Parody Music To Help Get You Through Pandemic Isolation

Chris Mann trapped indoors like the rest of us due to coronavirus

I certainly get it that the coronavirus pandemic is one of the greatest tragedies in modern history. Depressingly, it will only get worse before it gets better.

To stay sane through this, I think we all need some gallows humor to help us get through it.  Singer/Songwriter Chris Mann to the rescue.

He's had a serious and successful music career ever since he was a finalist on The Voice in 2012.

Lately, though, he's been putting out parody videos of how his stay at home is going. Spoiler alert: Not that great.

Mann is among millions of us going stir crazy at home, trying to maintain the social distancing we all hope will blunt the coronavirus impact.  I'm sure Mann's YouTube channel will have more in the coming days and weeks.

So let's enjoy what he's got so far.  in addition to "My Corona," a parody of the bad 1979 hit "My Sharona," we have two other even better ones.

First, we'll bring you "Hello (From The Inside)" a parody of the heartbreaking Adele song "Hello" from 2015.  Mann's version is heartbreaking in quite a different way. Click on the this sentence to watch it. Totally worth it.

Up next, we go back a little further to Madonna's "Vogue"

I especially like the sort of semi-wrap part in the middle starting at about 2:20 in:

Scenes From A Pandemic: Faith In Humanity Editiion

People throughout the world are pausing each evening, going out to
their balconies and porches to cheer all the life-saving health workers during
the coronavirus pandemic Above is a recent scene from Madrid.

I'll warn you right now, this post will probably make you shed a tear or two.

This coronavirus pandemic is bringing out the worst in a few people, but the best in many others.

Here's some examples:

People worldwide, under lockdown, are trying to encourage others from their balconies and windows.

Here's a young woman in Italia singing a beautiful, mournful and defiant version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."   At the end the translation of what she says in part is: "Thank you, but one thing I have to say: I didn't do this for publicity or to hear people telling me that I'm good. Absolutely, you all know that luckily, thanking God, I have a job it with my heart for the people of Pascarola."

Here's the vid:



In the "we're all in this together" department, residents of a German apartment complex get together to sing "Bella Ciao."  The improvised instruments are a nice touch:



One great idea that has spread around Europe faster than the virus is, each evening, people holed up in their apartments stop, go to their windows and balconies and cheer on health workers. This idea is also spreading to the United States and Canada, among other nations:



Turn up the sound on this one: It's haunting. New York City. Locked Down, but glittering like always. But the air is filled with the sounds of ambulances, sirens wailing scrambling back and forth bringing new victims of Covid-19 to hospitals:


In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, an extended annually gather at Alfred Vecoli's house to celebrate his birthday. This year is his 92nd.  Due to social distancing, the gathering was called off. But not really. His family decided to just do a parade in his honor. Stick with this news report. It gets more and more touching:



And this one's kind of cute. St. Patrick's Day parades were canceled worldwide, but this familly in Ireland decided to have a parade to mark the occasion anyway.  I especially like the floats that feature hand sanitizer and toilet paper:

Furloughed Sportcaster Gives "Mundane" Sports Play By Play, Hilariously

Which pedestrian will make it across the street first?
Sportscaster Nick Heath has the coronavirus play by play. 

British sportscaster Nick Heath is temporarily out of a job. There's no sporting events on due to the coronavirus, so, he had to come up with a different plan.

You know, to stay in practice, to make sure his skills don't fade during his layoff.

So, Heath has been going around doing his sportscaster thing on people doing mundane things, like walking their dog, or grocery shopping, or sitting outside a cafe.

The results are strange, but pure comic gold

Below are a couple examples of Heath's play by play.

Randy Rainbow Instructs Us Hilariously On Social Distancing

Randy Rainbow this Sunday morning released a new, much needed
musical video urging social distancing because of the coronavirus

This Sunday morning, the always-welcome Randy Rainbow dropped another video to help get us through our coronavirus lockdowns.  

Rainbow's output of videos seems to be increasing lately. He must be staying at home and making these.

I'm sure his shows are suspended for now. I notice his tour schedule is blank through May 1, at least for now.

He's obeying the social distancing orders to blunt the spread of the coronavirus.

That's what he urges us to do in this latest video, which is a parody of the song "I Can Go The Distance" from "Hercules."

As always, Rainbow starts with a news interview, this time with who he describes as "The dance captain of the coronavirus task force Mike Pence."

Rainbow notes that, at least in Donald Trump's mind, the disease is now called the "Hillary Flu."  At first, Rainbow resists Pence's call for social distancing by noting he already has purchased tickets and doesn't want to cancel his Passover plans to participate in the Black Light Underwear Foam Party in Cancun.

Luckily for all of us for a lot of reasons, Rainbow pivots, quickly and wholeheartedly embracing  the idea of social distancing as he launches into the song. "I will save the human race by lying on my couch," he vows. Rainbow adds, as he patriotically wraps himself in an American flag, "I'll defeat the enemy by binging 'This Is Us,'"

He concludes by singing "But for now just suck it up and stay the f**k inside," while we see an image of the of-so religious Pence solemnly nodding to the line in approval. Watch:

A 1946 PSA Will Make You Laugh While Reminding You To Cover Your Sneezes And Coughs

This old PSA from 1946 is a funny, good reminder of what to do.

For weeks now, we've been told to be very careful about sneezing and coughing with the coronavirus going around. 

It's serious, distressing stuff, as we all know.

To make you laugh a little bit, here's a British PSA reminding people not to sneeze out in the open, to cover your mouth when you have a sneeze coming on.

Here it is:

Coved-19 Happy And Sad Again: Animal Edition

Desperate monkeys look for food in Lopburi, Thailand. Tourists would
always feed them, but now they're gone, chased home by the
coronavirus. Locals have been trying to help by leaving food out
for at least some of them. 

From what I've read, most animals don't get the coronavirus that is alarming everybody around the world right now.

That doesn't mean the disease has no effect on them. After all, anything that happens to humans can affect animals.

I have two of no doubt zillions of examples in this post.

First, the sad.

One of the charms of Lopburi, Thailand is the thousands of monkeys that roam the streets and buildings and temples in the region.

It turns out the monkeys' main supply of food is tourists, who kindly give them treats as they visit. The coronavirus has dried up tourism everywhere, including Thailand.

Now, the monkeys are incredibly hungry. They're viciously fighting each other over food, and running around in gangs through town, frightening people.

Locals have begun leaving food out for the monkeys to help get them through this crisis.

Now the (relatively) happy:

Wellington the penguin checks out the fish tanks at the Shedd Aquarium
in Chicago. The aquarium is closed to the human public due to the
coronavirus, so animals living there were given tours. 

The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, like so many other attractions is closed to the public while we try to whether the coronavirus pandemic.

Well, somebody's got to tour the place, so why not let the penguins there have a look-see, since humans aren't currently in the way.  I'm very partial to penguins, by the way, so this is my kind of story.

"Without guests in the building, caretakers are getting creative in how they provide enrichment to animals.....introducing new experiences, activities, foods and more to keep them active, encourage them to explore, problem-solve and express natural behaviors," aquarium officials told the Chicago Tribune. 

One penguin, named Wellington, seemed particularly fascinated by the fish.

We all need distractions like this to get us through what I'm calling the plague weeks.

Here's a clip from CBS News about the penguims:

Coronavirus: Bad People, Good People

This idiot bought up all kinds of Lysol disinfectant wipes and tried
to sell them at a wildly inflated prices on Amazon

In every crisis, as I said a few days ago, jerks emerge, and good natured people emerge.

So it is with the coronavirus situation.  Two incidents add clarity to what I mean.

I'll get the bad out of the way first.

Meet Manny Ranga and Violeta Perez, who captured the outrage of Canadians and now the world for their stunt to make money off the coronavirus.

They raided a Costco store in Vancouver, British Columbiaa and bought all the six packs of Lysol disinfecting wipes recently, which normally sell for $20 for each six pack, according to The Star.   They completed loaded the back of their F-150 truck with the wipes.

The Star reported that the wipes fetch four times the price from Costco online, and Ranga said that represented a "big opportunity" for them.

They spent $70,000 on the wipes at Costco and profited more than $100,000 in gouge-priced sales on Amazon.

Amazon finally suspended their account Friday, saying the couple violated their policy on pricing inflation.

Ranga whined to The Star that he objects to the way he has been portrayed in the media. Reaction to the story was jeopardizing their livelihoods, he said. Poor baby.   Ranga and his wife normally work as home developers and business had slowed.

Too bad, bubba. We're all in the same boat.

Ranga's scheme might not have been uncovered if not for The Star reported Douglas Quan, who was reporting on a story about panic buying at Costco. He stumbled upon Ranga and Perez loading their truck and asked questions.

Quan said the couple appeared to have no regrets and seemed actually proud of their venture.

The couple isn't so happy now. They're getting slammed on social media, 'natch.

This is one example.  There are also plenty of examples out there of people price gouging. 

CORONOVIRUS MUSIC

One of the potential songs for your virus quarantine playlist 

Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, have the coronovirus, unfortunately and are on lockdown in Australia.  They're hanging in there, and I have to appreciate Wilson's gallows humor through this.

She went on Twitter and asked for crowdsourcing help to develop a playlist for her Spotify account.  She knew it was a fun way to confront the crisis with humor and lots of people picked up on that suggestion.  

Some of the suggested songs are by Wilson herself

A lot of the song ideas were great, and I'll share them with you, as we'll all need this sort of thing, even if we're not under quarantine.

"All By Myself" by Eric Carmen.
"Dancing With Myself," by Billy Idol
"Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu," By Johnny Rivers
"U Can't Touch This," by MC Hammer
"I Wanna Be Sedated," by The Ramones
"I Will Survive," by Gloria Gaynor
"I Want To Break Free," by Queen
"Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You" by Kelly Clarkson
"Leaving On A Jet Plane" by Peter, Paul and Mary.
"So Far Away," by Carole King
"Come Healing," by Leonard Cohen

Other people suggested:
"Splendid Isolation," by Warren Zevon
"I Think We're Alone Now," by Tiffany
"Stayin' Alive," by the Bee Gees
"Toxic," by Britney Spears
"If I Could Turn Back Time," by Cher
"In The Air Tonight," by Phil Collins