Some truly excruciating t-shirt designs.

'Quality' denotes high quality

In Japan every bike is a fixed-gear bike.

Fujifilm

I found out that I live close to a Fujifilm-owned processing center. They actually develop slide film. Also they had an easier time understanding that I didn't want any prints better than anyone that I've ever dealt with in an American Walgreen's.

Work

From a rainy day last week.

A Crime Against Humanity

So, Im finally here in Japan typing on a keyboard where I am unable to discern the apostrophe key. In my apartment I have a security camera at my front door, a remote control for my lights, and another remote control for my air conditioning unit. Ive inquired about getting internet installed in my apartment and Ive been told it will take two months. If someone can give me a good answer as to why this is, Id really like to know.

Lately the big three or four beer breweries have been attempting to entice the 20-30 female demographic with various canned cocktail beverages. Last night I sampled what may be the most bizarre of the bunch, Calpis Sour. Calpis is an extremely sweet yogurt-esque drink with a natural not quite citrus flavor. Now combine that with vodka. I think I would rather have a Smirnoff Ice.

I was messing around with Photoshop the other day and made something that I actually like. I forgot my thumbdrive so Ill have to post it next time.

Before I left for Japan I was compiling a batch of some of my favorite photographs of the last twelve months. Ill probably post that too. And figure out how to use the apostrophe key on a Japanese keyboard.

News

So, I am going to be moving to Japan which will probably contribute significantly to the content of this blog.

I have Youtube video of an old performance piece posted by my friend Talena.



Also here is a music video that is a summation of my feelings at the moment.



And here is a video describing my feelings about moving to Japan in a month.

Two musical moments





Caboladies




Eyes and Arms of Smoke

Mr. by Mr.

I was having difficulty figuring out what my first entry should be. I realize I'm not really in the know enough to write about a lot of awesome/currently happening things.

Given the title of this blog, I thought it would be worth mentioning it's source. Mr. by Mr. is published by Kaikai Kiki and gives an overview of the artist's work. Some may be surprised to know that in addition to semi-creepy paintings of underage anime characters, Mr. has also done various public performances usually in the guise of ninjas or anime personalities. Additionally it includes excerpts from his personal diaries and other writings which don't particularly offer that much insight into his art-making, but are interesting as a backdrop to the pieces in the book.

Due to the limited availability and limited content of the book itself, it is probably only of real interest to people who are especially interested in Mr. himself or Kaikai Kiki. I was able to buy it a couple of years ago from the Giant Robot online store, which seems to always have some really great out of print books. If you happen to see it floating around somewhere you might want to snatch it up.

Why am I so interested in Mr. to begin with? I'm not sure. When I first became acquainted with Mr.'s work in early 2002 I was a bit shocked to see him openly projecting his pedophilia fantasies through his artwork. Now in 2008 when lolicon has become almost a household name and the accompanying trappings of moe warrant items such as this he seems like some kind of prophet.

It's no surprise that Mr. is the senior most protege of Takashi Murakami. As Murakami has stated himself, he is a failed otaku who caters his art to otaku sensibilities. For all intents and purposes, Mr. is an otaku attempting to project himself as an artist. To the casual viewer Mr. easily appears as a less-skilled Murakami copycat. His earlier works, those primarily featured in the book this entry is all about are simplistic and have little in common with the lushly illustrated doujinshi and CG games depicting lolicon type characters. Although his characters sometimes display genitalia, there is an innocence about them that might be compared to the character design of the classic 70's anime series Heidi: Girl of the Alps.



I recently found this video that features a Mr. exhibition from 2007.







Here the increased complexity of the compositions themselves and the detail of the individual characters becomes immediately apparent. They have much more in common with their doujinshi counterparts that have been festering in the bowels of Akiba. Being a senior employee at Kaikai Kiki, I have to assume that Mr. is now using the same stable of tireless assistants as Murakami has to execute his work. Obviously the sculptural pieces were not executed by his own hand. It's rather difficult to find details on any Kaikai Kiki artist besides Murakami (at least in English). If anyone can point me to any info or further reading that would be great.

It looks like I'm off to a great start. Long-winded and without a point.

P.S. I really like Japan.

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