Music Monday: Ani Edition

Did I ever tell you last year for Pride Weekend I got to see Ani DiFranco in a surprise show? (She was filling in for the scheduled artist last minute). Because I did. And, goodness, did it take me right back to my early 20s. It has been 25 damn years since Ani released “Little Plastic Castle” in 1998, when well into my all-consuming obsession with her music.

I think, more so than even the Indigo Girtls and Melissa Etheridge, her music is what I associate with my burgeoning understanding of my sexuality. I wasn’t the kid who knew from her grade school days, even though the signs were clearly there had I bothered to put them together. I had to graduate into the realization that, yeah, girls. Definitely girls.

Ani’s music was the soundtrack to my, and probably quite a few queer Gen Xer's, late 90s and early aughts. So it’s with great delight that I’m sharing this never before released music video for “Little Plastic Castle.” At the time, it was apparently too expensive and laborious to finish. But I rather like this rough-around-the-edges version, fits with the song’s joyful combat boot stomping aesthetic. Happy Monday and last week of Pride, kittens.