“This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning.”

Winston Churchill, 1942

Churchill’s words perfectly describe these topsy turvy times. We’ve got a long road ahead of us. We need to figure out how to stay positive.

So, what went right this week? What inspired people? What random discoveries were made as people experimented with new ways of working, learning, connecting, having fun?

What new opportunities are just around the corner?

Scroll down and find out what made it onto this week’s TOP 10 List.

1. More people are Supporting their Local Restaurants

I am patronizing my local restaurants big time. It’s absolutely essential.

• Per YELP, one-third of restaurants nationwide have closed for good over the last 5 months.
• 83% of NYC restaurants haven’t been able to pay their full rent for July.
• We all need to step up if we want to have our favorite local spots open and ready for us when indoor dining returns. And let’s tip big while we’re at it!

Here are some spots I hit up this week:

Lure Fishbar (corner of Prince and Mercer in Soho)

Jourdan’s 50th birthday celebration! First time I’ve had sushi in 5 months! So good!

Fish Cheeks (at Bond and Bowery).

Lunch here solo on Monday. Delicious!

Thai Diner (Mott and Kenmare)

New spot from the people behind Uncle Boon’s. Gorgeous outdoor seating. Lunch here last Friday.

La Mercerie (53 Howard Street, Soho)

Celebrating Sheri’s 50th last night! So fun.

On my calendar for next week:

• Bowery Meat Company
• ATLA
• Lan Zhou Dumplings
• Altesi (UES)

2. Cool/Fun Outdoor experiences

“The Greens” on the rooftop of Pier 17 (Seaport) – opened August 1st!

Big shout out to SecretNYC and TimeOut for putting this on my radar.

The Greens features:

• 28 14×14 square-foot “mini lawns” that can serve up to eight people
• Each lawn has cabana-style lounge chairs
• Umbrellas
• Yeti Cooler for beverages
• USB port for charging.
• Amazing views of the East River, Brooklyn and downtown NYC

Open seven days a week from 11 am-11 pm, weather permitting. Reservations on their website here.

It sounds really fun (although perhaps not exactly my cup of tea).

Ladies In The Headlights – Drive-in Comedy in Chandler, AZ

Co-produced with the Chandler Center for the Arts, “The Ladies In The Headlights” is a 15-minute performance designed for parking lots. Audience members reserve a parking spot, drive in, and watch The Ladies perform by the light of their high-beams and to the soundtrack broadcast through their car radios. Performances sold out during May and June.

3. Don’t count out working in an office!

I know everyone is happily ensconced at home, working from their kitchen table. But Facebook has other ideas.

Per the NY Times:

Facebook leased all the office space in the mammoth 107-year-old James A. Farley Building in Midtown Manhattan, cementing NYC as a growing global technology hub and reaffirming a major corporation’s commitment to an office-centric urban culture despite the pandemic.

4. And while we’re talking cities, let’s not count out NYC either! (Source: Mansion Global)

The info (below) is from London but I’m hopeful that NYC will rebound and this will soon describe us as well.

“While there’s no question that, on the whole, more people are reluctant to live in central London right now, we’re seeing a simultaneous trend of empty nesters with bigger country homes that are not well-connected to public transit finally finding buyers. Covid-19 released these people from the inability to sell their more-isolated homes, and now they can move where they want to be: near friends and family in the city and with access to culture and to high-quality medical facilities.”

Martin Bikhit, Managing Director, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kay & Co.

5. Citizens Step Up

Cities and schools are shut, tax bases are dwindling, and city budgets are decimated. Layer on nightly protests, calls to defund the police, spikes in shootings, out of control homeless encampments, and you get a citizenry that wants some action.

It’s why we’re seeing people devising ways to keep their families and property safe and maintain order in their neighborhoods. And it explains why we have 2.5 million new, first-time gun owners!

Citizens posse program deputizes residents in Arizona (Source: AZFamily.com)

Those who want to be posse members have to take a 4-hour training course on constitutional law, search and seizure, basic firearm safety, home safety, and the use of force. There will also be an option for trainees to practice in a virtual simulator with an instructor. That information will be helpful in protecting their families.

In NYC, Curtis Sliwa’s Guardian Angels are back on the streets and subways

Volunteer Street Sweepers Scrubbing the Streets of Chinatown (Source: Bowery Boogie)

For the last several weeks, a small platoon of locals took on the responsibility of scrubbing down the main streets in Chinatown. It’s a weekly activity – early Saturday mornings – to help keep the setting clean for outdoor diners at local restaurants.

Even My block on the Lower East Side is now 100% DIY for street/sidewalk cleaning.

The small hotel across the street is leading the charge but my building also coughed up the money to install a spigot and hose to keep our side of the street sparkling clean in the midst of a pandemic.

6. PANDEMIC learning PODS AND ZUTORS (Source: BBC)

Per the United Nations, the coronavirus pandemic has caused the largest disruption in education in history, affecting more than one billion students, with schools closed in 160 countries as of mid-July.

• Parents are trying to figure out how to best home-school their children. One San Francisco-based “Pandemic Pods” group has grown to more than 35,000 members on Facebook.
• Apps and websites are springing up to connect families with “zutors” (zoom tutors).
• Regular tutoring services have also seen an explosion of interest. One company in Missouri saw a 40% rise in bookings for its online academic subjects in April and is now seeking 10,000 more tutors and instructors. Extra teaching does not come cheap, private tutors cost anywhere from $20 to $65 an hour.

7. MY DAILY Joe Rogan FIX

Thrilled to hear that Barbara Corcoran is also a fan. She lists Rogan as one of her top 5 podcasts:

“The episodes are long, but boy do they deliver. I laugh a lot and I always learn something new.”

Barbara Corcoran, CNBC Interview

my favorite Joe Rogan episodes this week:

David Goggins: Grew up in a nightmarish, violent home but used that as fuel to become the best Navy Seal, an ultramarathon runner, and an author and speaker. In his own words: By the time I graduated, I knew that the confidence I’d managed to develop didn’t come from a perfect family or God-given talent. It came from personal accountability which brought me self respect, and self-respect will always light a way forward.

Tony Hinchcliffe – from Ohio! Love this guy. Very funny comedian and good friend of Rogan’s.

David Choe – without a doubt, the weirdest, most cringy interview I’ve ever seen Try as I might to look away, Choe kept drawing me back in. This guy is one in a million. He’s like the Anthony Bourdain of art and adventure. He was one of the first artists Facebook hired to create art for their offices but he asked to be paid in stock instead of cash. He’s now worth $200 million.

8. The art scene is a mess but creativity always finds a way!

Layoffs galore with galleries shutting down, and half of all museums not expected to reopen. But my money’s on the art world to reinvent and disrupt the old, outmoded systems and come up with new ways of seeing, collecting, and making money with art.

For example:

Superblue Experiential Art Center (Source: ArtFixDaily)

The Superblue exhibition space, co-founded by Marc Glimcher, President, and CEO of Pace Gallery, will open in Miami in December. This is going to be MAJOR!

• When I first heard of it, I thought it might be another over-hyped Instagram extravaganza like the Color Factory.
• I could not have been more wrong. It’s absolutely legit and many of my favorite artists are in the mix including Nick Cave, Jeppe Hein, teamLab, James Turrell, and Leo Villareal.
• Central to Superblue’s model is the introduction of a groundbreaking compensation system for artists that provides them with ongoing royalties from ticket sales for their presentations at Superblue venues.
• Plus, Superblue is actively looking for opportunities for artists to work with art festivals, architects, and municipalities. They’ll also provide expertise and support for the production, installation, and presentation of large-scale experiential works.

Sony Legacy Recordings taps contemporary artists to create videos for classic tunes (Source: ArtNewspaper)

Native American artist Brent Learned’s music video is the inaugural release in Legacy’s new catalog project in which the label will revisit major hits and much-loved songs from the pre-video era and commission contemporary visual artists to create new visual content to accompany them.

• Brent Learned, an Oklahoma-based artist, is well known for his colorful portrayals of Plains Indian culture. He created this short film for Redbone in collaboration with the Mexican-born producer and director Juan E. Bedolla.
• Redbone, FYI, was the first all-Native American group to achieve a Top 5 single on the Billboard Hot 100.

9. 5 Tips on How to maintain a positive vibe

This week many of my friends finally hit the (pandemic) wall. They’d been doing fine but now, entering month 5, it’s getting harder to remain cheery. I know what that feels like – I hit that wall early and hard – and it sucked! But I got over it.

Here’s what’s worked for me

1. Stop watching TV, especially the news. I also dialed back on social media esp. Twitter and Facebook. Avoid anything that feeds off negative clickbait algorithms. I’ve replaced mainstream media with marathon viewing sessions of Joe Rogan’s podcasts. (FYI: In 2019, the average US adult spent 19 minutes per day watching digital videos. In 2020, US adults are spending 2 hours watching digital videos!)
2. Make health and fitness a priority. I work out every morning at home (whether I feel like it or not). I also bike a few times a week and, most importantly, AVOID snacking. I have not added a single pound. This is major since obesity has been identified as a major culprit for poor coronavirus outcomes (even in China where people are generally not overweight).
3. Stay connected with friends. Even though I have been holed up at home, I have not felt lonely thanks to FaceTime and more recently, alfresco meals with small groups of friends.
4. Maintain a schedule and a routine. Don’t let chaos get the upper hand. Tasks I’ve gotten accomplished include renewing my driver’s license (online, so easy), getting medical pedicures while nail salons were closed, replacing burnt-out light bulbs, watering all my plants. It’s oddly fulfilling to take care of little nonsense tasks. It’s like showing the pandemic whose boss. Big or small, these are all “wins.”
5. Purpose. Have something to get up for every morning. Even as a “lady of leisure,” I have a job to do and that’s my blog. It serves as my platform for commentary, for sharing discoveries, and it’s a great way of staying connected. I adhere to a strict publishing schedule (Fridays) and dedicate Wednesdays and Thursdays to writing.

10. COVID UPDATE: The experts now grudgingly admit Sweden may have gotten it more right than wrong. (Source: WashingtonPost)

If the aim is to live with the virus until a treatment or vaccine is found, a stop-and-go approach to rules might be counterproductive and make them impossible to enforce.

Washington Post, August 4, 2020

What Sweden got more right than the United States (in my opinion)

• Sweden operated under the assumption that the virus was going to be around for a long time. They always described it as a marathon, not a sprint.
• As a result, the rules they advised their citizens to abide by were sustainable over a long period of time vs. our 2-week lockdown to “flatten the curve” which then turned into 5 months of flip-flops on whether to open/re-open, lockdown/no lockdown.

To wrap it up

We need to come to grips with the fact that we will be living with this virus for the foreseeable future, most likely the rest of our lives. This was made abundantly clear this week when WHO announced that even with a vaccine, the coronavirus will not disappear.

This article in the Atlantic is worth a read. It points out that the only virus that has ever been completely eradicated is smallpox (and that took 15 years).

So here’s to figuring out how we live with this thing. I’m not going to do anything reckless but I am also not going to cower at home for the rest of my days.

And with that, here’s to a great weekend! Check out a few restaurants, see a few friends, stay positive!