Insert Foot vs. “Let Them Play.” I involuntarily cringe every time I see something on social media about the “Let Them Play” movement. It seems we’ve become big-picture immune. Perhaps not enough people know someone dead from COVID. Suffering is somehow still an abstract notion that’s someone’s else’s problem.…

First Avenue in Minneapolis photographed on May 19, 2020. Photo: Todd Johnson. While most headlines about the newly-passed, long-awaited second round of COVID relief are focused on the $600 individual payments, it also includes help for the nation’s independent venues. According to a joint statement by Nancy Pelosi and…

Czech composer Hans Krása, courtesy Wikipedia Commons. The string trio we played was born of suffering, written in turbulent times. The man who wrote it had just lost his home and was forced to live in crowded, unsafe conditions while witnessing people around him become ill and die as…

Children playing recorders. Photo: Getty. StubHub and Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation have gifted recorders to 4,300 San Francisco Unified School District fourth graders, spread across 72 schools in the district. The donations, part of StubHub’s commitment to putting more than $3 million in music instruments into public school music…

The Independent in San Francisco, closed, on March 16, 2020. Roman Gokhman/STAFF. About 300 San Francisco businesses that have been unable to open since March, including concert halls, will get a business fee and tax waiver from the city. “We need to do more to support those businesses that…

Insert Foot vs. resisting the urge, Bayshore Drive-in. INA Photo Agency/Getty Images. Burlingame’s Bayshore Drive-in is hosting drive-in concerts during these days of whine and COVID. Which is nice … they just had Major Lazer play, and even have some comedy acts coming up. But … One of the editors…

Taylor Swift performs on the Reputation Stadium Tour at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on May 11, 2018. Steve Carlson/STAFF. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday announced new rules for sporting event attendance; primarily, allowing 20-percent-attendance at outdoor stadiums in counties that reach the orange tier in the state’s…

Musicians and The Golden Bull owners Bill Schneider (left) Mark W. Lynn (center) and Jason Beebout take a break outside their bar on Oct. 14, 2020. Karen Goldman/STAFF. The owners of The Golden Bull in Oakland never expected to be reselling pizza, but now that’s what’s keeping the popular…

Fantastic Negrito performs during Let the Music Play On, Courtesy: Ken Friedman. Let the Music Play On, the virtual festival produced by Hardly Strictly Bluegrass last weekend resulted in in more than $3 million in relief for the music community in the Bay Area and across the U.S., producers announced…

Eric Wilson (center) with Sublime with Rome, Courtesy. After hosting a handful of tribute acts and regional bands at drive-in concerts last summer, the Alameda County Fairgrounds will be the scene of two Sublime with Rome concerts Friday and Saturday. The SoCal band, an offshoot from Sublime fronted by…