Excite Japan has a piece up (in Japanese) that covers a new office/apartment building called The Soho, designed by the king of Tokyo retail space design, Masamichi Katayama (Wonderwall) — the article is photo-heavy. Via Dezain.net.
Month: November 2009
The Comme des Garcons brand has opened a new concept store in Omotesando Hills called Trading Museum. As noted in this Wallpaper piece,”the space features eight expansive display cabinets on loan from London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.” Via Dezain.net.
The Rat Hole Gallery in Aoyama has recently re-opened, and TABlog posts a photo report of the first show to occupy the renovated space, “Oil,” by Isa Genzken. The exhibition runs until December 27.
Chocolate in Japan
Interesting edition of Monocle‘s “Monocolumn” on the state of chocolate in Japan. I barely eat chocolate, but I sure love me some Kit Kat. Unfortunately, my fave chocolate treat, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, remains unavailable here.
Tokyo STOP
During last week’s PauseTalk (Vol. 35), Imre Ostmann introduced us to an art project he’s been working on called “Tokyo STOP.” The idea is to take a “long exposure photograph of seven people standing in a dead-end road during sunset.” He’s done four areas so far, and is looking for some volunteers for upcoming dates — you’ll find all the details here, including his contact info.
Studies in Organic
TABlog posts a nice photo report from the opening of Kengo Kuma’s “Studies in Organic” exhibition at Gallery MA. The show runs until December 19.
Droog Exhibition Space
For next month’s Design Miami, Atelier Bow-Wow is designing the exhibition space — in the form of a house — for Dutch design brand Droog. Via Dezeen.
Fast Fooding Burgers in Tokyo
Patrick Macias checks out Japan’s four big burger chains, and lives to tell the tale on CNNGo.
OPEN Lineup
I’ve been threatening to DJ — well, “music select” — somewhere for a while now, and I’ve decided to finally make it happen this week. On Friday (November 27) I’m introducing something I’m calling PLAY, in which I’ll be setting up my laptop in a corner somewhere at Cafe Pause, and make people listen to a selection of tracks by me, from 21:00 until 23:00 (when the cafe closes). This is not an event proper, it’s just a casual invitation to come hang out and listen to (what I think are) some good tracks. I don’t know if this will become a regular thing, it might, and I may invite others to join me in the “selection” duties in the future.
If you’re wondering how I’m doing this, today I found what looks like the perfect software for my needs, something called Djay. All I wanted was something that would let me transition tracks, and also allow for pre-cueing, which I’ll be able to do courtesy of my ZOOM H2, using it as a USB audio interface. If this all works as well as I’m hoping it will, I can also see us recording a live episode of Radio OK Fred this way.