Jaunted

Tags: Brule / Design / → All Tags

Brûlé Brief Revisited

Tyler Brûlé returns to form this week in his Financial Times weekend column, after a tiresome pair of columns devoted to his diet and his fantasy Tokyo work and living spaces.

We're relieved. We thought that possibly Tyler had become so distracted by his ungodly wealth that he had lost his ability to do what he does best: Offer pithy comments on subjects of style, urban organization, aesthetics, and branding, all in the name of letting us know what's ahead of the curve.

In this weekend's column, Tyler devotes himself to an appreciation of senior service people, a sweet ode to what is very possibly a dying breed of extremely knowledgeable professionals. From here he turns to one of his most enjoyable pastimes: product exaltation. In this weekend's column we get Japanese band M-Flo (pictured above, keepin' it real), Wilkinson Ginger Ale, Spanish newspaper design, and Orobianco bags, among other consumer joys.

We suggest following legal music download channels and adding M-Flo's "Taste Your Stuff" to your playlists. If that stomping chorus isn't an invitation to freak out on the dancefloor, there may be something wrong with you.

Tags: FT / Brule / Travel Writing / → All Tags

Brûlé Brief

How do those chaps at the Financial Times find the energy to work? Here are Tyler Brûlé's (he of the travel trend forecasting and the diacritical marks) most recent travels, according to his April 15-16 Financial Times column:

April 4: Munich
April 5: Hamburg
April 6: Milan
April 7: Milan - St. Moritz
April 8: St. Moritz
April 9: St. Moritz
April 10 - 12: New York, London, Zürich
April 13: Return to St. Moritz
April 14: St. Moritz
April 15: Shopping excursion to Como, return to St. Moritz

A bit of a blah two weeks, really. Remarkably, Mr. Brûlé manages to stay away from Japan for a fortnight. He also lets us know that Privatair's Boeing Business Class Jet seats are not particularly comfortable for sleeping.

Elsewhere in this past weekend's FT, Sarah Woodward writes a lovely piece on the joys of Corsica in the off-season. Woodward's attention to Corsican food and drink, in particular the centrality of chestnut flavor (in cake, jam, honey, beer, whisky, flour, and ham) is mesmerizing. Even Corsican pigs, Woodward tells us, spend their lives grazing through chestnut groves, their meat picking up the distinctive flavors of chestnut. Like much of the best travel writing, Woodward's story uses a particular object as a prism to talk about a host of other subjects. In this case, food is a gateway to a discussion of Corsican nationalism, demography, and geography.

All issues of nationalism aside, we think some Corsican ham would have been the perfect complement to a Cadbury Cream Egg yesterday.

--Alex Robertson Textor

Related Stories:
·   Get the Holiday in Early [FT, scrip requ'd]