Month: October 2003

I recently got my hands on the latest issue of German design magazine FORM (thanks again, Lil). Very similar in content to the Japanese magazine AXIS (I’ve even spotted an ad for FORM in AXIS), it takes a hard look at happenings in the design world. The magazine is bilingual (German and English).

If you liked the picture of the manhole cover I posted yesterday, then head on over to Martine Cotton‘s site. She’s compiled an amazing page full of them. I didn’t know there was such a beautiful variety.

Seems like there’s a strong possibility that Jennifer Connelly will star in the American remake of Hideo Nakata’s DARK WATER. Nakata also directed the first RING film. DARK WATER is not bad, and has its share of good creepy moments.

Tofu Records is a new label started by Sony to release J-pop music in North America. What they’re releasing is definitely not the type of stuff that I like to listen to, but I still think it’s nice to see this kind of distribution happen. It can be very expensive to buy Japanese music because of the high costs of imports (although Tokyo Recohan can help you if you don’t mind buying used), so just as Matador Records releasing Pizzicato Five albums made me happy when I was still living in Canada, I can imagine that a lot of North American J-pop fans are going to be very happy with this. Today’s DAILY YOMIURI featured an article on the label.

The same paper also had an article on LFO (Mark Bell), who’s in town to promote his new album, and who will be doing a few shows here in November. I mentioned the great LFO video for the song “Freak” a few weeks ago.

This week’s issue of TIME ASIA features two articles of note for fans of Asian cinema. First, there’s a look at Japanese/Taiwanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro, who happens to be an actor I really like (I’ve always loved him every since seeing him in Wong Kar-Wai’s FALLEN ANGELS – saw him more recently in Japan’s big blockbuster from last year, RETURNER). Also, you’ll find a review of the new HK film INFERNAL AFFAIRS II, which is a prequel to the excellent INFERNAL AFFAIRS from last year (and in a few months we’ll be seeing a sequel featuring the same actors from the first one).

Just a quick note to say that my mail program just crashed as I was checking mail when getting back from work, and it seems to have lost all of the messages that I received during the day. If you emailed me about something, please send it again. Thank.

Had yakiniku with my assistant’s family after work. Ate too much, and I’m still feeling way too full…

Oh no, this is definitely not going to help me get over my Muji obsession. They seem to have an online MUJI Outdoor Shop now. Admittedly they don’t have much there, but it’s part of some kind of Muji Outdoor Web, so the shop could be just the first few steps in that direction.