Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

I have been enjoying "Penny Dreadful City of Angels."

It's like Harry Bosch as written by HP Lovecraft.

Good production values. Worth your time.

What blog is hot now: 'My Husband Stupid Record Collection'

"Where I listen to my husband's record collection, one record at a time, and tell you what I think."

I came across the blog "My Husband Stupid Record Collection" via Jesabel's Tracy Moore observation/diatribe (depending on your point of view) that, among other things, she, Tracy, finds it sexist? perhaps? that a woman outsider writing about music... I tell you what, why don't I just copy and paste what she is saying and let you figure out if she makes a good point or not.

A woman named Sarah O'Holla has a tumblr devoted to going through her husband's record collection, reviewing every single album to get to know more about it (and him). She's not a music critic; she's a librarian who waxes earnest/sarcastic about the records while her dude, husband Alex Goldman, who owns 1,500 LPs, offers context. I am not shocked that she's reviewing 1,500 records; I'm in awe that dudes aren't giving her a bunch of terrible shit for it. In fact, many are actually into it.

For the record (har), I, a woman, am way into it, premise-wise. It's cool to show an interest in things the person you love loves, and also, because records... 

But as someone who also wrote about music professionally while female, I can't help but notice the jaw-dropping difference in response to a woman who sits down to riff on music as an admitted outsider being greeted with an enthusiastic thumbs-up by dudes, VERSUS being a woman who sits down to riff on music as an insider and being greeted with a shit-fuck-ton of vitriol by dudes. The latter experience would be mine...

Here, I'm skipping over the part where Tracy cites some of the glowing? praise "My Husband Stupid Record Collection" is getting. NPR & Slate. (question mark after glowing because I'm guessing is glowing, I'm not reading it) Back to Tracy...

... but nobody loves to tell you all the fuck about music like a dude with a bunch of records, trust. So O'Holla may not have gotten direct shit, but in a way, she got shit for not getting shit if that makes sense. Because what O'Holla is doing fits really perfectly into a very traditional notion about how men impart knowledge to women, especially music. That is, we are cool with dudes teaching women things and we love when they are eager students. We are less cool when women are doing the knowledge-dropping with anything like authority. This is not her individual fault or anything for wanting to review some records, but the response is useful and emblematic.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that "how-men-impart-knowledge-to-women" what Althouse calls "mansplaining"? I haven't checked, hence, the cover of this post.

Jesabel

"Free Crack Pipes Urged To Slow Spread Of HIV In SF"

"Barbara Garcia, Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, elaborated in a phone call to KPIX 5."

“This is a recommendation from a community group,” Garcia said. “And we get lots of different kinds of recommendations. That recommendation has not come to me. And I’m telling you that if it did, I would say ‘absolutely no, we are not going to distribute crack pipes.’ We have a lot of things to consider for those who are using crack for improving their health. And the distribution of crack pipes is not something I’m going to consider.”

Crack pipe distribution programs have been successful in Canada, said Laura Thomas, a member of the HIV Health Services Planning Council (HPPC), the group that recently suggested San Francisco consider a similar program.

“San Francisco has a long history of being at the cutting edge of things that we have turned out to be very right on… and I would like to see this one be another of those things that we were right about before the rest of the country catches on,” said Thomas.

“It may seem counter intuitive, but it’s a great program,” said Thomas. “Once you can bring people into your program, make them feel respected, taken care of, then they’re more likely to come back and get on HIV meds and want to be engaged and taking care of their health.”