Yeah, today’s my b-day, and I wasn’t going to say anything — older, not necessarily wiser — but the image above sent by one of my oldest friends (thanks, Guy) gave me a good laugh, and I wanted to share it. It was a terrific day of eating — my dear tonkatsu spaghetti at Nobu, amazing grubs from the depa-chika, and lots of cheese — and an incredibly enjoyable viewing of the new Star Trek film (thanks, Brad). Below, the beers I’m currently enjoying, all Japanese stouts and porters.
The latest Tokyo art-related economic casualty: the TKG Daikanyama gallery. From TAB’s latest news digest:
Every month has brought news from London and New York of gallery closures and cut-backs, but so far the only obvious Tokyo victims have been media ones (Ping Mag, Real Tokyo, Art iT, Tokyo Art Cross). However, this week we found out that TKG Daikanyama appears to be closing down after its current exhibition finishes.
People like to get early reminders, so here’s one for the next edition of PauseTalk (Vol. 32), which happens this coming Monday (June 1) at Cafe Pause. Start time is 20:00, and as I mentioned recently, the entire cafe will be reserved for the event, so there shouldn’t be issues about seating or taking up too much space.
The “Cut&Paste Digital Design Tournament 2009″ is happening this Saturday (May 30, 17:00-20:30, 2,000 yen) at Womb in Shibuya. Tokyo is one of the last stops of this international competition, and it should be quite the event — just have a look at the participants listed below. There’s plenty more info at the event’s official site. Above, a video look at the 2007 edition.
3D
Tomoyuki Sugiyama / Digital Hollywood University
Christophe Defaye / AOKI Studio
Isao Nishigori / P.I.C.S.
Shuhei Morita / YAMATOWORKS
Hideki Watanabe / CGWorld
Motion Graphics
Junji Kojima / teevee graphics
Ichiro Tanida / John and Jane Doe Inc.
Koichiro Tsujikawa / Director?
Shinya Nakajima / Tohoku-Shinsha
Takeshi Nakamura / Caviar
Self-published Swedish magazine Museum Paper is having a launch tomorrow night (May 29, 19:00-21:00) at NOW IDeA by Utrecht in Aoyama. They even promise a “special Museum Paper drink,” so I’m there.
My weekly Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, this time covering new offerings from Ryuji Nakamura, the “Japan Brand Pop Up Shop” in NYC, and the “Group Exhibitions: Shinagawa.”
The video above is part of a new campaign for Nissan’s “ECO” line-up (low-fuel), created by the Golden Eggs team. There are short TV commercials, but the video above is a web-only short. My wife has watched this at least 20 times, and cracks up every single time.
I am absolutely in love with the look of this “A Kiss from Tokyo” short. It’s a trailer for an upcoming book by illustrator Kevin Dart called Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7, which is scheduled to come out this summer. The trailer was directed by Dart and Stephane Coedel. Yuki 7 is my new fave heroine, bar none. Via Motionographer.
Well, sort of. For tomorrow night’s edition of PechaKucha Night in Tokyo (Vol. 62) at SuperDeluxe — or tonight (May 27), depending on when you read this — I helped Tomoko curate by suggesting a few presenters who, ahem, just so happen to be PauseTalkers (with one exception). Names you will recognize if you check those PauseTalk attendance reports I post:
Josh McKible: He’ll give us the lowdown and the latest happenings in the world of NaniBird (and I imagine an intro to urban papercraft in general).
Eric Chan: He’ll take us on a tour of his “Tokyo Tour,” which I’m sure will include his recent exhibition at Cafe Pause.
Keiji Ashizawa: I just wonder how he’ll fit everything he’s done in only 20 slides!
Anna Antoniades: With one of her fashion projects entitled “Nana + Seven,” and the fact that she has a fascination with the number 27, it seems like her participation was meant to happen (remember, May 27).
Some very good news indeed: Viz is launching a new online magazine named after — and inspired by — IKKI, a Japanese comic monthly aimed at the older crowd. The site is currently in beta form, and will officially launch after this summer’s San Diego Comicon. All manga will be free to read online, and the most popular series — based on feedback from readers — will get eventual print releases in digest form.
Publisher’s Weekly covers the announcement, and to echo a tweet by Patrick Macias, it’s good to see the PULP font used again (PULP was an earlier attempt by Viz to publish a monthly manga compilation for adults, to which Patrick was a columnist.)
101TOKYO has announced the winner of its Berengo Prize — the fair’s “best of show” — and that artist is Yuichi Higashionna, who “crafts chaotic chandeliers and installations out of everyday objects such as fluorescent lights and hand mirrors.” The prize gives Higashionna a residency at the Berengo Studio in Venice.
Here’s an interview with the artist from Shift Japan.
I think you all know how much of a fan I am of Takayuki Fukatsu‘s poto apps for the iPhone, and unfortunately it seems like he’s encountering some issues with Apple’s approval process. The issue is with the QuadCamera app, which Apple keeps rejecting with no reason given — the app is not new, but the the problem is with the an updated version that supports the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Colophon
The "Jean Snow" logo is written using the free Kirimomi Swash typeface. The "M31" logo is by Ian Lynam, and is part of a series of 31 unique designs. The site's design is based on the Grid Focus WordPress theme by Derek Punsalan.
Jean Snow is a contributor to 
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of 
