From the office of Rep. Jared Huffman:

Today, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) sent a letter to Cox Media Group (CMG) urging them to restore access to nationwide channels following CMG’s failed negotiations on retransmission consent agreements with AT&T/DirectTV. This is the second time CMG has contributed to blackouts impacting over 25,000 constituents in Rep. Huffman’s district who rely on Eureka, California channels KIEM-NBC and KVIQ-CBS. On January 8th, the same two CMG channels were dropped from Suddenlink’s programming.

Photo via U.S. House of Representatives. Public Domain. Link

“My constituents are tired of these finger pointing exercises where big media conglomerates blame each other while consumers get screwed by blackouts. I’m sure there’s some blame to go around, but CMG is the common denominator in the two recent blackouts. At a minimum, that suggests they’re not working proactively to protect consumers. At worst, it suggests they’re using consumers as hostages by letting blackouts happen to maximize their negotiating leverage. Either way, it’s unacceptable,” said Rep. Huffman.

In the letter to Cox Media Group, Rep. Huffman stated: “I am disappointed to learn that Cox Media Group has, for the second time this year, failed to negotiate retransmission consent agreements, resulting in blackouts for my constituents and communities across twenty markets nationwide […] As you know, [the Communications Act of 1934] requires that should broadcasting stations opt out of must carry status, the broadcaster along with cable and satellite operators must negotiate retransmission in “good faith.” Allowing consumers to experience blackouts to enhance your negotiating leverage is not “good faith.”

“CMG’s suggestion that customers switch to another cable, satellite, or streaming provider in order to regain access is poorly informed and entirely unreasonable; many of my affected constituents live in rural areas with limited access to broadband and other distributors. Furthermore, placing the burden on your customers to find alternative solutions is not only a terrible business practice – it’s also a grave failure to prioritize the public interest and the essential value your services provide to local communities […] I strongly urge you to restore access to these twenty nationwide channels immediately and do everything in your power to avoid blackouts of this kind in the future,” the letter concludes.

As an extra step to address this issue, Congressman Huffman will be reintroducing the Local and Independent Television Protection Act, a bill designed to address media consolidation by getting rid of the UHF discount, an antiquated FCC loophole reinstated by the Trump administration that facilitates mergers by allowing media companies to “discount” UHF stations (channels 14-83) when calculating whether they’re subject to the national TV ownership cap. The cap states that no single company is allowed to own broadcast stations that reach more than 39% percent of television-viewing households in the country. For reintroduction this year, the measure will be expanded to add protections for consumers whose access to local news is unfairly jeopardized by failed retransmission consent negotiations.

Specifically, the bill will include a provision stating that should two parties fail to negotiate, instead of cutting off access to local channels for consumers, the cable or satellite provider would be required to continue retransmitting local broadcast stations for a set period of time while the parties resolve their differences. This protection mechanism, known as interim carriage, would alleviate the burden on the consumer of these unnecessary and unfair blackouts.

A full copy of the letter can be found here.

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

Whether it’s the commercials, halftime show or the game itself, the Eureka Police Department is reminding everyone that we are all on the same team when it comes to being safe on Super Bowl Sunday.

Super Bowl LV is Sunday, Feb. 7, and the Eureka Police Department will have additional officers on patrol over the Super Bowl weekend looking for drivers suspected of being under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.

“If you are watching the game at home and plan to have a drink or two, stay at home Sergeant Gary Whitmer said. “Have a family member who hasn’t been drinking go out on your behalf or have your food delivered.”

Eureka Police reminds the public that alcohol is not the only thing that impairs and may lead to a DUI. Prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications and marijuana may affect your ability to drive safely. Do your research and understand how a drug affects you before deciding whether or not you are OK to drive.

California’s public health guidance advises to limit mixing with people you don’t live with as much as possible to limit the spread of COVID-19. Although many watch parties will be virtual this year, it’s important to plan ahead, designate a sober driver or simply stay at home for the night.

Funding for Super Bowl Sunday enforcement is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

###

Sarah Vevoda’s 7-year-old daughter Jaz used to say she had “up hair,” her natural Black curls growing upward instead of hanging down like nearly everyone else’s around her, including her family. Sarah, who is white, says Jaz has commented on not seeing other people who look like her. “It’s very hard for her to be in a sea of white people everywhere she goes,” says Vevoda, noting Jaz is darker skinned than her eldest child, who’s also bi-racial, and her hair and skin are sometimes treated as curiosities by classmates. “As innocent as they are, because they’re children and aren’t used to being around someone who looks like Jaz … they can say things that make her feel like she doesn’t fit in, that she stands out.”

It’s with young people like Jaz that the HC Black Music and Arts Association means to connect. The nonprofit organization, which operates as a Dream Maker Project of the Ink People, is focused on connecting young BIPOC people to their cultural roots and each other. Starting as it did in 2020, the connections meant to foster self-esteem and resilience have become even more vital amid the COVID-19 pandemic and its attending isolation. Throughout February, national Black History Month, HCBMAA is holding Harambee Liberation Month, with Zoom workshops and classes, as well as distanced in-person storytelling and a memorial march through Old Town.

President and founding member of HCBMAA Valetta Molofsky, who teaches social work at College of the Redwoods and serves as second vice president of the Eureka NAACP, was hearing more and more through her work as a social worker about BIPOC youth struggling with stress and even suicidal ideation.

“I had one child that told me [kids] called her dirt. That she was the color of dirt,” says Molofsky. “She thought she was ugly. … No child should be subjected to that.”

In late 2019, Molofsky started looking for funding and helping hands to create spaces of welcome and support for young BIPOC people in Humboldt. Donations and sponsorships started coming in, and with grant-writing help from Lorenza Simmons, the organization’s youth coordinator, so did funding from Humboldt Area Foundation and Coast Central Credit Union. With that funding, donated masks and hand sanitizer — and help from local artists, educators and community members — HCBMAA held a socially distanced Harambee Youth Empowerment Workshop in August. The camp, which took its name from the Swahili word for “pulling together,” focused on African history, dance, music and art, as well as bonding with BIPOC peers and mentors, all while applying African cultural principles.

For Jaz, Vevoda says the experience was invaluable.

“The first day of the camp, when she came home she was glowing,” she says. “Just being in a group of people who looked like her was just feeding her in a way that I didn’t realize.”

Simmons will be running somatic movement and music classes for Harambee Liberation Month. She incorporates African songs and movement from Congo, Egypt and around the continent, as well as African American traditions, to help participants connect to pan-African culture and “feel comfortable in their skins … doing that through music and art and all these different expressions to really build them up.” She’s found that many BIPOC youth “don’t have connection to African roots, or pieces are missing.” Through her classes, Simmons tries to bridge the cultures of Africa, the global diaspora and African American culture. Simmons says that connection — and just getting up and moving — has proven even more important over the last year.

COVID-19 has separated many students from vital support systems during a stressful time, but Simmons sees young people of color in particular suffering the loss after a tumultuous summer of local and national news.

“The movement and the protests were all amazing and needed, but I think with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery — I could go on and on, just that constant flow — and with it coming to a head, it’s just overload for the youth to be able to process it,” she says. “Some of the normal places where they find connection were being lost with the pandemic.”

Kory Jones, who is teaching a three-part series this month called “Being Yourself through Deconstruction,” will be trying to fill in some of that support. The Marine Corps veteran says he’ll be sharing some of the strategies that have helped him with PTSD brought on by exposure to violence in his early years and his time in the military, as well as the racism he’s experienced in varying forms. That means breaking down some of the conflicting belief systems coming from one’s family, religion, culture and country, evaluating those beliefs and deciding what to let go.

“Deconstructing and pulling some of that back,” Jones says, “that frees us.”

Jones, who hails from Florida, understands the unwelcome feeling many BIPOC youth and adults say they experience in Humboldt. “In the South, you know where you can and can’t go as an African American person. In California, it’s ‘Oh, OK.’ But you can’t.” Jones adds, “On the East Coast it’s blatant; in California, it’s more subtle.” He says he was recently struck by his third-grade son’s admission that he sometimes worries whether his father will make it home. Even without having had a direct conversation about how easily a call to the police can escalate to violence against Black men, Jones says, “My children on some level already know what they’re dealing with. … We need to combat that on some level to keep their self-esteem high.” For Jones, the goal is creating something like the recreation center he grew up near, “a place where you can be safe with your being as a whole … mentally, spiritually — you have a place and you’re safe.”

HCBMAA Vice President Doug Smith, who is the coordinator of Humboldt State University’s African American Center for Academic Excellence, says he will be connecting to participants through poetry.

“It was a tool for me when I was younger going through challenges … it was an outlet,” he says. And leaning into African oral tradition, he’ll be encouraging reading poetry out loud and connecting the work to what’s going on at school and in the community. “The history we do get about ourselves is very negative and what that does to a young child, growing up hearing only that they come from slaves,” can be devastating, he says, as can disassociation from ancestral ideals, values, tools and strategies. “Reaching into history, reaching into cultures that are not given platforms” through poetry, for example, can help reconnect kids to that well of cultural resources.

“We’re just trying to build back some cultural identity that’s been lost,” says Molofsky. “We’re resilient, right? That’s how our ancestors taught us to be.”

###

See the full schedule of HCBMAA’s Black Liberation Month events below and at www.northcoastjournal.com. Jennifer Fumiko Cahill (she/her) is the Journal’s arts and features editor. Reach her at 442-1400, extension 320, or Jennifer@northcoastjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @JFumikoCahill.

The Community Voices Coalition is a project funded by Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation to support local journalism. This story was produced by the North Coast Journal newsroom with full editorial independence and control.

###

HCBMAA’s 2021 Harambee Liberation Month Schedule

In collaboration with McKinleyville High School’s Black Student Union, Benjamin Mertz, activists and musical talent and community leaders engaging in cultural and healing activities.

Classes are open to all ages unless noted.

Please check our Facebook page for any missing Zoom links and more information on other Liberation Month events. Masks and social distancing required for all in-person events.

McKinleyville High School BSU 
Monday-Friday Feb. 1-5 
https://mckinleyvillehighschool.nohum.org/

Scroll down to News Announcements and click on Black History activities .

Below are three-week series classes:

Somatic Movement
Tuesdays 4-5 p.m.
Facilitator: Lorenza
Meeting ID: 836 7019 6916 Passcode: 778981

Being Yourself Through Deconstruction 
Wednesdays 4-5 p.m.
Facilitator: Kory Jones
Meeting ID: 786 8544 3630
Passcode: FT7jtw 

Teaching BIPOC Youth 
(support group for local school teachers/ mentors)
Wednesdays 7-8 p.m.
Facilitators: Lorenza, Valetta and Flo
Meeting ID: 812 6888 7250

Black Women Civil Rights Discussion 
Thursdays 4-5 p.m.
Facilitator: Nikki Valencia
Meeting ID: 823 2595 7803

Ujima Parent Peer Support Circle 
Thursdays 6:30 p.m.
Facilitators: Valetta
Register at this link.

Family Fit at Home 
Fridays 5-6 p.m.
Facilitator: Andrea Jones
Meeting ID: 899 7862 2861

Community Class: Elderly Self-Care
Fridays 6-7 p.m.
Facilitator: Ms. Alice Barbee
Link

Poetry/Lyrics Slam Night 
Fridays 7-8 p.m.
Facilitator: Aj
Link
Meeting ID: 830 6035 6170
Passcode: 005214

Walk in the Truth Series
Saturdays 9:30-11 a.m.
This is a four-week restorative circle series for women who have experience generational trauma, domestic violence/sexual abuse and unhealthy relationships.
Facilitator: Valetta
Register at this link. 

Kuumba Literacy  
Saturdays on the Arcata Plaza 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Facilitator: Andrea Jones

Redwoods Meditation/Yoga 
Saturdays at 14 Union St. in Arcata noon-1 p.m.
Bring your yoga mat, water bottle and mask
Facilitator: Aj

Family Walk in the Park 
Saturdays
First hike location TBA 

###

Four-week series with Benjamin Mertz
Sundays at 4 p.m.

Feb. 7: The Underground Railroad, music of freedom and escape:  profiles on Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Feb. 14: The Harlem Renaissance, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, and the poetry of James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes. Feb 21: Jim Crow, Work Songs, and the Blues: profiles on Fannie Lou Hamer and Bessie Smith. Feb. 28: The Civil Rights Movement - freedom songs, profiles on Bernice Johnson Reagon and Harry Belafonte. Zoom link.

Special Event: Liberation March
Feb. 20 at 10 a.m.-noon

In honor of our Sistahs, Brothers and Youth that have died 

Wear white and black, bring your candles and instruments. 

More info will be provided on Facebook. 

Arcata Liberation March (no speakers)
Feb. 20 at noon-1 p.m.

Meet at D Street Community Park. Please wear white during this silent demonstration to honor our ancestors. Asante.

Special CPR Youth Certification
Feb. 22 at 6-7 p.m.
Ages 12-18; class size:10

This class is made possible by the COVID-19 Mental Health Grant from Humboldt Health Foundation to support youth that identify as Black, Brown or African American during the shelter-in-place ordinance. This is a first-come registration. Sign your youth up by emailing: hcblackmusicnarts@gmail.com.

An influential group of California health experts is holding fast for now to Gov. Gavid Newsom’s decision to make age the primary criteria for getting the COVID-19 vaccine. The decision announced today dismayed advocates who hoped the group would recommend moving disabled people and those with chronic medical conditions to the front of the line alongside those age 65 and older.

“My disability makes my immune system very weak. When I get a simple cold it goes to my lungs and I have a hard time breathing,” Dina Garcia of Chatsworth wrote in advance before Wednesday’s meeting of the state’s vaccine community advisory committee, where the decision was announced. “My doctor told me that if I get COVID, I may not survive. My worker (personal attendant) has already told me they would not take the vaccine. I am extremely worried that I will not survive this pandemic.”

The outside panel of experts convened by state officials to set California’s vaccine priorities made its decision after reviewing research showing that older people are far more likely to be hospitalized or die of COVID-19 than even people with significant disabilities or medical conditions, said Dr. Oliver Brooks, the group’s leader.

Disabled people and those with chronic conditions would be vaccinated after people 65+ and a few groups of essential workers such as teachers and farmworkers — but still before the general public — if state officials adopt the panel’s recommendations. Disability advocates are fiercely lobbying Newsom to move in the vaccine order, and he could override the group’s proposal.

Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist, said the group also recognized that while 8.5 million people are currently eligible for the vaccine, California has only received about 6.7 million doses.

“These are extremely challenging decisions we are making,” Pan said.

In mid-January, California abruptly pivoted to age as the primary eligibility criteria to simplify and speed up a widely criticized and chaotic vaccine rollout. The decision alarmed disability advocates, said Christina Mills, executive director of the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers.

They hoped state officials would this week announce a plan to move disabled people up the priority list, but that declaration never came.

Instead, Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s top health official, said Tuesday that he was aware of the community’s concerns and spoke about “beginning to galvanize around an opportunity that we will announce later.”

The comment didn’t sit well with Mills, who lives with a genetic bone disorder known as osteogenesis imperfecta and uses a wheelchair and help from personal assistants to live on her own.

“Honestly it just pisses me off even more,” Mills told CalMatters. “It’s like, what are we waiting for? The state has not figured out how to operationalize the vaccine for people like us.”

The federal Centers for Disease Control recommended that people with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer, cystic fibrosis and obesity receive the vaccine alongside those aged 65-74, after people 75 and up and frontline workers. But states are allowed to tweak those priorities.

For instance, Colorado will vaccinate people with two or more high-risk medical conditions alongside people 65-plus. Florida is currently vaccinating people considered by hospital providers to be “extremely vulnerable” to COVID-19 along with people 65 and older. In contrast, Kansas has placed people under 65 with high-risk conditions behind people 65 and older, prisoners and those living in other “congregate settings” that aren’t nursing homes.

But California changed its priority to 65+ based on studies that show age is a bigger predictor of death than disabilities. (Some research suggests that certain conditions, such as Down Syndrome, contribute to a higher risk of dying from COVID-19 than the average person, but the research is mixed.)

Even when vaccines become more widely available, Mills and other advocates say immunizing people with disabilities and chronic medical conditions will prove challenging. Paratransit services available to disabled people won’t wait for hours at a mass vaccination clinic. Some people are homebound. Some won’t be able to stand in long lines, or may need an accompanying caregiver.

To address concerns that people might try to jump the line claiming disabilities they don’t have, some advocates suggest that the state prioritize only certain groups, such as those who receive In-Home Supportive Services, a state program for aged, blind or disabled people that serves about 600,000 Californians. Other advocates, however, say people should be able to “self-identify” to speed up and simplify vaccinations. The state is setting up another committee to work out those details.

As California’s COVID-19 cases continue to fall after the holiday surge, nearly 3.8 million people have received their first or second vaccine dose, less than 10% of the population. After lagging behind most other states in vaccination rates, California now ranks 29th nationally, Pan said today.

Vaccinations of nursing home residents and staff should be completed by the end of February, and of those in assisted living facilities by the end of March, Pan said.

Vaccine supplies remain limited, however, and some counties report that they don’t even have enough to expand immunizations to teachers and essential workers who – in theory – could be immunized alongside Californians aged 65 and older.

As health officials continue making difficult decisions about which people will get the vaccine next amid so much need, Hector M. Ramirez, who attended the committee meeting virtually, commented in the meeting’s online chat:

“As a Native American who is also Latinx & Disabled I have no idea what equity means anymore. I do know what grief looks like now more than ever. I have lost four family members. And fear (I) will lose more.”

###

CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

This style of ticket proved lucky for tonight’s winner | CA Lottery

Not bad for a pandemic Wednesday night in Ferndale! The Ferndale Enterprise reports that a Bay Area man scratched himself into a $5 million lottery prize at Ferndale Liquors tonight. 

Cameron Renner, the store’s owner, told the paper that the winner, who wished to remain anonymous, almost wasn’t handed the winning ticket.

“He wasn’t even going to buy that scratcher,” Renner told the Enterprise. “When the clerk went to pull the ticket, she pulled the wrong one. He said, ‘What the heck. I’ll play it anyways.’ He scratched it off and saw that he had won $5 million.”

While the winner may not be a local, some of that money will stay in Ferndale. Stores that offer California Lottery scratchers are entitled to one percent of the winnings — $50,000 in this instance. 

Read more — and see the winning ticket! — on the Ferndale Enterprise’s site, here.

###

After another long discussion during Tuesday night’s meeting, the Eureka City Council voted — 4-1, with Councilmember Leslie Castellano dissenting — to adopt an ordinance that restricts public camping in the city.

The ordinance has come before the council several times already, and been retooled a bit throughout the process. In its final version, the ordinance prohibits camping anytime in Old Town/ Downtown, Henderson Center, the Waterfront and the Northern Gateway districts, in city parks, the golf course and within 75 feet of public trails. It also bans camping anywhere in the city during daylight hours — starting 15 minutes after sunrise and ending 15 minutes before sunset — except for when it is raining, snowing or below 40 degrees. 

The primary goal of the new ordinance was to  replace the city’s existing anti-camping ordinance with something more in-line with the Ninth Circuit’s Martin v. Boise decision, which held that local governments cannot punish someone for sleeping outside.

Several community members who spoke during the meeting, urged the council not to adopt this ordinance, saying that it still would effectively criminalize homeless people. Several people mentioned an issue with the fact that the ordinance makes clear where people can’t camp, but does not specify where people can camp in the city.

The business districts where camping is prohibited any time of day | from the City of Eureka

“One aspect that I find particularly frustrating and dehumanizing is that the council and other city staff have clearly stated EPD will not inform people on where they are allowed to camp,” Jasmine Guerra said to the council. “I hear the city’s concerns on having concentrated areas in the city that the city would then be liable for, but my point is that if we don’t want to condense people in specific areas, then we shouldn’t be forcing them out in the first place.”

The city has repeatedly said that there are many other city-owned properties where camping would be permitted, but City Attorney Bob Black explained that directing people to these properties could present liability issues for the city, and issues of responsibility for cleanup and sanitation.

City Manager Miles Slattery mentioned some of the previous issues the city has had when designating camping areas, specifically with the area of the Palco Marsh known to many as Devil’s Playground. 

“We had an area that was designated as a lesser enforced area by the previous police chief,” Slattery said during the meeting. “It was, to be honest, a disaster. It ended up not only bad for the environment and the public, but even worse for the inhabitants.”

After the mass evictions of the Palco Marsh in 2016, the city designated several parking lots for camping and that also resulted in many of the same problems.

Violating the ordinance would be punishable by a fine — $25 for the first violation, $35 for the second violation and $50 for each additional violation — but the ordinance also states that it is not meant to be punitive, and that law enforcement should prioritize guidance to services over criminal punishment.

Several council members who were in favor of the ordinance said that they felt it is important for the Eureka Police to have this tool as a last resort for dealing with bad actors and to help address camping in the doorways of many local businesses.

“This is a pandemic and there are people right now in business who are hanging on by a thread,” said Councilmember Kim Bergel. “These are people who have been experiencing cleaning up people’s poop, cleaning up people’s trash, theft, broken windows — all of these things over a long period of time. And I’m not saying it’s only people who are experiencing homelesseness, but certainly it’s had a huge impact on our local businesses.”  

###

-GO HERE TO ENTER/VOTE!-

Gather round, Humboldt. Your Lost Coast Outpost has decided to battle our sheltered boredom by staging a little contest that is guaranteed to be loved and embraced by all and — exciting news! — the time has come to tell you about how this thing’s going to go down. Listen carefully, now!

First off, we’ll mention that LoCO has somehow managed to obtain a couple pretty sweet prizes: We’ve got one-night stays at both the Benbow Inn and the Inn at 2nd and C Streets that we are tasked with awarding to the general public. And what timing! We imagine you’re pretty sick of looking at your own walls, at this point. So let these fine, local, COVID-19-safety-precautions-complyin’ businesses lend you theirs for a night, amirite? 

Now the important part: How do you win one of these coveted prizes? Well, you’re going to have to sing for ‘em, kids. 

Introducing: LoCO’s Singing in Solitude Contest, where you, a bored and lonely Humboldt County resident, record yourself singing a love song of your choice in the hopes of securing fame, glory and a night somewhere else than your own damn house. 

Here are the specifics you need to know to conquer all:

• Record an under-three-minute video of yourself singing a love song, one you’re super sure will win over the hearts and minds of your fellow Humboldt shut-ins. You can sing acapella or with musical backing. We really don’t care! Just be entertaining. 
• At noon on Friday, Feb. 5, LoCO will launch the official Singing in Solitude Love Song Contest post on our Facebook page which we will link to on our site, here, to make it easy to find. 
• Upload your video to the comment section of that Facebook post. One entry per singer. 
• Wait for Humboldt’s judgmental social media users to discover your talent which they will then hopefully validate with a “like” or “heart” or whatever. 
• At noon on Thursday, Feb. 11 an imaginary buzzer will sound signifying that the fun is done and the contest is over. At that point, LoCO will declare the troubadour who garnered the most reactions on their video as the winner. (We will weigh “like”s, “heart”s, “wow”s, etc. equally, in this instance.) Then, we’ll reach out to that person to see if they’d like to claim the night’s stay at the Benbow Inn or the night’s stay at the Inn at 2nd and C Streets (which, we should note, also comes with a $50 gift certificate to Phatsy Kline’s Parlor Lounge). The first runner-up will be rewarded with whichever prize the winner does not select.  

Does that all make sense? If not, read it again! If you still don’t get it, well, maybe that’s on us. Sorry.

And now a note to the people who will inevitably try to game the system: LoCO is watching you. Your attempts to pad your like count by logging into your various business/artist/political campaign pages will earn you LoCO’s scorn. Don’t. Rallying your crew is fine. Show us how popular you are. 

And now a message to the voters: Can I like multiple video entries? Hey, there’s no way LoCO can stop you from doing that, but every extra vote you make dilutes your other votes. Do what thou wilt. 

And finally, to the people who will find some aspect of this contest to complain about: Throw your own contest, you grump. We’re spreadin’ joy over here. 

Now, you may have noticed that LoCO is throwing these fancy rooms around in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day. We want to make it clear that you are not obligated to redeem your potential winnings on V-Day, but you totally could do that. Or save it for later. You’re the winner! You do you.

Anyway, that’s it! Hopefully this does not end up a total disaster! You have a couple nights to work up the nerve to be awesome and endearing in front of your housebound community. Good luck to all! We’re excited to see your faces again! Sing like our collective sanity depends on it! 

(P.S. For the love of all that is holy and good, horizontal video, please.)