by Sarah Hepola
Our narrator has woken up from a two-hour nap near 7pm, and she is slightly addled but very talkative. A ramble about William F. Buckley interviewing Norman Mailer turns into a riff about the shape-shifting nature of feminism, then her longstanding beef with country music, and a consideration of her odd compulsion to listen to songs on repeat. In particular, these are pop songs in the key of lonely: ELO and Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie and Kacey Musgraves, a small-town girl from Golden, Texas (nearest town: Mineola) who became a crossover sensation a few years ago, opening the door a bit wider to the beauty and power of country music. Our ramble veers into stoner-philosophy territory (though our narrator is perfectly sober), given that many facts fall slightly off-the-mark. When she says Crossfire, she means Firing Line. When she says “public access TV,” she means PBS. When she falsely claims that Brooks & Dunn must be Garth Brooks and some other dude, she betrays how thoroughly she has ignored country music.
Travel along, and see if you can decode the message.
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