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I heard on the radio that pessimism is a waste of time. Maybe the invisible person in my car is right. To that end, I'm starting 2019 with a new daily affirmation:

I get up, and nothing gets me down.
You got it tough. I've seen the toughest around,
and I know, baby, just how you feel.
You got to roll with the punches and get to what's real.

Can't you see me standin' here?
I got my back against the record machine.
I ain't the worst that you've seen.
Can't you see what I mean?

Might as well jump.

Ooh, yeah. I should go ahead and jump. We all should.

May your 2019 be as delightful as my 1984 was.

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Damn, 2017 was a rough year. Death, destruction, disharmony encroached from all sides.

As usual this time of year, I listen to the past for signs of where we can go from here. This is what I heard the past saying:

Baby, I don't understand
why we can't just hold on
to each other's hands.

This time will be the last,
I fear, unless I make it all too clear:
I need you so.

Take these broken wings
and learn to fly again.
Learn to live so free.

When we hear the voices sing,
the book of love will open up
and let us in.

So deep! Obviously these "broken wings" are a metaphor for our culture's injured psyche, a malady we can best heal by coming together and singing. Thank you so much for sharing your ageless wisdom, Mr. Mister.

Here's hoping 2018 is the best year ever. (Or at the very least, that it's better than 2017.)

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What can be said about 2016 that hasn't already been said?

As bad as things were for America, Europe isn't doing much better. In a year that saw the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences award Bob Dylan a Nobel Prize for Literature to a thousands of people involved in sexual assaults in Cologne, Germany, it's no wonder that Great Britain voluntary withdrew from the European Union.

So what does Europe have to say for itself?

We're leaving together,
but still it's farewell.

And maybe we'll come back
to earth, who can tell?

I guess there is no one to blame.
We're leaving ground.
Will things ever be the same again?

It's the final countdown.
The final countdown.

Such pessimism! If you thought 2016 was rough, it's just setting the stage for 2017. Hold onto your hats.

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Flipping channels last night shortly before midnight, I saw that FOX had Pitbull with P-Diddy (or whatever he goes by these days), and ABC had Carrie Underwood and Jimmy Buffet. Tivo claimed that NBC would have Gwen Stafani, but all I saw was Carson Daly talking (which is pretty much all I ever saw when I would flip past him on MTV's TRL).

All those musical acts waxing poetic about life and love: it's the same old sentiment wrapped in shiny new paper. Today's artists can't hold a candle to the classics.

Looking in your eyes I see a paradise.
This world that I found is too good to be true.
Standing here beside you want so much to give you
This love in my heart that I'm feeling for you.

Let 'em say we're crazy, I don't care about that.
Put your hand in my hand, baby, don't ever look back.
Let the world around us just fall apart.
Baby, we can make it if we're heart to heart.

And we can build this dream together,
Standing strong forever.
Nothing's gonna stop us now.
And if this world runs out of lovers, we'll still have each other.
Nothing's gonna stop us, nothing's gonna stop us now.

Now that's a song about life and love. Pay attention musical acts, because you're going to have to try harder in 2016. The past has set a pretty high bar.

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I just read the truncated version of yesterday's annual New Year's Poetry post as it went through Facebook, and I was struck with the realization that it's superficially similar to the endless earnest drivel you expect to find on Facebook.

Should I be pleased that I can write that schlock sappy enough to shock myself (I didn't know I had it in me!), or horrified that someone unfamiliar with my body of blogging might see and fail to recognize my caustic intentions? Curse you, Facebook, for making me doubt the intensity of my own sarcasm!

It's going to be another long, long year, isn't it?

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Each new year is just another step on the journey of life. Take a moment today to refresh your commitment that even as that wheel in the sky keeps on turning, you'll continue to be good to yourself.

Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard.
Their shadows searching in the night.
Streetlights people, living just to find emotion.
Hiding, somewhere in the night.

Working hard to get my fill, everybody wants a thrill.
Payin' anything to roll the dice, just one more time.
Some will win, some will lose, some were born to sing the blues.
Oh, the movie never ends.
It goes on and on and on and on.

Don't stop believin'.
Hold on to the feelin',
streetlights people.

Any way you want it, that's the way you need it in 2013.

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