website: youtu.be/rMAZ6T1_vKQ

No agenda. Recording soon, so I’ll practice on you!!

When: Monday nite 3/14, 7:30pm EDT.
(“doors” open at 7 for community hang)

Where: https://youtu.be/rMAZ6T1_vKQ

Who gets 10%: Who gets 10%: MIRA- Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition https://miracoalition.org
They work to protect and support the most vulnerable, those at risk of deportation, and strive to expand opportunities for all foreign-born people and their children, so they can make the most of their talent and labor. It’s surely time for that.

http://paypal.me/vancevancevance or
https://venmo.com/vancevancevance or
a check to VanceFunder P.O. Box 17,
Arlington, MA 02476 for this web-groovery.
Pay or not. Up to you. Let’s stay connected.

This week’s pajamas = maybe
I teach and coach stuff. Good Good Man - the CD - streaming all over, even get one from me.

LIVE SHOWS:
Friday (tonite!!) 3/11 Earlville NY, Earlville Opera House https://www.earlvilleoperahouse.com/ Maybe I’ll try singing some opera?

I’M MAKING A NEW ALBUM.

Donate $1-999 and your name is on the CD.
Donate $1000 and up, your name is on the CD as Executive Produce in LARGE FONT.
If you’d like to have a CD, you have to ask me for it later. That keeps donations as donations and the taxman out of our pockets until I can actually sell them.

Donate to the same links and address above, earmarked as “VANCEFUNDER”.

AT THE TIME OF THIS WRITING I AM 90% TOWARDS MY GOAL OF 20K!!!

New Album News:

~ Grammy Award winner Lori McKenna says she’ll sing on it
~ JUNO Award winner Joey Landreth says he’ll play some guitar
~ omg!

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WOMEN’S HISTORY & POST-BLACK HISTORY MONTH RABBIT HOLE

I went down one of these while I was researching some Bessie Coleman stuff. Maybe you’ve heard of her? The first African American woman to hold an international pilot’s license. I was trying to find out the actual Curtiss Jenny and Standard Biplane aircraft she flew, what colors they sported, and what their registration numbers might be. You know me, for airplane modeling purposes.

I came across these two quite bad-ass women aviators, Ret. Colonel Merryl Tengesdal, https://merryltengesdal.com/, and Carole Hopson, https://www.carolehopson.com/. I’d never heard of them. I’m betting you hadn’t either. No need to be ashamed of what you didn’t know here, as these women are both stilll quite living, Carole Hopson a current 737 pilot and author, and Merryl Tengesdal being the first Black woman to fly the U-2 spy plane. You can click the links yourself.

What I wouldn’t give to have had examples of Black people like these women when I was becoming early me. I did ok. But many have not. So to answer a few who have asked, that’s where this song came from:

JUST THE WAY THAT IT WAS (by me, from “Fugitives")

Was it the Lone Ranger's face
That never looked like mine
Or a flesh-toned Crayola
To fix it up fine
Was it the first man in space
Or the second or the third
Or a picture of Jesus
Or the stories I'd heard

Well they can't be the reasons
For why I took aim
When I shouldered that rifle
I shouldered the blame
But just for one moment
It all seemed the same
Like it was just
The way that it was

Was it rocks through a window
At some kids on a bus
Was it Amos and Andy
Hey they look just like us
Was it sweet Miss America
In her lily-white gown
Is the man in the moon
Just a little bit brown

Well they can't be the reasons
For why I took aim
When I shouldered that rifle
I shouldered the blame
But just for one moment
It all seemed the same
Like it was just
The way that it was

Oh it was such a surprise
Mama shouting
Come and look see
We were on the TV
Oh what a sight for my eyes
Count us
One two three

Now I have to admit
Now that I've had my say
Things were different back then
Than they are here today
Well I wished I'd have seen it
When I was a kid
Maybe I'd have stopped doin'
All the things that I did
Cause when the governor don't call
And they pull the switch down
And I dim all the lights
In this little old town
Will they look back at me
When the years roll around
And say it was just
The way that it was

Oh it was such a surprise
Mama shouting
Come and look see
We were on the TV
Oh what a sight for my eyes
Count us
One two three