The new Onyx Collective album is probably all you should listen to for a while. The experimental jazz outfit reimagines the classics from Rodgers & Hart and Rodgers & Hammerstein, from “Blue Moon” to “My Funny Valentine,” walking you through tunes you thought you knew, with surprises thrown in at every turn. “Getting to Know You” is a standout, classically mellow with a little added wonk generated by a refusal to resolve chords in the saccharine way of the original. And just like that, what’s old is new. Listen here.
Remember when you were trying to go waste-free? Plastics are again having a moment as people fly through single-use bags as barriers between them and anything else that might have been touched. At farmers’ markets, where cloth bags were once encouraged as a vessel for the perfect tomatoes you’d hand-selected, everything is now pre-packaged in plastic sacks so you can pick up and jet away as quickly as possible; some grocery stores are even banning reusable bags, and people are opting for packaged staples over bulk bins after who-knows-how-many people have touched their communal scoops. Naturally, the plastic lobby is having a g-d field day, going so far as to ask the government to endorse single-use plastics as a measure to counter the pandemic. Amazingly, that hasn’t happened yet— perhaps because there’s no science that indicates that plastic is more virus-killing than anything else. That is to say, you can still carry your reusable bags. Just wash them after.
On those bulk bins: turns out there’s a host of startups working on making them easier to use *and* closer to touch-free. The solution to the bulk problem— if bulk is indeed a problem, which low usership suggests it may be— is sensors, which release product in a similar way to those touch-free sinks (only these would, um, work), weighing the contents as it comes out so you don’t have to do it again later. But that’s not all: filled bins could also be monitored to track their freshness, allowing connected tablets to automatically run sales on products nearing their best-by date. Some companies even want to provide smart containers for people take home, to help them keep track of expiration dates and possible preparations. All the bells and whistles are sure to offend the diehards who find the system perfectly usable as-is. What can we say, they loved bulk before it was cool.
Forgive me if any of this touches on your panxiety. By way of easing tensions: Zolt is a CBD brand that puts hyper-effective hemp extract into little sachets, so you can 1. add them to anything you like, and 2. avoid the waste of a single-use bottle. They have formulas for different times of day— caffeinated citrus flavors for the AM, tea mix for going to sleep, and unflavored balance blends for any time the need strikes. Also, FYI, they’re currently kicking 2% of their sales toward the National Young Farmers’ Coalition to support the folks growing our food right now. If any of that sounds good to you, check out Zolt here and get 15% off with the code IPSUM15.
