The Founder of Low Bar Chorale Says Oregon Needs Better Quarantine Slogans

Kate Sokoloff knows she has it good, while others have it very bad.

A home in Montavilla. (Rocky Burnside)

Willamette Week presents “Distant Voices,” a daily video interview for the era of social distancing. Our reporters are asking Portlanders what they’re doing during quarantine.

Kate Sokoloff, founder of the hit radio and stage show Live Wire, is good at making the best of a bad situation. After David Bowie died, she and local musician Ben Landsverk arranged an event at OMSI’s Kendall Planetarium for people who wanted to sing, cry and mourn the British legend.
Then George Michael and Prince died, and they did it again. Out of those tragedies, Low Bar Chorale was born. Until COVID-19 hit, Low Bar gathered people together twice a month  to transform local bars into drop-in singalongs with local musicians from bands like Blind Pilot.
Now, Sokoloff is making the most of the pandemic. She already worked at home, and she and her boyfriend are in a quarantine “double bubble.” They spend weekends at his place with a big TV, a sauna, and—big attraction—a new dart board.

And Sokoloff knows she has it good, while others have it very bad. An advertising and brand consultant, Sokoloff hates the we're all in this together signs, because we're not.

"It's tone deaf and pretentious for me to think that my situation is nearly the same as someone who doesn't have the resources I have," Sokoloff says."I am living it up, and there are a lot of people who are not and rightly want to punch me in the face."

So, she doesn't have one of the signs. We asked her for a better slogan for quarantine: something that would make it more appealing, and get more people to do it. She said she'd work on it. In the meantime, she said we should ask you.

So, what should it be? Leave a comment with your suggestion.

And, for a good time, tune into Low Bar Chorale on Facebook Live every Tuesday night at 6 pm. Sokoloff isn't one to let a little pandemic stop the music.

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