I mentioned last week that I’d be a guest this week on game developer Grasshopper Manufacture’s podcast (Flower, Sun, & Podcast), and the episode (5) is now up and you can download it here (it should be on iTunes too). Check it out if you want to hear me ramble (and ramble) about mostly game-related topics.

Pictured, the Grasshopper conference room — complete with ping-pong table — where we recorded the episode. Big thanks to Grasshopper producer Esteban Salazar for inviting me on the show.

Really hope to see lots of you there, and I promise comfortably cool air conditioning — how’s that for a selling point?

I’m pretty sure I hate Craig Mod, and the reason is because he keeps writing awesome essays and is doing plenty of things — like starting a “publishing think tank” called PRE/POST — that make me jealous. You really do need to go read his latest journal entry, “Kickstartup,” which tells the story of how he used Kickstarter to successfully fund the new edition of Art Space Tokyo, sharing everything he learned from the process. And even though it’s long, don’t Instapaper it, because you’ll miss out on the beautiful layout.

Pictured, Art Space Tokyo covers drying, after they’ve been hand-printed.

Episode 23 of Radio OK Fred is now up, and as you can probably tell by the photo, I unfortunately couldn’t make the recording because of scheduling issues. But it’s a terrific show, featuring special guest — and our good friend — Missla Libsekal, founder of Another Africa. All selections on the show are by her. The link to the episode is below along with the setlist, and you can subscribe to a feed as well.

Radio OK Fred 23 (46MB)

1. The Very Best (feat. Ezra Koenig) – “Warm Heart of Africa”
2. Malcolm Mclaren – “Double Dutch”
3. Miriam Makeba – “Pata Pata”
4. Madou & Mariam – “Sabali”
5. South African Gazelle – “Chic Afrique”
6. DJ Mujava – “Mugwanti”
7. MC Afrikan Boy – “Lagos Town”
8. Pasto Mbhobho – “Ayobaness”
9. Dirty Parraffin – “Aha – Mind Over Matter”
10. Schlachthofbronx (feat. MC Spoek Mathambo) – “Too High”
11. Spoek Mathambo – “Mshini Wam”

At least that’s what my dog was thinking. I was out just for a bit this morning to run a few errands in the neighborhood, only to get back and find the door in the shape you see above, and a missing dog. He not only broke through the door, but then managed to climb the walls around the garden, which are about a meter and a half high (the gate was still locked). Luckily he didn’t get too far, and someone grabbed him and then called the police. As soon as I got home I headed to the closest koban (police box), and they said they already had him and that they were going to bring him, which they did, in a van.

So yeah, this means I won’t be able to go to PechaKucha Night tonight (Vol. 75), but you should.

Update: Well, wife says she’ll try and get home from work early enough so I can still head out to PKN, so hopefully see many of you there.

That Graniph thing I teased last week? Details are now posted on SNOW Magazine, so go have a look. In short, every month I’ll be selecting my five favorite Graniph tees (produced during the previous month) to giveaway on the site, and at the same time we’re enlisting everyone to recommend artists who should work with Graniph, with the idea to produce a tee.

Pictured, one of the tees I’ve selected for this month’s contest, “Vale Tudo.”

So far I’ve only tweeted it, but let me mention here also that I’m very happy to announce that we will be celebrating the 15th anniversary of Knee High Media (Tokion, Papersky, Mammoth) during next month’s SNOW Magazine Cafe. The show will include a display featuring a selection of 15 magazines produced during those 15 years (one for each year). The display will actually make its debut at next week’s Tokyo Art Book Fair (July 30 to August 1), which takes place at both 3331 Arts Chiyoda in Akihabara and Vacant in Harajuku.

Feels like I’m due for a bit of teasing, so how about this: Be sure to check out SNOW Magazine on Monday for a bit of news in regards to something that involves everyone’s favorite design tee brand, Graniph. I won’t say too much, just that you will have a chance to get something, and maybe even help get a tee made. Even better, it’s going to be a regular thing.

The SNOW Magazine Cafe flyer is now out in the wild. Again, big thanks to Hiyoko Imai for the wonderful design, based on Luis‘ original poster design.

I’m still not quite sure why, but for some reason I’ve been invited to guest on next week’s episode of Tokyo-based game developer Grasshopper Manufacture’s podcast. So expect me to talk to about, yes, games, although I’m sure some design-related talk will happen as well — Grasshopper’s games are quite known for their stylish uniqueness in terms of graphic look. Another link I have with the studio is that I interviewed its founder, Suda 51, for Arcade Mania (for the retro chapter). I believe it will be up next Friday, and I’ll post a link to it when it does.

I’ve been a bit quiet on the SNOW Magazine Cafe front, but yes, it’s still happening next month at Cafe Pause (August 1-30), and I’m very happy to reveal the poster for the event. It was designed by my GOOD Inc. compadre, Luis Mendo, and I absolutely love the illustration he came up with. The poster will appear at the entrance to to cafe, and a slightly different version will be used for the flyer (and big thank to Hiyoko Imai for the help with that).

I also have a very exciting new development regarding the event — and SNOW Magazine in general — that is going to be very cool. I’ll announce more soon, but for now let’s just say that it truly embraces the medium that is being celebrated at the exhibition.

The thing that inspired me to make the change was seeing how Information Architects deals with comments on its site. It doesn’t. iA only adds a link to its Twitter account, and for those who followed the passionate discussion that followed Oliver’s first impressions of WIRED Magazine on the iPad, you’re well aware that it certainly didn’t hurt any, and in fact it was quite interesting to see where those discussions ended up taking place (on Twitter and on Flickr, as well as on other blogs).

So I’ve pretty much done the same, and now at the bottom of every post you’ll simply find an invitation to offer feedback through Twitter or Facebook. I’m really interested to see how it’ll all work, and welcome you to get in touch that way — and active as I am on Twitter, you’re bound to hear from me faster than you would here on the site. Of course, another bonus to this is that I won’t have to deal with comment spam anymore — YES!

I’m still unsure if it’s something I want to do for SNOW Magazine, but I am considering it. Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this, let’s just take it elsewhere.

Endtopic has been an amazing supporter of Radio OK Fred, and I absolutely love the cover they created for the post about our last episode (“Robots”).

I. Love. Gym Class Magazine. It’s a great indie magazine produced by one Steven Gregor that has been evolving in format since launch, with the latest issue (#6) now in full-color (the two previous issues were done through the Newspaper Club). And you really should pick up “The Magazine Fanboy Issue,” especially if like me, you really are a magazine fanboy (or fangirl). Here’s more on the issue, as well as a video flip-through, and you can buy it here. I’ll have a few issues at next month’s SNOW Magazine Cafe, and I’m also very happy to say that I’m contributing something to the next issue, but probably best not to say what that is just yet.

Also, Steven is on the lookout for some stockists in Tokyo, so if you have some tips and suggestions, let me know and I’ll pass it along.

The next PauseTalk (Vol. 43) will happen on the first Monday of next month, as usual, which falls on August 2, and it also doubles as a reception party for the SNOW Magazine Cafe, and will hopefully include lots of magazine-related talk.

As I did last month, I put out an attendance sheet to fill out, and so here is a partial list of attendees (just email me if you want to be added).

• Andrea Hope (Sandwich Maker/Zine Distributor)
• Calvin C. Chan (Web Developer)
• Claire + Sofie Tanaka (Translator + Kid)
• Edward Harrison (Designer/Illustrator)
• James Kay (Game Developer)
• Jean Snow (Executive Executor)
• Jeremy Staples (Indie Publisher)
• Jody Godoy (Writer)
• Michael Lam (Filmmaker/Animator)
• Nick Bruscia (Architect/Professor)
• Niko Lanzuisi (Filmmaker/Illustrator)
• Robb Englin (Industrial Designer)
• Ryan Winterhalter (Writer)
• Toby Klüpfel (Software Engineer)
• Tamio Teshima (Web Designer)
• Verena Dauerer (Editor)