LaCenne wasn’t good at everything. She had been pretty good at renaming herself, she thought, had been called Penny for years, never liked it, couldn’t sell people on Penelope, but then during college Jack and Jill (both real names!) came into her life, first as lovers, one and then the other, but then as friends and bandmates (and J&J stabilized as a couple!), and they were doing something that wasn’t quite punk, wasn’t quite New Wave, songs built on angular keyboard lines and Penny singing slogans in her high sweet voice, and a scout took notice, and then a label, and they were offered a deal and had to get serious about many things all at once, and Jack and Jill kept their names (of course!) but Penny had to make a change, and she botched up the French she had learned from her mother’s side of the family (sorry Mémé!) and reemerged as LaCenne, which was also the name of the band. The cover of the first album had her dead center, dressed all in black, leather pants, t-shirt, Louise Brooks wig, and Jack and Jill in back of her, fully red and blue respectively. Untied States, it was called. LaCenne had thought of that, too. What wasn’t she good at? Healthy eating, mathematics, board games, sex that didn’t have some complicating aspect to it, finding her way around a city even after years of living there, feeling okay about herself, sleeping, logrolling, love.
©2020 Ben Greenman/Stupid Ideas
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