Our audacity of hope

 Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

One election at a time

The majority of Americans are good. We have heart. We have compassion. When we see others struggle, we want to lend a hand. For too long, we’ve been divided and pitted against each other by those who crave obscene wealth and power. Let’s change that. One election at a time.

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— Just Jack (@just-jack-1.bsky.social) November 5, 2025 at 7:26 PM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DXLVI--Janis Ian: At Seventeen

Yikes--nine days late.  I'd tell my readers (all three of you) that I'll work on being on time, but I think we all know better than that....

My introduction to this week's tune was most assuredly WLS-89 out of Chicago, which played all the top forty hits back in the day. In fairness, I did not care at all for the song when it was first released--it was a little too slow and a little too whiny.  As the years progressed, I came to see its greatness--though exactly when that occurred, I do not recall.  I'd like to think that the wisdom that comes with age played a part, but not really sure that I've gathered all that much wisdom yet....

Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink in 1951 in New Jersey) had her first hit record at the age of sixteen ("Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)"), her second hit at the age of twenty-four, and never came close to another.  Still, she's enjoyed a nearly sixty-year career thanks to those singles, been nominated for ten Grammys (winning two, including one for our song of the week), had numerous tours, and written a number of songs for other artists.  Ian also writes prose, having had several stories published in science fiction magazines, writing regularly for The Advocate (Ian came out in the early nineties), and an autobiography.  For her career, Ian has released twenty-three studio albums, five live albums, eighteen compilations, and sixty-three singles.  She released her latest album in 2023 and released a single with Joan Baez just this year.

"At Seventeen" was the second single released from Ian's seventh studio album, the rather knowingly entitled Between the Lines.  The single would reach #3 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album was the only #1 hit of her career.

Fun Fact:  Ian makes note a couple of times in this week's song about the Valentine's she never received, but the first Valentine's Day after the song's release made up for it at least a little bit--fans sent her 461 Valentine's cards.  Who says romance is dead?

Ian has said that she took her time writing "At Seventeen" because she wanted to make sure she got it just right--and man, oh, man did she ever succeed.  Her vocals are heartbreaking but not maudlin, her lyrics carry a sophistication (pretty sure it's the only song ever written that uses the world "debentures") that isn't often seen in top forty singles, and the music has a jazzy vibe that enhances the song from beginning to end.  While listening to it as I did my half-assed research this week, the instrumental break really stood out, with first some melancholy trumpets and closing with a smooth guitar line.  I also like the way the trumpets reappear toward the end of the song, echoing the pain that Ian weaves into her vocals.  Ian has said that the song is full of hope (she calls herself an ugly duckling for a reason), and in the end I think it is--the world is full of misfits who have inspired so many of us, and with this song Ian adds herself to that very special list.

Lyric Sheet:  "It was long ago and far away/The world was younger than today/When dreams were all they gave for free/To ugly duckling girls like me..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Never. Give. Up.

There is hope... https://t.co/dfKxxFFGJN

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 3, 2024

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

Valentine's Day 5: Talkin' 'bout a (Democratic) revolution

 

So I might want to wait on building the underground shelter and stocking it with food?

Given world and national events, it’s difficult if not impossible not to feel anger and despair. Good time to remind ourselves that to fight through these times we need to hope, aspire, encourage, and never give up.

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) March 25, 2022

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

 

Happy New Year

Hope is on the horizon...

 For the first time since January 20, 2017, I feel hope for America.  I have no idea if Joe Biden will be a great President or not, but after four years of Donald Trump it's hard not to believe that we will be a more successful and certainly more compassionate nation because of his leadership than we were at any time under Trump's failed administration.

There is literally no place for America to go but up.

And because once again I can believe in the promise that is America, a song for a healthier and vibrant 2021 for us all:

A blessed New Year to you all,

emaycee

It was a very good year

Here's hoping our long national nightmare ends this year...

I've read a number of people over the past few days who have noted that 2019 was a miserable year.  I get it--Australia is literally on fire and climate change keeps getting the short shrift from republicans; fascism is becoming the norm in India, Hungary, Poland, and Brazil; North Korea continues to make a fool of Donald Trump and is a whisker away from a nuclear catastrophe; every study released this year concerning the Trump tax cuts shows that the only thing it accomplished was making rich people richer; the media continues to be a dead man walking when it comes to exposing how abnormal Donald Trump is vis a vis the Presidency (and just about everything else); and perhaps worst of all--and something I never thought I'd live to see--the greatest experiment in democracy in mankind's history is on the verge of being destroyed because one of the political parties in our home country is much more concerned with appeasing the wealthy and coddling racists than with securing the blessings of liberty that made America the grandest dream mankind ever dreamed.

Despite all that (and plenty more that I'm sure I didn't mention) I will guarantee you that 2019 was a very good year--because despite all the bad news, despite the republican party becoming the Junior Nazi party, despite insurmountable odds...we're still fighting for what is right.  We impeached Donald Trump.  Though we still have far to go, we continue to make strides in civil rights for women, minorities, and the LGBTQ community.  The minimum wage will raise tomorrow in numerous states.  We have actionable plans for addressing climate change.  The candidates we have who are sparring to see who gets to challenge Donald Trump next November are all light years better than he (well, except maybe Tulsi Gabbard), and might be the most impressive group of candidates in our nation's history.  Every single day there is some American somewhere in this crazy land that is standing up to republicans' creeping fascination with fascism and saying, "Nope, not on my watch."

And as long as we're still fighting for what is right, there is hope...and as Stephen King once noted in The Shawshank Redemption, "...(H)ope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

Onward.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee