Is Regina Spektor making a bid to score the next Bond film? This single calls up the strings, the beats, and the dissonant brass to help narrate a hero’s journey where we’re climbing through obstacles to uncover hidden truths. “In the ocean, there’s a mountain. On the mountain, there’s a forest. In the forest, there’s a garden. In the garden, there’s a flower. In the flower, there’s a nectar. In the nectar, there’s an answer. In that answer, there’s another. And another, and another.” Worth the effort? Yep. Listen here.
I can’t stop thinking about clothing alterations, and neither, apparently, can Josephine Philips, the 24-year-old who just raised $2.4 million for her tailoring-on-demand service. Sojo is functionally like GrubHub, but for clothes: when you need something done, you app-summon a bike courier who brings your job to a seamster nearby. The venture money is supposed to help the company roll out a corporate arm where Ganni or whatever can refer you directly to the app to get your stuff fixed or altered (and they’ll collect data on where garments are failing so the brands can make them better next time).
At risk of looking like a booster… yay? 1. Our clothes should fit, no? 2. Lest we forget the word “darning” (and we have — two thirds of salvageable clothes are thrown away), we can fix them when they break. Shall I go on? Most people who sew (cough, women) don’t monetize the skill and guess what increased demand means for labor supply.
Kind of makes you feel like we should uhhhhh fund more ladies, huh? (And specifically continue to fund Philips so she can expand Sojo beyond London and hit, say, New York?)
We may still have to carry our clothes to the tailor, but in New York, we do have our luxuries. For one, it appears that you can now get a meal kit from none other than Eleven Madison Park. The vegan thing that at first looked like a schtick appears to have resonated just the way they hoped it would, enough that it’s become a whole new wing of business. Each weekly delivery from Eleven Madison Home* brings you a single day’s worth of food that you lightly prepare yourself for $150 per person. “Almost every night, when I greet guests in the dining room at Eleven Madison Park, I hear a compliment along the lines of, ‘If I could eat this way, I would eat plant-based all the time,’” says the chef Daniel Humm. And when we’re existing at that price point, that’s basically an invitation to swipe the old credit card a few times extra. Accomplished!
*also a viable name for, say, a Reese Witherspoon magazine
Every so often I look at a mail truck and marvel at the copy genius of the USPS: “We Deliver For You.” In advance of Mother’s Day, lean on the old post office and send your mama a subscription set of postcards that she can mail out to whomever she likes. The Postcard Maven (as you well know by now) sends out fun new batches monthly, sourced from around the world, to help your favorite person drop little analog lines to the people who matter to them. Shipping is free, and all the cards come with postage, so you don’t even have to wait in line to get them out. Not to say you’re behind on your gift planning, but this one feels like a grab regardless. Get your postcards here.
