Michelle Gunn! Michelle Gunn! Michelle Gunn!

Entries categorized as ‘All My Friends’

PINKY – Super Girls Magazine!

July 21, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Morning Pep

Bookmark and Share

I usually see this hour (5:39a.m.) from the other side. So I thought I’d add a little perk to my morning brew by visiting the site for Japanese women’s fashion mag, PINKY.

Part of Shuiesha’s (one of Japan’s top cats in the publishing lark) stable of monthlies, PINKY is aimed at fashion conscious twenty-something gals. PINKY launched in 2004 as a sister magazine to the Japanese version of Seventeen, with several staff moving to help set up the newer title.

To my untrained eye, the magazine’s target readership is fresh, cute and girly-graduating-to-feminine, with aspirations of style and sophistication. Earlier this year one of PINKY’s free gift giveaways was a Betsey Johnson x Hello Kitty pouch.

(My two yen on Japanese magazines after the jump)

(more…)

Categories: All My Friends · Books · Japan
Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Anger – Lucifer Rising

July 10, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Feeling happy

Last week sitting in Tom’s Kitchen, where the pork chops were quietly breaking my heart, Rossetti pulled out a bag from under the table. “For me?”, my brain salivated. A peek inside revealed Anger 3, The Devils and The Tempest (Derek Jarman’s).

More (including Anger’s Lucifer Rising on YouTube) after the jump.

(more…)

Categories: All My Friends · Books · Film · Food
Tagged: , , , , , ,

I, Doll (part II)

May 5, 2008 · 5 Comments

Little doll I can’t forget. Bring happiness and everything.

Imagine life without the Spice Girls. You’re enjoying it, aren’t you?

Welcome to the world of the Japanese idol, for the large part still blissfully untouched by the ersatz feminism and sublime marketing strategy that was Girl Power.

Whatever you think of the 90’s girl group phenomenon, it produced alumni with strong enough personalities and the independence to graduate to a wide variety of roles, away from their teen sensation roots and rapacious managers. For example: rich, famous footballer’s wife; rich, has-been rocker’s wife; rich, former-cutting-edge-comedian-turned-children’s-entertainer’s paternity suit.

Wait. Let’s start again.

(more…)

Categories: All My Friends · J-pop · Japan · Tokyo
Tagged: , , , ,

I, Doll (part I)

May 4, 2008 · Leave a Comment

The sweet scent of madness.

Cho-co-rei-ito diss-co. Cho-co-rei-ito diss-co.  Cho-co-rei-ito diss-su-co.

Insidious.

The group responsible goes by the name of Perfume. Irrepressibly perky, this trio of girls is riding high in the Japanese charts.

(more…)

Categories: All My Friends · J-pop · Japan · Music
Tagged: , , , ,

Pigeon & Lamb

April 24, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Not some English seaside resort variety act from the early fifties, but my dinner.

I sit at a table in the George & Dragon, a splendid English country pub, opposite my friend Cthulhu. We drink Weston’s cider. It’s scrumptious, redolent of umeshu & soda.The floor is covered with pale, undulating stone. Dark, gnarled beams span the ceiling.

(more…)

Categories: All My Friends · England · Food
Tagged: , , , , ,

The Mifune Toshiro of Microbes

April 22, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Aspergillus Oryzae: the Mifune Toshiro of microbes. The quintessential Japanese mould.

Koji-kin

This prince amongst microbes is also the star of Ishikawa Masayuki’s (石川雅之) manga and anime Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture (making my Toshiro Mifune analogy a little less tenuous).

(more…)

Categories: All My Friends · Anime · Food · J-pop · Japan · Japanese Food · Manga · Music
Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,