Hi there, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Friday. In the past few weeks, the Trump administration has placed massive pressure on governors to open schools up in the fall for in-person learning. While everything from elementary schools to college campuses closed down for distance learning in the spring, the White House is pushing for schools to reopen as part of a wider plan to "revive" the economy and return to life as normal, this is all despite a recent surge in COVID-19 cases. In reaction to this push to return to full classroom learning, some teachers have been writing their wills as a morbid precaution. In a more humane world, this in itself would be enough to give our government pause about the next steps, but alas... that is not the state we're currently in. In response to the rapidly approaching fall school dates, the cultural analyst Melissa Hillman wrote a thread predicting exactly what will happen if schools open across the country. First off, Hillman predicts every teacher with the ability to retire will make that call at the very last minute, causing a shortage of teachers. Any issues with understaffing and underfunding will be manipulated into blame toward teacher unions and the teachers themselves, Hillman wrote. Due to the strict schedule of a school day, Hillman wrote that it's unlikely that classrooms will be properly sterilized between students... particularly without enough PPE and cleaning supplies. Again, Hillman wrote that any teacher with the ability to quit will quit, they're already underpaid and under appreciated... so the imminent risk of death is beyond a tipping point. Hillman also predicted that at least one teacher will go into the ICU from every school that opens, and that will cause a widespread call for quarantine... with no previous planning for distance learning. This immediate lockdown will saddle working parents with no child care, and give teachers in the impossible task of creating digital learning in less than 24 hours. Ultimately, Hillman wrote, this will result in the deaths of parents, teachers, and children, There will be children who will lose one or both parents, and grow up with life-long complications from the virus (on top of the psychological trauma). There will be protests, walk-outs, and eventually... the pandemonium will result in more under-prepared distance learning. And all of this can still be avoided. The reason schools are even being pushed to reopen is to revive the economy, and Hillman wrote that the reversal back to online education is not a question of if... but when, and it all depends on when the deaths start. The victim-blaming, Hillman wrote, will be rampant and will teachers and families for mass death, instead of the very government that forced them into this position. While yes, we all miss the experience of being in a room together, Hillman wrote that teaching in a socially distant classroom will be much harder and more emotionally taxing than teaching via Zoom. A lot of people jumped onto Hillman's thread to echo her thoughts and share how they are dealing with the possibility of schools reopening. A lot of teachers confirmed Hillman's prediction that they'll quit their jobs if it comes to that. People also pointed out that if we wanted to open schools in safer ways, there are precautions and methods, the U.S. just hasn't set itself up for those. It's sad that this thread even exists, but there is still time for teachers and parents to band together and stand up against demands that their children and livelihood be put at risk.
When you think the nightmare has ended in the Catholic church, more details have come to light surrounding the sexual abuse allegations against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Not only was the former Newark archbishop and cardinal “defrocked and cast out of the ministry” for sexually abusing minors and adult seminarians over the decades, but a new lawsuit has come forward detailing how he was sexually abusing teenagers at his New Jersey beach house in Sea Girt in an alleged sex ring too. Another victim, only known as Doe 14, was raised in Newark, New Jersey. By the time he was a teenager, Doe 14, an active church participant and student at St. Francis Xavier in Newark and Essex Catholic in East Orange in the Archdiocese of Newark, was allegedly groomed in a sex ring that the former Cardinal McCarrick was involved with. The lawsuit explained that other priests brought victims to McCarrick to be paired with adult clerics, where he “assigned sleeping arrangements, choosing his victims from the boys, seminarians and clerics present at the beach house.” In a virtual press conference, Jeff Anderson and other attorneys representing the now 53-year-old Doe 14 explained the details of how the sexual abuse played out over decades, which not only involved McCarrick, but also other clergy members, along with at least seven kids. They also called out how the Catholic church “cloaked” the “open and obvious” criminal sexual assault. The court papers also explained that Doe 14 was also filing suit against “the Diocese of Metuchen, where McCarrick served as bishop, the Archdiocese of Newark, where he was the archbishop, and the schools, high schools and parish schools Doe 14 had attended while growing up in New Jersey.” Other sexual abuse charges from other seminarian victims of McCarrick stemmed from his beach house as well. Doe 14 also called out other priests who were at the beach house and sexually abusing the victims there. He named Gerald Ruane, Michael Walters, John Laferrera, Brother Andrew Thomas Hewitt, and Anthony Nardino. Ruane and Hewitt have already passed away and the others have been removed from the ministry. Nardino specifically was accused of molesting Doe 14 when he was only 11-years-old. These lawsuits are key under the new law that allows victims more time “to sue their alleged abusers and the institutions that protected them,” in which James Grein came forward in 2019 that he had also been abused by McCarrick. McCarrick allegedly continued to abuse him for 20 years, even after Grein disclosed the abuse during a Vatican visit to Pope John Paul II. More victims who were sexually abused by McCarrick came forward to corroborate about the beach house sex ring in Sea Girt. Two cases resulted in secret $80,000 settlements, one including a former priest who became a lawyer. The lawyer mentioned how McCarrick “would invite young seminarians and priests to the house in Sea Girt, where they would be expected to share a bed with McCarrick.” As more legitimate allegations came forward, McCarrick was eventually forced to resign from his position and removed from the ministry. He was laicized, which is considered one of the harshest punishments by the church.
An Ohio man who was out on parole has now been thrown back in jail and is awaiting new felony charges after a picture circulated on social media, showing him posing with his knee to the neck of a crying two-year-old boy. Alongside the picture, there was a message referring to the Black Lives Matter Movement. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office first became aware of the photo circulating on Facebook, which appears to be a direct reference to a former Minnesota cop, Derek Chauvin, who murdered George Floyd by pressing his knee on his neck for 9 minutes. The death of George Floyd quickly sparked several months of protests across the United States. The photo shows a man, who was identified as a 20-year-old Isaiah Jackson, with his knee on the child’s neck, who is only wearing a diaper. A second person is seen holding a child’s hands behind his back. A black banner across a photograph read: "BLM now mf.” Police officers were able to determine the location where the incident took place and made contact with both the child and the mother, as well as a male subject who was seen using the image. According to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, the relationship between Jackson and the child’s mother is still unknown. Jackson, who is a Parole Authority holder from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, was quickly taken into custody and still remains incarcerated in Clark County Jail. He is now waiting for the county prosecutor office “to provide a determination on the scope of the breadth of the felony charges that will be supported by the office for presentation in court.” According to the Sheriff’s Office, the child was taken to a local hospital for further examination and was luckily found to have no injuries related to the incident. The Sheriff’s Office stated that the mother, who has not been identified, told deputies that she was not aware of the photo until she was informed by other parties that the Sheriff’s Office was on the way to her home to begin the investigation of the incident. The investigation is still ongoing. Relating to the photo, an Atlanta area high school special education teacher is currently under fire for commenting beneath the photo once it’s made its way to Facebook further encouraging the volume against the toddler. According to WGCL-TV, Brian Papin, a Cedar Grove High School interrelated teacher, wrote “Again! Your [sic] doing it wrong! One knee on the center of the back one [sic] the neck and lean into it until death! You saw the video! Get it right or stop fucking around!” DeKalb County School District released a statement on Facebook saying they were aware of the disturbing social media post associated with a district teacher. They are currently investigating the situation and they’re committed to the safety of the children, noting there is no place for racism in their District.
New Mexico authorities are investigating a deadly shooting at an auto shop after a man who refused to wear a mask allegedly tried to run over the shop owner’s son and crashed into a vehicle before driving off. An incident report written by Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputies say as they were searching for the man, they received a call from the shop owner saying the man had returned and that his son had shot someone. Deputies found two men on the ground. One didn’t have a pulse. Albuquerque police have taken over the investigation. Police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos declined to release more details about Tuesday afternoon’s shooting, saying detectives were interviewing additional people. “The investigation is still in its preliminary stage,” he said Thursday. The initial incident report indicated the man had stopped at the auto shop and asked for air for his tire, the Albuquerque Journal reported. The owner said he told the man that he could help him but that he needed to have a mask on and the man became “extremely irate.” The state’s mandate that everyone must wear face coverings in public has been in effect since May 16th. Operators of essential businesses must require customers to wear masks, and violators are subject to a fine. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in a tweet Thursday reiterated the call for wearing masks as state health officials urged people to stay at home.
New York City officials will no longer be able to use the terms “ illegal immigrant” and “alien” to refer to undocumented immigrants. The NYC Council voted yesterday to ban the “dehumanizing and offensive” words in local laws, documents, and rules. According to speaker Corey Johnson, the term that officials will be using going forward will be “non-citizen” Ahead of the vote, council member Francisco Moya stated, “These words are outdated and loaded words used to dehumanize the people they describe. It’s time to retire them. Words matter. The language we choose to use has power and consequences.” Last year, the city’s Commission of Human Rights issued a guidance making it illegal to use the terms “ illegals” or “ illegal alien” with intent to humiliate, harass, or intent to demean a person. The guidance also made it illegal to discriminate or harass against someone for their use of “another language or their limited English proficiency, and threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a person based on discriminatory motive.”
Do you kids like The Princess Bride movie? Not me. I do not like that movie at all. Anyway, if you watched it recently you might notice they made a few changes to the film.
Told you. Haha. I'm glad to see kids are using puns to prank their parents. Like this milk gone bad...
Hahahaha. Did you see Ivanka Trump's latest ad? No? I have it here...
The bottom text says, "Since you're not getting much real dicks in quarantine." Hey. It's her ad, not mine. Do you kids like the movie A League of Their Own? I saw it when it came out and it was okay. I do not remember Donald Trump being in the film though.
There's no crying in baseball. If I had a TARDIS I would go to the see the 1951 Boston Marathon.
Nine-ear-old Shigeki Tanaka was a survivor of the bombing of Hiroshima and went on to win the marathon. The crowd was silent as he crossed the finishing line. The war had only just ended and anti-Japanese sentiment was huge. He was running in "tabi" or split-toe shoes made by the Kobe footwear company called Onitsuka, named after its founder and which is best known today as Asics. So, today's guest, Alex Lacamoire worked on Hamilton. I have not seen it yet, and don't think Lin-Manuel Miranda looks nothing like the real Hamilton, until I saw this painting of Hamilton that was painted when he was president...
I don't like things that make me cry myself. Okay, now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York here is...
Top Phive Things Said By People Who Saw Hamilton
5. The Hamilton lyric "your perfume smells like your daddy's got money" is the one stuck in my head today. I fear that like many of my thoughts tweeting it is the only way to exercise it.
4. I'm running for President - Kanye after watching Hamilton for the 12th time.
3. Anyway, if you watched Hamilton and see the man literally cheat on his wife, fail his allies, send his own son to his death, have an emotional affair with his sister-in-law, be a dick to everyone around him and think it glorifies the Founding Fathers, not sure what to tell you.
2. Just watched Hamilton with my dad and Burr shoots Hamilton and he goes, "Wow, I didn't expect that." Sorry what?
And the number one thing said by someone who saw Hamilton...
1. Eliza Hamilton was pregnant with her sixth child when her husband published the "Reynolds Pamphlet," let that sink in.
If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, here's a nice story from...
The 132nd book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...
Phile Alum Alicia Keys will be on the Phile on Monday. Okay, let's take a live look at Port Jeff, shall we?
Looks like a nice evening there. Now for some...
Phact 1. In 1943, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles merged into one team known as the “Steagles” because of depleted rosters during World War 2.
Phact 2. In 1968, over 6,000 sheep suddenly died near the Skull Valley Indian Reservation in Utah. It was later revealed that this was due to nerve agent testing by the U.S. Army.
Phact 3. There is a charity gaming marathon where gamers complete games as fast as possible. People watching “Awesome Games Done Quick” on a live stream donated over $4.5M in the last 2 year alone. All donation go to charities like Doctors Without Borders and the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
Phact 4. YouTube is blocked in China.
Phact 5. George Washington’s best spy was codenamed ‘Culper Jr.’. He was identified as Robert Townsend nearly 150 years after the war because a Long Island historian named Morton Pennypacker recognized his handwriting from some business receipts and matched it to intelligence correspondence.
Today's guest is an American musician, arranger, conductor, musical director, music copyist, and orchestrator who has worked on many shows both on and off Broadway. He is the recipient of multiple Tony and Grammy Awards for his work on shows such as In the Heights, Hamilton, and Dear Evan Hansen. Please welcome to the Phile... Alex Lacamoire.
Me: Hello, Alex, welcome to the Phile. How are you?
Alex: Hello, thank you for having me.
Me: Okay, before we get to Hamilton, which I have not seen... but everyone I practically know has. My sister and her family are obsessed. Anyway, What is the earliest memory you have falling in love with music?
Alex: Oh, wow, that is a great question. Legend has it when I was 2-years-old I would sit in front of a speaker for our home stereo system and I would stare into that speaker, transfixed by the sound coming from within. Before I knew how to read words or read letters I apparently could tell you which record I wanted to listen to just by the color and the logo on the cover and label of a 45. I would say to my mom, "I want to hear 'Hotel California'" or whatever then they'd pick up a record thinking it was it and I'd say, "No, it's not that one, it's this one. It's over here." I knew what it looked like before it was put on a turn table. So I guess I always had an association with music and visuals and sound and what have you. This was before I could even form memories. Those are the earliest memories.
Me: Did sitting by the speakers hurt your hearing? I have been around loud music all my life pretty much and my hearing is going.
Alex: Yeah, right around the same time I was falling in love with music a doctor told me I would need hearing aids.
Me: Man, how did you react to that diagnosis when you were just a little kid?
Alex: I don't think I properly processed it. I think I was too young to really understand.
Me: How old were you when that happened?
Alex: I think I was about 4-years-old when that happened.
Me: So, what do you remember about it?
Alex: I remember getting an exam and then being mold in my ears so they can get the size right, etc, etc. I think I did have a sense that this was not something that everybody had to use. I did have a sense that this was "clinical," I don't know if this is the right word. That feeling of going to the doctors office, that sterile environment where it's just me and some stranger doing exams and grading me on something. So I did sense that was something not normal about it.
Me: I interviewed Huey Lewis recently and he talked about his hearing loss. How did you you deal with yours?
Alex: As time went on I learned how to deal with it and accept it. Not to say at times it still stings a little bit. I still deal with that and in my life it's something I'll always carry with me but it's something I just learned to adapt to, if you will.
Me: I think it gave you a super power in a way about your career. Haha. Do you agree?
Alex: Perhaps. What I tell people is because I don't hear sounds, ambient noises as people's "normal hearing," I'm able to tune things out a lot more easily. I'm much more able yo focus on the thing that is right in front of me. I really have excellent tunnel vision when it comes to working on stuff. There will be times I'll be in my office starring at a computer screen, working on some music and my wife will be standing right next to me, just outside my peripheral vision for a good minute or two before I even notice she's there. I just get lost in what I am doing. Because of that I am able to zero in on what's in front of me and just really obsess about it and get down deep into it. So, I guess I suppose I have achieved some hyper-aware of music and sound because of my dreams.
Me: How would you describe your music, Alex?
Alex: By feel, by physicality, it's super percussive you hear with the Hamilton stuff. I think it's a body thing, more than an ears thing.
Me: So, it's the rhythm of the music that you feel?
Alex: Yeah, music is a very physical experience for me. If you ever see me play the piano my body tends to move a lot. My body moves, my hand movie. Even when I'm listening there are times I exclaim if I hear something I like I'm like "woo!" Or "whoa!" I bend backwards a little bit when something hits me a certain way. There are certain reactions that I can't really control.
Me: When did you start with musical theater, Alex?
Alex: I worked on Wicked and Avenue Q. That's where I formed this relationship with an up and comer named Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Me: So, what do you love about theater?
Alex: One of the thing I love about theater is about the process of creating and developing a show. It morphs and it changes.
Me: Give me an example that sticks out. Alex: The song "Blackout" from In the Heights I think of the many incarnations the intro went through. There was a version I remember when instead of this gradual build of them it was just everybody coming in at once going "whaaaaaaa!!!!" All the lines coming in at once because we wanted to symbolize what it felt after you you're in a club and the pier goes out, what would that be like? Then eventually we stumbled upon this stylistic idea that it may take a second, the power goes out and it takes a send of "what just happened? Oh, the power went out." In that there's a little gradual acceptance of dealing with it, etc, etc. And I remember it being important to me that we understand that there's been a blackout and actually physically say the word or hear it, and Lin came up with the idea of using that line first. "Oye, que paso? Vino el apagon, ay dios!" I love that it's in Spanish and I love how that one voice happens and the other people sing "Oh, my gosh" or "Oh, no." Whatever it is. It starts to pile on and we get this big quilt of different ideas to try to symbolize the mayhem that might be ensuing from all these people in a club. That's a long answer to your question, but that's what comes to mind about the work that goes into it and not getting it perfect the first time. And having to develop it and having to throw out ideas and come up with new ones and throwing them on people and seeing what comes out of it.
Me: In the Heights is gonna be a movie, right? It's a Spanish musical?
Alex: It draws on Lin's Puerto Rican heritage, yeah. I also grew up in a Latin-American family, a Cuban family.
Me: How helpful was that in the process of creating In the Heights?
Alex: For this particular show I can't over stress how fortunate I feel about that, how I grew up. Even the fact that I'm Cuban-American and Lin is Puerto Rican, and has Mexican heritage as well, we were able to just instantly bond just based on that. The fact that we were two Latin kids who are enjoying theater and trying to create something new. We just had a similar thing to draw from. Whether it was our language, whether it was our salsa music we were exposed to growing up. It's that thing where you meet someone for the first time and you feel that you've known them. Just instantly when I first met Lin I knew it was something we could bond over. I am confident that our relationship blossomed because we just had that instinctive base that was in our DNA that we didn't have to talk about. It certainly was just there, we we were just able to throw in Spanglish in our conversations and just make jokes about it. I just love how effortless that was and how great it was for me to be in New York City and be in musical theater and find someone who literally spoke my language. I would encounter friends like that every now and then, most of the people I knew growing up in Miami tried to make it to New York, but I didn't have a circle of Latino friends that who just really bond with and talk about our craft in that way. So it was a real blessing.
Me: So, I first heard about Hamilton was on "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2017 I think, or 2106, and I thought Hamilton wasn't Spanish or from Puerto Rico. What the hell? Then before I knew it everyone was into it... when Lin-Mianda first approached you with the idea and pitched it to you what did you think?
Alex: When he brought it in I recognized the verbal dexterity of it, and was like wow, this is really cool, about the craft of it. But at the same time I remember squinting my eyes and being like "is this serious? Is this tongue in cheek?" Because it seemed so outlandish, right? Like I didn't think to myself I'm going to marry American history with pop and condense a biography if you will into this four minute single. It wasn't until I heard the song "My Shot" a year later, there was something about that that I personally was able to see the drama of it more clearly right away. That's nothing to say the composition is better or stronger than the other but that's something to say something about "My Shot" once I heard that and once I saw history being personified in action and in chants and in passion of words and an idea. Meaning to be expressed and what would it take to get there and manifest it, I saw it and I felt it, and I was like oh, wow, American history is cool. I didn't love American history when I was in high school, I wasn't particularly good at it. But all of a sudden when these people looked like human beings, the way that Lin-Manuel was painting them, the way they were speaking a language that felt vizual and in a way that I can just relate all of a sudden something that would have been in black and white all of a sudden went to color for me.
Me: I asked my sister Lucy to describe "My Shot" in one sentence and she said, "I don't think I can so that!" So, what did you do for that song?
Alex: Arranged it, composed it, music directed it.
Me: How do you even start to arrange that many instruments and voices all together to tell a story?
Alex: The first thing I want to say, Lucy is a genius. That means a lot. All I hear when I hear that song are Lin-Manuel's words and composition. The good news is that Lin-Manuel's demo was so well flushed out and so clear to me what it needed to sound like. The tempo is there and I see it all and I hear it all. It's not that I don't get ideas along the way, that I don't develop it as it goes, but I'm able to hear the drums are going to do this, the bass is going to hold the notes, and the guitar is going to start playing eight notes underneath it. I can't explain why that happens or why that is but I think a lot of it has to do with the groundwork that Lin-Manuel lays out. I heard people talk about the art and talk about inalterability of something and the sense of we hear something and that feels correct, complete and whole and whatever that is. I feel that when I hear Lin's songs and when at times the songs are still in progress, developing it as it goes, I see that the idea is always string enough for me I get a glow of it and be able to dive in and I hear what's around it.
Me: The movie Hamilton is now on Disney+. What do you think about it?
Alex: So, the finished product is so beautiful and I give massive credit to Tom Kail, our director. And I give massive credit to Jonah Moran our editor. It's a big daunting task to have at least seven cameras of material for the show. We have to decide which angle we're going to be looking at. Which moment are we going to decide to feature because we are trying to give one particular vantage point of the story. How do we choose? How are we able yo do that? That to me is my problem, because that could go anywhere, right? We could have a different editor behind the wheel and the finished project would be totally different. So it's very personal in that way and we have to try to figure out how to give the clearest rendition of the story as possible with these angles and these colors and these looks. I supposed that goes with arranging and orchestrating as well, right? On one hand when I'm listening to the cast album all we have to deal with is the audible experience, we have to make that as good as possible. The listener wold put on their headphones or listen through their speakers and make their own visual of what they think it looks like but here we are tasked with making this film, and we see the costumes, see the set, see the choreography, see the lighting, and we have to decide what it all needs to be and give that to an audience. So that is a herculean task I think and I'm extremely proud of what the product is and I think people enjoy watching it and feel like they're getting the experience of the totality of the show.
Me: Now it's on TV who needs to go see it live, right? What do you say about people that will think that?
Alex: To really experience Hamilton I think, the way it was intended, one needs to be sitting in the theater and feeling what that is, and I really long for the day that after the shutdown people are able to attend theater once more and enjoy the communal experience inside the theater and watching an actor with your very eyes walk the tightrope and perform that song without a net, but I think this movie would be the next best thing for people to have that live experience in their homes.
Me: I will try to watch it, or listen to it. Thanks for being on the Phile, Alex. Take care.
Alex: I hope you do. Thank you.
He said my sister Lucy is a genius. I bet she'll like that. She said the same thing about Alex. Anyway, that about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Alex Lacamoire for a cool interview. The Phile will be back on Monday with Phile Alum Alicia Keys. Spread the word, not the turd or virus. Don't let snakes or alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.
I don't want you, cook my bread, I don't want you, make my bed, I don't want your money too, I just want to make love to you. - Willie Dixon
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