Continuing our coverage on stay-at-home entertainments, here are multiple options to lift your spirits in pandemic times.
Arts
You should be dancing, but you're not. In the meantime, Amy Seiwert's acclaimed San Francisco dance company has several videos of her works.
Got kids, or feeling childlike? Virtual School Activities started out as a shared Google document for parents, and is now a frequently updated web page for all ages, with links to virtual museum tours (Musee d'Orsay, the Louvre, the National Gallery of Art), deliriously amusing zoo and aquarium cams, national parks tours
https://virtualschoolactivities.com/
Listen to your eldergays. Hear oral history interviews with pioneers in the LGBTQ movement. The goal of OUTSpoken: Oral History from LGBTQ Pioneers is to preserve essential history through collecting, archiving, and making widely available first-hand oral histories of LGBTQ pioneers. Hear tales of art, activism and survival from Perry Brass, Ingrid Holmgaribay, Christopher Bram, George Raya, Irene Javors, Barbara Love, Nestor Latronico, and local activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca, author/historian Jack Fritscher, and dozens of others in interviews ranging from 30 minutes to an hour.
https://www.outspoken-lgbtq.org/
Music
Few things sooth us more than music, and Old First Church offers many classical and traditional music concerts, including vocalists, ensembles and soloists. Enjoy piano concerts by acclaimed local talent Sarah Cahill, The Mer�ki Quartet, Jeffrey LaDeur and many others.
https://www.youtube.com/user/OldFirstConcerts/
If you're a former New Yorker like me, you're checking in with your East Coast pals. If you find yourself missing New York bars, stop by the virtual sing-along at Marie's Crisis, the legendary piano bar. Join the group and join the musical theatre belt-athon, with the bar's pianists playing all the hits.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/120608734673633/
For more music from a variety of independent musicians, Stay at Home, a simple calendar, basic links to dozens of musicians worldwide. The open-sourced listings lead to various musicians' social media links, and artists can sign up to list their own events.
https://www.stayathomefest.com/
Nightlife
It takes two to tango, but instead of trying to dance six feet apart, join an online tango party with Oakland's Abrazo Queer Tango. They'll be on Zoom and YouTube.
https://www.facebook.com/events/572856846920184/
Food
Watch all episodes of Julia Child's The French Chef on PBS. From 1963 to 1973, the celebrated public TV host brought delicious recipes to millions with her trademark style, and taught many a viewer how to cook like the French.
https://bit.ly/38Xfv3i
Fitness
SF fitness trainer and dancer Sebastian Grubb offers his training and nutrition classes online. Voted Best Personal by several local publications, Grubb will help you prevent couch potato stasis and be inspired to stretch and sweat at home.
https://sebastian.fit/
Take an online dance class with Washington D.C.-based Dance Place
https://www.facebook.com/events/2519431958304470/
Jelly for jellyfish
Museums and aquariums have long hosted streaming videos of their creatures, and watching such (possibly?) oblivious animals and undersea creatures can be almost meditative. For jellyfish and other aqative life, visit https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/
Check in on the famous albino alligator and other creatures at The California Academy of Sciences at https://www.calacademy.org/
Got a live cam or virtual concert to recommend? Email [email protected]