Yesterday, I attended the Labor Day protest march in Boston where I saw many signs of the times.
Members of a metal-workers union. Governor Maura Healey!
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I went to the protest with my ukulele, my signs of the times, and a plan to sing my protest songs if I could. However, I got distracted by all the great signs, the competing music, and running into several people I know, including a classmate from college.
However, I played “You Don’t Scare Me” for some organizers of the weekly protest in Cambridge and they loved it, so a sign of the times is that I’ll be attending one of the Cambridge protests in the near future.
Do you see other signs of the times in this blog?
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Here’s what I find when I search for “signs of the times” on YouTube.
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Thanks to all who are here for these signs (and songs) of the times, including YOU!
Getting people’s attention is complicated for me, because I grew up surrounded by mixed messages about that.
My late father loved getting people’s attention with his singing and his humor; my mother preferred not to have people’s attention at all. Also, I was told not to attract the attention of the “evil eye” if I called attention to anything positive, including my accomplishments or hopes. I think Jewish families in the 60s often believed that getting people’s attention was dangerous.
I rarely know what to expect these days, so it’s often helpful when people tell me what to expect.
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I don’t know what to expect when this local activist sings her protest song “You Don’t Scare Me” and her parody song “The Age of Nefarious” at today’s rally, but that’s okay.
You might not know what to expect from my other images for today, but here they are.
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I don’t know what to expect when I search YouTube for “what to expect.”
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I don’t know what to expect from your comments and I look forward to them!
You might know what to expect at the end of this blog post: it’s gratitude for you!
I went to two No Kings protests in Massachusetts yesterday that were very well attended, despite the rain.
Here is a quote from an Axios article about yesterday’s No Kings protests throughout the USA:
At both No Kings protests I attended we stood at intersections with our signs and there was so much horn honking in solidarity that it was difficult for people to hear my protest song “You Don’t Scare Me.” No kings and no noise will ever stop me; people who could hear my song liked it and even sang along. Somebody at my second No Kings protest told me, “I asked AI to write a protest song last night and it was pretty good but yours is better!”
Here are the images I collected on No Kings Saturday.
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Here’s what I find when I search for “No Kings“ on YouTube:
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Thanks to all who are here for this No Kings blog post, including YOU!
I try to avoid exaggerating because I value authenticity and honesty.
Exaggerating can make a better story, but I hope I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve done that very few times.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that I will be going to more than one protest on Saturday and that I hope to sing my protest song “You Don’t Scare Me.”
I’m also not exaggerating when I say that I usually have trouble spelling “exaggerating” because I think different letters should be doubled.
Because I dislike exaggerating, I just rewrote the last sentence, changing “always” to “usually.”
I’m not exaggerating about this: I submitted this to a songwriting contest yesterday even though I know it’s very unlikely to win.
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I don’t think I’m exaggerating my talent as a songwriter. I believe a lot of people downplay their own talents for fear of being seen as exaggerating (and conceited).
I’m not exaggerating about this: almost all the people I work with are terrified of overestimating their worthiness while they have no problem underestimating that — exaggerating their flaws to an excessive degree.
What are your thoughts and feelings about exaggerating?
I’m never exaggerating when I write that I am deeply grateful for YOU.
Lately, I’ve been walking more, eating healthier, and only paying attention to the news when it seems to be giving some joy to others.
My husband Michael, who has been practicing self care since the November election by avoiding the news completely, was open to hearing yesterday about the epic breakup between Trump and Musk. It felt like old times and self care as we talked about the news briefly during our usual Friday night routine of getting sushi and walking around looking for rabbits.
Also, I’m forgiving myself for my inevitable mistakes and hesitations when I do something new, like getting one of my songs on Spotify.
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It also felt like self care to create my first playlist on Spotify of protest songs, including my own!
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This weekend, I’m going to practice self care by taking it easy and talking to another singer-songwriter about what she’s learned about getting her music out there.
Do you see self care in my images for today?
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On National Play Outside Day, I’m going to practice self care by playing outside with my lifelong friend Barbara.
Here’s what I find when I search for “self care” on YouTube:
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Thanks to all who help me practice self care every day, including YOU!
I know I’ve written before about how I can struggle with decisions, decisions. When there are too many options, I can worry about not having the information I need to make the “right” choice.
When I’ve spoken to people in therapy about their worries about making decisions, decisions, I’ve pointed out that our all-or-nothing thinking brains tend to think in extreme terms of wrong or right, upping the stakes on decisions, decisions we need to make. Also, we forget that if we make a decision, decisions we regret, we can also make further decisions, decisions in the future to help the situation.
Right now, I’m considering a decision, decision to get a new phone. Many people have suggested that my decision, decision to hold on to my iPhone 8 for years, years might not have been the best decision, decision (although I had a fun conversation recently with an IT specialist about how he has done the same with his iPhone 8).
Why is getting a new phone such a scary, scary decision, decision for me? Because I am happy with my current phone, even if it’s slow and limited in its capabilities. The familiar, familiar often feels safer than the unknown phone.
Do you see decisions, decisions in my images for today?
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So I finally made the decision, decision to go with the music distribution platform LANDR after previously making the wrong decision about how to distribute my original songs. Here’s the protest song that will be appearing soon on Spotify and elsewhere!
There were no rules about recording what we were listening to in the theatre, but there was an unexpected rule about not bringing instruments into the Orpheum Theatre, so I had to bring my ukulele back to my car before I could get in.
Before that, people in a very short line outside the theatre were listening to my protest song and they liked it!
On my way back to the theatre after returning my ukulele to my car, I was listening to this near the theatre:
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After I took my seat, one usher and I had the funnest time listening to the pre-show music together. I couldn’t believe that I was listening to one of my favorite tunes by my favorite drummer, Billy Cobham!
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What I didn’t realize was that while I was listening to music inside the theatre a very huge line was forming outside. If I had been listening to some inner wisdom, maybe I would have gone back outside and sung my song a capella for all the people waiting. Or maybe if I had shown up later many people would have been listening to me playing my ukulele and singing while we were waiting together.
Instead, I was inspired to get my song out there in other ways by Rachel Maddow’s urging all of us listening (including the artists) to do our part to fight fascism in the USA, just as Americans did in the 1930s, as she describes in her latest book.
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Here’s more of what we were listening to last night.
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After listening to Rachel encourage us to connect to each other to fight fascism together, I did sing my song for a few people on my way back to my car and everybody seemed to love it.
My inner critic tried to tell me that I could have and should have done a better job positioning myself to sing to bigger audiences last night, but I stopped listening to that non-inspiring inner critic.
On my drive home, I blasted my protest song out my car windows, thinking that it was as worth listening to as all the music I hear blasting out of car windows.
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Is there listening in my other images for today?
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Many of us the USA have the same problem right now, and I hope we can solve it together.
Thanks to all who are listening here and now, including YOU!
