The Cultured Girl

Built NY’s wine bottle totes are the type of thing you’d never buy for yourself but would love to get as a gift. Not only are they cool-looking but the neoprene sleeves are also pretty ingenious in the way they insulate and protect wine bottles on the go. Now, the company has made a logical jump from adult beverages to neoprene laptop sleeves, which cushion your computer when you want to schlep it around in a backback or other normal bag. They start at just $30, and they’re pretty darn stylish to boot.

Today is the 26th of July, which seems as good a day as any to mention the 26th of July Movement, which was the band of Cuban revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro who overthrew Batista and installed the current Communist regime. (July 26 is actually the date of a thwarted assault on a Cuban army facility in 1953; Castro didn’t actually assume power until 1959.)

For a unique perspective on the Cuban revolution, I highly recommend the memoir Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas. The fast-paced and artfully written book tells Arenas’s incredible life story, starting with his dirt-poor peasant childhood and a youth spent in Castro’s army, then moving onto his eventual persecution and imprisonment as a counterrevolutionary writer and homosexual. Throughout the story—which is weighted heavily toward tales of sexual exploits and gruesome violence—you also get a crash-course in Cuban history and an inside look at what the country was like before, during, and after the revolution. When you’re done with the book, or if you’re too lazy to start it, I also recommend the movie of the same name, starring Javier Bardem and featuring a delightful cameo from Johnny Depp.

Wedding season is upon us, which means that all around the country, people are shelling out ridiculous sums of money to attend or participate in action-packed, three-day blowouts. But every time I get a wedding invite in the mail, I’m puzzled by why my digitally savvy peers still insist on such analog (and expensive) wedding traditions. Brand Noise this week has a cool post on precisely that topic. Here’s how some people are giving weddings a high-tech, low-budget upgrade.

• DIY digital photos. With everyone and their grandmothers using digital cameras nowadays, you hardly need to hire a professional photographer (depending on how formal you want your photos to be). Instead, ask everyone to hand over their digital pics, and use a service like Pictureal, which will professionally edit the best images, let you customize the selections online, and then send you a DVD with the final edits.
• E-mail invitations. With so much of the wedding moving online—from gift registries to hotel information—why not send Evites instead of pricey printed cards? You can always draw up some formal invitations for family or older guests who might not have email.
• Ipod soundtracks. Time was, you had to hire a DJ to get access to an extensive music collection. But increasingly, couples are ditching the DJ in favor of an extensive digital music collection on an iPod or computer. Just make sure you have someone manning the playlist who knows when to get people fired up or cue up the occasional slow song.

Upgrade: Thom Yorke, Eraser
Old favorites: Radiohead, the Postal Service, David Bowie

Given the spastic freakouts of Radiohead’s last two albums, Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief, you might expect Thom Yorke’s first solo outing to be equally high-strung. But when left to his own devices, Yorke has relaxed, letting his pointed vocals and matter-of-fact lyrics take center stage over simple, layered arrangements. Eraser has Yorke still veering away from rock and roll, but now he’s going in the direction of mellow electronica—think Boards of Canada or the Notwist—rather than following the epic experimental path blazed by Radiohead as of late. While Eraser doesn’t break brilliant new ground, it is a captivating and cohesive album with several standout tracks, including the trancelike melodies of “And It Rained All Night,” the Eno-inspired pop of “Harrowdown Hill,” and the straightforward “this is fucked up” poetry of “Black Swan.”

Protein bars are an ideal pre-workout breakfast, because they provide you enough energy without making you feel full. The challenge is finding a bar that packs enough protein but doesn’t have so many calories that it cancels out your exercise.

Clif Bars, for instance, contain a whopping 10 grams of protein (about 20 percent of your daily allowance), but depending on the flavor, you’re also getting 200-250 calories and troubling amounts of fat. For that reason, I was recently drawn to the new 100 Calorie bars from Balance Bar, until I realized they are sorely lacking in protein and therefore not likely to keep me going until lunch.
So I’ve decided to stick with Clif’s Luna Bar, which has long been my protein bar of choice (particularly the lower-fat varieties like Toasted Nuts ‘n’ Cranberry). Luna Bars have the same amount of protein as Clif bars but 180 calories max. I was also delighted to read on Hungry Girl yesterday that Luna just rolled out a new line of breakfast bars called Sunrise, which have 8 grams of protein but more fiber than regular Luna bars. Plus, the flavors, including blueberry yogurt and vanilla almond, are more conducive to morning munchies than, say, S’mores.

It’s one thing to have a hangover on the weekend, when you can drink a Bloody Mary over brunch and spend the rest of the day laying around the house smoking weed. But pulling yourself together for work after a night of drinking—perhaps a happy hour that went too long—requires an entirely different strategy. Here are some tactics to get you out the door and into the office.

• Down some Alka-Seltzer. If you feel like you want to puke, Alka-Seltzer is a two-pronged miracle cure. It will either get the puking over with or settle your stomach for good.
• De-puff your eyes. They’ll betray your hangover more than anything else, but you can’t wear sunglasses all day. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: Origins No Puffery cooling eye gel is a delight.
• Don’t attempt coffee. Perk up with a real Coca-Cola instead—it will be easier on your stomach—paired with something savory like a bagel.
• Dress up. If you put on a skirt and try to look pulled together, your coworkers won’t be nearly as suspicious.

I recently had dinner at a vegan restaurant in San Francisco called Cafe Gratitude, which focuses almost exclusively on live and raw foods. While I don’t plan to convert to the raw regimen anytime soon, I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty the food was. (I had an avocado stuffed with sunflower-seed pate and topped with cashew sour cream.) Basically, everything at the place was made out of nuts, because apparently even vegan staples like beans and soy require more cooking than the raw foods philosophy allows.

More than anything, the meal made me wonder about the whole raw and live foods. Basically, the dietary philosophy prohibits eating foods that are “cooked” in the classic sense—that is, using temperatures higher than 116 degrees. (That even includes coffee, which for raw foodies is cold-pressed for hours instead of being brewed.) Not only are raw foods higher in nutrients, but they are also rich in enzymes, which are used in food digestion. Those enzymes break down at 116 degrees, changing the molecular structure of the food, so your body basically has to do more work to digest the cooked stuff. If that all sounds a bit kooky, well, it is. According to a user poll on rawfoods.com, even the devotees aren’t that devoted: Only 10 percent of poll respondents stick to a 100 percent all-raw diet.

Ordering flowers remotely is always a gamble. Traditionally, the tightly packed standardized bouquets from national services such as FTD and 1-800-Flowers are just plain tacky, but at least you know what you’re getting. Calling a local florist where the recipient lives is often a better bet, but only if you know of a good one.

Now, 1-800-Flowers has come up with a great new service, similar to Target’s partnerships with designers like Tara Jarmon and Isaac Mizrahi. Its line of Designer Flowers offers high-end floral arrangements designed by some of the world’s most famous florists, including Jane Packer and Preston Bailey. They may not be household names to most people, but their arrangements are refreshingly un-FTD.

Target has gotten a good deal of press for its GO International collection, in which a sampling of global designers are contributing exclusive lines to be sold in Target for just 90 days. British designer Luella Bartley kicked it off, but I’m partial to the current line by Parisian designer Tara Jarmon, particularly the $30 pleated embroidered skirt and round handle dot handbag. The items are truly unique and eye-catching, the kind of pieces that elicit comments from random people who are then shocked to learn they come from Target. This line won’t be around much longer, so get to Target now to catch the sales.

People who love Crocs shoes are willing to overlook their dorky appearance in favor of their ultra-lightweight, foot-conforming comfort. Now, the very successful Crocs brand has actually released a cool-looking sandal (thanks, Uncrate).

The equally lightweight Athens flip-flop ($30) has a sleek look and a number of stylish color combinations, and they’re made with anti-microbial and stink-proof material. A flip-flop that’s actually comfortable? What a novel idea.