The ashes of 2006 and some shoes

Welcome to 2007!

While we were busy downing some cava and turron and taking in some cabaret and Luis Tosar's Magical Brothers it seems the Chinese authorities preferred to burn some European shoes. Authorities in one city warmed their New Year up by burning a range of 'luxury' European shoes, apparently because their sizes didn't match Chinese standards.

This is another interesting round in the trade wars with Europe and the US, in this case a tit for tat response to Spanish shoe workers burning cheap Chinese shoe imports. The impact of China and the tensions of globalisation look set to continue as hot issues locally and globally in 2007. But of more interest this week will be the Reyes holiday and the start of the rebajas (sales). Happy shopping!

Street cred

Next up was a small ethnographic study with girls and guys aged 18-24 to see how they experience shopping for clothes and their relationship with some of the leading fashion brands for this age group. We took pairs of friends on shopping trips and then followed this up with a casual interview in one of the participant´s homes.

For the shopping trip we visited some of the most popular stores for this segment, Berhska and Pull & Bear, and we also included Adolfo Dominguez´s U and Caramelo Jeans or CRMJ. These latter stores target older shoppers but could also be aspirational and accesible for this younger age group.

We expected the girls we interviewed to have a strong relationship with Bershka and this turned out to be true but we also discovered it was a more complex love/hate relationship for some due to their almost traumatic experiences dealing with the crowds Bershka stores attract and the apparent bad attitude of sales staff. Though it doesn´t look like these negatives will cause Bershka to become a victim of their own success for a long time yet.

These interviews also provided an opportunity to discuss their communication habits which for the girls could best be described as frenetic. Yet this constant activity, mainly through text messaging and instant messaging, doesn´t appear to be fatiguing, just as earlier generations could apparently spend endless hours sitting on the phone discussing important social issues such as which legwarmers are the coolest. Middle aged executives around the world now share this addiction but instead gossip and plot on their “Crackberries”.

For Spanish youth, the ‘always-on’ communication trend has jumped platforms in the past 18 months as MSN Messenger has caught on. They may soon jump back to greater use of mobiles phones if Messenger´s mobile version is packaged well with new mobiles. Another potential platform would be the walkie talkie services enjoying some success in the US but little news locally yet on this. The people we interviewed certainly were ready for a device such as the Blackberry with some low cost 3G thrown in to provide bandwidth for lots of messages and the occasional photo or video. This shouldn´t take long, certainly not as long as it took to liberate mobiles from being exclusive to 80s businessmen in pastels and big hair.

The Spanish media environment has some particular national characteristics but the habits of 18-24s reflect global trends and epitomise the challenges facing major media players around the world. Print media are largely ignored with the exception of some occasional reading of free newspapers or newspapers in bars. Instead the Internet plays an important role in providing entertainment and information and this is growing quickly with the current boom in online video through sites like YouTube. Radio retains some relevance because of the attraction of music programming as does TV through the popularity of sports programming and series such as “House”.

There is always a part of the day for ‘kicking back’ on the couch but now some of the day is better spent ‘leaning forward’ to participate in online gaming, updating your blog or sharing your interests on MySpace. Advertising of all sorts, all day is part of life´s wallpaper. Brands that ‘kick back’ and lurk in passive media such as TV and magazine advertising had better have massive budgets and some great creative to avoid getting lost in the background. Better value can be found in getting out to participate in communities of interest in the streets and cafes, blogs and spaces, concerts and clubs, beaches and mountains.

We saw how brands like Puma, Apple and Bershka have won a prominent place in the hearts and minds of Spanish and global youth by delivering accessible style, design, attitude and quality. These brands are perceived to ooze value and authenticity, sometimes with a big advertising budget, sometimes without. I guess to get the 'real thing' we learn to put up with those nasty sales staff and those not so great Apple features (buggy iTunes updates, poor support, dodgy ipod batteries, incompatible file formats…). Nobody's perfect.

The US in A

Next stop NY and a visit with Julio who has been studying medicine there and is now working with a hospital in New Jersey. The trip there was one of ups and downs preceded by the usual 5am start from Santiago after a couple of hours sleep.

Immigration refusing to let us leave Spain due to C’s new passport not being machine readable (nice to see the Spanish consulate in Sydney is still using obsolete passports) was a serious setback. After some terse words in the airport and reviewing various worst case scenarios C found herself with a new passport (to complement the old one) 15 minutes later at a cost of about $20. Amazing how easily things can be done when they really need to be; all that bureaucracy is just a job creation scheme.

The kitchen and our two chairs in Yonkers

The upper was getting bumped to business class for the flight with Iberia, Spanish service isn’t quite BA or Singapore but a whole letter better than economy. We arrived in NY about 8pm and had no entry problems (despite not quite meeting some of the tourist visa requirements) and after a two hour odyssey around Queens and the Bronx in the airport shuttle bus arrived at what we suspected was Julio’s place in Yonkers about a half hour north of Manhattan. Luckily it was his place and we set up camp in his large but Spartan (i.e. bed and two chairs, no tv or radio) pad for the next two weeks.

Our travelling companion Jeero in Yonkers

We're looking forward to staying in a plush Manhattan pad next time as Julio has since landed a job but Yonkers was an authentic and 'character-building' retreat.

A rainy day in Times Square

Julio unfortunately couldn’t make it as he was delayed in Spain waiting for his work visa but we did share the place with a foul smell that we put down to broken plumbing but later found out was a skunk that had set up under the floorboards to escape the torrential rain that plagued our first week there. A taxi (walking at night dangerous) and train ride away from the city, Yonkers is a working class suburban but with lots of characters from the friendly Honduran taxi drivers; to the locals who gave us directions and paid our fares; to the courteous homies from the hood with whom we shared rides; to the many menacing looking guys hanging on the corners and the various Mafiosi that were arrested while we were there (including a guy who was also an actor on the Sopranos and shot a cop dead). Lots of local colour.

Near Wall St and Ground Zero

New York is my favourite city in the world for its energy, diversity, size, style and history. Two weeks there gave us the chance to:

Get cultural and see all the major museums and spots such as Times Square, Park Avenue and Central Park.

South side of Houston St (i.e. SoHo)

You & I getting about in cabs

We wandered and shopped ‘til we got tired and grumpy in Soho, Brooklyn, East Village, Meatpacking and the Upper West Side. Then ate some great food at places from Zabars www.zabars.com, to little Mexican joints, to flash Chelsea and Soho restaurants.

East village street art

C takes a break on the way to Brooklyn and the world's best cheesecake at Junior's on Flatbush Ave

Go on a cruise and do the Empire State which C underestimated until she got up there and was blown away by the view.

Cruising past Brooklyn

Wifey enjoying the Empire State commentary, beats listening to me

Stay a night in a uber trendy hotel www.hotelonrivington.com with great views over the city, awesome food and a great location.

Looking from East Village hotel towards Downtown

East Village 'La Caverna'. They were filming next door, 'Law and Order' perhaps?

NY being NY and us being us, we couldn't leave without name dropping so we: bumped into Woody Allen on Park Ave; hung out with Missy Elliot at Adidas in Soho; got stopped by Charlize Theron and her minders outside Warner Bros; and saw Drew Barrymore on Brooklyn Bridge; and Fran Drescher (the Nanny) at the movies, but not sure that last one is really worth mentioning.

Back out to JFK and onto an American flight to LA.

¿Entonces, que paso?

After a couple of months of packing, mailing, cleaning, organising and other excitement we finally got away on July 6. Thanks to Matt for lending us his pad and the help and patience of family, Stu, Adam and everyone else. Departure Day and C and I were absolutely exhausted after a hectic couple of weeks, four hours sleep and a 4.30am start, exhausted we finally got into town in Tokyo at midnight. The stress of it all had taken it’s toll.

Tokyo was…well…Tokyo. Buzzing, crazy, bizarre, so many people on the streets, music and lights all over Shibuya and Shinjuku, unique Harajuku and Omotesando fashions, Tokyu Hands stores, awesome architecture, contrasting with the big tranquil parks and temples big and small all over town.
We were lucky to have Stu G and Rie to take care of us and show us around and Yukimaru helped keep us amused (he even decided to relieve himself on our bed, surely a sign of affection). Stu and Rie took us for some awesome fresh sushi at the fish markets, tours around town, free home internet access, you name it. Stu´s hi-tech apartment block below, which took us an hour to find again each time we went out as Tokyo isn´t big on street names and numbers.


Of course the shopping is one of the highlights so C didn’t need much encouragement. Stu treated us to a couple of great dinners, the highlight of which was a cabaret performance by a guy who seemed to be channeling BoyzIIMen or Bobby Brown and serenaded C up close with a truly touching rendition of Lionel Ritchie’s ‘Hello’.
In Tokyo and Kyoto the heat and humidity were something else, the vending machines on every second corner keep the liquids flowing. We caught up with international playboy and man of mystery Dan for a day or two, He can´t seem to keep away from Tokyo too long, its many attractions just keep drawing him back.

After a couple of days we headed to Kyoto to stay in a traditional-style ryokan hotel and wander around the Buddhist, Zen and Shinto temples. Wifey got pampered as usual but didn´t like my death march walking pace in the heat.

There were way too many temples to see in a couple of days but highlights were the Zen temples set amongst pines, gardens and cool streams in the hills on the edge of town and the temple with 1000 golden statues of buddha lined up five deep for about 100m inside.

The flight out wasn’t bad as the plane was half empty and we had a day flight over Siberia and Scandinavia before spending a night at Heathrow before we got to Madrid to realize there had been communication problems with booking flights to Santiago and our only option was Business…ouch!

Over Siberia.
Next stop jamon jamon, pimientos de Padron y donde estan los niños?