Categories
General

Shinya Chisato

k_tai01I’m really enjoying the illustrative work of Shinya Chisato. You can read an interview with her in the latest issue of SHIFT. The illustration that you see here is something you can download from her site to then put on your AU C1002S Sony Ericsson phone.

Categories
General

Aux Bacchanales Lives!

It was a sad thing to see the Aux Bacchanales cafe in Harajuku close last year, and I was totally surprised to find one in Yokohama today, at the location of my new Friday school. I thought this one might be replacing the old Harajuku one, but then finding this site shows that there are actually 3 in Tokyo, one in Yokohama (the one I went to today, at the Center-Kita station of the Yokohama subway line), and another one in Fukuoka. It was nice to have a cafe au lait there, and next week I’ll maybe go have a quiche for lunch.

Categories
TB.Grafico

Black Building

tokyoboy-040326

A longshot of the building in Kamiyacho pictured here.

Shot taken with the A5403CA mobile phone.

Categories
General

Sunaga Tatsuo

4562101821244Last week saw 3 big releases of DJ mixes, and my favorite of the bunch is Sunaga Tatsuo‘s WORLD STANDARD 03 (I’m not really into the house sounds of the other 2: Towa Tei’s MOTIVATION – DRIVING SWEETS and Ikeda “Mansfield” Masanori’s PLAYROOM). It’s what you’d expect from a follow-up to the 2 previous WORLD STANDARD compilations, and does nicely as a soundtrack to sunny afternoons. Music to drink coffee by. If you’re a fan of Sunaga, you can always catch him a few times every month at Shibuya’s Organ Bar.

Categories
General

Tommy february6

DFCL-1143My love affair with Tommy february6 is finally at an end. The gimmick has worn off, and I’m just not enjoying the music anymore. I didn’t care at all for the last few singles she released, and now that I’ve listened to her new album, TOMMY AIRLINE, I can say that it’s definitely over. I found this album to be so boring that I was actually skipping through most of the tracks. I still like seeing her videos, but the music isn’t fun for me anymore. I did really like the single she released as Tommy heavenly6 late last year, with its indie rock feel, and I’m hoping she does more forays with that persona (as I was searching for a Tommy heavenly6 link, I found out that she’s releasing a new single May 26, “Hey My Friend”).

Categories
General

Bandwidth Go Boom

This is just a small warning that I’m getting dangerously close to surpassing my bandwidth allowance this month (even though I thought I had fixed the problem by upgrading my hosting package a few months ago). If that happens, the site goes down until the start of the next month. This site is averaging 2500 visitors a day (including RSS feeds), which is taking its toll. I can’t really afford to upgrade my bandwidth allowance right now, so I’m hoping (crossing my fingers) that maybe I’ll just make it to the end of the month with no outage. I’ve taken steps like reducing the number of posts that appear on the front page (from 30 to 20), which I might reduce even more. But let me assure you that I am definitely very happy that a lot of people are enjoying the site and visiting regularly. Thanks for your patronage, it’s what keeps me going. Oh, and let me remind you that I’m definitely open to donations, which you can do by clicking on the Paypal icon in the sidebar. All contributions go to pay the site’s hosting.

Categories
General

FOGA

esc063FOGA is actually Cubismo Grafico (Matsuda Gakuji). Seems like Chabe (his nickname) wanted to start another unit, and this is what he came up with, this new single from Escalator Records featuring two tracks, “Sunday Niteclub” and “Real Rock Plantation Dub.” Can’t say that it’s doing anything for me, but you can read Patrick’s review, who seems to be enjoying it a lot more than me, and who talks about how the single seems to have sold out everywhere.

Categories
TB.Grafico

Hachiko

tokyoboy-040325

The very busy Hachiko exit at Shibuya station.

Shot taken with the A5403CA mobile phone.

Categories
General

Axis 108

The new issue of AXIS (108) is out, and I picked it up last night. The feature is on something that interests me very much: branding. From the AXIS site:

Today, all manner of things can become brands – it’s not just limited to corporations or manufactured products anymore. And there are many ways for something to become a brand: it can be planned from the very beginning or take place without anyone really being aware that it’s happening. In AXIS vol.108 our purpose is not to answer the question “What is a Brand?” but to examine some of the latest and most unique examples of branding and shed light on “how they succeeded in becoming brands,” or “what they are doing to become one.

Categories
General

Kahimi Karie

VICL-35620Kahimi Karie is back with a new single, the previously mentioned “Nana” (you can listen to a sample here). I was really looking forward to this single, and after listening to it a few times today, I have to say that “Nana” is not leaving much of an impression on me, but I’m quite enjoying the other 3 tracks on the single, one of them an instrumental track (“Divers”), and another a remix (“Free Line (KI’s Tech Down Beat Mix)”). The main track is the one that might sound the most like her nineties output (more of a pop song), but the other tracks seem to continue with what she was exploring in her last full length, TRAPEZISTE, an album I quite like (samples here). Makes me really curious about her upcoming album, MONTAGE, to see in what direction she’ll be going (I’m voting for the relaxed experimental jazz sounds of her last album).