Lifestyle
Dreaming about vacation? Consider a beautiful pair of sunglasses
What is a dream if not a vacation for the mind? To get lost in a reverie is a momentary respite from the prison of the possible — a chance to experience the impossible for a second. If you can’t change your surroundings, you can at least change your perception of them. Vacations are dreams where you actually can change your surroundings. They’re fantasies of how you might live if you were a different person, with a different life and different priorities. A whirlwind romance, a chance meeting that could change your career prospects, a series of awful wardrobe choices that fortunately none of your friends or colleagues will ever see. It’s all possible on vacation. The greatest luxury of a vacation is the right to reinvent yourself, to see the world differently. And there’s no better way to see the world differently than through a beautiful pair of sunglasses.
Nikola wears Cartier Signature Cs; Kenzo rose fitted shirt in faded pink mesh polyamide; rose turtleneck top in faded pink mesh polyamide; kitten heel in leather covered by faded pink Kenzo rose printed textile.
Swap wears wears Cartier Signature Cs; Amiri men’s floral beaded sweater vest; men’s covered sequin layered shorts; Saint Laurent shoes from Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills.
I own at least a dozen pairs, of varying cost and quality — Gucci, l.a. Eyeworks, Persol, Garrett Leight and maybe one or two from the bin at CVS. But if I were to imagine the ideal vacation, I’d wish for these Cartier Signature C sunglasses to fall out of the sky and into my lap. A striking pair of sunglasses recontextualizes your entire face, hiding your eyes and wrapping you in a sense of mystery that otherwise wouldn’t be there on your same old lumpy visage. They also shroud the environment around you in a smoky haze, making everything you see more dramatic.
The Cartier Signature Cs are rimless and come in a variety of colors, with my personal pick being the green lenses. So your vacation is going to be kind of green most of the time. But that revision of the natural is what dreams are all about. Real dreams don’t usually take place in normal colors. They’re black and white or red or blue tinted. The gold finish on the temples is what justifies the exorbitant price tag and commands attention. There’s a gentle curve to the bridge at the front of the frames and what almost looks like horseshoes on the hinges that connect the temples to the lenses. In all dreams, there’s a bit of whimsy.
Swap wears Cartier Signature Cs, Lujo Depot X Freak City Suit, Saint Laurent loafers.
Trying on the Signature Cs is an experience unto itself. Cartier’s store is one big fantasy world, filled with objects most people can’t afford but lust after. It’s a favorite of the famous and the would-be famous. Seeing Timothée Chalamet in a Cartier Crash watch recently made me want to sell all my plasma just to afford a knockoff. Tom Cruise wore a pair of Cartier aviators in the latest “Mission: Impossible” film, and Michael Douglas wore a showstopping pair as the loathsome Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street.” Larger-than-life shades for larger-than-life characters. The Cartier store is as lofty as the celebrities that wear their goods, intimidating to a normal human being like me. I tried on the Signature Cs and immediately wanted to take them off. Not only did I not want to break them and be on the hook for more than a grand in product but I also just didn’t feel like I should be wearing them. More so than even the fancier frames I own, this felt like fighting above my weight class. I shuffled out as soon as possible.
For most, sunglasses are a disposable item — something to lose on a long flight or sit on by accident. My girlfriend has gone through more than a few pairs in the two years we’ve been together. It’s what keeps most people from investing in a pair of luxury sunglasses. They can’t be investment pieces, because they are sure to vanish eventually. This is why I dream about the Signature Cs. I can’t think of anything more luxurious than taking something disposable and elevating it; to be so rich and fancy that something people accidentally drop in a sewer drain or leave in a hotel bathroom while on vacation can cost $1,200.
Nikola wears wears Cartier Signature Cs; Courrèges textured vinyl crop jacket; vinyl re-edition mini-skirt; Ferragamo Shoes from Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills.
Swap wears Cartier Signature Cs; Amiri men’s floral beaded sweater vest; men’s covered sequin layered shortsfrom Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills.
In the grand vacation of my dreams, I’m by the pool most of the day. Everyone I meet flashes a smile at me because I’m so interesting. My incredible, rare sunglasses are making people stop and do a double-take, wondering if I’m some kind of celebrity or visiting dignitary. I’m just a regular guy on holiday, but they don’t have to know that. Martinis magically appear in my hand every few minutes, but I’m never sick. For some reason, the rice balls at Capri Club are the only food on offer, but I’m not even in Eagle Rock. Everything I want is there, and everyone wants me there.
But why is it that we dream in broad daylight? What makes us yearn for something more than what is there in front of us, especially here, in L.A., of all places? For decades, people have been coming to Los Angeles to chase their dreams. As a great woman once said, “We come to this place for magic.” You hope that in L.A. you will be discovered, respected, elevated and understood. For most, that doesn’t happen, or it does on a much smaller scale than what they imagined. And not everyone’s dreams are the same, of course, though I suppose you could say most of them involve being rich. Even if you don’t explicitly want to be rich, the natural byproduct of success in the entertainment industry.
Swap wears Cartier Signature Cs and Simone Rocha RTW Spring 2024 shirt, pants from Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills.
Nikola wears Cartier Signature Cs; Givenchy RTW Spring ‘24; Rabanne jupe fringe trim mini-skirt; tweed fringe trim cropped tank top; Bottega Veneta shoes from Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills.
The reality of life here, the necessity of survival, and the limits of one’s ambition chip away at the dream day by day. Paying your ever-increasing rent, bowing to the whims of trillion-dollar conglomerates that see your work as merely a line on a spreadsheet, and boy, how about that traffic? Eventually, you roll your eyes when people talk about how hard it is to live in L.A., because you’re doing it. It’s not a dream, it’s reality. So, what does one do when they live in the Dream Factory (or, Dream Factory-Adjacent, if you are trying to save money)? They leave.
Vacations are a thing not everyone can afford. Just the act of picking up and escaping the city is itself a luxury. A pair of sunglasses, even modest ones, can connect the wearer to the feeling of being in paradise. That paradise might be Van Nuys, but that’s all connected to perception. How you look at a strip mall or a gas station defines what it is and what it means. Maybe you can’t stand eating the same food or looking at the same faces every day, but have you considered that here, in L.A., you are living a version of the dream that brought you here? Maybe you can’t afford sunglasses that cost $1,200 (you probably can’t), but you can always find a new way to see the world. And that’s actually free.
Nikola wears Cartier Signature Cs; Courrèges textured vinyl crop jacket; vinyl re-edition mini-skirt; Ferragamo Shoes from Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills.
Producer: Mere Studios
Models: Nikola Bogdanovich, Swap
MUA: Carla Perez
Hair: Adrian Arredondo
Photo assistant: Sadie Spezzano
Lighting design: Ethan Benavidez
Styling assistant: Izzy Huynh
Lifestyle
‘Baldmaxxing:’ Why a growing number of men are embracing baldness (CT+) : Consider This from NPR
An entire industry is built around men hanging onto their hair — pills, foams, transplants, expensive treatments.
For a long time, the general assumption was that if a man noticed he was going bald, he’d do everything he could to stop or hide that fact.
These days, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Consider This host Scott Detrow talked with Harry James, the self-proclaimed “CEO of baldmaxxing,” about the movement to embrace baldness.
To unlock this and other bonus content — and listen to every episode sponsor-free — sign up for NPR+ at plus.npr.org. Regular episodes haven’t changed and remain available every weekday.
Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
Lifestyle
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Mary Steenburgen
Mary Steenburgen moved to California to work with Jack Nicholson.
It was 1977, and Steenburgen — an Arkansas native — had been waiting tables in New York at night while studying acting with Sandy Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse during the day. She’d been pounding the pavement for about seven years, she says, when her “overnight moment came” and she was called in to read for a film Nicholson was both directing and starring in called “Goin’ South.”
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Getting the role, Steenburgen says, changed her life in every way. “I flew out [to film] and had an amazing introduction to the town,” she explains. “I lived at the Chateau Marmont and went to Paramount Studios every day, where [Nicholson] would screen movies for me and then come in at the end to give me a little film-slash-acting lecture about each one. It really helped me get ready to dive into the big leagues.”
Though she spent some years in an old Ojai farmhouse in the 1980s raising her kids with former husband Malcolm McDowell, she’s always had a base of operations here in L.A. She shares her L.A. abode now with husband Ted Danson, whom she married in 1995 and with whom she’s starred in numerous projects, including the Netflix series “A Man on the Inside.” L.A. is also where she filmed her latest movie, “The Dink,” an Apple TV comedy centered on one of her favorite pastimes: pickleball.
Here’s how Steenburgen would spend her perfect, pickleball-filled Sunday in Los Angeles.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
5:30 a.m.: Early morning meditation and mental exercise
We always wake up early. After so many years of going to work at 5 in the morning, we always wake up between 5 and 6 now.
We’re morning meditators, or we try to be since our dog [Blue] just sits on our laps and stares at us until he’s been fed. Then we have to do all the New York Times games, and then I’ll try and find a pickleball game. We love Spelling Bee. We have to get to Genius, at least. Occasionally we’ll get to Queen Bee, but if we don’t get to at least Genius, then my day is ruined.
If my husband and I are working that week, whoever’s not working will have to run lines with the one who is. So we’ll generally spend a few hours doing that in the morning, too.
8:30 a.m.: Light gardening
I love my garden. A lot of it was hand-planted by me. Not the big trees — someone else planted those — but everything else, like the ground cover and smaller plants, I did. So I’ll spend a little time out there, too.
I like to go to Armstrong Garden Centers. They hire very knowledgeable people there. When I first started planting my garden — I live on a hill and it was all dirt back there and not everything grows well that way so I was looking for ground cover that would grow quickly but also didn’t mind a hillside. The people at Armstrong knew the answer, and they were great.
10 a.m.: Pickleball-palooza
I try to play pickleball for at least two hours a day, if I can. I try to find a game with friends, or I’ll go and play in different parks.
This morning, I played at a friend’s house. She has a beautiful tennis court and they put tape down on it so we can use it for pickleball, too. I played with her daughter and her friend.
I also have a pickleball coach and sometimes we’ll go play at this place called Pickle Pop that’s on the Third Street Promenade. Other times, I’ll play at the Santa Monica Pickleball Center.
My son just brought eight members over from [one of] London’s biggest pickleball club[s], Lemon Pickleball, and they all stayed with me. We played all over the place and we had so much fun. They loved Southern California, and seeing it through their eyes made me love it even more.
On their last night here, I called a wonderful family I know that cooks fantastic Mexican food, because I knew [the Brits] hadn’t ever really experienced great Mexican food. I met them because they’re set up every weekend in the parking lot at Rustic Coffee [in Santa Monica]. They’re lovely folks. So they came over and cooked, and we had a wonderful night for the Brits, putting up all kinds of lights and decorations too.
12:30 p.m.: Magical brunch with the grandkids
We go to Kreation a lot for lunch, just because it’s nice and it’s very healthy. I was just there yesterday with my granddaughters, after we all played Pickleball.
Actually, this weekend we all went to the Magic Castle together, too. I hadn’t been for decades and two of my five grandkids were here, and they’d never been either. Mostly it’s no kids at the Magic Castle but on weekends they do a brunch where kids can come so we went to that. The last magician in the show even called my granddaughter up on stage to be a sort of assistant, and it was very cute.
3 p.m.: Hiking with the dog
Because we work a lot and our days often belong to someone else from early in the morning until pretty late at night, weekends are more laid back.
We like to go on hikes and walks around Santa Monica. We have this big Australian Shepherd and we take him for long, slow walks. They’re slow because he has to say hello to every dog and person along the way — especially babies, who are his absolute favorite.
There’s something magical about my dog, I think. People will say, “Oh, my dog hates all dogs” and then my dog pulls me over and the dog that hates all dogs just melts. It’s like he calms other dogs. He even calms people that think they don’t like dogs. I know I’m very prejudiced, but I’m also very proud.
6 p.m.: Breakfast (or Goop) for dinner
We’re big on breakfast for dinner, so maybe we’d have some poached eggs on toast or poached eggs on creamed spinach.
If we order in, we might get food from Goop Kitchen. They have so many healthy, fantastic choices. Even their pizzas are pretty healthy.
8:30 p.m.: TV in bed
Sometimes I read a book at night, but we also have a show we absolutely love to go to sleep to, even if you’re not supposed to do that. It’s this British game show called “Would I Lie to You?” and unfailingly it makes me laugh. I’ve seen every single episode — some of them twice — and I like to go to sleep laughing.
I also just said to Ted that I think we’re going to have to start “Cheers” again soon. We just lost our friend Jimmy Burrows, who was a magnificent human and so important to Ted’s whole career, and one of the great things about watching “Cheers” is, if you know Jimmy’s laugh, you can actually pick it out multiple times during each episode.
It’s been a long time since we’ve watched “Cheers,” and it honestly never gets old. I first watched it in Ojai when I was married and had young children. We would watch it with our best friends on Thursday nights, like everybody would go down to their house in their pajamas and we’d watch “Cheers” and then I’d come home to put the kids to bed. Then, when I was going through my divorce I would watch it at 10 o’clock at night because I was very lonely and it was the thing that cheered me up at the end of the day during a hard time in my life. Little did I know that one day I’d be sleeping with Sam Malone.
Lifestyle
Wait Wait for July 18. 2026: With Not My Job guest Vicki Peterson
Musician Vicki Peterson of The Bangles performs during the 2014 LA Gay Pride Festival on June 8, 2014 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images)
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This week’s show was recorded in Chicago with guest host Tom Papa, judge and scorekeeper Alzo Slade, Not My Job guest Vicki Peterson and panelists Alonzo Bodden, Helen Hong, and Dulcé Sloan. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.
Who’s Alzo This Time
Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back To The Salad Bar, A Presidential Spat, and The Next Pumpkin Spice
Panel Questions
Armpit of Despair
Bluff The Listener
Our panelists tell us three stories about something new in funerals, only one of which is true
Not My Job: Vicki Peterson, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and co-founder of The Bangles, answers our questions about mummies
Vicki Peterson co-founded the Bangles with her sister and some friends in high school, and went on to become one of the biggest acts of the 80s. She’s now writing and performing with her husband, John Cowsill. But, can she answer our three questions about mummies?
Panel Questions
Jungle Gym, Haute Happy Meal
Limericks
Alzo Slade reads three news-related limericks: Work Doh, Sweet Workout Bro, and Barnyard Couture
Lightning Fill In The Blank
All the news we couldn’t fit anywhere else
Predictions
Our panelists predict, what’ll be the big surprise at the World Cup final?
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