Nigo keepin’ it fresh like raw fish

Photo by Jeff Minton for Portfolio

Portfolio magazine did a feature on Nigo, the ultra-rich creator of A Bathing Ape clothing brand. I blog for Portfolio.com once in awhile, and I was surprised to find that they would cover Nigo. The magazine tends to be a little “bougie” but apparently someone there thought this was important enough to give it a lot of space in the magazine.

Nigo, whose real name is Tomoaki Nagao, is at a crossroads in his career. He can either be a sellout and make Bape a much more international brand by opening more stores and pursuing other lucrative projects (Bape cologne? Bape sports drink? Bape condoms maybe?) or he could make the line more exclusive and go back to his Japanese underground roots.

The secret to Nigo’s success is that he fights to keep Bape fresh “as in raw-fish-in-a-refrigerated-case fresh. The clothes and footwear are intended to be seen as perishable; rare; manufactured that morning, perhaps; and presented for you in a sushi-bar-style display.”

TV Tokyo, The Small Station With The Big Heart

So I have to write a blog post about the Web site of a local news station. I thought it would be cool to review TV Tokyo’s site. There’s only one issue – it’s in Japanese.

This does present a problem, however, technically if the Web site is organized in the right way I might be able to still discern if it’s a good site or not.

TV Tokyo is the smallest of the Tokyo television networks. It’s nicknamed “Teleto” = terebi (television) + Tokyo. It’s known for it’s anime. TV Tokyo is responsible for broadcasting some of my favorite cheesy anime such as Bleach, Naruto, Love Hina, and Pokemon.

Kanye Mixtape and Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Kanye’s mixtape cover, photo from HipHopDX; Me and 9th Wonder at his album release show

Twenty-one years ago a beautiful little girl came into this world – it was moi! Your girl is finally legal. I had an awesome b’day party last night to celebrate turning the big 21. Of course I had to have karaoke, another great Japanese invention. For my b’day I will give yall a present. I got my hands on Kanye West’s mixtape a while ago, but I didn’t get a chance to post it. I hope Kanye is doing okay right now. His mother’s unexpected passing must be killing him; he hasn’t updated his blog in a while. Rest in peace Dr. Donda West.
The mixtape entitled The Graduate is WAY better (and longer) than the official Graduation CD. It’s all due to the mixing geniuses of Ohio-born Mick Boogie and Terry Urban not to mention my man, Carolina’s finest, 9th Wonder. This mixtape is SO DOPE. There’s some Nas, Mos Def, Jay-Z, Weezy, Biggie, Busta Rhymes, Lupe, Dr. Dre, Common, Talib Kweli, Ludacris, and Little Brother. Damn, even Patti Labelle? Talkin about pulling out all the stops, Takashi did some new cover art. Here’s a selection of some of my favorite songs. You really are suppose to listen to the tracks back to back. If you want to listen to the whole thing go here. Before you guys pounce on me about illegally downloading and sharing songs I will have you know that Kanye released this mixtape for free and wants people to download it. Make sure you go buy 9th Wonder’s new album and Little Brother’s new album. I’m going to see LB perform on Friday. For my b’day, can y’all get me a Takashi skateboard?

New posters and more than 2,000 page views!

Hey, everyone! This is a busy few weeks for me because of finals. I just wanted to thank you again for your continued support. Black Otaku has more than 2,000 page views! To show my appreciation I want to share with you some recent additions to my cinder-box apartment I call a dorm.

I don’t normally buy things online, but I decided to give it the old college try when I discovered that Giant Robot has a pretty rad online store. I suggest you go take a look at what they are selling. There were a lot of products to pick from. I’ve kinda gotten into this art phase where I am really interested in prints and posters by emerging artists. Looky what I got!

NHK Online Hurts My Eyes

NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) is the only public broadcaster in the country. Each household that owns a television pays a fee that is used to finance the company. When I look at NHK’s English Web site, my eyes hurt. It’s kind of like the way a scene of Pokemon on EDTV made more than 700 people (mostly kids), vomit and suffer from convulsions. “Gotta’ catch them all!”

Hand clap for NHK for even having an English-language Web site. We, Americans, think that everything is suppose to be in English nowadays, but that is just not the case. However, I do think that news outlets, depending on their size, should have an English version of their Web site for international users. I also think that in the United States that news outlets should provide something in Spanish for Hispanics. Anyway, back to NHK’s Web site.

David Choe is still a bad ass

Choe gave the Facebook offices a face-lift. I can’t find the page I originally got this photo from so if this is yours please let me know so I can give you credit. Art below is from Choe’s official Web site.

If you like graffiti, ninja stars and talking whales then you should check out L.A. artist/muralist David Choe. His art is provocative and destructive yet somehow comforting at the same time. He’s not afraid to do whatever the heck he wants with anything he can find. He did the cover art for Giant Robot’s 50th anniversary issue, and he is also featured in their biennial art exhibit at JANM.

An art school dropout, David Choe developed a following after his highly successful, self-published (thanks, Kinkos) “Slow Jams.” The graphic novel tells the story of a masturbating art student, who gets obsessed with an unattainable girl.

Choe can make anything out of anything on anything.

He was arrested in 2004, after he beat up an undercover detective in Tokyo. He spent four months in solitary confinement in a Japanese prison. This didn’t stop him from creating. Imprisoned, he used soy sauce and even his own urine to continue to make art. Since then, he has developed a cult following.

Choe has done work for Sony, PlayStation Magazine, EA Games, Harrahs Las Vegas, Levis, Hurley, CBS, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, FTC Skateboards, Tower records, Warner Brothers Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Jane Magazine and much much more. Does this make him a sellout? He doesn’t think so.

It doesn’t help that people say shit like, “I admired and connected with your work because it was raw, fresh, unglamorized, and a “not giving a fuck attitude towards it”. Your work was the level I wanted to be on. I’m over it now though. No offense, but you shouldn’t get too comfortable doing the same type of shit over and over. I know it sells, but cmon, man.” It’s like, do I like the work or the story of the artist? The line became blurred for me in regards to you.” … Bottom line though is that I don’t give a fuck, I make art that I like for myself, to express myself, and if my personality gets in the way of that then don’t read or watch any more interviews. If you think I’m repeating myself your fucking tripping.

Well, there you go.

Choe just finished a nationwide tour. He wants to eventually retire early and illustrate the entire Bible and paint the Great Wall of China. Oh BTW he’s not Japanese. He’s Korean.

Here’s a video of Choe messin’ around.

Check out his most recent book published by Giant Robot called Cursiv.

Check out his blog and his Web site for more info.

My Humps, my Humps, my Humps, my lovely lady lumps

Forgive me for the Fergie reference, but this title actually makes sense when you hear the story that goes with the picture below (from CelebritySmack).

Yes, that’s the girl from “Heroes.” No, that isn’t a photo shoot. Like any other young starlet, she has a warrant out for her arrest, and it’s not for DUI or being caught with illegal herbs! Our favorite cheerleader, Hayden Panettiere was trying to paddle out on a surf board in a cove near Taiji (Japan) to interfere with fishermen on a dolphin hunt in late October. The “bad girl” was collaborating with the Save Japan Dolphins coalition. Her group of bikini-clad activists attempted to reach some dolphins before they were killed. Unfortunately, the girls were blocked by a fishing boat before they could go far enough out. Here’s the video of Hayden crying after being turned back. Now, they are wanted for trespassing. If they all look actresses in the photo that’s because they are! The middle, model-like girl (another Aussie) is “Home and Away” star Isabel Lucas. If I was going to save some dolphins that’s the outfit I would wear.

“I was very excited that people were interested in what we did,” Hayden told E! News. “In [Hollywood], you tend to only get publicity for not wearing underwear or going to rehab.”

You’re such a heroine, Hayden! Ultra rebellious! Now celebrities are even trying to use dolphins to get publicity…

After you get all the giggles out of you, it’s time to actually get serious. The AP is reporting today that Japan will not back down and will continue its annual whaling hunt despite international outcry. The poaching of whales and dolphins is culturally acceptable in Japan in the same way other countries treat fishing. A Japanese fleet embarked on a whale hunt yesterday that is being labeled as the country’s largest whaling expedition since the 1960s, a new addition to the grocery list – the protected humpback whale.

G4, TV That’s Plugged In

At school, I just started to get the G4 gaming channel. If you don’t have it, don’t sweat. With all of the features offered on the G4 Web site, it’s a wonder anyone needs to watch the TV station at all.

If you are not a gamer then you probably have never heard of G4. It just came out in 2002. It’s a cable channel that focuses on the gaming lifestyle. It used to be all about games, but if you have ever watched people playing games on TV (think ESPN’s Madden Nation) that gets pretty old fast. Now, G4 hosts not only talk about new games and tech news, but the channel also tries harder to cater to the male population by broadcasting shows such as Cheaters, COPS and The Man Show. I think, from a journalistic standpoint, G4 is doing a great job catering to the gaming market. Some people would disagree with me. Despite what some critics say, more people buy video games than go to the movies so the station is definitely fulfilling a need.

Does Japanese culture allow criminals to get away with murder?

Photo of Saito from With-Malice.com; I’m not sure where they got it because I couldn’t find it; A Japan policeman “on the job” from Flickr

According to a recent L.A. Times article, a 17-year-old sumo wrestler with bruises, cuts and burns on his face and legs was declared by police to have died from “heart disease.” The news has already made laps around the world in the last few months. BBC, The New York Times and everyone else and their mama has reported on it, however, I think The L.A. Times brought up something new.

“As is common in Japan, Aichi police reached their verdict on how Saito died without an autopsy. No need for a coroner, they said. No crime involved. Only 6.3 percent of the unnatural deaths in Aichi are investigated by a medical examiner, a minuscule rate even by nationwide standards in Japan, where an autopsy is performed in 11.2 percent of cases.”

This is the same Takashi Saito that Reuters reported on in June. Because of the teen’s profession, “heart failure” was spun to make sense as a health-related cause of death.

Kanye, Lupe and other Hip Hop Artists Bloggin’

XXL had a short article about rappers who blog. As I said in a previous post, one of the ways a blog could be good is if it’s written by a famous person. People are just a lot more interested in what the person is thinking and doing. Kanye just launched his blog in September and he (or someone he is paying) is doing a very nice job updating it frequently with not only news about Kanye but also some of his favorite designers and personal photos. I find it weird that Twista is publishing a blog on The Chicago Tribune’s Web site. I wonder how they convinced him to do that. Lupe Fiasco’s blog is fresh too, though I’m not a MySpace fan.