Just a reminder that following a skip month, PauseTalk returns this coming Monday (February 2) at Cafe Pause. Start time is 20:00 as usual, and I’d urge everyone who plans on coming to try and arrive on time, because it’s a bit awkward to have people arrive throughout the session — I know it’s unavoidable for some, I’d just like to avoid it if possible.
Looking forward to finding out what everyone is up to, and what is being planned for 2009!
Jan 31, 2009
Paul sends me word that there’s one week left to apply for the “UK-Japan 2008 Collaborative Project Grant.” Find out more here.
Jan 30, 2009
Mekas posts a very long interview with magazine editor/photographer Yasumasa Yonehara.
Jan 30, 2009
My weekly Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, this time covering Shunsuke Terada’s Oblique vase (above), Jin Kuramoto’s Lilliput series, and Satoshi Nakagawa’s Handy Birdy Minny ballpoint pen.
Jan 29, 2009
James Patterson shares his time between the US and Japan — he’s a PauseTalker too — and the latest project he’s worked on is an iPhone version of WordPop — here’s a direct link to the iTunes App Store. The premise is that you make words out of blocks on the screen, racking up points. Simple and fun.
Jan 28, 2009
Interesting idea: Norihiko Terayama‘s “Claska 701 Someone’s Atelier” installation is actually set up in one of the hotel’s rooms (701, of course). Even better, you can stay in the room. Spoon & Tamaga posts more details and photos.
Jan 28, 2009
In case you missed last night’s airing on NHK of the show featuring Ryue Nishizawa and Bakusho Mondai, it will be rerun February 2 at 15:15, and February 3 at 8:30 (on BS2). The page for the show also now includes more commentary from everyone involved (Japanese-only).
Jan 28, 2009
I just put up a post about the Pecha Kucha Night event held in Denver last week over at Pecha Kucha Daily, and wanted to share the image above, of the audience spelling out PKN with their mobile phones — love the effect it created. Maybe we should try and make it happen at tomorrow’s Tokyo edition!
Jan 27, 2009
A special edition issue of OK Fred — produced in collaboration with last month’s “Death by Basel” exhibition at Art Basel 2008 in Miami and featuring an interview with the Boredoms’ EYE Yamataka — is now available for purchase online. The 76-page publication is $15 — here’s a look at a few pages inside.
Jan 25, 2009
Yet another casualty of the precarious economic climate: Kateigaho International Edition is now over. Quite a shame — it was an attractive magazine, and I had the pleasure of contributing a few pieces to it in the past.
Jan 25, 2009
My friend Momo — she directed all the segments of Tokyo Eye that I appeared in — has completed work on a show for NHK that will feature architect Ryue Nishizawa (of SANAA) discussing various topics with comedians Bakusho Mondai. The show will air this Tuesday (January 27) at 23:00.
From the screen grabs found on this page, it looks like they’ll be visiting some of Nishizawa’s works. Above, I believe they are standing in front of the Moriyama House, which I got to cover in one of those Tokyo Eye segments.
Jan 25, 2009
Jason may have left Tokyo, but he’s still up to some good stuff, including this, the official launch of a web presence for the Polytron Corporation, which includes teases of upcoming downloadable game Fez — no platform yet announced — and a mysterious iPhone title. Love the press release.
Jan 25, 2009
Digiki’s Dense Music project comes to a close with the release of a 12″ vinyl, from Jetset Records and Tokyo Fun Party. More details here.
Jan 25, 2009
Kazuaki Kiriya’s follow-up to the visually-stunning Casshern is Goemon, and from the trailer (above), it looks like we can expect another healthy dose of celluloid eye-candy. Via Imprint Talk, which includes more details on the film.
Jan 25, 2009
Jan 25, 2009
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.
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.
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.
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.
