my favorite bag

The original perfect bag

But finally, after years and years of use, and many replaced seams and velcro, the bag started to fade and bulge in sad and worrisome ways. I searched and searched for a replacement but I couldn't find anything that met all my many weird requirements: I wanted an easy-access zip-close top with no cumbersome flap or magnets (magnets erase my BART tickets), an accessible and gently padded pocket for my Sidekick, and a main compartment that's big enough (but only just) to fit my 12-inch laptop.

Finally, the glorious Cinnamon Cooper of Poise stepped in and offered to recreate my perfect bag. After much back-and-forthing, in which the design was streamlined, a new color was selected, and difficult strap decisions were made, the bag arrived in my hot, somewhat mannish hands. And as you can tell by the following photo sequence (which should only be viewed with Madness's "It Must Be Love" playing in the background), my new bag and I are already spending unwholesome amounts of time together:

Marbles is perhaps the slightest bit jealous of the bag, what with all the many things it can hold in its pockets.

There's plenty of room for my laptop, sunglasses, Sidekick, and birthday iPod (a ridiculously generous gift from the one and only Gene), plus all the sundries, like a wallet and...

...lipstick...

...and a regretable amount of not-nearly-as-exciting-once-you-get-it-home beach glass.

Who was it who wrote the song "Me, My Favorite Bag, and a Starfish," Carole King?

Bag and the City!

You can't quite see it here, but the bag takes accessorizing well: Here we see it adorned with a Antonin Artaud pin, a relic from my dad's 1970s residence at Project Artaud.

It even makes the Golden Gate Bridge look good.

And soon you too will be able to buy one of your very own! Once all the production kinks get hammered out, the bag will be available at the Poise shop for somewhere between $65 and $75, a portion of the which will go to 826 Valencia. See that? Everybody wins with The Perfect Bag Two, Electric Boog-a-deux!