Learning from Shōgun today (a cultural studies workshop)
Coordinated by: Radu Leca (Heidelberg University) and yours truly on September 3 (10:00~12:00) at my alma mater, ‘Dimitrie Cantemir’ Christian University, Bucharest *** Thirty years after the first translation of James Clavell’s Shōgun into Romanian, it seems timely to assess the novel’s cultural and historical significance in Romania as well as in the broader European space. Starting from a few key topics introduced by Henry Smith and his collaborators in Learning from Shōgun – Japanese History and Western Fantasy (1980), we invite our fellow translators (as well as other colleagues interested in our project) to join us for a discussion on the perceptions and…
Connections made, not broken – Felice Beato, nihonga and momiji
On Sunday I got a bit of a breather and headed to Chiba, partially for some momiji-viewing at Narita-san (Shinshōji), and partially because I’ve been wanting to see the Felice Beato exhibition at Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art for some time now (ending December 3rd, for whoever’s interested!). The exhibition was impressive, with some 180 of Beato’s bakumatsu portraits and landscapes of Yokohama and Edo, some charming paintings and sketches by Charles Wirgman (Beato’s friend and collaborator) and a few yōga (洋画, Western painting) and nanga (南画, or bunjinga文人画) paintings. I enjoyed Beato’s photos a lot, especially the portraits (ranging from…
A Chilled Out weekend
A few shots from this last Saturday’s Chill Out Week, organised by Look Up Japan. Mattia’s been bringing together some of the most exquisite artists on the Tokyo indie music scene recently. Tama Tsuboi, Kai Petite and Aimee Blackschleger are old favourites of mine, in whatever formula they choose to play. They are flawless musicians and humble, sweet people. This time, Aimee sang alongside Andrew Sloman, a name that somehow eluded me so far and I don’t know why. I discovered him maybe two weeks ago, when I spotted his name alongside Mathias Duplessy’s – another marvel of a musician, who…
Midnight cherry blossoms
Lately I’ve been finding it difficult to leave the house, for some reason. I could easily blame it on the article submission deadline I had today; but to be honest, I think it might be just that I’m enjoying the time I get to spend with myself :P. Last year, between an office job, the classes I was teaching and the photography-related work, I barely felt the months passing by. Now that I’ve finished my article and I’m going back to school (I forgot to mention, I left the office job all the way back in January), I’m like a recovering…
Lens Culture Portait Awards 2017
I finally mustered up some courage and submitted some of my portraits to LensCulture’s Portrait Awards for 2017 (single image entries). I’m pretty excited about it, as LensCulture is one of my favourite sources of inspiration. Wish me luck. And do take a look at some of the other entries this year. Some of them are absolutely stunning! I already have a few favourites.
The Last Nuphoria
PERFORMING IDENTITY @The Last Nuphoria From the moment we start growing we start putting on masks. To face the people around us, to face ourselves. To discover ourselves, to express ourselves. To find and connect with kindred spirits. Sometimes to cheat and to hurt. But always because we’re alive and searching for magic. Hi. I’m Alex. A music lover. A book lover. A people lover. Sometimes a teacher. And on Saturday (July 23rd) I’ll be waiting for you at The Last Nuphoria in Daikanyama, at 晴れたら空に豆まいて(Haretara sorani mame maite). We’ll be partying, art-ing and booze-ing :). Photos by: Marcellus Nealy, Alex…
Last week’s hip place
Last weekend I grabbed a couple of friends (one of them by the collar, almost – you know who you are :D) and headed for the biannual Setagaya Boroichi. I almost backed out myself right after I got to the station, when I saw the crowds literally flooding those little streets. I didn’t, as you’ll see from the photos I’m gonna flood you with right away. Of course I couldn’t help it and I also bought some bowls for the already big enough collection of tableware I have, some classic Hollywood glamour portraits (for future experimenting purposes) and a little jewel – a 1957…
Short trip
Last year has been crazy. Crazy busy, crazy new and sometimes crazy bad. I haven’t had so much time to either write on the blog or attend to this poor site of mine. But I’ve worked hard, I’ve made some wonderful memories and I’ve learned a lot. Things have finally started to settle down (together with some extra 5 kilos or so…), and this new year seems to bring some interesting things my way. Let’s see. I hope I’ll manage to bring the blog up to date in the months to come, too. If not, feel free to scold me :P. Anyway, first…
A rainy day in Yoyogi
Last weekend I finally managed to get into the Yoyogi Gymnasium and snap a few shots. The two stadia were designed by Kenzo Tange in 1960 and built in 1964, for the Summer Olympic Games held here, in Tokyo. The main stadium is in the form of two semi-circles, intertwined and slightly displaced, reminiscent of the yin-yang design. No need to say I was just as impressed as I expected to be, so much so that I could barely bring myself to utter a few words while inside the buildings. I couldn’t take any photos of the main stadium, but I did manage to…
A brass’n’roll day
A few days ago, I had a photoshoot with a pretty cool brass band, in a rental studio somewhere in Shibuya. The shot was supposed to end by 12:30, because they had a series of concerts afterwards. But there were 9 of them, and the set-up and make-up lasted longer than we all expected. So by the time they had to leave for the concert, we’d barely finished the individual portraits, and we had no group shot. So I followed them to Hikarie and during the brief break they had between concerts, I took them to a cool little spot I…
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My newest article, "Moderating hate on the Internet in Japan," is now available as a book chapter in National Identity and Millennials in Northeast Asia: Power and Contestations in the Digital Age (Routledge Contemporary Asian Societies Series): https://www.routledge.com/National-Identity-and-Millennials-in-Northeast-Asia-Power-and-Contestations/Frangville-Kellner-Ponjaert/p/book/9781032486963