Your mission, should you decide to accept it, would be to attend a talk to be given by Craig this Wednesday (October 8, 18:30-20:00) at the Apple Store in SOHO. The presentation will focus on the making of Art Space Tokyo and Goodbye Madame Butterfly, and other CMP goodness I’m sure.

Today is the first Monday of the month, which means it’s time for a new edition of PauseTalk (Vol. 25) at Cafe Pause. It happens tonight (Monday, October 6), with the usual start time of 20:00. See you there!

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?

The latest PSFK Conference is coming to Singapore this Friday (October 10), bringing more creatives together than you can shake a stick at — Mark Dytham is even giving a talk!

PSFK’s Piers was even kind enough to invite me as a speaker, which I unfortunately had to turn down because of this week’s Tokyo Game Show. Instead, I’ll look forward to the reports that should pop up in the coming weeks over at the PSFK blog. You can find more info on the event, and how to attend, on the official site.

Photographer Sven Ingmar Thies sends me word that his Japanese Rooms book — I mentioned it a while back — was awarded the iF gold selection this year in the communication design (photo and book design) category. Congrats to Sven, and even more reason to pick up the book, which you can purchase online through Tubuk or Amazon Japan.

My friend Ian — editor of Tokyolife — sends me a few pics from from the launch party for his latest book, which covers all things Bape. It took place at the Colette store in Paris yesterday. The blue edition pictured above is exclusive to Colette, with the camo edition exclusive to Bape stores (Colette now has a Bape store-within-a-store). The regular edition goes on sale November 4.

Below, the Wonderwall/Colette/Bape party later that night, featuring Nigo and Verbal, with Wonderwall’s Masamichi Katayama in full effect (bottom photo).

Last Sunday night I had the great pleasure to catch a secret Kiiiiiii live show at the Ongoing cafe and gallery in Kichijoji. Their first show in almost a year I think, it was also interesting in that they didn’t use drums, and I was surprised that it didn’t do anything to lessen any of the songs they performed (a mix of old and new).

Below, opening act DJ Codomo, doing a synthesized lip syncing performance.

Visions of fall for Néojaponisme by Ian.

The boys at Hitotoki have a bit of fun with the latest collection of Tokyo Metro manner posters.

PingMag takes us on a tour of this year’s Yokohama Triennale.

What, you still haven’t bought Matt Alt’s Yokai Attack? Maybe this Néojaponisme piece will help convince you.

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.

My “On Design” column for The Japan Times was published earlier this week, and can be found online here. For September, I covered the CREER Hanger Rack, Gaku Otomo’s Wine Rack, Kyouei’s Bulb Lantern, Nosigner’s “A Leaf x 10,” and Houtoku’s Hi-X3 Gata chair and desk set.

I missed this because it was announced while I was in China, but Dezeen will be producing the catalog for this year’s edition of Tokyo Designers Week and 100% Design Tokyo. Definitely some good news, as previous editions have been less than stellar. The deadline for submissions by exhibitors is October 6.

Just a reminder that the Tokyo Art Beat 4th anniversary party happens this Saturday (October 4) at SuperDeluxe. You’ll find all the event details here, which you should also print out to get the TAB discount.