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Your Guide to Design and Pop Culture in Tokyo

Finally, OK Fred

After a very long time searching, I finally got myself a copy of the third issue of OK FRED. It just wasn’t available in the big shops here in Ikebukuro, and I wouldn’t always think to look for it when I was in other areas of Tokyo. Robert, who does some writing for them, recently told me that I could get it at the Tower Records in Shibuya. As I was in Shibuya this afternoon (after a quick coffee at Space Shower Brunch in Shimokitazawa with Lil), I had a look and after not seeing on the stands asked a clerk for it, and he got a copy for me from the back room. Haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but it looks like it’s going to make for a good read. Features interviews with the following: Arto Lindsay, Jim O’rourke, David Toop, Taylor Deupree, Team Doyobi, Franck Stofer, Nobukazu Takemura, Florian Hecker, Ekkehard Ehlers, O.Lamm, John Zorn, Max Tundra, Tom Steinle, Markus Popp. E*Rock,Jad Fair, Tim Gane, Vladislav Delay, Dj Spooky, Bundy K Brown, Erik Ed Benndorf, Chicks On Speed, Carsten Nicolai, Donna Summer, Dat Politics, Active Suspension (JC, Domotic, O.Lamm, Shinsei, Davide Balula), Event10, Teki Latex (TTC), Tacteel, Sebastien Jamain, Gel:, Toyama Takeo, Eater, Oorutaichi, Samurai Jazz, Raft Music, Noble, Noise McCartney Records, Flyrec., Progressive Form, Para Disc, Fennesz, D-Fuse, and Peter Saville.

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PauseTalk

PauseTalk is a regular series of events that take place at Cafe Pause on the first Monday of every month, with a start time of 20:00. The idea is to create a forum where Tokyo-based creatives can get together and discuss their own projects, as well as cultural currents of the city. The next edition is March 5.

We hereby define a new term, that of the magaziner, described as a person who exerts an unhealthy amount of love for all things magazine. The Magaziner is a site that mostly focuses on the intersection between magazines and the digital frontier, and what it means for the medium. This does not preclude the inclusion of a healthy amount of print love.

Codex is a weekly music podcast hosted by Jean Snow, recorded in Tokyo. Playlists for all episodes are posted on the site, and you can subscribe to RSS feeds of posts and episodes.

Jean Snow is a contributor to Arcade Mania, your guide to the arcade gaming scene in Japan (Amazon US/Amazon Japan). He also provided assistance on Tokyolife: Art and Design, a guide to Tokyo's cultural output of the past few years, covering the works of over 80 influential creatives.
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of The Rough Guide to Tokyo and The Rough Guide to Japan, due for release in 2011.
PechaKucha Global Cities Week

Jean Snow is Executive Director of the PechaKucha organization. He also helps run the PechaKucha Night in Tokyo -- please get in touch if you are interested in presenting at a future event. For a more intimate salon-like discussion group, join him at his monthly PauseTalk event.

A longtime resident of Tokyo, he lives and breathes design, pop culture, and gaming, sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes. He has reported on these obsessions for various online/offline publications, including the following: Time, Inside (Australian Design Review), Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, 1UP, Tokyo Q, Superfuture, OK Fred, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, I.D. (International Design), Metropolis, Azure, MoCo Loco, Kateigaho International Edition, Wired's Game|Life, PingMag, CNNGo, Phaidon, and The Japan Times.

You can subscribe to an RSS feed of this site, and also follow him on Twitter and Facebook, or get in touch by email.

Neojaponisme

He serves as editor-at-large at Néojaponisme, a web journal covering social and cultural aspects of Japan. Read the manifesto, by founder and chief editor W. David Marx.

He also writes a monthly column covering Japanese product design for The Japan Times, called "On Design." It appears on the last Tuesday of every month, in both the print edition and online.

Colophon

The "Jean Snow" logo is written using the free Kirimomi Swash typeface. The "M31" logo is by Ian Lynam, and is part of a series of 31 unique designs. The site's design is based on the Grid Focus WordPress theme by Derek Punsalan.

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