The next GAS BOOK (24) is set to come out December 8, and not only does it cover the works of graphic designer Hideki Inaba, but it also marks a change in the format (again by Inaba, who created the original format), and a doubling of the page count. The ATMOSPHERE blog has more details.

Wonderwall’s website has been updated with a few new projects from Masamichi Katayama, including Hysteric Glamour Aoyama (pictured above), OriginalFake, and M.Y. label.

I am absolutely devastated. It’s one day before the Wii’s launch here in Japan (well, one day before I was planning on standing in line outside the Bic Camera in Ikebukuro), and I get hit with a cold. I’m feeling like crap, and can’t see that I’ll be able to make an all-nighter camped out near the Bic with the kind of cold weather we’re currently experiencing. Damn, damn, damn…

10+1 hosts a video of Shintaro Yamanaka’s Atelier House in Musashikoyama. Link via Dezain.net.

I’m like Patrick, I don’t really listen to Christmas music or albums anymore, but he’s got me interested in Naomi & Goro’s PRESENTE DE NATAL.

And now it’s Jesper’s turn to introduce the Pecha Kucha Night phenomenon to his city of Gothenburg, Sweden, with next week’s first installment of Pecha Kucha GBG! It happens next Wednesday (December 6) at Club Nefertiti, with of course a start time of 20:20 (doors open at 19:30). You’ll find more details at the site he’s set up for the event (as well as a page on Myspace).

More Tokyo Design Week coverage, this time an image-spectacular from Designboom.

Dezeen — a new online design magazine (blog) edited by Marcus Fairs — has 2 photos of the 21_21 Design Sight building, still under construction. Link via Dezain.net.

• This month’s edition of MAC POWER (204) features the “Creative Forefront of Asia,” which means spotlighting the art/design scenes of a few Asian cities. One of the articles got me interested in the following two Taiwanese design magazines: PPAPER and MOGU.
• BRUTUS (606) goes to the movies with their “CineLove” issue, boasting coverage of 565 titles. As expected, you get various lists (in the form of an insert), celebrity picks, and a few articles that spotlight some of the latest notable titles and/or creators.
• PEN (188) goes to school, or rather “Design Academy,” with a very enticing look at top design schools from around the world, inviting us to “meet next creativity.” I’ve never trained/studied as a designer or anything, but a lot of these institutes seem like dream factories to my eyes! The issue also features a rather nice guide to Fukuoka.
• This month’s CASA BRUTUS (81) is all about “Paris A to Z,” which means that it’s pretty much THE guide you need if ever you’re in the city and want to know about all the design-related spots you need to see.
• I won’t say much about the latest STUDIO VOICE (372), that covers 90s culture in Japan (”Cut Up 90’s”), since I expect Marxy to offer a more complete rundown soon enough. I was a bit surprised by their list of defining 90s records, as it doesn’t include a lot of things you’d expect to see there.
• I can’t recommend the latest issue of DESIGN NOTE (10) enough, with its look at Japan’s major creative agencies, including attractive portfolios for each. There’s also an “Art Director’s Talk” with Yasushi Fujimoto (CAP), Kashiwa Sato (SAMURAI), ad Michihiko Yanai (Kaze to Rock).
• The new issue of ECIFFO (49), the bilingual magazine that covers office space design, is a showcase of “Inspiring Workplaces.” Quite a few interesting things here, including some studies on what would make the best sort of work environment, as well as some rather killer examples that already exist.
• I mentioned it before, but this month’s TOKION JAPAN (55) features a great cover story on Megumi Matsubara (Assistant) and Michael Thorsby (PMKFA).

Tomorrow night (November 29) is Pecha Kucha Night Vol. 37, which will also be the last one held this year (the next one will come January 31). You can check the PKN site for a list of presenters scheduled, but I can tell you that Paul Baron of TAB will be there, as well as designer Josephine Gianni, who attended the last PauseTalk. As always, it happens at SuperDeluxe, with a start time of 20:20.

The next edition of PauseTalk is coming up, next Monday (December 4), at the usual start time of 19:30. For Vol. 6, I’d like to cover a few things, including an update on the wiki project (we are currently building a wiki database to act as a resource for creatives in the city), as well as the presentation of a new project that would involve using 8mm cameras to create shorts for an eventual showcase night. The projector will be available again, so if you plan on attending and would like to share some images (current projects, etc.), please let me know and send along images.

This month’s edition of my “On Design” column is in today’s THE JAPAN TIMES, and in it I cover some of my picks (I had to narrow things down for space, and wanted to have a variety) from this year’s 100% Design Tokyo. I cover Takafumi Nemoto’s Babel, Sunnin’s Tokyo Dresser, 100%’s Magnet Tack, Teori’s Root, Yuki Tanaka and Maki Nakahara’s Lighting of Communication Tool, and Ismi Design Office’s Structure and Cube.

I’m a bit late on this, but “Central East Tokyo 2006” (CET06) has already started, and goes on until December 3.

Looks like Karl Escritt is creating his own sort of PauseTalk in Kyoto, at Japonica Music Kyoto, adding to it a great live element that will kick off this coming Friday (December 1) with guests that will include O.Lamm and Digiki (as part of their current Japan tour), and Midori Hirano. Here’s how Karl describes this new bi-monthly series of events:

For this week’s first edition, doors will open at 18:00, the talk session will start at 18:30, and the live show will start at 19:15, with doors closing at 23:00.

The Nakaochiai Gallery is celebrating its second anniversary with “Group Show,” bringing together the works of 7 Tokyo-based artists: Seiji Yonehara, Becky Yee, Clint Taniguchi, Kazumasa Noguchi, DENSE, Takayo Nagura, and Benedetta Borrometi. The exhibition will be held December 3-12, with the opening reception December 2 (18:00-21:00).