I haven’t seen any PSAs encouraging people to get the bivalent covid vaccine. So, I made my own. I got my bivalent booster shot today. The medical community recommends waiting 4 months since either your last booster or your last covid infection. The CDC says a 2-month interval is fine. I did the 4-month interval.
In the Before Times, I often travelled internationally. But I have not left the United States in over two years. Until last week. For the December holidays, my sister invited me to visit her, my brother-in-law, and niece in Switzerland – where they live. Since I no longer take international travel for granted, I decided to
If your plague began (as mine did) on March 14 2020, then today is day 500 of our plague era. (If it didn’t, then adjust your count accordingly.) As I noted at plague day 250, very early on I decided that day 500 would be the end of the plague. I know that the plague
The exciting sequel to A shot in the arm! Because I am both civic-minded and slightly silly, I filmed myself getting the second shot of the Pfizer vaccine & made another brief Get Vaccinated! video. (Featured performer: Anna Capps on the needle!) Surprising no one, I again adapted lyrics from Hamilton. Sincere apologies to Lin-Manuel
Last week, Kansas added higher education to Phase 2 of the vaccine rollout. This past Monday, I got my first shot of the Pfizer. To encourage you to get yours, I filmed myself. Hey, what’s that on your head? I hear you ask. A deranged, sentient shrub? An off-brand Muppet? The very latest Larry Fine
I wrote the following this morning, in my journal. I thought (perhaps wrongly) that it might resonate with – or even help – others. So, I am sharing it here. Welcome to pandemic day 250. If your pandemic life started on March 14th (as mine did), today is day 250. Many months ago, I decided that
This week’s plague song goes out to that long-tongued liar, his regime, and all who have enabled it over these past four years – whether actively or via silent complicity. The earliest recording of the song is from the Golden Gate Quartet in 1946, but it’s been recorded in many genres, by many artists, and under
1 There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. – John Cage, “Experimental Music” (1957), in Silence: 50th Anniversary Edition (Wesleyan UP, 2011), p. 8 Philip Nel, guitar and vocal, Manhattan, Kansas, 26 July 2020. 2 John Cage’s 4’33” was first performed
Only five chords – in fact, the same I-IV-V chords played in two different keys (E and F#). Two and a half minutes. In sum, classic Ramones. I chose the song because it combines boredom and urgency: “Nothing to do, nowhere to go” and “Hurry, hurry, hurry before I go insane.” I think many of us
This hopeful, aspirational song is the first musical number in The Muppet Movie (1979), the first and best of the Muppet films. I chose it because I figure we could all use a little hope. Written by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher, “Rainbow Connection,” is one of two songs most closely associated with Kermit the
