Pictured, Craig pimping Chin Music Press releases at the Brooklyn Book Festival. Craig and Ashley will be giving a talk about Art Space Tokyo at Kinokuniya (Bryant Park) on the 23rd.

The funniest thing for me about this clip is that I actually remember watching it on TV when it originally aired (maybe in 2002), before I ever met Patrick.

I’m a bit late on this, but wanted to point out ex-Graniph art director Melanie’s new project, “international PR & illustration showcase” Cabaret. The first project is the “100 Post Cards” exhibition at cafe Sunshine Studio in Harajuku. It runs until September 30.

• This month’s edition of the “Likemind Tokyo” creative gathering happens this coming Friday (September 19, 11:30-13:00), as always at Rhythm Cafe in Shibuya.

Still on the fence about purchasing Matt Alt’s Yokai Attack? Maybe the new book site will help convince you.

For those of you interested in this sort of thing, I’ve recently taken up twittering — I’m late, I know — and you can follow my feed here.

I just wanted to clear something up, since I’ve gotten some mail about it — following this post, and a post I wrote on Game|Life. The version of Arcade Mania now on sale at Amazon Japan is indeed in English, and is the exact same edition that will be released worldwide in January.

This week is not just about the release of Arcade Mania, it also sees my wife’s first publication in a research journal (not counting university journals). My wife, Yuko, has had an article based on her current research published in the current issue (No. 8) of The Bulletin of China Studies (Chugoku Kenkyu Ronso). The article in question is entitled “The Birth and Development of ‘Worker Heroes’ – A Case Study from the Wu Man You Movement.” Big congrats to her!

On a related note, I’ll be leaving for China on Thursday for nine days, to accompany her on some field research in the Xiangxi province. For those who may not know, I first met my wife in China, in the city of Tianjin, when I was there as a student studying the Chinese language — we were both students at the same university. I’ve been back for a couple of visits, but it’s been quite a few years since my last time there, and so yeah, I’m expecting some major changes.

You know all that cool stuff you’re used to seeing on PingMag? Now you’ll actually be able to buy some of it, thanks to the launch of ShopPingMag! The site only launched last week, but already it’s filled with very “ping” products — they even have a “PingPicks” section — and you can expect the selection to grow over time. The really cool thing with the site is that it gives a chance for designers to set up their own shop, with PingMag taking care of all the transaction nitty-gritty. Looking forward to seeing how this develops over time.

Shantell Martin just never seems to stop. Next up, her very own DVD, Koob’s, which covers the artist doing what she does best: creating. It comes out in November, but you can already pre-order it from this page, which also includes a video preview.

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten news from my friend Midori Hirano — or seen her, since she moved back to Kyoto a while back — and now I hear that not only is she moving to Germany at the end of this month, she also has a new full-length album coming out on Japanese music label Noble soon. It’s called Klo:Yuri, and comes out October 10. The Noble preview page has a sample up, a track called “Out,” which I’m quite liking. If you’re new to Midori’s music, you should also check out her first album, LushRush .

Tokyo Fashion Week may be over, but there’s still some fashion runway action coming your way September 23 in the form of the Maruione Shinjuku-produced fourth annual “Individual Fashion Expo,” at the JCB Hall in Tokyo Dome City. The show covers gothic, lolita, and punk styles. Patrick Macias has plenty more info over at his blog.

My good friend Patrick had his turn as DJ last night in Koenji at the “Tokyo Boys Bravo” event, and he’s posted his set list. Looks like I need to try and get him to do something at Cafe Pause next.

Uniqlo comes out with a new fancy flash-based web promotion, this time called “Dry in Motion.” I don’t really understand it, but it sure looks cool.

And it starts! Arcade Mania is now available for purchase on Amazon Japan! Buy a copy, hell, buy two, you never know when you might lose one. The book sells for 2,100 yen, and that’s with free shipping if you live in Japan — remember, Amazon Japan does ship internationally. If you prefer to wait until January when it comes out in the rest of the world and will be available on Amazon US, you can still pre-order now.

Also, I’ve heard that some people who pre-ordered on Amazon Japan still get a January release date. You can just cancel the pre-order and then re-order regularly. Your copy should ship right away.

Also, the official website for the book will launch sometime next week, but I can already start giving details on the launch party. It happens Saturday, September 27 (19:00-23:00) at Cafe Pause, of course. It should be a blast, and Jason DeGroot (6955) will be contributing a 4-hour playlist of game and chiptune tracks for the evening. Come one, come all!

Update: Seems there’s some confusion, with some thinking that the book sold in Japan is in Japanese, which is not the case. There is currently only an English edition of Arcade Mania.