Mar 17, 2007
TB.Pensar 001
What is this? For a while now I’ve been thinking that it might be nice to start writing a (mostly) weekly column-type post in which I could just blab about whatever is on my mind, and that wouldn’t necessarily fit as a regular post on the site. I’ve been told in the past that some miss the personal posts that have mostly disappeared from the site, and I guess this is my way of bringing that back, without messing around with the site’s mission and regular coverage. Why TB.Pensar? Most long-time readers will know about my silly naming convention for projects — it’s a simple equation: TB + a word in Portuguese.
My latest obsession? Well, I have a few, actually. First is VBS.TV, the recently launched streaming video channel from VICE magazine. I am absolutely hooked, and look forward to new shows everyday. I love the mix of serious subjects and wackiness, all presented in a terrific interface. This is the future of video online, and I believe you’re going to see a lot of magazines — or new entities — hopping on this bandwagon (MONOCLE has the right idea too, and check out the new Kuntzel+Deygas videos in their “Culture” section). Oh, and no one rocks a suit like VBS correspondent Trace Crutchfield, I bow to him (and his great reports). I also love the SOFT FOCUS series, featuring interviews by Ian Svenonius (another suave suit sporting gentleman) and shot on location at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC.
And yes, I’ve truly become a MONOCLE fanboy. I’ve been anxious all week for the new issue, but have yet to find it. Release date was on the 15th (Thursday), and so on Friday I went to Tower Records and ABC in Shibuya with no luck (at ABC they said it was coming in on Satuday). Today I checked Junkudo and Libro here in Ikebukuro, and still no signs of issue 2. I need my MONOCLE fix, dammit!
Third obsession of late are PDF magazines. A month or so ago I discovered the PDF-Mags site, and since then I’ve been downloading every new title that appears in the update section. I’m just amazed at how nice a lot of these are, with production values (in terms of esthetics) that often rival commercial magazines. Very long-time readers may remember the old online zine I used to produce, GEISHA, which I did for 8 or 9 issues I think, and this is the first time in years that I’m feeling the desire to get back and producing them. But instead of going solo, as I mentioned in this post, I’d like to launch a PDF magazine project through PauseTalk with the group. We only discussed it briefly, but some suggested that we do each issue with a theme, which makes sense (that’s how I produced GEISHA).
And games! You know I play games, and I’m currently hating on FINAL FANTASY III for the DS. Why, especially with all the love I professed for it? Well, after close to 30 hours of gameplay, I got to the final boss and, one spell, boom, 9999 points of damage to each of my characters. The End. Fuck that shit. So a week ago I decided to try RAYMAN RAVING RABBIDS for the DS — the Rayman game that came out on the Dreamcast was one of my all-time favorite platformers — and was surprised to find a great game, and I ended up playing it so much that I finished it yesterday. Now it’s on to CASTLEVANIA: PORTRAITS OF RUIN — long live the whip! Oh, and my copy of GHOST RECON ADVANCED WARFIGHTER 2 came in yesterday. Guess what I’ll be playing at home for the next few weeks…
Enough for now — time to check for new shows at VBS.
Jean Snow is a contributor to 
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of 
I must say I welcome this new column. Some wag the other day said something about how this blog was all about “give us the link and stand aside”, but I don’t think that’s what we readers actually want. Information needs to be grounded in personal experience, personal taste, and so on — and for that you need a person, obviously!
I’m also hooked on VBS :)
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=81607046&blogID=238779883&Mytoken=635C1840-EA93-40A0-BD19DEB42A161E6674353826
I’ve just finished FFIII — is this your first meeting with the final boss? If so, it’s meant to be that way so that they can stick in more Doga time. It’s only the second meeting with Kumo-chan that you actually get to kill her.
Jesper, that link doesn’t seem to work (goes to an error page).
Catcurl, after I died, I did go online to check the FAQs, and found out that you need to be around level 60, and my characters were all at about 52, and I just didn’t feel like doing that much grinding.
hallelujah!! My Jean Snow is BACK!! yay!!
I’m also a big fan of PDF mags, and although this isn’t one, I really love(d) Nineaem. I think you mentioned this site before for its photography. I especially love Nineaem 002 and Nineaem 004—I could stare at the screen all day long.
I really want to get my hands on a copy of Monocle, but I haven’t been able to find it. I wonder if anyone knows of where it’s on sale in the LA area.
MONOCLE was available last weekend at the Keiyakizaka Tsutaya. Got a copy, really enjoying it, although 2300 yen is a stupid price. Might be sold out by now?
NINEAEM looks quite nice!
Gen, is it possible that you just picked up the first issue? The release date for issue 2 was March 15, and everywhere I went they still had copies of the first issue.
Let’s make a pdf mag!
Hey, I saw you in Add+ress when I walked past, but you were too distracted. In fact, I’m typing this from Add+ress! Woah!!
Oh, really? Small world! The sandwich lunch set was particularly good today.
Sounds good! Although you told me about your naming policy in the past, you never actually told me why…
Monocle is fantastic, by the way, and I picked it up after seeing it here. I also agree with Momus (this is getting to be a habit) that the personal touch has always been one of the draws of sites like this.
The why? Hmmm… good question. It started with TB.Grafico, which is what I named my photoblog (which is now just a category on my blog, but at first it was its own separate thing), just cause I liked the sound of the word “grafico” (TB stands for “Tokyo Boy”). For the following project I was trying to think of a name, but decided to see what kind of Portuguese word I could find, and I guess I just sorta stuck with that. I tend to be big on traditions.
I see. I used to do the same thing with Swedish words for the same reason. (I had a bit of Scandinavian fetish back then.)