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On May 25th, 2020, the California Air National Guard 129th Rescue Wing performed a flyover the Bay Area and Central California. Southern California had their own flyover as well. There was a map (shown below) beforehand and I saw that it would be flying right over us. I made sure to be ready to record this. The flyovers began and ended at Moffett Air National Guard Base in Mountain View. The aerial formation included one HC-130J Combat King II aircraft and two HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopters and passed over north and south Bay Area medical facilities. In addition, a single HC-130J Combat King aircraft, also set to begin from Moffett, will perform a flyover and pass over Central and Salinas Valley area. The flyovers were to show gratitude to health care workers during this pandemic. Our house was positioned in between San Rafael Kaiser hospital and Sutter hospital in Novato. 
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There wasn't anything normal about 2020. In January, I had been really sick. As I emerged from the illness, I started following this novel virus in the Wunan province and Northern Italy with deep concern, because it was only a matter of time that it would effect us. I nervously attended live music concerts being the only person in my circle that was concerned at the time.
On March 16th, everything shutdown and we were all sheltering-in-place. It seemed that the entire world was in shutdown. There were scenes where the virus hit first where people would go out on their balconies and bang pots and cheer in honor of the health care workers. Marin decided to join in by howling. It started just south of us in Mill Valley, and spread quickly. Every night at 8pm, the howling and banging of pots could be heard. One night on April Fools, I went out to capture it happening in my neighborhood. There was a forum on Facebook devoted to those who howled that seemed to extend to the entire American west and perhaps further. People would howl for loved ones who died or who were sick. Some howled because they lost a job. Many not only howled to honor health care workers, but to connect with each other. It was a way to feel solidarity with neighbors and connect via their voices. There was a little bit or even more than a little bit of cabin fever craziness involved mixed with a little primal yell. The howling was sad, exhilarating, and strange. The howling did not survive the Spring. I imagine there a many reasons for this. There will be a list of things that happened in 2020 that will be difficult to explain to those who were too little during 2020 or came after 2020. Americans decided to collectively forget going through the 1918 pandemic, and it will be interesting to see if we decide again to forget or decide to remember so we can be better next time. M. Jack Steckel's 21st Century Vaudeville
"While at Apple, Tad Williams developed an interest in interactive multi-media, and he and his colleague Andrew Harris created a company, Telemorphix, in order to produce it. The result was "M. Jack Steckel's 21st Century Vaudeville", which was broadcast on San Francisco Bay Area local TV in 1992 and 1993. People at the station and viewers were asked to provide images of themselves, which were then animated primarily at the mouth: viewers phoned in to the show and could then be these characters. The action was a mix of improvisational performance and storylines which Williams created (along with secondary, non-interactive characters.) M. Jack Steckel himself—the host—was played by Andrew Harris." I was a college student at SFSU in 1992-93 living with roommates in San Francisco when in channel surfing one night came upon a strange show on local cable access. They were driving around familiar tunnels and streets of the city while the host was interacting with callers. It was fascinating to all of us and we ended up contacting them. Since we all had Macromind Director and graphics skills we started working with them. I created Ms. Savage Fear who was this chain smoking punker chick and an ample home shopping network woman who you could animate by calling in. I hosted some shows as Ms. Savage Fear coming after local cable access show, The Lavender Lounge. People would send in random videos we would play, including a dark and strange video of a train passing Auschwitz and someone speaking in Polish. As host, not knowing what would come next in the program required improv skills whether it was commenting on a video or interacting with random people who would call in. It was interactive television that was before its time. We would get paid for our time when Telemorphix got money, but that never happened, which was fine. It was worth it because it was fun to try to do something no one has done before and to use technology in creative and artistic ways. As soon as it entered our lives, M. Jack Steckel's 21st Century Vaudeville, disappeared. The above video is the version of the show when it was in Boston. When you live long enough, you find that places you worked are gone. Not all of your work gets preserved. Sometimes you feel that you are just painting with butter or sand that is impermanent. Digital work on 3.5 inch disks, hard drives, or IOMEGA Zip Drives gets corrupted. For so many years, I was on a PC platform which can crash hard drives. Sometimes what you do is like a butter or sand painting that gets experienced at the time only to be wiped away over time and erosion. Digital work is often lost and also the work you do in the analog world isn't captured either. Not everything has been saved in files, photographed, or caught on video. If I come across any of my art from 21st Century Vaudeville, I will certainly post it. |
AuthorLiving in the American West and having thoughts on Politics, Society, History, and Climate/Weather Science. Archives
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