Melissa Faliveno
@mlfaliveno.bsky.social
writer, editor, teacher, rock/roller | author of TOMBOYLAND and HEMLOCK, out now from Little, Brown | asst. prof at UNC | she/they www.melissafaliveno.com
TOMORROW: @marchxness.bsky.social Anthology launch event at 7pm CT! Featuring @danchaon.bsky.social, @stevenchurch.bsky.social, @mlfaliveno.bsky.social, @dellegeller.bsky.social, @toddkaneko.bsky.social, @elenavox.bsky.social, @mossyair.bsky.social + @martinseay.bsky.social! tinyurl.com/hitrepeat
Substack tourney recap coming your way this weekend but we wanted to invite you to our HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC ZOOM book launch TUES 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern. Register: tinyurl.com/hitrepeat
HAIL QUEEN CELINE. It’s an honor to have fallen to these champs!
Melissa Fite Johnson@mfitejohnson.bsky.social · 4mo agoI’m really happy and overwhelmed to have won the @marchxness.bsky.social championship. So much respect to @cicilybennion.bsky.social and her incredible, vulnerable essay. I felt connected to so many you in this tournament, both through your essays and interacting with you here. I will miss this ❤️
I'm gonna plug the Xness anthology at my reading tonight 🫡
Split/Lip Press@splitlippress.com · 4mo agoHappy Publication Day to the Official @marchxness.bsky.social Selection Committee, @angermonsoon.bsky.social and @meganc.bsky.social, and the long awaited, never duplicated HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY!!! www.splitlippress.com/product-page...
The @marchxness.bsky.social anthology we've all been waiting for is finally here! So thrilled to have my essay on "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" of Dirty Dancing fame included in this much-anticipated mixtape of phenomenal writing. Get yourself a copy today!!
Split/Lip Press@splitlippress.com · 4mo agoHappy Publication Day to the Official @marchxness.bsky.social Selection Committee, @angermonsoon.bsky.social and @meganc.bsky.social, and the long awaited, never duplicated HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY!!! www.splitlippress.com/product-page...
The March Xness Anthology is here! Thank you SO MUCH to @splitlippress.com and to everyone who's contributed to the Xness anthology and the tournament as a whole ❤️🎸🥁
Split/Lip Press@splitlippress.com · 4mo agoHappy Publication Day to the Official @marchxness.bsky.social Selection Committee, @angermonsoon.bsky.social and @meganc.bsky.social, and the long awaited, never duplicated HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY!!! www.splitlippress.com/product-page...
It’s time! I am beyond honored my extracurricular essay on how grunge did NOT kill glam metal is included among such stellar work!
Split/Lip Press@splitlippress.com · 4mo agoHappy Publication Day to the Official @marchxness.bsky.social Selection Committee, @angermonsoon.bsky.social and @meganc.bsky.social, and the long awaited, never duplicated HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY!!! www.splitlippress.com/product-page...
The @marchxness.bsky.social anthology is out today! I love this tournament, and I’m so glad to have one of my essays from years past got included: “The Best Christian in the World,” about Creed’s “My Own Prison” and my own fallout with Christianity, among other things. So much good writing in here!
Split/Lip Press@splitlippress.com · 4mo agoHappy Publication Day to the Official @marchxness.bsky.social Selection Committee, @angermonsoon.bsky.social and @meganc.bsky.social, and the long awaited, never duplicated HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY!!! www.splitlippress.com/product-page...
OH SHIT LET'S GOOOOOO
Split/Lip Press@splitlippress.com · 4mo agoHappy Publication Day to the Official @marchxness.bsky.social Selection Committee, @angermonsoon.bsky.social and @meganc.bsky.social, and the long awaited, never duplicated HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY!!! www.splitlippress.com/product-page...
If you love music writing, you need this anthology. I'm beyond honored to have my (favorite) March Xness essay included: "There Are Many Atlantic Cities, and One Belongs to Levon Helm," on The Band's Springsteen cover and my (felon, dreamer, liar, dead) dad, a fellow son of New Jersey.
Split/Lip Press@splitlippress.com · 4mo agoHappy Publication Day to the Official @marchxness.bsky.social Selection Committee, @angermonsoon.bsky.social and @meganc.bsky.social, and the long awaited, never duplicated HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY!!! www.splitlippress.com/product-page...
It's here! Super stoked for this anthology and to have an essay in it—the first I ever wrote for @marchxness.bsky.social, on the Creatures’ Exterminating Angel, Virginia Woolf, misogyny, and learning to trust myself as a musician. I love this tournament and community, and so glad to be part of it!
Split/Lip Press@splitlippress.com · 4mo agoHappy Publication Day to the Official @marchxness.bsky.social Selection Committee, @angermonsoon.bsky.social and @meganc.bsky.social, and the long awaited, never duplicated HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY!!! www.splitlippress.com/product-page...
THAT'S THE BUZZER! MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION HAS CROWNED A NEW CHAMPION! FINAL SCORE: CELINE DION, "My Heart Will Go On" and @mfitejohnson.bsky.social 784, Ben Folds Five, "Brick" and @cicilybennion.bsky.social 474. Congratulations to both our finalists for an outstanding game.
I had a blast repping Brick all month! We didn’t get the gold but I look better in silver anyway. And for my post game snack, you better believe I’m eating one of these Brick cookies. Great game, @mfitejohnson.bsky.social! 🧱
March Xmas 2026@marchxness.bsky.social · 4mo agoTHAT'S THE BUZZER! MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION HAS CROWNED A NEW CHAMPION! FINAL SCORE: CELINE DION, "My Heart Will Go On" and @mfitejohnson.bsky.social 784, Ben Folds Five, "Brick" and @cicilybennion.bsky.social 474. Congratulations to both our finalists for an outstanding game.
It’s mid-morning where I live and I’ve spread the word about my @marchxness.bsky.social essay on Brick to everyone and in every way I know. The game is not over, but it does feel now as if it’s out of my hands. We’re down by over 300 votes, but I can honestly say I’m happy.
Enjoying this shade from Cicily Bennion's video this am which is simultaneously cast on Canada and the US: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKLf...
This final feels pretty inevitable to me, especially as an Xennial. Both essays are so good, and so sad, and this is a true 90s heartbreaker of a matchup. My Heart Will Go On is iconic, but Brick devastated an entire generation, and still makes me cry every time. I've gotta go Brick for the win.
March Xmas 2026@marchxness.bsky.social · 4mo agoTHE March Sadness National Championship: (6) Ben Folds Five's "Brick" & @cicilybennion.bsky.social against (1) Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" & @mfitejohnson.bsky.social! Listen to the songs! Read the essays! Which is the saddest? YOU DECIDE (by 9am AZ time 3/31): marchxness.com#/sadnesscham...
The road has been winding, full of surprise and (appropriately, I guess) heartbreak, but the March Sadness: 90s Edition Championship game is HERE
March Xmas 2026@marchxness.bsky.social · 4mo agoTHE March Sadness National Championship: (6) Ben Folds Five's "Brick" & @cicilybennion.bsky.social against (1) Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" & @mfitejohnson.bsky.social! Listen to the songs! Read the essays! Which is the saddest? YOU DECIDE (by 9am AZ time 3/31): marchxness.com#/sadnesscham...
And allow us to remind you that it's release week for Hit Repeat Until I Hate Music: the March Xness anthology. It's like this whole tournament got shrunk down into book form! Thanks to @splitlippress.com for bringing this beauty into the world: www.splitlippress.com/product-page...
Tomorrow's the big @marchxness.bsky.social final! Seems like now or never for catching up on the rest of the pre-tournament essays! Shall we?
Martin Seay@martinseay.bsky.social · 5mo agoApparently people like movies, but I've used this evening to catch up on some of the out-of-competition @marchxness.bsky.social essays that ran before the tournament started. (Fortunately there's one really long one that I've already read lolololol) marchxness.com/the-essays
MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION FINAL FOUR FINAL SCORE BEN FOLDS FIVE 389, Ani DiFranco 348 ! The championship is set for MONDAY. Until then, stay strong!
518 Zine Fest tomorrow! I turned my @marchxness.bsky.social essay into a zine and I'll have some copies there ❤️🔥
Collective Soul & I are still way behind & NEED YOUR VOTE in the Elite Eight of @marchxness.bsky.social! ICYMI Last week my wife, Laura, & I did a cover & I'm unearthing it again to spur the comeback! READ & VOTE "THE WORLD I KNOW" BY NOON ET TODAY!! 👇 marchxness.com#/elite8-coll...
James Charlesworth@jamcharlesworth.bsky.social · 5mo agoSWEET 16! In the time-honored @marchxness.bsky.social tradition of essay writers posting covers of their songs (& at the perhaps tepid behest of the committee), my camera-shy wife, Laura, & I took a crack at "The World I Know." READ & VOTE Collective Soul! 👇 marchxness.com/sweet16-coll...
Man, the essays have been great this year! The songs have been pretty good too! But the real @marchxness.bsky.social heads know that from the Elite 8 on it's about the ground game, & people are SHOWING UP. This one's semi-close—but if you're leaning Team Brick, better start pushing buttons.
March Xmas 2026@marchxness.bsky.social · 4mo agoMore Elite 8, here we go: Listen, read, VOTE! marchxness.com#/elite8-fold...
If you find yourself mourning Round Here’s @marchxness.bsky.social loss today and need a little more Counting Crows content (plus a good dose of Third Eye Blind, and driving around Midwestern back roads, and plenty of sadness), here’s a little something else! kenyonreview.org/piece/drivin...
Driving Around Central Ohio in my Dad’s ’07 Chevy Listening to the CDs of my Youth; or, Put the Past Away; or, August and Everything After - The Kenyon Review
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More delightful cover action! Ani but make it flute is a genius move. Also I feel like we might actually be able to field an Xness marching band?
Susanna Donato@susannadonato.bsky.social · 4mo agoIt's the ELITE 8 baby, and my essay about Ani DiFranco's song "You Had Time" is up today. In the interest of securing the vote, I honored the tradition of performing a cover of my selected song. Please enjoy. Or don't. But either way, vote for me? @marchxness.bsky.social
Well this is rad and sad and weird and artful and a little creepy and it’s definitely swaying my vote. The Xness cover game is really bringing it this year and I love it.
Jason Thayer@thejasonthayer.bsky.social · 4mo 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
Will Ben Folds' brick shatter my dreams of making it to the Final Four? I've got a synth'd out "Glycerine" cover on deck that begs to differ... marchxness.com#/elite8-fold...
March Sadness 90s Edition
A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)
marchxness.com