Categories
General

ART iT

4877381910.09.MZZZZZZZART iT, the new bilingual art magazine by the folks behind the REALTOKYO site if finally getting its launch. You’ll also be able to buy it through the Amazon Japan store. Here’s the blurb from the REALTOKYO site:

REALTOKYO presents its new art magazine, “ART iT.” In this country where serious-minded art journalism doesn’t really exist, the launch of this bilingual quarterly is hopefully going to make waves. Next to interviews with the likes of Yoko Ono, Jonas Mekas, or Mori Art Museum director David Elliott, the first issue includes features of “10 up-and-coming artists from Japan” selected by ART iT, as well as a sidesplittingly funny yet essential discussion between Sugimoto Hiroshi and Tsuzuki Kyoichi, plus columns by Ueshima Keiji, Onishi Wakato, Shinsan Nameko and others. Above this, for only 1,000 yen the magazine comes with detailed exhibition information for 64 galleries around Japan, and we hope you feel now like getting your copy right away when the magazine hits the stores on 10/17.

Categories
General

2003 Fall Anime Season

The other day I promised I’d do a quick rundown of the anime shows from the new TV season I’ve watched, so here goes (let me note that these thoughts are all based on the first episodes only). There are a lot of new shows out there, but these are the ones that caught my eye and that I’ll be following for at least a few episodes.

AVENGER – This is probably the show that made the least impression on me, but it’s not to say it’s bad. Cities each have a warrior that acts as their defender, although I’m not quite sure what the effects of wins or losses are. It’s a sort of medieval/futuristic setting, with little cutie robots that act as maids. It’s still too early to tell what kind of show this is going to be (as is usual with most anime series – yes, they actually tell stories that take many episodes to develop, imagine an American animated show doing that).

GALAXY RAILWAYS – This show sure made me happy, being the huge Leiji Matsumoto fan that I am (I grew up on Captain Harlock, or Albator as I knew him). The show takes place in the same universe as his other creations, and this time we take a harder look at the world of the galaxy railways (which are alluded to in GALAXY TRAIN 999). I can’t really be objective as I’m a huge fan of anything that has to do with Matsumoto, but I think I can fairly say that the series looks like it’s going to be interesting. From what I could tell after seeing the preview for the next episode, things are going to be happening very quickly, and not in the direction that we’re expecting.

GILGAMESH – Probably the show that had the most impact on me, and the one I’m most looking forward to following. We don’t know much about what’s going on, but there was somekind of apocalypse, and now the Earth has only a fraction of the population it had. People still live in the same cities, but buildings crumble. We meet a brother and sister who are trying to escape some gangsters. The two enter a house occupied by a bunch of strangers all wearing matching uniforms who appear to be conforting, yet a bit off. It’s suggested that they use some sort of power to get rid of the persuers. Can’t wait to see the next episode.

GUNGRAVE – More of a typical action show, and based on a 3rd person shooter that came out on the PS2 last year. Not bad, but more for people who are looking for stylish violence than a deep storyline. Could develop into something more interesting though.

GUNSLINGER GIRL – Oh, this was quite good, and kicks off with a great theme song (don’t know by who, but it’s sung in English). There’s an agency and they use little girls (as in primary school) as assassins. It’s not quite clear what’s done to these girls, but they don’t seem to be quite normal. They’re recruited when very young (and there’s a reason to get them young because they’re better suited for whatever process they go through) and in a precarious state (the main girl we meet has just had her whole family killed, and she is mentally and physically a wreck). Definitely looking forward to where this will lead.

PLANETES – This is for all you space lovers out there. In a not-so-distant future (maybe 20 years), man now explores space freely, and space junk has become a concern. We follow a unit that is in charge of this, space junk collectors if you will. There’s quite a bit of slapstick, but the ship and station designs are quite realistic (well, realistic in the sense that you could see it as a development of the space technology we know). This is the only show that doesn’t feel like it has a long-term storyline, and will probably be more episodic in nature.

So that’s it for now. There might be some other good things I’ve missed, but for now I’m sure I’ll be busy enough trying to follow this bunch. It’s looking like a great season already.

Categories
General

PayPal Donations

You might have noticed that I’ve added a donation button through PayPal in the sidebar (just under the archives). As the site’s popularity has grown over this past year, so too have the bandwidth requirements. If you enjoy what I’ve been doing here and can afford a small contribution, then don’t let me stop you. This is not to make money for me, it’s just to help with the hosting.

Categories
General

Satisfying Esthetics

This comment was made following my post about the new AU design project mobile phones:

Capitalism tries to persuade us that freedom means no more than the freedom to consume new products, rather than the freedom to have meaningful lives. I wonder if these new phones will allow me to relate to people in ways I find truly satisfying?

I’ve had time to think about it now (I quickly wrote some replies after getting back from a crazy day of mountain trekking in freezing rain), and I have to say that I don’t really get how this can be applied to these phones alone, and not to everything that we buy where esthetic likes and dislikes come into play. Of course, the same goes for whatever clothes I buy, or my pick of bags, or other such things. What I find interesting is how esthetics are now converging with electronics, which means that functionality has reached a certain plateau, and we are now free to pick our electronic gadgets (which I make no secret of being quite fond of) like we do our clothes or other things that make us stand out from the rest.

While I’m on the subject of phones, let me mention that Yuko got one of those new megapixel mobiles today. Her old phone, which was the same model as mine, got damaged from the rain yesterday and was unfixable. Although not free, they let her upgrade to a very expensive model, at a fraction of the cost (something like 1/5th of the original cost I think). She’s been spending all night reading the instructions, showing me how she can take panoramic pics and the like. Yes, I have phone envy.

Categories
General

Murakami Candies

takara06Seems like Takashi Murakami is going to be following the gatcha-gatcha route with tiny packs of his designs with gum. Here’s a link to an article in Japanese that has lots of images, and here’s a short translation found on Geisha Asobi:

Miniaturized modern works of art are now free — with the purchase of two pieces of chewing gum for 350 yen. The gum-and-figurine boxes are a collaboration between artist Takashi Murakami and toy maker Takara Co. There are 10 figurines in the collection designed by Murakami, one in each pack. They include cartoonlike animals with dopey round eyes and mushrooms with eyeballs. The high-brow gum hits convenience stores Dec. 8; only 300,000 packs will be sold. Murakami, who believes art should be part of mass culture, says he’s excited about children buying his work in a box of candy. “The fact that art will infiltrate the masses is revolutionary in the history of art,” he said. Murakami has scored international success with his energetic artwork, some of it evocative of “manga” comics, and for his commercial work, such as colorful bag designs for Louis Vuitton. Candy sold with toys, such as manga characters or models of cars, has become wildly popular in Japan, even among adults.

Categories
General

About Commenting

With the help of Patrick, I’ve done something to the site to try to control the new influx of porn spam that’s been appearing of late in the commenting system (got a good 40-50 today). It’s still in the testing stage, so if you have any problems trying to place a comment on the site, I would really appreciate you emailing me about it.

Categories
General

Make It Stop!

The following is a website to a real hospital. Please make it stop… Link via Patrick (so blame him for putting those images in your head).

Categories
General

AU Design Project

031006_kddi1 031006_kddi2 031006_kddi3

I am absolutely in love with the 3 new models to be launched by AU in November through their “AU Design Project.” Pictured above are the Building, Nishikigoi, and Ichimatsu. Not just pleasing to the eye, they take movies and pics, and feature all the java enhancements and modern software that you would expect from a Japanese mobile. Still don’t know how much these are going to cost, but my present AU phone sure feels like an antique after seeing these…

Categories
General

Designing with Web Standards

0735712018.01.MZZZZZZZI am presently reading web designer Jeffrey Zeldman’s DESIGNING WITH WEB STANDARDS, which I’m quite enjoying. I was very proud of the fact that when I did this version of the site (which was launched in March of this year), that it was done using CSS (giving myself a crash course), and this book just confirms how right I was in doing that. I’m now looking to improve my design skills, which I’ll put in action during the next redesign of this site (remember, change is good). So right now I’m trying to get a better handle on XHTML and XML, and I want this present version of the site to be cleaner (and obviously meaner). I’ve been following Zeldman for a while through his excellent blog, The Daily Report, as well as through his online magazine, A LIST APART (it’s presently undergoing a redesign, but you still have access to all the archives). Another blog I like to follow is Douglas Bowman’s Stopdesign. He’s another CSS/XHTML (or XML) advocate who was behind the redesign early this year of the Wired News site.

On top of the web stuff, I’ve got another secret project in the works, something I’ll call PLR. It’s a thing I’ve dreamed of doing for years, and I think something is finally going to happen. If it happens, it’ll be over the next few months, and I’ll give out more details when things start to cement.

Edit: Just found this interview with Zeldman at LOUNGE72.

Categories
General

New Anime Season

I’ve been checking out a lot of new animated shows this new season, and there are quite a few good ones. I’ll do a quick review of all the pilot episodes tomorrow if I have time.