Saw Color Me Obsessed, Gorman Bechard's documentary on The Replacements, Friday evening at The Parkway. Bechard was onhand to take questions afterward. His film is a fan's-eye view of the band: no music, no band members, just interviews with fans, from the famous (Tom Arnold) (but not Pat Sajack) to the unknown. Among this latter group, the star of the show, I thought, was Robert Voedisch, identified as a "writer." Rooting around now on The Internet, I find his web page and his Facebook page, where his music "likes" do not include The Replacements. ("The Replacements--Band" is listed among "Other" with the helpful descriptor, "Local Business.") He is a short story writer, an instructor at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, and a fan of John Cheever, Alice Munro, and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton: an all-around solid citizen, it would appear, as well as a quirky, articulate, gesticulating, slightly nervous, engaging Replacements obsessive. The enthusiasm for a politician, however, is not something you will find in the oeuvre of the Replacements. The closest any of them has come to political involvement is the job Paul Westerberg held as a janitor in the Minnesota office of then-Sen. David Durenberger. Here is part of the lyric to "Someone Take the Wheel":
The windows are dirty;
Let's hope it rains.
Add another newspaper,
Something to do with my change.
I see we're fighting again
In some fuckin' land:
Throw in another tape man.
Judging by the questions Bechard took after the screening, I wasn't the only one taken by Voedisch, who apparently had a lower percentage of his interview cut than any of the other "stars." I'd highly recommend Color Me Obsessed to fans of The Replacements. All others might feel like Mr. Voedisch at a mixer of the College Republicans.
