Pretty much since I’ve been in Japan I’ve had the same tradition on New Year’s Eve — we get some nice food from the depachika (department store basement, always Seibu in our case), some booze, and watch the various TV specials, flipping around, and after midnight we go to a local shrine to wish for a good year. The big traditional show airs on NHK — the state network — and it’s called Kohaku Uta Gassen. It’s described as a song battle between a “Red” team (women) and “White” team (men), but the real goal here is to finish off the year with all of Japan’s most popular performers. It’s cheesy as all hell, but it can still be fun to watch for the spectacle of it. A couple of years ago I started drunkenly tweeting while watching it — I was dueling with Patrick Macias, who was in town that year — and it’s now become sort of a tradition.

Below is the entire tweet stream I did this past Saturday — the show runs from 19:15 to 23:45. As silly as it is, I post it here because a few people have told me they had fun reading it even when they watched the show later (either recorded, or when it aired the following day on NHK in the US). You need to start from the bottom, and work yourself up.

• At the shrine. instagr.am/p/dMc9Q/
• Happy 2012, everyone! yfrog.com/obt81bqj
• Damn, now wife has it on the Johnny’s NYE countdown concert. #ipreferredkohaku
• Shit, got 15 minutes, need to finish up my fucking soba!
• And Red (women) wins! #kohaku It’s usually White.
• NHK just guaranteed a million freeze frames by offering up a crotch shot of one of the AKB girls. #kohaku
• Most. Unnatural. Waving. Ever. #kohaku
• SMAP knows how to pander to the audience and get their votes. #kohaku
• This song definitely rests on a Beatles hook. #kohaku
• Why do they still let Nakai sing… Ouch… #kohaku
• Now who’s the jokester who made Kusanagi wear that ridiculous fur thing? #kohaku
• I do believe we have a winner for “hair of the night.” #kohaku
• Sachiko Kobayashi’s plastic surgeon-ed face freaks me out. #kohaku
• Nope, no yakuza ties whatsoever. #kohaku
• Now they have everyone in EXILE doing jazz hands. #kohaku
• My only wish when watching EXILE perform is that Takashi Okamura somehow pops up. #kohaku
• Based on the number of replies I’m now getting, it feels like I’m currently the last man standing in the #kohaku marathon. #imnumberone #not
• It’s not a #kohaku without the inclusion of a bubble machine somewhere in there.
• 2012 is about an hour away…
• Going to have to eat the soba soon, but so not hungry. But hey, sometimes, you just gotta eat your fucking soba!
• Is this what happens when enka goes disco? #kohaku
• Unbelievable that people actually still scream “Kiyoshi” at the chorus when he sings. #kohaku
• Mariachi fever, baby! #kohaku
• Seiko sure has a puffy face. #kohaku
• @cpalmieri: Kimura Takuya’s hair stylist channeling late 90′s Meg Ryan #NHK??
  Retweeted by Jean Snow
• Yeah, that’s absolutely Groovisions’ work. Looks cool, would love to have that as motion background. #kohaku
• Wow, I think the background animation is by Groovisions. #kohaku
• Junko Koshino kinda… scares me. #kohaku
• The background decor always has me thinking it’s the bottom of the Eiffel Tower. #kohaku
• The person who composed this next song is credited as QQ. #kohaku
• Arashi performance, powered by augmented reality. #kohaku
• @Johnny_Strategy: Kids extremely confused about akiko wada’s sexuality ?? #kohaku
  Retweeted by Jean Snow
• @cpalmieri: OK, Setsuden is officially over :P #NHK??
  Retweeted by Jean Snow
• Akiko Wada’s got a voice, that’s for sure. #kohaku
• Losing it right now watching Haranishi try to eat nabe with his bare hands. #waratteikenai
• Again, Waratte Ikenai counters #kohaku’s earthquake/tsunami sentimentality with hadaka geinin (naked comedians).
• Oops, I did my “Sunglasses at Night” joke too soon. #kohaku
• The camera panned to the Arashi boys watching on the sidelines, and they could barely hold their laughing. #kohaku
• She’s like the Michael Bay of #kohaku.
• Told ya! In the mouth of a dragon, yo! #kohaku
• I just know she’s going to transform into something. I know it. #kohaku
• Well, time to find out what kind of crazy contraption will back up Sachiko! #kohaku
• Wife is upset because she says the Japanese subs at the bottom of the screen are odd. #kohaku
• So, is she going to find a way to insert “Japan” or “Japanese” in every song? #kohaku
• The K-pop girls have definitely been out-legged now. #kohaku
• This is not your parents #kohaku.
• “Something about my cool, Japanese guy.” #kohaku
• Is this her idea of a Ray Charles impersonation? #kohaku
• “I wear my pearl glasses at night, so I can, so I can…” #kohaku
• OK, Gaga time. #kohaku
• Jackie Chan! #kohaku
• Lady Gaga is up after this dude in the glittery purple suit is finished. Can she possibly upstage him? #kohaku
• And from thoughts of Sendai, we switch to Waratte Ikenai, only to be greeted by Matsumoto’s bare ass, and his dick in a bag. #kohaku
• One of these girls has so much makeup on that it looks like a mask. #kohaku
• Props to the Arashi dude who’s actually playing the piano. #kohaku
• “(why?) why?” #kohaku
• Dude, wearing a fur collar is not very cool or hip. #kohaku
• Korean boys join the party too. #kohaku
• That was one hell of a crazy rotating camera shot around Kumi Koda. #kohaku
• God do I hate J-pop ballads… (Well, I hate pretty much all ballads, to be fair.) #kohaku
• clap #kohaku
• Every time I see Yuzu, I can’t help but think of Kuzu (Miyasako and Gussan), the parody group from the old Wannai TV show. #kohaku
• For those waiting for Gaga, she’s up in about 7 spots. #kohaku
• Go, go, Go Hiromi! #kohaku
• Rather, I should say that I appreciate that they are more womanly, instead of girly (like in J-pop groups). #kohaku
• I will say that I’m not opposed to the fact that all of these K-pop girl groups show a lot of leg. #kohaku
• “I’m Genie for your dream.” #kohaku
• The Korea invasion continues, next up Girls Generation. #kohaku
• Things you don’t do: Wear a suit jacket with the sleeves ripped off, with a fedora-like hat. #kohaku #tokio
• Next up, TOKIO, the “uncles” of Johnny’s Jimusho. #kohaku
• I do like their dancing, goes well with the music. Surprisingly, my wife has gotten into them lately, and does their dance around the house.
• Perfume time! #kohaku
• Whenever an earnest singer hits the stage, my wife has me switch the channel. Fair enough. #kohaku
• Bottom of my TV screen: la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la #kohaku
• They are pretty sexy, I’ll give ‘em that. #kohaku
• KARA in da hizzah, ass shake and all. #kohaku
• Fujiwara in that pink uniform with the skirt and hat really kills me. #waratteikenai
• The next big decision: Grab another beer, or switch to wine? Call 1-800-DRINKUP and vote now! #kohaku
• In the news, so many people send New Year messages through mobile that it clogs up the system, so providers asking to not do it.
• NHK news time now. Will be back shortly with more exciting coverage. #kohaku
• From 2channel, a new metric measure: 1 Hyde = 156cm. #kohaku
• I know there’s good intentions behind this montage and song, but the sentimentality is bringing me down. #kohaku
• For the record, I have been told that the NYC group is named after the names of the 3 boys (Nakayma, Yamada, and Chinen). #kohaku
• The dress the announcer is wearing now has a certain fish-like quality to it. #kohaku (Jean Snow’s fashion minute.)
• Love the back dancers too. #kohaku
• Oh, this is a great song. #kohaku
• It’s a funky dress, but looks a bit odd while playing an acoustic guitar. #kohaku
• I was just thinking I’d never seen Shiina Ringo on #kohaku, and it’s indeed her first appearance.
• Shiina Ringo! #kohaku
• Just learned that “blues” in Japanese is “buruusu.” And that’s one to grow on. #kohaku
• How could you not be OUT after that.
• Oh man, awesome Naomi and Kurosawa collaboration, doing Gaga on Waratte Ikenai.
• The new women’s soccer team uniform is purple with a pink stripe? Hmmm… #kohaku
• “Calling the fallen angel. Rolling on cold asphalt.” #kohaku
• L’Arc En Ciel are still a thing? #kohaku
• Prepared some chicken rice for my dog, so that he could partake in good food tonight too, but he’s upset because it’s too hot.
• That’s a big-ass flower arrangement. Big. Ass. #kohaku
• The 80s-like drama parody on Waratte Ikenai is making it hard to go back to #kohaku.
• Had to switch channel again because wife hates Pornograffiti. “Kao kirai.” #kohaku
• I’m trying to find a good insult for the current costume being worn, but I think it speaks for itself. #kohaku
• The Arashi leader obviously had first pick of pants color. #kohaku
• Time for another beer.
• I’ll say this, all these colors look great on HDTV. #kohaku
• I’m trying to understand the current enka singers hair. There’s something about that hair… #kohaku
• The AKB 48 girls in the background strategy is being used again. #kohaku
• Rasera, rasera, rase, rase, rasera… #kohaku
• Saburo Kitajima is apparently going to appear, which makes no fucking sense. The guy looks like he could in a KItano film. #kohaku.
• The question is, how many enka singers are going to make it to air this year, following the new “Yakuza ties” law. #kohaku
• Super famous Japanese actress in her 60s now in an SM suit, bullying the boys on Waratte Ikenai. Priceless.
• @clairtanaka: @jeansnow my six year-old just ran from the room: “I don’t enjoy this and I hate this!” #kohaku
  Retweeted by Jean Snow
• Waratte Ikenai channel flip. OUT. Hahahahaha… #kohaku
• Although having them dance with Papaya Suzuki and his ossan dancers is kinda… weird. #kohaku
• How do you make enka more palatable to the young uns? By having AKB 48 girls dance in the background. #kohaku
• They should just stick with the techno beat and skip the chorus. #kohaku
• OK, so right now there’s a band called AAA. #kohaku
• Is there anything more boring than the typical J-pop ballad? I don’t think so. #kohaku
• Oh man, the Matsumoto pic is the best.
• Switched to Waratte Ikenai for a sec. I’m totally OUT. #kohaku
• A song about “trying hard” from a band called Funky Monkey Babies feels odd. #kohaku
• What the hell happened to Kusanagi’s hair? #kohaku
• Goofy fucked up! #kohaku
• I can’t say anything too nasty about Arashi, or my wife will get upset. #kohaku
• It does come off as forced here though, especially with the awkward lip-syncing. #kohaku
• OK, I will not say anything bad about the little kids. “Maru Maru” has its charm. #kohaku
• Who says there’s no class system in Japan — it’s even color coordinated. #kohaku
• Does the medley as a thing still even exist in the West? #kohaku
• Holy fuck, that’s a lot of girls on one stage. #kohaku
• I wonder if it’s only in Japan that they put the lyrics on screen, so you can sing along karaoke style. #kohaku
• They are going to perform as 210 people. #kohaku
• AKB time. #kohaku
• Back now for… Flumpool. (No other comment necessary.) #kohaku
• Wife dislikes Angela Aki so much that we had to change the channel. #kohaku
• Oh, it’s the Japanese Tina Fey (Angela Aki). #kohaku
• I love NYC too much to be able to watch this group with a straight face. #kohaku
• I don’t really get why 3 effeminate boys equals NYC. Maybe I’m not supposed to. #kohaku
• Oh, next up is the group of 3 Japanese idols called — for no reason whatsoever — NYC! “We are city boys.” No, you’re not. #kohaku
• I could have done without those close-ups of Ayumi Hamasaki’s face. #kohaku
• D’oh, thought it was starting at 19:30, but it started 5 minutes ago. #kohaku
• As to why I suggested you unfollow me, it’s because you should expect a stream of drunken tweets tonight. A lot.
• You know, everyone has their tradition, I have mine, and it makes me happy — and that’s what counts, no? #adecadeplusandgoing
• As to why I never go out on NYE, I guess I’d just rather spend it at home with my wife and dog, and I like our shrine visit after midnight.
• To be clear, the show I really like is Waratte Ikenai (with Downtown), but we tape that, and watch #kohaku live, along with channel flipping
• And if you don’t know what I mean by #kohaku, here you go: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dha… Kinda looking forward to Gaga, actually.
• Got my food/booze, gonna wash up, and then don’t you know, it’s gonna be #kohaku time, and you know what that means (time to unfollow me).

As I did last year — read it here — this is my list of favorite media for the year, which is basically me telling you what I obsessed over the most in 2011 (as far as I can remember, since it’s usually the case that some terrific things get forgotten by the end of the year). It’s not a “best of” list, I did not sample everything that came out this year, this is just something that I put together to remember what it was that I liked in a year, and I figure it can also act as a guide for some people who are looking for recommendations in various categories. I choose five items for each medium, which I list alphabetically (it’s rare that I can really choose one thing over the other), and then include a few honorable mentions.

Again, I don’t include books since I unfortunately don’t read enough of them (the vast majority of my reading time goes to the web, magazines, and comics). 

Favorite Games
This category is definitely one where I can choose an absolute favorite, and that would be Forza 4. Not only is it the game that I’ve spent the most time playing, I’ve become obsessed with it, and it turned me into a huge fan of the Top Gear TV series (see below). For the platform, I only list the one that I played the game on.

• Forza 4 (Xbox 360)
• Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony (Mac)
• L.A. Noire (PS3)
• Portal 2 (Xbox 360)
• Sideway: New York (PSN)
• Honorable Mentions: Back to the Future: The Game (Mac), Cave Story+ (Mac), Dead Space 2 (PS3), Dragon Age II (PS3), Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes (PSN), Pinball FX 2 (the Marvel tables, XBLA), Saint’s Row: The Third (Xbox 360), Uncharted 3 (PS3)

Favorite Games (iOS)
As with last year, I’ve separated the iOS games, because as much as I do enjoy playing games on my iPhone and iPad, I’m afraid that for the most part they still would not fare well against my console selections. 

• Assassin’s Creed Recollection
• Bang!
• Elder Sign
• Kard Combat
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
• Honorable Mentions: Aquaria, Bug Princess, Jetpack Joyride, Neuroshima Hex, Shadow Era

Favorite Magazine Apps
Last year I didn’t include a magazine category because I felt like it would have been too difficult to narrow it down to five — and you can always follow my other site, The Magaziner, to see what I like in terms of magazines — but this year I do feel like these are the ones that I look forward to reading the most (and yes, it’s all digital, I don’t read much print these days). I should also add that these are not necessarily what I feel are the best magazines apps in terms of innovation and execution, but rather the ones I like because of content. I included the Izneo app, a digital platform mostly for French comics, because through I buy the weekly Le journal de Spirou.

• Bloomberg Businessweek
• Izneo
• Letter to Jane
• SPIN Play
• The New Yorker
• Honorable Mentions: GQ, Wired

Favorite TV Shows
Again this year, it’s the category I have a tough time keeping short, since there are quite a few series I really do enjoy. The most conspicuous addition, and to be honest, the series I enjoy watching the most these days, is Top Gear, and from the newest season I’ve been going back through seasons to watch more. I’ve never considered myself a car guy, or been particularly obsessed with cars, but there’s something about the way the show is filmed, and the humor found throughout, that has completely sucked me in — here’s a post I wrote a few months ago about all of this. You’ll also notice Glee, which I only started watching this fall — I found myself immediately addicted, rushing through the first 2 seasons and eventually getting caught up. What can I say, it makes me happy watching it. 

• Breaking Bad
• Game of Thrones
• Glee
• Louie
• Top Gear
• Honorable Mentions: Boardwalk Empire, Bored to Death, Community, Curb Your Enthusiasm, How to Make it in America, Justified, Luther, New Girl, Parks & Recreation, Sons of Anarchy

Favorite Movies
Since there are many films that haven’t reached digital/video yet, there’s still a lot I haven’t seen (like all the big December releases). I think I cheat a bit with some of the picks as well, as some of the honorable mentions may have been released in 2010. Most telling though is that my top 5 was composed of 4 documentaries before I saw the Tintin film today (and there are more in my honorable mentions). 

• Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
• Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop
• Drive
• Senna
• The Adventures of Tintin
• Honorable Mentions: Bill Cunningham New York, Bridesmaids, Crazy, Stupid, Love, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Lemmy, Moneyball, Source Code

Favorite Albums
I had a really tough time here narrowing it down to five, and so many of the honorable mentions are probably all to be considered a “6.” Also, I will admit that the album that I really have enjoyed the most this year is Q-Tip’s The Renaissance, which came out in 2008 (but that I got into after watching the Tribe Called Quest documentary). I will do special episodes of the Codex and play all of this music (in this category, and the next).

• Days (Real Estate)
• James Blake (James Blake)
• Strange Mercy (St. Vincent)
• The Year of Hibernation (Youth Lagoon)
• Undun (The Roots)
• Honorable Mentions: David Comes to Life (Fucked Up), Let England Shake (PJ Harvey), Mirror Traffic (Stephen Malkmus), Shangri-La (YACHT), Torches (Foster the People), Underneath the Pine (Toro Y Moi), Wild Flag (Wild Flag)

Favorite Tracks
It wasn’t as easy to come up with this list as last year, since I’m a 100% Spotify user these days — last year I mostly looked at the play count in iTunes. But to help narrow it down I looked through the playlists of all of my Codex episodes, and came up with the following. 

• “England” (PJ Harvey)
• “Our Hearts Are Wrong” (Jessica Lea Mayfield)
• “Ravan” (Brasstronaut)
• “Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou)” (The Roots)
• “Video Games” (Lana Del Ray)
• Honorable Mentions: ”Audio, Video, Disco” (Justice), “Civilization” (Justice), ”Please Ask for Help” (Telekinesis), ”Tada no Tomodachi” (Salyu x Salyu), ”The Noose of Jah City” (King Krule)

Favorite Comics
I always find it difficult to really remember my fave reads of the year, but here are a few that I quite enjoyed. Also, I will say that my most enjoyable comics-related reading this year was going through the entire Tintin series, something I hadn’t done in years (probably in 2 decades). 

• Batman, Inc.
• Daytripper
• FF/Fantastic Four
• Mister Wonderful: A Love Story
• Northlanders
• Honorable Mentions: The Walking Dead, Punisher Max

This past weekend I spent more hours than I should really admit watching Fuji TV’s 27-hour comedy marathon (and even recorded the whole thing). It’s no secret that the only Japanese TV I watch is comedy, and this year’s event was hosted by Takeshi Okamura of the duo 99, who has been my favorite comedian ever since I first came to Japan back in 1998. He had a mental breakdown last year and took a break for 6 months or so, and although he’s been back on TV since late last year, this sort of acted as a big comeback. 99 (along with SMAP member Masahiro Nakai) hosted the FNS 27-hour special 7 years ago, and it’s basically sucked since, especially the last couple of years.

I’ll say that overall it wasn’t as good as the one from 7 years ago, but there were still a lot of really fun moments, and since we have it all recorded, we still sometimes watch some of the funnier bits.

People are sometimes surprised when they find out about my love for Japanese comedy — it certainly lightens up any gathering I have with Japanese people, when I bring up the topic. I will admit that I still don’t understand 100% of what is said, which is why I tend to prefer physical comedy, but I still do like a wide variety of comedians.

Recently, when I helped judge the Core77 Design Awards, we had a nice lunch afterwards with all the judges (for our category, Interiors/Installations), and there was a designer from Shiseido who suggested I should do a PechaKucha presentation on Japanese comedians. Maybe I should.

For some reason I’ve always avoided doing year-end lists of favorite things — I don’t really know why — but I just felt like doing one this year, and so here goes. Now, of course, this is all based on what I’ve actually seen/played/used/listened to, and so consider this a personal compilation of the favorite things I experienced this year in the world of media (it’s not a “best of” thing) — and note that it is limited to things that were released in 2010. Two categories that may be conspicuous by their absence are books and magazines — I just don’t feel like I read enough books to justify a proper list, and for magazines, I don’t have five truly favorites that come to mind.

So here then is my highly unscientific, truly subjective list of favorite media obsessions of 2010. Each category includes five items in alphabetical order (I think it’s silly to rank them in order), and I’ve occasionally included a few honorable mentions, things that I really wanted to have in those favorite fives.

FAVORITE GAMES
As you’ll see, my favorite genre tends to be RPGs (with a strong emphasis on action RPGs), and then racing games too. I could probably have done a separate downloadable game category as well, but decided to just put them all together.

• Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Mass Effect 2
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
  
• Red Dead Redemption
• Honorable Mentions: Costume Quest, Fable III, Limbo, Heavy Rain, Split/Second
  

FAVORITE IPAD APPS
There are many more apps that I really like, but these are the ones that I use the most, that I have in my dock. I decided to only list iPad apps and not iPhone apps (same for games), since I do really spend a lot more time on my iPad, and my iPhone is just something I pull out when I’m bored waiting somewhere (most used apps on that would be Twitter, Instapaper, Camera, and listening to podcasts).

• Cloudreaders
• Instapaper
• NYTimes
• Reeder
• Twitter
• Honorable Mentions: Air Video

FAVORITE IPAD GAMES
I’ve kept this to real iPad versions of games only — I did play a hell of a lot of DoDonPachi Resurrection on my iPad, but it’s really just an iPhone release.

• Carcassonne
• Infinity Blade
• Plants vs. Zombies HD
• Robot Unicorn Attack HD
• Word with Friends
• Honorable Mentions: Highborn HD, Small Worlds, Space Invaders Infinity Gene, Canabalt, Puzzle Agent HD
  

FAVORITE TV SHOWS
This year was absolutely amazing for TV, and you’ll see that my tastes are definitely on the cable series side of things (Community is the only network show to be included) — that fact that you can be truly mature is one thing, and the shorter seasons (and so more focused storylines) is another.

• Eastbound & Down
• Dexter
• Mad Men
• Sons of Anarchy
• True Blood
• Honorable Mentions: Community, Treme, The Walking Dead, Louie, How to Make It in America, Bored to Death
  

FAVORITE MOVIES
This was difficult because I obviously haven’t seen a ton of movies that came out in theaters in recent months in North America, so my list could honestly have included movies that came out towards the end of 2009 as well. I know the two Mesrine films originally came out in France in 2008, but I felt like I could include them since they came out in North America this year.

• Cyrus
• Inception
• Mesrine: Killer Instinct/Mesrine: Public Enemy #1
• The American
• The Ghost Writer
• Honorable Mentions: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Kick-Ass, The Social Network, Exit Through the Exit Shop
  

FAVORITE ALBUMS
Music is also very difficult, since I listen to so much of it, and to such a variety — which is one of the reasons I started Codex — but I think I was still able to come up with a list of favorites, in part based on the “most played” count in iTunes.

• Record Collection (Mark Ronson & The Business Intl)
• Swim (Caribou)
• There Is Love in You (Four Tet)
• The Suburbs (The Arcade Fire)
• The Way Out (The Books)
• Honorable Mentions: The Social Network Soundtrack (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross), King of the Beach (Wavves), Not Music (Stereolab)

FAVORITE TRACKS
Again, these are mostly based on the “most played” count in iTunes.

• “A Cold Freezin’ Night” (The Books)
• “Bang Bang Bang (feat. Q-Tip and MNDR)” (Mark Ronson & The Business Intl)
• “Happy Up Here” (Royksopp)
• “Threshold Apprehension” (Black Francis)
• “Odessa” (Caribou)
• Honorable Mentions: “King of the Beach” (Wavves), “Rococo” (The Arcade Fire)

FAVORITE COMICS
This was the hardest category for me, because I read A LOT of comics, and so it was hard to narrow it down to just five — and these five are basically the things that I could remember really liking — and the reason I don’t even include any honorable mentions is because it would be ridiculously long.

• Justice League: Generation Lost
• Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit
• Scott Pilgrim
• Sweet Tooth
• The Unwritten

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the use of test patterns as a graphical element, many people reminded me on Twitter that it’s still very much in use in the industry (video and TV production) or film school, and so a lot of people still deal with these quite regularly, so it’s not that far fetched to still be in use as a graphical association with the medium. I guess we should treat it the same way a film reel is still often used to represent anything that relates to movies.

Last night I was reading through the latest issue of Rolling Stone — really loved the cover feature on Mad Men, as well as the profile on SNL creator Lorne Michaels — and seeing how they branded the issue’s theme (“Fall Television”) made me wonder just how relevant that particular imagery really is these days. The branding in question is what you see pictured above — it appears with all of the TV-related articles in the issue — and is of course inspired by the TV test patterns of old (pictured below, and technically known as “SMPTE color bars,” as I learned through Wikipedia).

As a retro effect, it works — I certainly remember them — but has anyone under the age of 20 ever seen one? As far as I know — and keep in mind that I’ve been living in Japan for 10+ years — they haven’t been used in at least a decade, and not just because they’re not necessary anymore (in this world of digital sets), but also because we live in a world with 24-hour broadcasts.

I’m just curious as to whether it’s still a good icon or image to use when referring to TV, although I’m the first to admit that I liked how it was used, and I can’t think of anything off-hand that would work better.

I’m not a big fan of Japanese dramas in general, but there are the occasional series that I like to follow, usually something that my wife has been really enjoying. I would include Trick and Jikou Keisatsu in that bunch, and now Atami no Sousakan. Atami is a new Twin Peaks-ish mystery produced by the same crew behind Jikou Keisatsu, sharing the same black humor, and Jo Odagiri as a star, as well some of the supporting cast (it also includes Kill Bill‘s Chiyaki Kuriyama). It’s pretty interesting so far (episode 4 just aired, of a planned 8) and my wife has been especially obsessing over it, to the point where she’s even examining screen grabs for clues or oddities (the images above show that a passport that has been issued in 2008 includes stamps for 2007). It airs Friday nights at 23:15 on TV Asahi.

Brad Pitt has been in tons of TV commercials for mobile provider Softbank, but it’s interesting to note that his latest ad — you can watch it here — in which he plays assistant to retired sumo wrestler Musashimaru was directed by Spike Jonze. Via Slashfilm.

This is a commercial that’s been airing recently on TV for the discount/coupon free paper Hot Pepper, featuring Kaela Kimura and Snoopy. I post it because I see it all the time, and am now at a point where it plays automatically in my head when idle. Via Japan Probe.

I’ve seen it countless times on TV, but I still get a kick out of the latest Uniqlo CM — I especially like the bit with NOMOTO Karia singing Readymade style.

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).

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.

Tokyo Art Beat invades Sony Bravia TVs! I’ll let Paul explain what this is all about.

I don’t know what the hell is being said, but Jesper — our main man in Sweden — sends me a link to the Swedish TV series Big in Japan (Stor i Japan) in which, according to Jesper, “two Swedish guys/nerds are sent to Japan in an experiment to see if they can get famous in one month. I even think one of them did a Pecha Kucha (hasn’t aired yet).”

Anyone know if they actually did a Pecha Kucha Night presentation?

I was asked to contribute a piece to CNN for its MyCity_MyLife series, offering my take on the city of Tokyo — this week’s show covers 2007 Miss Universe winner Riyo Mori. You can read the piece here.