Dear Darling Ones,

The best thing about being a work from home freelancer is that it affords me very much time to daydream. Instead of commuting to work, I daydream. Instead of getting a case of the Mondays, I let my mind wander through my favorite subjects: books, music, and making out with men. Rather than attend meetings, I daypanic about imminent climate disaster. This last one is zero percent fun.

Today while arguing with my Twitter pals about the unevenness of Paul Westerberg’s 2003 record “Come Feel Me Tremble,” I wished for the 82,198,591st time that I had more women to talk about The Replacements with. This is not a slight on my much-beloved dude Westernerds. I adore them, but I still wish ‘Mats fandom was more female-friendly and that once in awhile a woman got to be an expert on the band.

At the same time I thought, wouldn’t an all-female tribute to The Replacements be the greatest thing to ever happen to rock & roll? This kind of tribute with zero dudes involved would be so excellent. It would introduce girls to the band. It would let women talk about The ‘Mats in a way that had zero to do with wanking off about the shitty production of “Tim” or about who the cute one was/is. And for sure a woman would get to write the liner notes because we’re done with letting one dude be the ‘Mats expert.

I was a little surprised how quickly my imaginary track list came together. Here it is

Angel Olsen, Can’t Hardly Wait

My brain started with Olsen because she recently covered Safety Dance and she has a covers EP coming out in a few weeks.

Phoebe Bridgers, If Only You Were Lonely

She already covered Here Comes a Regular at First Ave a few years ago, so just imagine how much she would slay this one.

Neko Case, Bastards of Young

Something about Case’s song “Man” made me think she’d do an interesting take on this one.

Lucinda Williams, Achin’ to Be

The first time I saw Westerberg at the Guthrie in 2000 he sang the last line she’s achin to be, just like Lucinda and me. So this one is obvious.

Amanda Shires, Within Your Reach

The synthy intro on the original made me think of Shires’ “Parking Lot Pirouette.”

Lydia Loveless, Sixteen Blue

Loveless does that aching, conflicted, longing thing so well.

Joan Jett, I Bought a Headache

She already did “Androgynous.” Just imagine her growling giving me a eight dollar and fifty cent, I bought a headache.

Liz Phair, Answering Machine

I think Liz could interpret this sad song into something kind of sexy and I’m mad that I can’t hear it right now.

Laura Marling, Unsatisfied

The woman who sings “False Hope” will bring the same plaintive desperation to “Unsatisfied” that Westerberg does.

Japanese Breakfast, Little Mascara

In my head I want her to treat this one just like her “Savage Good Boy.”

Julien Baker, Here Comes a Regular

This cover doesn’t exist as far as I know, but I can hear Baker singing it in my head and it gives me gooebumps. Just imagine the woman who sings I’ll wrap Orion’s belt around my neck and kick the chair out singing You’re like a picture on the fridge that’s never stocked with food
I used to live at home, now I stay at the house. Ugh, I could already cry.

The Linda Lindas, Kids Don’t Follow

These are the young women who sing “Racist, Sexist Boy.”

Morgan Wade, Alex Chilton

I’m pretty new to Wade’s music, and I really like how she sounds on “Wilder Days.” I think she could give Alex a good go.

Kathleen Edwards, Skyway

“Hockey Skates” is lovely and feels Minnesotan (though Edwards is Canadian), kinda like “Skyway.”

Jenny Lewis, Left of the Dial

This one felt really obvious to me.

Waxahatchee, I Will Dare

This is, obviously, the most coveted honor of all. My life needs to hear her sing “I Will Dare” the same way she sings west memphis is on fire in the light of day.

boygenius, Valentine

This was Wolfdogg’s suggestion that was so good I had to include it. Their cover of “Cowboy Take Me Away” is so wonderful you know they’d bring that to “Valentine.”

The Go-Go’s, Kiss Me on the Bus

This was Westernerd Chris’ suggestion that was so good and obvious I’m a little angry I didn’t think of it on my own before he did.

Is this manifesting, Darling Ones? I have put this wish out in the world so now the universe can make it happen.

Dibs on writing the liner notes,
Jodi

The post Playing Makeup, Wearing Guitar: My Dream All-Woman Tribute to The Replacements appeared first on I Will Dare.

I’ve been known to say that Neko Case is to my 40s what Lucinda Williams was to my 30s what Liz Phair was to my 20s what Suzanne Vega was to my teens. And by known to say, I mean it’s something I think a lot about in my head and probably don’t give voice to as often as I should.

If I were to rewrite Neko Case’s Greatest Hits (according to me), “Oracle of the Maritimes” would make the list. I’m not sure what it would knock off, and it’s too late for me to think about it too hard.

The post Day 186 of 200: Oracle of the Maritimes (SotW) appeared first on I Will Dare.

Tonight we had Jaycie’s farewell dinner. She leaves early in the a.m. tomorrow to drive back to Oregon for her junior year of college. I won’t get to see her until Thanksgiving. I will miss her. She’s one of my favorite people to hang out with.

It was such a special event that even the two surly Tibbles (Nolan & Liam) who always skip family dinner, much to my annoyance, made an appearance.

I made macaroni & cheese. A lot of it — I used nearly three pounds of cheese. I’ve bragged so much about my homemade macaroni & cheese I have to make it all the time now. Allegedly, tonight was my best. It must have been, because there was only two servings left (that I sent home with Uncle Danny) and I didn’t even eat any. Sometimes when I cook a massive amount of food it makes me not hungry for the actual meal.

After everyone left, I curled up on the couch with a sandwich, Gladys, my laptop, and The Current’s livestream of Neko Case’s concert at The Palace in St. Paul. God, I love her music. Watching the concert from my couch gets a ??.

It was a good day.

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Last month after listening to a podcast where Lydia Loveless talked about her favorite album, The Replacements’ “Pleased to Meet Me,” I got a little huffy on the Twitters. I thought the podcast host was being condescending and mansplainy when he kept asking Loveless, a young but accomplished musician, if she knew stuff about Bob Stinson or Alex Chilton.

Fuck man, I thought. Music is her life. I’m sure she’s done a little bit of reading on this shit. Damn.

Afterwards, I had a thought-provoking conversation about the podcast with Kyle aka @solace. He did not see it as mansplainy at all and rather the interviewer asking good questions, which would probably be asked regardless of the subject’s gender. I didn’t agree, but it was nice to hear his perspective and I’m always honored when he chooses to share it with me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Kyle’s perspective on that podcast over the past few weeks as I keep trifling with online dating. I’ve come to the conclusion that in general I am much too hermitty to pursue dating as a hobby or whatever, but I still like to flirt and see where things might go. (FOR THE RECORD: They usually go right into the messaging trashbin of the online dating app I use which is not Tinder because that scares me and I am old).

So as you can imagine, if you’ve read one word of this site, I talk a lot in my online dating profile about the importance of books and music in my life. I rattle off a list of favorite bands and authors because I’m hoping these names will mean something to any man who might be potentially attracted to me. Mostly, I have found, dudes just want to fuck a freakishly tall woman, but sometimes a man actually reads the profile and is intrigued by the music and then we start having lovely conversations that quickly go south.

Now when it comes to musicgeekdom, I’m pretty bottom of the barrel. I don’t go to a lot of concerts. I give zero shits about who played what guitar or who produced what album. I don’t seek out rare imports or first-run vinyl or bootlegs. I just like songs, man and how they make me feel.

One of the shitty things about musicgeekdom is there is always some asshole who wants to prove he (and it’s nearly always a he so shut up) knows more than you do or is a better fan, whatever the fuck that means. These guys are keen on making you feel stupid or less than so they can get a boner over their own alleged superiority and wank off when they get home at night and try to forget how they were always picked last for kickball. I think. I don’t know. I try not to be that geek, though sometimes I am.

Since we’ve got that out the way, I will say there is kind of a base level of knowledge I expect other musicgeeks to have. This means I never quiz people about if they’ve heard of Wilco or Jeff Buckley or PJ Harvey. I just operate under the idea that we’ve all been paying attention and done a little research. And if someone doesn’t have this same base knowledge, I don’t make fun of them because the world is a varied and wide place and you can’t know everything.

Okay, so by way of flirting a lot of men like to talk music. I like to do this too, because I always want to talk music even if I’m not flirting. The problem, I have discovered, is that a lot of men have no idea how to do this without coming off as a condescending prick.

I had one ask me if I’d ever head of a band called They Might Be Giants. Another if I’d ever heard of the song “Communist Daughter” by Neutral Milk Hotel. And still one more who implored me to investigate the music of Neko Case.

Ouch.

Now my problem is trying to figure out if this is really ham-handed flirting, a way to sustain a conversation or are these guys kind of clueless assholes who are underestimating my intelligence?

Part of me thinks, it probably doesn’t matter because if I feel like my intelligence has been insulted then it probably has. The other part of me thinks, this is why you are a bitter spinster destined to die alone.

I’m kind of okay with both parts.

The post Discerning the Line Between Flirting & Mansplaining When You’re a Single, Feminist Musicgeek appeared first on I Will Dare.

So, if you know me you’d probably agree that for the most part I’m kind of a curious cynical skeptic with a dash of conspiracy theorist thrown in for good measure. Only my conspiracy theories usually involve companies and how everything is a marketing ploy and not so much nefarious deeds by the government. I mean, we all know that government is up to all kinds of nefarious deeds all the time, right? Have you seen Congress lately?

rimshot.

For the most part I let my logical cynical skeptical self run the show here. Sometimes I let my inner new age hippie doofus out, like when I’m convinced drinking more water will help everything from a stupid backache I had most of the week to a could-possibly-be-allergy-related headache. By the way, it totally worked. The new age hippie doofus believes in things like positive energy and karma and vibes and harshing buzzes and shit like that.

Above all else the new age hippie doofus believes in signs from the universe. She would say “God” but the inner cynical skeptic is all “there is no God, dumbass.” And the NAHD is all “what if. . . ” So if people ever ask me about things like that I claim devout agnosticism.

The universe gives me signs. A lot. Maybe because I am listening. For instance, one of its favorite signs to send me is playing The Replacements on the radio while I am tuned in. That’s the universe telling me everything’s going to be swell that day.

The other day the universe sent me a doozy via YouTube. Here, I’ll show it to you:

As you can see that’s one Ms. Neko Case singing with My Morning Jacket. The song they are singing is a cover of the Tom Petty & Stevie Nicks’ duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”

You see where this is going, right? Probably not, because you are not the same kind of crazy that I am. I will spell out to you the myriad ways this is a sign from the universe and what it could possibly mean.

First, it ties into the whole Stevie Nicks thing I’ve got going on.

Second, I should tell you this video came into my life on the same day from two very different sources. One was a comment on a post I wrote about Liz Phair. And the other was from my pal Wolfdogg who is super pumped about the Bob Dylan, Wilco, My Morning Jacket show this summer (as am I, it’s been far too long since I’ve been to an actual concert. Like maybe 2009 when I lost my last real job and decided I was a total pauper and could not spend money on frivolous things like concerts, but dude, Wilco and Bob Dylan at Midway Stadium? That shit cannot be denied no matter how broke you think you are).

Third, and this is the most important one, a cover of this very song features quite prominently in the longish fiction piece I’ve been writing (140 pages – 40,000 words so far). AND Neko Case has a small cameo in the piece though it is unrelated to this song.

What could this all mean? It means, clearly, that writing this book is the exact thing I’m supposed to be doing now and that when I finish I will sell it and it will be published and the movie rights will make me a bajillion dollars and Stevie Nicks will sing a song on the soundtrack.

What else could it possibly mean?

In other assorted goochers. This is what my WordPress dashboard looked like before I made this post.

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