Month: June 2005

Categories
Magazines

This Week in Magazines

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  • Following last issue’s elimination of the English translations, the new issue of COMPOSITE now goes back to its old numbering (34). As for the content, most of it is devoted to Ecocolo International 2005, with cover girl Chiaki Kuriyama also appearing in a pictorial of New York eco spots.
  • The latest BRUTUS covers yoga, and comes with a DVD (to use while you’re practicing it).
  • The focus of the latest PEN is on George Nakashima, and covers most of the designer’s life and work.
  • The new issue of KATEIGAHO INTERNATIONAL has Puffy on the cover, and the girls are featured in a pictorial for Summer yukatas.
Categories
Design Tokyo Q

Design Column for June

My new design column is up at Tokyo Q. I talk about the latest issue of +81, the work of Kenya Hara, the recent surge in design-friendly shops/cafes closings, and the Yamaha Electric Commuter.

Categories
Design

Keitai City

DoCoMo launches an international architectural design competition: Keitai City.

Categories
Games

PSP for the Flesh

It was just a matter of time (form Kotaku):

Japanese porn company Glay’z just announced that five of their quality flesh films are coming to the portable. The intriguingly titled The Nurse of a Big Breast will join Make a play of Riko Tachibana and Soap Play of Anna Kaneshiro in early July as the first releases. A few weeks later Premature flesh is the area which became wet hotly and Erotic Terrorist Beautiful Body Noa will hit the PSP.

A link to the company’s website.

Categories
Music Web

Blogging with Maki

Pizzicatomaniacs will be happy to learn that Maki Nomiya is blogging regularly now (Japanese-only). Her latest post mentions that she’s off to Moscow for a gig with her OuiOui DJ unit. Link via Patrick.

Categories
Music

Kiiiiiii CD/DVD

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Great to finally get a release date on the upcoming Kiiiiiii CD/DVD! More info from Marxy:

Big news: Kiiiiiii will be releasing their debut CD/DVD in the Fall. They filmed three live shows in May for the DVD, plus a whole reel of ridiculous exterior shots in the mountains of Gunma-ken (check their blog for pictures). The .avi above (click on the picture) cuts between two performances of their original song “Be Honest,” filmed on my tiny digital camera. The real DVD promises to be a billion times better than my amateur filming, but hopefully this will tide you over until Autumn…

And here’s a direct link to the video.

Categories
Manga

Hanaotoko

4091857310.09.MZZZZZZZLast night I read a scanlation of the first book of Taiyo Matsumoto’s latest series, HANAOTOKO, and loved it to death. It’s a fairly low-key story of a boy who goes to live with his baseball-obsessed (to an abnormal degree) dad. One of the best things I’ve read in a while, and I can’t wait to get to the other 2 volumes!

And speaking of manga, me and Yuki have a little project that we’ve got cooking that I think a lot of you will enjoy. More on everything later…

Categories
Music

Radio OK Fred 06

The 6th Radio OK Fred show is finally up! Enjoy! And remember that you can subscribe to the podcast feed, and email us if you want the show’s playlist.

Categories
Books Stores

Caravan Gone

Seems that Caravan Books in Ikebukuro has closed its doors for good (even their website has expired). From the Chin Music Press blog:

I’m sad to announce that Caravan Books of Ikebukuro has passed away.

One of a kind, nestled away (cause of death?) in a quiet neighborhood near Ikebukuro station. Tastefully lit (take note all fluorescent-bathed Ebisu-based foreign bookstores), looking more like an old English country house than a Tokyo dwelling. Reasonably priced. Oh Caravan. I only visited you once to drop off Kuhaku, but how I dreamed of visiting you again and again. Alas, you were in that crook of Ikebukuro — everyone spoke so fondly of you but no one had the energy to venture all the way out there. Even women in Kyoto, when asked about Tokyo bookstores, whispered the words, “Caravanu,” as if you were a ghost of an old Arab man, swilling Arab whiskey while plodding your way through the Arab desert. And plod you did Caravan. You plodded until your legs gave out and your whiskey ran dry and the desert took you and your sack of books and swallowed you whole. Au revoir, old steed.