A new competition for Japanese artists who have practiced or studied in the UK. The competition is a form of research into a fluid ‘Japanese community’ in the UK and its ‘alumni’ by curator Helena Capkova. This competition is open to Japanese of any age, including students, graduates, and established artists. The competition is also open to any media including design. The only condition is contemplate the particular task of the competition.

The competition invites artists to assess 12th Century Japanese art theoretician Soetsu Yanagi’s 12 Criteria of Beauty through the creation of original works of art.

More here.

The application for the competition is here.

The deadline is 1/11/2008. There will be small prizes, but the most important thing is to give exposure to people who would not otherwise exhibited in the competitive London art world.

The exhibitions will take place in three places in London in December and January 2008/2009.

Good luck!

Obama / Biden

Osama Bin Laden

My first line of skateboards designed for Lesque, Tokyo’s hottest young skate company, is back from the plant. They may be available at your local skateshop if the Lesque boys don’t sell out on tour. Their “Couch Surfing” tour is pretty much the highlight of skate demos and culture in Japan this summer. If you have even the most remote interest in skating, go check them out. Seriously.

Lesque is an interesting company in that they have eschewed the traditional Japanese business model of sucking up to a distributor for manufacturing/funding, choosing to handle management and manufacturing themselves in a similar style to D.I.Y. outfits like Dischord Records.

Recently, one of their two pros, Shinichi Ito, got fed up with the minimal support offered by his supplementary sponsors and told them to take a hike. The result was this video. He is currently on the lookout for new sponsors (though Elwood already snatched him for clothing).

I’ll be briefly introducing the team before their presentation at the next PechaKucha Night at SuperDeluxe on September 24.

I am now a “Contributing Editor” for excellent global fashion business blog The Business of Fashion. My first two articles:

No Ametora | Why the Neo-Trad Trend Failed to Catch on in Japan

Japanese Women | From Luxury to Yuru-Nachu

Also, my “real job” these days is Chief Editor of new Japanese fashion site MEKAS. Although most of the information is targeted towards professional business subscribers, there are many free articles such as:

Interview with Takeji Hirakawa

Cher Scores with Eco Bag

(Please view MEKAS in browsers other than Internet Explorer.)

New ladies’ shirt design over at Graniph. Snap it up before it’s gooooone….

Debate over Google Street View continues

Global Voices Online is really, really good for this kind of coverage. Hats off.

経験人数は減少し1人エッチは増加中　ananのセックス特集

According to anan, onanism is on the rise within the Japanese female community. (Although similar surveys in ViVi etc. show much different results…)

Just finished a new music video for the one-off song “Day Ditty”, released by Craig Wedren (Shudder to Think) & E#Vax (Ratatat) for my imprint Mold Recordings.

The Meeting Modernity series of found photographs is the focus of Néojaponisme’s first traveling exhibition. Recently unearthed outside of the city of Sano in Tochigi-ken, this series of pictures documents Japan as it engaged with modernization and commercial photography in the Meiji and Taishō Periods. The series is comprised of portrait photography in particular.

The exhibition debuts next month at Young Art, a gallery in Los Angeles’ Highland Park.

MEETING MODERNITY
September 13- October 4 2008
Opening Reception:
Saturday, September 13, 2008 7-10pm

Young Art
747 N. Ave 50
Los Angeles CA 90042

Hot off the presses: I wrote an essay on the film “Beautiful Losers” for the latest issue of Idea.

There is also a glowing review of Néojaponisme contributor Ed Fella’s recent exhibition in Australia by Dylan Rainforth, as well.

Just finished a video for Strategy’s song “Lower Macleay” off of his brand spanking new Audio Dregs album, “Music for Lamping”.

I am DJing on Friday, around 11 or so. Nothing fancy, but come down if you can.

(I am not responsible for the event name.)

COCK & BALLS Vol. III
　　
************************
2008.8.1 (fri.)
at TREASURE CHEST (1F, 10-13 Maruyamacho, SHIBUYA)
start 22:00 - all night
Admission FREE
DJs….
Our Man Hickey
Marxy
Ian Martin (Call & Response Records)
DJ Delkumo

Do you guys like the 21st century? Music delivered through the air instead of on compact media!

Are you upset about the iTunes store’s low price of $.99 (or 150 yen) for a song? Do you want to pay much, much more? Maybe even 4x as much??

Then I recommend au’s LISMO service, currently charging ¥420 to download a single song. Maybe the Japanese just value pop music way more than philistine Americans. I mean, Americans also give “critical reviews” to album releases! How rude to the record companies!

While I was in Berlin and Paris, PingMag published a version of an article that I wrote about Kinya and Kao Hanada, a.k.a. Mumbreeze. If you have a chance, hit up Nagi Shokudo in Shibuya to see their current show.

If you have vegan homies visiting Tokyo, Nagi is my pick for the absolute best vegan food in Tokyo. It is also the cheapest and made by the raddest people.

While I am no longer a vegetarian, I tend to eat veggie around half of the time. I watched my previous fave veg restaurant, Ecru in Tama-Plaza, go under due to lack of patronage. I sincerely hope that this doesn’t happen with Nagi. They are in Shibuya, so it’s doubtful that rent is that cheap. Go there. Eat something. They do massive lunch and dinner specials where you will be stuffed to the gills for under ¥1000. And it’s DELICIOUS! They have an awesome drink menu and an English/Japanese zine library, to boot.

They also have an amazing shop section where you can buy books on off-kilter cultural topics like the history of elevators in Japan, zines from all over the world, and some of the best music coming out of the Japanese indie pop scene today.

A short video I made for GOOD Magazine is part of the Media That Matters Film Festival, playing globally at present through web streaming, events at museums, and at dedicated theater events. It’s the only animated Festival film, which seems surprising. (It’s not a fully animated video, as there is some footage in there, as well.)