I know I'm supposed to share writing I like, but in this case I'm hesitant to share it because I want this paw print and would like you not to bid on it.
Ander Monson@angermonsoon.bsky.social · 6mo agoNew Significant Object 2026 Story: Tasmanian Tiger Paw Print by @danadiehl.bsky.social: www.ebay.com/itm/26762748... You have 7 days to read, share, and bid on this cool object and story!
"Because craving connection with others, chasing it, is how we find communion; it’s how we survive our sadness." March Xness as a form of communion. This tournament's got me thinking a lot about belief. I'll pray (and vote) for "Glycerine" tonight, just to see how it goes.
Jason Thayer@thejasonthayer.bsky.social · 7mo agoLast night I shot a music video on the blacked-out beach for my synth'd out "Glycerine" cover. Big thanks to Dave Rosman for the violin, big thanks to YOU for voting Bush on to the Final Four of @marchxness.bsky.social! youtu.be/E1DOPrrgCgg
I love the March Sadness essays that help me really appreciate a song either for the first time, or in entirely new ways. James Charlesworth’s piece on “The World I Know” is one of those, and its dual narratives are perfectly in sync. Recommended reading if you like hope and pigeons.
March Xmas 2026@marchxness.bsky.social · 7mo agoMore Elite 8, here we go: Listen, read, VOTE! marchxness.com#/elite8-coll...
You all dream up the best projects. I'm looking forward to all these Significant Objects.
Ander Monson@angermonsoon.bsky.social · 7mo agoTomorrow my students & frenz are kicking off Significant Objects 2026, an experiment in literary capitalism, in which my students write stories about objects of no particular value, and we publish them as listings for the objects as ebay auctions. Details: tucsonessayclub.org/significant-...
Here we go, Team Crows! We’re up today in the @marchxness.bsky.social Elite 8 and need your help against a high priestess of sad! (Though I maintain Round Here is sadder.) Read the essays and vote! 🐦⬛🖤
March Xmas 2026@marchxness.bsky.social · 7mo agoTwo games today as we begin the ELITE 8! Celine Dion vs. Counting Crows - Listen, read, VOTE! marchxness.com#/elite8-crow...
"Let Her Cry" on the other hand—& as @kjmoulton.bsky.social's @marchxness.bsky.social essay mentions—started small-scale & personal & became something you hear all the time at CVS. It clearly has pop ambitions, so it gets its damn message across. Bush's erwachsenetotenlied is great! But Hootie wins.
If you measure Emma's essay with this handy wheel of emotions (www.mylocum.com/the-emotiona...), it's got all the sadness packed in the very first paragraph: vulnerability and depression and loneliness and guilt and despair. BUT. Blink-182? :[
Emotional Wheel: Balance Mantra for In & Out of the Hospital
The Emotional Wheel: Your Mantra For Balance, In And Out Of The Hospital As a nurse or a doctor, you have some of the most stressful jobs possible.
mylocum.com
Emma Allmann@emryal91.bsky.social · 7mo agoIt's HAPPENING!!!! Please vote for my sadness and Blink-182! And go read and vote for more essays about sad 90's songs marchxness.com#/1stround-bl...
I'm pretty convinced by (and in love with) @kathleenmrooney.bsky.social's argument: "And that’s what makes this the ne plus ultra of break-up songs, sadder than all the rest: it dares to distribute the blame equally." marchxness.com#/1stround-so...
March Sadness 90s Edition
A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)
marchxness.com
💔 @silashansen.bsky.social gets my vote for invoking a very specific kind of @marchxness.bsky.social sadness, "not the loss of something I’d experienced, but the realization that I will likely never feel that, that it’s a feeling entirely out of my reach."
March Xmas 2026@marchxness.bsky.social · 7mo agoMoar round 1, because we love you: Listen, read, VOTE! marchxness.com#/1stround-cr...
Couldn't sleep, read @cbiondolillo.bsky.social's essay, and now certain I'm destined for some very sad dreams.
"There’s something to that, something about the ways our lives primes us for the music we fall in love with, and how we find it." The amount of ground Jamison Crabtree's essay on "Between the Bars" covers is impressive. marchxness.com
March Sadness 90s Edition
A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)
marchxness.com
Dang. "I suppose it’s a gift, that I don’t feel sadness like I used to.... I know some people who still do, who white-knuckle it through life and eventually let go—their leaving itself a kind of sadness that threatens to pull me under." @mlfaliveno.bsky.social marchxness.com#/1stround-co...
March Sadness 90s Edition
A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)
marchxness.com
In the spirit of the season, I've been listening to some of my other favorites. This morning before work, when my husband wandered out of his office and found me crying, he just shook his head and laughed, "I don't understand your relationship with sadness." www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuhB...
Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure
YouTube video by The Weakerthans - Topic
youtube.com
Well @jamcharlesworth.bsky.social's @marchxness.bsky.social essay has persuaded me into not only tolerance but grudging affection for this damn Collective Soul song, which I had not thought possible. And that's not even among the top ten things this essay accomplishes. Do not miss it.
March Xmas 2026@marchxness.bsky.social · 7mo agoRound 1, day 3! Listen, read, VOTE! marchxness.com/1stround-col...
Ashley Naftule on "100,000 Fireflies:" "I have precious few words of wisdom to impart to anyone, let alone my younger self, but one thing I know is this: you should not place the burden of your own happiness on someone else. After all, you won’t be happy anyway." marchxness.com#/1stround-co...
March Sadness 90s Edition
A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)
marchxness.com
I'm also convinced by Keegan's argument that "Everlong" “somehow managed to avoid the almost inevitable decline from uber-catchy earworm to corny corn fest like so many other popular songs from the 90s that tackle love...”
Erin Dorney@erindorney.bsky.social · 7mo agoOoof Kay Keegan on "Everlong" "Maybe that’s just one place where sadness lives. When something isn’t actually as awesome as what your own memory promised." Feeling this ❤️🔥 marchxness.com/1stround-foo...
My vote for Chris Daley and Liz Phair:" "And if there’s one thing I’ve always tried to do is learn from mistakes, even other people’s, so here we are." marchxness.com#/1stround-re...
March Sadness 90s Edition
A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)
marchxness.com
"Roads" in the wild. Just a little too late for March Sadness! 🪦
Congratulations to the victors, and well-played all around! Excited to see Myers moving forward but disbelievingly disappointed that BSB is out the first round. GG @doritoshangover.bsky.social!
March Xmas 2026@marchxness.bsky.social · 7mo agoThat's the buzzer! MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION DAY 2 FINAL SCORES Bonnie Raitt, 99, Portishead 64 Sade 122, Third Eye Blind 49 Tom Waits 121, Backstreet Boys 81 Billie Myers 108, Bob Dylan 96 Great finish for Myers holding off a charging Dylan. Day 3 games just tipped off at marchxness.com
March Sadness Round 2 has been full of personal surprises and hard decisions, and I still don't know what to do about the Sade vs. Third Eye Blind match. 😭
"What is religious belief, if not a response to negative space?" This essay is going to be a hard one to beat. (Song too.)
Aaron Wolfson@awolfson.bsky.social · 7mo agoHi I wrote you a love letter to Neutral Milk Hotel, Totoro, and partnership. marchxness.com#/1stround-le...
First round 1 vote cast! "It’s too dark to make out such detail, so I nod when reminded that every leaf in a compact mirror hits a target that we can’t see—at least on those occasions, as the song loops over and over again..." Sorry, Celine.
March Sadness 90s Edition
A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)
marchxness.com
This is one of the most beautiful videos I've ever seen: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/s...
This Elusive Antarctic Squid Was Seen for the First Time
nytimes.com
The Malahat Review is accepting submissions for the Contemporary Indigenous Storytelling issue: malahatreview.ca/issues/233-i...
My next NEA project proposal:
Nic Anstett@nicanstett.bsky.social · 2y agoSo, the National Endowment for the Arts announced today that they are reworking the guidelines for all 2026 grants and will be prioritizing projects that center the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It's now just a propaganda fund. www.arts.gov/news/press-r...
This might be my new favorite hermit crab: "Let There Be More Spices," Carrie Gaffney: brevitymag.com/current-issu...
Let There Be More Spices | Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction
brevitymag.com
I usually find deadlines helpful/motivational, but what stops me from writing sometimes is that I'm not working on what I 'should' or 'need' to be doing. I'm trying to set aside a time in my day I can pursue whatever tangent—I guess I'll see how it goes!
"Maybe the melancholic's problem is desire to / remember everything. When everything has / already been decided, the pictures already taken." Victoria Chang (BRICK no.114)
