Happy Friday!
Sometimes we find joy in unexpected places. For me, that place was at a viewing party of The Bachelor on Monday night.
It was the first time I’ve sat through a full episode of ABC show. “TWO hours?!” I involuntarily shouted when I was told the show’s duration, but I settled in and got comfortable on the couch.
You’re probably familiar with the premise of the romantic reality show. At the beginning of the season, an unexceptional man is presented with a cast of women he eliminates through a series of “dates” and challenges, until he ends up with his chosen mate. (The genders are reversed on The Bachelorette.) Dramatic music, heightened emotions, and ridiculous clichés create what Bad Feminist author Roxane Gay called “a grotesquerie of the courtship ritual.”
Gay, like many feminists, is also a semi-reluctant fan and has used the show as a societal case study of sorts. On Monday night, I was not concerned with feminist analysis as I laughed and shrieked through the episode. I did find myself particularly delighted by a reverse Pretty Woman scenario in which a contestant took the bachelor to “one of the most exclusive malls in Miami,” and dressed him up in $3,000 of tonal grey Tomas Maier sportswear to meet her parents. (He gets to keep that, right?)
Suffice it to say, two hours passed quickly.
Bachelor fashion. As Roxane Gay pointed out in the New York Times, contestants are doing their darnedest to be cast as the Cinderella of ABC’s fairytale romance. This week, Quartz fashion reporter Marc Bain examined the remarkably homogenous dress code the women have adopted for the role.
“‘Flirty’ might be a good word to describe the show’s style,” writes Marc. “It’s sexy, but without giving away too much—it’s the promise of sex.” Marc calls this aesthetic “adult prom,” with its body-skimming gowns, barrel-curled tresses, and abundance of bronzer and exposed sternum. It reflects all that is regressive about The Bachelor—and also, perhaps, what makes it so addictive to watch.
Something else to look forward to. Every year, at the first suggestion of spring, I kick myself for failing to plant daffodil bulbs the previous October.
This year I’ll take part in a different gardening ritual: ordering spring-planted bulbs to bloom in the late summer and early autumn. Yes, people, this a thing, and it includes spectacular specimens of dahlias, gladiolus, and tuberoses.
It’s not time to plant these bulbs yet, but if you’re in the US, it is time to mail-order them. For rare heirloom bulbs, visit the website of Old House Gardens—a Michigan-based micro-farm that works with small US growers—to order them for April delivery.
Serious gardeners appreciate heirloom flowers—harder-to-find varietals from before uniform, rapid growth hybrids came into fashion—for their historic pedigree. Personally, I’m less enchanted by the knowledge that my tuberoses might resemble Louis XIV’s at Versailles than I am by Old House Gardens’ descriptions.
Here’s the Dauntless gladiolus: ”We call it the Lauren Bacall of glads because its smooth, stylish, angular blooms recall an era of wide lapels and big, sexy hats.”
Last week in New York, I heard the information designer and artist Giorgia Lupi discuss Dear Data, a book she co-authored with Stefanie Posavec—a fellow information designer who, like Giorgia, happens to be an expat in her 30s. (Giorgia is an Italian in New York; Stefanie is American and lives in London.) Every week for a year, the two women tracked their personal data—for example, every time they laughed or complained—and illustrated their findings on postcards, which they exchanged in the mail. The postcards look like abstract art, but really they’re intricate maps of the creator’s week, with legends handwritten on the back.
The book is beautiful. MoMA has acquired the postcards for its permanent collection, and teachers are using it in classrooms.
Giorgia admitted that some weeks, creating the postcards felt like a chore, but she credited her commitment to having a collaborator—specifically one who was not a friend, but with whom she shared a curiosity. Before starting the project, the two women were mere acquaintances. They had met just once, at a conference. After a summer of conceptualizing the project over email, they got started.
“We really kept each other accountable,” she said. “We really wanted to not let the other person down.”
By the time the year came to an end, they were friends.
A note from the management. Quartz is surveying our newsletters’ subscribers, and we’d be grateful if you would participate by answering a few quick questions here. Also, I’ll be off next week, so you can look forward to a Quartzy from Adam Epstein, Quartz’s resident expert in TV and film.
Have a great weekend!
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You are probably aware that the Oscars are on Sunday night, but you may not know one of the dearest films in the running. Piper, a six-minute Pixar short, follows a baby sandpiper learning to find food on the edge of a roaring ocean. It’s nominated in the best animated short category, and employs technology Vanity Fair says could signal the future of the studio. It’s available to stream online on several services, for less than the price of a latte. But this little bird’s sweet ruffled feathers and quiet perseverance as he skitters amidst the dune grass, wet sand, and sea kelp will bring you far more joy.