My brother and I arrived in Tokyo this evening and took the Narita Express to Tokyo Station. We’re staying at this great hotel that my friend Paul recommended, the Sanuki Club in the Azabujuban neighborhood. This whole city is like some giant prayer to the graphic and industrial design gods. I don’t think I could get enough pictures of it all if I was here for a year, everywhere you look is some perfectly thought out sign or machine. I think I took 20 pictures in the airport bathroom alone. I’ll try to post as much interesting stuff as I can find over the coming week.
I’m at the airport about to leave for Tokyo, then it’s on to Thailand, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Prague, and finally London. All told it will be about a month of travel during which time I may not be posting here quite as often as usual. But I will try to post as many shots of interesting things I find along the way. The above image is from the Flickr Tilt-Shift pool, an interesting photography technique I’ll be posting more on later. Hope everyone is having a good new year!
Thought I’d kick the new year off proper with a song from the French Kicks album "Two Thousand". Buy the album, it’s great, here’s a taste. French Kicks – So Far We Are:
Not to sound macabre, but the time has come to lay another year to rest and welcome the unknown. It’s a little bittersweet, 2007 was a great experience in many ways, but I am sure 2008 has some treats in store and hopefully some hefty doses of learning and evolution. I want to thank everyone for supporting me and inspiring my work and to wish you all a happy newyear!
Got an update on the Stockholm workshop via the organizers:
"This event is FREE as previously stated. However, seats are limited, so please do wait to order plane tickets and what not until we release information on how to RSVP. Also, if there are any questions regarding the event, feel free to contact me: marcus.stade at gimlet.se"
I have received word that they are putting together some sort of ticketing / RSVP system right now. I will be posting more info as it becomes available, and you can always check the original event post as I will be updating that as well.
Another track from what is fast becoming my favorite poet-scientist-philosopher-band, Mahogany (you may remember them from this post). This one is off their "Connectivity!" album. It doesn’t get much better than this bassline; I think they used a Rickenbacker bass and that sounds a lot like a Casio for the chorus melody, simply amazing. They also happen to have some beautiful album covers. Anyone know who does the artwork? Also, anyone know why I don’t live in Lima, Peru so I can see them live?…Seems to be the only place they play. Click below to hear "Mahogany – The View From The People Wall"
I’ll be hosting a free (thanks to our gracious sponsors) workshop / talk in Stockholm during January. The workshop will focus on a lot of the concepts I covered in the the Barcelona and New York series along with some new ideas and a good dose of design theory. I usually do a lot of hands on work within Photoshop so you’re encouraged to bring a laptop if you want to follow along. There will be a full question and answer period at the end so come prepared if there are any specific concepts you’d like to discuss.
It should be a fun night, the event itself will last about 2 hours and afterwards we’ll move over to the hotel bar for some drinks and mingling. I’ll be bringing some prints from The Shop, but due to the distance I will be traveling for this one, bringing shirts won’t really be practical. Due to other limitations there will not be a live Tycho set, but I will be playing some new music and any questions you have about music are welcomed. Hope to see you all out!
Flasher By The Sea Presents:
Scott Hansen / ISO50 Blending Analogue & Digital: A Design Workshop January 25, 2008 – 18:30 Stockholm, SWE Cost: Free (thanks to our sponsors) RSVP / Tickets: Info is here
Arranged by Stockholm Multimedia Usergroup and Grafiskt Forum Sponsored by Adobe and Gimlet
Clarion Hotel, Skanstull Ringvägen 98, BOX 20025 Stockholm Telefon: +46 (0)8 462 10 00 Arrive at the lobby and there will be signs pointing to the event.
M83 – Run Into Flowers (Jackson Mix) This is the Jackson remix of M83’s "Run Into Flowers", simply beautiful. The cover art above is from the full album which did not contain this version, but I like that cover better than the single (which did include the remix) so I went with it. Anyone know who art directed these covers? Have a listen below.
[audio:flowers.mp3]
Here’s the video for the original version, a decidedly more psychedelic outing. It’s quite pretty, but a little monotonous for a four minute video; seems more like an outtake from some live visuals. But considering the chorus is "give me peace and chemicals" it’s not such a stretch that most of it’s intended viewers could remain transfixed for it’s duration. I saw M83 a couple years back when they came to San Francisco with Ulrich Schnauss. It was a pretty impressive show, complete with an entire band and live instrumentation.
