In an effort to formalize our Quarantine Blues series a bit, we’ve devised a 5-question quiz to pose to the musicians & other media figures sharing in the Covid-19 stay-at-home orders sweepstakes. There will be new entries every coupla days.

Anne Marie is a longtime contributor to Pencil Storm, now residing in Boston MA, and was the only member of the Pencil Storm staff who knew the precise location of the Columbus Museum of Art when she lived here in town. (From what Colin and I can figure, it’s downtown somewhere.)

1) How are you getting your live music fix? Any live streams or YouTube clips that standout?

Pre-pandemic, a fabulous guy named Jim Martinho would send out a weekly e-mail listing of events in the Greater Boston area (including live music events). He now pushes this out daily via jim@thebostoncalendar.com.  Here’s a sample from today (May 13) (I know the links aren’t live anymore but I wanted you to see what cool stuff Jim gathers and because it’s virtual, you don’t have to live in Boston to check it out so you should subscribe to the Calendar): 

Hey everyone, Jim from The Boston Calendar here with things to do online today in Boston. Tune into a live workout with Big Papi, live play readings, gardening workshops, and much more. The special Zoom edition of the 22nd annual Boston Theater Marathon features readings of ten-minute plays by local playwrights in collaboration with New England theatres. Today at noon tune in for ‘Santa’s Dolphins’ by Patrick Gabridge, sponsored by Wheelock Family Theatre. There's no better time to learn how to grow your own food at home, and I’m not just talking about putting your scallion roots in water and regrowing them. But seriously if you’re not regrowing your scallions right now then do you just hate free scallions or what? That’s what gardening is: free food. The Trustees present an Intro to Container Gardening virtual workshop today at 5:30 p.m. covering the basics of container gardening, recycled materials that can be used as containers, and the basics of building your own raised bed.Happy Hour At Home: A Night of Live Local Music presented by Aeronaut Brewing Company and Cornerscape Artist Management is a live virtual concert straight from the couches of their favorite musicians to yours. Hosted by Kristina Latino & Mike Sheerin, the show features Izzy Heltai, Hayley Sabella, and Kaiti Jones, who you saw a couple weeks ago on The Boston Calendar’s own happy hour concert series.Red Sox legend David Ortiz hosts the Planet Fitness 'United We Move' Work-In today at 7 p.m. The workout will be streamed live on Planet Fitness’ Facebook page, and viewable later on the PF YouTube page. The virtual class is about 20 minutes and doesn't require any equipment.Please consider making a contribution to support The Boston Calendar. Full list of virtual and live streaming picks for today: Paridaez #GoMove Workout 9a. FREEHarvard Ed Portal Pop Up! Art Market 9a. FREE. Until 6/30Boston Theater Marathon XXII Zoom Edition 12p. FREETunes at NOON: Sadie Gustafson-Zook 12p. FREEdeCordova Museum Online Workshop 1p. $30-36BU Arts Initiative Virtual Series 4p. FREERe:Set LIVE with The Consciousness 4p. FREEBPL Virtual Escape Room for Teens 4p. FREEBoston Tech Comes Together 4p. FREEVirtual Interactive Baking Labs 5p. FREEIntro to Container Gardening 5:30p. FREEBoston Free Flow with Afro Flow Yoga 6p. FREELearn to Knit Online 6p. FREEFree not-Naked! Yoga & Pilates 6p. FREEHappy Hour At Home: A Night of Live Local Music 6p. FREEPassim Streams: Rachel Sumner 6p. FREEOnline Spanish Game Night 6p. FREEZumba with Dawn 6p. FREEBike Talk Virtual Hour 6:30p. FREEBoston, Somerville and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic 6:30p. FREEThe Jungle Online Showcase 7p. FREEDavid Ortiz Hosts the Planet Fitness Work-In 7p. FREEYoga at Gallery 263: Vinyasa Flow 7:15p. $10Boston Poetry Slam: Extremely Online Edition 7:30p. FREEStay Home with Juventas 8p. FREEExquisite Corpse: A Play by Ruthie with ImprovBoston 8p. FREEWhiskey Sour Happy Hour with Ed Helms 8p. FREEArtisanal Comedy Live on Instagram 9p. FREEThe Brattle’s #BreakYourAlgorithm Virtual Repertory SeriesThe Coolidge Virtual Screening Room Boston Underground Film Festival BUFF-o-StreamUnbound Visual Arts Online Exhibition Daily Joy with From the TopHuntington @ HomeSocial Distance Art Gallery Franklin Park Zoo to You Have a great day! Jim

I check it out in the morning and make my plan.  I have heard more new local music during the past eight weeks sheltering in place than I did in the prior eight months!

2) What else have you been watching, listening to and reading to pass the time? 

I’m a member of the Harvard Film Archives and am on the mailing list of The Brattle Theatre, a small movie house with one screen in Harvard Square (Cbus reference, think the Drexel in Bexley but smaller and more “New Englandy”). Each push out weekly suggestions for virtual viewings. Recently, I re-watched the 1970s Neil Simon comedy film The Out-of-Towers starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis based on the suggestion that it allows you to experience the chaos and insanity of New York (and Boston for that matter) that is currently missing in the nearly deserted city streets.  I’ve binge-watched so much Netflix, Amazon and other streaming content that it all starts to blend together but I finally wrapped up the final season of Homeland (when Showtime popped up in my Amazon feed), devoured Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu), am currently watching Mrs. America and Normal People (both Hulu) and am ready to dive into Season 2 of Dead to Me (who’s left to kill off?). 

Thanks to my Christmas gift to myself of the comfy noise canceling AirPods, I listen to LOTS of podcasts.  There’re oldies but goodies like This American Life, Sound Opinions, Hidden Brain and Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! still in rotation along with The Journal, Robinhood Snacks, The Daily, NPR Politics, Pop Culture Happy Hour, FiveThirtyEight, Business Casual, Modern Love, (I know I’m missing some….)  

And reading, I’ve been reading and actually finishing books again. Most recently finished Ben Folds’ A Dream About Lightening Bugs and Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered.  Currently reading Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middesex.  Couldn’t be any more different but recommend all.

3) How are you managing (or not) to stay creative / healthy? 

After foot surgery in January, I was cleared to start walking again without a boot and pain-free in March.  This was such perfect timing since I had been couchbound for weeks following surgery and had only just returned to working at work as opposed to from home when we were ordered to work from home due to the Coronavirus.  So, to be able to get out into the Spring weather and walk again has been AMAZING.  And in April I was able to start yoga again. Another huge sanity saving milestone.   

4) You have to pick just 3 records to listen to till this is over. What are they? 

I always hate these questions.  I see everyone else’s answers and think “I should’ve thought of that….”  So instead I will answer what I have been listening to.  A few weeks ago, the matt pond PA song Specks popped into my head and I put that on and my 20-year old daughter liked it and so we began to deep dive into multiple Matt CDs.  We decided that the song So Much Trouble was perfect for these COVID times with its lyrics “You’re in so much trouble/Can’t hide in your covers” and “I don’t want to think about it/How the fall is coming down” but upbeat enough that you bop along and don’t think about it.  I’ve also been listening to a show on WFMU- 91.1 out of Jersey City, NJ on wfmu.org. It’s on Thursday mornings but you can grab it from the archives any time you want. It’s called “This is the Modern World” with Trouble.  Trouble curates a very eclectic mix of music that I really can’t describe but you should check it out – it’s the best music to have on as you drive, cook or do emails.

5) Food Time! Have you been cooking in or carrying out? Favorite recipes or restaurants you're supporting? What's in the liquor cabinet? Share your quarantine eating and drinking habits and changes!

Boston is a hot spot and so many restaurants closed – period.  (We are not yet sure when we will start to reopen). Although I can get some delivery, my favorite restaurants are not open so I have been cooking, cooking, cooking.  I did get a fancy new picnic basket from Wayfair (I can just hear the groans -- this is such a chick post for Pencilstorm ☺) and now that the weather is nice, we have had met friends for some socially distanced backyard picnics and BBQs.  White wine has been my “go to” pandemic drink.  Boring, I know but I didn’t want to go too crazy when there were days that – working from home – I thought it must be “5:00 somewhere” around 3:30 (for the record, I managed to hold off except for a Friday or two when I called it a weekend early after putting in insanely long hours earlier). I hear about people drinking Tequila or whiskey at 12:30 during the week – but I don’t think they are providing legal advice. 

Since you all have Jeni’s and I don’t, I will share a recipe for the most killer dark chocolate brownies I made last weekend.  A friend of mine who needs to run 10 miles just to eat dinner had two for dessert.  They were that good.  I kept thinking what if I had a scoop of Jeni’s Goat Cheese with Red Cherries.  I could probably save the world. Here’s the link to the one-pot recipe:  

 https://food52.com/recipes/print/78184?signed_up=1

Thanks! Any final thoughts you would like to share? 

If you haven’t already, you should check out these two college kids, Alex and Andy, experiencing classic rock songs for the first time.  It’s fun to watch their faces as they react to first hearing songs by The Stones, The Who and Steely Dan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zqGQbDJLvY