Our staff felt some bad vibes this week from the music industry, healthcare providers and umbrella-wielding New Yorkers. Read their takes below.

On musical misogyny:

I’m not mad at the broad concept of men singing about women, but at the particular instance of bands that consist entirely of cis-men writing songs and albums titled simply “Girls” or “insert-adjective-here Girls.” This is a trend that I’ve not seen repeated the other way around — I’ve never seen an album simply titled “Boys.” It seems like every single musical work with the title “Girls” is some self-serving generalization about a gender. It’s ridiculous, reductive and arrogant. I could rant about this for pages. I’ve never found an example where creating music on the entire gender of women has been an effective artistic choice. I’ve only been left aggravated. Come on, lads, we get it. She broke your heart — find a way to cope without generalizing about the rest of us. —Hailey Nuthals, Arts Editor

On umbrellas:

As a proud Vancouverite, I do not believe in umbrellas. In Vancouver, rainy days are a fact of life. Walk anywhere in Metro Vancouver on a rainy day, of which there are plenty, and umbrella sightings are few and far between. In New York, on the other hand, it’s near-impossible to walk down the sidewalk and not risk life and limb as you try to navigate the web of umbrellas, making the daily commute to class a death wish. This is why we have hoods, people! Also, umbrellas are just another thing to keep track of and spend money on. I mean, have we learned nothing from the yellow umbrella saga in “How I Met Your Mother”? It’s rain, not toxic radioactive gas. A little wet hair never hurt anyone, get over yourselves. —Rachel Ruecker, Sports Editor

As a proud Seattleite, I also do not believe in umbrellas. Tourists stick out like a sore thumb in the Pacific Northwest simply by using an umbrella. And what is the point of them? They don’t really keep you dry other than your head, which will probably get wet anyway if it’s raining hard. The rest of your body will be wet because umbrellas do not solve the problem. I’m sorry that you chose to wear your (faux or not) fur coat on a day with torrential down pour or got a blow out yesterday. That’s your fault. Don’t poke my eye out with your umbrella that blows inside out in the wind because you don’t know how to dress yourself. Since everyone thinks that it rains 365 days a year where I live, we’ve mastered how to deal with the rain. It’s called a raincoat. You won’t take up five feet of the sidewalk, you won’t annoy everyone who isn’t using an umbrella and you will make all of our commutes that much easier. —Anna Letson, Multimedia Editor

On healthcare access across state lines:

Let me preface this rant by saying that I haven’t gotten a physical yet for this school year because I couldn’t go home this summer to meet with my primary care physician, but that’s not the point. The point is that communication within our healthcare system is terrible.

Due to my lack of a physical appointment, my birth control prescription expired, which I inconveniently discovered at the pharmacy on the day I needed to start the pill again. So Monday morning at 10 a.m., I called my primary care physician’s office in Chicago. The receptionist says she marked my prescription refill message as high priority, that a nurse will refill it shortly and they would call me once it was refilled. However, for the receptionist to be able to do this, she had to schedule an appointment for me the next time I am in Chicago.

Four hours go by with no call, so I call back. It’s a new receptionist who is less kind and says she will do the same as the previous receptionist did. She could not tell me when or if the request will be fulfilled nor provide a reason as to why the nurses have ignored my request. More time passes and I’m feeling desperate. I decide that since I need the pill, I will go and get a consultation at a free women’s clinic. Unfortunately, neither the NYU Women’s Health Center or Planned Parenthood accepted walk-ins at that point in the afternoon. Moreover, Planned Parenthood has nothing available this week at a convenient location or time.

After an hour of phone calls, I optimistically call my pharmacy to see if the nurses have already refilled my prescription but simply forgot to call to let me know. This is in fact the case.

While my problem was small and worked out in my favor, this scenario is emblematic of a much larger problem. There is poor communication between personnel in one office —  more so across state lines — and there is limited access to free clinics in terms of available locations and time slots. While some situations regarding women’s health care, like my own, could be prevented, others cannot and are only made more dire by a lack of resources and proper communication. It’s sad and disheartening and frustrating and definitely rant-worthy. —Gabriella Bower, Beauty & Style Editor

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