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Meta

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Another year, another birthday. But I swear, it just keeps getting better and better, and as I mentioned the other day, today also marks a transition point for my career. So this year: bigger, better, and oh so satisfying.

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Art

PingMag: Takahi Kawanishi

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Takahi Kawanishi creates paintings and collages that you may have spotted on various book covers. PingMag visits the artist in his studio, and interviews him regarding his current exhibition, “EVERESTS,” at POINT gallery in Ebisu.

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Events Music

Apple Store Trumps PauseTalk

I’ve been getting mail on this because of the confusion, so let’s clear things up. The Apple Store Shibuya performance that Momus has been touting as happening June 6 is in fact scheduled for June 4 (he noted the date wrong). Not only does that mean that the show will happen this coming Monday night, but also that he will not be attending PauseTalk, which is held at the same time.

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TV

Julia Barnes on Tokyo Eye

Nakaochiai Gallery‘s Julia Barnes will appear in this week’s edition of TOKYO EYE, that airs at various times on NHK World. She does the “My Private Tokyo” segment, which is what I did a few months back.

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Anime Film

Appleseed Saga: Ex Machina

The CG-animated sequel to APPLESEED now has an official website and a new trailer. APPLESEED SAGA: EX MACHINA comes out this fall (October 20), and will feature a soundtrack by Haruomi Hosono and Cornelius.

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Magazines

This Week in Magazines

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  • BRUTUS (617) features a look at “Rakugo x Musician,” by covering collaboration or mixes between the two fields (rakugo is a traditional Japanese comedic form). The insert is an entire rakugo comic, from the series “Classic Rakugo Comics,” as well as a CD of performances.
  • PEN (199) offers up a very detailed guide to Kamakura, presenting it with a beautiful cover shot filled with bamboo trees. They also include a guide to Tokyo whiskey bars, and this issue’s designer profile is on the unit so+ba.
  • TITLE (89) touts an issue devoted to “Department Store Paradise!” It’s a rather nice feature, with tours of various depa-chikas, a piece on the Matsuya Ginza branding by Kenya Hara, and a look at department stores from around the world. They also imagine a few new ones with their “My Dream Department Store” piece, in which they asked a few creators, including KDa and D-BROS, to imagine their dream store. The Napster column — that’s the name for their music column — has Kaji Hideki offering a guide to music from Glascow, mentioning the likes of Teenage Fanclub, Belle & Sebastian, and The Vaselines.
  • The lastest issue of EASY TRAVELER (16) has design as a theme, which includes talking about various locales with more emphasis on the architecture. As always, EASY TRAVELER is fully bilingual (Japanese/English).
  • PLANTED (4) has their “entertainment” issue, which kicks off with a “Disney Flower Hunt” (a guide to flowers at Tokyo Disneyland and Disneysea). They also have a piece on “Movies on Plants,” following it up with a guide to “20 Plant Movies.” They also cover the maintenance of grass in soccer stadiums, and then take a look at underwater plants (that last piece is illustrated by Shoji Kawashima).
  • The main feature in this month’s MACPOWER (210) deals with environmentally friendly creativity. It also includes a nice article on typography, profiling a few designers and their works, and presents a gallery of photos from the gorgeous Tama Art University library.
  • CASA BRUTUS (87) concerns itself with world heritage, with a cover feature appropriately entitled “All About World Heritage.” The insert for the issue does the same for Japan: “All About World Heritage in Japan.”

I picked up a few of these for the cafe, which you can see listed here.

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Events

Happening in Tokyo

  • Graphic designer Hideki Inaba has an exhibition, “Graphic Line,” at the Shu Uemura Beauty Boutique on Omotesando (near the Hanae Mori building), starting this Friday (until June 10).
  • Micke — better known under the name PMKFA — has his first solo exhibition, “A Bag of Grease,” in Europe starting next week (June 8-July 31) at the Vallery gallery in Barcelona. The opening party will see lots of action, including a musical performance by Green & Ilpo.
  • Even though this year’s edition of Design Tide is, again, happening during the first week of November (October 31-November 4), it’s worth noting that the first entry deadline is this Thursday (May 31), with the second — and I’m assuming final — one June 29.
  • It’s going to be a busy Saturday (June 2) for Tokyo Fun Party, as they’re participating in two events on the same night: first it’s “Doki Doki” at SuperDeluxe, and then later in the evening head out to Velours for “Janus.” Full details here.
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Art Design Events

How to Sell at Design Festa

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Illustrator Josh McKible posts about his experience at last weekend’s Design Festa. The secret to good sales? Concentrate on small products, such as postcards and buttons. In fact, I think that’s pretty much the rule for anything that relates to art in this city, as that’s exactly what I’ve seen happen with all the show’s we’ve hosted at Cafe Pause.

UpdateJosh is also selling his “Nani Birds” directly, so have a look here, and then get in touch with him.

Categories
Design Events

PingMag: Tokyo Design Premio

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PingMag covers “Tokyo Design Premio,” a Japan-oriented exhibition presented as part of last month’s Milano Salone.

Categories
Web

What's an Isme if It Ain't Neo?

Marxy’s latest post alludes to the new site we’ll see him launch sometime this summer. I’m not at liberty to say anymore about it, but I will say that I’m involved, and I think it’s going to be pretty damn cool. To be continued…