East Eats West

From Paris to YAWN

Picture: Icon of the YAWSN; Athina Onassis of Onassis wealth.

With the baby-boomers slowly retiring a new generation of wealthy heirs enters the stage: the YAWNS. YAWNS means young and wealthy and normal. The archetype is Athina Onassis, the heir of the Onassis multi-billion dollar fortune. She is currently auctioning some of her family jewels. Athina shuns the limelight and prefers to compete in horse-jumping contests like the CSI in Zurich. She prefers to keep a low profile and avoids the international jet-set. YAWNS prefer to live a normal life and manage their wealth carefully instead of spending it on expensive toys and lavish parties (the opposite of a YAWN might be Paris Hilton). Often they run their own foundations and spend a lot of time helping the poor. One reason for such modest behaviour is the fact that inherited wealth is more of a curse than a blessing. In contrast to their jet-setting and limelight-craving celebrity peers, YAWNs try to stay incognito and as normal as possible. This is because a big inheritance is hard to justify as some else put all his sweat in accumulating it.

Bye bye Cayenne

Picture: This is how SUVs will end up soon (An art installation in Zurich by the Swiss artist Bob Gramsma).

If you visit Zurich you are forgiven to think that there must be a Porsche outlet in town: Porsche cars are everywhere! One reason for the many Porsche cars is that banks give car leasing to employees as perks. Five years of a bull market have made the banks and their employees rich and their wives proud owners of oversized and overpowered Porsche Cayenne SUVs (sport utility vehicles). But with the financial crisis in full bloom and restructuring in banks under way more and more Porsches are for sale on Bloomberg, a financial information provider. At the same time in the USA sales of Ford 150 trucks are down by almost 20 percent and SUVs almost 30 percent. I think we are seeing the first signs of an inflection point: big, powerful and expensive cars will go out of fashion in the next 12-18 months. Not only because many owners will not be able to pay for the lease rates, but also because often big cars mean bad manners and a high fuel consumption. The next big thing to show off will be the intelligent car. Have you never wondered why your IPhone is cleverer and more interactive than your car? I think the future of cars will be electric cars like the American sports car by the name of Tesla: it is fast, is much more energy efficient than a normal car and produces no fumes. Anyone in a big gas-guzzling SUV will soon look like a mutant Hulk!

Limited stock

Picture: things of distinctive taste that cannot be found in big department stores.

I recently visited a Louis Vuitton shop in China and it looked like any Louis Vuitton shop, anywhere in the world. Only by looking at the shop it was impossible to say if it was in China, Switzerland or the USA. And it sold the same merchandise as anywhere else; nothing to discover or be excited about. But every now and then there is a ray of light: a small boutique that sells things that are different, unique and cannot be found in any of the big department stores. I found such a little shop in the old town of Zurich. It goes by the name of Limited Stock and is run by men of taste and with keen eyes for quality. The shop is tucked away in a little side alley in the old town of Zurich. The product range starts with coarse linen towel from Finland, goes to Japanese hand-made steel garden tools and ends with glass bottles and cups made by German master craftsmen. I particularly like the Austrian hand-made glass cups and jars that come in different delicate colors. Beautiful! The shop itself is worth a visit as the building is over 200 years old and used to be the home of a blacksmith. It is covered in shrubs and roses. A truly little secret and magical shop of wonderful and precious things surrounded by a fairy-tale garden. A must visit for any discerning shopper!

http://www.limited-stock.com/

Shoes like new

Here is a question for guys: do you clean your shoes and do you use a shoe tree? If not, than the following sounds odd. Good shoes can become quickly bad shoes without proper care. Using a shoe tree and cleaning the shoes on a regular basis is a must for any gentleman. Because good shoes with good care can last for decades. It might sound a bit fastidious but choosing a good shoemaker for replacing shoe soles is key for keeping shoes in perfect shape. I recently brought my shoes to Brogues & More and was amazed with the result: the shoes are almost better than new! I have never seen such a wonderful job: the soles are beautifully crafted, the leather is refreshed and the whole shoe shines like new! And for all the ones who think I am over the top: you have never bought good shoes so you just don’t know! Better find yourself a Goodyear welted shoe and start taking care of it!

For good shoes and amazing shoe care in Zurich, go to Brogues & More near Paradeplatz: http://easteatswest.typepad.com/east_eats_west/2006/09/where_product_q.html

Chinese football player

Picture: Migrant football worker in Switzerland.

With the EURO 2008, the European football championship, in full speed, Zurich, as one of the host cities, is full of football fans. After two matches we Swiss are already out of the championship and euphoria has subsided somewhat. I have to admit that I do not like football at all (too many pretty sissies on the field). Nevertheless I visited an interesting exhibition in the Helmhaus Museum in Zurich. By the title “Balls and Brains” the museum invited artist to look at football from different angles. Besides the mandatory pictures of sweating Beckham and Rinaldo the exhibition sheds a light on corruption and crime in football. Another interesting aspect is that many “Swiss” players come from African or Eastern European countries and football seems to be a big career opportunity for them. However, I was surprised to learn that the Swiss BSC Young Boys (sic!) football club got a player from China! Shi Jun He is playing in Switzerland since 2005 and even speaks German by now. It seems that football can be an exclusive way of integrating foreigners into Switzerland and giving them a career opportunity.

The exhibition is still on. Further details can be found here: http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/internet/zuerichkultur/home/institutionen/home/redirect_hh/helmhaus/home.html

Picture: I was always wondering about that ("Does male perspiration smell differently? Does homosexuality exist in football?")

Prügelpolizei

Picture: Zurich welcomes German police officers for some The European soccer championship has hit Zurich and with it politicians’ fear of hooligans has reached its zenith. The police have sealed off central city parts and one has to pay to enter the “fan zones”. A big part of the traffic gets rerouted and after 7pm most trams only operate on a limited scale. And everywhere police. One can see police officers from all over Switzerland in Zurich, but not only from Switzerland. As the Swiss police are not trained in hand-to-hand-combat, they asked their German colleagues to help them out. The German are trained in hitting hard and fast at close range, therefore they earned themselves the nickname “Prügelpolizei” (“Prügelpolizei” roughly means police sluggers). I, as a citizen who is not interested in soccer I feel threatened by the government beefying up its security apparatus not only with police officers from other parts of Switzerland but also with foreign police in full riot gear. I wonder why the Swiss police, despite their expensive BMW 5 and X5 cars, are not man enough to confront a few hooligans. So much of visible government force is against my understanding of liberalism.

Furniture with a story

Picture: Perfect for furniture treasure hunting.

I was almost done with furnishing my apartment except one thing: chairs for my little balcony. So I visited the second-hand furniture shop by the name of Bogen33. The shop in Zurich is close to the Freitag Bag Store. Descending the stairs to the shop one enters a magic kingdom of light, lamps, chairs, neon-signs and knickknack. The things for sale are a notch above the usual Salvation Army second-hand furniture shops but still reasonably priced. The shop is perfect for rediscovering things from childhood like old Playmobil Forts, Horgenglarus wooden chairs and plastic lamps. Praise also goes to the friendly, accommodating and very dedicated young staff. For more information click here: http://www.bogen33.ch/

For more second and discounted furniture in Zurich, click here:

http://www.designermoebelboerse.ch/

http://easteatswest.typepad.com/east_eats_west/2008/03/designer-furnit.html

Working hell

 

I recently caught the flu and found time to watch TV. I came across an incredible intense documentary about work by the name of Working Man’s Death. From an illegal coal mine in Ukraine to an open-air slaughterhouse in Africa to the sulphur-mines in Indonesia, the film sheds a light on the world’s most gruesome and dangerous jobs known to man. I was intrigued by the quiet dignity man risk their lives on a daily basis just to earn a living. If you think globalization is just about the knowledge worker, think again.

http://workingmansdeath.com/ 

Blue Jeans from Japan

I buy jeans every blue moon or less often. So you can tell that I am completely ignorant about the newest trends and brands in jeans. I still like the basic look: blue, straight-cut with no features. Plain and simple. As it was time to buy a new pair of jeans (I bought the last jeans about ten years ago) I went to my favourite jeans shop and inquired for jeans. I found a classic looking pair that fit me and when I looked at the label, I was surprised big time. The label read “Made in Japan”! Blue jeans made in Japan? The sales person told me then that Japanese producers bought decades ago old American machinery for making jeans. This was when American brands like Levis took advantage of industrialization and got ride of their old machinery. The Americans thought the Japanese funny and laughed at them. Well, they stopped laughing as the Japanese jeans made on “old” machines became very popular. Edwin started producing jeans in 1961 and kept on innovating with new washing-methods and new garments. And it was the first company to introduce the stone-washed look; mind you, a Japanese company, not an American one!

http://www.edwin-europe.com/