This Jungle song is the vibe I want for my entire spring and summer, not in the least because there’s a dance that goes with it. The choreography by two rising London choreographers, Nathaniel Williams and Cece Nama, takes inspiration from West Side Story (you know what that means: dance fighting). But the music it accompanies is much more disco than musical theater, with cheeky strings and an unforgettable hook. This is just a taste of the album coming in August, and we will savor it. Watch, listen, learn.
The census bureau reported a nearly 40% increase in #vanlifers between 2016 and 2019, and in 2020, that cohort said they were seeing two or three times more people living on the road. Naturally, I was VERY excited to see the headline, “How Veterans of #Vanlife Feel About All the Newbies.” They hate them, right? There are Nomadland-vs-influencer class wars, RIGHT?! We don’t know because the article didn’t really interview any veterans. Instead, it quotes very sweet people who’ve learned a thing or two since they got some wheels in 2019 and are sure all these pandemic travelers are just building illegal campfires “because they don’t know.” I would hope for this story to give us at least one stone-faced Frances McDormand. Give us that tension!
Now, over to the van’s cousin with slightly more space and many fewer wheels: the tiny house. After the entire state of California bought one, if only to house outcasts in their yards, Ikea is now selling their own model. The designy pre-fabs made from upcycled plastic bottles and sustainably grown pine panels are available from $47,500 and were, um, designed in partnership with Vox‘s branded content arm? That’s right, the solar panels and composting toilets are all a ploy to show us that Ikea (which, I’ll remind us, deals in what’s effectively disposable furniture) is a sustainability giant that can inspire you to “make better choices in your own home,” whether or not you drop the $50k on an additional one. Now that you know that this kind of shenanigan is what’s keeping journalism alive, can we interest you in a Hemnes bed?
If you love tiny houses and prefer to shell out something in the neighborhood of $900, scoot on over to Crate and Barrel, where you can buy a tiny-house-shaped toddler bed, complete with window cutouts, a skylight, a mailbox slot, and sweet little house numbers printed in that gentrification font. Get it for your kid and maybe you can live in their back yard one day.
