Jeansnow.net

I definitely need to catch this: “The Death of Mario,” an exhibition from artist Koshi Kawachi that tries to capture aspects from the Mario series. It runs at the Lower Akihabara gallery until June 26. Via Offworld. ...

Spotted at the Freshness Burger near the KDa office in Ebisu. ...

I’m sure you’ve all heard about and seen the giant 1:1 replica Gundam statue in Odaiba, but have you seen lit up at night? Very nice gallery here, courtesy of Pink Tentacle. ...

The Art Space Tokyo blog has a new round-up of art links, covering the month of May. ...

Very cool project from Dentsu (from Designboom): Newspaper to New Paper Project from Dentsu Tokyo for Ichida Garden. Old newspapers were overprinted to provide wrapping for fruit and veg sold by a street vendor. It was one of the winners in the Packaging category of the recently announced D&AD’s Yellow Pencil awards. ...

://jeansnow.net/2009/06/05/web-trend-map-4/">poster, next up, an online interactive version of Information Architect’s Web Trend Map, set to launch July 14. Also nice to hear that Craig is collaborating on the project. ...

Beautiful illustrative work by a Kyoto-based artist — the only profile info on the site lists her name (Jun) and that she’s a 21-year-old student. Via Max. ...

Man, how awesome was the Honda Motocompo. Designboom posts a series of images from an original sales catalogue that dates back to the early eighties. ...

More depressing news on the state of the Japanese anime industry from Matt Alt. ...

My weekly Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, this time covering a couple of prototypes from Nosigner for KDDI’s iida line, a Muji and Rebita collaboration, and a color update to 100%’s Straw Vase. ...

New York Art Beat is celebrating its 1st anniversary with a party and exhibition this Saturday (June 13, from 19:00) at the Dumbo Arts Center. The event will include lots of performances, including Shantell and Hiro. Here’s wishing everyone a great event, and a long life for the site! ...

It’s here, the new mix from Tokyo Fun Party’s SoccerBoy, a whopping 55 tracks in 65 minutes for 450 yen, now being sold at the following stores: Technique, Ticro Market, Flake Records, and Jet Set, which offers international shipping. ...

Uniqlo does it again, introducing yet another flash web app to help promote the brand, this time in the form of a calendar that shuffles time-lapse videos of tilt-shift style photos. Looks great, and they’ll release it as a screensaver soon too. Via Marxy. ...

I’ve been really wanting to see Ryoji Ikeda’s “+/- [the infinite between 0 and 1]” exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo — I even included it as a recommendation in a recent edition of the Superfuture Superguide for Tokyo — but haven’t had a chance to see it ...

Tokyo-based eco collective PangeaSeed is organizing an event, “No Fin No Future,” on July 30 at SuperDeluxe. From the official website: PangeaSeed will feature a special screening of the award winning documentary Sharkwater. The event will be supported by special guest speaker, Kim McCoy of the Shark Angels, guest bands, and ...

www.cscoutjapan.com/en/index.php/tokyo-time-lapsed/">CScout Japan. ...

Another PauseTalk (Vol. 32), another great audience. Seems like the new plan to reserve Cafe Pause for the event was justified since we again ended up with a 30+ crowd, and the new table arrangement — a pixelated triangle, courtesy of the cafe’s manager — made for a better round-table ...

The great polaroid montages you see in this post are part of Remo Camerota’s new “Polaroid Portraits” project. The project will eventually be shown in an exhibition in Tokyo, and what you see here are some of the latest additions, taken during this week’s PauseTalk (Vol. 32). Above, James Okubo ...

I’ve been meaning to mention it for a while, but a second Kenta Cho shooter is now available for iPhone in the form of Noiz2sa. To be honest, I don’t like it as much as rRootage, but it’s still good fun. For those of you who don’t know, Kenta Cho ...

This year’s edition of the “Naked Tokyo” exhibition is happening soon, a one-night event on June 26 at SuperDeluxe. It’s of course very nice to see that a few friends and PauseTalkers are participating, and I do look forward to checking out all the works (I’ve unfortunately missed passed showings). Above, ...

Information Architects have released the fourth edition of their annual Web Trend Map, and it’s looking better than ever, all in black. IA’s Oliver Reichenstein dropped by PauseTalk earlier this week, and to hear it from him, it was actually quite an involved process to get the poster produced this ...

Carl Randall is a Ph.D. student in oil painting at Tokyo National University of Arts, and he’s looking for volunteers for a new project. He’s currently on the lookout for hundreds of people to pose for portraits that would appear on large canvases, and later exhibited in Tokyo and London. ...

When at Narita and looking to pick up something to read on your flight, I would indeed highly recommend getting a copy of Arcade Mania. Thanks Audrey, who snapped the photo this morning as she heads to Sweden. ...

My weekly Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, this time covering Mikiya Kobayashi’s Tate Otama (above), new lamp shades from Daisuke Hiraiwa, and DI CLASSE’s Nude Lamp. ...

I haven’t had a chance to check it out for myself yet, but Designboom has posted a few photos from the newly opened Uniqlo megastore in Shinjuku — it was designed by Nicolas Gwenael’s Curiosity. ...

Interesting new technique used by architect Ryuji Nakamura to create this flower pattern pictured above. More details at PSFK. ...

Designboom has a rather nice gallery of shots from Jules Julien’s “Cadavres Exquis” exhibition at the Diesel Denim Gallery in Aoyama. The show runs until August 2. ...

Just your friendly reminder that tonight (June 1) is indeed PauseTalk Vol. 32. Start time is 20:00 as always, and as I’ve mentioned before, the cafe will be entirely reserved for the event, so we should be able to accommodate everyone. Hope to see lots of you there! ...

Yeah, today’s my b-day, and I wasn’t going to say anything — older, not necessarily wiser — but the image above sent by one of my oldest friends (thanks, Guy) gave me a good laugh, and I wanted to share it. It was a terrific day of eating — my ...

The latest Tokyo art-related economic casualty: the TKG Daikanyama gallery. From TAB’s latest news digest: Every month has brought news from London and New York of gallery closures and cut-backs, but so far the only obvious Tokyo victims have been media ones (Ping Mag, Real Tokyo, Art iT, Tokyo Art Cross). ...

People like to get early reminders, so here’s one for the next edition of PauseTalk (Vol. 32), which happens this coming Monday (June 1) at Cafe Pause. Start time is 20:00, and as I mentioned recently, the entire cafe will be reserved for the event, so there shouldn’t be issues ...

James created that short? Here’s a “making of” video. ...

gn Tournament 2009″ is happening this Saturday (May 30, 17:00-20:30, 2,000 yen) at Womb in Shibuya. Tokyo is one of the last stops of this international competition, and it should be quite the event — just have a look at the participants listed below. There’s plenty more info at the ...

Self-published Swedish magazine Museum Paper is having a launch tomorrow night (May 29, 19:00-21:00) at NOW IDeA by Utrecht in Aoyama. They even promise a “special Museum Paper drink,” so I’m there. ...

My weekly Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, this time covering new offerings from Ryuji Nakamura, the “Japan Brand Pop Up Shop” in NYC, and the “Group Exhibitions: Shinagawa.” ...

atch?v=wJ_vSc3Bamk">video above is part of a new campaign for Nissan’s “ECO” line-up (low-fuel), created by the Golden Eggs team. There are short TV commercials, but the video above is a web-only short. My wife has watched this at least 20 times, and cracks up every single time. ...

of this “A Kiss from Tokyo” short. It’s a trailer for an upcoming book by illustrator Kevin Dart called Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7, which is scheduled to come out this summer. The trailer was directed by Dart and Stephane Coedel. Yuki 7 is my new fave ...

Well, sort of. For tomorrow night’s edition of PechaKucha Night in Tokyo (Vol. 62) at SuperDeluxe — or tonight (May 27), depending on when you read this — I helped Tomoko curate by suggesting a few presenters who, ahem, just so happen to be PauseTalkers (with one exception). Names you ...

Some very good news indeed: Viz is launching a new online magazine named after — and inspired by — IKKI, a Japanese comic monthly aimed at the older crowd. The site is currently in beta form, and will officially launch after this summer’s San Diego Comicon. All manga will be ...

101TOKYO has announced the winner of its Berengo Prize — the fair’s “best of show” — and that artist is Yuichi Higashionna, who “crafts chaotic chandeliers and installations out of everyday objects such as fluorescent lights and hand mirrors.” The prize gives Higashionna a residency at the Berengo Studio in ...

I think you all know how much of a fan I am of Takayuki Fukatsu’s poto apps for the iPhone, and unfortunately it seems like he’s encountering some issues with Apple’s approval process. The issue is with the QuadCamera app, which Apple keeps rejecting with no reason given — the ...

824048">short by James Okubo, descriptively called “My Walk to Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo.” From his description: Made in 2.5 days for a presentation. Bodycam rig was made in a day. Shot in a day. Edited on the way to the meeting in the subway. ...

Ian Lynam has art directed and designed a new vegan cookbook by Joshua Ploeg called In Search of the Lost Taste, which he describes as “half-recipes/half-adventure/sci-fi/fantasy novella with cover illustration by comic maestro Aaron Renier and interior illustrations by the mighty overlord Nate Beaty.” Ian has a bunch of copies ...

Couldn’t make it to this past weekend’s Design Festa (Vol. 29)? Tokyomade’s Masao posts a Flickr photoset. ...

r PingMag colleague — Kevin Mcgue is working on a feature-length documentary about Japan’s live house scene called, appropriately enough, Live House. The project is set to come out this fall, and it was recently awarded a Japan Foundation grant. ...

John “Yongfook” Cockle’s latest web app, Peashoot, has now launched to the public. Looks rather nice — it’s a system to keep track of online social media compaigns. ...

Yes, PauseTalk has indeed been growing, as seen with the attendance at the March and May editions, and so after having a talk with Cafe Pause’s manager last night, we’ve decided that for the next edition (Vol. 32 on June 1, from 20:00) the cafe will be exclusively used for ...

From the Néojaponisme Twitter feed: Comme des Garçons launching a new cheaper brand called BLACK in Shibuya Parco on June 5. ...

ting for: Muscle March, out May 26 as a WiiWare title. Via Offworld. ...

My weekly Tokyo post is up at MoCo Loco, this time covering Alexander Gelman’s Lohas Design Award nomination, Naoto Fukasawa for B&B Italia, Nosigner’s “The Rose Nebuta,” and Yukio Hashimoto’s Moonbird. ...

Overhead shot of Nakameguro while the cherry blossoms were in bloom in early April. Via Craig. ...

Andrew just brought to my attention Goliga Books, an independent Tokyo-based editorial firm that creates books about photography, art, and design for various publishers, and run by Ivan Vartanian, a former New Yorker. I see its behind Tiffany Godoy’s Style Deficit Disorder, a Harajuku fashion primer I quite enjoyed — ...

Fashion designer Kosuke Tsumura — here’s an interview with him from PingMag — presented his “Mother Piece” (pictured above) at the “Tokyo Fiber 09 Senseware” exhibition in Milan. Each “garment” is composed of interlocking pieces made of a soft material called felibendy. Via Designboom. ...

Graphic designer Kiyoshi Awazu passed away late last month — he was 80 — and Designboom features a few of his classic works. Update: Néojaponisme also shares a gallery of works by Awazu. ...

Takayuki Fukatsu’s TiltShift Generator app is now out. You can either use it online from this page, or download an Adobe AIR version. ...

Another huge crowd for PauseTalk this month, but one that felt like it was meant to happen: 31 participants for Vol. 31. So like the March edition we ended up with a back row, and a few others standing up. I think we still managed to keep everyone involved, and ...

The piece about rakugo featuring Craig that appeared in the June ‘09 issue of Esquire Japan is now online on Yahoo Japan’s X Brand site (Japanese-only). ...

Just a reminder that the May/June ‘09 edition of TAB’s Tokyo Art Map is out. If you can’t find it, you can download and print a PDF version as well (fits on four A4 sheets). ...

OK, it’s official, Tim has officially lost it. ...

Episode 14 of Radio OK Fred is now up, and it’s our “food” show. The recording was followed by a delicious lunch out in the sun, on the table pictured above. Radio OK Fred 14 (66.6MB) To make sure not to miss any future episodes, subscribe to the feed. And feel free ...

Just a reminder that this month’s edition of PauseTalk (Vol. 31) happens tonight (Monday, May 11) at Cafe Pause. Start time is 20:00, as always. ...

Gozi has released info on her the new Autumn/Winter ‘09 collection of her UMi-1 line, continuing her collaboration with Assistant’s Megumi. The AW 2009 UMi-1 collection continues the architectural story from SS and focuses on Lagos. The collection brings the exuberance of the 70’s into today’s architectural landscape. This season U.Mi-1 ...

Designboom reviews a new book on the works of architect Hitoshi Abe from Phaidon. Whether or not you are an architect or designer, this book highlights Hitoshi Abe’s work in a way that anyone can appreciate. Through vivid imagery and detailed insights, each project is displayed in a straightforward and captivating ...

I had a chance to check out Daniel’s exhibition yesterday — the one I posted about — and quite enjoyed what I saw. The best was to have him explain the meaning behind each piece — it was great to hear the justification for each element used. Unbelievably, he’s selling ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&v=35LtOpGTR9g&gl=US">video for Kaela Kimura’s new single, “Banzai.” ...

Tokyo-based Swedish art director Johan Prag has been blogging of late, although he describes it more as “a notebook for organising my ideas, ongoing research and other inspiration.” Luckily for us, he’s made his &seen notebook public. I really love that logo. ...

Just a friendly reminder that this month’s edition of PauseTalk (Vol. 31) happens this Monday (May 11) at Cafe Pause — it’s the second Monday this month due to this past week’s Golden Week holiday. Start time is 20:00, as always. Also, this PT will mark the start of an exhibition ...

This week’s Tokyo post for MoCo Loco is up, covering Nosigner’s AWA line, Yurina Kira’s wooden brooches, 16A Architects‘ candle shade, and Ryohei Yoshiyuki’s Level Stool. ...

Yeah, that’s me in the middle — here’s a larger version. The photo was taken last week by Tim as he spotted me on the escalator leaving the Fukutoshin platform in Ikebukuro. He saw me and quickly pulled out his camera, to which I screamed: “Analog!” ...

Just the other day I posted on how I haven’t been following anime like I used to, and then today comes a post on Japan Probe illustrating that, apparently, the “anime bubble has burst.” And as a follow-up to my anime post, I have watched the first episode of each series. ...

“Alone in Tokyo” is a beautifully shot short film by Philip Bloom, covering some very familiar Tokyo scenery, but done in a very tasteful — and stunning — way. If your machine can handle it, I recommend watching in HD and full-screen. Via Craig. ...

All Things Ordinary is a beautiful new photography zine from LA, and the just-launched first issue features photos by Kenshu Shintsubo — he’s contributed works to many Japanese magazines, as well as Purple Fashion and Paris Vogue. You can purchase the issue online. ...

Takayuki Fukatsu — creator of the indispensable iPhone app Toy Camera — has a new app in the works, TiltShift Generator. As you may have guessed, it will give a tilt-shift effect to your shots (as picture above). It won’t be an iPhone app though. Update: Here’s an interview with Takayuki. ...

Longtime readers may remember that I used to write a regular column on anime for a site called TokyoQ — along with a design column — and even after the demise of that site, I still tried to check in on new series every season, following the ones I found ...

And if a housing complex is more realistic than a proper home, how about Japanese architecture studio 16A’s TOO49 in Haginaka, Tokyo. Designboom gives you a tour. ...

Another home to envy, this time FORM/Kouichi Kimura Architects‘ House of Diffusion, located in Shiga. Dezeens posts a few more photos. ...

Shantell gets interviewed over at PSFK. ...

outube.com/watch?v=5YEEHCntfe8">keynote address from last year’s Imprint Culture Lab conference. Via PSFK. ...

Martin Holtkamp has put up a Flickr photoset of photos taken at the opening for Rob Judges‘ exhibition at Gallery Kabutoya. I didn’t drink all of that bottle, I swear. ...

Designboom posts a few images — and a video, but it wasn’t loading for me — from what looks like an amazing installation that was featured at the Milano Salone by Canon. Both parts — “Aquatic Color” and “Animated Knots” — were created by architect Akihisa Hirata and interactive artist ...

This post is going to be about something good, something better, and then the best. First with the good. Everyone’s favorite Tokyo-based Swedish graphic designer Micke Thorsby (PMKFA) — well, mine at least — has recently launched a new collection of his “It’s Our Thing” brand of tees and sweatshirts. The ...

Just got back from the opening for Tokyo-based Canadian artist Rob Judges terrific new show at Gallery Kabutoya in Ginza. I very much enjoyed Rob’s modern take on totem poles of old, augmented with a healthy dose of comics-influenced superhero visuals and beyond. The show runs until May 10, and ...

ames has just released the first trailer for its still unnamed next release in its terrific PixelJunk collection of downloadable games for the PlayStation 3. ...

We ended the “Little Pink” exhibition last night with a nice little gathering, which also gave us a chance to say goodbye to Shantell, who left for NYC today. Thank you Hiro for the photo. From left: me, Shantell, and Anna. ...

#8212; short by Takashi Taniguchi. Via Josh. ...