LaLa Land: Paean to the Car

Opening dance sequence: flying above gridlocked cars. Credit: Lionsgate

You can't set a movie in Los Angeles without involving cars. American Graffiti's thin plot even revolves around the teens who cruise on Saturday nights in their souped up cars.

But LaLa Land both embraces and makes fun of LA's car obsession. The musical starts with an epic traffic jam, one of those gridlocked days when you start thinking that you will never, ever emerge from this mess. Then a woman exits her car - and starts singing. And dancing. Others join in , and suddenly a traffic jam is a chance to actually jam.

Ryan Gosling, too cool for school in his convertible Buick. Credit: Lionsgate

One malcontent doesn't get caught up in the sining and dancing: Ryan Gosling's character, Sebastian, who is too busy fiddling with the cassette )!) player in his vintage Buick. The retro car is cool - it's a convertible - but it also establishes his character as a throwback.

And the other lead, Emma Stone's character, Mia, drives a Prius. This is mocked, too - when the couple leave a party, she says her car is a Prius - and the entire valet stand is filled with Prius key fobs.

Sebastian and Mia meet when she parks her car illegally, it gets towed and she walks into the club where he works.

Though I wonder why she didn't just call an Uber.

Are You Pining for a Great New Handbag?

Instead of a bag in a car, a car in a bag

Good Housekeeping and SheBuysCars have partnered on a giveaway of designer handbags.

When my oldest daughter graduated from college, my husband and I wanted to get her something special. I suggested her first ‘real’ pocketbook and he balked - what a terrible gift, he said.

Reader, she loved it. We gave her carte blanche to choose a bag and she even chose me as her shopping partner. It was a great day of mother / daughter bonding, and my husband got to share her joy when she came home with what she deemed the perfect designer bag.

The Toyota Camry looks great with a designer bag

Some parents mark milestone for their kids with a car, but Hallie didn’t even learn to drive till she was 19 (we live in New York City, and for much of her life didn’t even own a car) and when she graduated, she moved back to the city to work for a couple of years. A car would have been a ridiculous gift.

And I remember when I had my first job, a crummy, low-paying servitude publishing job, but my boyfriend (now husband) and I were couch surfing before it became a thing, so we had disposable income to blow on the more essential items, like travel and expensive handbags.

Good Housekeeping and SheBuysCars understand that pocketbooks and cars go, well, hand in hand. I mean, what woman doesn’t throw her car keys into her pocketbook, and then think about where to place said bag once she gets into the car?

The environmentally friendly Prius

The Toyota Camry is a great car for a style-conscious woman who doesn’t want to spend everything on her drive (maybe she wants to have a few bucks leftover for, say, a nice spring bag?). The car isn’t cheap; fully loaded, it’s in the mid-30s, but it offers a lot of luxury bang for the buck. It features soft leather seats, heated steering wheel, and a wireless charging pad so you don’t have to clutter up your car or handbag toting a power cord.

For the eco-conscious, the new Prius has many luxury touches too, along with upgraded technology and safety features - and you still get amazing mileage. So you don't have to feel guilty taking it to the mall, where you can shop for, you guessed it, a new handbag.

See these cars and more at the New York Auto Show, which runs from today through April 3. And be sure to enter SheBuysCars’ promotion with Good Housekeeping, giving away a handbag a day the entire time. Just take a picture of your handbag in your car (or a photo of with one you love at the car show and tweet or post on Instagram with the hashtag #GHDrives.

There is no purchase necessary, and you can only win one bag.

Oh, and as for my daughter? When she started grad school, we bought her the car.

Note: this is sponsored post. Opinions expressed are my own.