new normal, say social isolation is not so bad, say “anything” is worth slowing the (inevitable) viral spread, it’s as if a knife has been again stabbed into a festering would. Where can I go, where can I find people who oppose letting a virus undermine our humanity? I am ready to move there.

Sweden?

A co-worker’s private elementary school has already decided to re-open in September for only two days a week and then to close again in November because of flu season. We never closed for flu season before. Instead of the new normal, let’s call it the new fearful.

I’m pretty much foregoing MSNBC, because I feel they they are fanning this flame. I understand Covid-19 is a cluster-spreader, but why do they focus on nursing homes so much more than other risky clusters, such as meat-packing facilities or prisons? I certainly don’t agree with Dan Patrick, but one could point out that the people dying in those latter two clusters are much younger and more likely to be family breadwinners than are those in the former. Answering my own question, I suspect MSNBC is focusing on situations of interest to their viewers, who are often in nursing homes or visiting same, while having no contact whatsoever with meatpacking workers or the incarcerated.

That’s marketing, not news.

I’ve decided to get my virus-related updates primarily from the AAAS and the WHO; I find the dull, fact-oriented style of information transmission calming. Walking by the ocean helps, too. If I need emotional release, usually through tears, I can always stream some of the music that may never be performed live again.