Yesterday I launched a special blog for the SNOW Magazine Cafe. For those of you who are unable to attend the event here in Tokyo, that’s where you’ll find more details about the show — I’ll be posting stuff throughout the month, including photos and the like. Today I revealed the list of participating titles (in the main part of the show), 33 in all. Note that you can subscribe to a feed as well.

Well, that, and more importantly, we’re having our little gathering to officially kick off the SNOW Magazine Cafe. As I wrote before, there will be a PauseTalk session, but I’ll keep it relatively short, so please come on by even if you’re not into that sort of gathering. So tonight (Monday, August 2), from 19:00 (until 23:00) at Cafe Pause in Ikebukuro, with cheap drinks available. Hope to see many of you there!

And we’re off: The SNOW Magazine Cafe is now go at Cafe Pause, and runs until August 30. I just posted something on SNOW Magazine that details everything you can expect to find there. Sure, there’s all the magazine stuff (33 titles as part of the main exhibition, and then a large selection of zines, as well as special displays for Knee High Media and OK Fred), but I’m also pretty happy with what we (me and the staff at the cafe) came up with for the special menu. You will find the SNOW LASSI (Peach Lassi, 600 yen), the SNOW COCKTAIL (Malibu Rum and Milk, 700 yen), and the SNOW PUDDING (Annin Tofu and Tapioca, 500 yen).

The important thing to note is that the opening party is Monday night (August 2), from 19:00. There will be a short PauseTalk session at 20:00, but the event is definitely open to everyone, and so please join us even if you would normally not attend PauseTalk. Entry is free, and we’ll have a 500 yen drink menu, with all the event menu items available at that price as well.

Now’s the time when I usually post a reminder that the next PauseTalk is coming up, and that’s in fact what I’m doing now, but it’s also to point out that next week’s Vol. 43 (Monday, August 2, at Cafe Pause) is a bit of a special one, as it will also act as the launch party for the SNOW Magazine Cafe. I’ll do things a bit differently by keeping the official PT session a bit short, since I want to spend more time celebrating and chatting with everyone about the topic at hand (that would be magazines). The official session will still start at 20:00, but the reception kicks off at 19:00.

Really hope to see lots of you there, and I promise comfortably cool air conditioning — how’s that for a selling point?

So far I’ve only tweeted it, but let me mention here also that I’m very happy to announce that we will be celebrating the 15th anniversary of Knee High Media (Tokion, Papersky, Mammoth) during next month’s SNOW Magazine Cafe. The show will include a display featuring a selection of 15 magazines produced during those 15 years (one for each year). The display will actually make its debut at next week’s Tokyo Art Book Fair (July 30 to August 1), which takes place at both 3331 Arts Chiyoda in Akihabara and Vacant in Harajuku.

The SNOW Magazine Cafe flyer is now out in the wild. Again, big thanks to Hiyoko Imai for the wonderful design, based on Luis‘ original poster design.

I’ve been a bit quiet on the SNOW Magazine Cafe front, but yes, it’s still happening next month at Cafe Pause (August 1-30), and I’m very happy to reveal the poster for the event. It was designed by my GOOD Inc. compadre, Luis Mendo, and I absolutely love the illustration he came up with. The poster will appear at the entrance to to cafe, and a slightly different version will be used for the flyer (and big thank to Hiyoko Imai for the help with that).

I also have a very exciting new development regarding the event — and SNOW Magazine in general — that is going to be very cool. I’ll announce more soon, but for now let’s just say that it truly embraces the medium that is being celebrated at the exhibition.

I. Love. Gym Class Magazine. It’s a great indie magazine produced by one Steven Gregor that has been evolving in format since launch, with the latest issue (#6) now in full-color (the two previous issues were done through the Newspaper Club). And you really should pick up “The Magazine Fanboy Issue,” especially if like me, you really are a magazine fanboy (or fangirl). Here’s more on the issue, as well as a video flip-through, and you can buy it here. I’ll have a few issues at next month’s SNOW Magazine Cafe, and I’m also very happy to say that I’m contributing something to the next issue, but probably best not to say what that is just yet.

Also, Steven is on the lookout for some stockists in Tokyo, so if you have some tips and suggestions, let me know and I’ll pass it along.

I announced the SNOW Magazine Cafe event a couple of days ago, and already I’ve been getting some great feedback — lots of people who wish they could actually come to Tokyo to attend — and also lots of contributions. I think we have the makings of something special, and I’m already excited about coming up with some new elements to add to the month-long celebration.

Also, I’ve set up a more permanent area for the event, so please feel free to share that link instead of the post on SNOW Magazine. I’ll also be using that space for future updates, both before the start of the event, and during. Notice that “2010″ in the title at the top of the page? Sure, why not make this into an annual event. And I’m certain that whatever I learn from putting together this year’s edition will contribute to making an even better event next year.

And again, if you are a publisher of (or work on) an art, design, or culture magazine and would like to participate, it’s as easy as sending me your latest issue. Zines are also welcome — I do love those too — and Ian Lynam is already going to help me put together a nice selection for the event.

I’m very happy to announce that the first SNOW Magazine-related event will take the form of a magazine exhibition at Cafe Pause this summer (August 1-31). The SNOW Magazine Cafe will be a month-long celebration of art, design, and culture magazines from around the world, on display for everyone’s reading pleasure.

It will be accompanied by a drink and snack menu created for the exhibition, to enjoy while browsing through the magazines, and a special edition PauseTalk (August 2) will cover discussion topics revolving around the theme of “magazines.”

I’m of course on the lookout for magazines to include in the event, so if you are a maker of an art, design, or culture magazine (or know someone who does), please send them to the announcement page. Each magazine included in the exhibition will be on display in the cafe, easily browsable by anyone, and will include an info “bookmark,” with details about the magazine in both English and Japanese.

Even though I was planning on going, I missed out on Paper Sky’s “Bicycle Club” event this past Saturday at the farmer’s market in front of the UN University, but the magazine’s Lucas Badtke-Berkow has posted a few photos from the day, both for the bicycle event and the booth the magazine had at the market. Above on the right, Lucas and his carrots!

Yoshi Shimura (Star Graphics) is a Tokyo native who moved to LA a year ago, and he’s just released the second issue of Megane Zine. As he describes it:

Megane Zine is a regular publication aimed at introducing artwork of young, up-coming Japanese artists to the United States. “Megane” means “Glasses” in Japanese. Megane Zine focuses it lens on the inspired achievements of these fantastic artists.

A Megane Zine tee designed by Ed Templeton will be released through Beams T in January, and a show featuring works from the issue will take place at LA’s HVW8 Art + Design Gallery, starting January 9.

It’s been another very long hiatus — obviously due to me breaking my spine — be the OK Fredders are finally back for a new episode of Radio OK Fred. It’s episode 15, and it’s our special Christmas show. Also, thanks to Djay — which is what I’ve been using at my PLAY events — this marks the first time we record a show live, which means we were able to prepare, record, and have it online all within 2-3 hours — for me, it was the editing that always killed me. So yes, apologies if we’re far from professional, but we’ll get better, I promise.

Below is the full rundown of what we played, as well as a link to the episode. Also, we have a new feed for the show now, so if you were subscribing to the old one, please make sure to switch.

Radio OK Fred 15 (36 MB)

1. James Kochalka – “Beautiful Christmas Lights”
2. Run DMC – “Christmas in Hollis”
3. Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band – “The Sun Is Down”
4. Karen O and the Kids – “All Is Love”
5. Gayla Peevey – “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”
6. Vince Guaraldi Trio – “Linus and Lucy”
7. Yuji Ohno – “Holy But Easy”
8. Naomi & Goro – “Presente de Natal”
9. Jose Feliciano – “Feliz Navidad”
10. Tokyo Panorama Lounge – “Winter Wonderland”
11. Ryuichi Sakamoto – “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence”

The new issue of Paper Sky (31) is a special one, marking a major renewal for the magazine. The most obvious change is the cover design, but you’ll find English content creeping back into the magazine as well — for now, mostly with intro paragraphs to each article, but Cameron Allan McKean’s article on sento bathing in Tokyo is published entirely in English.

The Paper Sky website is also about to get a major revamp, and is set to launch within a week or two. The new site will now have a strong English component, of which I’ll be a contributor (but more on that once the site launches).

The other day I had the great pleasure of finally meeting the magazine’s founder, Lucas Badtke-Berkow, who also founded the original — and truly great — TOKION. Seems like this should have happened ages ago, and it was great to have a nice long chat with Lucas about where Knee High Media has been, where it’s heading, and on the state of print media in general. After checking out the KHM office in Shibuya, we ended up getting coffee at this amazing little retro cafe nearby, which I hate that I can’t remember the name (but I’ll be going there again).

Above, the label for Lucas’ new Luke’s Carrots line of organic products — I had a taste of the carrot jam, which was delicious. You can currently buy it at the weekend farmer’s market in front of the UN University in Aoyama, where he and his wife are manning a booth this month. Next weekend they’ll also be offering free rides on some very cool bicycles, as part of the new Paper Sky Bicycle Club.

Update: The cafe’s name is Aoyama Ichibankan, and here’s a map that shows the location. Make sure to get the honey toast!

Plants+ is the web spinoff that came out of the now-defunct Planted magazine, and here’s a video (via Click Opera) of Ito Seiko and Lucas Badtke-Berkow (founder of TOKION and Paper Sky) talking about the web venture, with English subtitles.