Calling all film buffs

In a normal year attendance at the Sundance Film Festival is limited to an exclusive group of 1700, or so, biggies from the film industry.

But this is NOT a normal year.

This year the Sundance Film Festival is open to all U.S. audiences.

Yes, that means YOU & me.

The Sundance Film Festival that takes place in the upscale, remote ski town of Park City, Utah has shifted to a mostly virtual program with limited in-person events at satellite locations.

The 2021 Festival that takes place January 28 through February 3, is available for tickrt holders to watch from their living room couch, home theatre or even on an iPhone.

How to gain access

There are lots of choices and price points for viewing festival films including:

• A full festival pass (through January 22)
• A single-day pass (available until February 2)
• Tickets to individual screenings (available to February 2)
• An awards-winners pass on February 3

What to watch

Buzz-worthy offerings include:

Ahmir “Questlove”
Thompson’s feature directorial debut documentary “Summer of Soul (… Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)”
“Passing,” the directing debut of actress Rebecca Hall starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.

(Please note: these films are sold out but there are many other titles available):

There will also be live Q&A’s after each film’s premiere showing along with its series of free talks and events.

Special Explorer Passes for the New Frontier, Indie Series and Shorts sections, are available globally.

To purchase passes and learn more, click here.

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I love reading to my kids. It’s something that I can do if I’m tired, hungover, or…I don’t know…stuck in my house with them for 10 months straight?! When all I feel like doing is lying on the couch, reading reminds me that I’m a halfway decent parent.

I organize our books by seasons/holidays: snow/winter, Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s, Easter, spring/trees/bugs, gay Pride, 4th of July, summer, kings/castles/dragons, back to school, fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Our collection rests on the top shelf in my closet (mostly because my middle child wants to read Halloween books 24/7/365). This also keeps them a little more special, since they’re not out all of the time.

While holiday books remain my favorite, these five books help me appreciate the snow. For most of us, it’s easy to love the other seasons. Cold, dreary January in Chicago? Not so much. But these books warm me up to wintertime…just a little.

“BIG SNOW” by Jonathan Bean

What I like about this book: It perfectly captures the anticipation of a child waiting for that BIG SNOW! David’s imagination (and antics) remind me of my own offspring.

“LITTLE OWL’S SNOW” by Divya Srinivasan

Favorite line from this book: “Snow is like a special secret not everyone can know. Are you ready for it to melt away so soon?”

“NOW IT IS WINTER” written by Eileen Spinelli and illustrated by Mary Newell DePalma

What I like about this book: The little mouse is basically me: “Will spring EVER come?!” I feel you, Mousie.

Favorite line from this book: “Now it is winter…Now is good as in ‘goodnight’ and sweet as in ‘sweet dreams.’ Now is the blessing. Now is the time to love. Now is the time to be.”

“OWL MOON” written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by John Schoenherr

What I like about this book: Descriptions, descriptions, descriptions. “I could feel the cold, as if someone’s icy hand was palm-down on my back.”

“SNOW” written by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Lauren Stringer

Favorite lineS from this book: “And the snow, while it is here, reminds us of this: that nothing lasts forever except memories. And while the snow is here this brief moment, let us take a walk and see how beautiful the world is…It is the snow’s turn now. We’ll watch it fall.”

•          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

For more books about snow, winter, and even Abraham Lincoln, here are two previous posts:

http://www.chicagonow.com/social-butterfly-mom/2015/01/11-books-about-snow/#image/1

http://www.chicagonow.com/social-butterfly-mom/2014/01/12-childrens-books-february/#image/1

For the past four years, we’ve had the honor of planning the birthday celebration for Chicago micro influencers known as “The Heath Dolls”. In the past, planning has been fun but this year, left us feeling a bit overwhelmed due to the uncertainties of how to celebrate safely in our “new normal”. One thing we’ve all likely noticed, is many of our go to birthday establishments have closed due to the pandemic and or have drastically altered the way we can celebrate. That said, two questions remain for many parents.  What can we do safely? and Who can we call to help execute our plans?

Our number one suggestion is to forgo the crowds this year which worked out great for us. In honor of The Heath Dolls 4th birthday we decided on a Princess themed Tea Party. This is a theme one could easily host at home or a private venue. We also loved that it was fitting for as little as two guest and could even be a great mommy/daddy/ daughter celebration. Depending on the age of the child additional guest could include dolls and or stuffed animals.

Now once a theme is chosen, don’t overwhelm yourself with trying to figure everything out on your own. Ask friends and or family for referrals then begin researching the best people to hire. Our go to has always been to work with small businesses and with so many affected by the pandemic, what better time then now to support them. This year we teamed up with five local businesses who helped us eliminate our stress and bring our theme to life. You can check out each business below and consider hiring them for your next birthday celebration!

1. Location and Menu: Windy City Tea

We teamed up with small business owner and Tea connoisseur Phil Moy of Windy City Tea. Phil helped us curate the perfect tea party fixings with all the bells and whistles. The menu included scones, cucumber chicken salad, mini peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cheese and crackers and an assortment of fruit. After hosting over 3,000 tea lovers over the last three years at its Lombard location, Phil will be closing those doors and on a lookout for a new location with a new layout, new offerings and programs!  In the meantime, he’ll will be available to help you plan your tea parties at home, whether it’s advice on what teas to serve, preparation of finger sandwiches and scones, or share the experiences and knowledge he’s gained over the last three years. Also beginning  in March, Windy City Tea has plans to host tea parties at Paris Bistro, in Naperville.  Lookout for news on that offering at windycitytea.com or email [email protected] for any of your tea party needs!

2. Sweets: Peeka’s Sweet Treats

Sweets and Partys go hand and hand right? Of course they do! This is why we teamed up with Peeka’s Sweet Treats, Chicago’s number 1 destination for all your sweet needs. Owner Tupeeka Robinson put together the perfect sweets menu which included a custom princess birthday cake, dipped strawberries, mini rice crispy treats, mini pretzels, and dipped oreos. Peeka’s Sweet Treat specializes in sweets for any occasion and are laser focused on providing  high-quality service and customer satisfaction! Check out the website and set up a consult today by visiting https://www.peekassweettreats.com/

3. Decor- Mera Mera Design and Events

The backdrop to your party is one of the most important elements to bring any theme to life. This is why we teamed up with one of Chicagos highly recommended event planners Emera Richmond of Mera Mera Design and Events. Emera transformed our setting into a magical space fit for any princess. This included a room planning, custom backdrop and fixtures, sweets table setting and tea table setting. Mera Mera Design Inc is a full service design and event planing company based in the south suburbs of Chicago, servicing the Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana areas. To learn more visit https://m.facebook.com/merameraevents/

4. Entertainment- Princess Party Chicago Inc

There is nothing more magical than having real life princess to help celebrate a child’s special day, which is why we teamed up with Chicago’s own Princess Party Chicago Inc. Disney Frozen princesses Anna and Elsa stopped by the intimate celebration singing hits from the original Frozen 1 and 2 movies including the popular  “let it go”. Their visit also included story time, dancing and photo ops with all the guest. Princess Party Chicago Inc also offers virtual calls with characters ranging from $20-$100 to anyone in the world, while in-person parties, starting at $175, can be done anywhere in the Chicagoland area! They offer princesses, superheroes, space characters, and other beloved favorites for your party/event. For more info or to book visit www.princesspartychicago.com/our-characters  or email them at [email protected]

5. Wardrobe- Fancy Like Mommy

Step six for the sake of the article but argumentively step 1 for The Heath Dolls who we know to be the Faces and CEO’s of Fancy Like Mommy shopping and lifestyle hub for girls. We strongly believe that the birthday child should look and feel their absolute best and Fancy Like Mommy by the Heath Dolls will help you them do just that. The company offers personal styling for any occasion and to match any theme. The Heath Dolls wore pastel two piece suits from the new Fashion Nova Kids collection paired with a vintage inspired princess tee and Nike air Jordans! Visit http://www.fancylikemommy.com or email [email protected] for more information on personal styling.

Justin Reyes administers a COVID-19 test to Maria Suarez outside Heartland Health Centers in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood on July 10, 2020. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

A new testing guideline arrives just in time to   show, perhaps falsely, that the pandemic is abating. All hail to Biden

If you see a dramatic decrease in the number of infections over the next few weeks, credit the World Health Organization for fixing a problem with the testing procedure that some experts said over-counted the number of infections.

Under the new guideline, you might see a possibly dramatic decline the in the infection rate.

The kicker: The W.H.O. announced the correction on Jan. 20, the same day that President Donald Trump left office and Joe Biden was inaugurated.

Call it a coincidence. Or a quid pro quo for Biden from the W.H.O for restoring the United States’ membership in the organization, a payoff that will cost American taxpayers more than $400 million.

The guideline can get rather technical, but here are a couple of places that might help the layman: WHO releases new tightened guidelines regarding the diagnostic criteria for COVID-19. PCR positive no longer means you have COVID-19. You need a second test to confirm you have the virus and Why PCR Cycle Threshold Is Useful in Coronavirus Testing— It can help better triage patients, physician argues.

Let’s see if I can boil it down. Under the old guideline, test results came back either “positive” or “negative.” Some experts warned that the the simple yes-or-no option was too “sensitive,” so much so that the test would include not-so-serious levels of infection. Or include in the results a more common flu virus.

The data based on these yes-or-n0 tests would tend to exaggerate the seriousness of the infection because the threshold for declaring a yes was so ultra sensitive that it could include people only slightly infected or showing no symptoms. Or who are unlikely to pass on the disease. All these different levels of seriousness would be batched together with more serious or even fatal cases.

The policy implications are dire. Data that overstates, perhaps vastly so, the infection rate will lead to overreactions–shutting down schools and businesses, confining pe0ple to their homes and to overly long quarantines. And to crippling economic and emotional distress.

The new guideline will reveal to doctors the degree of seriousness of the infection, allowing them to better prescribe treatments. The new method for collecting  data will enable policy makers to better prescribe such things as how open the economy can be.

The problem is explained in a New York Times article:

The standard [previous] tests are diagnosing huge numbers of people who may be carrying relatively insignificant amounts of the virus.

Most of these people are not likely to be contagious, and identifying them may contribute to bottlenecks that prevent those who are contagious from being found in time.

The new guidelines have been little noticed outside of medical professionals, and as far as can tell,  I am may be the only layman writing about it.

But the consequences of the change could be immense. The number of cases is the one measure that gets the most attention in the media. For some, it is the best measure to most accurately gauge the extent of the pandemic, and over time it is used to conclude whether the pandemic is intensifying or receding.

So, the question now: If the new way of conducting tests is more accurate, why wasn’t the guideline changed sooner, months ago when experts understood the problem?

Inexplicably the effective date of the new guideline was Jan. 13, but it wasn’t published until Jan. 20, the date of Biden’s inauguration. Was it delayed to mute a possible Trump complaint that the seriousness of the pandemic was overstated because of “fake” data? Was the announcement of the new guideline held up until Biden took office so that the new data would “prove” that Biden was doing a better job than Trump?

I’ve watched the Chicago Way in action long enough to customarily suspect that political skulduggery is in play, on an international scale. If so, it would be a stunning betrayal if a health organization could be so politicized that it would fudge something that would otherwise help the world deal with the pandemic.

Whatever the reason, the implementation of a more accurate method of gauging the pandemic is a welcome development. Anything that helps us better understand how to deal with this novel coronavirus will save lives.

The problem is that experts were aware of the problem months ago. The change should have come months ago.

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For the past four years, we’ve had the honor of planning the birthday celebration for Chicago micro influencers known as “The Heath Dolls”. In the past, planning has been fun but this year, left us feeling a bit overwhelmed due to the uncertainties of how to celebrate safely in our “new normal”. One thing we’ve all likely noticed, is many of our go to birthday establishments have closed due to the pandemic and or have drastically altered the way we can celebrate. That said, two questions remain for many parents. What can we do safely? and Who can we call to help execute our plans?

Our number one suggestion is to forgo the crowds this year which worked out great for us. In honor of The Heath Dolls 4th birthday we decided on a Princess themed Tea Party. This is a theme one could easily host at home or a private venue. We also loved that it was fitting for as little as two guest and could even be a great mommy/daddy/ daughter celebration. Depending on the age of the child additional guest could include dolls and or stuffed animals.

Now once a theme is chosen, don’t overwhelm yourself with trying to figure everything out on your own. Ask friends and or family for referrals then begin researching the best people to hire. Our go to has always been to work with small businesses and with so many affected by the pandemic, what better time then now to support them. This year we teamed up with five local businesses who helped us eliminate our stress and bring our theme to life. You can check out each business below and consider hiring them for your next birthday celebration!

1. Location and Menu: Windy City Tea

We teamed up with small business owner and Tea connoisseur Phil Moy of Windy City Tea. Phil helped us curate the perfect tea party fixings with all the bells and whistles. The menu included scones, cucumber chicken salad, mini peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cheese and crackers and an assortment of fruit. After hosting over 3,000 tea lovers over the last three years at its Lombard location, Phil will be closing those doors and on a lookout for a new location with a new layout, new offerings and programs! In the meantime, he’ll will be available to help you plan your tea parties at home, whether it’s advice on what teas to serve, preparation of finger sandwiches and scones, or share the experiences and knowledge he’s gained over the last three years. Also beginning in March, Windy City Tea has plans to host tea parties at Paris Bistro, in Naperville. Lookout for news on that offering at http://Www.windycitytea.com or email [email protected] for any of your tea party needs!

2. Sweets: Peeka’s Sweet Treats

Sweets and Partys go hand and hand right? Of course they do! This is why we teamed up with Peeka’s Sweet Treats, Chicago’s number 1 destination for all your sweet needs. Owner Tupeeka Robinson put together the perfect sweets menu which included a custom princess birthday cake, dipped strawberries, mini rice crispy treats, mini pretzels, and dipped oreos. Peeka’s Sweet Treat specializes in sweets for any occasion and are laser focused on providing high-quality service and customer satisfaction! Check out the website and set up a consult today by visiting https://www.peekassweettreats.com/

3. Decor- Mera Mera Design and Events

The backdrop to your party is one of the most important elements to bring any theme to life. This is why we teamed up with one of Chicagos highly recommended event planners Emera Richmond of Mera Mera Design and Events. Emera transformed our setting into a magical space fit for any princess. This included a room planning, custom backdrop and fixtures, sweets table setting and tea table setting. Mera Mera Design Inc is a full service design and event planing company based in the south suburbs of Chicago, servicing the Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana areas. To learn more visit https://m.facebook.com/merameraevents/

4. Entertainment- Princess Party Chicago Inc

There is nothing more magical than having real life princess to help celebrate a child’s special day, which is why we teamed up with Chicago’s own Princess Party Chicago Inc. Disney Frozen princesses Anna and Elsa stopped by the intimate celebration singing hits from the original Frozen 1 and 2 movies including the popular “let it go”. Their visit also included story time, dancing and photo ops with all the guest. Princess Party Chicago Inc also offers virtual calls with characters ranging from $20-$100 to anyone in the world, while in-person parties, starting at $175, can be done anywhere in the Chicagoland area! They offer princesses, superheroes, space characters, and other beloved favorites for your party/event. For more info or to book visit www.princesspartychicago.com/our-characters or email them at [email protected]

5. Wardrobe- Fancy Like Mommy

Step six for the sake of the article but argumentively step 1 for The Heath Dolls who we know to be the Faces and CEO’s of Fancy Like Mommy shopping and lifestyle hub for girls. We strongly believe that the birthday child should look and feel their absolute best and Fancy Like Mommy by the Heath Dolls will help you them do just that. The company offers personal styling for any occasion and to match any theme. The Heath Dolls wore pastel two piece suits from the new Fashion Nova Kids collection paired with a vintage inspired princess tee and Nike air Jordans! Visit http://Www.fancylikemommy.com or email [email protected]for more information on personal styling.