Sheltered in Place
“Blog” is a hilarious word. During The Great Recession, my friend Ricky in Los Angeles told me that it is short for “Weblog.” While that is far more elegant to my ear, I’m going to go with “Blog.”
The Freedom Tour is on! The current plan is still to leave St. Louis at the end of May, but I am open to amending that as events unfold. We are all taking a crash course in Improv this spring. Or, as the great Raina Rose says, “God laughs when we make plans.”
Whenever the tour does begin, I will be blogging daily. The idea is to have the majority of content related to the tour here on my website as opposed to on social media. Digital boundaries! Yesterday, I decided to plug my phone in and leave it at my desk every night at 5pm. It was wonderful. We lit candles and cooked dinner and read books and Twitter was not a part of the evening. So why does it feel so difficult to commit to that decision? Why do I feel compelled to add a caveat here: we’ll see how long it lasts…
An unforeseen result of this strange global plot twist has been an explosion of music. I have already played two online shows from my living room. It feels wonderful to sing for you and connect with you again. People from Germany, Norway, Sweden, and all over the United States were at the same show yesterday!
It started last weekend with an event called Pandemica Online that my friend Avi Vinocur (of the band Goodnight, Texas) put together. It was a joyous celebration and an incredible array of artists, mostly Bay Area affiliated, participated. Here is my setlist and a link to the video:
Pandemica Online Festival // 3.21.20 Poopy Poopy Poopy In My Butt (co-write with my niece Josie) / Praying for Time (George Michael cover) / Concerning the Lincoln and Douglas Debates or Love Found Lost / If You See Something, Say Something / The War on Cars
The first in a series of weekly online shows was yesterday. Every Monday at 11am Pacific (2pm Eastern/afternoon and evening in Europe), I will be steaming live on Facebook (www.facebook.com/johnelliottishere) and Instagram (@johnelliottgram). The videos will be saved on my Facebook page after the broadcast so you can watch whenever. I’ll be taking requests and playing covers and digging into my catalog for some deep cuts. I’ll post a link to each video and the setlist here on the blog. BLOG. Like this:
Monday Online Residency // 3.23.20 The American West / Feet to the Fire / The Heads of the State / I Think I Found a New Friend / Over a Year / Friends Back East / Grandpa / It’s Okay to be Alone / The Heart of the Matter (Don Henley cover) / The New Place / Daylight Saving / It Gets Bad, But It Gets Better
I started a blog. I hope you are all as well as you can be out there. I have been going on long, daily, socially distanced bike rides and they are saving my mental and physical health. Even if you haven’t ridden a bike since you were a kid, I urge you to consider it. It’s like flying. You can time travel and go back to junior high with none of the bad stuff.
Take care of yourself and each other. See you next Monday online at 11am Pacific.
(PS: For those who are not on social media — I understand. I’m also exploring the possibility of doing some shows on YouTube. I have been told I need to develop my YouTube channel. Is that true? “Need”?)