Hi Darling Ones,

Back in the early times of blogging I would spend entire weekends headphones on, nose inches from the computer monitor, sucking down cigarettes and Diet Coke while “redesigning” my blog. This was in the time before themes and WordPress and even blogspot. If you wanted to have a fresh new look you had to hand code that shit.

When I say “hand code” I mean you had to right-click & view source on some blog that was sexier than yours, find the bit of code you wanted, copy & paste it into your code, edit the shizz to do exactly what you want, save, and then refresh.

It was exhausting.

I only read four chapters in HTML for Dummies despite being an entire dummy about code. I had to figure out what CSS element corresponded to what thing on my site, design the header, and update the blogroll. All this only happened after agonizing over what my new idea was gonna be. I have no idea how long it took me to come up with the sexy number from August 2002 pictured here.

It was kind of exhilarating too. Once I had everything looking and performing how I wanted I’d be so proud. Probably shouted “I AM A SUPERGENIUS” more than once or twice.

I recaptured the feeling yesterday in a fit of nostalgia fueled by the recent Stereo/Mono purchase and a blip in an RSS Feed that served up new posts despite there being no new posts.

Darling Ones, I spent alllllllllllll day redesigning & updating Paul Westerberg.net, and I can say without a doubt it was the best time I’ve had so far this year.*

I strapped on those headphones and listened to Tegan & Sara’s “Still Jealous,” that new riff they’ve done on “So Jealous.” It felt just like the early-aughts here except I traded the smokes & Diet Coke for a handful of M&Ms (maybe two handfuls) and the cinnamon tea I’m in love with. I also listened to Anaïs Mitchel’s new eponymous record, the Bittersweetheart Valentine’s Mix I’m making, and also a metric crapton of Westerberg & The Replacements.

This was exactly the kind of semi-mindless, tedious, not really but feels like productive work I needed. I was not bored for one single second. I was frequently annoyed, mostly with myself and some of the decisions I made when I started the site back in 2005? 2006? I was filled with glowy nostalgia for all my ol’ Westernerd pals back when we were so excited that Westerberg was farting out a bunch of noise we could download for 50¢. And I was a little bummed to see a few of the ol’ Replacements/Westerberg fansites were no more (and then annoyed again because now I got a bunch of links that got to 404 pages).

Much like I Will Dare dot com, PaulWesterberg.net exists mostly for my own amusement. A lot of it cracks me up because I think I’m hilarious.

There’s not so much activity there for obvious reasons, but when I was fixing each item in the discography on the home page I kept thinking how much I would have loved stumbling on the site when I was a newbie fangirl back in 1996.

Cramming my dreams with computer chips, but I want tambourines & shaking hips,
Jodi

 
*Do recall that I spent the first three weeks of the year down with the COVID and then my BFK’s restaurant caught on fire. So the bar for good times is as low as it gets right now.

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But policies, those can be changed at whim, and recently I’ve changed some policies that govern this little institution we call Supergenius, Inc.

UPDATED Supergenius, Inc. Policy #281: The I am Not Paul Westerberg Conundrum
Despite my best efforts an annoying segment of society refuses to believe that I am not Paul Westerberg. Sure I “run” a Paul Westerberg fansite, and sure I have messy hair, and sure I write incredibly witty and emotionally-complex stuff, but that’s where the similarities end. I have breasts and he does not. He has musical talent and I do not. He’s been published in the NY Times, I have not. We couldn’t be more different than night and jellybeans.

Plus, the contact email for Paul Westerberg.net is qotu@paulwesterbeg.net. That stands for Queen of the Underground which is me, and I am not Paul Westerberg.

As you know I routinely get e-mail from misguided souls begging me for interviews as if I were Paul Westerberg. Usually, despite my general hatred of replying to e-mail, I would tell the clueless party that I was not Paul Westerberg and their inquiry would be better directed to his manager.

But since the death of Alex Chilton and the Times piece Westerberg did on the death of his friend, I’ve been inundated with requests. Everything from some kid who wants Paul to take part in his ‘zine to asking Paul to participate in a tribute to Jonathan Richman.

There’s been so many asinine requests sent to qotu@paulwesterberg.net the past few weeks that I have made it an official policy not to respond at all, unless they address the e-mail to me (Jodi, who is not Paul Westerberg) directly. The policy also includes the loud and vocal derision of anyone who sends such a request to that e-mail address and calls me Paul. Listen up people, this means that the official policy of Supergenius, Inc. is to tell the universe that you are stupid.

It’s harsh I know. But we need policies like this to guide us into a strong and profitable quarter.

Or something.

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What is a girl who is not Paul Westerberg to do?

The post Why is it so hard to believe that I am not Paul Westerberg? appeared first on I Will Dare.

Last night Jags and I went to see David Carr read at Magers & Quinn and it was awesome. It was packed. People were sitting on the floor, standing in the stacks, and lined up out of the room. It was the kind of turnout that I wish every book reading had.

It was made even awesomer by the fact that my much beloved Jim Walsh was conducting a Q & A with Carr. I’ll save the content of the reading for a post on Minnesota Reads later and instead tell you how I got to singlehandedly disappoint David Carr.

After waiting roughly a fortnight (which we didn’t mind one bit because it gave Jags and I a chance to chat about all kinds of things including a really good discussion about Ethan Canin’s America America) Jags and I got to meet the author of The Night of the Gun.

I have to take this time to tell you that if you are anywhere near where Carr is appearing, you should go. He was the kindest, most gracious author I’ve ever met. With each new person in line, he’d get up from the little author table, shake their hand, and introduce himself. As if he weren’t the reason we were all there. He personally thanked each of us for coming and buying his book, and for those of us at the end of the line (like me and Jags) he apologized for the wait. So kind, and so charming.

When it was our turn. I told him how much I enjoyed the book and how I raved about it everyone I knew. I also told him that I was a huge Replacements fan and that’s why I was so eager to read it.

His eyes got really big and he looked at me with with pure glee. “Did you see he mentioned my book on his blog?”
And though I am not a prayer, at the moment I prayed like nobody’s business that the floor would open up and swallow me whole. “Uh, that was me.”
His face crumbled and he smacked the table. “Noooo!”
I didn’t die, though I really wanted to. “I’m sorry. It says my name right on there. I’m not Paul Westerberg.”

Then he went on to tell us how excited he was about it, and how he was as excited about Paul Westerberg liking his book as much as some other person whose name I can’t remember. I felt so bad. SO BAD. Hi, I’m Jodi, got any dreams you want me to crush. I’m here for you.

But, like I said, he was so kind and gracious. I was stunned by how friendly he was, and he wrote such thoughtful inscriptions. In Jags’ book he wrote about how muses and stuff (she often writes stories about addiction) and in my book he told me that even though I am not Paul Westerberg, I still write like an angel.

Seriously, go see him read. Minnesotans, you have one more chance. He’ll be in St. Paul on Monday check the MN Reads calendar for more info.

The post Dear David Carr, I am sorry I am not Paul Westerberg appeared first on I Will Dare.

While I am touched that Paste has said about my made up song titles, With track titles like “Six Seconds of Stuff” and “Squeaky Obscene,” Westerberg seems to be letting the creative juices flow on this one. I feel a little guilty that those are my juices they are talking about and not Paul’s. And then on the other hand it cracks me right up because if they had read the original post, they’d have known that I made it all up.

This is so not going to help with my Paul Westerberg problem.

UPDATE: They have corrected their mistake and are now calling it the unofficial tracklisting.

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