Being a leader is hard. It requires commitment. And selflessness. And doing more work than you probably think.
We deserve leaders who stand, two feet in.
Not people who don’t show up, or who frame their cowardice as a stance. And certainly not people on their heels headed towards the exit or with a foot already out the door.
Every week on WECI, my kid hosts a show of themed music in at least five genres (and inevitably includes an Avett Brothers tune). This week, I got to join them for a show themed on artists we’ve seen live.
I wanted to include more than I had space for — a short Godspeed You! Black Emperor song still would have eaten up a fifth of our time — but also wanted to offer the story behind each of my selections.
You can find the full playlist on Apple Music.
We saw Fantastic Negrito together backstage at Blues & BBQ at the end of a long, hot July day. Evelyn also reminded that, because of its title, it starts off practically every time my phone connects to the car.
A weird show in a conference room at the Des Moines Botanical Garden on the eve of the 2000 election. The band, a bunch of anarchist punks who seemed to have freed themselves from day jobs, assured the audience the election winner wouldn’t matter to us. There is nothing new under the sun.
I saw Mitski live kinda accidentally when we went to Mission Creek Festival in 2019. She gyrated while she sang in a table in the middle of the stage. Our kid learned — “holy shit, you’ve seen Mitski?!” — from a photo of the marquee showing up on the TV’s screensaver; she added this on my behalf.
My kid’s pick and the only artist in the set that I don’t think I’ve seen play.
When I helped produce Java Blend for IPR, we saw a lot of different performers. This one stuck with me because it was one of the few CDs I had with me in my solo drive from Iowa City to Tampa for a summer gig.
Another Mission Creek show, but this one with my kid. Honestly, this is a stand in for “Kill Me,” which is unplayable on actual terrestrial radio.
Another show we saw together, at an Englert local showcase. Super fun. The kid picked this one, which was better than the one I had.
I have no idea what the lyrics are, but the Japanese thrash band melted my face at Gabe’s in the early 2000s.
A loud, hot, packed Theta Beta Potato living room show that ended with a bit of a thud when the band blew a fuse to end their set.
The first time I saw them required a road Wisc., trip to the High Noon Saloon in Madison, but I saw them three more times, the last at what I thought was a terrible, new, glitzy venue down the street from the High Noon Saloon in Madison, Wisc. get off my lawn.
Another show I saw with my kid at the Englert. Catchy. Fun. Bluesy. Hipster.
I saw McCutcheon at my elementary school in Alaska, listened to his kid’s albums on tapes in our family car, and just went to see him again with my dad.
Horns, energy and catchy as hell, their performance marked the start of Blues & BBQ’s move to nationally and internationally turning bands and I still can’t believe we pulled them off.
A staple in Iowa City who I’ve seen countless times — including immediately before his International Blues Challenge win at my 15th wedding anniversary party.
The number of these bands also makes me realize what a treasure The Englert Theater in Iowa City is.
I am feeling, like I suspect many of you, on edge.
I still carry the trauma of Election Day 2016 and the years that followed. No matter what happens, I won’t fully exhale until — at best — sometime in January.
Even after, regardless, we will need each other. We will need community and care. We will need love and kindness.
It will be easy to slip into pettiness and anger and rage and fear. I hope you can surround yourself with people you love and who love you. I hope we can all find generosity and gratitude.
And I hope we can dig deep to do the hard work ahead.
The work we do on the ground in our neighborhoods and in our community will always matter, even and especially when it’s hard. No matter what. Because it will matter.
The sun always sets. And it always rises. And for some folks the world will always be unfair and hurtful and cruel, and we must do the work to help them. Onward.
I love the outdoors. It’s a place of solitude and calm. It’s worth traveling for.
But it’s also necessary to preserve places here, near home.
That’s why I’m going to flip my ballot over and vote “yes” on the $30 million county conservation bond.
The previous bond helped build out the beautiful Clear Creek and the Iowa River trails, where I’ve biked through rolling hills and to community events; acquire the Pechman Creek Delta, where I’ll be bow hunting for deer this fall; buy the Ciha Fen Preserve, which I discovered through Will Kapp’s lovely local hikes book (and where I was when I learned the result of the 2020 election and let out a deep sigh of relief); and with about 12 other big projects throughout Johnson County.
I want more and know we deserve it. Iowa ranks 47th on percentage of public land, and this is a meaningful step we can take locally to expand this and persevere more natural public spaces for the future.
When you vote, please take the time to flip your ballot over and vote “yes” on the $30 million Johnson County conservation bond.
Early voting started today.
We did the thing.
Backpacking is a weird pastime. Walks in nature? Everyone agrees they’re great. Long walks in nature, day after day, regardless of the weather, carrying your food, bedding, clothes and all the other things you need while forgoing basic hygiene? Through hiking? Weird.
But weird is where challenge is. And where challenge lies, there lies the chance for growth and transformation. Yes, there’s basking in the majesty of the natural world. Eating lunch by a creek or on top of a mountain and discovering moose prints and new fungi, but there’s also pushing through the mental slog of hours of rain and mud and the miles of rocks and roots. And then there’s spending 24 hours a day with your partner, unbathed and unvarnished. And in there is a serious metaphor for relationships and life.
We did the thing.
The thing we did:
📍La Traversée de Charlevoix, Quebec, Canada
🗓️ 7 days, including three of rain
🚶109 km (68 miles) end to end
📈 3,336 m (10,945 feet) of gain
📉 -3,686 m (12,093 feet) of drop
My camera roll contains this front page from the Iowa City Press-Citizen with a story about a one-term president who’s been dead for 60 years:
Meanwhile, one of my mentors, former music critic and now emeritus professor Don McLeese, writes on social media about a Des Moines Register review of Foreigner’s Iowa State Fair performance:
An embarrassment, but I fault the paper rather than the reporter pressed into service. In graf 3 we get the names of all founding members, none of whom are currently in the band, while graf 4 gives the names of who is now in the band, without saying who does or plays what. But really, when this is your lead graf, you’ve got nowhere to go but. . .nowhere:
“Though Foreigner might be on their Farewell Tour, it felt like the very first time, as the band proved to the crowd of 11,141 on the second day of the Iowa State Fair that they will forever be one of the greatest rock bands of all time.”
This is not a bash-the-reporter post. It’s just hard to even feel like it’s worth criticizing Gannet, which strictly paywalls its sites, makes it impossible to unsubscribe, doesn’t offer its reporters the support — editors, pay, guidance, mentorship — they deserve and isn’t producing news that serve its communities.
The criticism I’ve leveled in this space over the past 15-plus years have often been dopey, but mocking critiquing has always come with some hope for improvement. That hasn’t been possible at Gannet properties for a while now, and my disappointment and acceptance is now complete, making this the last time I plan to acknowledge the present-tense existence of these papers.
So -30-, I guess.
Vanessa Miller in The Gazette:
Nearly two months after a bankruptcy judge confirmed a liquidation plan for the former Mercy Iowa City’s tens of millions in assets, secured bondholders “have yet to receive a single ‘effective date’ distribution” of cash.
And those bondholders — Preston Hollow Community Capital and Comptershare Trust Company — are asking the judge to get involved before the money available dwindles further.
Previously on Healthcare Shouldn’t Be Profit Driven: Public hospital system saves local healthcare facility from private loan sharks.
Cry me a river.
Laura and I sent this to the Little Village, The Gazette and the Press-Citizen:
On June 4, we have the opportunity to elect someone who leads from her values, not her ego. That’s why we are voting for Mandi Remington for Johnson County Supervisor in the Democratic primary, and urge you to join us.
If you’ve watched a Board of Supervisors meeting in the last couple of years, you’ve witnessed our elected leaders be, at times, selfish, petty, rude, dismissive, derisive, and purposefully obtuse as they engage each other and the public, and as they conduct the business of our county.
With more than 30 years of local government service between the two of us, we know political dysfunction when we see it. But you don’t need that much history to see we need to change the dynamic at the dais.
Mandi’s lived experience as a single, working mother brings first-hand, personal understanding of the barriers so many in our community face. Her leadership of the Corridor Community Action Network shows she will work for her community in need. Mandi will lead with hustle, heart, and compassion.
Join us in voting for Mandi Remington on or before June 4.
Mercy is a value that should be at the heart of any functioning and tolerant society. Mercy ultimately acknowledges that we are all imperfect and in doing so allows us the oxygen to breathe — to feel protected within a society, through our mutual fallibility. Without mercy a society loses its soul, and devours itself.
Erin Jordan and Alejandro Rojas in The Gazette:
Many parents are mad the Iowa City Community School District is closing its elementary school in Hills, but that doesn’t mean they want to send their kids to a lower-ranking district instead.
…
Sen. Dawn Driscoll, R-Williamsburg, and Rep. Heather Hora, R-Washington, met with the Hills City Council last week to talk about the possibility of changing school boundaries to move Hills students to the Lone Tree Community School District instead.
Iowa Republicans, including Driscoll and Hora, continue to defund public education in Iowa, where the past decade has seen state funding fail to keep up with inflation, leading to building and program closures.
The solution Republicans are offering: move your school to a shittier district that doesn’t guarantee it could keep the building open, either.
