I’ve made it a habit of kicking off the new year with a post that tries to address what I’m looking at in terms of the coming year, and I’ve used it over the past couple of years to announce some personal projects — both the launch of SNOW Magazine in 2010, and then the closure of the site in 2011. This year I don’t really have anything specific to announce yet, so this is going to be a short list of things that I have on my mind and wishes for 2012 — a state of my union, if you will.

The biggest change I think that I’ve experienced over the past year is that I’ve fully transitioned into working full-time on PechaKucha. My role as Executive Director sees me doing so many interesting things in relation to the PK community and network, and it’s one that I relish — I so enjoy the fact that I’m constantly in contact with people from all over the world who are producing PechaKucha Nights in our 460+ cities. 2012 is going to be an even bigger year for PK, with lots of cool things already in the works, and I can’t wait to share them with you all.

Something that also relates to PK is that I have it in my mind to organize something that would be gaming-related — to quench my thirst for doing something in that world, since it’s been quite a while since my days as a writer for Wired‘s Game|Life and the Arcade Mania book. I’m hoping to team up with some friends on this, and we’ll see how it goes. Expect it in the second half of the year though.

And speaking of Arcade Mania, there may be some developments with that this year, but nothing that I can talk about or promise for now — stay tuned.

On the SNOW Magazine front, when I closed the site I said that it was actually going on “hiatus,” and by that I meant that I would still love do something with that again, but that I just don’t feel like a regularly updated website works. I’d love to maybe do it as an irregular magazine on iPad, but since I want to keep this all indie and not have to depend on anyone (and can’t pay anyone), that means me trying to do it myself, which is a lot of work — the release of Mag+ for singles did give me hope that it might be doable. 

Codex, my music podcast, has been back for a few weeks now, and I look forward to getting back on a regular schedule with it this year, now that I’ve found a setup that works for me (for recording a show live while using Spotify as my music source). Over the next few days (maybe even today), I’ll release two episodes with my favorite music of the past year. And my other obsession, magazines, will continue to be covered over at The Magaziner. I wasn’t able to do a magazine-related event like I did in 2010 (the SNOW Magazine Cafe), but I hope that this year I can produce or participate in some cool new magazine projects.

PauseTalk also continues its run — 2012 will see it celebrate a 6th anniversary — and I have a few PT-related developments in mind as well, but I’d rather have them more concrete before I share them.

This past year has also seen more active — in a physical sense — than ever, both in terms of cycling (with the occasional bike commute to go work at the Klein Dytham architecture office in Ebisu) and with me and my wife’s mountain trekking lifestyle. On the bike front, I’ve slowed down a bit with the cold weather, and also because I’m really hankering to get a regular sized bike (not the foldable BD-1 that I’ve been using). As far as the mountains go, we’ve been adding bits and pieces to our equipment every month (since we can’t afford to spend much), and next up on our want list are sleeping bags and a tent. I also need to post photos from the last two snow treks we did over the past couple of week in Nagano.

The last thing that I’d like to see happen this year (at least for now) is that I would like to try and write some longer pieces, something a bit more thought-out than my regular posts. I don’t quite know what I’d like to write about — and hey, maybe I could try fiction for a change — but it’s something that I certainly have on my wishlist of things I want to do in 2012.

So there you have it, a few reflections as we transition from one year to another — here’s to an amazing 2012!

As you’ll notice if you visit SNOW Magazine right now, I’ve decided to put the site on indefinite hiatus. I’ve been quite embarrassed by the lack of updates to the site over the last few months, and I think it’s just better to have it go on leave for a while, instead of the lame life support I’ve had it on.

Why the lack of love for the site? I just haven’t really had the time to focus on it like I’d want, and to be fair, I’ve been much more passionate about what I’m covering on The Magaziner — and the Codex podcast — and I think it’s best that I just let myself embrace those things, instead of continually feeling like I should try to come up with something to write about on SNOW, and feeling stressed about it. In the end, it’ll be for the better for everyone, as it frees me up to do more casual writing here, and to continue my exploration of how the magazine landscape is shaping up as it embraces new digital platforms.

As for SNOW Magazine, I’ll just say that it’s going away for now, with no definite plans on when it will be back, or even in what form. I don’t think I was ever really able to do what I wanted to do with SNOW, and I think — and I’m hoping — that what I’m doing over at The Magaziner will eventually inform what the next stage will be. And yes, I’m already thinking — and it’s what, in the end, I’ve really wanted to do — that this next stage or new form will be more publication-like, as in regularly released packages of curated ideas and stories (some people call these magazines).

Oh, and I will eventually reinstate access to the archives.

Yeah, the “love” episode of the Codex went up just a couple of days ago, but I was suddenly in the mood to record a new one (19), and here it is.

It’s a new episode of Codex (04), my weekly music podcast, recorded on a late Saturday night (past midnight), not that this piece of information has anything to do with anything.

Below is the playlist for the show, as well as a link for download, and you can also subscribe to the RSS feed so as not to miss any episodes (and apologies, but it seems that the feed didn’t update properly last week, but it’s now fixed).

Codex 04 (33.8MB)

1. Röyksopp – “Eple”
2. Daft Punk – “Derezzed”
3. Tricky – “Murder Weapon”
4. Bear Hands – “Crime Pays”
5. Familjen – “Det Var Jag”
6. The Wombats – “Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)”
7. Magic Kids – “Superball”
8. Bell – “Dialtone”
9. Freezepop – “Science Genius Girl”
10. Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett) – “Do You Love”

It’s no secret, I can be an impatient guy, and after I was done recording the first episode of Codex and released it — something that happened just last night — I was already really looking forward to doing a second one. And so here we are, the next day, with episode 02 of this “weekly” podcast.

About the cover images, that logo was something I just put together quickly in a couple of minutes because I wanted an image to accompany the post where I announced the launch of the show — for me, a project isn’t really a reality until it has some sort of visual component to it. I kinda still like it now, and my plan is to just change the color scheme every month, but keep the same basic layout (at first I was thinking of moving the letters around each time, but I think I now prefer having a proper logo).

You can download the show below, or even better, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Codex 02 (33.3MB)

1. Caribou – “Odessa”
2. The Books – “A Cold Freezin’ Night”
3. Four Tet – “Sing”
4. Brian Eno – “Dust Shuffle”
5. Das Racist – “Puerto Rican Cousins”
6. Mark Ronson – “Tomorrow feat. Devi Nova & Q-Tip”
7. Guided by Voices – “Kicker of Elves”
8. Pas/Cal – “Grown Men Go Go”
9. Pavement – “Heckler Spray”
10. Belle & Sebastian – “I’m Not Living in the Real World”

Here it is, as promised, the first episode of my new (hopefully) weekly music podcast called Codex. As I explained before, I record it live using the Djay software, so please don’t mind the errors here and there — it’ll get better, I’m sure. This one was recorded at home, but for future episodes I’ll probably try recording at Cafe Pause, or other spots. New episodes will probably come out on weekends, which is when I expect to record them.

The download link is below, but I’ve also created an RSS feed, so subscribe if you dare.

Codex 01 (43.7MB)

1. Mark Ronson and the Business Intl. – “Bang Bang Bang”
2. Laetitia Sadier – “Ceci est le coeur”
3. Stereolab – “Nous vous demandons pardon”
4. Karkwa – “Le pyromane”
5. Sufjan Stevens – “Too Much”
6. Homo Duplex – “No and No”
7. Plumtree – “Scott Pilgrim”
8. Weezer – “The Good Life”
9. Wavves – “King of the Beach”
10. Pixies – “Subbacultcha”

A long, long time ago in a country far, far away (that would be Canada) I used to have a college radio show. I had two of them, actually, first when I was truly a college student — believe it or not, it was called The Jean Snow Show — and then 10 years ago when I was back in Canada for a year, I did another show on the same station (CKUM) which I decided to call Codex (for a reason I can’t quite recall). I’ve long missed those days of doing a weekly music show — in a proper studio — and although I can’t replicate that same environment, I’m feeling like it’s time to start doing something again like that on the net.

This doesn’t mean the end of Radio OK Fred — we’ll do some more shows eventually, when we can all get together — but this is something I want to do on my own, although I wouldn’t be opposed to the occasional guest. I’ll be using the same setup I use for recording Radio OK Fred, meaning it’s done live in one take using the Djay software on my MacBook Pro. Right now I’m just missing my mic — my trusty Zoom H2 Handy Recorder — which my fellow OK Fredders were recently using for interviews, but as soon as I have it back I’ll get recording.

As for content, it’ll be a weekly mix of 10 tracks I’m into, with me chatting in between — basically the same format we use on Radio OK Fred, although I may occasionally record them live at Cafe Pause. I’ll of course have an announcement here when the first show is ready, and include the track list as well as a prepare a feed for subscribing. Hope it’ll be something you’ll want to listen to, but more importantly, it’s something I need to do now for myself I think.

I mentioned last week that I’d be a guest this week on game developer Grasshopper Manufacture‘s podcast (Flower, Sun, & Podcast), and the episode (5) is now up and you can download it here (it should be on iTunes too). Check it out if you want to hear me ramble (and ramble) about mostly game-related topics.

Pictured, the Grasshopper conference room — complete with ping-pong table — where we recorded the episode. Big thanks to Grasshopper producer Esteban Salazar for inviting me on the show.

I’m still not quite sure why, but for some reason I’ve been invited to guest on next week’s episode of Tokyo-based game developer Grasshopper Manufacture‘s podcast. So expect me to talk to about, yes, games, although I’m sure some design-related talk will happen as well — Grasshopper’s games are quite known for their stylish uniqueness in terms of graphic look. Another link I have with the studio is that I interviewed its founder, Suda 51, for Arcade Mania (for the retro chapter). I believe it will be up next Friday, and I’ll post a link to it when it does.

As promised, here we are with a brand new episode of Radio OK Fred (22), the “Robot” episode. Yes, that’s us trying to act cyborg-like with a few wires sticking out — and from the looks of it, I’m a pretty broken machine I think. Below is the link to download the episode as well as the playlist, and you can subscribe to a feed too.

Radio OK Fred 22 (50MB)

1. Kraftwerk – “The Robots”
2. Prefuse 73 – “Robot Snares Got No Cadence or Balance”
3. RJD2 – “Chicken-Bone Circuit”
4. Playdoe – “Neolectro Afrobotic”
5. La Chatte – “Cosmique Cosmétique”
6. Universal Robot Band – “Dance and Shake Your Tambourine”
7. Cornelius – “Brazil”
8. Röyksopp – “The Girl and the Robot”
9. James Kochalka – “Monkey vs. Robot”
10. Breakbot – “Happy Up Here (Breakbot Remix)”
11. Dan Deacon – “Jimmy Joe Roche”
12. Born Ruffians – “I Need a Life (Four Tet Remix)”

This week’s episode of Radio OK Fred (20) is the “Dark” episode, something to listen to during these cold winter months. Below, a list of the tracks played as well as a link to download the episode — or subscribe to the feed.

Radio OK Fred 20 (41MB)

1. Tricky – “Broken Homes”
2. Siouxsie and the Banshees – “Christine”
3. Misfits – “Where Eagles Dare”
4. Rick White – “Darkland”
5. Eric’s Trip – “Hate Song”
6. Louis Prima – “That Old Black Magic”
7. Curtis Mayfield – “Right on for the Darkness”
8. The Gossip – “Dark Lines”
9. The White Stripes – “Death Letter”
10. The Velvet Underground – “The Black Angel’s Death Song”
11. Yo La Tengo – “Black Flowers”
12. Joy Division – “Love Will Tear Us Apart”

Even though we were all stuck in OK Fred HQ here in Tokyo — in Yutenji to be more precise — this week we get to travel a bit by way of our track selections, with “Places” being the theme for Radio OK Fred 19.

You’ll find the full track listing below, as well as a link to download the episode — although you may want to subscribe to the feed instead.

Radio OK Fred 19 (36MB)

1. Flin Flon – “Ukraina”
2. The Books – “Tokyo”
3. Bran Van 3000 – “Montreal (Featuring Youssou N’dour)”
4. Hibari Misora – “Under the Rainbow”
5. Unknown – “Piso Somalim #2″
6. Luna Parker – “Tes Etats d’Ame… Eric”
7. Serge Gainsbourg – “New York USA”
8. 3rd Bass – “Brooklyn-Queens”
9. Vampire Weekend – “California English”
10. The Magnetic Fields – “In My Secret Place”
11. Milosh – “The City”
12. Tahiti 80 – “Chinatown”

And so as promised last week, here we go again with a new episode of Radio OK Fred (18), this time an episode that was recorded in Paris last year, featuring music selections by Marie from Colette. The link to download is below, and remember that you can always just subscribe to the feed.

Radio OK Fred 18 (48MB)

Time to ring in the New Year with a new episode of Radio OK Fred (17), the “New” show. Well, it’s our take on new, and you’ll just have to listen to the show to find out how we justify some of our selections. Before you comment, yes, there’s a bit of technical issue at the start of the “1999″ track (sound is too low), but hey, it was done live, and so that’s that. Hope you enjoy!

Also, please not that I made a mistake with the numbering recently. The “Christmas” episode was in fact #16, as I forgot to count the special episode Audrey recorded in Gothenburg this past summer. We already have the next episode in the can, and it’s another special one, this time recorded in Paris and featuring Audrey and Marie of Colette, with a terrific selection of tracks. It will be up next week. Below, a link to download #17 and the track listing — and you can subscribe to the feed as well.

Radio OK Fred 17 (44MB)

1. Radiohead – “The National Anthem”
2. Depeche Mode – “New Life”
3. New Order – “Blue Monday”
4. American Quartet with Billy Murray – “Casey Jones”
5. Sentridoh – “That Kind of Year”
6. Prince – “1999″
7. Happy End – “Haru yo Koi”
8. Dirty Projectors – “New New Attitude”
9. Fishmans – “Atarashii Hito”
10. Lhasa de Sala – “Rising”

Digiki releases the final Polypunk of the year (48), just in time for the end of 2009