Emma Straub

Word nerd jokes.

And I quickly realized that not only did I love it, but I wanted to listen to it all the time, all the time.

So I went and I bought them at the Tower Records, which was then on 66th Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side.

All three records came in a box set, but they also sold them individually.

So I bought one at a time, but that didn't last very long because I became absolutely devoted.

That summer, I played nothing but Magnetic Fields.

I guess in college, Jeff Buckley, Elliot Smith, Rufus Wainwright.

Like, yeah, I loved like a beautiful, sad boy.

It felt, yeah.

I mean, it felt related because there were certainly a lot of sadness and longing, et cetera.

But I think what really blew my mind about Stephen is that I didn't listen to anything funny, you know?

Like how often is good music funny?

So then I think it was 2001.

It was my mother's birthday.

And I went out to dinner with my parents.

We had several bottles of wine.

And then I convinced them to go see the magnetic fields with me.

They were playing at the bottom line on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village.

And my father's friend was the opening act.

Well, okay, this is where things get a little bit complicated, where I reveal myself as a nepo baby of a literary sort.