shin tanaka vinyl toy debuts

mutual admiration society member shin tanaka was very kind to send me a BEAUTIFULLY signed vinyl figure produced by play imagination from singapore. in terms of design process, it's very interesting to see this come full circle. re-cap: shin tanaka makes PAPER figures inspired by the popular urban vinyl phenomenon. this concept bring the joy of color and form to the masses without having to spend much money or even to leave your house – just print, cut, glue and there it is! the nature of cut/paste/bend/ with shin's great design sense produced a unique vocabulary of form evocative of the urban vinyl genre. now there is an actual vinyl version of the paper figure that has made him famous!

also, look how nice he signed the piece in the back. thanks mr. tanaka!

nooka sightings: lil wayne on SNL

lil wayne was on SNL last saturday, have a look at the clips here.
his nooka gold nooka is pretty sharp there [especially with a green electric guitar] and the orange aluminum nooka is hard not to notice – both look great on tv.
buy yours here and at other fine retailers worldwide! the gold model lil wayne is wearing here.

thank you mister lil wayne!



thank you magnus in sweden for sending me better links than i first posted.

reminder: new paintings and sculpture at halcyon

don't forget to swing by halcyon in dumbo brooklyn to see my new paintings and black fairy sculptures this thursday evening. dj's nick chacona and alex graham will be spinning. i will be super jetlagged as i'm posting this from narita airport in japan!

add "japanese journalist" to my resumé

i started writing a column for japanese fashion and lifestyle online magazine, openers. last month they ran an intro on me with an interview, and this month an article i wrote on the vanishing remnants of futurism in new york city [they want me to write articles with a designer's focus on new york city]. i have to say, it's a great way to force myself to keep up on japanese writing as i've gotten quite rusty over the years. no english version though you can read it here.

2 random japan photos

chewing gum for all you spunky heads!
the giant clam is a taira-gai, i've never seen one before but it's supposed to be delicious as sashimi and sushi.. it's HUGE – bigger than my hand.

found a cool sushi glossary online as well. check it out here.

yokohama triennale opening party

some fotos of the 2 venues and opening party. one foto of me with chiemi of pingmag!

it's really weird, when i arrive in tokyo from nyc, i feel how much cleaner tokyo is. when i go to yokohama [only 30 minutes by express train from tokyo] i think "was tokyo this dirty and run down when i left it a few hours ago?!". this should tell you how well maintained yokohmama is as you can probably see from these photos. the renovation of the red brick factory/warehouse is amazingly well-done. the new yokohama passenger terminal is beautiful [the opening party for the triennale was really dull though...artful yet unsatisfying catering, understaffed, no music, and a noticeable lack of enough interesting people in the crowd].

hidden alleys and bar piano

there are some impossibly tiny commercial spaces in tokyo, most famous are tiny bars tucked into narrow alleys that sometimes seat 4 people at most. i was taken to bar piano by mixologist Mr. Rua, who i met at rooms [he's a friend of the people behind kyara jewelry] and it one of those hidden secret places [appointment only]. first floor of the bar is the bar and a piano, 2nd floor seats maybe 8-10 people [our group was about 8]. strange thing is that it's on an alley i never noticed in all my years passing by and parking my bike not 15 feet from the bar when i'm in shibuya – truly an alice through the looking glass experience!

it's quite obvious that none of these types of establishments are up to fire code, and this alley [like many others before] is slated to be razed. current tenants have 2 years to leave.

photos are top: mr. rua outside bar piano. bottom: the ceiling of the upstairs room.