Tired of sitting around in pajamas while you shelter in place? Bring out your sickest looks, and look absolutely killer while you fight the apocalypse from home.
Just because you are sheltering in place, there’s no reason not to break out the apocalyptic glamour! Don’t sit around in pajamas, while living through the most end-of-the-world excitement that most of us will ever experience. In fact, because you now exist in the world mainly as a digital presence, you have the freedom to be anyone you please. So, dig into your wardrobe, and get to work creating a new you (or, several!)
Wigs are a great way to change your appearance from day to day. They’re also practical, because they allow you to cut your natural hair very short, thus making it easy to cover when you venture outdoors, and easy to wash and dry quickly. The same wig can be used to create different moods, simply by changing the clothing and accessories one chooses.
Add sunglasses, hats, and shaggy fur to create a retro-glam feel. Or, perhaps add a softer touch, to create a romantic vibe.
Don’t forget to rock a mask… they are the hallmark of a well put together pandemic look. No need be boring about them, either– a mask can be the accessory that pulls your whole look together.
A mask can create a look all on its own, so don’t neglect the importance of them as a fashion staple of your 2020 look!
Remember, by staying home and avoiding contact with others, you are being a warrior, fighting a pandemic with your actions. Look the part, embrace your role …. get creative and have some fun!
No matter how you choose to portray yourself, these 2020 looks can be absolutely sick!
Daily routines have become nightmarish, due to the changes brought about by the pandemic. Once-familiar places are strange, deserted shells of what they were before the plague descended upon us…..
Lone nitrile glove, discarded on the sidewalk. Photography: Copyright of Sandi Ball, 2020.
When one leaves the relative normalcy of one’s home, and ventures (perhaps with trepidation) into a public place, it becomes undeniably evident that the world outside is not the one we remember from a mere four months ago. The streets are nearly empty of both cars and pedestrians, and the few people who are to be seen are generally wearing masks, and perhaps other protective gear.
On weekends past, it was not uncommon (if perhaps unpleasant) to see discarded condoms littering the sidewalk or parking lot; now, one finds the unmistakable blue nitrile gloves, thrown down with the same amount of disregard for whomever might encounter this trash as were the condoms that were their predecessors. Condoms are nowhere to be seen, presumably because few people wish to be close enough to one another to need a such an item.
Line of masked customers, waiting at a distance from one another, in order to enter the produce market. Photography: Copyright of Sandi Ball, 2020.
Once-thriving businesses are struggling or failing completely, due to the shelter-in-place ordinance that has been extended until at least May 31, 2020. Most of the businesses that are allowed to remain open have instituted a policy in which only a few people are allowed to enter at one time; the customers who are waiting to enter are mandated to stand at least 6 feet away from one another, unless they reside in the same household.
Empty shelves where paper products are normally displayed. Photo: Copyright Sandi Ball, 2020.
One commodity that has been coveted in the United States, oddly enough, is toilet paper. It is a rarity to find it in stock anywhere, and customers are limited in the amount that they can purchase if they do find it. Paper products, in general, have been in short supply.
Rejoicing after finding the last of the toilet paper, hidden at the back of a low shelf. Photo: Copyright Sandi Ball, 2020.
Shopping for necessities, which was once a routine daily task, has become a feat; one must don protective gear even for the most basic of errands, and they are done as quickly and as infrequently as possible. Leaving the house for any reason is threatening. It is impossible to ignore that the world we left behind is gone, and a strange, threatening new landscape has overtaken the places we once though we knew.
Appropriate spacing for customers in line is marked on the floor with x symbols. Photo: Copyright Sandi Ball, 2020.
It is painful to venture out into these streets, that once were home to customers enjoying each others’ company. Many businesses display signs stating that they are temporarily closed; others have simply vacated their spaces, aware that the shelter-in-place order is not likely to be lifted in the near future.
Outside the Alameda Theater, which has closed indefinitely due to a county mandate. Photo: Copyright Sandi Ball, 2020.
Leaving the house for any reason has become a noteworthy event. Venturing down the block for a quick errand is now a monumental task, that requires preparation, both physically (mask, gloves, etc.) and psychologically. It is difficult to shake the haunted feeling one has when returning home after having tread across such unfamiliar terrain.
Returning home with a sole purchase, through a near-empty parking lot. Photo: Copyright Sandi Ball, 2020.
Dreaming of the outside world, but the window remains closed….
Today, in addition to necessary life tasks, I will attempt to create and format the second photo-essay page of this blog. Despite all the chaos and tragedy in the world, I am celebrating the return of my creative drive, which had largely been missing-in-action for many years. I’m noticing that a lot of my friends are engaging in creative endeavors . Some of them are consistently productive with art (which I so greatly admire!) but others, like myself, have had long dry spells. The current world situation seems to be bringing out the creative spirit in a lot of people, and it also (by necessity) makes the time available to make good on artistic ideas.
The photo essays are works-in-progress, but I want to share the entire journey here. At some point, they may become much more polished creations. For now, I want to journal the creating of these projects as they happen. I’ve always been very process-oriented in my art.
No promises as to a time frame, but I also feel the drive to paint again. I haven’t painted in earnest since art school (my poor fragile ego took a hard hit with that expensive adventure.) I’ve since done a lot of reflecting on self, other, the meaning of making art, etc. I think I’m ready to go back to the canvas. All things considered, I’m very glad that I went to SFAI when I did. I am still unpacking the things I learned there, and making sense of the experience. I recently learned that SFAI is very likely to close its doors after this semester, which is sad beyond belief. It is a place like no other, and I am fortunate to have been able to study there.
My goal for today is to have the second page created and formatted, and to have an introductory post up. I do have real-world things I need to do as well, but it still seems to be a reasonable goal. The tech aspect of all of this terrifies me, but it is also providing a much needed push to get me into the 21st century. I now own a camera for vlogging/video lectures/etc. I have yet to take it out of the box, as it just arrived yesterday. I think I have a hot date with a user manual in my future, and perhaps the need for a wall against which to bang my head.
It’s time to face the news for the day, while I caffeinate with some very strong, take-the-paint-off-your-car coffee. I am trying to limit my news intake to a couple of hours a day, as I had been reading news to the point of total obsession since this situation began. I learned of the outbreak in Wuhan on New Years Eve, and the entire first part of this year was largely swallowed up by reading as much international news as I could find. I have watched this whole thing unfold.
In addition to staying on top of the major events and updates, and staying home and wearing protective gear when I need to go out, there isn’t a lot I can do about it. I’m taking a lot of supplements and attending to my own immune health, and protecting myself as much as possible.
So, I want to make the best of this time at home. It isn’t every day that one finds oneself living out an apocalyptic scenario in slow-grind, real time, as it happens. In addition to being horrifying and tragic, it’s also rather freeing, in that it allows for a restructuring of the world as we have known it, both on a grand scale, and on a personal level.
I’ll be adding a separate page dedicated to the psychology of the liminal space, and the role of the Trickster in the upending of the world. I haven’t written it out yet, but I have much to say on the subject.
Yesterday marked the first photo session for one of two photo-essays that I am conceptualizing (many, many thanks to my roommate, Sandi Ball, for following me around Alameda and photographing me.) It seems only a natural evolution of Madam Spatchcock that she should become a Plague Doctor, since she was essentially a variant of that to begin with.
The past few weeks have been spent acquiring costuming and props, an endeavour that is more laborsome than it might appear, in a time in which one cannot simply go to the store and make purchases for most things. Furthermore, I no longer have access to my once-readily-available stockpile of secondhand clothing, from which to spatchcock together most anything I needed for projects past. Even if thrift stores were open, I wouldn’t care to brave them at this moment in time. Having pared down my huge backstock of hoarded sewing materials of the last couple of years, I now find myself somewhat beholden to what I can order online.
Also, as I take on these projects, I realize how very much I am a relic of the 20th century (with requisite homage the several centuries preceding the 20th,) as the technological aspects of presenting anything to the world is an absolutely baffling frustration for me. However, being confined mostly to sheltering-in-place, the Internet is my only means for reaching an audience artistically, and the situation is therefore leading to a greatly overdue crash course in interfacing with the world through digital means.
It seems likely that my employment will also hinge on digital communication more and more, forcing me to learn to navigate this terrain. I undoubtedly should have learned most of these things a decade, or more, ago — but had rather delighted in being as analog as possible where education was concerned.
I suspect I will use this blog page to chronicle the day to day struggles and adventures of a life spent sheltering-in-place, and my overall thoughts and observations on the current cultural moment, the psychology of a pandemic, and other matters that are on my mind.
I hope to put together several adjunct pages — one for each photo-project, and a third dedicated entirely to my thoughts about the Trickster archetype past, present, and future. I’m not certain that my current account will support that, but I aim to find out. If it doesn’t, I will either a.) upgrade to an account level that does support it, or b.) start an entirely new and separate account to present the photo-essays. I am dearly hoping that I can do this all with my current set-up, as managing this basic one is proving to be quite challenging enough for my current abysmal skill set.
Spatchcocking the Future 