Wear, Watch, Want #62: The Stainless Swedish Transport Edition
Wear: Madewell Medium Leather Transport Tote
I had a tote bag from COS that I'd been using for a few years, but it was getting so ratty looking that I was embarrassed to carry it. I loved that black leather COS tote because I could fit all my crap in it (including my laptop!) but I could also carry it as an everyday bag. I liked that I didn't have to switch back and forth between bags when I wanted to take my laptop and work at a coffee shop and then go see a movie. Just take out or add a few things and DONE. When my COS bag finally died, I knew what I wanted from my next bag was that same versatility. The Madewell Medium Leather Transport Tote is exactly what I was looking for. It can hold all my stuff plus my 13" MacBook Air if I need it to. The outer patch pocket is great for things I need to be able to easily have on hand, and it has an interior zip pocket (which isn't always a given with tote bags). I have the dark cabernet color, which isn't available on Madewell currently but is at Nordstrom.
Watch: The Square
One of the films I was most looking forward to seeing in 2017 was The Square. It's a foreign production and might be considered an art film (I have no idea what makes something an art film) but I live in Los Angeles, so I figured I'd be able to see it at a theater nearby. Well, turns out it was showing at exactly one (1) theater and it was kind of a schlep. The Square won the Palme d'Or at Cannes! It's nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards! There are actors in the film who are famous in America, so there's plenty of appeal! Anyway, I didn't drag myself across town to see it in the theater, I waited and rented it.
I wanted to see The Square because I was interested in a movie that examined the art world, and because I really enjoyed writer/director Ruben Östlund's previous work Force Majeure. I'd say that The Square was more flashy, while Force Majeure has a simmering unease about it. I liked Force Majeure more, but I really enjoyed The Square. One thing that I really liked about The Square is that it's a film About Something but it very clearly lays out what it's About. There's no subtlety. You can watch this arty film and totally get it - you don't have to know about art or love foreign films or whatever. That's nice!
A lot of the publicity for The Square talked about the scene where Terry Notary plays an artist who acts like an ape during an elegant gala and disrupts the guests, pushing them to their limits of what they will tolerate. I had read so much about this scene, and it's the poster of the movie (at least in the US) so the whole time I'm sort of anticipating this scene with a dread in my gut. Well, it's at the very end - two hours into the film - so save yourself that anxious feeling and chill out!
Want: Stainless Steel Drinking Straws
I have a pretty regular Starbucks habit, which also means I produce a fair bit of Starbucks-related trash. It's all recyclable or compostable, but the pesky thing about plastic straws is that even if they are recyclable, they're too small to make it through the filters that sort trash from recyclables, so they end up in landfills (or, more likely, the ocean) regardless. This is the same thing that happens to pill bottles, which I talked about here. I cannot NOT have a straw, because the shock of a cold liquid on my teeth will make me go insane, so the solution I have come up with is these stainless steel straws. I imagine also getting a cute little pencil case to store them in in my bag, so I always have a non-sea-turtle-murdering straw on hand.
