This Pirkei Avot quote helps me feel a little less like I have to solve everything (it’s literally been thousands of years of people feeling overwhelmed!) and it cracked me up when someone stuck it on the pics of the tiny backhoe trying to dig out the EverGiven ship when it got stuck.
Excited to dive into this year's @marchxness.bsky.social essays - I have very strong opinions about what makes a song actually sad in & of itself vs just describing sad events, and I'm looking forward to the ways in which the essays will doubtless challenge my ways of thinking about Sad Music
Since we seem to be doing this again ... I recently investigated the origin of the ridiculous myth that em dashes are a sign of AI writing. (The people who blew up the idea didn't even know it's called a dash. They called it "the long hyphen.")
Ex: is Independence Day a sad song? It's about a murder-suicide perpetrated by a domestic abuse victim, told from the perspective of her young daughter who's sent to a group home at the conclusion. But...it's a murder ballad, & sadness isn't really an emotion those typically engage with
Two more songs for you: Every Light In The House Is On, Trace Adkins; Seminole Wind, John Anderson
I think sadness is actually a tricky theme with country, bc it deals heavily in topics that would be associated with sadness in most genres but don't necessarily foreground sadness in country
I also think Chris Ledoux's Silence on the Line and Joe Diffie's Ships That Don't Come In could be interesting songs for folks to write about. Garth Brooks' The Dance is arguably more uplifting than sad, but could fit here - it's a shame Way Too Young To Feel This Damn Old came out in 1989
I gotta second all of @kgardens42.bsky.social 's country picks, & would add Faith Hill's It Matters to Me. It's technically a cover, but Leann Rimes' Blue came out in 1994 & is widely regarded as the definitive version of the song
I'll have to ponder what I want to suggest, but Beaches of Cheyenne immediately comes to mind
there are a lot of federal agencies in my town, & a lot of seasonal workers, & some of my rl friends have started opening conversations with "do you still have a job?" bc as often as not, the answer is no. absolutely grim out here
Trapp's right & he should say it
"We run around looking like something you’d see in a post-apocalyptic aftermath, which is sometimes what it feels like to grow up in the town we’re from."
The people asked for @coriwinrock.bsky.social on Hole's "Gold Dust Woman" again, and that's what you get today: marchxness.com/thegames#/2x...
"in your horny middle age, you will drop the needle on an old Afghan Whigs album and ask yourself why the only indie band of your youth that fucked were these guys."
3/12 brings back @modaviau.bsky.social on The Afghan Whigs: marchxness.com/thegames#/2x...
"We're here to speak truth to power while we shine a laser in its eyes. If we do that long enough, and hard enough, and we are taken seriously enough, then eventually, politicians and other powers-that-be will stop acting like spoiled toddlers and will do their jobs honestly, truthfully and openly."
Before the song ended I encountered 2 giant wooden hands, on poles like the legs of billboards, thirty feet high. Both hands flipped giant middle fingers.
3/10 flashback to @jdfish9.bsky.social on Ini Kamoze's "Here comes the Hotstepper" in March Fadness 90s (2017): marchxness.com/thegames#/2x...
there are many things I dislike about ap style, but spelling cell phones as one word while insisting healthcare is two has gotta be up there
The man has a green card and 8-month pregnant wife, who doesn't know where he is. Democratic elected officials in New York need to get off their asses and find him now
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/n...
"Approaching things in new ways is scary: I think it’s worth the risk. "
3/9 it's @katiedarbymullins.bsky.social's ode to Robbie Williams's "Rock DJ" from March Danceness 00s: marchxness.com/thegames#/2x...
Searched "saddest songs" for Reasons, & there are multiple playlists that include chasing cars?? which last I checked is not a sad song at all??????
"What matters to me about art is not how popular it is but whether it resonates."
FRIDAY UPDATE:
1) They were playing "the Humpty Dance" at the convenience store and nobody wanted to do the dance with me.
2) My MarchXness essay from 2019's Goth tournament gets the Second Chanceness treatment today! I've been loving reading everyone's work so far this March.
"my essay’s methodical plodding did lead me to a place that caught me off-guard": On 3/5 we bring back @twonnet.bsky.social's Faxness essay on Bronski Beat: marchxness.com/thegames#/2x...
March 2xNess Day 4 rewinds to Jaime Danehey's excellent 80s Fadness essay on Frank and Moon Zappa. Give it a read and some love: marchxness.com/thegames#/2x...
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it was about joy and dancing and finding space. now it's about trust and bonds and building what you can't find, even if it means dreaming smaller. when it's raining a tent you have is better than a palace you don't
I'm admittedly terrible at analyzing my own writing, because the things I wrote are usually the things I intended to say, & sometimes there are things I was thinking & feeling that I'm too close to see but someone else can pick apart. but here's what I think about my essay vs this year's reflection:
it's a me!
March 2 brings back to you @martinseay.bsky.social's outstanding March Vladness essay on @acertainratio.bsky.social: marchxness.com/thegames#/2x...
March Xness rewind essays all month long!
