More Instagram Immunity by Brandon Taper
Although sheltering in place is necessary to guard against contagion, you may find yourself aching to return to the sights and sounds of the outside world. Rather than risk your good health, why not instead peruse Life’s Pleasures from the comfort of your own home?
Instagram allows you to shake hands with strangers (digitally, of course) without the worry of stray droplets and cross-contamination. And who needs to wait for a vaccine? This app protects you with “Instagram Immunity” — the ability to share remotely in the interests of the world’s biggest, strangest, most delightful and varied crowd.
As you stumble upon more people and things to explore, you become a curator of sorts and Instagram your museum. Here are some “galleries” from my own cabinet of wonders:
Miserable Men
Are you miserable at home? Always thinking about the things you’d rather be doing? Well, now you can enjoy the misery of other people with this account highlighting the global epidemic of “Men Who Go Shopping.” Symptoms may include poor posture, snoring, long periods of sitting, and feelings of abandonment.
Odd Pittsburgh
This account is dedicated to the hidden histories of our fine city. Whether you want to see forgotten landmarks, hometown heroes, or historical figures whose surnames are now streets, this account will keep yinz full. Who’s up for some chipped ham at Isaly’s and then a stop at The Children’s Palace?
Marco Polo Rules
Sometimes the world seems topsy-turvy. The best way to respond? Give in to the crazy! Treat yourself to a daily dose of delirium as selected by an international art and literature curator. Nothing makes sense, but you’ll find the craziest illusion is that you thought it did in the first place. Go bananas!
Interiors with History
Have Zoom meetings made you feel insecure about your choice of home decor and furnishings? Well, let’s exacerbate that shame! This account allows you to break into the stately homes and manors of our historical betters for a virtual tour of the finest’s finest! Wrap yourself in chiffon and silks and stay awhile.
Baddie Winkle
The Instagram account for this “nonagenarian in neon” is just as bold and colorful as she is. And Baddie’s bio says it all: “stealing ur man since 1928!!” Ah, style never aged so well!
Instagram Immunity by Brandon Taper
Although sheltering in place is necessary to guard against contagion, you may find yourself aching to return to the sights and sounds of the outside world. Rather than risk your good health, why not instead peruse Life’s Pleasures from the comfort of your own home?
Instagram allows you to shake hands with strangers (digitally, of course) without the worry of stray droplets and cross-contamination. And who needs to wait for a vaccine? This app protects you with “Instagram Immunity” — the ability to share remotely in the interests of the world’s biggest, strangest, most delightful and varied crowd.
As you stumble upon more people and things to explore, you become a curator of sorts and Instagram your museum. Here are some “galleries” from my own cabinet of wonders:
Neon Talk Perm that hair and puff out those shoulder pads so you can relive the Me Decade with this love letter to everything ’80s. The vintage posters, commercials, and fashion advertisements highlighted on this account will make you want to Jazzercise all day to a mixtape of Richard Marx and Kenny Loggins.
This Was Hollywood Dip your toes into the silver waters of Old Hollywood with this collection of vintage promotional materials and rare publicity stills of your favorite movie stars from yesteryear. You’ll hobnob with the likes of Louise Brooks, Robert Mitchum, Gary Cooper, and Tallulah Bankhead. Who could ask for better company, darling?
David the Gastronome If you wish to experience our city’s many culinary delights, here is your chance to eat vicariously through someone who knows where to find the finest of fine dining. Managed by a former classmate of mine, this account is filled with pictures and descriptions of local offerings by restaurants all over the greater Pittsburgh area. Don’t look at on an empty stomach!
Sideshow Ballyhoo Hey, you in the bowler hat and Florsheims! Step right up, step right up! Come take a gander at some of the most wonderful wonders of bygone carnivals and sideshows. Think your peepers can handle the antique freaks and geeks on this account? Find out if you have the stuff!
Grandiloquent Word of the Day Can’t find a fun way to learn fancy words? Well, quit your caterwauling so that you may deliciate in the linguistic love of this account. Each word, accompanied by a whimsical illustration and sample sentence, will surely lessen any frightful dysphoria or Podsnappery you may yet carry within you. Once you attain such a voluminous vocabulary, you’ll only want to cavort and frolic and maffick about!
Going Clubbing: Adventures in Sustainable Sanity
by Brandon Taper
As a way to connect with friends while we can’t meet in person, I decided to form several quarantine clubs. These efforts, at no cost thanks to my library card, help me to remember that not all days are the same (for a time, every day was Whateverday) and that we need not shut down our brains when we shut down our communities.
Here are a few that manage to “sustain the sane” for me. Start one with your friends today!
“I Should Know This By Now” Book Club
My friend Katie and I started this group to confront the sharp shame experienced by any reader who still hasn’t finished that certain book “by now”. Each month, one of us selects a title that has scared, intimidated, or overwhelmed us into avoidance therapy. Our first title was Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, a classic of social distancing.
Hoopla Nights Movie Duo
Each weekend, my friend Jamie and I select a movie offered on Hoopla to watch separately and then discuss over the phone. This helps to recreate, at least partially, the sense of anticipation and wonder that you can only feel in a creaky theater seat in front of big screen.
We take turns choosing the movies so that one person doesn’t get all of the credit for selection — or the blame. Past titles have been: the romantic comedy about ballroom dancing and Richard Gere’s hair, Shall We Dance?, the Japanese schoolyard drama All About Lily Chou Chou, and Frida, a biopic of the Mexican painter.
Rhyme Time
As the Time of Coronavirus has proven, parting is such sweet sorrow. To combat these pangs, my good friend JoJo and I discuss a handful of poems each week. We are both members of multiple book clubs, so we thought it best to choose something shorter as a way to reconnect during our time apart.
For the past month, we’ve read from an anthology of works by Lucille Clifton (), a great poet for newcomers. Although her poems are non-rhyming, neither of us had the heart to change the group’s name because we like it too much. So much for truth in advertising.
Cover Stories
COVID-19 dominates our news programs and conversation, so it’s easy to lose sight of all the other events happening in the world. To counter this ebb of information unrelated to the coronavirus, my friend Keith and I choose a different magazine each week to read and discuss.
Thanks to Flipster, an app which provides free digital access to dozens of magazines, we’ve become a regular couple of Flipster hipsters. Past highlights include: National Geographic History, Audubon Magazine, and The New Yorker (good god, so many words!).
Not only do I save money off the newsstand price using Flipster, but I no longer associate valuable information with perfume because of the many fold-out ads!
With a Little Help From My Friends: Part Two by Brandon Taper
In times of crisis, we seek the comfort and personalities of our friends. They who know us best can best raise our spirits, set us right-side up, and ease us anew back into the world.
I thought I would reach out to some of my friends to see how they are staying afloat and keeping active in a new world that often feels stationary and whose days often feel the same. Perhaps their different interests can help you find the solace, distraction, or whatever you need to get through today to tomorrow.
As the song goes, we get by with a little help from our friends. And hopefully the following things will help you try with a little help from mine.
Kate: “Art Alone Together”
Come together during these unique times to create a group art project! Art Alone Together is an art project that fosters community through the simple act of making art. Each participant chooses their medium and each day a new element is introduced to the piece. At the end of the project participants will share their project and we can see how each participant interpreted the elements into a unique piece of art.
I love this project, because it helps bring people together during this difficult time. It is comforting to know while we are all stuck in our respective homes, we can all come together to create a unique piece of art.
Darae: “It’s Better to Laugh”
I live alone and not having much in-person social interaction has been rough. Thankfully, the good ole Internet has supplied me with loads of things to keep me busy, including a treasure trove of memes and cartoons to keep me laughing through the ‘rona. Here is a sampling of a few that brightened my day. I hope they do the same for you.
Gabbie: “Dress Up”
Gabbie’s Outfit Diary: I started a fashion account on Instagram as a vanity project (and to stop bothering my friends with glamour shots on my main Instagram account). But, in doing so, I discovered a massively active, supportive, and diverse community of fashion enthusiasts of every niche. In meeting these people (so to speak), folks who are motivated to get up and play dress up every day, usually with a focus on thrifting or otherwise sustainable style habits, I’ve become much more creative sartorially and conscientious as a consumer.
And it’s certainly a diverting way to stay grounded during quarantine!
With a Little Help From My Friends: Part One by Brandon Taper
In times of crisis, we seek the comfort and personalities of our friends. They who know us best can best raise our spirits, set us right-side up, and ease us anew back into the world.
I thought I would reach out to some of my friends to see how they are staying afloat and keeping active in a new world that often feels stationary and whose days often feel the same. Perhaps their different interests can help you find the solace, distraction, or whatever you need to get through today to tomorrow.
As the song goes, we get by with a little help from our friends. And hopefully the following things will help you try with a little help from mine.
JoJo: “Lick Those Canvases”
For some people it’s chicken soup. For others, it’s a room of their own. For me, it’s art. It brings me comfort, grounds me, and smooths the rough edges. In our current climate, visiting a museum is not an option, but I’m all about adaptability and thankfully so are many of the wonderful staffs at a number of our cultural institutions. They are developing innovative ways to stay connected with the public. In my opinion, the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia has scored a home-run with their offering, “Barnes Takeout: Your Daily Serving of Art”.
This little gem arrives in my inbox daily, no need to scour the web. Since I love food, just reading the words ‘takeout’ and ‘daily serving’ makes me happy. In each email, I find a link to a short video where one of the members of the Barnes’ staff picks a favorite piece of art within the museum and discusses the artist who made the piece, why they are drawn to it, and a bit about artistic technique. I am fortunate to have visited the Barnes and I can say that these videos really capture the intimacy and splendor of being there. You feel like you are walking through the space and encountering these pieces with a best friend who is sharing their thoughts and knowledge with you. It’s just a bundle of connections, with the artist, the piece, the space, and your new ‘virtual friend’. And doesn’t it feel good to be connected in this time of isolation.
Every time I finish one of these videos I think about my previous visits to the Barnes, the people I went with, the art I encountered, and the joy it brought me. More importantly, it makes me think of my future trips (there WILL BE future trips) and all the paintings I will want to see for myself since they are now friends that have given me comfort and helped me weather a difficult time. Video Link
Alan: “Watching Books”
I have several friends who work in Library Land. What does this portend for someone like me who works a boring data-entry desk job? Well, it means that many conversations with friends in my life turn to books. Relaxing after work? Books. Running on the treadmill at the gym? Books. In the middle of a serious movie at the movie theater? Books. (Brandon actually did this.) Since I don’t get paid to read all day (just kidding, library pals!), I thought it best to keep up to date with the latest trends and titles by using BookTube.
What is that, you ask?
Just the most magical place in the whole wide Internet! BookTube is the name given to the “channels” on YouTube that focus on books and all things literature. The “hosts” are called BookTubers and are sometimes librarians, sometimes parents, or just someone who loves books and has a camera. There’s a channel for everyone. Do you like mysteries? There’s a channel for you! Do you need recommendations on children’s books and YA fiction? There’s a channel for you! Do you want to know what is new and notable in fiction? There’s a channel for you! I feel like Oprah because EVERYONE GETS A CHANNEL!!!
Anyhoo, BookTube helps me discover new titles without my having to leave my fabulous and wonderful and magical couch. (I really love my couch. It’s not a problem.) And sometimes I can even introduce my library friends to a book that may have escaped their notice. But will Brandon tell you that when he recommends it to you at the library and takes full credit for something he didn’t earn on his own? Oh, I think not, dear patron!
Here are some of my favorite BookTubers with descriptions from their profiles:
SavidgeReads – A bookish bear. Blathering on about books, stationery, cats and cacti.
ClimbtheStacks – I mostly talk about classic literature, literary fiction, and memoir. The name Climb the Stacks is from a Ray Bradbury quote: “You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads.
Ink and Paper Blog – 1/2 book nerd, 1/2 tattoo fanatic, and full time dog dad. My channel is all about the books I am reading, buying and talking about with my friends.
1book1review – I aim to upload every Monday and every Friday, with a strong focus on books and random other things that are going through my mind and I want to talk about.
Bunny Cates – I’m Bunny Cates. I’m a mom, I cook, and I do mom things. I love reading and collecting books, writing, and doing all things crafty.
Enjoy these or find your own favorites!