japanamerica

... are precisely this prescient! One of the challenges of road work, or book tour gigs, or just speaking gigs generated by a specific book, is confronting wildly divergent audiences and attempting to reach them for forty minutes or so--in the absence of a drum kit, a loud guitar and a dazzling vocalist (i.e., a band). (Yes, that's a piano behind me. But no one played it--even after I begged.) Last night I gave a presentation to a bi-cultural, partially bilingual group of American and Japanese high schoolers at Keio Academy's spacious campus just north of the city. I've now spoken at anime conventions, business federations, government agencies, embassies, museums, galleries, universities, radio and TV studios and, of course, bookstores. But an auditorium filled with teens who happened to spend a steamy afternoon beforehand at a 5-hour baseball game at Yankee stadium ... well, this was a first. Me vs. Matsui = Nolo contendere . As you might imagine, conventional spiels don...

One of Japan's biggest, oldest and most prominent book and magazine distributors filed for bankruptcy in Japan on Thursday. When I was in the Bay Area last year, hopeful talk of Yohan's life-saving investments in Cody's Books and Stone Bridge Press prevailed. Bankruptcy filings are far rarer in Nippon than elsewhere--especially the US. Long hot summer. Indeed.

Back from a long weekend in the Catskills (means "cat's creek," in Dutch, and suggests the presence of Bobcats and other felines, but now signifies numerous mountainous resorts north of the city)--and back in action, speaking tomorrow at Keio Academy New York . On Friday I fly to Portland to appear at the SubVersion Anime Festival , then head to Seattle for meetings and friends. Lots of activity on new and ongoing projects, including Anime Masters & Masterpieces and some just cinched West Coast bookings. More on that later. NY radio just declared: "Tomorrow will be hazy, hot and humid," but when it comes to all three, Tokyo trumps NYC on any given summer's day. And muttering atsui ("it's hot") under one's breath eighty times an hour, as Tokyoites do, doesn't help a whit. Finally realized that trekking between Tokyo and New York is not exactly a recipe for rest. But as Milton writes in Comus : 'what hath night to do with sleep...

My dear friend, uber-artist and literati vet Mario Tauchi (wall-painting above) is hosting a series of events and exhibitions relating to self-expression and sanity (mutually exclusive?) from July 18 to 31. Mario graciously invited me to join him, a fellow Tokyo artist and a gallery owner/art researcher on a panel discussing 'Artists and Self-Management' tomorrow night (Friday, July 18) at the void+ gallery in the Minami-Aoyama/Omotesando area. Starts 7 p.m. If you're in this town, enduring its torturous temperatures and keen on airing out, please join us. (*note: the dominant language will be Japanese.) Info below: PSYCHE-GA-DELIC 2008 void+map Mario Tauchi-PSYCHE-GA-DELIC 2008 void+ is showcasing Mario Tauchi's PSYCHE-GA-DELIC 2008 from July 18th to July 31st. Mr. Tauchi has been expressing himself by creating Mandala paintings in various media and also collaborating with musicians, visual artist and oth...

As promised, here are my musings in the Daily Yomiuri on Speed Racer 's Japan premiere on the largest screen in the world, and a few thoughts on other Hollywood anime incarnations, due in cinemas shortly. With Hellboy 2 and The Incredible Hulk doing their duties at the box office this summer, Speed Racer 's bizarre collapse may be a lesson for such Mobius Strip transformations. The appeal of anime is very specific: It's cool because it's messy. ... duh. Punk, Hip-Hop, novels anyone?

This is an interview I gave a few weeks ago to Australian Radio (ABC). No aggrandizement, but the overall program is smart--thoughts on Kawaii in English start 24:50, and I am on around 35:00: ABC Australia