Notions.

Earlier this month, I showed my Japan trip pictures, including the ones you readers are about to see to my visiting guy pal from BKK.

"OMG Rice, you're so pretty here! You should use make-up!" was his reaction.

The (in)famous pic with new fabulous hair colour I totally love!

That was one honest response from a straight dude right there that yes, once again, exemplified visual beauty works to appeal, whether it's comfortable or uncomfortable for the user itself. But then again, it wasn't me wearing make-up (I don't even to weddings). I shall introduce to you this transformation digital magic that instantly change you to be ultra 'pretty' within seconds - hello to Japanese photoboxes!

No. 46

 46. Only know Yoshitomo Nara to visit London the day before - Contact PR rep for interview - Nab a schedule - Attend his sold-out artist talk

This bucket list number is totally new, unexpected, and mission accomplished on the day itself (technically it was worked out from the day before, waiting for a response).


Who said that the artist's audience cannot be as manic and eccentric the artist and to what they are presenting? I digress the idea. Herein, proven. Ha.



I will admit I've activated press power in order to snake through the event's sold out - in two hours about 600 waiting list names have been in - and to get a reserved seat, while everyone else was on the floor. I didn't get to use it for No. 32 - no outlet for it :(

But, but, but, it's Nara. (see right)

And for this new exhibition, I am ever more obsessed the way he paints his character's eyes. With the fact that he has shared with us the process, his layering technique with ever more beautiful colors are just beyond words.

So yes, I would like to own a piece of him one day (not just postcards). And no, he doesn't sign signatures. Moreover, during the long queue for the artist talk (see it here) there were that weird odds from the universe to place me behind an Indonesian girl talking to her mum-now-I-know-she's-her-aunt in Indonesian (so I know) and casually asked her if this was the right queue. Was I to queue or to skip them all through and go to the desk's guest list? To my spectacular amazement she said that she had no idea how because she was invited, because her aunt is the artist's friend. Let me translate that to you in English: Her aunt is a friend of Nara. One simple reason that happens is because her aunt is an artist herself, confirmed by the girl who I now know as Robyn, studying at Imperial. Sweetness.

Did I tell you I'll be visiting Tochigi next year? This comes in very handy


While I didn't nab an interview schedule, I was pleased to have asked him 3 questions during his talk. That will be saved for a Dear exclusive exhibition coverage for the London special I'm now trying very hard to collate within one month.

See and reblog my favourite artworks from this exhibition here.



  Statistically, 1 out of 100 of your friends will stand out as the weird one. I'm that one weird friend of yours - here goes!

 Finally, about the dress.
Megumi-san couldn't contain herself when I posed.
I said, "it is politically-correct layered dress and the attitude I'm suppose to give - it's all a fake"

This was the quickest OOTD decision with careful thought ever and the subliminal message I fold through is the best yet. I could drop in a 2K essay on theories of dress, but in a nutshell, this is what today's dress meant: I layered a metallic pastel dress, a color scheme the artist uses so ever often. Above it is a shirt, peeking collar on top. Where usually one wears inside a dress, I wore it out. Shows the abrupt layering and forceful show of being a slackety-slack girl.  I wore 'yakuza-like' mermaid stockings, which I DID NOT DRAW MYSELF BUT designed from a lovely friend in Hong Kong, RI by Carrie. Go buy. It was particularly white and the mermaid has geisha-pertaining make-up, which is somewhat the geisha's way of powdering herself complete.

While my question to Nara, or rather a stating point that his works are mukokuseki, it's hard not to delve that he's still a Japanese artist, hence the get-up that has that 'Asian kawaiiness' to it you can't help but dote or pacify... But to package it, a cream top with bold black slogan that states 'FAKE'.So, no. I bite, just like Nara's characters. We're angsty young beings.


Cutesy, kawaii, slackety, we're really just going against the world, really, and it's all just fake.


The shoes? Of course it meant something. Having similar resemblance to roses stuck in a bush, I'm only being a fake and getting the world's slaps by walking on thorns.

We are living in a bitter world or sweet world, and it's a reality that it's bittersweet. It's only how you make it, really. :)

Thank you Megumi-san for accompanying this nut head today! Www~

The full artist talk lowdown, snippets of the artist's holiday, more speeches and drawings and everything from His Heart will be on www.dearzine.com *promo, promo, I'm trying to revive it while I'm at it*

Plug-in promotion in 10 words or less...

Bored of art exhibitions? Enjoy it your way (see above)

Yell.

My editor-in-chief Lily-san and I at the historical Olympic stadium. It was soo bright we couldn't open our eyes, thank you.

YELL FOR JAPAN and, JAPAN TO THE WORLD.

Two days of Japanese music festival to commemorate and celebrate the final days of Tokyo's National Olympic Stadium before it gets demolished and rebuild for Tokyo Olympics 2020 (it was ready in 1963 or -4) - the day I got to firstly visit the stadium after the work begins with a proper press meeting, this is the account of the 2nd day of the trip and I made it to the stadium, where the Olympic flames were lit up among the huge attendees!

See what happened on the first day to catch up where I left off - including meeting the musician and producer Aiji after being Twitter friends what it looks like at the Shibuya scramble at 3AM - is it busy, or empty?

Bookmark this link as this gets into major details from morning to night of day 2. To enable the full experience read it bit by bit and play the music later!

Unleashed!

Unleashing the side we are not fearful of to show to the world...

I proudly present *with that dramatic drum roll* the professors in the making of the unofficial SOAS: Not School of Oriental and African Studies but, School of Otaku and Anime Studies!

Left to right: Anthea-sama, Jeanne, me, Eran, and Kash

 Yeah, this is school stuff we're doing ^

Monday.

These days happen to become on the month of "Miracle May" (how I dubbed it). The particular Monday 2 weeks ago needs its own personal post I haven't wrote in the longest time to say my thanks and gratefulness for the whirlwind I'm currently experiencing.

Monday was a bank holiday in London and I was still feeling under the weather, until 2 days later after this Monday.

Monday was when I checked my e-mail and it was there, the person who has been such a nice person I don't know how else to emphasize how nice and wonderful it is even though I have never met the person.

I'll be meeting the first time in person next week as of writing in Tokyo because he has given me the opportunity. And properly saying my gratitude and thanks. 7 days to go...

Again and again I say, he's one of the very rare and few people within the music/ent. industry that is just down to earth, nice, and strong in faith. Plus, he speaks English and is from Japan. How else could this be ever so 'lucky' for me? A-san, mata raishu!

Songs on repeat you should support and do. Because of this song (below) it has been the very element to where I am today and what I have received. Like his page and

Of course, listen to all his stuff!

Shojo.

Whilst everyone else is enjoying their Christmas and New Year's break here I am scrummaging time to complete my 5K analysis on the Japanese movie Kamikaze Girls, which I found it so stimulating, profoundly the most Japanese in the 21st century, arguably to give a different view how people might see it as a very Westernised product (it is but it is still Japanese through shoka). Then as I'm still struggling to write my essay I even had take the time off to share this interesting tidbits of 'did you know' and 'who knew' through my research! Procrastinating at its finest.

While still professing my new love over the heroines of the movie, Momoko and Ichiko, especially a new light to Anna Tsuchiya because I thought she was a singer but she acts so well as a yankii?! She clearly embodies that haafu personality which the director did share how Tsuchiya emulated the character in new ways out of the script.

So much research is going on to this paper and I'm having the time of my life going through my bookstack it's not even funny as there's no holiday.

To underline what I found about the relations of shojo (girls, teenage girls, adolescent girls in the global view) and pink, aka the colour for girls, and drawn into the movie, here's a visual teaser:

THE CELEBRATION OF SHOJO (GIRLS) AND PINK AT ITS FINEST

Could you believe it, this 'scary woman' has a pink, vespa?

Pink is so prevalent in the movie, and Ichiko as the antihesis of Momoko the pinky girl wears, obviously, the genderized color blue against pink.

I suddenly remember Para Kissu (Paradise Kiss) and pink as it's also a very shojo story: 

Off I went to Wikipedia and Answers to really get into the real answer why pink is for girls and always is associated by it, girl power... although I can't find the English text of Eva Heller's Psychology Book of Colours because she said that

"The golden age of the color pink was the Rococo Period (1720–1777) in the 18th century"

   I've found Natalie Wolchover added to my bibliography as it has answered another great relation from the Kamikaze Girls story itself - I mean, take a look:

As for why one color-gender pairing came to dominate over the opposite pairing, Paoletti argues that the rule we use today may reflect the influence of French fashion. Traditional French culture paired pink with girls and blue with boys (while Belgian and Catholic German culture used the opposite), and because France set the fashion in the 20th century, their tradition held sway.

"This happened during a time when mass marketing was appearing," Cohen told Life's Little Mysteries. "Being 'gender normal' is very important to us, and as a marketing technique, if retailers can convince you that being gender normal means you need to buy a certain product — cosmetics, plastic surgery, blue or pink clothing, etc. — it just makes sense from a production or mass marketing perspective     - Source

Well, the five elements I chose that contributed the success of the movie as a transnational cinema, includes fashion and the new market of girls, the teenage boom. It was ridiculously appealing for production and consumption and within Japan especially, was the nonstop destination of affluent purchasing of luxury goods in the 90s, even for Western brand to establish exclusive 'labels' only available in the country. Moreover, Lolita fashion is about Rococo and our main star in the movie professes her soul to have lived within the Rococo era.

Mind-blowned at the moment to have discovered this integral aspect - thanks to my oddly curious thought to why Ichiko's vespa has to be pink out of all colors because she's... tough.

What a feat to find the red line between all this, the girl market has never been so dynamic, fragmented yet one brings it altogether, one here is by just the color.

Back to the essay now, clearly having new lights and materials to manifest the thoughts.

  

I really can't focus now. Braindrained. Tsuchiya so apt. Should stop going to Tumblr. *sigh

WHUTDERRFAKQiZVAT< 3 (6)

Sweet six illustrators and designers that has captured me - the Sweet edition of WDFIV!

        In conjunction with my research for two branding projects which needs references of graphics, from cute girly ones to plain pen graphic drawing, I guess the ones that caught my attention are the whimsical, cute, handrawn ones. And well, I am a Japanese at heart afterall. It's mostly Japanese designers dominated this time! But of course, there's a dipping pool for those who think Japanese is not their cup of tea down below...

Just kill me with pen, graphic pen and pencil drawings with cute dash of colorful patterns. Polkaros is too uberly cute to miss! Whimsical and just plain cu-u-ute, perfect for a pop-up Valentine's day card, yes? 

So Takahashi's "You wanna buy a Carpark/Craprak?" CD design which is oh-so-wonderful, so, so me and the direction somewhat of my catalog. Originally, I found out about this project in a book, below, and finally got the better resolution on his portfolio, Heads Inc. Another one is his Shisheido lookbook which has a simple but the breakable layout rule and 3D invitation design which is innovative in its simplicity yet the feature of the surprise in the middle.

He's a good one to also check out his conceptual, futuristic VMs with Shisheido (his biggest client with many collabs yet?). Very cool!



http://headsinc.com/

I accidentally stumbled upon a 'wrong' Chinatsu portfolio, where I first wanted to find Chinatsu H below, but then after googling (because apparently the name Chinatsu is so common!), I found this sleek Fulvimari-like illustrator minus the blotches with relatively simple touch of just lines.

I'm happy I stumbled upon her, raving her work!

Now onto the real Chinatsu that I was finding, is Chinatsu Higashi! She has been featured in the dreamy magazine Lula, and dubs herself as the artist who does illustration illusion. Fairly whimsical with pastel candy colors and collages of flowers, toys, and your childhood most favorite things, it doesn't stop to entice you and you wish you were living in her fairytale world.

I. need. to. know. the. designer. who. did. this. beautiful. pretty. little. surrealistic. thing. More on MANOUSH brand and S/S11 lookbook in Dolls Factory where I found it, and there's no other information. Love the logos and everything on the first image.

Esther Horchner's tongue-in-cheek teapots that would surely scare your future mother-in-laws. Please do not serve her with these chinas, get some traditional real china for that. This one could be saved for Black Day on March 14 for all the single ladies!

***

end! time for life rants.

thought that it looked hilarious. the usual moniker i call my friends in terms calling them as a monkey.

The moodboard #1 progress that needs a boost of cafffeine every night to keep me stay morphed as an owl:

February is definitely pink-ish!

Found this little cutie thru House of Jeroy which I REALLY NEED since I keep breaking my specs for freaking no reason which leaves me with the bugseye glasses I'm getting annoyed with. It comes with an awesome packaging as well. Oh-la-la. A primary. Alternative: back to Raybans.

Chotto! Anyways, support the ever-amusing local brand The Balletcats with their new limited design Half-Puss. Sneak peek, Read the article. And it's long overdue for the already collaborative sold-out project I did with this unnerving brand.
ATTN: Censorship: Age 15+ for suggestive violence against the body and the garment.

  Achtung!           In support for the lovely book-a-zine CIRCUS where I introduced back last year, dead over there for more details, and if you like the book-a-zine and is familiar/have it, please support the next edition, VOYAGE, here! (And so I can kickstart in the work I'm going to hand in to them. ;D) I'll leave you here with what it looks like and an excerpt of a beautiful editorial I love inside.