Posts tagged with Japan
November 11, 2009 | New Trends | by The Uncool Hunter |
The first publication of the book 101 Unuseless Japenese Inventions, at the end of the 90s, was centered around Chindogu art. Created by author Kenji Kawakami, this art of unusual and useless inventions, displayed different ways of solving the everyday problems. One of the Chindogus is the Baby Mop, a pair of trousers and a sweatshirt for babies with strips that clean the floor while the baby crawls. Read more
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November 9, 2009 | New Fashion | by The Uncool Hunter |
From the depths of functional creativity comes this invention out of Japan: the back scratching t shirt, the fastest and most illogical solution to fight an itch.
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October 28, 2009 | New Music | 
by Casper Johansson 
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Japanese DJs, 80kidz, have added their touch to Metric’s hit Help I’m Alive. Having already created remixes for CSS, Simian Mobile Disco, Phenomenal Handclap Band, and Dan Black, 80kidz have taken Metric’s original recording and added catchy synth loops and bouncy drums. We have it available for free download via our Music Download section [psst, it's in the third column of the site]. Read Metric’s Secret Playlist, where they write about their eight favourite songs right now.
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October 27, 2009 | New Design | by Alison Zavos |
While perusing Kinokuniya Bookstore on my lunch break, I came across the book, Face Food by Christopher D Salyers. Face Food documents very elaborate Bento boxes called Charaben in which food is made to look like anime characters, animals, plants and flowers. Everyone from Piglet to Pikachu is portrayed, with foods such as broccoli, ham, carrot, cheese, egg, imitation crab meat, and more. I’m blown away by the creativity and time (anywhere from thirty minutes to three hours) that mothers — and father, sometimes — dedicate to making these works of art for their children to take to school. Read more
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October 20, 2009 | Video | 
by Zolton |
From the same TV world that brought us Human Tetris comes this terrifying reality prank show where unsuspecting people are filmed while they think a real-life shooting is going on around them. In this particular installment, a man is ‘tricked into thinking that he’s filming a documentary about telephone scammers’, during which a fierce sniper attack is launched on the room. Funny? Kinda. But cruelly so.
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October 19, 2009 | New Products | by The Uncool Hunter |
The new Japanese battery — NoPoPo — ensures that you will never run out of energy, even in those unexpected moments. This promise is made possible because you can charge them by inserting either water, urine, blood, apple juice, beer and saliva into their base with a teat pipette which is included in the package. So now you know it! Is this a way of turning drunks into real plants that generate energy? Their operation is possible thanks to the reaction produced by the magnesium and the carbon of the urine. According to the online magazine The Register, these batteries are only being sold in Japanese stores and the date of the arrival to the Western markets is unknown. Unfortunately they can only be charged between two and five times — an ambiguous number — and the price is not cheap at U$15. Read more
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October 15, 2009 | New Design | by Zolton |
Who said Hello Kitty wasn’t real? Well, as real as plastic can get, anyway. These Hello Kitty Anatomy toys have been designed by Dr. Romanelli and open a window to the inner workings of these iconic Japanese characters. Read more
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October 7, 2009 | New Art | by Gerry Mak |
Ikeda Manabu is the perfect example of why the arts need to be funded. How could the Japanese artist have had time to develop his style of impossibly detailed drawings while simultaneously holding down a full-time job? Read more
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September 30, 2009 | New Food and Packaging | by Zolton |
I want to live in Tokyo, to be immersed in a city where quirky is cool and everything can be turned into cute cartoon characters. This awesome packaging of tiny baby crabs with a spicy topping may be a little literal, but it’s more fun that anything Birdseye have ever released.
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September 17, 2009 | New Illustration | by Ilana Kohn |
The moment Japanese artist Fujita Minako’s site comes up, and I get a load of that adorable floating island, I think Howl’s Moving Castle! I’m hooked. Diving into the rest of her site, I’m even more won over. She has such a way with landscape vignettes and little buildings. This stuff is straight out of my most pleasant day dreams. Read more
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August 13, 2009 | New Products | by Casper Johansson |
Now, we could all do with one of these. The Japanese Popping Edamame Keychain has three beans, the middle one coming with any one of twelve random faces [see below] on it. What’s more, the ‘beans are connected to some sort of elastic band, so they pop back in to be popped again as many times as you want. It sounds silly, but trust us, these things are highly addictive’. Ah yes, perfect for the next boring office meeting. Read more
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July 23, 2009 | New Trends | by Gerry Mak |
From the various responses I got from my previous post about hipster hate being misguided, most people defined a hipster as people who are very young (let’s say below 25), live off of their parents, and don’t contribute to the scene they glom onto. The problem I have with this is that in my personal experience, this is not how most people define hipsters. Read more
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July 22, 2009 | New Fashion | by The Uncool Hunter |
Cosplay, an activity for lovers of comics and science fiction, was born in Japan in the 70s. The word derives from the combination of two British words: costume and play. So the translation would be ‘costume to play’. It consists of wearing the costume of some fiction character and dramatizing and acting like that character. The design and preparation of the costume also counts, as does the body shaping in order to make the costume fit and make it as ‘real’ as possible. Cosplayers take part in mass conventions around the world in order to decide the best of them. The most important of them is the World Cosplay Summit, which takes place in Japan every year. Read more
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July 16, 2009 | New Events | by Zolton |
Dalek’s paintings were originally populated by Space Monkeys, creatures inspired by the artist’s childhood and teenage years in Japan. His most recent paintings have metamorphosed into incredibly complex abstract works, emphasizing his meticulous attention to detail and amazing sense of colour and composition. Dalek’s work has been widely exhibited internationally, and he recently spent a year as an assistant of Takashi Murakami, probably the most famous artist in the contemporary art scene. His latest exhibition Dalek and Delta, runs at the Elms Lesters Painting Rooms from August 28 to September 26. He’ll be contributing guest posts to Lost At E Minor over the next two weeks on the art and music that’s inspiring his own work right now. Read more
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July 11, 2009 | New Trends | by Casper Johansson |
Snapped in Aichi, Japan, at a Truck Show for kids, this photo by Roger Snider captures a customized refrigerated delivery truck with around $100,000 worth of artistic enhancements. According to Snider, on this day, some ‘300 of these Art Trucks from various truck clubs showed up to help fund-raise for less fortunate kids’.
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Since graduating from art school a year ago, Mikhael Subotzky has taken his native South Africa and the international art world by storm. Read more
Melbournes laneways are cluttered with themed, designer bars. The challenge seems to be which is the most hip, funky and individual bar. Step in Section 8, an old inner city carpark furbished with warehouse pallets, patio heaters and a couple of freight containers, converted to serve you drinks. The vibe is fittingly low-key, with background music played at a reasonable level, frequently changing decor, and a variety of options to quench your thirst. It’s casual, fun and simple. Oh, and to keep it that way, there’s even a no suit policy! [photo via TravelMuse]
WeMe Creative has an awesome new female tee available called All About Me, featuring ‘pattern wrap over’ printing. Read more
I’m totally digging Andrew Schoultz’s dense line-work and limited palette. The San Francisco-based artist deals with political and social issues, but isn’t overtly a topical artist — the textures he achieves are similar to what I strive for in my own work. Read more
Monique Easton runs a blog called Baby Got Framed where she cataloges barely remembered evenings and cute hipster zombies. Read more
Set in a remote Chinese village in the 1920s during a cholera outbreak and with a revolution bubbling in the background, The Painted Veil is a wonderfully tortured love story which excels on all levels. Based on the W Somerset Maugham novel, it was a labour of love for stars Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, who also produced the film. Read more
These heady times call for heady music, something spaced-out, trance-y, weird, and devilishly ecstatic to distract us from reality. Chicago’s Cave heeds this call for musical escapism, channeling Hawkwind, Kraftwerk, funk, and tribal frenzy into their mothership-beaconing groove.
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Good thing Kris Kuksi channelled the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic stepfather, his disdain for ‘the typical American life and pop culture’, and his fascination with the macabre into obsessive, baroque assemblages, paintings, and drawings. Read more
Trip out with Sparrow Vs Sparrow’s retro illustrations, I love their aesthetic, color use and sense of humor. Read more
Italian-born, New York City-based photographer Paolo Ventura creates fairy-tale like pictures out of amazingly constructed, miniature dioramas that almost trick the eye into thinking he’s a tilt-shift photographer. Read more
T-post: the world’s first wearable magazine
So here’s the scoop. Every six weeks, T-post subscribers get a new t shirt issue in the mail, with a news story on the inside and an artist interpretation of that story on the front. Yes, we agree. It’s clever, clever. Read more
Alex Passapera’s dizzying pen and ink drawings are cascades of images melting into one another, often looking like contorting, mutating creatures spewing blood-like ink splatters. Read more
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
Tired of having your food stolen by sticky-fingered coworkers or roommates? Bullies taking your kid’s lunch? Well, worry no more. Anti-Theft Lunch Bags are sandwich bags that have green splotches printed on both sides, making your freshly prepared lunch look spoiled. So don’t suffer the injustice of having your sandwich stolen again! Read more
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