Happy Monday!

In today’s newsletter, we have the recent viral Baggu x BART fail, Filipino nepo babies, no phone clubs, the Riyadh Comedy Festival, TikTok’s future, and more. This week’s playlist is for the real lovers out there <3 Have a wonderful week!

Now what would the New Urbanist Memes for Transite-Oriented Teens group think about this!

Baggu reopened its San Francisco store with unauthorized BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, for the unfamiliar) merch. This is a wild thing to do, but I guess people know about the new location now!

I found out about this unsanctioned collab from BART’s TikTok account, which was a very smart way of calling out Baggu. The BART representative explained that the system, like many critical public transit bodies across the country, is in a financial crisis. It could’ve used the money from a real Baggu collab, which BART seemed open to if asked. Judging by the long line for the SF store’s reopening, it seems like it would have been pretty fruitful. Some people also seemed to have believed that BART was receiving a portion of the profits.

I’m not sure how Baggu got away with this. It was also pretty jarring to a lot of customers. The company is known for its sustainability initiatives and ethical production, so people expect it to be better. They don’t expect it to capitalize on a beloved public transit system without actually supporting it. 

Baggu shared a statement addressing the backlash on its Instagram Story. The bag company also promised “more to come” with BART soon.

“We should have reached out to BART to partner on our San Francisco store merch, and we regret that we didn’t,” the statement read in part.

BART is imperfect and expensive but important to many Bay Area residents (including a teenage me who needed it to go to school and thrift in the Mission). I am excited to see the results of a real BART x Baggu partnership!

Do you remember those absurdist banners popping up around Manila declaring that the Philippines was proud of everyone from A$AP Rocky to Jonathan Anderson?

Well, that’s the work of LiFE DESiGN and they’ve finally found people they aren’t proud of: Filipino nepo babies.

People have been protesting corruption in the Philippines after devastating floods have left much of the roads unusable. Protestors have criticized the government for misusing funds for flood control projects, leaving everyday people to suffer. Lawmakers are accused of taking massive kickbacks from flood projects, many of which have never materialized.

Citizens, including those behind LiFE DESiGN, have taken to social media over the past month to call out corrupt politicians and businessmen. They alleged that those in power have taken critical taxpayer money to fund their own lifestyles — and those of their children. As such, Filipino nepo babies, many of which flaunt their extravagant lives online, have been the subject of much ire.

The Philippines was just hit by another tropical storm this weekend that left at least 10 dead. The governor of Masbate, one of the hardest hit areas, said that the roads were “not really passable for food and health assistance to pass.” Corruption kills.

No phone parties and clubs have been on the rise in the past year. This past weekend, I went to salute’s Infinite Passion party, which was one of these events. The staff put stickers on all of our phone cameras to prevent us from filming on the dancefloor.

I love this trend of no phone policies. They let people live in the moment. How many times have you been distracted by the nagging pressure to document every experience you have? How many times do you actually revisit those photos and videos? It’s hard to create a lasting memory if you’re on the phone during it.

Most people at Infinite Passion seemed to be dancing and enjoying the music. However, as I shifted closer to the DJ booth, several people took off the stickers from their phones and filmed. One person even took a flash photo (☠️). The events people weren’t really enforcing it, which I think they should have. Signal, a newer no phone club in Brooklyn, does this.

I know no phone policies provoke mixed reactions and we’re all guilty of clip farming our lives. But if you knowingly sign up to go to a no phone event, why on earth do you feel the need to sneak a video? That is something I don’t understand. Especially at a party like this, it seems disrespectful of the artist’s wishes. 

Every Monday letter gets a playlist. Today, some love songs for the lover girls to kick off cuffing season.

In this week’s playlist:

Other things I want to share with you.