Access Weekly JOYFLASH

April 24, 2020

We are living in unprecedented times and the news is overwhelming. At Access, our teams are knee deep in communicating and reporting on how Coronavirus is impacting our clients, their industries and how the situation itself is changing daily. It’s a lot. That’s why, we’ve decided to create a happy distraction… so, until further notice, the Access JOYFLASH will be coming your way every Friday, each week curated by a different researcher’s sense of All the News That Does Not Suck. enJOY

Not Everyone is an Asshole – Part 6

• A Georgia bar owner removed $3,714 worth of bills stapled to the walls to give to her unemployed staff
  That’s a lot of staples.
• Family Creates a Home Grocery Store So 87 Year Old Grandmother With Alzheimer’s Can Stick to Her Routine
  When there’s order in your world, the world will take your order.
• All Proceeds from This New Star-Studded Cookbook Will Go to Help Restaurant Workers
  Ina wants you to use more butter and heavy cream, please.
• Arts organizations helped raise $10 million for artists and writers impacted by COVID-19.
  We need art more than ever.
• Pennsylvania Heroes Head Home After a 28-Day Shift Making Medical Protective Gear
  Overtime has new meaning.
• Michael Chabon, Alexander Chee, and others will read to benefit Bay Area bookstores
  Hang in there, Green Apple Books.

Money Can’t Buy Happiness, But It Can Buy (Virtual) Concert Tickets

• Violinist Performs Amazing Pizzicato Cover of ‘It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)’
  Strings exist to be plucked.
• This NYC Hospital Plays ‘Here Comes The Sun’ Every Time A COVID-19 Patient Gets Better
  Tom Petty said about this song, “No piece of music can make you feel better than this. It’s such an optimistic song, with that little bit of ache in it that makes the happiness mean even more.”
• Shut in sounds: Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” turns 37 today
  Put on your red shoes and dance the blues.
• Radio Garden is a great way to discover music from around the world
  You haven’t lived until you’ve listened to Norwegian radio from your San Francisco apartment.
• “Friday I’m In Love” but it’s Tuesday because it’s always f*cking Tuesday right now
  Tuesday’s child is full of grace.
• FOX IN SOX | Dr. Seuss Raps over Dr. Dre Beats
  Thank you for a lot of fun, sir.
• The Big Bad Wolf Invites Little Pig to Lunch in Animated Video for Bob Marley and the Wailers’ ‘Three Little Birds’
  Every little thing gonna be alright.
• All your favorite pop songs reimagined as sonnets.
  “As revelry abounds, my cup is fill’d – I’ll slowly ride the streets upon my steed, whils’t quaffing juice and juniper distilled, and smoking pipes pack’d with a noted weed.”
• The Rolling Stones release Living In a Ghost Town, first original music since 2012
  Life was so beautiful / Then we all got locked down

Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable

• Virtually Wander & Weave through an Enchanting Odditorium of Curiosities
  Welcome to Internet Narnia.
• This Free Game Lets Users Build Their Own Virtual Art Museums
  Occupy White Space.
• Remember those mysterious Oakland gnomes? A new batch of coronavirus-inspired characters are popping up
  May your garden ever have a gnome.
• Collection of Coronavirus-Inspired Honey Bear Murals Debut in The Castro
  “It is the honey in my veins that makes my blood thicker, and my soul quieter.”
• These Food Art Instagrams Are Blowing My Mind
  Truly phenomenal ravioli roses. 
• Studio Ghibli Releases Free Zoom Backgrounds for You to Use While Video Conferencing
  “Chihiro, don’t cling like that, you’ll make me trip.”
• “POWERFUL WOMEN” COLORING PAGES
  Free coloring pages featuring your favorite female icons – RBG, Greta Thunberg, Frida and more.

Write Hard and Clear About What Hurts

• 47 Books to Read When You’re in Need of Hope
  Dwell in possibility (h/t Emily Dickinson).
• Shel Silverstein’s Houseboat Is For Sale, And It Looks Like An Illustration From One Of His Books
  “All the colors I am inside have not been invented yet.”
• New Words We Created Because Of Coronavirus
  May your weekend be full of quarantine and chill and lacking in doom-scrolling.
• Poem constructed from emails received during quarantine goes viral
  As we navigate the new normal… we’ve never seen anything like this before.
• The oldest written record of “f*ck” has been discovered — and it comes from a plague quarantine
• That tracks.

Cats: Because Affection Means More When You Earn It (+ Assorted Other Animals for You H8Rs)

• People Are Playing Tic-Tac-Toe With Their Pets, And It’s Going Just As Well As You’d Expect
  The terrier is the biggest winner.
• Cat interrupts weatherman doing the forecast from home and becomes the star of the show
  The forecast calls for more green screen and more Betty. <3
• While On Lockdown James Decided To Create A Tiny Restaurant For Animals In His Yard
  Obviously woodland creatures love to dine al fresco.
• Hungry Groundhog in Philadelphia Calmly Eats a Slice of Pizza Outside a Resident’s Home for Nearly an Hour
  I don’t always eat pizza on your back porch, but when I do I eat it calmly and with great dignity.
• Black Cat Wearing Fabulous Outfits Walks Gracefully Through the Room Like a Fashion Model on a Catwalk
  Further proof that cats invented self-esteem.
• This farm sanctuary will let you invite a llama or goat to your next video meeting
  Please don’t call it Goat 2 Meeting.
• Tiny Hedgehog and Beautiful Bengal Kitten Become the Most Ridiculously Adorable Best of Friends
  Herbee + Audree 4eva.
• Bear relaxes in swing
  Just keep swinging.
• American Warrior: Hedgehog Edition
  The multiple instances of hedgehogs in this roundup is entirely coincidental.
• This crab was found vaping peacefully near the Hudson River
  Claws off my PAX.

Various and Sundry Closers

• Stanley Tucci shakes things up in viral mixology lesson
  “Naturally I’m misanthropic, but the negronis are helping immensely.” – Anthony Bourdain
• Miss traveling? Take a virtual tour of the Paris Catacombs
  Or Ramesses VI’s tomb
  Or this sourdough library in Belgium
  Or the most colorful places around the world
  Or the quietest place on Earth
• Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self
  Comedian Julie Nolke has some advice for herself.