Joshua Tree (June 3-6, 2021)

To tell you the story of our most recent trip to the desert, I have to rewind back to March 25. It was on that day that Christina and I found out that we'd be able to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and after looking at the calendar and doing a little math, we realized that we'd achieve near total immunity by mid-May, and could finally plan an activity that allowed us to get out of the cocoon of our home and into the world again. We made reservations for a trip that very day, perhaps to give us a tangible light at the end of the tunnel we'd been in along with the rest of the world. It had been over two years since our last vacation of any kind... the previous Joshua Tree trip in May 2019. Getting back to the desert and its spacious, natural beauty seemed like the perfect way to get a change of scenery and to start easing back into the public world as the pandemic restrictions began to lighten. Also, since she and I share a birthday in early June, the timing couldn't be better.

Thursday June 3
A little background: I had visited Joshua Tree and other locations in the Mojave Desert going back to when I was a kid growing up here in Southern California, but it was in 2010 that Christina and I first visited the area together, and I fell in love with the place. We'd taken a bunch of trips there since, going back at least once a year (or more) before the pandemic essentially locked the world down for most of the past 15 months.

When we started to book this adventure, we were slightly dismayed to discover that our friend Carrie Yeager had apparently sold the Desert Lily Inn and the accompanying rental cabins where we'd stayed at each of our previous trips... likely a casualty of the pandemic, though we're not sure about the details. Regardless, we felt weird booking a trip to the same spot with new owners, so we started exploring our options. I ended up finding a new cabin in the same local area via Vrbo. The rental property was called Joshua Tree Gardens, and the photos and reviews all looked stellar.

The couple of weeks leading into our vacation were completely hectic work-wise, and by the time Thursday June 3 rolled around, I was feeling completely frazzled. That, as it turns out, is the best time to drop everything and hit the road. After so many trips out there, we have a set pattern of things to do to prepare for a good desert visit, though I will say that after so long with barely leaving the house at all, at first it felt a bit surreal to be venturing out on the open road.

My typical trek across Southern California to the Mojave Desert, with one exception. The ramp to the 605N was closed, so we scurried up the 710 to the 60 instead. No biggie.

I say "open road", which is not at all a good description of our drive out. We hit a couple of serious traffic jams, and it took a good long while to reach our destination. However, being practically delirious with glee just by being away from home, and armed with a great playlist of music that I'd cultivated specifically for this trip, the entire ride out there was stress free.

The owners of the property we'd rented, a management company called Hi-Desert Dwellings, seemed to be super organized. The day before our departure, we received a little digital guidebook that told us everything we'd need to know about the cabin and much more. The place was exactly as described... off a series of dirt roads in a secluded area surrounded by rock outcroppings. It also had the really unique desert aspect of having a pond in the backyard, fed by a trickling waterfall.

The little pond in the backyard at the Joshua Tree Gardens cabin was a neat addition to our typical desert experience.

We arrived at about 4PM, unloaded the Jeep, and after resting for a short while and admiring the cabin, we did our usual run back down into Yucca Valley to get our food supplies for the trip. By the time we got back, the sun was starting to set, and we relaxed on the deck, watching the small fish swimming around and letting the stress dissipate.

It was the epitome of rest and relaxation at our newest home away from home in JTree.

After the sun began to dip below the horizon, we began to hear a sound. We're very familiar with the sounds of the desert, and... this wasn't one that we could identify. It started as a low whistle but then, as darkness descended, ramped up to high-decibel screams coming from multiple directions. We are not personally familiar with cicadas -- they aren't part of our typical West Coast ecosystem -- but it would seem that the insanely loud whistle/screeching we heard were indeed those nefarious bugs. The good news: once inside, with the doors and windows all double-paned and tightly sealed, they were barely audible, and we slept soundly after a long day of travel and adventure.

Friday June 4
We got up reasonably early as far as vacation days go. Something I should note: Joshua Tree, along with much of the rest of the country, was in the midst of a heat wave during our visit. While we've gone to the area several times in June, it was definitely the hottest overall trip we'd taken there. However, the AC in the cabin was very sufficient, to the point where it actually felt a bit cold inside compared to the blistering 100-degree heat outside. It was extremely comfortable there.

Not gonna lie; it was hot on this trip. Hot even for the desert this time of year. But honestly, it was never a real problem. We stayed inside the cool cabin during the worst of it, and it was quite bearable in the mornings and evenings.

We had no plans at all, other than a general vague list of things we do when we're in the area. Keep in mind that after 10+ trips over past decade, we've visited nearly every hiking and sightseeing area of Joshua Tree National Park. We've done the hikes. We've seen the sights. We were in no hurry to run into the Park, especially in that heat. Also, the cabin itself was comfortable and relaxing, and we both needed some time to seriously unwind.

Happy me in desert mode.

After cooking a delicious egg scramble for breakfast and enjoying the parade of nature from the cabin's backyard, we went into our respective extreme chill modes. Christina relaxed and read while I set up my minimal but effective music recording setup. I'd brought my Takamine P5DC and a rather new iPad which was running GarageBand so I could do multitrack recording and access virtual instruments, along with a new toy... a Zoom iQ6 stereo condenser mic that has a Lightning output and plugs right into my iPhone or iPad. It worked great for capturing my guitar at a much higher level of audio quality than the built-in mic, I should add. I got a couple of musical ideas, though nothing developed into a full-fledged song.

My little mobile recording rig. It's absolutely mind-blowing how easy it is with modern technology to have a little multitrack recording studio with instruments and effects that you can easily pick up and carry around with you.

This was all I needed to write and record some new musical ideas while on our vacation.

Like most of these kinds of Vrbo and Airbnb residences, this place was stocked with little activities for guests. We normally don't use many of them on our trips, but while we were kicking back late Friday afternoon, I noted that there was a Scrabble board in the living room area. I mentioned it to Christina, and... game on. She won handily, but I will say that I was getting some particularly shitty letters. At one point I had four U's. I'm just saying.

Our original plan for dinner that day was to trek up to Pioneertown and hit Pappy & Harriet's, which is inarguably the greatest dining and entertainment spot in the entire area (and possibly in the world). However, since they are still in the process of ramping up to their normal operations after a year of being basically closed due to COVID-19, they were not accepting reservations yet. It meant we'd have to head up there and wait however long it took for us to get in and get a table with very limited dining capacity. In 100 degree heat, that sounded really shitty. We changed our plans to go to the much more accessible (and still very good) Joshua Tree Saloon, and figured that Saturday night would be better for this. That having been decided, it was time to get cooking.

Christina took over the salad preparation, while I started on the pasta, sauce, and bread. Everything was going okay until I preheated the oven and put in the bread. About two minutes later, Christina asked if something was on fire, and two seconds after that, the shrieking fire alarm confirmed her suspicions. It turned out to be nothing... just some kind of schmutz that had been in the oven, which probably hadn't been used in some time.

Dinner came out alright despite my attempt at burning down the cabin.

After dinner came more relaxing times out on the back deck. Our cicadas were back, and as dusk gave way to night, we were joined by some other desert friends... namely, the bats who were diving around in search of the bugs and other foodstuffs they require. Neither of us are paranoid about things like bats; they're not there to bother us in any way, though I must admit that I have a reflexive tendency to duck when I see them swooping around in my general direction.

Lovely twilight time in the desert. Watch out for bats.

Saturday June 5
There are few better feelings than waking up in the middle of a vacation, knowing that there's basically nothing that you have to do, nowhere you have to be, and not even a semblance of a schedule to keep. We knew that we'd want to spend some time inside the Park after having spent Friday in full sloth mode, but we were in no hurry.

An accidental candid pic of myself, waking up and smoking on the back deck on Saturday morning.

We had indeed planned some meals, which is good when you don't want to be making multiple 20-mile roundtrip runs into town to get groceries. For Saturday morning, we decided one one of our favorite breakfasts, eggs Benedict. Most of you have heard me brag about being a reasonably good cook, but it's true; cooking is one of the few things in life that I'm truly good at, and for the most part, I enjoy it. Plus, let's be real... patching some legs, toasting some muffins, and whipping up a Hollandaise isn't exactly the height of gourmet technique. But the food was great and we lounged around for a short while before heading into JTNP.

Hello delicious breakfast.

I'm not sure what I can say about Joshua Tree National Park that hasn't been said many times by me, and by people who know it much better than me. I'll mention one thing: you don't need to be some super hardcore hiker or climber or other outdoors person to enjoy the Park a lot. Merely driving through, with its surreal landscape of plants and rock formations, is an incredible pleasure.

Despite how much we love our regular stops in JTNP, from Hemingway Buttress to Hidden Valley to Barker Dam to Hall of Horrors to Cholla Catcus Gardens and many more, we weren't about to commit to any major hikes when it was over 100 degrees. We took a nice cruise through the park, stopping for awhile at Quail Springs and romping around the rocks, and then going up the way to Cap Rock where we did actually walk the short nature trail despite the heat. Then we made a trip up to Keyes View, the most elevated point of JTNP with a height of about one mile and a wide vista of Coachella and other low desert areas. After that, we meandered back to our cabin home, listening to the playlist that I'd put together for this specific purpose.

Me, among the Joshua trees.

At Keyes View, where on a clear day you can look down at the Salton Sea and sometimes see all the way to Mexico.

Enjoying the desert with Christina.

Even just a few hours in the Park leaves you with a feeling of exhilaration, a natural high that makes you feel more at one with the planet and life all around you. No matter how many times I go back, I am always blown away, and leave feeling happy and wanting to get back again ASAP.

After getting back to the cabin, we came to a realization: Joshua Tree Saloon was reopening for live music for the first time on that very night, and was going to be absolutely packed. That didn't sound super fun to us, especially considering that our visit there would be the very first time we'd been in a restaurant of any kind since the pandemic began. So, instead of making lunch, we got back in the Jeep and drove the short distance down the hill and hit up the Saloon in mid-day instead.

We weren't sure what to expect, but it was great. Seating was outdoors in back. Menus were accessible via a QR code on the tables. Christina nabbed a spot in the shade, near a large fan that kept things reasonably comfortable despite the heat. We each got rib eye steaks and a cold Stella Artois, and it felt about perfect enjoying our meal in this casual environment.

Cheers! Out for a late lunch on Saturday at Joshua Tree Saloon. It was our first restaurant meal after more than a year of pandemic, and it was just perfect.

Oh hell yes.

We scurried back to the cabin after eating; it was a rather toasty 101 degrees, and we spent the rest of the day enjoying our comfortably cool home in the desert. I should mention that the air conditioning at the cabin is so functional that we had to turn it off at night, lest we felt like being genuinely cold (an odd sensation in the desert in June).

Sunday June 6
As I've mentioned many times in various writings, Christina and I have the same birthday (the same date, one year apart). When we first became acquainted around 2003 or so, it was one of the first things that drew us together. We awoke on Sunday morning and wished each other happy birthday. I was definitely happy; just being out of town and away from my view of the same interior of my home that I'd started at since February 2020 was enough to keep me in a near-permanent good mood the entire trip.

It was Christina's turn to make breakfast -- just some simple bagels sounded great after the rich meals we'd been consuming -- but while she did, something happened. I came out of the back of the house after getting showered and dressed, and she had a look of utter depression on her face. She could only point toward the back, and when I looked, I saw a small pile of yellow feathers in the shape of what seemed to be a very dead little bird, legs sticking up in the air. She'd heard a loud thump when it had flown into the sliding glass door, and it just seemed tremendously sad to have our trip end on a note like that.

I could barely eat. Look, I know it seems like such a small thing. Shit happens. Birds die. But the fact is, both of us are sensitive people, and that type of empathy comes with a price. For some reason, I decided to take another look at the bird's pitiful corpse, and... it was standing up, looking around a bit dazed, but very much alive. A couple of minutes later, it flew off, seemingly fine, and this made us both very happy.

Like any place of hospitality, our cabin had a check-in time and a check-out time. Especially being our first visit there, we wanted to be sure that we didn't overstay our welcome. After packing our stuff, we thoroughly cleaned up, making sure to leave the place in the same immaculate condition it was in when we arrived, and precisely at 11am were rolling down the gravel driveway and the dirt roads of the vicinity. Made a quick stop for gas, and then pointed the Jeep to the west and rolled toward home.  

Just about ready to go... time to close the case and hit the road back to reality.

There's a rule in the desert and other places of natural beauty: take nothing but pictures, and leave nothing but footprints. We are always careful to abide by that plan. It's always a little sad leaving Joshua Tree, but it also means we can start planning our next trip back... a conversation we've already begun.

The drive back was mostly uneventful. We did run into some more unexpected traffic; I think with society opening up again and people anxious to get out of town, there was just a good amount of people on the road that weekend... and more than a few who just sort of forgot how to drive after being at home for more than a year.

Last note: after about an hour on the road, we realized we were pretty hungry, and I had to pee, so we stopped at a commercial area in Moreno Valley and hit up a Taco Bell. As our second post-pandemic dining experience, it wasn't nearly as cool or memorable as the Joshua Tree Saloon, but I'll be damned if it wasn't the most spotlessly clean Taco Bell I've ever visited in my life. Maybe there's an upside to all of this craziness after all.

Hotel Chelsea (06.01.21)

Rocking Hotel Chelsea on a Tuesday night. Photo by Kat.

It's an exciting time for me right now, and probably for many people, but let's talk about me. I had an excellent show last night at Hotel Chelsea in Second Life, I am about to embark on my first vacation in over two years, and my band They Stole My Crayon released a single this week... our first new music that's been put out since our album debuted in 2016. Whew! That's a lot of cool stuff. Let's start at the end and work our way back.

New Crayon Tune
Here's the deal with this. Like many bands, when we were deciding what to include on the debut album for They Stole My Crayon, we'd written more songs than we were going to include on the album. In fact, we briefly considered having our debut be a "double album", which was more of a thing in the days when music had to be on a tangible physical piece of media. But back to the point: we'd written way more songs than the 12 that ended up on the album. Some of those songs never even made it to the stage of creating a demo; others got to the demo stage but then languished. And at least three of those songs were practically finished and were serious contenders for inclusion on the album, but just didn't make it over the finish line before we set a release date for the album. This happens a lot, trust me.

After the album was released, it was our initial plan to come out with our second release soon thereafter, but then life happened. Regardless, we continued working on those and other songs that we subsequently wrote. One of those songs was "Box By The Cliff", a tune based on a demo that Bunny had done and that we all loved. We tried it out a couple of different ways in terms of how we treated the vocals and instrumental arrangement, but ultimately wanted to keep the spooky vibe of Bunny's original demo. We ended up having Christina handle the lead vocals on it, with Bunny's ghostly voice echoing her parts. I added some ambient guitar parts and bass, we screwed around with the drums and rhythmic sounds, and... that was it.

Fast forward a couple of years. I'd been itching to release something new from The Crayon... and keep in mind, we've been continuing to work on new tunes that are in various stages of completion. But "Box By The Cliff" felt like it wasn't going to get any cooler by trying to push it beyond its lo-fi state, so we did a once-over on the mix, did a quick master, and bang-zoom... a new single. It's available now on Bandcamp, and in a month you'll be able to hear it via all streaming services (Spotify, iTunes and all the rest).

Heading to the Desert
That's right. After more than two years that, at least for me, included a ton of craziness above and beyond a global pandemic, I'm finally going to take some time off work and get away from these four walls that have been my home and self-imposed prison for far too long. Christina and I are going back to our favorite magical place: Joshua Tree, CA. I'm sure I'll have some stories to share upon my return.

I really miss these rocks. Yes, these specific ones.

How About That Show?

Ah, yes indeed. I was feeling very relaxed while starting my show at Hotel Chelsea on Tuesday night, which is ironic since I'd been immersed in a stressful world from hell in recent weeks. Doing a show was probably just what I needed, now that I think about it. We had a nice crowd, including a good number that hung out after Max Kleene's set before mine.

I was excited to do two songs I hadn't done previously, both of which being brand new releases by indie artists. Cory Hanson's "Bird of Paradise" and Charlie Martin's "Swirl" will both likely become regular additions to my sets, and both debuts went super well. It was a good night and I had good energy. Also, doing a show on June 1 was a good opportunity to acknowledge the start of Pride Month, which I was happy to do during my show.

I don't think I've ever had a bad show at Chelsea, and most of them are pretty damn good. Photo by Kat.

Much like real life, I'm getting closer to the point that I'll remove the mask I'd worn in SL since the start of the pandemic. I'm in no hurry to stop reminding people that masking up and social distancing are still important parts of getting rid of this damn disease. Photo by Kat.

Hotel Chelsea set list...

Heart-Shaped Box (Nirvana)

Northern Sky (Nick Drake)

*Bird of Paradise (Cory Hanson)

Crosses (Jose Gonzales)

Man on the Moon (R.E.M.)

How Soon Is Now? (The Smiths)

Box by the Cliff (They Stole My Crayon)

*Swirl (Charlie Martin)

Bull Black Nova (Wilco)

If I Had a Tail (Queens of the Stone Age)

Here’s Where the Story Ends (The Sundays)

Moonage Daydream (David Bowie)

*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL

Huge thanks to everyone who came out to the show, and extra special sauce for the following who helped support it!

Zanne Boucher, Nina Brandenburg, Harley Wytchwood, Gemini Mercury, Maximillion Kleene, Tyche Szondi, Kat Chauveau, LillyAnnSetner Resident, Alex Zelin, Trouble Streeter, Rock Doghouse, Kat Claxton, dstross Resident, my terrific manager Maali Beck, and Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko!

Hotel Chelsea (05.04.21)

Doing my May 4 show at Hotel Chelsea in Second Life. Photo by Kat.

I want to talk about my show at Hotel Chelsea, which was really good, but let me first relate a couple of recent random things. I'll start by telling you about how I'm an idiot (or at least one of many examples of this fact).

Pointless Vaccine Freakout
As I noted last week, I had my second Moderna vaccination on Thursday. After the many stories of intense side effects from the second jab, I was fully prepared to spend Friday and perhaps a portion of the weekend feeling like shit. But that never happened. I was perfectly fine, and I remain so. My worst side effect symptom was some barely discernible joint pain that was so minor, I had trouble distinguishing it from typical everyday pains that people my age tend to experience.

I'd spent some time over the weekend working on some song ideas, and being the lazy bastard that I am, I was playing guitar in my bathrobe on Saturday morning hours before finally showering and getting dressed like a human. When I finally got off my ass and went to get in the shower, I looked in the mirror and noticed that in places on my chest and my thigh, the skin looked red and rash-like. Uh oh. I immediately assumed that this was some kind of bad reaction to the Moderna vaccination and that I was about to die until I showed Christina, who pointed out that the affected areas were exactly where I'd been holding the large dreadnought acoustic guitar that I'd been playing intensely. Sure enough, the red splotchy skin faded into normal hues within minutes. Crisis averted. Silly me.

Music tip: sometimes just the act of getting ready to record "for real" -- launching your DAW software, setting up mics, whatever -- can take just enough time and be just distracting enough to allow you to lose your inspiration or forget whatever musical idea you've stumbled upon. I've had this Focusrite Tape app on my iPad forever; I'm not even sure they still offer it. But there are plenty like it for your phone or tablet. When I have an idea, or even a partial idea like a riff or progression, I will often just flip open the iPad, start up that app, record my thing through the built-in mic, and then have that recording to refer to later if and when I want to flesh out the new song.

Saturday Afternoon Rock with Maneka
I'd set a reminder on Saturday for myself to check out the Zoom-based livestream show by a New York band called Maneka. I came to learn about Maneka in a weird way, but it's not atypical in the world of indie music. About five years ago, I stumbled over a song that I liked by a band called Jackal Onasis. I was impressed by the drummer/singer, a woman named Jordyn Blakely, and ended up following her on Twitter. I was happy to note that she also seemed like a cool person who I related to regarding non-musical things like political/social outlook and so on. It's never a guarantee that someone whose music you enjoy is also a human you'd like personally as well, so it's nice when that happens. Jordyn had shared earlier last week that she'd be doing a Zoom show with Maneka (the band fronted by guitarist/vocalist Devin McKnight, of whom I was aware from his time in Speedy Ortiz). He's a really innovative guitarist and interesting songwriter, so my curiosity was piqued enough to check them out.

There's Jordyn doing her drum thing at the Maneka show on Saturday May 1. I think the technical terminology to describe her as a drummer is "fucking great", or perhaps "total badass".

I don't know what I was expecting from the show beyond having something fun to do on a Saturday afternoon, but I was really impressed by the band, which also featured bass player Nicola Leel (formerly from a UK-based band called Doe), and multi-instrumentalist Elise Okusami (who releases music as Oceanator) on guitar and keys. The songs they did at the Maneka gig were vibey and cool and dissonant, which is right in my area of enjoyability, and all four musicians were outstanding. The band was seemingly well rehearsed and tight. I was hoping to like the show a lot, and I ended up enjoying it even more than I was expecting.

Left to right: Elise Okusami, Jordyn Blakely, Nicola Leel of Maneka. Ironically I don't have a pic of Maneka frontman Devin McKnight at this gig; he took this pic of the band and posted it, so he's not in it. 

Here's a live performance video from last year if you want to check out Maneka for yourself.

Back to the Show
Starting in November of last year, I've been doing shows on the first Tuesday of the month at a Second Life venue called Hotel Chelsea. Coincidentally, my very first show there was on November 3, 2020... the day of the general election here in the USA when Joe Biden (eventually) defeated Donald Trump. Perhaps my show there was a good luck charm, if you believe in such things.

It's not a super visually impressive place as far as Second Life venues go, but it's definitely a venue that's focused on the music itself, and I have to say, the management there is incredibly nice, and the crowd I get there seems very appreciative of real live music. I've never had a bad show there; even the ones that didn't get great attendance went well and left me happy afterwards.

Good times at Hotel Chelsea in SL. Photo by Kat.

As I mentioned, it was May 4, known informally as Star Wars Day (as in, "May the Fourth be with you," which I find to be like a terrible dad joke, but whatever). My shows each month there follow Max Kleene, one of SL's most popular performers and a super nice guy whom I've now known for going on 15 years. Max was wearing a giant Darth Vader helmet while playing, and covered Weird Al's spoof on "American Pie" with Star Wars-themed lyrics. He also did two Billy Joel songs. I'm not sure why; like many performers in SL who aren't me, Max allows his audience to request songs, so there may have been a Billy Joel fan in his crowd. But the oddly coincidental thing is that well in advance of the show, I'd already pulled out my own set list, which also included a Billy Joel song that I perform rarely. I opened with it after Max ended his set with a BJ song, keeping the vibe consistent in a way that I think was pleasing to the crowd.

Darth Max. Photo by Kat.

Why am I still wearing a mask in SL when I've been vaccinated in real life? For the same reasons I still wear one in real life. Especially during this time period where some people are vaccinated and others aren't, we still need to do our part to prevent the spread of the virus. Also, with the high likelihood of continued variants of COVID-19 popping up, it's just a good idea. How hard is it to just wear a fucking mask? I promise to remove my mask in SL as soon as I can be comfortable around large crowds of people with no mask in reality, whenever that may be. Photo by Kat.

My wonderful friend and longtime music supporter Diana Renoir. I don't often play many of my own originals at live shows and it had been about three years since I last did "Thanks Anyway", but when I did, I dedicated it to Diana, who was supportive of me throughout the recording of my solo album back in 2008/2009. Photo by Kat.

While many folks associate May 4 with the fun Star Wars film franchise, the date also has a bit of a darker association. That's the date that in 1970, the Ohio National Guard killed four protesting students and injured nine others. As stories about the right to protest have once again been at the top of the news for the past several years and will remain so perhaps indefinitely, I wanted to use the occasion to voice my support for this First Amendment right, and did so by performing the Neil Young-penned song "Ohio" that was inspired by this tragic event.

Hotel Chelsea set list...
Allentown (Billy Joel)
What I Got (Sublime)
Hey Ya (OutKast)
Ohio (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
Man of Constant Sorrow (Traditional)
On a Plain (Nirvana)
Thank U (Alanis Morissette)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
From the Beginning (Emerson Lake and Palmer)
The Boy in the Bubble (Paul Simon)
Mother (Pink Floyd)
Loser (Beck)

Huge thanks to everyone who came to the show at Hotel Chelsea, and special super-duper thanks to the following who helped support it!
ChasDurning122512 Resident , LeilaNairobi Resident, Bigfoot Hendrassen, not4gods Resident, noowun Wind, Christine Haiku, LillyAnnSetner Resident, Diana Renoir, Amaya Mavinelli, KriJon Resident, Trouble Streeter, Kat Claxton, Alex Zelin, inebriety Resident, Maximillion Kleene, my terrific manager Maali Beck, and Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko!

I Got My Second COVID-19 Vaccine!

Me, two minutes after my second Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on April 29, 2021.

Six weeks ago at this very moment, on March 25, 2021, I was sitting here being a typical person on a Thursday afternoon in the middle of a pandemic, and my Twitter started lighting up with info about how the state of California had finally announced a vaccination plan that included my age group. Two weeks later, on April 1 (the first day of eligibility), I woke up and after awhile of trying, got an appointment to get my first COVID-19 vaccination dose that same day. I wrote all about that entire experience at the time.

Today -- Thursday April 29 -- I got my second and (at least for now) final COVID-19 vaccination. I know it's a little ballsy saying that I feel perfectly fine only a few hours after the shot, but for the moment, that's how it is. I promise to amend the post if I spontaneously explode or turn into some kind of large amoeba over the next day or two. At the risk of tempting fate, everything has gone extraordinarily well with my entire vaccination experience.

Back to LA
My second dose of the Moderna vaccine was provided by Carbon Health, who had set up a large vaccination site in the parking lot at the Crenshaw Christian Center in South Los Angeles, about 13 miles northeast of my home here at the beach. It's on 79th Street, south of Florence between Normandie and Vermont. My appointment had carried through from my first dose four weeks earlier; I didn't need to do a thing.

Big hats off to Carbon Health in that regard; after my first dose, I got a text message and email showing that I was registered as such in their system, and then in the days preceding my second dose, I received reminder messages and a confirmation for my next appointment. They seem really together with this massive undertaking.

Had we waited awhile, we probably could have received a vaccine appointment at a spot closer to where we live, but honestly... it was a) great to get this done and out of the way and b) the people running this vaccination site could not have been more professional and efficient at moving large numbers of people through the process.

Unlike our first dose, we practically pulled straight up to the vaccination site for dose #2, as opposed to waiting in an hour-long line of cars as we did last time. Once again, everyone there was friendly and professional, and the shot itself was administered by a medical technician from the Los Angeles Fire Department. Being overly cautious, I made absolutely sure to confirm that the shot they were giving me was Moderna. Then came the painless jab, and then a 20-minute wait to once again confirm that neither Christina nor myself were experiencing any immediate reactions to the shot. Once the all-clear came through, we headed back home. 

One kind of cool thing: Carbon Health also provided an electronic version of this document that will likely come in handy at some point when I am in a position to prove my vaccination status. 

A few VERY important things I need to impart to anyone stumbling across this post.

• The vaccine is free.
• The vaccine is safe.
• In almost every case, the vaccine's side effects are very mild and short-lasting, especially compared to getting COVID-19.
• Most people don't get any side effects at all, or are so minor as to be barely noticeable.
• If you truly want to start getting back to a free and open society across the country and around the world, the fastest way to do it is for as many people as possible to get vaccinated.

Grateful Living
Back in Spring 2020, around the time that the first lockdown orders were hitting and people were staring to speculate how long this pandemic would last, I did a little historical research. I looked at the typical time for a vaccine to be developed, the multiple phases of clinical trials to prove it safe for use, and the administration of a distribution plan to offer it to a country of 328 million people.

My earliest estimate from my perspective in March 2020 was that we'd be lucky to get a vaccine by October of 2021, and I was especially annoyed at the people -- far too many of them -- who were complaining about the initial six-week lockdown period. I knew back then it was only the very start.

This thing has impacted my life far too much over the past 14 months. Hopefully I can spend a lot less time dealing with it in upcoming months, and get back to things like music and travel and fun.

So, for me to be sitting here just 13 months later, having received both doses of a highly effective, well tested vaccine is simply amazing. It's unheard of. It's completely unprecedented in the annals of medical science. And yet, as would be completely expected from any realistic viewpoint, there are those people out there who won't take this miraculous, free, life-saving treatment because of their distrust of science and government.

I used to try and help those people, but I don't anymore. Instead, I just do the things that help ensure the safety of myself and those very close to me, and that's about it. That's the only area where I can truly be effective in making a difference. I do encourage you to do the same with any person you care about who's on the fence about getting vaccinated, or about getting their second dose if that's a necessity. Beyond those people who matter the most to you and to whom you can personally encourage and influence, the rest of them are voluntarily on their own to catch and suffer the consequences of the virus.

Lutz City of Templemore (04.25.21)

A great evening of friends and fun at Templemore. Photo by Kat.

I had a great show at Lutz City of Templemore on Sunday, but let me tell you a thing or three first, and then we'll talk about the show, if you're cool with that.

Derek Chauvin Murder Trial
Just to note for the record books, I 100% believed that Derek Chauvin was guilty of murder, and, based on the track record of law enforcement officers being held accountable for their actions, was maybe 90% expecting him to be exonerated despite what looked to me to as being guilty as could be. I was pretty anxious on Tuesday morning as I awaited what might have turned out to be yet another complete travesty of justice in the needless killing of a person of color. And then, when the jury returned and the verdict was given as guilty on all three counts, I could feel something akin to a weight being physically removed from my shoulders.

I'm not showing a picture of the murderer here. Instead, here's George Floyd who should be alive and well today if not for Chauvin's actions. We can only hope that the sentencing will be appropriate.

We still have yet to learn the sentencing for Chauvin as well as the fate of the other three Minneapolis officers involved in the killing of George Floyd, but those things will happen over the next couple of months, and I remain cautiously optimistic that justice will indeed be served. On a more realistic side note, a CBS/Newsline poll said that nearly half of the Republicans asked about the Chauvin trial felt that the guilty verdict was wrong... another clear indicator that we have a very long way to go.

COVID Report: Good Times, Bad Times
While we Americans seem to be doing pretty well with our fight against COVID-19, it's still a very premature view to think that we've won the battle... and the rest of the world is still deep in the midst of it. India is being overwhelmed by new COVID cases at the moment, with 350,000 new cases on Sunday alone (the most of any country on any day since the pandemic began). Most of the rest of the world is currently still waiting on their opportunity to get inoculated against COVID-19. But here in the USA, nearly 40% of the entire population has had at least one dose of the vaccine.

As has often been the case, Americans have a skewed perspective about how the world is doing. In this case, it's the assumption that COVID-19 is already very much under control. Ask a hospital worker in India how it's going.

I was fortunate enough to get my first dose on the very first day I was eligible, and later this week, I will be receiving my second dose of Moderna. A troublesome news item says that more than five million Americans, however, have skipped their second dose. Most of those people seem to be afraid of the side-effects reported by some with their second dose of Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. I will tell you that most of the people I talk to have had very mild side effects, and even the worse reactions are highly preferable to getting the actual virus.

Two weeks after that dose, I will be about 95% immune to COVID-19, at least the current variation, and a few weeks after that, I'll be talking my first vacation in over two years... something I'd only have done after being fully vaccinated. Can't wait! One important note: since coronaviruses do mutate in a similar way as influenza, it's likely that getting a booster shot will be a regular event in the future. The thing to keep in mind: we are moving toward a point where things are getting back to normal, and if we all do the right things -- getting vaccinated and continuing to wear masks while interacting with other people -- we're eventually going to beat this thing.

How About That Show?
I love playing at Templemore, and for this show, I had the fun of experiencing a new area of the venue called The Conservatory Stage. It was absolutely fantastic, just as all of the many stage builds at Templemore have been since day one. This is an outdoor area, but the space is defined beautifully in an intimate courtyard setting. The stage itself, with superb lighting and textures, made for a perfect backdrop as the crowd danced and made merry in front.

So the good news is that I got onstage just fine, but then found myself kinda stuck facing at a perpendicular from the crowd. The continuing good news is that I was able to rectify this after my first song, and actually turned to face my crowd. Good times. Photo by Kat.

We had a great audience with a lot of people who seemed to be truly enjoying the music, which is always my favorite kind of show. Photo by Kat.

I mean, look at this stage! Tell me one place in Second Life other than Templemore that can create this kind of stunning visual environment. Photo by Kat.

I know I've said it many times before, but the designers of Templemore -- primarily my friend Luis Lockjaw -- do incredible work to make it a visual feast that goes far beyond most other locations in Second Life. I've probably performed at ten different locations in Templemore over the years, and each of them has had its own distinct vibe, with the commonality being a level of design detail that's almost unimaginable. 

For this show, I didn't have a music theme per se, but I did want to do some songs that were a little more rare in my repertoire, and as usual my set purposefully went through different moods and hit multiple time frames so that pretty much everyone could find something familiar and enjoyable at the show. While I didn't bust out any never-before-performed songs, some of the tunes haven't been in my set list for over ten years, and others I'd only done once or twice before. Before the show, while warming up, I did something that I rarely do: I actually played along with a number of the songs just to ensure that I was properly capturing the vibe of the music, and I actually think it was helpful when I got onstage.

My view from the Conservatory Stage at Lutz City of Templemore. Photo by Kat.

Just... wow. Photo by Kat.

There will come a time in real life when I will be comfortable being amongst large groups of people without having to wear a mask. Once that occurs, I'll remove the mask that I've also worn in SL since the very start of the pandemic. I know that most people use SL as an escape from the challenges of their real lives, whereas for me, it's just an extension of my real life self. Either outlook is fine, but the aspect of wearing a mask to slow the spread of coronavirus is too important to me to not reinforce that message in the virtual world as well. Photo by Kat.

Templemore set list...
1979 (Smashing Pumpkins)
Lost Cause (Beck)
Things Behind the Sun (Nick Drake)
Carry Me Ohio (Sun Kil Moon)
Wild World (Cat Stevens)
Bull Black Nova (Wilco)
Sex Kills (Joni Mitchell)
Mrs. Robinson (Simon and Garfunkel)
Birds (Neil Young)
Doubt It (Zak Claxton)
My God Is the Sun (Queens of the Stone Age)

Big thanks to every single person who came out to the show, with special thanks to the following who helped support it!

Shyralei Hexem, Nivaya Barbosa, Emre Jenvieve, LillyAnnSetner Resident, Kat Claxton, Taj Nishi, Trouble Streeter, Nina Brandenburg, Alton Breck, Scout Zsun, my excellent manager Maali Beck, and Templemore's wonder staff including Luis Lockjaw, Grace Sixpence, Brooks Conundrum, and the rest!

Hotel Chelsea (04.06.21)

Enjoying some Tuesday night rock at Hotel Chelsea in Second Life. Photo by Kat.

Hello, and welcome back. We'll talk about my show at Hotel Chelsea in Second Life in a moment (spoiler alert: it was great). First, some random stuff and things.

Half-Vaxxed Zak in a Mask
As you may recall from my previous post, I'm still ecstatic about having received the first of my two COVID-19 vaccination shots. As a larger percentage of people get vaccinated, there's a lot of information -- and misinformation -- flying around about the manner in which society as we knew it pre-pandemic is starting to return to normal. I'm not a doctor or a scientist; I'm some random musician who thinks about life and occasionally offers opinions and perspective. That being said, here are a few thoughts.

• It's gonna take some time. Here in early April 2021, an amazingly high percentage of Americans have been fully vaccinated. The number changes rapidly as millions of people each day receive their inoculations, but the most current number I have says that 62,392,065 Americans had been fully vaccinated, which is 18.8 percent of the country's population. Note that it says fully vaccinated. I am not in that group. I've had one of my two Moderna vaccines; I will not be immune to most forms of COVID-19 until mid-May, two weeks after my second dose. But around the world, those numbers are much lower, and in this country the number do vary a bit from state to state. My recommendation is to be patient and not plan on hurrying back into situations where you're among huge groups of people. And if you are...

• Keep wearing that mask. Honestly, and maybe this is just me, but after a brief adjustment period, I quickly got used to wearing a mask when I went out in public, and it just doesn't bother me that much to do so anymore. Especially during this time frame while some folks are vaccinated and others aren't, it's really important to continue masking up. While it's not highly likely, you could still transmit COVID to someone else. We're closer to the finish line, so don't drop the ball before getting into the end zone. Mixed sports metaphor aside, it's the right thing to do.

I know that some folks are opposed to wearing a mask, or think that the moment they are vaccinated, they no longer need one. There are a number of very valid reasons to keep wearing one when you interact with the public. Try not to be a dick when you continue to run into situations where masks are required.

• Don't assume everyone will be vaccinated. We all know that there are those people who don't believe in or trust vaccination under any circumstances. I don't know what to say to those people. I know I can't convince them otherwise, in the same way I can't convince people that the Earth is round or that Democrats don't eat children or that we're not secretly ruled by lizard people. In any case, there will always remain a percentage of people who will be keeping COVID alive and well, and passing it around amongst each other.

• Be patient in getting your own vaccine. Especially in the past week or so, I've talked to a bunch of people who've been trying valiantly to get an appointment for vaccination, only to find that none are available where they live. All I can say is to keep trying... it will happen. As the rush of people eligible in each age groups begins to subside, vaccines will be plentiful, and you will get yours!

Yes, Google is a large corporation and is almost certainly evil like all large corporations. But I sniffled a bit about this ad that a) hints at the return to life as we once knew it and b) shows the payoff of the messaging of the ad as this reopening of society being the result of people getting their vaccines.

I'm Taking a Vacation
Yup. It's true. For the first time since May 2019, I am taking a couple of days off work and getting out of town. We booked the trip the moment that we became aware that we'd be vaccinated in a reasonable time frame, and it's happening. I will say, the place we're going is even more remote and far less densely populated with other humans; it anything, it's safer than the place we spend our daily lives at home. But just the idea of getting a change of scenery after such a long time frame of going nowhere at all is just a joyous thought. Note that by the time we head out on this short trip, both Christina and I will be fully 100% vaccinated. To say we're looking forward to it it a huge understatement.

In the places we like to go on vacation, social distancing isn't a big challenge. Here's They Stole My Crayon in Joshua Tree in May 2019. Photo by Jess.

Voting Rights, Corporations, and Cancel Culture
Not gonna spend a lot of time on this, but when I see mind-boggling levels of hypocrisy, I feel compelled to call it out. As has been in the news recently, Georgia has passed new laws that restrict voting or make it difficult to the point that citizens are discouraged from trying to vote. As a result, a number of companies have taken action, such as Major League Baseball's change of venue for the All-Star Game, and statements from Georgia-based and other businesses condemning the new voting-restriction laws.

The GOP has been so focused on ending what they call "cancel culture" that their recent conservative conference was themed "America Uncanceled", but then immediately called on people to boycott (aka "cancel") the companies who spoke out against this action. Similarly, the GOP was the big proponent of the landmark 2010 Supreme Court case of Citizens United, which removed the restrictions on speech-related political spending based on corporate identity. And despite those things, it's the GOP -- the group who determined that "corporations are people" -- who now condemns the ability of corporate America to voice their opinions on political actions.

Sigh.

You can't have it both ways, Mitch. Sorry (not sorry).

Hey, How About That Show?
Oh yes. The show at Hotel Chelsea was really good. As has been the case there for the past few months, my set followed Max Kleene, and a number of his sizable audience hung out for my show as well. It's never something I expect to have happen. Second Life isn't like a real-life live music club, where people might be going to hang out for an entire evening featuring multiple performers. It's far too easy to just go see the person you enjoy and teleport the fuck out the moment that performer is done.

When planning my repertoire for this show, I decided, for the most part, to stick to artists and songs that might be a little more familiar for the crowd. It's not always my responsibility to turn people on to underground indie artists, and sometimes people just enjoy hearing some songs they love performed live in front of them. There's nothing wrong with that, though it's not something i'd enjoy doing at every single show.

A small crowd having fun at Chelsea. I'm always proud of the fact that often, a lot of my audience seems to be made up of my fellow Second Life musicians. Photo by Kat.

Me, onstage, still in a mask, as I'll remain until the time comes that I'm likely to go maskless in the real world. Photo by Kat.

I was feeling super positive and enthusiastic going into the show, and I let my crowd know that at multiple moments throughout the gig. Some of that is having started my vaccination process, but I also let folks know that just that morning, I'd scored an interview with one of the artists whom I cover on a very regular basis: Kurt Vile. I rarely mention work-related things during my SL shows, but that was too good not to share with my crowd, who are well aware of how much I enjoy Kurt and his music. 

Hotel Chelsea set list...
Save It For Later (English Beat)
Solsbury Hill (Peter Gabriel)
Wichita Lineman (Glen Campbell)
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (Beatles)
Big Empty (Stone Temple Pilots)
Don’t Let It Pass (Junip)
Pretty Pimpin (Kurt Vile)
Any Major Dude (Steely Dan)
The Worst (Rolling Stones)
Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie)
Things Under Trees (They Stole My Crayon)
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? (R.E.M.)

Big thanks to everyone who came to the show, with super duper thanks to the following who helped support it!
Pato Milo, noowun Wind, Crystalina Halostar, GiannaMarie777 Resident, Cavatica2015 Resident, sweetpea Shilova, Grace McDunnough, Kat Claxton, Rusty Seisenbacher, Trouble Streeter, Bee Blackrain, my terrific manager Maali Beck, and Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko!

I Got My First COVID-19 Vaccine!

Sitting in the car, waiting to get my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday April 1, 2021.

A lot has happened over the past 24 hours, and it all felt rather significant and certainly worthwhile for relating to you people who read this blog, whomever you are. To properly explain, let's back up a bit.

Thursday, March 25, 2021
I probably could leave this part out, but.. starting in or around December 2019, the world has been afflicted by COVID-19, a serious viral pandemic that has to date killed almost three million people, has infected 130 million people, and has massively impacted the lives of literally everyone regardless of whether they had the virus or not. The first effective vaccines started becoming available to the general public in late 2020, but distribution of the vaccines (more on those in a moment) was limited to the people most likely to be seriously impacted by the virus, or who had the highest risk of exposure due to their occupation or living circumstances. For the most part, it was people over 65 and those essential employees who could not sequester themselves from viral exposure and still earn a living.

Side note: I want to be clear that I completely agree with this prioritization of vaccine distribution. I was very happy when my elderly mother was fully vaccinated. Actually, I was happy every single time I saw any random person post on social media about having been vaccinated. The people who needed it most got it first, and honestly that's a good blueprint for society as a whole.

I was happy to wait my turn to become eligible for the vaccine. By the end of this month, every American over the age of 16 will be able to be vaccinated.

Anyway, on Thursday March 25, the state of California put out a press release that announced that starting on April 1, all Californians aged 50 and over would now be eligible to receive the vaccine, and added that starting on April 15, all Californians over 16 years old could do the same. Note that at the moment, no vaccine has been approved for people younger than that yet, so essentially the state is opening vaccine distribution for everyone possible at that time. And yes, different states have had different schedules, and most countries outside the USA have yet to get nearly enough doses of any of the vaccines to properly inoculate a large percentage of their population. It will happen eventually.

Thursday, April 1, 2021
So, just one week after the announcement by Governor Gavin Newsom, the day arrived that Californians over 50 could try and get an appointment for vaccination. Note the word "try". Up until that moment, being previously ineligible, I hadn't personally looked into the process of trying to get a vaccine, though I'd heard some stories (and seen the process spoofed on Saturday Night Live) about how confusing and difficult it was. They weren't kidding.

I'm not casting any blame here. It's a herculean undertaking, trying to safely inoculate millions and millions of people in a short time frame. Los Angeles County has a fairly good web site that connects you to dozens of potential sources for the various vaccines. These sources range from pharmacies (CVS, Walgreen's, etc.) to grocery chains (Albertsons, Vons, Ralph's, and so on) to various kinds of medical facilities both permanent and temporarily set up for this task.

With more than 10,000,000 residents, Los Angeles County (where I live) is the most populous county in the United States. Getting vaccinations set up for all of us is a huge task, and I genuinely think it's being handled well under the circumstances. This is the web site I used to secure my vaccination appointment.

I woke up on Thursday morning with the goal of getting signed up for a vaccination appointment, but my initial efforts were disappointing. Like I imagine most people would, I started with the hopeful idea that a convenient spot here in my area would have available appointments. Ha! I looked into the appointment schedule for every point on the map within a 5+ mile radius of my home here in Redondo Beach. Literally nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. It wasn't like, "Yeah, you can get an appointment but it will be in two months." I would have been fine with that. No, it was "no appointments available" at every single place I looked into.

Why?
It's easy to understand. It's not a matter of the vaccination sites not being able to handle the number of people who want a vaccine. It's that the vaccine supply itself is still relatively limited. They can only issue appointments when they know they'll have the vaccines on hand to serve the people. Also, note that the vaccines can't just be mass produced in huge numbers; it's a slow process and some of them need to be kept at very low temperatures from the point of manufacture to the time of being administered.

Grabbing the Jab
There I was at 7AM, sipping my coffee and semi-frantically clicking through the web site, searching for any resource that could provide me with a vaccine, and coming up with nothing. I knew that eventually, something would open up and I'd be able to schedule an appointment, and I was prepared to be patient as such, but frankly I really just wanted to get it done with. Like many people, for more than a year I've been staying home as much as possible and limiting my potential for exposure to COVID-19. My last vacation of any kind was in May 2019. I want to be able to live life again in a way that's safe for myself, and for the friends and family with whom I come into contact.

Christina joined me in the office and started going through the same process I'd been doing, with the same lack of results. But then, something miraculous happened: we looked into one of the vaccination resources with which we'd been previously unfamiliar, something called Carbon Health. They are apparently a network of urgent care and primary care facilities. I saw on the map that there was a facility set up in a large church parking lot in South LA, and clicked it. And that's when the magical information popped up; when I clicked the "make appointment" button, it didn't say "no appointments available". Instead, it asked me when I'd like to make the appointment... on that very day.

I looked at Christina and made sure that she was seeing the same thing as me. She was. We saw there were open spots at 2:30PM, and before they could get scooped up, we both grabbed them. We couldn't believe it; I wasn't even sure it was truly real until a minute or two later when I got a text message and email confirmation.

I was pretty ecstatic when I finally got my appointment, and my governor was also happy for me.

Nice People in South LA
The location of the vaccination site was at 1261 W 79th Street, which, as I saw via Google Maps, was in the parking lot of a large dome-shaped structure called the Crenshaw Christian Center. It actually isn't that far from here at all distance-wise, about 11 miles away, but it's a world apart from a socioeconomic perspective. It's smack in the middle of an area called South LA which was formerly known as South Central until the stigma of that name from coverage in the '80s and '90s of gang violence, drug dealing, and prostitution required a name change to make it a more viable area for community investment and redevelopment.

Like many people in Southern California (and probably around the world), I tend to stick to my own neighborhood. If I'm going to be driving around LA, it's generally for business reasons or (pre-pandemic) occasional social outings, and it's almost never to South LA. However, I wasn't going to allow some unintentional but inherent snobbism on my behalf have me hesitate about my chance at getting the vaccine.

It wasn't exactly a quick jaunt down the street, but it was a very worthwhile and mild inconvenience that had us heading up to South LA in order to get protected from the coronavirus. Also: per my route, apparently I don't like to turn the vehicle much.

We thought we were giving ourselves a ton of extra time by leaving for the appointment a full hour ahead of time for what is at most a 30-minute drive. However, when we arrived at the intersection of Vermont and 83rd, we saw that the left turn lane was blocked off and a long line of cars stretched northward up the street. It ended up taking another full hour before we slowly made our way around the block and then up to the vaccination site, but it wasn't a big deal. We listened to KCRW and chatted while the line of cars crept through the streets.

Before we even pulled into the site, we were greeted by a friendly person who checked our IDs, and then once inside there was another wait while they cleared through the people directly in front of us. Then it was our turn. We pulled up into the directed lane of cars, and another very courteous person approached to take our information, confirm that we had no medical allergies, and so on. A few minutes later, one of the medical staff from the Los Angeles Fire Department, smiling and friendly even after serving a full day of administering inoculations to thousands of Angelenos, came up and gave us our shots. Please note that at this location, the entire operation was drive-thru. We didn't get out of our vehicle at all. Christina later said it was like In-N-Out Burger where they take your order in line at your car window, except instead of a tasty burger, we'd get a lifesaving vaccination when we pulled up.

The large parking lot of the Crenshaw Christian Center had already been being used as a major COVID testing site, so they were very well organized in getting thousands and thousands of people in and out of the place, even on the mad rush from the first day of general eligibility for those of us 50 and older.

Does the vaccine hurt? No. The exact opposite. I barely felt the needle at all, to the point where I had to ask if she'd done it yet. She placed a small band-aid on the injection spot, and then we had to wait another 20 minutes or so. This allowed the staff to ascertain that we were experiencing no immediate severe reactions to the vaccine. I should note that everything was organized and automated; once the time had elapsed, we were allowed to go on our way after getting a text notification. We waved at and thanked each of the workers we passed on our way out. The whole experience was great and I was feeling extraordinarily grateful as we left, and then headed back in the southwest direction to get home.

Another important note: this vaccine is free. You will be asked if you have medical insurance. If you do, you'll provide your insurance card at the site. If you are not insured, there is no difference. They will administer the vaccine to you regardless. The one thing you will need is an ID that shows you live in the area and that you are part of an eligible age group. 

My vaccination card (you've probably seen a lot of these lately).

My freckly shoulder and my band-aid from my painless and free vaccine.

Side Effects and Other Afterthoughts
One thing about this vaccination process: there are several versions of the COVID-19 vaccine out there, but you do not have the option of choosing which one you get. The one you get is the one that's available at the place you go on the day you go. It's not like going to your local bar and choosing which beer you like. You take the one they give you.

NOTE: I based this chart on the most recent information I could find from a variety of sources. If you have more detailed questions about the vaccines, you should ask someone with more expertise than a random blogger guy who sings and plays guitar.

At the Carbon Health site in South LA, we were given the Moderna vaccine. We experienced no immediate effects at all. Later that day and continuing into the following day, both Christina and I had minor soreness in the arm near the site of injection. Nothing serious at all. We also both felt that we had a little extra fatigue that evening and perhaps a slight feeling of being parched that was easily solvable by drinking a little extra water.

Other people have experienced stronger side effect symptoms, and yet others have had none at all. Note that a good percentage of people who've received the second dose of Moderna said it knocked them for a loop, with more powerful feelings of fatigue, low fever, and overall malaise for a couple of days. But again, it's a low price to pay to end up having near complete immunity from COVID-19, and subsequently being able to enjoy life that is slowly making its way back to normal.

Kizzy PhD.

Quick side-note on Moderna: while it takes many people to create an effective vaccine against a powerful novel virus, the mRNA-1273 Moderna vaccine development was led by a Black woman named Dr. Kizzmekia "Kizzy" Corbett. Her brilliant work is almost certainly going to end up resulting in hundreds of thousands of lives being saved, and she deserves all the credit and grateful thanks that people can offer her.

So, that's it for now. I'll continue wearing my mask and doing all of the social distancing necessary for as long as required. Our second dose happens in 28 days, and two weeks after that, I should never have to personally worry about COVID-19 again. That will be a very good day.