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How are we all holding up?
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misshelenc



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 943
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2021 3:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great news guys, thanks for the updates! Although some of the areas of the world are having a terrible time, it seems the majority of the people here are having a better time with Covid which makes me happy.
The uk is still opening up we are allowed some of our freedoms back. Still compulsory masks but we can shop and do some indoor activities, many businesses are back like restaurants and gyms and we can see more people, and even legally hug them! I saw my parents for the first time since last year which was amazing. Plus my dad fixed my guitar so it is playable again, it’s been months as I didn’t have the confidence to undertake the work myself. I don’t really want to do much else than see people I miss at this stage.
Keep smiling everyone xx
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jefflewis



Joined: 21 Nov 2005
Posts: 1485

PostPosted: Wed May 19, 2021 5:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Glad to hear about the continuing thaw!
After getting my 2nd vaccination shot I finally got on a plane for the first time since this all started and went to visit my brother and his baby, but when I get back to NYC I expect there will be more and more regular socializing, maybe even bars and music stuff? NYC now announced that the subway is back to 24 hour service.
Also, the new rule in the USA is that fully vaccinated people don't have to wear masks indoors or outdoors, except in certain situations, so it's a big relief to be able to walk or jog or visit with no masks. But I'm still wearing one for the supermarket.
That's the info from the USA!
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dazmann



Joined: 19 Sep 2012
Posts: 86

PostPosted: Fri May 21, 2021 10:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sound like congrats are due to Jack and Uncle Jeff!
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misshelenc



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 943
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2021 10:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, congratulations! So lovely to have a new Lewis! Please tell me you went on the flight with the green hair!

The Indian variant has come to the uk. We were meant to be all out of lockdown on June the 21st but that’s looking less likely. I sense another lockdown coming.
X
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lauragek



Joined: 26 May 2009
Posts: 165

PostPosted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 2:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Congratulations to Jack and uncle Jeffrey!

Good news here too: I was finally able to plan my vaccine. In two weeks I will get it. Keeping an anxious eye on the UK situation, but things are opening back up here which is nice.

How are you dealing Helen?
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misshelenc



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 943
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

PostPosted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 5:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah good thanks buddy, thank you for asking.
The uk has put a delay on opening up more things so a month more to go until allegedly all the restrictions will go about being with other people. I’m not bothered about the delay, cases are going up here but not serious cases, if you will, that require hospital admission and potential death. We have 70+% of people having at least one vaccine is saving many lives and reducing the demand on health services.
Good luck with your vaccine shot! I felt bad off of mine but it did go away, I really hope you have no symptoms from it and it gives you all some more freedom and confidence.
X
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lauragek



Joined: 26 May 2009
Posts: 165

PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm calling it. It's officially been too darn long without any concerts or other live music. I wasn't planning on going to any, but the summer festivals have officially all been cancelled in the Netherlands.

I have one show still booked, that has been postponed twice and will now hopefully, maybe, happen in November. Reina Del Cid and The Other Favourites. It doesn't even feel real anymore!
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jefflewis



Joined: 21 Nov 2005
Posts: 1485

PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 5:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah I agree! Enough is enough! I'm starting to feel some sense of creeping despair about this. But I hope this feeling goes away!
When the vaccinations began to become widespread in April, there was great promise that life and concerts would be back to normal by the summer, and people started to book tours and gigs and festivals. My band played a comeback gig in NYC on July 8 and it seemed to be just a short matter of time before we could go back to making a living as usual, doing the booking and performing work that I've been doing for 20 years!
But in the past couple weeks it seems the public confidence is eroding. The people who refuse to be vaccinated are essentially holding the country hostage, with things going backwards, new cases growing (but only among unvaccinated people - 98% of new Covid infections in the USA are only among the unvaccinated). Even people who have been vaccinated are starting to feel fear, cancel plans, wear masks again, and feel strange about gatherings - even though the scientific evidence is that vaccinated people have an extremely high percentage rate of safety, the sense of paranoia is growing, from what I am seeing and hearing from people.
This is a bad situation for people like me - the first six months of Covid were a period of panic where musicians to find a new way to make money, making new products for online sales, doing online gigs, and other experiments. At that time the public was supportive, it was all new, and everybody was locked in their homes for months with nothing else to do anyway.
Now it seems to me like almost a tougher situation - we are still making no income, unable to tour, but so much of life has gone back to "almost normal" with restaurants and gatherings and travel that the expenses of life are back to normal but the income is still gone. Plus it seems to me that the public is a bit tired after a year and a half of supporting these kinds of new projects. The sales of my products online were becoming very strong in the second half of 2020, and I had successfully found a new way to work. But now that support has been shrinking but the other ways of working have not returned.
Well, this is part of the job of the creative artist - to continually create new ways of thinking and existing, so I will approach the challenge just like every other challenge. And, as always, it could be worse - it's not a real war, we're basically 99% okay, it's just an ongoing depressing annoyance. I thought the stress was coming to an end but if the vaccine rollout didn't solve the problem, then I begin to despair that nothing will solve the problem. My personal solution is, I think, to say FUCK IT and to be proud of my vaccinated status and to do gigs and open mics as normal, and to hope that people realize we CAN get more back to normal if we've been vaccinated. All the people who have not been vaccinated, they are the ones who must deal with these inconveniences, unfortunately for them. But there are millions of people who are strongly anti-vax, they will simply never get vaccinated, they just refuse. How can I go on living like this, just because of them? My apartment is filling up with more and more boxes of shirts and comic books and records and CDs that are harder to show and sell without being able to tour! It's turning into a warehouse in here. But it's still okay. I have cool new stuff coming... and some more ideas. There will still be fun.
I will continue to invent new creative responses to situations, as best as I can...and really, that is what everybody in the world is doing!
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misshelenc



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 943
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 6:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I too would love a gig to go to, they have started up in the uk including some festivals and sporting events as test events to look at the spread and people self taking the tests daily. We are a mostly vaccinated nation and don’t seem to have as many people refusing, everything is opening up although in England so far not in Wales until next week. I’d love a trip abroad but it’s still a bit of a ball ache and I can’t be bothered. I’m so sorry we are all still going through this. I’m thinking of you all and hoping for better days.
Can’t wait for the new projects Jeff! I will certainly have a big spend at my next opportunity and sort you out a few quid. Xx
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lauragek



Joined: 26 May 2009
Posts: 165

PostPosted: Thu Aug 05, 2021 11:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Finally getting my 2nd vaccine tomorrow morning. It's been annoying to feel the big divide between people having been vaccinated for months and getting impatient to go back to normal life, and people like me who have booked their shots the earliest opportunity they were given, but were simply last in line (yay for being young I guess?). I'm still not able to feel safe, and people coming too close and not wearing their masks anymore give me anxiety.

Just 2 more weeks and I get to be impatient about going back to normal life too!
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misshelenc



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 943
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

PostPosted: Thu Aug 05, 2021 5:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great news laura, I hope you don’t have a bad time with the vaccine. My second one was much better compared to the first for side effects, only a sore arm the second time. I feel a bit more confident about being out now I have had two but still do all the precautions, I feel less panicked. Wishing you the best of luck!
Randomly I am going to see some live music next week, at a very small, socially distanced recording for the bbc. It’s not a gig as such but I am looking forward to it so much. Kind of like a sitting down gig where you don’t really talk to anyone, which is good enough for me. The last gig I was at I think was the Jeffrey lewis one just before Covid hit so it will be good to hear some actual drums and guitars again. I’m also going on holiday for a few days, only to London so I don’t need to fuss around with testing or anything. I have a few good things planned like the imperial war museum, stationery shops, Highgate cemetery, lots of shopping, that kind of thing. I guess it depends on the weather and how stressful I find it. X
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misshelenc



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 943
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

PostPosted: Thu Aug 05, 2021 5:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh and I forgot to mention I looked up the uk vaccination stats on the news for you all to see where we are- 70% of uk adults have both, 90% have had one. So 10% have had none at all, which includes all those who have been advised against it medically and those that have opted against it for personal reasons, and the very young who just haven’t got around to it yet. The uk is going for booster jabs for the over 50s in the winter and starting to vaccinate 16 and 17 year olds. X
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jefflewis



Joined: 21 Nov 2005
Posts: 1485

PostPosted: Mon Aug 09, 2021 7:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That's all great info, thanks for those stats, that looks much better than the USA vaccination rate! And glad to hear the availability is continuing to grow for even young people, my friends in Berlin are getting their second shots later this month I believe. Who knows, maybe Europe/UK will end up re-opening fully in a faster way than the USA, despite your slower vaccination rollout, just because the USA seems to have hit a wall with the people who are willing to get vaccinated, we still have a very large percentage of USA population who simply won't get the shots, it has nothing to do with availability. So no amount of increased availability will change the USA situation.
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misshelenc



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 943
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

PostPosted: Tue Aug 10, 2021 9:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Do share the stats from your countries too. The uk hit a milestone today of 75% of adults double jabbed. I will be interested to see how many end up having it when we can’t convince any more people and the medically exempt are the only ones left. My good mate has ms, and had a seizure off jab one so was told not to have the second, as a typical example of why the stats will never be 100% but we are getting there. The uk developed the AstraZeneca jab so we kept a load of it for ourselves and have vaccinated quickly as a result. Local vaccines are good for being able to do normal everyday things but global vaccines is the way for really being able to more around and work and holiday abroad etc.
I thought of you today Jeff as I went in the London forbidden planet downstairs with all the books and comics. Comics make me think of you generally. There were so many interesting people in store, I love London just because there are so many styles and outfits and cultures to look at.
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jefflewis



Joined: 21 Nov 2005
Posts: 1485

PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2021 6:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's a nice Forbidden Planet near me in NYC too! There used to be two in NYC but now there's just one... it might be the only one in the USA, but I think there's quite a few of them in the UK?
According to today's NY Times stats (updated daily) the USA is at 50% fully vaccinated, all-ages. Of 18+ age, it's 61% fully vaccinated nation-wide.
The NY Times website for Covid stats is really clear and I've checked it pretty regularly since March 2020 for the NY stats especially. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
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