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Cafes Events Magazines Meta

SNOW Magazine Cafe

I’m very happy to announce that the first SNOW Magazine-related event will take the form of a magazine exhibition at Cafe Pause this summer (August 1-31). The SNOW Magazine Cafe will be a month-long celebration of art, design, and culture magazines from around the world, on display for everyone’s reading pleasure.

It will be accompanied by a drink and snack menu created for the exhibition, to enjoy while browsing through the magazines, and a special edition PauseTalk (August 2) will cover discussion topics revolving around the theme of “magazines.”

I’m of course on the lookout for magazines to include in the event, so if you are a maker of an art, design, or culture magazine (or know someone who does), please send them to the announcement page. Each magazine included in the exhibition will be on display in the cafe, easily browsable by anyone, and will include an info “bookmark,” with details about the magazine in both English and Japanese.

Categories
Design Technology

Facemakr

Although we got a preview of it at PauseTalk Vol. 39 earlier this month, it’s nice to see that Hawken King‘s first iPhone app, Facemakr, is now out and for sale on iTunes App Stores around the world. An extension of the service he previously offered — making icons based on photos you would send him — the app puts the creation process in your hands, and it’s actually quite versatile, especially when it comes to repositioning and enlarging certain parts of the face.

Above, what I think I look like these days, but maybe I should have looked at a photo while making it. Great fun though, and definitely worth the $3 he’s charging.

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Meta TB.Grafico

Nikko

Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing a bunch of overnight trips around Tokyo as I do my research work for the next editions of the Rough Guide to Tokyo and Japan, and it’s been fun. Sure, I’ve had the worst luck when it comes to weather, but there have been some bright spots, like this past Wednesday in Nikko. It was a bit strange to be at the spot pictured above in the afternoon, only to end up at this past week’s PechaKucha Night at SuperDeluxe in the evening.

Tomorrow I head out to Fuji Five Lakes for some more research, and the weather is looking nice (knock on wood).

Categories
Art Books

Art Space Tokyo Success

Some great news today: as of an hour ago, the Art Space Tokyo team reached their goal of raising $15,000 to reprint/update the book, as well as produce a free iPad version. Keep supporting the project though, because I know they low-balled the amount (if you don’t reach your goal on Kickstarter you get nothing) and so every bit more will help make sure Craig and Ashley can both devote the amount of time necessary to making this as awesome as it deserves to be.

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Events Meta

PauseTalk in May

I purposely didn’t announce when the next PauseTalk (Vol. 40) was happening because I wasn’t sure what to do about the Golden Week holiday, but for now I’m circling May 10 as the date, which would be the Monday following the week-long holiday.

Also, I’ve decided to scratch plans for a big celebration party — it’s Vol. 40, and the fourth anniversary of PauseTalk — which I was thinking of having on May 31 (my birthday), because I honestly just haven’t had the time (and money) to bring together the things I was hoping to see happen, part of which was a special exhibition. But I’m hoping that we can still have a good time at the regular edition, and enjoy a celebratory drink or two (or three) in the process.

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Meta Web

SNOW Magazine on iPad

I don’t have an iPad — YET — but big thanks to Paul Baron for sending in this screenshot of how SNOW Magazine looks like on the iPad. Although I didn’t think there’d be any problems — since it works fine on iPhone — it’s alway good to have confirmation. Now to start thinking about whatever else SNOW-related I can get on the iPhone/iPad…

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Events Meta

PauseTalk Vol. 39

Thanks to everyone who made it out despite the awful weather to last night’s PauseTalk Vol. 39. We ended up with a nice group of around 20, and got to cover a few interesting topics, including, yes, some talk on the iPad — but also previews of Hawken King’s upcoming Facemakr app, and a chance to browse through the soon-to-launch Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential.

Here’s a partial list of attendees — please let me know if you’re not there and would like to be added.

Categories
Events

PauseTalk Tonight

It’s PauseTalk tonight (Vol. 39) at Cafe Pause, with the usual start time of 20:00 — the cafe is reserved from 19:30, so feel free to come early. Expect excitement, adventure, and more!

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Meta Web

SNOW Magazine Goes White

No, it wasn’t an April Fools prank, SNOW Magazine really has gone all white. I thought April 1 was a good day to do it because in Japan it also marks the start of the year for many (new school year, start of new recruits in companies) and so why not do it then. Longterm readers may also remember that I used to like switching color schemes on my site on a fairly regular basis. But also, when SNOW launched at the end of January, I did see it more as a 0.9 version of the site, and I still wanted to mess around with it a bit post-launch.

Thinking about it now, I think my first instinct was probably to go white, but I forced using colors because I didn’t want to come off as a sort of clone of this site (which I revamped last fall) and my GAME site. But in the end, I think it’s really what I wanted for the site, something very minimal, and I think it suits the logo even more.

Categories
Art Books Design

Reviving Art Space Tokyo

My friends Craig Mod and Ashley Rawlings produced this terrific book a couple of years ago called Art Space Tokyo, you may have heard of it — I’ve certainly plugged it and recommended it countless times to anyone I talk to when it comes to the art scene in Tokyo. It has unfortunately been out of print for quite a while now, but Craig and Ashley recently got the rights back (as Craig is no longer involved with Chin Music Press), and they’ve launched a Kickstarter project to not only get an updated version of the book back in print, but to also produce a free iPad version. So go, and support what will undoubtedly be an awesome pair of products.