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 bags so, jonathan and i have a problem: we're bag addicts. (shocking, i know, but true!) we love bags, and compulsively collect them. they're just such an excellent accessory--eternally useful, yet a perfect vehicle for the expression of personal style, without all the "baggage" (har, har) and permanence of clothing. (that is, you can carry a crazy bag to a conservative place, and be dressed conservatively, yet still express yourself with your crazy bag!) plus, you can haul yer crap in 'em. anyway, enough of that. here are some of our favorite bags.  
these are our most recent acquisitions (well, they were in april 1998!): we each got a freitag bag. mine, on the left, is "nightclub" (your basic record bag), and jonathan's, on the right, is "dragnet" (expandable to 3 different sizes!). these bags are so cool. they're made by these crazy swiss kids from entirely recycled materials--truck tarps, inner tubes and seat belts (for the strap!)--that these kids scavenge from the swiss freeways! each bag is hand made and unique, and really cool! the only downside so far is that they smell faintly of rubber. but that's the price you pay for swiss cool. i have this image of these kids, all strung out on cheese, scampering wildly across the highway...  before we discovered freitag, timbuk2 bags were our favorites. this one on the right was the first timbuk2 bag in our family. this is jonathan's navy bag ("the bolo", 2200 cubic inches). the ones below are mine (just so you don't think i'm a huge geek, jonathan used to have 2 of these too, but he gave his other one to a friend of ours). the green one on the left was my first timbuk2 bag ("the tag junkie", 3300 cubic inches), but it's a little big for normal use (it was the only one they had in green!). so i bought another for daily use: the purple and orange one ("the dee dog", 1800 cubic inches). note that by the time i purchased my 2nd timbuk2 bag the logo had changed from a sewn-on tag to an embroidered swirl.
 
these bags are designed for bike messengers and are pretty excellent. cool features include removable reflective tags (for better night visibility) and a 2nd strap for securing the bag around your waist. but the very coolest feature is a shoulder strap which is adjustable on-the-fly and without removing the bag from your body. so incredibly useful! check out their web site too--apparently you can design your own bag there! if only we had known...  i have to admit, i usually don't like manhattan portage bags. they're kind of derivative, and timbuk2 just does it better. but when jonathan was looking for a more structured bag for work, we decided to give manhattan portage a try. (of course, it didn't hurt that this bag came in bright orange which was jonathan's favorite color last fall!) and i have to admit, this bag is pretty cool. it has loads of pockets, and it unzips along the bottom to expand. but the coolest feature of this bag (and i didn't get a picture of this, sorry!) is that the back pocket unzips to reveal straps, which means that this bag can be converted from a shoulder bag to a backpack! neato!
 
these bags from the gap are pretty basic, and i have to admit that i wouldn't have bought them myself. but now that we have them, we're glad. these are perfect for those grown-up occasions when it just wouldn't do to have a brightly colored bag. they're square-shaped with a decent amount of room, 1 zippered pocket inside and 2 velcro pockets under the front flap. these bags would also be perfect for carrying records. in a surprising twist, the black bag on the left is actually mine, and jonathan has the dark green one on the right.  okay, so you say this is just a boring maroon backpack from ems (eastern mountain sports)? well, you're right. but this bag has been with me through countless archaeological digs, and was my mom's before me (she's an earth science teacher, and took it on her geology field trips). so you could call this a bona fide field pack! the tag on this is rad too--they haven't used that logo since the 80s. old school.
 okay, now this bag is just goofy. one summer when i was working on an excavation in new jersey, my dig roommate thalia and i were eating a lot of goldfish. pepperidge farm had a special offer: send in X number of proofs of purchase and get a goldfish backpack. so i got one, and thalia coveted it, and then i got her one for her birthday. and we got to be twin dorks for the whole summer! this bag is still pretty rockin' though, huh?
 this bag is truly an antique: this was my mom's bag from when she flew to ireland with my grandmother when she was little, on aer lingus, irish airlines. i found this in my grandmother's basement, and i had to have it! truth be told i don't actually use this bag much. it doesn't have a shoulder strap, and the zipper is kind of delicate. but i wouldn't give it up for the world--it's just so cool!
 this is our friend lisa's bag; she's a bag junkie too! she used to have a timbuk2 bag (and still does) but recently decided that it was too big for everyday use. so she got this bag at an east village store called love shine (i think it's on 6th between 1st and A but don't hold me to it). this bag is made of cloth, and has this excellent scary monster (which i realize is a bit hard to make out) on the front flap. and it's purple--always a good thing.
 here's jonathan's new timberland backpack. personally, i'm really glad that he finally got a backpack, because he's always carrying tons of heavy books and stuff around, and i was afraid he was going to hurt himself doing that with a shoulder bag! anyway, this backpack is pretty cool. good colors, padded straps (=comfort!) and nice pockets: 2 main ones, one in back and one in front, which is nice for those occasions when one has to haul a laptop around. and it has the silly bungee cord which is utterly useless but looks cool. also, the logo isn't too big or intrusive, which is nice. i'm jealous!
 and finally, here's my now not-so-new backpack. your basic jansport, though i cut off the label because it was too big. it has 2 big pockets, 1 little pocket, and straps for cinching/expanding depending on how much stuff you're hauling around. good padded straps (i bought this because i was hauling lots of books back and forth to the library, so padding is good). plus, i like the very purpleness of it.
well, that's about it for our bags! i'll add more as we obtain them, since i'm sure we will continue to be the bag junkies we are today! 06apr98 |