tokyo

I tweeted an Instagram photo the other day, but here’s what my new skateboard looks like, the “Girl” deck from Lesque. Will try and get some wheels on it this weekend to go for a spin. Again, huge thanks to my homie Ian for hooking me up!

A new episode of the Codex is up (47), featuring another eclectic mix of tracks. Please enjoy.

 

I mentioned the upcoming PechaKucha Global Cities Week event last week, and now we have some banners ads to share (also designed by Ian), in a variety of colors and sizes. If you’d like help spread the word on the event, you can download them here — and you can point to the front page of the PechaKucha website, which will get updated later today with more info.

And don’t forget that PechaKucha Night Vol. 88 happens this Wednesday at SuperDeluxe from 20:20 (doors open at 19:00).

I recently got an Apple TV — mostly to easily stream videos to the TV, but me and my wife have also discovered the joys of streaming music through it, which for us is the first time we have a “stereo” in our home (the speakers on our Sharp Aquos sound quite nice). One of my favorite things to do with it though as been to watch videos from Vimeo. It’s such a great experience, considering that most of them are in HD, and it truly feels like I’m having my own little film fests at home every day. I used to really miss the Resfest, since back in the day it was one of the only places where you could really see interesting short films, but not anymore.

Anothing thing is that watching all these shorts has really been inspiring me to try and do some little video projects. I remember being excited when I got my iPhone 4 in part because of the HD video it could record, but I never ended up using it. I’ve decided to start by doing little clips, based on this post I found on Vimeo, that suggests little projects you can do. First up, and the easiest, is to do clips for the “1 Minute” group (no editing, no camera movements, natural sounds). My first video, “Sleeping Dog,” is of course of my dog being pretty much oblivious to anything around him (it’s on YouTube too).

We’ve just officially announced details for our upcoming PechaKucha Global Cities Week, and I really hope you will all be able to find a PechaKucha Night in your city that you can attend — and dig the great logo design by my main man Ian Lynam. The event in Tokyo will happen on Thursday, February 23 (note that it’s not on the regular Wednesday), and we’re currently on the hunt for some great presenters — if you’d like to take part with a topic that relates to our dear Tokyo, get in touch!

In the meantime, this month’s PechaKucha Night (Vol. 88) is happening next week (Wednesday, January 25, at SuperDeluxe), and it looks like it’s going to be a great night of presentations, with quite a few friends and fellow PauseTalkers participating. And speaking of PauseTalk, the first edition of 2012 is coming up, with Vol. 57 set for Monday, February 6.

Two episodes in two nights? Sometimes, that’s what happens. So following last night’s indie game music episode (45), I just recorded and released another episode of the Codex (46), this time with tracks that mostly revolve around two of my favorite artists, Mark Robinson and Fugazi.

There’s a new episode of the Codex up (45), and it’s an all-gaming episode, featuring music from a bunch of great indie games. The post on the Codex site includes links to all the games, as well as links to their soundtracks. And let me remind you that you can now follow the Codex on Twitter and on Facebook.

 

A new episode of the Codex is up (44), and again, unfortunately there’s a bit of static that pops up when I talk (even though I tested things before recording and it was fine). Losing patience with Nicecast, and I may have to find yet another solution.

Pretty much since I’ve been in Japan I’ve had the same tradition on New Year’s Eve — we get some nice food from the depachika (department store basement, always Seibu in our case), some booze, and watch the various TV specials, flipping around, and after midnight we go to a local shrine to wish for a good year. The big traditional show airs on NHK — the state network — and it’s called Kohaku Uta Gassen. It’s described as a song battle between a “Red” team (women) and “White” team (men), but the real goal here is to finish off the year with all of Japan’s most popular performers. It’s cheesy as all hell, but it can still be fun to watch for the spectacle of it. A couple of years ago I started drunkenly tweeting while watching it — I was dueling with Patrick Macias, who was in town that year — and it’s now become sort of a tradition.

Below is the entire tweet stream I did this past Saturday — the show runs from 19:15 to 23:45. As silly as it is, I post it here because a few people have told me they had fun reading it even when they watched the show later (either recorded, or when it aired the following day on NHK in the US). You need to start from the bottom, and work yourself up.

• At the shrine. instagr.am/p/dMc9Q/
• Happy 2012, everyone! yfrog.com/obt81bqj
• Damn, now wife has it on the Johnny’s NYE countdown concert. #ipreferredkohaku
• Shit, got 15 minutes, need to finish up my fucking soba!
• And Red (women) wins! #kohaku It’s usually White.
• NHK just guaranteed a million freeze frames by offering up a crotch shot of one of the AKB girls. #kohaku
• Most. Unnatural. Waving. Ever. #kohaku
• SMAP knows how to pander to the audience and get their votes. #kohaku
• This song definitely rests on a Beatles hook. #kohaku
• Why do they still let Nakai sing… Ouch… #kohaku
• Now who’s the jokester who made Kusanagi wear that ridiculous fur thing? #kohaku
• I do believe we have a winner for “hair of the night.” #kohaku
• Sachiko Kobayashi’s plastic surgeon-ed face freaks me out. #kohaku
• Nope, no yakuza ties whatsoever. #kohaku
• Now they have everyone in EXILE doing jazz hands. #kohaku
• My only wish when watching EXILE perform is that Takashi Okamura somehow pops up. #kohaku
• Based on the number of replies I’m now getting, it feels like I’m currently the last man standing in the #kohaku marathon. #imnumberone #not
• It’s not a #kohaku without the inclusion of a bubble machine somewhere in there.
• 2012 is about an hour away…
• Going to have to eat the soba soon, but so not hungry. But hey, sometimes, you just gotta eat your fucking soba!
• Is this what happens when enka goes disco? #kohaku
• Unbelievable that people actually still scream “Kiyoshi” at the chorus when he sings. #kohaku
• Mariachi fever, baby! #kohaku
• Seiko sure has a puffy face. #kohaku
• @cpalmieri: Kimura Takuya’s hair stylist channeling late 90′s Meg Ryan #NHK?? Retweeted by Jean Snow
• Yeah, that’s absolutely Groovisions’ work. Looks cool, would love to have that as motion background. #kohaku
• Wow, I think the background animation is by Groovisions. #kohaku
• Junko Koshino kinda… scares me. #kohaku
• The background decor always has me thinking it’s the bottom of the Eiffel Tower. #kohaku
• The person who composed this next song is credited as QQ. #kohaku
• Arashi performance, powered by augmented reality. #kohaku
• @Johnny_Strategy: Kids extremely confused about akiko wada’s sexuality ?? #kohaku Retweeted by Jean Snow
• @cpalmieri: OK, Setsuden is officially over :P #NHK?? Retweeted by Jean Snow
• Akiko Wada’s got a voice, that’s for sure. #kohaku
• Losing it right now watching Haranishi try to eat nabe with his bare hands. #waratteikenai
• Again, Waratte Ikenai counters #kohaku’s earthquake/tsunami sentimentality with hadaka geinin (naked comedians).
• Oops, I did my “Sunglasses at Night” joke too soon. #kohaku
• The camera panned to the Arashi boys watching on the sidelines, and they could barely hold their laughing. #kohaku
• She’s like the Michael Bay of #kohaku.
• Told ya! In the mouth of a dragon, yo! #kohaku
• I just know she’s going to transform into something. I know it. #kohaku
• Well, time to find out what kind of crazy contraption will back up Sachiko! #kohaku
• Wife is upset because she says the Japanese subs at the bottom of the screen are odd. #kohaku
• So, is she going to find a way to insert “Japan” or “Japanese” in every song? #kohaku
• The K-pop girls have definitely been out-legged now. #kohaku
• This is not your parents #kohaku.
• “Something about my cool, Japanese guy.” #kohaku
• Is this her idea of a Ray Charles impersonation? #kohaku
• “I wear my pearl glasses at night, so I can, so I can…” #kohaku
• OK, Gaga time. #kohaku
• Jackie Chan! #kohaku
• Lady Gaga is up after this dude in the glittery purple suit is finished. Can she possibly upstage him? #kohaku
• And from thoughts of Sendai, we switch to Waratte Ikenai, only to be greeted by Matsumoto’s bare ass, and his dick in a bag. #kohaku
• One of these girls has so much makeup on that it looks like a mask. #kohaku
• Props to the Arashi dude who’s actually playing the piano. #kohaku
• “(why?) why?” #kohaku
• Dude, wearing a fur collar is not very cool or hip. #kohaku
• Korean boys join the party too. #kohaku
• That was one hell of a crazy rotating camera shot around Kumi Koda. #kohaku
• God do I hate J-pop ballads… (Well, I hate pretty much all ballads, to be fair.) #kohaku
• clap #kohaku
• Every time I see Yuzu, I can’t help but think of Kuzu (Miyasako and Gussan), the parody group from the old Wannai TV show. #kohaku
• For those waiting for Gaga, she’s up in about 7 spots. #kohaku
• Go, go, Go Hiromi! #kohaku
• Rather, I should say that I appreciate that they are more womanly, instead of girly (like in J-pop groups). #kohaku
• I will say that I’m not opposed to the fact that all of these K-pop girl groups show a lot of leg. #kohaku
• “I’m Genie for your dream.” #kohaku
• The Korea invasion continues, next up Girls Generation. #kohaku
• Things you don’t do: Wear a suit jacket with the sleeves ripped off, with a fedora-like hat. #kohaku #tokio
• Next up, TOKIO, the “uncles” of Johnny’s Jimusho. #kohaku
• I do like their dancing, goes well with the music. Surprisingly, my wife has gotten into them lately, and does their dance around the house.
• Perfume time! #kohaku
• Whenever an earnest singer hits the stage, my wife has me switch the channel. Fair enough. #kohaku
• Bottom of my TV screen: la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la #kohaku
• They are pretty sexy, I’ll give ‘em that. #kohaku
• KARA in da hizzah, ass shake and all. #kohaku
• Fujiwara in that pink uniform with the skirt and hat really kills me. #waratteikenai
• The next big decision: Grab another beer, or switch to wine? Call 1-800-DRINKUP and vote now! #kohaku
• In the news, so many people send New Year messages through mobile that it clogs up the system, so providers asking to not do it.
• NHK news time now. Will be back shortly with more exciting coverage. #kohaku
• From 2channel, a new metric measure: 1 Hyde = 156cm. #kohaku
• I know there’s good intentions behind this montage and song, but the sentimentality is bringing me down. #kohaku
• For the record, I have been told that the NYC group is named after the names of the 3 boys (Nakayma, Yamada, and Chinen). #kohaku
• The dress the announcer is wearing now has a certain fish-like quality to it. #kohaku (Jean Snow’s fashion minute.)
• Love the back dancers too. #kohaku
• Oh, this is a great song. #kohaku
• It’s a funky dress, but looks a bit odd while playing an acoustic guitar. #kohaku
• I was just thinking I’d never seen Shiina Ringo on #kohaku, and it’s indeed her first appearance.
• Shiina Ringo! #kohaku
• Just learned that “blues” in Japanese is “buruusu.” And that’s one to grow on. #kohaku
• How could you not be OUT after that.
• Oh man, awesome Naomi and Kurosawa collaboration, doing Gaga on Waratte Ikenai.
• The new women’s soccer team uniform is purple with a pink stripe? Hmmm… #kohaku
• “Calling the fallen angel. Rolling on cold asphalt.” #kohaku
• L’Arc En Ciel are still a thing? #kohaku
• Prepared some chicken rice for my dog, so that he could partake in good food tonight too, but he’s upset because it’s too hot.
• That’s a big-ass flower arrangement. Big. Ass. #kohaku
• The 80s-like drama parody on Waratte Ikenai is making it hard to go back to #kohaku.
• Had to switch channel again because wife hates Pornograffiti. “Kao kirai.” #kohaku
• I’m trying to find a good insult for the current costume being worn, but I think it speaks for itself. #kohaku
• The Arashi leader obviously had first pick of pants color. #kohaku
• Time for another beer.
• I’ll say this, all these colors look great on HDTV. #kohaku
• I’m trying to understand the current enka singers hair. There’s something about that hair… #kohaku
• The AKB 48 girls in the background strategy is being used again. #kohaku
• Rasera, rasera, rase, rase, rasera… #kohaku
• Saburo Kitajima is apparently going to appear, which makes no fucking sense. The guy looks like he could in a KItano film. #kohaku.
• The question is, how many enka singers are going to make it to air this year, following the new “Yakuza ties” law. #kohaku
• Super famous Japanese actress in her 60s now in an SM suit, bullying the boys on Waratte Ikenai. Priceless.
• @clairtanaka: @jeansnow my six year-old just ran from the room: “I don’t enjoy this and I hate this!” #kohaku Retweeted by Jean Snow
• Waratte Ikenai channel flip. OUT. Hahahahaha… #kohaku
• Although having them dance with Papaya Suzuki and his ossan dancers is kinda… weird. #kohaku
• How do you make enka more palatable to the young uns? By having AKB 48 girls dance in the background. #kohaku
• They should just stick with the techno beat and skip the chorus. #kohaku
• OK, so right now there’s a band called AAA. #kohaku
• Is there anything more boring than the typical J-pop ballad? I don’t think so. #kohaku
• Oh man, the Matsumoto pic is the best.
• Switched to Waratte Ikenai for a sec. I’m totally OUT. #kohaku
• A song about “trying hard” from a band called Funky Monkey Babies feels odd. #kohaku
• What the hell happened to Kusanagi’s hair? #kohaku
• Goofy fucked up! #kohaku
• I can’t say anything too nasty about Arashi, or my wife will get upset. #kohaku
• It does come off as forced here though, especially with the awkward lip-syncing. #kohaku
• OK, I will not say anything bad about the little kids. “Maru Maru” has its charm. #kohaku
• Who says there’s no class system in Japan — it’s even color coordinated. #kohaku
• Does the medley as a thing still even exist in the West? #kohaku
• Holy fuck, that’s a lot of girls on one stage. #kohaku
• I wonder if it’s only in Japan that they put the lyrics on screen, so you can sing along karaoke style. #kohaku
• They are going to perform as 210 people. #kohaku
• AKB time. #kohaku
• Back now for… Flumpool. (No other comment necessary.) #kohaku
• Wife dislikes Angela Aki so much that we had to change the channel. #kohaku
• Oh, it’s the Japanese Tina Fey (Angela Aki). #kohaku
• I love NYC too much to be able to watch this group with a straight face. #kohaku
• I don’t really get why 3 effeminate boys equals NYC. Maybe I’m not supposed to. #kohaku
• Oh, next up is the group of 3 Japanese idols called — for no reason whatsoever — NYC! “We are city boys.” No, you’re not. #kohaku
• I could have done without those close-ups of Ayumi Hamasaki’s face. #kohaku
• D’oh, thought it was starting at 19:30, but it started 5 minutes ago. #kohaku
• As to why I suggested you unfollow me, it’s because you should expect a stream of drunken tweets tonight. A lot.
• You know, everyone has their tradition, I have mine, and it makes me happy — and that’s what counts, no? #adecadeplusandgoing
• As to why I never go out on NYE, I guess I’d just rather spend it at home with my wife and dog, and I like our shrine visit after midnight.
• To be clear, the show I really like is Waratte Ikenai (with Downtown), but we tape that, and watch #kohaku live, along with channel flipping
• And if you don’t know what I mean by #kohaku, here you go: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dha… Kinda looking forward to Gaga, actually.
• Got my food/booze, gonna wash up, and then don’t you know, it’s gonna be #kohaku time, and you know what that means (time to unfollow me).

Today I recorded episodes 42 and 43 of the Codex, which cover my favorite tracks and albums of 2011 — which I already listed in my “Favorite Media of 2011” post. There’s a bit of static when I talk, and I wonder if it relates to the fact that I shared the streaming link this time while I recorded — hopefully it won’t happen again.

I’ve made it a habit of kicking off the new year with a post that tries to address what I’m looking at in terms of the coming year, and I’ve used it over the past couple of years to announce some personal projects — both the launch of SNOW Magazine in 2010, and then the closure of the site in 2011. This year I don’t really have anything specific to announce yet, so this is going to be a short list of things that I have on my mind and wishes for 2012 — a state of my union, if you will.

The biggest change I think that I’ve experienced over the past year is that I’ve fully transitioned into working full-time on PechaKucha. My role as Executive Director sees me doing so many interesting things in relation to the PK community and network, and it’s one that I relish — I so enjoy the fact that I’m constantly in contact with people from all over the world who are producing PechaKucha Nights in our 460+ cities. 2012 is going to be an even bigger year for PK, with lots of cool things already in the works, and I can’t wait to share them with you all.

Something that also relates to PK is that I have it in my mind to organize something that would be gaming-related — to quench my thirst for doing something in that world, since it’s been quite a while since my days as a writer for Wired‘s Game|Life and the Arcade Mania book. I’m hoping to team up with some friends on this, and we’ll see how it goes. Expect it in the second half of the year though.

And speaking of Arcade Mania, there may be some developments with that this year, but nothing that I can talk about or promise for now — stay tuned.

On the SNOW Magazine front, when I closed the site I said that it was actually going on “hiatus,” and by that I meant that I would still love do something with that again, but that I just don’t feel like a regularly updated website works. I’d love to maybe do it as an irregular magazine on iPad, but since I want to keep this all indie and not have to depend on anyone (and can’t pay anyone), that means me trying to do it myself, which is a lot of work — the release of Mag+ for singles did give me hope that it might be doable. 

Codex, my music podcast, has been back for a few weeks now, and I look forward to getting back on a regular schedule with it this year, now that I’ve found a setup that works for me (for recording a show live while using Spotify as my music source). Over the next few days (maybe even today), I’ll release two episodes with my favorite music of the past year. And my other obsession, magazines, will continue to be covered over at The Magaziner. I wasn’t able to do a magazine-related event like I did in 2010 (the SNOW Magazine Cafe), but I hope that this year I can produce or participate in some cool new magazine projects.

PauseTalk also continues its run — 2012 will see it celebrate a 6th anniversary — and I have a few PT-related developments in mind as well, but I’d rather have them more concrete before I share them.

This past year has also seen more active — in a physical sense — than ever, both in terms of cycling (with the occasional bike commute to go work at the Klein Dytham architecture office in Ebisu) and with me and my wife’s mountain trekking lifestyle. On the bike front, I’ve slowed down a bit with the cold weather, and also because I’m really hankering to get a regular sized bike (not the foldable BD-1 that I’ve been using). As far as the mountains go, we’ve been adding bits and pieces to our equipment every month (since we can’t afford to spend much), and next up on our want list are sleeping bags and a tent. I also need to post photos from the last two snow treks we did over the past couple of week in Nagano.

The last thing that I’d like to see happen this year (at least for now) is that I would like to try and write some longer pieces, something a bit more thought-out than my regular posts. I don’t quite know what I’d like to write about — and hey, maybe I could try fiction for a change — but it’s something that I certainly have on my wishlist of things I want to do in 2012.

So there you have it, a few reflections as we move from on year to the other — here’s to an amazing 2012!

Over the past month or two I’ve been occasionally stopping by the AQ office in Nishi-Azabu (either at lunch time, or after work) for a bit of card gaming with my friend Ryan, who is AQ’s resident graphic designer. For these sessions, we play either Warhammer: Invasion, or more frequently, Magic: The Gathering. It’s Magic that we’re playing in these photos — in their conference room. The photos were all taken by AQ’s Paul, using the Olloclip lens on his iPhone.

As I did last year — read it here — this is my list of favorite media for the year, which is basically me telling you what I obsessed over the most in 2011 (as far as I can remember, since it’s usually the case that some terrific things get forgotten by the end of the year). It’s not a “best of” list, I did not sample everything that came out this year, this is just something that I put together to remember what it was that I liked in a year, and I figure it can also act as a guide for some people who are looking for recommendations in various categories. I choose five items for each medium, which I list alphabetically (it’s rare that I can really choose one thing over the other), and then include a few honorable mentions.

Again, I don’t include books since I unfortunately don’t read enough of them (the vast majority of my reading time goes to the web, magazines, and comics). 

 

Favorite Games This category is definitely one where I can choose an absolute favorite, and that would be Forza 4. Not only is it the game that I’ve spent the most time playing, I’ve become obsessed with it, and it turned me into a huge fan of the Top Gear TV series (see below). For the platform, I only list the one that I played the game on.

• Forza 4 (Xbox 360)
• Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony (Mac)
• L.A. Noire (PS3)
• Portal 2 (Xbox 360)
• Sideway: New York (PSN)
• Honorable Mentions: Cave Story+ (Mac), Dead Space 2 (PS3), Dragon Age II (PS3), Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes (PSN), Pinball FX 2 (the Marvel tables, XBLA), Saint’s Row: The Third (Xbox 360), Skyrim (PS3), Uncharted 3 (PS3)

 

Favorite Games (iOS) As with last year, I’ve separated the iOS games, because as much as I do enjoy playing games on my iPhone and iPad, I’m afraid that for the most part they still would not fare well against my console selections. 

• Assassin’s Creed Recollection
• Bang!
• Elder Sign
• Kard Combat
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
• Honorable Mentions: Aquaria, Bug Princess, Jetpack Joyride, Neuroshima Hex, Shadow Era

 

Favorite Magazine Apps Last year I didn’t include a magazine category because I felt like it would have been too difficult to narrow it down to five — and you can always follow my other site, The Magaziner, to see what I like in terms of magazines — but this year I do feel like these are the ones that I look forward to reading the most (and yes, it’s all digital, I don’t read much print these days). I should also add that these are not necessarily what I feel are the best magazines apps in terms of innovation and execution, but rather the ones I like because of content. I included the Izneo app, a digital platform mostly for French comics, because through I buy the weekly Le journal de Spirou.

• Bloomberg Businessweek
• Izneo
• Letter to Jane
• SPIN Play
• The New Yorker
• Honorable Mentions: GQ, Wired

 

Favorite TV Shows Again this year, it’s the category I have a tough time keeping short, since there are quite a few series I really do enjoy. The most conspicuous addition, and to be honest, the series I enjoy watching the most these days, is Top Gear, and from the newest season I’ve been going back through seasons to watch more. I’ve never considered myself a car guy, or been particularly obsessed with cars, but there’s something about the way the show is filmed, and the humor found throughout, that has completely sucked me in — here’s a post I wrote a few months ago about all of this. You’ll also notice Glee, which I only started watching this fall — I found myself immediately addicted, rushing through the first 2 seasons and eventually getting caught up. What can I say, it makes me happy watching it. 

• Breaking Bad
• Game of Thrones
• Glee
• Louie
• Top Gear
• Honorable Mentions: Boardwalk Empire, Bored to Death, Community, Curb Your Enthusiasm, How to Make it in America, Justified, Luther, New Girl, Parks & Recreation, Sons of Anarchy

 

Favorite Movies Since there are many films that haven’t reached digital/video yet, there’s still a lot I haven’t seen (like all the big December releases). I think I cheat a bit with some of the picks as well, as some of the honorable mentions may have been released in 2010. Most telling though is that my top 5 was composed of 4 documentaries before I saw the Tintin film today (and there are more in my honorable mentions). 

• Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
• Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop
• Drive
• Senna
• The Adventures of Tintin
• Honorable Mentions: Bill Cunningham New York, Bridesmaids, Crazy, Stupid, Love, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Lemmy, Paper Man, Source Code

 

Favorite Albums I had a really tough time here narrowing it down to five, and so many of the honorable mentions are probably all to be considered a “6.” Also, I will admit that the album that I really have enjoyed the most this year is Q-Tip’s The Renaissance, which came out in 2008 (but that I got into after watching the Tribe Called Quest documentary). I will do special episodes of the Codex and play all of this music (in this category, and the next).

• Days (Real Estate)
• James Blake (James Blake)
• The Year of Hibernation (Youth Lagoon)
• Undun (The Roots)
• Wild Flag (Wild Flag)
• Honorable Mentions: Audio, Video, Disco (Justice), Black Up (Shabazz Palaces), David Comes to Life (Fucked Up), Let England Shake (PJ Harvey), Torches (Foster the People), Mirror Traffic (Stephen Malkmus), Shangri-La (YACHT), Underneath the Pine (Toro Y Moi)

 

Favorite Tracks It wasn’t as easy to come up with this list as last year, since I’m a 100% Spotify user these days — last year I mostly looked at the play count in iTunes. But to help narrow it down I looked through the playlists of all of my Codex episodes, and came up with the following. 

• “England” (PJ Harvey)
• “Our Hearts Are Wrong” (Jessica Lea Mayfield)
• “Ravan” (Brasstronaut)
• “Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou)” (The Roots)
• “Video Games” (Lana Del Ray)
• Honorable Mentions: ”Audio, Video, Disco” (Justice), “Civilization” (Justice), ”Please Ask for Help” (Telekinesis), ”Tada no Tomodachi” (Salyu x Salyu), ”The Noose of Jah City” (King Krule)

 

Favorite Comics Again, I always find it difficult to narrow the comics category to five, and so I don’t include an honorable mentions list because it would be too long. Also, I will say that my most enjoyable comics-related reading this year was going through the entire Tintin series, something I hadn’t done in years (probably in 2 decades). 

• Daytripper
• Jordan Lint
• Mister Wonderful: A Love Story
• Northlanders
• The Walking Dead

This has been a feature of Tokyo Gig Guide for a couple of years now, but it seems that a number of users don't realise that anyone can add gigs to the site. If you find any gigs that you think should be listed on Tokyo Gig Guide, you are free to add them. Or if you want to promote your band or event, it's easy to add your gigs to Tokyo Gig Guide in English or Japanese. First you need to register to the site. Don't worry - it's quick and free. You'll find a Login/Join link on the top right of the site. Click that, and on the next page click Register. Fill in your details, pass the simple picture spam check thing, and then you will get a link in your email inbox to confirm your registration. Okay, once you are logged in, an Add a Gig link will appear in the top right. Click on that and a gig submission form will appear. Fill in that and voilà! A few tips:

• Do a quick search to make sure the gig is not already on the site.
• Let's imagine you are adding a gig titled "Kicking Buckets vol.1" with three bands playing. If you only put "Kicking Buckets vol.1" in the gig title, that's all that will appear on the Gig Guide main page, and as people don't recognise it, they will be unlikely to click it. But if you put the band names in the title, people will be far more likely to click the link to your gig's page. Please remember to add the names of all the artists playing the gig.
• The more information you can give, the better. In the details box, try to include links to the homepages of the artists and any helpful information.
• Include an image. Upload the flyer for the event or a picture of one of the main artists.
• If you are not sure about any section of the Add a Gig page, hover over the little light bulb icon next to each section and it will explain everything. Instructions are also included at the bottom of the page.
• If you need to later edit any gigs you have added, when logged in, click the little Edit Event icon () next to the word Event at the top of your gig's page.
• There is an extensive Help/FAQ you can refer to if you are confused. For any questions not answered there, send an email or message to admin.

As promised in the post about PauseTalk Vol. 56, there’s now a Facebook gallery of photos from the event, all taken as usual by Michael Holmes. Big thanks as always to Michael for attending and sharing these photos.

I said I was back with regular episodes of the Codex, and I meant it — Codex 41 is now available for your listening pleasure. And let me also remind you that for Christmas tunes, get the holiday episode I did last year (10).

Let me start by thanking everyone who came out this past Monday for PauseTalk Vol. 56, the last one for the year. We were a larger group than in the past few months, and it was a really nice way to share some thoughts on the year that was, covering how various projects fared, and what our hopes are for 2012. As with recent PauseTalks, Michael Holmes — who is also taking photos for our PechaKucha Nights in Tokyo now — was there and snapping away, and so I’ll share those photos once they pop up (probably on Facebook, so join the PauseTalk FB page why don’t you).

Below, a partial (but pretty much complete) list of those who attended. Please note that January is a skip month, and so the next PauseTalk (Vol. 47) will happen on February 6.

• Anna Jasinksi (Illustrator/Graphic Designer)
• Christopher Lindstrom (Grad Student/Voiceover Performer)
• David Steinberg (Game Developer/Musician)
• Don Kratzer (Creative Director)
• Haruna Tsuda (Graphic Designer)
• Jean Snow (PauseTalker Emeritus)
• Lachlan McTaggart (Designer/Architecture Student)
• Megumi Nishikura (Filmmaker)
• Michael Holmes (Photographer)
• Mio Toyoda (Web/Graphic Designer)
• Niko Lanzuisi (Film Director)
• Raymond Ellis (Gallery Director/Artist)
• Said Karlsson (Journalist/Photographer/Game Producer)
• Seiko Yoshida (Hair Color Specialist)
• Shunya Sugawata (Product Designer)
• Taylor Cass Stevenson (Visual Artist)
• Tom Coombs (User Experience Consultant)
• Walter Gethrey Peach (Video Artist/Creative Director)
• Weaw J. (Peace Studies)

As I posted on Monday, my Codex podcast is back because I’ve finally found a way to record it live, using music from Spotify and mixing in my talking bits, thanks to Nicecast. As I wrote in the show post on the Codex site, I’d pretty much given up on doing the show because I couldn’t find a satisfying way to record the whole thing live, which is something important to me. I had tried Nicecast back at the end of August, but at the time it didn’t properly support Mac OS X Lion, and so there were issues getting the songs to properly play from Spotify. But since then they upgraded the app — I only realized it the other day because someone tweeted it to me — and I was glad to see that it now works without a hitch (well, mostly, as there is one little glitch in the show I recorded, episode 40, at the start of one of the tracks).

It’s good to be doing these again, and one other interesting thing about using Nicecast is that as I record, I’m actually streaming the session to the web. So in the future I’ll probably share that link, for those who would like to listen in live as I record the podcast — that has the added bonus of making it feel that much more like a radio show, which is really what I try to do with Codex (hence the reason I don’t want to just edit a show together in Garageband, or similar software).

Also, since the music is coming from Spotify (for the most part), I can share the playlist that way too — so if my voice annoys you (and that’s completely understandable), you can still enjoy the music.

Since the show was on hiatus for about 3 months, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, so you can expect quite a few episodes this month. Also, let me remind you that last year I did a Christmas episode (10), so if you’re looking for some more tunes to put you in the holiday mood, do give it a try.

Yes, it’s been ages since the last episode of my Codex episode, but lo and behold there’s a new episode up (40), and you’ll find it here. I explain in that post why I took a 3-month hiatus, and why I’m back.

Very Cloudy  4°C

Wind: N 4 m/s Pressure: 1007 mbar Visibility: 12 km Humidity: 76% Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:12