Gitit gurl!

... the local news is full of corpses today, but they can stay dead because I am giddy with happiness that finally a Baltimore musician has achieved International-level celebrity (the first since Mario, right?) ... if you haven't checked out Rye Rye yet you oughter, she's an M.I.A.-protege now with a soon-to-heavily rotate 104.3-ful single with Robyn. Here she is performing somewhere in Baltimore (& awesome official video for "Hardcore Girls", is that her grandma?) ... & a Britney Spears cover with a video that looks like it was filmed in juvie. You must love her!

Ok, back to corpses...

Quality reading

If you haven't read Antero Pietila's Not in My Neighborhood, you really must. Finally got my copy on Saturday and couldn't put it down all weekend. Full of fascinating facts, not just about how housing segregation and blockbusting, but crazy tidbits, like before 1904, Baltimore didn't have an underground sewage system, just massive cesspools. Also MLK Jr. apparently actively avoided Baltimore, for reasons unknown. And apparently Pennsylvania Ave used to be main street!