I’d just like to take the opportunity to congratulate Tokyo Art Beat on its 7th anniversary, which was celebrated in style last night with a terrific event at Dictionary Club in Shibuya. I’ve been one of the biggest cheerleaders of TAB since its start — I’d rather not remember what it was like trying to find info in English on art/design events before its existence — and I’m so happy that not only is it still going, but that it seems to be in great shape. So again, congratulations to the TAB crew, as well as to the AQ crew for all its tech and production support.

Pictured above, a mini burrito from Libre at the party — it was really good, and so I definitely recommend you go check out the proper Libre shop in Aoyama. And I must say that the Dictionary Club is a really nice event space, and I’m hoping I’ll get to see more stuff there.

As we’ve seen with many a site and company, 2009 was a very rough year, and our dear Tokyo Art Beat — itself a non-profit — was hit as well. So if you can, PLEASE help TAB keep going by making a donation here. PLEASE!

It may not have come out in November as promised (it will soon though), but here’s a sneak peek at what the startup screen for Tokyo Art Beat‘s iPhone app will look like. The image was created by AQ‘s Eiko Nagase.

Some good news if you’ve been wanting to get your hands on the Peace Sweater — which I covered in my “On Design” column last month — as it’s now available for purchase online through the TAB Shop.

This past Saturday’s 5th anniversary party for Tokyo Art Beat at SuperDeluxe was indeed a blast, and to my absolute surprise I actually won the raffle — I swear, I never win anything. The prize was a pink basket filled with all sorts of goodies, and was handed to me by TAB’s Paul Baron and World of Golden Eggs creator Masashi “Larry” Oiwa (that’s us three above, with the shorty, me, in the middle). My wife is an absolute fan of Golden Eggs — she even watches those “Heidi” shorts they created for Nissan over and over — so was pretty jealous when I told her who handed me the prize.

The entire evening was good fun, with Ian Lynam and Mari Kojima kicking the jams with crazy dance moves in the guises of their new unit, Mammal. Below, Paul and me getting a little closer. Photos are courtesy of Xin Tahara.

I think it’s well worth reminding everyone that tonight (November 7) is Tokyo Art Beat‘s 5th anniversary party at SuperDeluxe. The festivities kick off at 19:00, with a host of activities taking place — check the event page for more details, and print it out to get in for 1,000 yen.

The Ikejiri Institute of Design (IID) recently celebrated its fifth anniversary in style, and Tokyo Art Beat co-founder Paul Baron has the pics to prove it. It goes without saying, but I wish I could have attended.

The Tokyo Art Beat online store is now selling the colorful Chiso Memo Block by Kenjiro Sano.