(Sustainable) Fishy Advice

Dining advice along the Atlantic seaboards.

Here's an amusing collection of silhouettes I received with my order from The Book Depository. Charming, informative, and green, the two bookmarks indicate fishes and marine life that should or should not be eaten according to the Marine Conservation Societies. Unsustainable fishing practices have threatened a number of species with extinction, but numerous tasty morsels still swim in our oceans or can be farmed. Bring on the mackerels and winkles. The Atlantic species are above (beware the Kraken!). The Pacific/Worldwide examples are below (beware the Kraken still!).

This is also my endorsement of the Book Depository, a great site for those looking to buy academic or literary material in Singapore. Free shipping.

What to eat when on the Pacific Rim.

Japanese Cookies

Couque D'asses cookies on the shelf in Singapore.

Spotted this box of cookies at a Japanese food specialty store underneath MBFC a few months back. The double entendre is probably most quickly apparent to Americans, but I think everyone can join the fun, really. I have no ability to read Japanese so I couldn't possibly comment on the ingredients.

Deck the Malls 2011: Sub-Zero

Welcome to another tropical Christmas.

Last year this blog showcased some of the festive decorations at our local mall, and the festooning this year is again baffling enough to warrant another post. I took some pictures on Saturday at Velocity in Novena, one of the numerous malls stationed atop an MRT (subway/underground/metro) station.

The mall starts Christmas season on 11 November. There is no Thanksgiving to hold back Xmas.

The theme at the mall this year is "Sub-Zero Christmas," an even chillier variation on 2010's "White is the Color of Christmas." I am continually bemused at the winter themes on display for customers in a tropical climate, and I am a still surprised by the pervasiveness of a Christian holiday within a country where the largest religion is Buddhism. Of course, Singapore has many, many Christians, and here we live next door to a church. Either credit the country for being inclusive or blame capitalism for cultivating a retail holiday in unlikely soil. I will opt for the latter given all the non-denominational  bedecking.

Shoppers on Level 2 are just about eye-level with a rather threatening penguin.

Alright, no more musing because once again the highlight of Velocity's decorations are the disturbing white animals. Several of them are perched on top of the main awning in the first photo above. Here are some more sculptures that dangle from the ceiling.

The tiny skating rink is back! In the ad copy this year it's called the Velocity Arctic Village. 

Click the link below left to behold a Photoshop disaster.

Abercrombie Invasion Inverted: NYC

Having written about the Abercrombie & Fitch store opening soon in Singapore and their less than blameless record as a corporate citizen, this blog will now offer some more humorous, gentle subversion. The outstanding comedy group Improv Everywhere staged a performance inside an A&F store in New York in 2007. Unsurprisingly, management took a rather dim view of Improv's antics. Every major Abercrombie location has a shirtless male "store model" at the front door, and this does not beget a corporate sense of humor?

For more great stunts visit the Improv Everywhere YouTube channel.

Queuing Up Trouble: Abercrombie & Fitch in Singapore

Abercrombie & Fitch chose a site close to a mosque for its Singapore store, but in the United States the company has faced allegations that it is hostile to observant Muslims.

American retailer Abercrombie & Fitch is about to open its first store in Singapore in the shopping complex Knightsbridge on Orchard Road. Southeast Asians will soon be able to buy classy clothes from a store that has sold thongs and padded bikini tops to eight-year-olds. As an American, I have a longer acquaintance with the company, and I am not looking forward to having A&F return to my neighborhood. Singaporeans without such a history undoubtedly will queue up to breathe in Abercrombie's fiercely scented air, just as they did for H&M's opening in September just across the street (and continue to do shamelessly).

The store was announced in March, expanding A&F's Asian footprint after opening an outlet in Japan in 2009. From a webpage that pretty much reads like a reprint of Abercrombie's press release:

Abercrombie & Fitch, an Ohio-based Casual Luxury themed brand, promises to deliver the same ‘all-American’ experience – including the young, fun and good-looking ‘store models’ and the same merchandise that is found at its any other flagship stores around the world, reflecting their brand’s heritage, youth and sex appeal with a unique emphasis on quality and store experience.

“We think that South East Asia represents a great opportunity for the brand and Singapore makes a great fit,” said an A&F spokesperson. “Our launch in Singapore is answering an established enthusiasm for A&F, and giving our fan-base a place to go and live the brand.”

The "Casual Luxury" (read: overpriced) brand zealously guards and controls its image and store experience, starting with its opaque shop fronts that eschew the usual large window displays of available merchandise. The Knightsbridge outlet is no exception, placing oversized dark-wooden washboard shutters behind its windows. No doubt they will soon erect billboards overhead emblazoned with oversized black-and-white images of washboard abs. Full marks to Abercrombie for selling so much apparel without actually displaying any clothes. However, the "store models" and employees inside rarely match the dark panelling in the windows. Abercrombie unabashedly peddles a pernicious, privileged white-bread version of what they believe is "all-American," and it has repeatedly and unrepentantly given little consideration to any other members of a very diverse world, and they are now exporting that rigorously enforced look. 

Where to start? How about the minimum $40 million settlement the company agreed to pay in 2004 for denying jobs and promotions to blacks, Asians, and Latinos? In 2009 a UK employment tribunal ruled the company had unlawfully harassed a disabled law student born without her left arm and working in the flagship London store. Singaporean Muslims might want to know about the pending lawsuit of a twenty-year-old Muslim woman who allegedly lost her job at Hollister, a beach-themed Abercrombie spin-off, for wearing a hijab headscarf of the style seen throughout Southeast Asia. The suit was filed this year and adds to cases of the same kind already pending. Chinese Singaporeans will surely want to hear about T-shirts sensitively trading in racial stereotypes in 2002 ("Wong Brothers Laundry Service: Two Wongs Can Make it White"). I want to know if the flagship shop will try to force low-wage shop workers in Singapore to buy and wear very expensive Abercrombie gear. In the US they had to settle yet another lawsuit alleging such practice. Good luck finding out the answers to these questions since in 2010 Abercrombie and Fitch provided "virtually zero" data on its behavior regarding "environment, climate change, human rights, employee relations, finance, governance, and philanthropy."

Some people in Singapore's diverse racial and religious mix end up will want "to go and live the brand," even if the company fails to offer dignified employment here. I am sure that the "brand’s heritage, youth and sex appeal" will attract plenty of business. But I want Singaporeans to know a little bit more about what that heritage is.

The corner location of Abercrombie's Singapore flagship store, soon to be plastered with young, (only?) white flesh. Image site.

Deck the Malls

Happy Birthday, baby Jesus, from your favorite brand names at United Square.

It's Christmastime, even here in Singapore.  It's 31 C (87 F) outside, but the festive spirit is in the air. OK, even if the holiday spirit isn't outside, it's definitely thriving inside the malls.  Singapore is the the land of malls, and right now they are all filled with outrageous Christmas décor and canned holiday music.  Here's a selection from our local bulwarks of commerce United Square and Velocity.

Inside United Square.

The kid-oriented mall United Square has a very large high voltage Christmas tree outside, and every day last week they hosted a show of carols sung by no one's favorite purple dinosaur.  I happened to walk through one afternoon while the performance was in progress.  The big, purple protagonist was accompanied by spritely adults wearing headset mics and bright, bright clothing.  Additional, smaller dinosaurs also participated, and I suspect the overly cushioned costumes were staffed by midgets.  the whole thing ended with a confetti cannon.  Go Diego Go! The Iguana Sing-along will be next.

Outside Velocity.  The parcel on the right simply reads "Glitz."

Across the street we have the sports-themed mall Velocity, home to our local gym California Fitness Jackie Chan Sport.  Seriously, Jackie Chan Sport. The venue has gone with a "white Christmas" sort of theme, mostly using purple.  More on their festivities after the jump; click the link below left.

Protect Me from the Tragedy of Culture

Artist Jenny Holzer put up an illuminated billboard in Times Square in 1986 as part of her well known "Survival" series.  The imperative "Protect me from what I want" called attention to the intrusion of advertising, the commercial exploitation of public space, and our helplessness within the situation.  Now appreciators of art can own that experience for themselves and support the Whitney Museum by purchasing a pair of Keds sneakers.  Get them at Bloomingdale's starting 8 July, $75 for high tops, $70 for low tops.  As Tom Scocca pointed out, buying shoes emblazoned with messages about mass market consumption prices are essentially announcing that you, the consumer, paid a mark-up of 100%.

The Holzer designed sneakers.  Image from the New York Times.

Welcome to the 25th anniversary celebration of American consummerism critique.  Buy your special deluxe edition of Don DeLillo's White Noise now.  Maybe we would do better to retreat all the way back to the nineteenth century and the foundational sociology of Georg Simmel on the "tragedy of culture." I may get to when I finish listening to Naomi Klein on my iPod.

Homegrown Fashion | hansel

Summer has arrived here in our tropical city state, which means the advent of the Great Singapore Sale, an event  aimed at attracting shoppers from around the region.  Mom-and-pop shops and brand-name luxury retailers alike roll out the offers during these months.  The Passengers have already taken part this weekend, stopping by the boutique of local label hansel (sound alert).

Thoughtfully bespectacled Singaporean Jo Soh started hansel, named after her Jack Russel terrier, in 2003 and has been growing and maturing the brand ever since.  The collections she puts forth often follow playful themes, like "Robot Girl" or "Me & My Camel," with equally whimsical pieces.  The most recent line goes under the title "Paper Dolly."

Paperdoll short sleeved cardigan.  Notice the ceramic pin of the cat's-eye glasses that have become one of Jo Soh's calling cards. 

Jo Soh herself drew the cover for the promotional booklet, shown above, and the entire collection follows the principles of this theme.  These garments were seemingly conceived as two-dimensional cutouts to display in front of a model.  Now, the realized products are structured for real ladies, even ones who are not paper thin, but details such as collars and buttons have been expressed only within the knit. Pockets that do function are not hidden but placed as fabric squares on the front of dresses.

Triple bow babydoll knit dress

The theme has not prevented Ms. Jo from attending to the reverse sides of her pieces.  The dress pictured above keeps most of its eye-catching structuring behind the shoulders, but those bows, an elemental part of dress-up games here in grown-up colors, have flatten profiles that keep close to the body.

Paperdoll knit dress

All the items shown here use the black-and-white palette that has dominated past hansel collections, probably a reflection of the designer's skills with pen and ink.  The Paper Dolly offerings do not break that trend, though the line includes a worthwhile dress in vivid red.  For pictures of the rest of the collection visit the label's online shop.  For more on Jo Soh and her retro personal taste, visit her blog.  

Easy on the Turkey

President Harry S Truman admiring a Thanksgiving turkey in 1950. Presidents have annually "pardoned" one of the delicious fowls since JFK. The Guardian has a slideshow of past presidents getting the bird.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! The Passengers wish we could be close to our nearest and dearest Americans to enjoy the holiday. Instead it's a normal working day in Singapore. We do get the gift of a public holiday tomorrow but not because of any navigationally challenged religious dissidents. It's the time for pilgrimage to Mecca for Muslims, Hari Raya Haji in Malay. The Passengers will do Thanksgiving with a number of expatriates and sympathetic Singaporeans on Sunday evening.

The Thanksgiving holiday in America provides a number of benefits. Firstly, the occasion is secular and can be enjoyed by anyone willing to participate. It seems especially fitting as a reminder of the immigrant beginnings of our national experiment. Along with the absence of creedal partisanship, Thanksgiving celebrations are hardly commercial, mostly an excuse to eat as much food as possible while spending time with family or friends. There is, of course, NFL football and a parade with marching bands to watch. Yes, Americans can only go so long without shopping. The day after Thanksgiving, also a public holiday, marks the opening of the Christmas shopping season ("Black Friday") with "doorbuster (link to this year's Wal-Mart circular)" offers to those who can wait in the cold for a big-box retailer to open at 5:00 AM. It's a rather crass coda to a national tradition, but Thanksgiving continues to play an important role in keeping the Christmas decorations and holiday jingles off the cultural landscape at least until December is a reasonable possibility. In Singapore the Christmas decorations went up before November, in part because of all the visiting dignitaries for the APEC Summit earlier this month.

Student Discounts

National Rail enlisted glam rocker (and later sex offender) Gary Glitter to promote their Young Persons Railcard. Turns out hindsight has a sense of humor (thank you, bitterwallet).

My upbringing by a coupon-clipping mother has taught me to feel proud of searching out good bargains. I admit I enjoy the thrill of possibility whilst elbows deep in the disorganized bins at down-market clearance stores. At other times I am simply the guy with tips on where to reliably find a good men's shoe sale. My favorite cost-cutting mechanism: the student discount. It's like a coupon that can't expire until graduation.

Last weekend I exercised Club Monaco's newly offered discount on purchases for myself and Passenger H. It's a great offer since I think the shop asks about 20% too much their merchandise anyhow. J. Crew also lends a hand to students, but they fluctuate their rates and terms regularly. My university also let's me buy cheap movie vouchers and Broadway tickets through their box office. Plus, loads of New York museums that give free or reduced admissions.

Of course, European countries are even more generous to students, especially when it comes to the expenses of daily life. Britain gives students 1/3 off rail fares. Amtrak only does 15%. Apparel retailers in Britain who cut students a ten-percent break include Topshop and Uniqlo. But what really underscores the difference for my European colleagues is the astounding situation whereby stipends given to students in America that exceed tuition and fees are taxed as income. Heaven knows what the IRS thinks we do for food. Until then, we will take solace in all the corporate welfare we can find.