Dear Friends:

With nearly every region in some sort of lockdown the past year, growing overly accustomed to indoor living and outdoor recreation at a distance is likely a routine we are all too familiar.  

Mine is no different, running out of excuses not to finally clean out the garage.  Decorating the walls and planting new succulents, for the second time, still wasn't enough to keep me from experimenting with different ways to smoke and dehydrate meats or mix up new fruit-infused libations.  

Tight bubbles among family and close friends encouraged expanding the social radius ever so slightly with a small family gathering Toluca Lake, backyard wedding in Encino, and even a short weekend to Las Vegas and Palm Springs.

At Disney, the studio overcame a year of working from home to finish production on our latest feature film, "Raya and the Last Dragon" (March 5), being the first to premiere on Disney+ Premiere Access in conjunction with theaters, where open.  My previous role in exploring new workflows is now pivoting fully into the episodic streaming model, as I am currently assisting an upcoming animated series "Iwájú" (2023), which will be unlike anything Disney Animation has ever done in terms of the creative and technical approach.

However, with an impatient list of time off plans urgently awaiting to be unleashed, including that wedding Connie and I had planned to do in 2020, it's hard to focus on the professional agenda despite the looming return to the non-virtual office this summer.  

I joke about how the comforts of home have become mundane, and as relieving as the COVID-19 immunization rollout has been, there are definitely some quarantine comforts I am not ready to let go just yet.  In reality, we may have a handle on the pandemic, but what about the racial injustice, bias, and violence that continues to plague our communities?  There's always more work to be done.

Hoping to reunite soon,

-Mike