MountainMornings

It’s well known that the Eagles wrote the song Hotel California as a metaphor for what was going wrong in Southern California at the time. It was the Record of the Year in 1978, and while some thought it was all about the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, “…the Eagles’ band members have revealed in multiple interviews that the true meaning behind “Hotel California” is a commentary on the hedonism and self-indulgence of America.” And while some things may change, we are still a country divided by those people we cannot convince to care about others.

Our Thanksgiving holiday/shiva is over. Yesterday, the Rocker and Aunt Kiki returned to California in their N95 masks only to face a Hanukkah/Christmas season lockdown. Nashville’s airport was bustling as I hugged and kissed them goodbye. Now they will do what they did in reverse, isolate for a week and then get Covid-19 tested. But I realize we are privileged, because they can afford to do this – they are both working from home, except when our designer Daughter-in-Love needs to show up on-site to help with an installation.

Most people can’t afford to isolate for a week or two, and then spend 3-8 days waiting for a test result. It’s getting colder here in the South, Covid fatigue has set in. But on the Left Coast, Kiki’s firm has been busier than ever, and Hollywood moguls are figuring out how to work with streaming services so that the film music industry will survive. New normals seem to be happening.

Yet with the coronavirus pandemic expediting the transition from legacy and linear entertainment to direct to consumer, it’s fair to wonder if the age of the frequent $1 billion blockbuster might be nearing its end. Universal Pictures signed historic window-shattering deals with major exhibitors to bring films to PVOD sooner than ever, Disney has sent blockbusters such as Mulan and Soul to Disney+ and is expected to reroute more film to their streaming services, and Warner Bros.’ made the unprecedented decision to open its entire 2021 theatrical slate day-and-date on HBO Max. While there’s no guarantee these shifts will extend beyond 2021, it’s mighty difficult to put the genie back in the bottle.

Today the Grands went back to school and the Bride and Groom are back at work. We will go back to visiting on their front porch or in our garden, shivering. This week may be record shattering in the Groom’s Covid MICU, but I am hopeful about the pace of vaccine production and distribution. Don’t ask me why, maybe it’s because the UK is already there, and I figure we can’t be far behind. This morning someone posted a picture of Dolly Parton on the cover of Marie Claire magazine – she was dressed in a tight, cold shoulder red dress and titled “DOLLY! the Patron Saint of 2020.” Photo credit to Stacie Huckeba http://staciehuckeba.com/

After giving a book a month to every newborn baby in TN, and then a One Million dollar grant to Vandy for the Moderna vaccine trial, I’d say she deserves to be canonized!

We need songwriters, along with poets, now more than ever. But musicians are struggling to get by during the pandemic, they need an audience. Not everyone owns an amusement park and gets a network TV Christmas special. Our Nashville Symphony orchestra will not return to the Schermerhorn until July 2021. Artists must adjust to this new “normal,” and many are selling their rights just to survive. In fact, Bob Dylan just sold the rights to his entire back catalogue of songs to Universal Music Group (UMG) for hundreds of millions of dollars! That should make the golden years of his life a “shelter from the storm.”

The sale of song catalogues has become a booming business during the Covid-19 pandemic, with investors seeing music as a relatively stable asset in an otherwise turbulent market. The likes of Blondie, Barry Manilow and the estates of John Lennon and Kurt Cobain have all sold the rights to their music in recent years.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55213529

With nearly 200,000 new cases of Covid every single day, our country cannot begin to fix its economy without a coronavirus fix, they are inextricably bound together. Another $1,200 check will not help. With millions of Americans out of work and behind in rent, our president is packing his bags for a FL Christmas. The Republican party made a Faustian deal with Mr T, who is trying to create as much chaos as he can before he leaves office; maybe he’ll just stay there down there in his gilded palace until January 20th?

While we are all waiting with bated breath for the Christmas Day release of “Wonder Woman 1984” on HBO Max, baking cookies and preparing for a Zoom latke dinner with relatives, 2021 is shaping up nicely. I know this pandemic is going to get worse in January, before it gets better, but it will get better. I see a light at the end of the tunnel, and we can check out of this nightmare anytime we like, so long as we keep wearing masks.