So what’s the latest on SNOW? I guess two new developments art that I added a dedicated Twitter feed, and also created a Facebook fan page. The Twitter feed is mostly just automated with new articles from the site — because some people actually prefer that over RSS feeds these days — but I do keep an eye on it, and will reply to questions and comments. The Facebook page is just another way of putting the site out there, and should be a good way of informing members of SNOW-related events as they happen.

Regular content updates have also continued over the past week, with a few new guest columns and my regular news items. Here’s a list of what you may have missed over the past few days.

• One Coin Comics
• Wired’s Personalized QR Codes
• Annapurna Moonrise
• Lone Expression: Tommy Guerrero
• Asato Z
• COLORS
• Shinjuku Disco
• Labyrinth of Woods
• Koukotsu
• Japan Pan Am
• BQLSI STAR LASER
• Mountain House by Atelier Bow-Wow
• Measuring Tape Toilet Paper
• Kuri
• No Man’s Land
• The 69th Tokyo International Gift Show
• Memories of Island Life: Ogasawara, 1992
• A House Made of Two
• 24-Hour Subway in Tokyo
• Tiltshift Generator for iPad
• Hair Club for Men: Style #326
• Droog Town House
• G-Tokyo 2010
• First Trailer for Kitano’s Outrage
• JAGDA 2010 Calendar for iPhone

Some very good news: Arcade Mania is getting a 3rd print run! Huge thanks to everyone who has picked up the book so far — hoping you’ve enjoyed it — and here’s an invitation to everyone who hasn’t done so yet. The book is available in bookstores, but of course on Amazons worldwide too (Amazon US, Amazon Japan).

If you follow my Twitter feed, then you may have noticed all of the tweeting I was doing while in Kyoto this past weekend, and more importantly, adding the @hitotoki tag to all of those tweets. The reason is that I’m currently helping with the beta testing of the soon-to-relaunch Hitotoki, and as you can see, it now revolves around a strong Twitter component. I’ll just leave it at that for now, but if you want to be alerted when the site relaunches, you can sign up on the site, and follow them on Twitter as well.

So here we are, almost a week since the launch of SNOW Magazine. How have things been? Well, it was a bit of a rough ride for the first couple of days, mostly because I wasn’t happy with the way I had set up the domain (a lot of people will recall that you could only see “http://snow-mag.com” in the URL bar no matter the post, because I was just using forwarding/masking), and so I struggled a bit with this, but I can’t thank enough the man who always comes to my rescue when it comes to web-related problems, Patrick Benny (he’s helped countless times on this site as well). Do check out Patrick’s first column for SNOW as well, covering the launch of Yasuharu Konishi’s new label, READYMADE V.I.C.

So I think things should be running relatively smoothly from here on out, although do continue sending feedback if you encounter weirdness. The feed should also be working fine, so please subscribe to make sure not to miss any new content.

Also, here’s a quick list of the recent posts that went up on the site, in case you missed anything.

• Painting the Holy Mountain: Kiyoto Maruyama
• Interview with Tokachi Tsuchiya
• Jalan’s Latest Commercial
• READYMADE V.I.C.
• iPad in Japan
• Lotta
• TAB Needs Your Help
• Better Luck Next Tie
• House in Obama
• 51 Japanese Characters for iPhone
• The Unlikely Restaurater

This week’s episode of Radio OK Fred (20) is the “Dark” episode, something to listen to during these cold winter months. Below, a list of the tracks played as well as a link to download the episode — or subscribe to the feed.

Radio OK Fred 20 (41MB)

1. Tricky – “Broken Homes”
2. Siouxsie and the Banshees – “Christine”
3. Misfits – “Where Eagles Dare”
4. Rick White – “Darkland”
5. Eric’s Trip – “Hate Song”
6. Louis Prima – “That Old Black Magic”
7. Curtis Mayfield – “Right on for the Darkness”
8. The Gossip – “Dark Lines”
9. The White Stripes – “Death Letter”
10. The Velvet Underground – “The Black Angel’s Death Song”
11. Yo La Tengo – “Black Flowers”
12. Joy Division – “Love Will Tear Us Apart”

And we have ignition. SNOW Magazine is launched: snow-mag.com. I’ll post more later, but wanted to just put this out there, and invite everyone to take a look. Subscribe to the feed too!

The idea here was to get all of these people to contribute short monthly columns (or posts, or articles, or whatever you want to call them) covering topics that are near and dear to each of them. Some of these will be themed columns, some will be all over the place, some will be visual, I just promise that it will be a fun collection of content that I think needs to be shared.

Below, all of the people who have agreed to contribute to the site. Some have already determined exactly what they’ll be covering (and have even already sent me their first column), others are still not sure and we need to discuss things more, but you’ll be seeing their contributions on the site in the near future.

• Andrew Lee: Currently editor at Kodansha International, but also the art director of a little book I was involved with called Arcade Mania.
• Alin Huma: Photographer, zine maker, barista, and the man you need to talk to if you want to get a custom bike built for you.
• Audrey Fondecave: Artist, co-founder of OK Fred magazine, and of course my co-host for Radio OK Fred.
• Bianca Beuttel: Kyoto-based designer and essayist who will be continuing her coverage of Japanese package design, something she did brilliantly at PingMag.
• Claire Tanaka: Writer and translator based in Tokushima, whose byline you probably remember from PingMag and PingMag MAKE.
• David Marx: The man, the myth, founder of Néojaponisme, and currently Tokyo city editor at CNNGo.
• Hiroshi Egaitsu: Professor, thinker, freelance writer, and a man who has made you shake your ass at many a club event.
• Hiyoko Imai: Amsterdam-based designer and illustrator, and also a partner in a new project I’m involved with (but more on that later).
• Ian Lynam: Graphic designer, art director, typographer, professor, dancer…
• James Kay: Game developer and founder of the Tokyo-based Score Studios.
• Jeriaska: Contributor to many a game coverage site, who tends to focus on the music side of the games industry.
• Johan Prag: Art director who just can’t help but create beautiful things.
• Johnny Strategy: If you aren’t reading his site, Spoon & Tamago, then head there now.
• Josh McKible: Illustrator and, more and more, papercraft enthusiast and creator of NaniBird.
• Mari Kojima: Photographer who will get your body moving in her guise as member of Mammal.
• Marie Iida: Writer, translator, soon-to-be filmmaker, and all-around project booster.
• Masao Tamoaki: Founder of the online select design shop TokyoMade.
• Micke Thorsby: You know him as PMKFA, the graphic designer extraordinaire.
• Mark MacDonald: A true veteran of the world of games editorial (EGM, 1UP), and current localizer of some of Japan’s biggest games.
• Paul Baron: Co-founder of Tokyo Art Beat — a site I can’t imagine having to live without — and designer at Tokyo-based web studio AQ.
• Patrick Benny: No one has followed the Japanese indies music scene as long or as closely as him, and he’s also founder of the still amazing Tokyo Recohan online select shop of used Japanese CDs.
• Remo Camerota: Filmmaker, art director, comic creator, he’s also the author of the terrific Graffiti Japan.
• Shane Lester: Designer and art director at W+K Tokyo, member of the W+K Tokyo Lab, and the person you’re least likely to catch up on while biking.
• Sophie Knight: Freelance writer and zine fanatic, who creates her own as well.
• Yoshi Tsujimura: The founder and editor-in-chief of OK Fred magazine, a freelance contributor to many a publication, and my fellow co-host of Radio OK Fred.

So there you have it, the amazing group that will help give life to SNOW, and that I again must thank publicly for agreeing to join me on this crazy project. This is also the last of my pre-launch teaser posts, and the next time I mention SNOW will be to announce its launch.

As I’ve mentioned before, all the art/design/culture news bits you’re used to seeing here will show up on SNOW, but I’m upping the frequency, and the design of the new site will let me show off great images more than I could here. I also plan on eventually including the occasional feature and interview, but first I want the site to be running smoothly with all of the regular content.

All this also means that what you used to see here will change drastically, and yes, I know that will probably mean a drop in traffic, but I’m fine with that, especially if SNOW can get the attention I hope it will get. This site will now be more what you would expect someone’s blog to be, with coverage of all the things, projects (of which I have many, including further SNOW developments), and events (like PauseTalk) that I’m involved with. I imagine I’ll also cover things that my friend’s are doing that I don’t feel really fits in the magazine. If anything, things should get more personal here, which is something I’ve actually had a lot of requests for over the past few years (as content here tended more and more towards art/design news). I’ll also be able to talk more about what’s going on with SNOW, behind-the-scenes.

Another thing is that I’m very happy to announce that SNOW will be featuring posts from Néojaponisme and the English side of the newly re-launched Papersky website. You’ll find excerpts of all articles, with an invitation to continue reading on the respective sites. It’s my way of highlighting some terrific content that may get overlooked. Also, this content will be clearly label as so on the front page.

And then there are the guest columns, but more on that in the next post.

Even though we were all stuck in OK Fred HQ here in Tokyo — in Yutenji to be more precise — this week we get to travel a bit by way of our track selections, with “Places” being the theme for Radio OK Fred 19.

You’ll find the full track listing below, as well as a link to download the episode — although you may want to subscribe to the feed instead.

Radio OK Fred 19 (36MB)

1. Flin Flon – “Ukraina”
2. The Books – “Tokyo”
3. Bran Van 3000 – “Montreal (Featuring Youssou N’dour)”
4. Hibari Misora – “Under the Rainbow”
5. Unknown – “Piso Somalim #2″
6. Luna Parker – “Tes Etats d’Ame… Eric”
7. Serge Gainsbourg – “New York USA”
8. 3rd Bass – “Brooklyn-Queens”
9. Vampire Weekend – “California English”
10. The Magnetic Fields – “In My Secret Place”
11. Milosh – “The City”
12. Tahiti 80 – “Chinatown”

Below, a partial list of participants, and as always, please email me if you don’t find yourself there. The date for next month’s PauseTalk is a bit in flux right now as I’m having to deal with possible travel plans, so stay tuned to the PauseTalk site (by following the feed) or to the PauseTalk Facebook group to be informed on when it will happen.

• Felicity Hughes (Writer)
• James Kay (Game Developer)
• Jane Chan (Architect)
• Jean Snow (PT Barnum)
• Jeriaska (Writer)
• Josh McKible (Illustrator)
• Kaoru Sato (Artist)
• Martin Holtkamp (Photographer)
• Paul Vincent Farrell (Designer/Photographer)
• Samuel Cockedey (Photographer)
• Sarah Alexander (Photographer)
• Stephen Lebovits (Photographer)
• Tomas Rovina-Roquero (Game Developer)

So why launch a web magazine? It’s an idea I’ve long had — taking what I’ve done over the years with my own blog (this very place) and turning into something a bit less personal, and more magazine-like. I’ve always felt that a site named after a person and set up as a blog has certain limitations in what it can achieve. Yeah, yeah, no need to remind me that the name I’ve chosen for this new project doesn’t exactly stray far from what I have now, but to me it does — I wouldn’t have chosen it if my family name could not double as a common noun.

But more than just the name, it also comes through in the presentation. As you’ll see when SNOW finally launches, it was important for me to have a design that doesn’t just feel like a constant stream of titled posts in chronological order — even though it will still be powered by WordPress — and something that also allows me to be more flexible with image size.

Here’s where I address the most important component of this project though, and what will really set it apart from what you’re used to seeing here. I’ve long been tired of seeing so-called “Japanese experts” get a lot of attention for “finding” what amounts to the worst of Japanese culture, as well as all of the attention that the “this is my life in Tokyo, what a wacky place” blogs all get. I want to not only create a web magazine, but also have a place where a group of people (everyone I’ve invited to participate for the launch) can form a community — strength in numbers, as they say.

SNOW will have regular news items by me — the sort of art/culture/design-related stuff I currently cover on my blog — but the new thing, and what I’m hoping will help built interest in the site, is that a whole bunch of people I respect and like will contribute a monthly column to the site. Some of them will be thematic, some of them visual, and some of them all over the place, but the idea is that they will all somehow work into the “Tokyo/Japan” scope of the site.

Néojaponisme takes an exhaustive look at the decade that was in Japanese Music, from J-Pop to indies and everything in between.