800,000 people.
Eight hundred fucking thousand people.
It sometimes doesn’t actually sound like a LOT. We talk about lawsuits in the millions and budgets in the billions and deficits in the trillions. I think for most people all those zeroes lose their meaning, and I’m not THAT special, it’s a lot for me to comprehend on the macro scale, so I bring it back to the micro.
Last night’s open mic was fantastic. The Spring continues to be small, but at a certain level it’s FORCED to be small by COVID. We have 25 seats in a room intended for 169, and it seems crowded but not dangerously so. We require advance registration, at my request the board eventually agreed to also CHECK vaccination, not simply require it. We require masks while you’re not performing. Below as it is above, we’re doing our part to keep our math going in the right direction. Any one thing has been shown to absolutely have its foibles, but you’ve got a level of social distancing (or at least not CROWDING), you’ve got a level of masking, and you’ve got vaccination as WELL as the self-selecting filter of the behaviours that come with those people who’re willing to mask up for the benefit of those around them and who’ve gotten themselves vaccinated… we wipe the mics and have hand sanitizer and the bathrooms are RIGHT there – oh – sorry, just to your left there – for hand washing.
It’s as safe as an event like this CAN be.
And so on the night where the United States announces 800,000 deaths from COVID, of COURSE we’re TESTED.
I was worried about last night. We’d “sold out” by Monday morning and I’d been turning people away for a day and a half. We’ve come close to this, but we generally don’t even come CLOSE to capacity till day-of!
Still, I appreciate being able to do this – with Institute of Musical Traditions literally renting the space, there’s no conflicting financial incentive to get another couple bodies through the door – but especially since most of the attendees were going to be other performers, it meant that on a night where we can usually remain pretty chill with about a dozen performers, I was going to be stressed fitting 17 or so on the list.
People start trickling in, and I kick off the night with a couple of songs – and as I’m playing my set I see some back and forth at the door. Doug (our “boss” there at the museum) gets summoned and there’s more back and forth, and then a couple of people leave. I extend my set a little bit to let things play out, get the next person on stage and then go commune with the parties involved… Guy A had brought Guy B who didn’t have his vaccination card. “Honestly man, it never even occured to me to ask him” says Guy A and Guy B, when asked “well, ARE you vaccinated and you just don’t have your card?”* responds “I’m getting to it”. “Does that mean you’ve got a shot and are waiting for your second” “It MEANS I’ll GET to it when I GET to it”.
Both Guy A and Guy B had been here before, but before we’d put the vaccination card requirement in place. Guy B had been very outspoken about bucking authority and how it’s fun to thwart The Man and generally, when we’re flying the revolution flag high in a small open mic and then sing a song about getting drunk you’re the kinda bro that I sort of expect all-of-the-above from…
And so I ask Guy A to look at the list and see if any of his other friends might be coming out that could need some ground-rule clarification texts so that no-one’s time is wasted… and it turns out that Guy C probably won’t make it… oh and Guy D’s dad just died, and uh… Guy E’s sick and Guy F’s not coming and probably that meant Guy G wouldn’t make it.
Yeah – after the first person realized “oh shit, they’re ACTUALLY checking vaccination cards and I’m not gonna get in to play”, on the same night we announce 800,000 deaths, five other people SUDDENLY aren’t going to make it.
What the livid Hell?
Well, what was a very full night became a very sparse night – but a spectacular sparse night. Three songs for all, huzzah! And a great list to get three songs from.
Eight hundred fucking thousand people. But don’t worry. You’ll get to it**.
*This was the wrong answer and we’ve discussed it. No card no entry. We don’t want to have the ‘did you just forget your card’ conversation. a) it gets into just having to trust someone and COVID’s eroded my trust of others to near zero and b) that self-selecting pool is a better pool if you’re excluding people who attend vaccinated-required style events so rarely that they’d forget to have their vaccination card or picture thereof with them.
**No he won’t. I know Guy A and Guy B practiced together last week. Guy A got sick and was concerned enough that he (says) he got a COVID test and tested negative. That means Guy B was around someone who got sick, and still didn’t worry himself enough to change his behaviour. His attitude is reinforced. He won’t “get to it”. And I can’t decide … speaking for my species … should he hurry up and breed because obviously he’s apparently pretty resistant to COVID cause he’s probably doing other stupid shit too and overall though HE’S okay he’s probably going to assist in wiping out some of the less-resistant among us, burning through the deadwood of the species… or should he hurry up and take himself out of the gene pool permanently because we DON’T need more self-rightous assholes who figure “well, if I’m okay then what’s it to YOU”?