In a few hours I’ll be hopping on a bus and heading out to the mountains in Nagano — we’ll be staying at a hut that is on the mountain you see in the photo above, Okuhodaka. My wife will of course be doing some hardcore climbing — rope and ice axe in tow — while I’ll be enjoying the scenery. See you on the other side.

PauseTalk Vol. 60 happened this past Sunday (May 13), on the last day of Magazine Library 10, and I must say that it was quite nice to have the event in that setting (in the exhibition space, at Hillside Terrace). It also influenced the talk, and for one of the first times in the series history, we really just stuck to one main topic, “magazines,” although we raised and discussed quite a few points in relation to that theme. I’d like to thank everyone who made it out for this special afternoon (and later than usual) edition of PauseTalk.

We were about 20 or so, and below you’ll find the list of participants who signed the attendance sheet (and thanks, Eric Chan, for the photo above). There will in fact be a PauseTalk (Vol. 61) on the first Monday of next month at Cafe Pause, which will be June 4, so do put that in your calendar.

• Annelies de Ridder (Costume Designer)
• Ayako Koga (Designer)
• Eric Bell (Interaction Designer)
• Eric “eepmon” Chan (Hybrid Artist)
• Genevieve Sawtelle (Photographer)
• Jason Farago (Writer)
• Jean Snow (PechaKucha-er)
• Kevin Foley (Art Director/Designer)
• Luis Mendo (Editorial Designer)
• Naoto Oguri (Designer)
• Niko Lanzuisi (Filmmaker)
• Nozomi Shimodaira (Producer)
• Seiko (Hair Color Specialist)
• Tom Bowden (App Creator)

After that, I returned briefly to Montreal with my wife (we weren’t married at the time) for one semester so I could get the necessary credits to get a certificate from the university, and then moved to Tokyo in early May, 1998. I would stay in Tokyo until the spring of 2000, when we tried going back to Canada. But this move felt missguided, and about a year later (spring of 2001) we were back in Tokyo, and I’ve been here ever since. 

It’s strange to think that I’ve lived most of my adult life so far away from what would normally be described as my home. So much so, that I really and honestly couldn’t tell you what I consider to be more a home, Canada or Japan. I have a good life here: I really enjoy my job, I have an amazing number of fantastic friends, I still love the pace of life here, and I’m lucky enough to be living in a house (albeit a pretty old one) with a great big dog.

I’ll end this post by saying that I was quite surprised when my parents reminded me a month or two ago that I hadn’t been back to Canada for a visit in about 4 years. Since then, I’ve been feeling a nostalgic longing to go back and see them, the rest of my family, and my friends, and it’s something that is going to happen in August — and I can’t wait.

For me, this weekend is truly one where two of my worlds collide. Last night I had a special PechaKucha event as part of the Magazine Library exhibition in which I invited a few friends (Audrey Fondecave, Mike Abelson, Luis Mendo, Antonin Gaultier, and Ian Lynam) to do presentations on the topic of magazines and print culture. It was a far more intimate audience than what we’re used to seeing at our regular PechaKucha Nights, but in the end I think we had nice attentive crowd who really seemed to enjoy the presentations — and all of these presentations should be popping up on the PechaKucha site over the next week or so.

The second part of this double-header weekend happens tomorrow (Sunday, March 13), with PauseTalk Vol. 60 happening again at the same Magazine Library space (Hillside Terrace in Daikanyama), starting at 15:00. It’ll be the same kind of PauseTalk that I always do, so I do hope that regulars will still want to come despite the change in venue and time. Yes, I’m sure magazines and print culture will come up in our discussion, but I’m open — as always — to talk about whatever. And if you’re a fan of the fantastic Apartamento magazine, then you should stick around as the editor-in-chief and art director will both be there to give a talk from 17:00.

The photos included in this post were taken by Michael Holmes — who most of you will of course recognize as the regular PauseTalk and PechaKucha Night photographer. He was on hand to take some photos during the event, but did a few fun shots outside of the venue after with some of the people on hand. The group shot at the top includes a whole bunch of great peeps, and above you have Rumi Nagata of the Winged Wheel stationery shop, and below that is my board gaming brother (and AQ designer) Ryan Ruel.

The event is free to attend, and will kick off at 19:00 (presentations start at that time). Hope to see many of you there, and it’s a good chance to take in the exhibition as well.

A new episode of the Codex (53) is up, a tribute to the Beastie Boys, a group I’ve had a great deal of love for throughout my life.

And here is our second live session of Radio OK Fred, recorded earlier tonight at the Magazine Library 10 exhibition in Daikanyama — download yesterday’s episode here. Our guest this time was Luis Mendo, who not only contributed designs and illustrations to the exhibition (flyers, website), but is also participating in the form of a few workshops, in collaboration with TOO MUCH magazine — the first one is tomorrow (Saturday, May 5, from 11:00) and involves the creation of City Reports. You’ll hear the interview we did with Luis later in the episode, and of course there’s music selections throughout. The last live episode of Radio OK Fred will happen next week, on Saturday, May 12 (from around 17:00).

Radio OK Fred 25 (71.4MB)

Yes, after what feels like a hiatus that has gone on forever (since 2010, actually), we were back tonight with a brand new episode of Radio OK Fred, recorded live at Hillside Terrace in Daikanyama, as part of the Magazine Library 10 exhibition. Our special guest was Antonin Gaultier (Digiki) who talked about his recently launched digital magazine De Rigueur, and who also contributed a few musical selections to the mix. It’s a longish episode (about 90 minutes), and you can download it from the link below (I may add the complete tracklist later). We will be back tomorrow night for another live recording (Friday, May 4, from around 17:00 to 19:00), and then again on Saturday, May 12. And yes, our RSS feed is still active, so subscribe to make sure to get the next few episodes.

Radio OK Fred 24 (75MB)

As I teased the other day, after a hiatus of a couple of years, Radio OK Fred is back this week, live! The Magazine Library 10 exhibition runs May 3-13 at Hillside Terrace in Daikanyama, and me, Audrey, and Yoshi are reuniting for 2 live editions of Radio OK Fred this week, on Thursday and Friday evening (May 3 and 4). We will be starting around 17:00-30, and each show will go for 1-2 hours. It will be a mix of music selections and interviews with special guests, so if you’re around please drop by and come say hi, we’d love to chat with you! There are also plans to do an extra edition on Saturday, May 12, and I’m have more details later about the time.

A new episode of the Codex (52) is up, for your listening pleasure. As I mention on the show — which I also did in my post about the next PauseTalk — if you like the Codex, then you’ll probably dig our live sessions of Radio OK Fred, happening next week, on May 3 and 4 at Hillside Terrace in Daikanyama as part of the Magazine Library 10 exhibition.

You may have been wondering what’s going on with the May edition of PauseTalk, which not only is Vol. 60, but also marks the 6th anniversary of the series. It will be a special edition indeed, and not only will it for the first time not be held at Cafe Pause in Ikebukuro, it will also not be on the first Monday of the month. I am very pleased to announce that PauseTalk Vol. 60 will be part of the upcoming Magazine Library 10 exhibition, taking place at Hillside Terrace in Daikanyama on May 3-13. The exhibition is a lovefest for magazines, and so it shouldn’t be a big surprise that I associated myself with it — on top of the PauseTalk, we will have a PechaKucha event (May 11), as well as the return of Radio OK Fred with two live editions (May 3 and 4).

The PauseTalk will cap the exhibition, happening on Sunday, May 13, with a start time of 15:00. Yes, it will be an afternoon edition, and although I’m sure the topic of magazines will pop up a lot, expect a regular session of PauseTalk, with people sharing ideas and opinions on all things creative. I do hope that many of you will be able to make it for this special edition — and yes, like I did for last year’s 50th edition, I do plan on producing a few badges for the first people who arrive.

The latest edition of my “On Design” column is in today’s Japan Times, and it can be read online here. Pictured above, the Hinoki no Hakimono clogs from Mizutori.

I’m heading to Milan! Leaving in just a bit for a trip to the Milano Salone, where we’ll be hosting 4 special PechaKucha events at a temporary club space built by Heineken just for the Salone, designed by a group of up and coming designers we helped find through a series of special PechaKucha Nights in Sao Paulo, Tokyo, New York and Milan last year.

It should be a blast, we’ve got great lineups for each night, including a few PechaKucha Night organizers. The events are happening Tuesday through Friday (April 17-20), from 17:00 to 19:30. I’m afraid the first night (Tuesday) is invitation-only, but all other nights are open to all, so come on down and say hi! The venue is the Heineken Open Design Explorations club space, which is located in Milan’s Tortona area, at the intersection of via Bugatti and via Forcella.

Oh, and we have kept a few slots open (maybe just 1-2 left now I think), so if you are in Milan and have something really cool to present get in touch.

I don’t quite know what happened for April’s PauseTalk Vol. 59, but not only did we beat the attendance of last month (which was already high) with a total of about 30, but it also marked the first visit of PechaKucha co-founder (and my boss) Mark Dytham at the event. I was very happy to hear afterward that he quite enjoyed it — it’s no secret that I was inspired by PK when I started PT, thinking that it would be interesting to have a more intimate kind of event, with the presentations replaced by a group discussion.

The talk moved around various topics as it often does, and I think much fun was had by all — and the “all” was made up of a nice mix of semi-regulars, new faces, and a few returning champions. Again, as with every event, I need to thank everyone who attended and helped make it such a great evening.

On the topic of the next PauseTalk, it will be the Vol. 60, which also marks the 6th anniversary of the series, and I have something a bit special planned. As most of you know, I have a certain fondness for magazines, and so PauseTalk Vol. 60 will be held as part of the upcoming Magazine Library 10 event in Daikanyama, at Hillside Terrace — this will be the first time it isn’t held at Cafe Pause. The full event runs May 3-13, and I’ll soon be able to confirm on what day the PauseTalk will happen, but I can tell you that it won’t be on the first Monday of the month, as usual.

Below, the list of participants who signed the attendance sheet. Michael Holmes was again there and took plenty of photos, but he hasn’t shared those photos yet — the photo at the top of the post is from last month’s Vol. 58 (see the full gallery here).

• Adrian Favell (Professor/Writer)
• Andrew Joyce (Illustrator)
• Craig Mod (Writer/Publisher/Designer)
• David Steinberg (Game Developer/Musician)
• Don Kratzer (Creative Type)
• Emily Maloney (Writer)
• Genevieve Sawtelle (Photographer)
• Jared Braiterman (Design Anthropologist)
• Jean Snow (Son of a Gun)
• Julian Worrall (Architect/Writer)
• Louis-Etienne Vallee (Illustrator)
• Mark Dytham (Architect/PechaKucha)
• Megumi Ishibashi (Artist)
• Megumi Ohguri (Photographer)
• Michael Holmes (Photographer)
• Naoki Matsuyama (Editor)
• Naomi Hanakata (Architect/Researcher)
• Nicolas Sordello (Graphic Designer/Artist)
• Niko Lanzuisi (Film Director/Designer)
• Paul Vincent Farrell (Photographer/Artist)
• Said Karlsson (Journalist/Photographer/Game Designer)
• Scott Halcomb (Marketing)
• Scott Popular (Free Gamer)
• Susanne Dicke (Freelance Graphic Designer)
• Tim Rudder (Illustrator)
• Tom Bowden (App Creator)