Firefox 3.5 is out now- go get that sucker!

The Mozilla Japan team asked that Craig Mod and I jointly write and design this demo page of what is now possible using Firefox’s new @font-face, a CSS rule implemented in Firefox’s latest 3.5 release which allows web designers to reference fonts not installed on end user machines.

(In other words: it allows web designers to store fonts on their server and reference them in CSS, regardless of what fonts the user browsing the page has installed.)

Look at it in Firefox- it is designed for that. It looks OK enough in Safari, but we’d rather have you see it in all its glory. Click around a bit and see what the future of typography for the web looks like….

We lucked out in getting Underware to agree to being our foundry partners in making this demo happen. The demo coincides with the release of their new typeface, Liza.

Original referring page on Mozilla’s site is here.

Thanks to Craig for dropping crazy hours with me on getting this project together. Shoutouts to Mozilla for their support, encouragement, and sheer radicalness!

I just started a new series of two-color posters called “Poster Initiative” that will be distributed for free around Tokyo. The first batch were dropped off at Nagi Shokudo last night and another went to Cafe Pause today. Poster Initiative 001 was printed in a series of 1,000.

Emergency Message to the MSM
June 1, 2009

From the desk of The Reporter Generalissimo

To Japan correspondents:

Please go and write an article about Japan’s soushokudanshi: the so-called herbivore men.

Now!

We don’t care that this is an old story in the Japanese media.

Sincerely,
The Reporter Generalissimo

PROGRESS REPORT:
CNN - “Japan’s ‘herbivore men’ — less interested in sex, money” (June 8, 2009)

Independent UK - “Japan’s Generation XX” (June 13, 2009)

Slate - “The Herbivore’s Dilemma” (June 15, 2009)

——–

Marxy sez: I will have some deeper thoughts on this soon…

What happens when you give two graphic designers and three programmers turntables, then team them up with a duo of professional sound artists?
THE ASS-SHAKING, MIND-BLOWING, BUDONKADONK-CLAPPING, EYE-REDDENING DANCE PARTY OF THE YEAR!!
If you are in Tokyo, you are obligated to make your way to Lesson Three of Exercise, the official unofficial dance party of IMG SRC/Non-Grid, Tokyo’s top web design and interactive agency.

Friday June 19th
@ Rubyroom Shibuya
11pm - 5am
¥1,500 including one FREE drink

Get out from behind that monitor and get your sallow, pasty ass on the dance floor, motherfucker!!!

Just a reminder that Néojaponisme contributor Daniel Morales is scheduled to begin liveblogging his day reading Murakami Haruki’s new book 1Q84 in twelve hours or so over at How to Japonese.

Be there or… reread Dōjidai game, I guess.

安達有里（安達祐実の母）がAVデビュー　7月にSODから発売 (Adachi Yuri — Adachi Yumi’s mother — to make adult video debut from SOD in July)

We’ve all suspected at some level that mothers who force their daughters into show business at a young age either have some kind of ethnically-unbound ethically-unbound capitalist lust or are using their children as proxy agents to achieve unfulfilled life dreams. Adachi Yuri, however, may take the cake for stage mom awfulness. Thanks to her nude photo book and now this upcoming porn debut (at age 51!), Adachi Yumi’s career will no doubt be forever buried under the shadow of her mother’s freak show.

More pressingly, I wonder how Adachi’s 16 year-old son feels about this.

The commenters are 2-ch are not so hot on this whole story either: “子供を芸能界に入れる親ってやっぱりどこか外れてるのか”

I will be in San Jose, California for the Scion Installation tour stop there at Anno Domini. The opening is on June 5th and goes from 8PM to 12AM. If you are remotely near the Bay Area, come on down!
Other artists who will have work on display include luminaries like Dave Choe, Souther Salazar, Jeff Soto, Kofie One, Usugrow, and Eye One.

Now out: In Search of the Lost Taste, a vegan cookbook by Joshua Ploeg. I art-directed and designed this half-recipes/half-adventure/sci-fi/fantasy novella with cover illustration by comic maestro Aaron Renier and copious interior illustrations by the mighty drawing overlord Nate Beaty. The typography within is something I’m a bit proud of, as well- a hodgepodge of no less than twenty typefaces are deployed to make the book fun to read while still communicating effectively.

The author Joshua was the singer of some of the best West Coast weirdo hardcore bands around including Mukilteo Fairies and Behead the Prophet No Lord Shall Live before his most recent stint as an amazing itinerant vegan chef.

The book is available via the publisher, Microcosm or directly through me in Japan.

I am very happy to announce that the article “2008: Girl Talk” about the musical artist Girl Talk I co-wrote with Nick Sylvester will be included in the newest edition of Da Capo’s Best Music Writing anthology. (Last year’s edition available here: Best Music Writing 2008). The piece was originally co-published on Néojaponisme and Nick’s blog Riff Market. This year’s Da Capo collection will be edited by rock crit legend Greil Marcus — author of Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music and other fine books.

The original piece:

2008: Girl Talk

THEORETICALLY UNPUBLISHED PIECE ABOUT GIRL TALK, FOR A THEORETICAL NEW YORK MAGAZINE KIND OF AUDIENCE, GIVE OR TAKE AN OX ON SUICIDE WATCH

My new shirt for Tokyo Art Beat is now available in their shop. The elusive custom green and pink colorway pictured above is available only at Beams T.

Spotted at Parco Shibuya a few months ago.

I am not sure the end of man (まん) is the best placement for the “ko” (こ) of konnichiwa. Methinks this was not exactly unintentional.

Hypebeast: Nigo Cedes Roles at A Bathing Ape

Nigo steps down as President/Director of A Bathing Ape! I should write more about this, but I am about to step on a plane.

I will be back on the 9th with lots of new content. Sorry for the lack of blogging over the last few months.

Tuesdays 19 May – 21 July
19:10-21:00

I will be teaching a ten-week intensive introductory typography seminar at Temple University Japan

All About Typography teaches the connotations of type & typography: the visual reading of language.

The class is an in-depth look at typography (designing with fonts) for both beginners and experienced practitioners. The class is a working examination of Western typography including lectures on type history, type classification, and contemporary practice. Practical exercises, as well as in-class critiques will help broaden students’ understanding of typography practically and critically.

All About Typography’s syllabus is based on a handful of proven typographic education projects developed by design faculty from the best graphic design departments in the world: Yale, CalArts, London College of Printing, and Cranbrook.

The class will conduct projects to explore typographic expression, learn correct typesetting practices, and increase design acumen: how to say things clearly with graphic design.

The class will host guest lectures by some of Japan’s top graphic designers.

The class is Mac-based, but will apply equally to PC-based environments.

Course reading:
Thinking with Type, Ellen Lupton
Assorted handouts

More information:
www.tuj.ac.jp/cont-ed

Néojaponisme contributor Patrick Macias is giving a lecture at Temple University Japan, Azabu-juban Campus on March 13 entitled “Otaku Power - Trivia/Desire and Transformation”. The lecture will go from 6:30pm to 8pm.

Weekly Shonen Sunday 週刊少年サンデー and Weekly Shonen Magazine 週刊少年マガジン are celebrating their Golden Jubilee together on the 17th of March this year. (Both published their inaugural issues on the same day, a truce reached only after racing to be the first weekly manga magazine shaved two months off Sunday’s initially planned lead time.) More here, including a cover gallery.

Speaking of which, the cover of this week’s Sunday pays tribute to the very first Sunday cover, with Matsuzaka Daisuke in the role of Nagashima Shigeo.

You can’t see it at this resolution, but under the banner to the right, where the original said “Sports, manga, science, TV”, the new edition says “Sports, manga, video games, anime.” Kind of sad that the focus of the magazine has narrowed so much that “TV” has the ring of broad-mindedness by comparison.