Quentin's Weeknotes 10/27/18-11/2/18

This week:

• I read Pitchfork’s history of Outlaw country in 33 songs. The list opens with an interview with Steve Earle, with whom I’ve recently gotten acquainted through his classic album Copperhead Road and his more recent political rager Jerusalem. Earle went to Texas, and then Nashville as an acolyte of older country stars, before joining their ranks, and then losing a battle against drug and alcoholism that eventually led him to prison. The list includes many people I knew (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Earle, Townes Van Zandt) but lots of other folks I didn’t know and am looking forward to hearing.
• I read The Baffler’s article about how Facebook’s aging demographics have made it a hub for racism, xenophobia, violence, and vitriol that will hopefully, someday, mercifully, disappear into history.
• My kid and I went out to Oneonta’s Halloween parade.