In case your week needs a gentle start, here’s a warm little bit of soul-R&B from Kiah Victoria. As a relatively new act, she’s nothing if not precise: give her a gold star for her judicious use of autotune, and another for her song structure. On this track she nails the emotional ebb and flow, starting low and slow with the flat matter-of-factness of Lemonade-Carter-era Beyoncé, building into a full, Jazmine Sullivan-style croon. “Valet” is all about being carried when you need a boost (reinforced by that image of her brother giving her a piggyback in the video)– sappy for sure, but also super Monday vibes. Get into it.
You know you’re an adult in a bad way when you give a shit about a hotel’s office amenities. But, 🙋 guilty. Now that we’ve rounded the AirBnb curve and are occasionally staying in hotels again (perhaps sponsored by our workplaces?), the class of #digitalnomads is impressing needs on big-hospitality, and one of those is a place to work. The “business centers” of the past are indisputably bullshit, and transient hotel lobbies don’t really do the trick either, so some of the smarter brands are starting to add WeWork-style spaces to their properties. Unclear if this should feel like a Snake People’s* victory or like we’re becoming our parents, but, like, we’ll take the wifi.
In one more instance of businesses accommodating what people actually need, some restaurant bathrooms are now stocking pads and tampons. The trend has been jarring for some, reinforcing the notion that not only do women eat AND POO, but they also menstruate. Incidentally, jarring menstruation is precisely what these products are for, so take one and save it for a rainy day. ✌
Hands full of free pads on your way back to the hotel? Try this self-driving suitcase, which is at once supremely useful eminently stealable. The Ovis is billed as “your new best travel buddy who’s always by your side,” programmed to follow you around and yield to your direction when you grab its handle. Perfect for business travelers who weren’t allowed pets in their youth, it’s a lot like walking a Roomba. Just make sure to respect off-leash hours at the airport– those TSA folks can be pretty strict.
