Oct 14, 2009
You may have already heard about it — it’s been making the web rounds — but Masamichi Katayama (Wonderwall) has indeed updated his company’s website, enlisting the aid of flash master Yugo Nakamura. The result is quite fun, although I’m never a fan of sites that make you wait while they load. Portfolio sites can maybe get away with this, I guess.
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 in March.
PLAY is a series of events with Jean Snow spinning some of his favorite virtual discs in a casual setting at Cafe Pause. The next edition happens in January. See the setlist for previous editions here, and subscribe to a feed of the mixes.
Being a survey of recommended titles for your gaming pleasure. New games are added 2-3 times weekly, and all selections are by your host, Jean Snow, a Tokyo-based writer and gamer.
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.
I'm also a proud member of the Pecha Kucha Night family, working on various projects, including updating Pecha Kucha Daily, a blog that highlights the creativity coming out of PKN events worldwide.
I serve 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.
Not really a fan of loading, either—even in portfolio sites. Maybe especially in portfolio sites.
But I think they get away with it really well here, since their project summaries always seem to take me exactly as long to read as the time it takes for the images to load.
My point about portfolio sites is that usually when you visit them, you’re not in a rush, or it’s not something you do on a regular basis (at the same site). I would not follow a site that I want to check regularly (blog, news, etc.) that has load times like that.
The load time on that thing renders it useless. I’m using a dual core mega-excellent computer and it takes forever.
Survey says: Yugo, do it over. (And ditch Flash. Jeez.)