I remember the build up to that fateful day well. The ATF going in and people getting injured or killed. Trying to get the people to leave loud unpleasant music was blasted over loudspeakers.
There was a news segment about the people in the compound. One of those featured was David Thibodeau who played drums in Koresh’s band. Having a face put on one of the members- glad when I found out that he was one of the few survivors.
On the fateful day I was having lunch at my parent’s house. They lived very close to where I worked so would often go there. The TV was on and a news bulletin came on around 12:30 central time. The compound was on fire. So tragic, especially all the children lost.
The Government should have thought it through more but guess they were impatient to end this.
I’ll watch the series to see their take on it

I remember seeing Elton John talking about going with Brian to his house - they went to the children’s bedroom and Brian picked up Carnie and Wendy who had been asleep, and said say hello to Elton.
Carnie has also talked about him visiting the house.

(The Elton John reminiscence was in a documentary about them and others doing a tribute album for Leon Russell)

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival has been officially cancelled for 2020. Not surprising since all big music events here have been cancelled. The city and its musicians are really hurting.
So no Beach Boys down here.
Wonder if they might still do their annual Biloxi shows in early October (they perform every year as part of a big vintage car festival )

One never knows what might happen with the evening music making.
Heard a story on BBC World Service about a woman in Italy playing her violin on her balcony. A woman across the street came out on her balcony to listen and noticed a man standing next to her. She saw him, he saw her... and as the song says, “That’s Amore!” And to top it off, this happened in Verona :-)

Great. Thanks Mari!

There was a good reason for being afraid of the nasty weather. It turned out okay where I was but about 70 km from there and at other places were very strong tornadoes - at least 18 people were killed.*
Of course the paper doesn’t protect against the virus . It was “panic buying” thinking that people wouldn’t be able to leave their homes for a long time. It was ridiculous how some people would buy as many paper products that they could get away with then try to sell on EBay, basically the Black Market. Thankfully some of them were arrested.
I like Lynyrd Skynyrd but don’t care for the song “Sweet Home Alabama”.

* Update - more than 30 deaths  :-(

 It’s Easter Sunday for western Christians. Very strange all around. Think it’s the first time not eating Easter dinner with anyone . Just me and the animals. Dinner was a baked potato topped with cheese and ham.
Church was on TV (or could have watched on internet) as services aren’t allowed now. Saw the service from our Cathedral with our Archbishop officiating. I had seen him almost a month ago at an earlier TV Mass. He didn’t look well and he found out the next day that he had the virus. He recovered and looked a lot better today. He and a Rabbi flew a few days ago in a vintage World War II plane, blessing the city.
Waiting for some possible bad weather over the next few hours. Hope it won’t be too bad .
RR, if you don’t like heat, don’t ever decide to live in Texas! Or Alabama! The other areas have hot spells but occasional cool downs happen in the summer. Or at least it cools a bit at night.
And JohnK, what better song to play than “Go Now”. You better GO NOW! Virus , get out, now!

Needed to get hand sanitizer. Almost impossible to find because people are hoarding it.
A number of distilleries have stepped up and are now making hand sanitizer- they have plenty alcohol available.
So I drove down to a local distillery and bought a couple large bottles and a jug of the stuff. I’ll see if there are people I know who need the stuff.
Have also been looking into what to use to make a cloth mask . Some people use bandanas and I also saw one which used a cut up teeshirt.
Even our little country store is observing “social distance.” Only 5 people are allowed in at a time. So waited a short time before I could get in,
Got some plants - pineapple sage, milkweed, moonflowers, couple of others .
Hope to plant transplants in the coming days - cherry tomatoes, banana peppers, small eggplants (aubergine), small watermelons.

Re the Peter O’Toole movie. I haven’t been able to watch it, I thought that I had seen it some time back but what I actually saw was an early movie he was in, The Day They Robbed the Bank of England.
It’s hard for me to watch movies on YouTube because of the buffering.

It was just announced that Ellis Marsalis, patriarch of a famous jazz/classical family in New Orleans, has passed away at the age of 85.
He had been hospitalized with symptoms of Covid 19. The results of the test hadn’t come in.
Marsalis , an educator and jazz pianist , is the father of musician sons Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason.
He was teacher to Harry Connick Jr, Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton and other top local musicians.
Another legend gone. RIP.  :-(

Thanks. So far no one in my family has gotten sick. Several are in the medical profession, and one sister has to take an hour long train twice a week to work (she works from home the other days). However none of them live anywhere near here and the situation isn’t as bad in their areas (yet).
All the best to all as we deal with this mess.

In case anyone’s interested, Mike and Bruce and I guess a couple of others will sing Kokomo on the Huckabee program tonight.

I am happy that Brian and company had their short performance in New Orleans during the first weekend of the Mardi Gras parades , when it was mostly locals . It was on the second weekend right before Mardi Gras that people from all over the world flooded in, creating the perfect storm for what my city is going through now.
Be safe, everyone. Wash your hands.

Our local opera company suggested another source for free streaming of operas
Operavision.eu
Operas performed by various European companies
They are now featuring Mozart operas performed by a Finnish company.

Hello, the free series is continuing for the Met broadcasts. They will be doing a couple of Italian operas. Next week will be all Wagner.
Sad news - got word that the Met is laying off all of its union musicians and chorus. But I think trying to maintain their health coverage for a while (imagine those of you outside the US shaking your heads at that, as health coverage is a given where you live)

Brian’s FB page just posted that he will be featured today at 1500 (3pm) Eastern time singing and playing piano from his home.
Details are at rollingstone.com
It’s part of a series called “In My Room”, performances by legacy and newer artists

Just received confirmation that the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival will be rescheduled for the Fall, dates TBD.

 I don’t know how many countries can access this, but the Metropolitan Opera is showing free broadcasts of operas. The opera showing through tomorrow is Carmen.
It’s available on the Met Opera on Demand app available on various devices.

The number of cases in my state have doubled in one day. Now we are near the top in terms of illness per capita. Plus someone here died.
One of my sisters ordered me to stay at our country place and away from the city .
She thinks that will protect me.
We’ll see...

Heard talk that the NO Jazz &Heritage Festival might have to be rescheduled to the Fall.

I would rate this 5/5.
On a local (New Orleans) FB page someone posted a poster of this as it’s the anniversary, March 14. It was shown nationwide in the US on closed circuit TV and locally at our Municipal Auditorium. There were 2 matinee shows.
The poster just shows a picture of The Beatles who were the headliners, performing in Washington DC. Along with The Beach Boys, there was also a concert by Leslie Gore.
That must have been exciting to see

About washing hands, unfortunately many don’t. And it’s frustrating to go to a public restroom to wash my hands and there’s no soap.
Hand sanitizer (an alcohol solution that’s supposed to kill germs) can also be used but some very selfish people bought them all up. I prefer soap and water. And many people don’t use the sanitizer correctly. After putting it on the hands you are supposed to rub hands together or let the hands air dry ( that takes very little time ) But a lot of people wipe their hands dry with a towel which makes the sanitizer ineffective.
The government wants to limit crowds so that the number of cases rises more slowly . Although most people who get sick with it won’t have problems there are still a fair number who will need to be in the hospital- and might need ventilators (breathing equipment). There are only so many ventilators available and a number of them are already being used. The US doesn’t want to have the situation that’s in Italy , where doctors have had to decide which patients to treat because of lack of equipment.

It’s like a wartime situation. The people have to unite .

One of my sisters used to raise Himalayan cats and show them . She had different names for them - the first were named after opera characters - Mimi, or Pinky (for Pinkerton) . The last bunch had names such as Twinkle and Windy, The last of those cats a sweet baby called Sunny, passed away recently . She now has some “regular” cats , not any particular breed,

Oh boy. Covid-19. It’s s type of corona virus ( the mildest of which is the common cold). It’s ‘19’ because that’s the year it was discovered - apparently late last year.
It’s deadlier than influenza and there is no vaccine. The elderly are particularly at risk. Everything’s shutting down here . All schools are closed for the next few weeks here. Although children so far haven’t gotten sick but it’s feared that they can be carriers and can make others sick.
All plays, operas, festivals, parades etc are cancelled. All sports events, conventions . A LOT of people will be at least temporarily out of work,
New Orleans was one of the hot spots for this. People came here for Mardi Gras and picked up the virus. So cases from several other states can be traced to us.
Let’s just say it’s a mess.  

PS. I assume it’s just allergies but I’ve been battling a sore throat and a “run down “ feeling all week. I don’t have fever. So I try not to get too close to people. And am constantly washing my hands.

PPS. I read today that Kevin Love, Mike’s nephew who plays for the Cleveland basketball team, is contributing 100,000 dollars to help the workers at the arena where they play who are going to be out of work for a while. Wonderful gesture. I read that other players are helping out in their towns.

We are being told to wash our hands for at least 20 seconds.
I’ve been doing this for many years and have used the children’s “Alphabet Song” to soap up for the required time.

For a change of pace, which snippets of Beach Boys songs would fit the bill?

Thanks. No cake or sherry.
But spent the morning at an Arboretum taking a class on container gardening. Now that I’m moving permanently to the house in the woods I need to change some things . In New Orleans I could have put out tomato plants and others already. But where I am now , an hour drive to the north , I’m in a different zone so shouldn’t put out tomato seedlings for another month.
The weather today was absolutely delightful, so many trees and shrubs in bloom .
Relaxed in the afternoon with my 2 kitties.
A fine day overall