Fans of Japanese graphic design, rejoice: René Walter, of Germany’s Nerdcore website, has amassed an amazing collection of vintage Japanese advertisements on Flickr. He’s certainly found a lot gems.
Here’s a taste of René‘s Vintage Japanese Advertising (Misc).
More after the jump…
Hello Damage posted this rather odd Japanese sex-tip book from the 60s online. Now, I can’t read Japanese, so I don’t know if Hello Damage is pulling non-Japansese speakers legs with the translations or not? You decide. And if you haven’t figured it out by the title already, it’s probably NSFW.
(via reddit)
20-year-old Tokyo-based artist Mayuko of Tama Art University created this rather odd typeface using human leg hair.
I’m assuming it’s not hers.
(via Nerdcore)
David Greenfield has amassed a collection of records from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Japan which are all available for purchase online. I liked going through his collections from the 60s and 70s. It’s a great resource for loopy graphic design inspiration!
More after the jump…
Director Samuel Cockedey says, “A tribute to Ridley Scott and Vangelis, whose work on Blade Runner has been a huge source of inspiration in my shooting time lapses.
Shot over a year in Tokyo with a Canon 5dmk2, mainly in the Shinjuku area.”
(via Nerdcore)
Is this a reaction to the “perfection” of plastic surgery? Are we so inured to freakish “perfection” that the pendulum is finally swinging in the other direction?
Then again, this, too, is artificial. I’m confused!?!
Dental Salon Plaisir says its Tsuke-yaeba—or Stick-on Crooked Teeth—will impart that desirable “imperfect” look to men and women alike, making them more attractive to the opposite sex.
The theory behind that slightly odd approach is that classic beauty tends to scare away timid suitors, whereas a more down-home look is easily approachable.
Similarly, some Japanese women have been reported to favor men wearing glasses, as the physical flaw has a comparable aphrodisiac effect.
Anyone seeking Tsuke-yaeba will need to fork out upwards of ¥30,000 ($390) and undergo a short procedure as a Plaisir dentist applies the plastic gnashers with glue. Naturally, they’re color-matched to your real teeth.
Read more: Tokyo dental fad? Make your teeth look worse
(via Neatorama)
Wild Zero is a cult/trash classic - a bizarre mixture of zombie-horror and rock’n'roll-comedy from Japan. It stars the excellent garage punk band Guitar Wolf
(comprising members Guitar Wolf, Bass Wolf and Drum Wolf) doing battle with a marauding horde of zombies from outer space, and a corrupt alien nightclub owner who steals their wages, armed only with fire-sptting motorbikes, cheap sunglasses and the power of rock’n'roll (oh, and some guns and a magical guitar pick!)
Imagine if the Ramones had wandered onto the set of Peter Jackson’s Brain Dead just as the crew held a mutiny being led by John Waters, and you’re kind of nearly there. The fact that this hails from Japan makes it all the more strange of course, and while you may snigger at the band’s mis-pronounced rallying cry of “Rock’n'Roll!” (repeated by the main protagonist, Ace, a Guitar Wolf super-fan who accidentally saves the band before getting himself into a whole heap of zombie trouble while trying to rescue a shy girl - or is she?), I guarantee you will be shouting it by the end of this movie too. As you’d imagine the soundtrack is awesome, and there’s even some unexpected innovation - like two zombies french-kissing, surely a first? If you’re looking for a feel good adventure ride just now, this is the film for you. Here’s the original Japanese trailer:
Thanks to Geoff Crowther for reminding me of this gem.
After the jump - it’s WILD ZERO!
The Clone Factory in Japan can “clone” your likeness onto a doll, which brings a whole new meaning to playing with yourself.
Check the full story here.
A picture tale of doll cloning, after the jump…
With thanks to Steve Duffy
The Jacket Lunch Box is a Japanese blog dedicated to turning album covers into bento boxes. He’s done so many of them. This enterprise looks time-consuming. All hail our arts and crafts otaku overlord!
More bento boxes after the jump…
Particles is an “illumination installation” by Japanese artists, Daito Manabe and Motoi Ishibashi, which presents:
...seemingly floating lights that create a fantastic afterimage, this work centers around an organically spiral-shaped rail construction on which a number of balls with built-in LEDs are rolling while blinking in different time intervals, resulting in spatial drawings of light particles in all kinds of shapes. The illumination’s three-dimensional design, achieved through a fusion of the rail construct’s characteristic features and communication control technology, takes on various appearances depending on the viewer’s position. Look forward to an exciting new work that combines generally entertaining ideas and sophisticated information technology in everything from LED devices and other hardware to programming.
Particles is currently on display at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Japan.
The Daily Telegraph reports on massive floating islands of garbage, some almost 70 miles in length, caused by last month’s tsunami in Japan, which are causing chaos in shipping lanes in the Pacific Ocean, as they slowly head for the west coast of the America.
Cars, tractors, boats and the occasional entire house have been spotted floating on the surface of the Pacific Ocean in the aftermath of the March 11 Japanese tsunami triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake.
The largest “island” of debris stretches 60 nautical miles (69 miles) in length and covers an expanse of more than 2.2 million square feet, according to the US Navy’s 7th Fleet, which is closely monitoring the floating rubbish.
“It is very large and it’s a maritime hazard,” Lieutenant Anthony Falvo, deputy public affairs officer for the US Navy’s 7th Fleet, told the Daily Telegraph.
“The damage it can cause is anything from piercing the hull of a ship to leaving dents or getting wrapped up in propulsion systems.”
Experts have reportedly estimated that it could take up to two years for the floating tsunami debris to hit Hawaii and three years for the West Coast.
The US navy is currently working with civilian construction companies from Japan on attempts to start removing the floating debris from the ocean.
More photographs and information here.
More photos of giant isles of debris after the jump…
The Rug Cop is a spoof of 1970s Japanese TV cop shows. Directed by Minoru Kawasaki, The Rug Cop takes you on a wild ride of crime-fighting madness on the steets of Tokyo with a wig-tossing cop as the main hero.
(via Neatorama )
In the space of just over a week, the German deep house production team Snuff Crew have put together a whopping 45 track Japanese benefit compilation, with all proceeds going to the Red Cross’s earthquake relief operation. These guys aren’t messing around, they really have got the cream of European house and techno producers on board to help out. Have a look at the staggering tracklist:
01. Laurent Garnier – Cancel The Apocalypse
02. Joe Drive – The Delivery
03. Humandrone – Sun Pillar On the Debris
04. Zwei Of Snuff Crew – Fukushima
05. Billie Ray Martin and Hard Ton – Sold Life (Luke Solomon Remix)
06. Quinto – We Don`t Sleep At Night Part 1
07. KiNK – Memories From The Future
08. Neville Watson – Keep On
09. Patrick Pulsinger – 12a (Dub Version)
10. Dance Disorder – Future Retro
11. Legowelt – I Want Your Love
12. The Saint Petersburg Disco Spin Club – Birds Of Japan
13. DJ Gio MC-505 – My Face On Rushmore Mount
14. Marcello Napoletano – Acid Sunday
15. Morning Factory – Deepest Thoughts
16. Detachments – Holiday Romance (Andy Blake`s Mix For A World Unknown)
17. Photonz – Carnival Of Light
18. The Model – Bump And Jack
19. Hard Ton – Marilyn (Zoe Xenia Dub`n Pop Mix)
20. Elec Pt.1 – It´s House
21. Hieroglyphic Being – Siddharta (Part1)
22. DJ M-Traxxx – House Thunda (Unreleased Mix)
23. Roberto Rodriguez – The Girl Who Silenced The World
24. Discodromo – Bunraku
25. Romina Cohn – Follow Me
26. Meschi – Stay And Play
27. House Machine – Relief (Mix for Japan)
28. Demetrio Giannice – Untidled (One for larry) (Strictly For Japan Mix)
29. Moralez aka Telecommander1 – Life Time Groove
30. Simoncino – Japanese Heart
31. Pathetik – Accroupi
32. Roland Bassline – Ode To Mick
33. Ascii.Disko – Blues For The Red Sun
34. Joel Alter – Roll With Me
35. Andreas Henneberg, Marquez Ill, Leigh Myles – Thousand Paper Cranes
36. Eins of Snuff Crew – Kana Power
37. Remute – Worldfingers
38. Oliver Dodd – Tokyo Lovers
39. Lukatron (aka Luke Solomon) – Tommy´s Cream Soda
40. Renato Cohen – Silly Walk
41. Featherweight – Featherweight (Expanded Mix)
42. Kool & Duvall – U Lift Me Up (Craig Stewart Remix)
43. Fran Mela aka I.F.M. – Not A Game
44. Phil Moon aka Valyom – Einstein Romance
45. Mark Boombastik & Eduardo Delgado Lopez – Anders
Snuff Trax For Japan is available to download from What People Play.
For more info on the project, and Snuff Crew, visit their website.
In 1992 I attended a lecture by Noam Chomsky at a high school auditorium in Los Angeles. During the Q&A Professor Chomsky was asked what televised news sources he recommended and he said said none of them. He had particularly biting comments to make about how CNN “packaged” the (first) Gulf War as infotainment with clips of military jets taking off, waving American flags and footage of targets being hit that looked like video-games with a martial beat soundtrack. How can you expect the public to have an objective view of the country’s foreign policy and military actions, he asked the audience, when they’re fed images from the military itself via a tightly controlled press pool designed to foster an “us vs. them” mindset by a for profit news outlet who find their highest ratings in the midst of war, scandal and crisis? And NBC was at this time owned by General Electric, the #1 company in the world to make money from war. Who could you trust?
I used to be an absolute TV news junkie, but after his words sank in, I found the more and more I drifted away from it. I did most certainly feel manipulated whenever I was watching CNN. It became really fucking annoying to me once it had been pointed out so bluntly what they were up to and how far up the White House’s asshole they’d climbed. It’s worth mentioning that it was four years prior to the launch of Fox News when Noam Chomsky made these observations. To satiate my infomania, I was soon subscribing to five daily papers and 70 monthly magazines that ranged from far-right and far-left conspiracy theory zines, to Vanity Fair and everything in between. In addition to things like In These Times or Z magazine, I also subscribed to The National Review (before it became absolutely worthless on every level) and Free American and various libertarian publications. I picked up anarchist monthlies, eco warrior magazines and just basically everything. Extreme perhaps, but at least my information sources did not have an emotionally leading soundtrack and ludicrous music video montages of saluting soldiers, missiles being fired to slaughter people at a distance and red, white and blue flags flying in the wind.
Much of the time, TV news just felt like I was being shouted at by idiots. It was infuriating. By 1996—the year Fox News launched although I was barely aware of it at the time—I cancelled cable because I never ever watched it and it was just a waste of $70 bucks a month. If it wasn’t for my wife, I’d have never had it since (and I still never watch TV news unless there’s something really significant happening).
The brilliant and sardonic British writer and TV presenter, Charlie Brooker performs a parallel service for BBC viewers that Professor Chomsky once did for me, to illustrate a similar point he made recently—with well-chosen clips—about the despicable way the news media is treating the crisis in Japan. Watch this, it’s really good.
(via Cynical-C)
Previously on DM:
Charlie Brooker’s How TV Ruined Your Life.
One Redditor guesses the flavor as “Honey Nut Crunch.” That looks pretty accurate to me.
(via reddit)