There are no bad ideas

Friday, August 14, 2020

Weekly DP Wrap Up

WEAR A MASK – WASH YOUR HANDS – WATCH YOUR DISTANCE

https://www.cmu.edu/coronavirus

Sunday, August 09, 2020

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

What Will We Do When Our World Returns?

SoundGirls.org: My last day of work was March 13, 2020, and I’m still just as confused and anxious about it as the day our industry shut down. Since I was 15 years old, I have never gone this long without working, and I really just don’t know how to feel about it. I work in the arts because it feeds my soul, but can I afford that luxury anymore? Is it fair to ask me to get another job? Getting another job for me would mean getting another career, which would mean starting from zero, but I can’t afford to go back to school or pay for new training while I’m unemployed.
Posted by David at 8/09/2020 10:35:00 AM

Theatergoers Are More Likely to See ‘Hamilton’ Live After Streaming It

TodayTix Insider: We all want to be in the room where it happens — whether virtually or in person. So when Disney+ released a filmed version of Hamilton featuring the original cast, the world watched, while the Broadway industry wondered: Does this mean people will stop buying theater tickets?
Posted by David at 8/07/2020 11:06:00 AM

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Concerts Planned Despite COVID Concerns

www.ticketnews.com: While live events throughout America are shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is set to go off at full throttle this week, including a full slate of live entertainment. While the original bill – featuring ZZ Top, REO Speedwagon, Willie Nelson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Shinedown and more – almost universally dropped their participation in the event, organizers were able to find acts to replace them and have the show go on.
Posted by David at 8/05/2020 04:14:00 PM

Should Colleges Force Students To Turn Their Cameras On?

Reason.com: Zoom University will soon be in session. I suspect many faculties are wrangling with an issue: should students be forced to turn their cameras on during class?

I can see several arguments in favor of requiring students to turn on their cameras. First, if students know they are being watched, they are more likely to stay in one place and pay attention. If cameras are off, students may "listen" to the class while moving around.
Posted by David at 8/09/2020 10:23:00 AM

Scene changers: the theatre-makers with radical ideas to combat racism

Theatre | The Guardian: Ola Ince is a young British director in demand. This summer, she was due to stage Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe, after directing a UK tour of the hit Royal Court show Poet in Da Corner. A leading light among a new generation of talented theatre-makers, Ince has directed productions around the world. Yet she has not always felt welcome in some British venues. She says she has experienced suspicion, condescension and prejudiced assumptions from audience members, even while attending shows she has directed herself.
Posted by David at 8/03/2020 01:29:00 PM

Friday, August 07, 2020

DP Weekly Wrap Up

WEAR A MASK – WASH YOUR HANDS – WATCH YOUR DISTANCE

Thursday, August 06, 2020

I did my first errand today that I would previously have done with a car. Had to install the lock to do it, and even with it locked up I was still twitchy about walking away from it... Sounds like Pittsburgh dropped of the Corona Task-force "you're totally screwed" list. So that's a good thing. 100 new cases reported today... We've been walking around the neighborhood a lot lately. Gib5on has been playing Pokemon Go. I've noticed there are a whole lot of kids in our neighborhood that we don't know... The NRA news is interesting, but I keep wondering what happened to the story of how the org funneled foreign money into the 2016 election. Be nice to know if there was any truth to that, and if there was why nothing came of it... I REALLY DON'T LIKE MY THURSDAY FAST DAYS. I WANT A SNACK ALREADY... My in-laws inform me that there is a shortage of Coke Zero. Is that for real? Since I haven't been in the office I've really been limited to Sodastream - of which there is also an existing shortage... Still kinda twitchy about posting political opinions on the internet. OK posting links to articles. Less OK commenting or posting anything original; even if it is funny... I think I know the proper use of semi-colons. I am probably wrong... With fast food restaurant dining rooms closed, where do people go to the bathroom on long drives? Asking for a friend... I moved my classes for the fall to online today. I'll revisit it in a couple of weeks. Maybe it will look less risky then... Still don't know what to do with all the records and books we're looking to downsize... Somehow a query posted in the PPS website system has yielded me the direct email for the school principal. Something about that seems wrong... MSNBC is available on TuneIn. TuneIn is available on Alexa. Listening to MSNBC is pretty much the same as watching, but there's less couch... A while back, mostly because of the bike, I obtained some 3/8" drive allen keys. It is possible that these tools have seen more use than any previous new tool in my possession... 30 year old me would have had much less trouble moving that treadmill than 50 year old me. But 50 year old me got it done - with a little help from my friends...

What Would You Do?

I have a decision to make. A couple of weeks ago we met with the School leadership and decided whether our classes would be Remote, Hybrid, Hybrid in Shifts, or In Person. Remote means everyone attends via Zoom. Hybrid means the class meets in a classroom and there is a Zoom simulcast. Hybrid in Shifts is the same as Hybrid except the class is broken into subsections and only a part of the class attends on any given day. In Person is in person only.

I have three classes this Fall: PTM Professional Practice, Technical Direction 1, and Technical Direction 3. Right off the bat I decided that PTM Professional Practice should be Remote. At least half the sessions of that class are guests and under the current circumstances it felt irresponsible to bring guests to campus. Knowing that the guests would be appearing on a screen it wasn't too far a trip to deciding that the students should also be on a screen.

TD1 and TD3 were not as clear cut. At the time I was making the decision the undercurrent seemed to be "If it can be in person it ought to be in person." Truth be told I don't think anyone ever said it that cleanly, but there were discussions about how if you didn't want to teach in person you would have to formally request an accommodation from HR for a health problem or request an accommodation from your school head for a personal reason. That procedure, at least to me, communicated that the expectation was that classes that could meet in person should meet in person.

Also at that time the daily county cases were typically under 100. We had just gone from "yellow" to "green." That "green" doesn't mean "normal" is some truly unfortunate communicating BTW. Campus was talking about testing and PPE and social distancing. Things were fairly optimistic. Since then things have taken a bit of a turn. PPS has walked away from in person classes and gone remote. MLB, with all the money and incentive in the world, has had to cancel baseball games. The daily county case rate has jumped to well over 100, and even though we are technically still on "green" the governor reinstated many of the restrictions that were part of "yellow" without changing the status.

Yesterday in a meeting the Provost said "if you can work remote, you should work remote."

There is still an undercurrent of wanting classes to meet in person. In the same meeting there was discussion about how it would be significant for every student that does elect to come to Pittsburgh could have at least one in person class. I can see how coming to campus and living in campus housing and taking all of your classes from your room might be less than. There was also a mention about how there is a concern that international students be able to find at least one in person class to validate their immigration status.

The latter notwithstanding, in the light of the change in circumstances since our discussion I am wavering on teaching in the room. TD1 and TD3 have been sited in the Chosky Theatre, so there's plenty of room for distancing. Everyone is required to wear a mask at all times on campus, and they are placing hand sanitizing stations all over the place. So the "3W" wear a mask, wash your hands, watch your distance should be fairly strongly implemented. Additionally, everyone on campus has to do daily symptom assessments - which helps, but obviously will not capture asymptomatic carriers. TD1 could have 12 students and TD3 could have 8. I say "could" because I don't know how many of the registered students are coming to Pittsburgh, and how many of those are planning to come to class. Students are free to make those decisions at will and day to day, so even if I asked it would only be a rough answer.

The school does appear to be doing what they can to keep things safer. But there is an even safer decision - we could go remote.

I've looked at the content, and really there's nothing that suffers unduly from not being in the room. Both classes take a little bit of a hit as discussion over Zoom isn't what it is in person - although I think it can be; it just wasn't in my spring classes. TD1 takes a hit in that it probably loses the hands on dimension of the "Rearrange The Shop" project. But that project is doable from drawings. I could probably have Sean and Ben provide a survey. TD3 has historically had projects with realized shop components, but not last year as I have been taking it toward more sketching and conversations. On top of that, the semester is basically only 12 weeks this fall. So both classes were going to take a content hit anyway.

There's also a part of me that wonders if Zoom without a mask is better than in person, distanced, with a mask - especially for anyone still attending via Zoom. Really I don't wonder, I'm pretty sure it is.

I'd like to have some quantitative metrics in place to make this decision for me. Something like: no in the room teaching until the R0 is less than 1. Or maybe: no in person classes until there have been three weeks of demonstrably lowering new cases in the county and an absolute daily case count of less than 50. Or maybe: no in person classes without twice a week testing of all participants with less than a 48 hours turnaround. But nobody is providing quantitative measures. Just 3Ws and symptom screening, with isolation after appearance of symptoms. I'm just not sure I am willing to gamble my life and the life of my family on those metrics (or the lives of my students).

There's a tool online that tells you for your county based on a crowd of a given size how likely it is that at least one person is a COVID carrier. I just checked and for Allegheny County today, for a group of 10 (the choices are 10 and 25 and based on the size of my classes 25 doesn't feel fair) - so this number is conservative for my circumstances - for a group of 10 in Allegheny County the likelihood is 14%. So every time I go to class there is a 14% chance that the entire class is potentially exposed. That doesn't account for symptom screening, and it doesn't say anything about how likely one person is to be infected by another person. That infection possibility is mitigated by masks and distancing. I tried and failed to find numbers on how likely infection is when exposed, and how much that is mitigated by PPE and distancing.

But it is non-zero.

The likelihood of becoming infected while teaching class without being in person is zero.

If I can do that, shouldn't I do that?

I feel like I am leaning toward moving everything online - if that option is still open to me.

What would you do?

Tuesday, August 04, 2020

Four Things

My Fall Schedule

I put my schedule into Google Calendar last week. It is the time of year to be mapping syllabi against the current calendar and getting weekly details into our family calendar so that me and Mrs. TANBI can head off as many SNAFUs as possible. For years now all of my classes have been in the afternoon. That's left over from when I built my schedule in anticipation of Gib5on being born. The new COVID schedule doesn't change that, although the end of my class day is later than it has been historically. I have my usual Fall semester: Technical Direction 1, Technical Direction 3, and PTM Professional Practice. When I set it up, I elected for PPP to be full remote and for TD1 and TD3 to be hybrid. In the last couple of days I have been second guessing that decision. Part of me thinks TD1 should be full remote as well, and maybe TD3 should meet on my porch - I'll have to look at the enrollment, the class might actually be too big for that this year. The semester is only 12 weeks this Fall. The university decided that we would not come back for the two weeks after Thanksgiving and the school decided that all things being equal that time might be better put to use by expanding (the now fully remote) Playground to two weeks. I guess my next step is to look at the 15 week syllabi and cut them to 12. PPP and TD1 should accommodate that easily. TD3 will be more of a challenge mostly because it will shorten all the project timelines.

Biking Angst

If you have been following you know I've been trying to get some physical activity by doing some riding. I don't know why I would think this would be different, but the biking has found me some new things to be angsty about. Mostly here I blame Facebook. To try to stay informed I joined a Facebook group for owners of the brand of eBike I bought. I thought it would be a good way to find out about the bike since I bought it on kind of a lark without knowing much about it. The COVID crisis has apparently caused eBike sales to spike. Probably one third of the posts in the group are people doing unboxing videos when they receive their bike. Another third of the posts are people complaining about how long they have been waiting for their bike - keep in mind every one of these orders was a back order. I guess it is possible that RAD is letting the order deliveries slip, but people had to know what they were getting into. The remaining third of the posts are probably split evenly between people having a great time with their bike and people that have had some kind of unfixable mechanical problem. It's that last bit that is my problem. In high school I was a pretty competent bike mechanic, but the eBike is an order of magnitude more complicated with electronics and sensors and bike components way more complicated than I remember. This has caused me a fair bit of pessimistic thinking around breaking down on the road or having something on the bike fail. There's probably no reason for this, and knock wood everything is fine, but I am now and pretty much always have been angsty.

Back to Public School

PPS has decided to take a 9 week time out. They were going to be back in person for those that had elected that option as soon as three weeks from now. Then the teachers started to push a little and the board voted on going full remote for everyone for a little while so they can better be ready when they do come back. The schools are basically on a trimester and everyone is now staying home through the first grading period. That has people coming back to the building right around Thanksgiving. I wouldn't be surprised to see them come to the same conclusion CMU did and decide to stay home from Thanksgiving to New Years, at which point coming in for two or three weeks in November will seem less reasonable. The second grading period goes basically from Thanksgiving to Valentines Day. So part of me wonders if really we're looking at a return to in person school well into the Spring. That is quite a bit of extrapolation though. I'm probably wrong. I am glad they have decided to take the time out. There was a news report on last night where they were showing some of the preparations that local schools are making and they just seem to be way, way too little. In one part they were saying one district was limiting bus capacity to 12 and another district was holding to 60%. The internet says 48 adults fit on a school bus. 60% of 48 is 28.8 so say 28. The reporter didn't even question how 12 and 28 could both be safe. I think that's pretty indicative of the whole issue. Every district is on their own. Today on the news I saw coverage of Marching Band practice at an area high school. The director was on saying "We're doing everything we can to keep the kids safe." No you're not. They don't have to be there.

The Latest Binge

I just finished watching The Girlfriend Experience on Starz. We paid for Starz so we could watch the latest season of Outlander and since we finished that I have been looking for things to justify the subscription. (Side note: did you know there's a straight line from DS9 to BSG to Outlander?) So I was combing through the available series and fell on The Girlfriend Experience. I should start off with that it is a little more porny than I was probably looking for. It makes sense based on the content, but some of what they chose to depict was a little surprising. Season three even starts to carry a new opening placard. The show is shot really beautifully. I could not help but notice that the locations they chose and the way they decided to shoot them were really impressive. Another quirky element is that the three seasons are three different stories. In and of itself that isn't too odd, but the first story and the third story don't really come to a conclusion. They just sort of end with all kinds of unresolved plot lines. I guess there's something to be said for less conventional story telling and maybe I don't need to have everything tied up in a bow but for me, at least, it was disappointing. Also, the first season was really about the ins and outs of the business. Season two made those details much more of a sideline, and season three shifted the narrative to political intrigue centering around one of the customers. In some ways it really comes off as three different shows.

Ellipses...

So what we really needed along with everything else that's going on were fires and hurricanes. Super... The Pens won game two. They've still got a pretty steep hill. Speaking of hills, tonight I passed another bike riding up a hill. Part of me thinks there should be some kind of etiquette thing about e-bikes passing standard bikes on climbs. I felt kinda dirty... Today I started making Gib5on a quesadilla before realizing the only shredded cheese we had on hand was for Lasagna. So instead he got a pizzadilla... I sat in on an online rigging class today. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I got. If nothing else I got some renewal points... We got an oblique hint that the online learning Gib5on is going to be doing will be in the morning. That works well for us, better than the afternoon. It sure would be nice if figuring out these things weren't like reading tea leaves... Every day and every article it seems less like a good idea to come back to campus in person. I get that the world may not be able to wait for a vaccine, but it does seem like we ought to be able to wait for available, fast turnaround testing... I finished watching The Girlfriend Experience and started Tales From the Loop... Sabian has decided that everything in the world exists for climbing. We might have to get her a helmet... Mrs. TANBI and I are both doing telecommuting meetings in the same space. If you have any advise on microphones that can filter out the other person talking in the room we could use it. Otherwise we're going to have to create another office in this house. Although, now that I think about it we're not likely to use the guest room anytime soon... The treadmill does not fit in a Toyota Highlander. Gonna have to try the bed of a Tacoma. It'll be nice to get out of the storage unit if it works... Thinking about a mid-August Lego sorting extravaganza. I think I did that two years ago and it was great for my mental health. Harder now that any dropped piece likely becomes a snack... I finished reading Logan's Run today. Often I find that the novels films come from are way more interesting than the movie. That's not the case this time. There's some cool parts, but I think the movie is better... The dentist that's been cutting our grass got his dental license and sold his yard work equipment. So if you know anyone that might be looking to pick up another yard please let me know...

Monday, August 03, 2020

Monday Ride

Cycle Route 6919519 - via Bikemap.net - Open Route in Bikemap App

Sunday, August 02, 2020

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

How the Shaw Festival kept 500 people employed during COVID — by taking out pandemic insurance three years ago

National Post: About three-and-a-half years ago, Tim Jennings, the executive director and CEO of the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, decided to undertake some risk analysis alongside his CFO. He looked at potential problem areas, and at concerns that might arise throughout the course of an ordinary season of theatre, and came to a shrewd conclusion: The festival should take out an insurance policy against the threat of a pandemic.
Posted by David at 8/02/2020 02:07:00 PM

Replacing Master and Slave Terminology In My Book

Control Geek: The racial justice protests of 2020 made me realize it was long past time to purge some offensive and obsolete language from the book. Specifically, the use of “master” and “slave” to describe control system architectures where one system has direct control over another. The roots of this book reach back to the 1990s, and I used this language because that’s what was widely used in the industry, and written in the technical standards that are the source materials for this book. But, in recent years, the technical community has become more enlightened, and so have I. So, this 2.1 update replaces that obsolete language, shifting to terms like “primary-secondary”.
Posted by David at 8/02/2020 02:07:00 PM

ESSAY: What I Did For Love, And How I Plan To Do Less

rescripted.org: A strange ritual would often take place in the halls of my university’s theatre center. College students would convene before classes or rehearsals to present the hours of sleep they had claimed the night before. The student who shared the lowest number would wear this insomnia as a badge of honor. Bonus points were awarded if the time spent awake was done at the library, or in the theatre after hours. I perceived this bizarre ritual as a product of the college experience. Little did I know, the professional theatre would not be that different.
Posted by David at 7/31/2020 10:50:00 AM

It’s Time for a New Labor Movement in the Performing Arts

Current Affairs: I’ll never forget the week I worked 128 hours—without overtime. There are, of course, only 168 hours in a week, and by the time you have worked your 128th, you no longer have professional standards, boundaries, or even much of an identity left. Me, personally? I was cackling at every provocation and blinking too often to chase away sleep. At the time, I was a concert sound engineer, lighting designer, and technical director, and I was in the process of opening a new concert venue (that must remain nameless) in New York City.
Posted by David at 7/30/2020 11:25:00 AM

We Commit to Anti-Racist Stage Management Education

HowlRound Theatre Commons: From tragedy to uproar, America is being held to account. There is much work to do during this pause. We are two educators and stage managers who lead the MFA programs at Yale School of Drama and the University of California, San Diego. We identify as women—one Black, and one White—who share an intentional commitment to practicing and teaching anti-racist stage management. We are engaged in inquiry and self-assessment, as well as conversation about how the production of live performance will be transformed and how we can prepare stage managers to lead an authentically equitable theatrical process.
Posted by David at 7/29/2020 02:43:00 PM

Four Things

Masks

I am getting incrementally less patient and more angry with people not wearing masks. Not wearing includes wearing the mask around the neck, or hanging it off one ear, or carrying it around until needed. We're going to have masks for quite a while. I can't imagine mask orders are going to lift inside of six months. I wouldn't be surprised if masks are still with us in 18 months or more. In that scenario it seems like we're really past the moment for half measures. The culture ought to be if you leave your residence you should be wearing a mask. When you walk out the door put it on and leave it on. I've seen people questioning/poking fun at people wearing masks in their car or when they out alone on their bike. That is counter-productive. We need to get comfortable wearing our masks. People need to find a mask they like and get used to having it on all the time. I went down into Oakland today to pick up lunch. Inside the restaurant everyone had a mask on, but out on the street the majority of people were not. We're into a world where that isn't OK any more. Until the numbers improve significantly masks need to be second nature. I really don't understand why this message is finding it so difficult to land. Well I guess maybe all the politicians underselling the effectiveness, or underselling the magnitude of the disease, could be a significant contributor. Come on folks, get with the program, people are dying. Wear a mask.

Online Summer Program

We completed our Drama Online Summer Program this week. When CMU cancelled Summer PreCollege they charged us with putting together an online program. Just to keep the distinction between this program and what we've done before we've been calling it the "Drama Online Summer Program." The DP program had five courses: Basic Design, Science of Scenery, Drawing, Storyology, Technical Production, and Stage Management. We lost Stagecraft, Drafting, and Lighting Design from our historic program - and Media Design, which had been added recently also didn't appear this summer. The latter classes are all significantly hands on and pretty gear heavy; all things that make remote learning difficult. Part of me wonders if after this coming year, with all of our classes having to be offered hybrid, if we will have a handle on how to offer some of that content remotely should we have to consider on online program again. Obviously though the hope is that next year we will be back to in person Drama Precollege. I don't know if I would bet on that though. The program also shrunk from six weeks to four, and part of the reduction in content also had to do with reducing the length of the time commitment during the day - and hoping that we'd be able to catch all time zones with one section of each class. Overall it appears that things have gone pretty well. I feel like I didn't get to know the students as well as I would have in person. Going forward I think I will have to work on how to break down the experience through the screen more effectively.

Sports

Sports are back. So far I've watched pieces of Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey. Prior to that I kept tuning in to reruns of previous AUDL Ultimate games. I hadn't watched them the first time through, so it was pretty much like watching games in real time. But I guess I am a fickle fan, as when presented with the opportunity to watch live games I jumped at the chance. The hockey games are playoffs, and I really enjoy playoff hockey, so having that back is great. I think the sound design behind the crowd noise and the arena music are really a value add. The Pens lost game one, so if they don't come back soon I may not last too long with the NHL. While I like having the distraction, it is nice to have live sports back on TV, I do wonder about the ethical questions around resources being hoarded by professional sports that could likely find (perhaps an arguably better) use in some other sector. There was an NBA Instagram post the other day that showed a palette of Clorox Wipes in the background, completely derailing whatever the post was supposed to be about in favor of discussion of how it was possible that the NBA was able to get in bulk what the general public hasn't been able to find in stores for months. Wipes are one thing, but the sports leagues are also burning through a huge number of COVID tests and the lab capacity to process all the tests. I like having sports. I'd much rather have easy access to quick turnaround testing. I am uncertain our collective priorities are in the right place. No, maybe I am not uncertain.

Rockabye Baby

Last year during one of the undergrad interviews a prospective student asked me what the last album I had listened to was. It turned out it was "Lullaby Renditions of Pink Floyd." Sabian's daycare had been playing this music in the nap room. It took me more than a week to recognize it, but eventually it was clear that it was "Hey You" from "The Wall." I thought this was the coolest thing ever and found it even cooler that it was on Amazon music and we could stream it on the echo. During the interview, Joe Pino informed me that they also were fans in his house, but that they preferred "Lullaby Renditions of Nine Inch Nails." I immediately added that to our frequent nap rotation. Eventually I just asked the Alexa to shuffle songs by Rockabye Baby, which was how I discovered that there were "Lullaby Renditions of..." The Beatles and Journey and Led Zeppelin. I don't know how it took me so long, but last week I finally did a search and came up with the whole discography, and - oh my - it is comprehensive. Since then we've added Prince, The Beastie Boys, Songs from Hamilton, Fleetwood Mac, Rush, and The Police. I'm not sure if Sabian can tell the difference, but I am thrilled. They have all kinds of more contemporary titles as well, but I don't see myself using them; not when I can ask for The Eagles.

There are no bad ideas

Friday, August 14, 2020

Weekly DP Wrap Up

Sunday, August 09, 2020

Worth a Look

What Will We Do When Our World Returns?

Theatergoers Are More Likely to See ‘Hamilton’ Live After Streaming It

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Concerts Planned Despite COVID Concerns

Should Colleges Force Students To Turn Their Cameras On?

Scene changers: the theatre-makers with radical ideas to combat racism

Friday, August 07, 2020

DP Weekly Wrap Up

Thursday, August 06, 2020

Ellipses...

What Would You Do?

Tuesday, August 04, 2020

Four Things

Ellipses...

Monday, August 03, 2020

Monday Ride

Sunday, August 02, 2020

Worth a Look

How the Shaw Festival kept 500 people employed during COVID — by taking out pandemic insurance three years ago

Replacing Master and Slave Terminology In My Book

ESSAY: What I Did For Love, And How I Plan To Do Less

It’s Time for a New Labor Movement in the Performing Arts

We Commit to Anti-Racist Stage Management Education

Four Things

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