the arts to the rescue!

The floodgates have opened - it's overwhelming. Museums, theatres, film series, concerts, poetry readings, talks pouring online - we could spend the next six years doing nothing but sitting in our houses digesting it all. The National Theatre will broadcast free plays, including The Servant of Two Masters, the show that made James Corden a star, which I saw in London just after he left. It was hilarious without him, I can only imagine how funny with his rare gift. Thursday April 2.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/mar/26/national-theatre-to-broadcast-shows-online-on-thursdays

https://globeplayer.tv/

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/mar/26/smartify-makes-all-museum-audio-tours-free-for-rest-of-2020?utm_source=Breakfast+with+ARTnews&utm_campaign=e98c38795b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_03_25_10_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c5d7f10ceb-e98c38795b-293475605​

Once more, the arts step up to save the day. How proud I am to be part of this coterie of lunatics who barely make a living and yet make such a difference.

Today's thrill, besides a CNFC board meeting via Zoom - love you all! - a researcher has been looking into my great-grandfather Jacob Gordin's life and just wrote that he tracked down his sister Masha in Russia and found a son who emigrated to the U.S. His grandson is still there. A distant relative in South Carolina. Should I get in touch?

Another grey, chilly day. No exercise yet, at all - must go out for a walk. Anna's friend Mitsuko came to help disinfect surfaces and door handles. I triumphantly unearthed a big bottle of bleach from the basement, and we used that, until I read online that bleach has a best before date. Who knew? This bottle is at least ten years old, so - useless. Most of my cleaning products are gentle and organic - useless. We started again. The window man came, the contract is signed, there will be two new windows by June.

Anna has finished her will. It rips my heart out.

I wrote to a friend who'd complained about coughing two weeks ago and then vanished. Was very concerned, but she's okay, just holed up. Suddenly, our concern for our friends and loved ones is more acute than normal.

Someone wrote on a FB Beatles site that there are 162 'nahs' in Hey Jude. You needed to know that.