Tessera

THE 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...

Ok while we're getting tomorrow's Championship Game ready we just dropped some new merch in the merch store: the I Heart Sad Songs and I Cannot Lie / Final Four shirt (feat. this year's Final Four) + 2 Sadness Mugs (a camping mug and a ceramic one): marchxness.com/merch

So excited for this @marchxness.bsky.social anthology from @splitlippress.com! I will be reading at @fandmcollege.bsky.social as part of their #emergingwritersfestival, which begins tonight, 3/30/26 and HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC will be there, sold by @pocketbooksshop.bsky.social. 🔥💓🎵

Melissa Fite Johnson @mfitejohnson.bsky.social · 7mo ago

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...

A few hours ahead of @marchxness.bsky.social voting, I wanted to share two last covers that hopefully will help you hear “My Heart Will Go On” the way I hear it—not cheesy, not overblown, but honest and sad. First, here’s Zack’s beautiful acoustic version at a dog’s funeral on Gilmore Girls:

Gilmore Girls Chin-Chin Memorial (My Heart Will Go On)

YouTube video by accordionaggie

m.youtube.com

Erin Keane @erinkeane.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Ben Folds Five vs Queen Celine in the Final! Now there’s a GAME.

Celeste Ng @pronounced-ing.bsky.social · 7mo ago

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!

More signs (on the backs of the ones I just made)

Signs for No Kings:
- A society that bans books is not free
- I love my country, I'm ashamed of my government
- if not fascism, why fascism shaped?
- Abolish Ice (with a drawing of an ice cube in a no symbol)
- not a paid protestor just pissed off
- listen to Black people (ffs)

Erin Dorney@erindorney.bsky.social · 7mo ago

This is great. Can folks buy em online? Happy to boost the signal if so (and maybe buy one ourselves)...

518 Zine Fest tomorrow! I turned my @marchxness.bsky.social essay into a zine and I'll have some copies there ❤️‍🔥

A drawing of a green moth reading a zine, highlighting the 518 Zine Fest on March 28 from 12-4PM in Albany, NY. The moth's wings have all of the tablers listed, and the Albany skyline can be seen in the background.

I had a terrible time deciding. Both essays are sad in the best way. I thought @cicilybennion.bsky.social had me completely and then I re-read @susannadonato.bsky.social's essay on Ani and remembered my first Ani concert in 1994 & being ghosted by people I loved & voted Ani. @marchxness.bsky.social

MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION FINAL FOUR HALFTIME SCORE You Had Time 226, Brick 210 Close, hard-fought game here by two essays and songs that have shown their quality throughout the tourney. It's anyone's game. Vote by 9am AZ time SAT at marchxness.com

Deirdre Lockwood@deirdrelockwood.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Both of these songs and essays slayed me. But I had to vote for Ani and Susanna! Vote vote vote!! It's very close.

go vote for Ani and Susanna!

cicilybennion.bsky.social @cicilybennion.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Hello @marchxness.bsky.social people! I made this account and sang this song in the hope that it would persuade you to vote for Brick. Let's take it to the championship! Big thanks to @elainehickb.bsky.social and my brother Kimball for doing all the heavy lifting with the music. youtu.be/v6eMu-Tm6Cs

March Xness Brick Cover

YouTube video by Cicily Bennion

youtu.be

Susanna Donato @susannadonato.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Fun fact: My seed (13) is lower than all the other seeds in the Final Four combined (1+1+6)! Voting starts at 9 PT/12 ET TODAY! #CinderellaStory

Martin Seay @martinseay.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Coming up tomorrow it's the cinderellas: Ben Folds Five vs Ani DiFranco!

Vote vote vote, obvs—but I also had a little time today to reread these @marchxness.bsky.social essays, & y'know what? I recommend doing it. It's a very different experience than the firehose-drinking of Round 1.

Tipping off our other Final Four matchup NOW: (6) Ben Folds Five, Brick vs (13) Ani DiFranco, You Had Time. Read, listen, and vote by noon eastern time Saturday to send the sadder of the two to the Championship: marchxness.com#/final4-fold...

Susanna Donato @susannadonato.bsky.social · 7mo ago

The @marchxness.bsky.social tournament has been fun. But what brought me in was sadness: the grief and self-recrimination of Ani DiFranco's achingly beautiful song. Here's one more dive, this time with feeling. Hope you'll vote for me, but if not, I'll go out singing. youtu.be/IGK-JBgBwNg

March Sadness 90s Edition cover of “You Had Time” by Ani DiFranco

YouTube video by Susanna Donato

youtu.be

Jen Borkowski @jenmaicha.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Two good, sad songs today. Two skillful essays. Two contrasting sadnesses. Oof.

This @marchxness.bsky.social game is very close right now and my vote goes to @mfitejohnson.bsky.social's moving essay about Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On." Also writing a kick-ass essay *WHILE* teaching high school is an amazing accomplishment says this former h.s. English teacher. Go Melissa!

It's FINAL FOUR March Sadness 90s Edition Gameday! Battle of the 1-seeds: (1) Celine Dion, My Heart Will Go On vs (1) GnR, November Rain. @mfitejohnson.bsky.social vs @erinkeane.bsky.social. Listen, read, vote by 9am AZ time FRIDAY 3/27: marchxness.com/finalfour-di...

These are both such terrific @marchxness.bsky.social essays! Congrats to @mfitejohnson.bsky.social on winning this round and amazing run to @mlfaliveno.bsky.social whose video and singing were just beautiful & knocked my socks off.

MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION ELITE 8 DAY 1 FINAL SCORE CELINE DION 360, Counting Crows 284, GNR 135, Kate Bush 118 Last day of the Elite 8 games just went up at marchxness.com

Listen and vote! Glycerine & You Had Time! @marchxness.bsky.social

Martin Seay @martinseay.bsky.social · 7mo ago

MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION SWEET 16 DAY 4 SCORES, 120’ to go: Glycerine 131, Adam’s Song 91 You Had Time 119, Sappy 92 Nirvana and Blink-182 on the ROPES Read, listen, vote by 9am today at marchxness.com to register your preferred sadness!

I'm sticking to my established @marchxness.bsky.social practice & voting cringe, which is to say voting for Gavin & Ani. But man, these are tough calls. Sweet 16, y'all.

Melissa Faliveno @mlfaliveno.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Guys, this is gonna be epic. The first time in @marchxness.bsky.social history that two writers who grew up in the single-stoplight town of Mount Horeb, WI go head to head. Whatever happens, the Trollway wins. See you out there tomorrow, sad 90s kids!

Christopher L. Keller@chrislkeller.com · 7mo ago

Thursday's @marchxness.bsky.social Sweet 16 matchup... Two essays recounting aspects of the same Midwest town by writers who may have burned through — combined — a thousand gallons of gas and Mountain Dew while traversing the backroads & fumbling around to change the CD in the Discman.

Today's Sweet 16 games (Crows vs Wilco, GnR vs Vince Gill) are tipped off at marchxness.com. Have a great game out there. 3 vs 10 / 1 vs 12. Who You Got? Read, listen, vote by 9am AZ time Friday! (+ 75' to play in yesterday's games)

Susanna Donato@susannadonato.bsky.social · 7mo ago

YOU GOT TIME, 50 MINUTES EXACTLY

If you haven’t voted in this one, GET ON IT. Two great songs, and I came in thinking Sinead (which I have going far in my bracket), but @jygravley.bsky.social ‘s essay on “Sappy” knocked the wind out of me (to borrow @suburbanprairie.bsky.social’s phrase). SO GOOD, the structure, ideas, emotion.

Christopher L. Keller @chrislkeller.com · 7mo ago

Brilliant from @andrewarthur.bsky.social... "That’s what makes the song’s emptiness so striking. It’s the opposite of melodrama. It doesn’t sound like someone clinging to love; it sounds like someone learning how to say goodbye to a version of herself who still believed the love was mutual."

Round 1, round 1, round 1, I'm beggin of you please don't take my man Listen, read, VOTE! marchxness.com#/1stround-ni...

Mo Daviau @modaviau.bsky.social · 7mo ago

My essay about the summer of '97, Cat Power, and my metal heart is up on marchxness.com. Vote!

March Sadness 90s Edition

A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)

marchxness.com

Kathleen Rooney@kathleenmrooney.bsky.social · 7mo ago

"Why? Why wasn’t she, like me, punished for showing her real, disagreeable emotions?" Mo Daviau's @marchxness.bsky.social essay on Cat Power's "Metal Heart" is incisive about the song, but also about the sexism surrounding women performers: marchxness.com#/1stround-cr...

Mo Daviau @modaviau.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I love how this year's @marchxness.bsky.social is mostly Gen Xers writing about our '90s youths. That will always be my favorite.

Martin Seay @martinseay.bsky.social · 7mo ago

TWO essays in the @marchxness.bsky.social bracket (partly) about befriending crows! @silashansen.bsky.social is great on "Linger," w/ a reminder that songs can be sad by reflecting your experience & also sad by, y'know, not.

Moar round 1, because we love you: Listen, read, VOTE! marchxness.com#/1stround-cr...

doritoshangover.bsky.social@doritoshangover.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I had to vote for @modaviau.bsky.social 's essay here, too--and not just because I loved Northampton in the nineties and also went to a women's college, but that helped. There's still time to vote! Read the essays @marchxness.bsky.social and hopefully below here, too, if I posted right.

The sublime interplay between musician and author in Mo Daviau's essay on Cat Power's "Metal Heart" got my vote: "I often wonder about people who got the memo before me. Who told them? How did they learn that lesson? Who loved them anyway?"

Nora Maynard @noramaynard.bsky.social · 7mo ago

AWP Book Inspector, Joey Ramone, says all volumes appear to be in good order! @sejalshah.bsky.social @marchxness.bsky.social @avitusbcarle.bsky.social @andrewbertaina.bsky.social @alternatingcu.bsky.social @mooncityreview.bsky.social