This Week in Magazines

Your Guide to Design and Pop Culture in Tokyo

Apr 23, 2007

IDEA Mac Power OK Fred

You could pick up the new issue of IDEA (322) for the works of Otl Aicher or Osaka-based Helmut Schmid, but what made me pick up a copy — I don’t usually buy IDEA because of the high 3000 yen cover price — is their “Journal Culture” feature. It’s terrific coverage of the magazine scene, from the huge showcase of issues from William Drenttel‘s collection — see plenty of layouts here — to various media people commenting on their favorite/influential titles. As always, IDEA is completely bilingual (Japanese/English), so magazine addicts the world over will probably want to give this issue a look.
MAC POWER (209) undergoes a cover renewal with a new white look instead of the usual gray (I don’t know if it’s a permanent change, or just for this issue). The main feature, a good one, profiles 50 international photographers. There’s also a piece that takes an extensive look at Klein Dytham architecture‘s beautiful new office for TBWA/HAKUHODO.
OK FRED (9) is back, with their tribute to “The Mamas and the Papas” (meaning parents, not the group). My “Sekai no Omiseyasan” column returns, with a couple of Nakameguro spots.
The new issue of ART iT (15) takes a closer look at the Asian-Pacific component of the upcoming Venice Biennale.

Update
MagCulture’s Jeremy Leslie shares some more details regarding the IDEA “Journal Culture” feature.

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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 happens June 4.

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.

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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.

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