D<3AST -comfort zone

d

2010-01-09T10:38:00.000-08:00

********************************************************

Bubbles n Whiskers;" Jesus Murphyit's a reindeer party"

2009-12-01T07:04:00.000-08:00

1'st day of cristmas:

Oh No He Didn't!

2009-11-15T07:50:00.000-08:00

Panoptikum - Elaste

Big expectationS

2009-11-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

Mock & Toof - Tight Humps

Mr. Divine

2009-10-17T04:45:00.000-07:00

.>.>Ram Bhadur Bomjon<.<.

The Litter - Whatcha Gonna Do About It?

R.I.P. jalokin y oizangi

2009-10-15T16:27:00.000-07:00

"Nothing makes the darkness go away like the light"

The Hunger Soundtrack

Mu Mons

2009-09-27T05:34:00.000-07:00

Mu - Let's Get Sick

Digest Dogpoo Today

2009-09-26T02:32:00.000-07:00

>>The Future of Food(Interv. with Deborah Garcia)<<

*
Taken By Trees - Tidens Gang

TRick OR TReat - OR BOth?

2009-09-25T04:42:00.000-07:00

"Do you have a drinking problem? I am not just talking about alcohol. So, before you say 'NO', think about the amount of soft drinks that you and your family consume. Whatever you call them, sodas, aerated water, pop or soft drinks are far from soft.
In fact, they are deliberately designed to create an almost seductive and addictive experience. They do not cause any sudden illness. Instead, as you sip your favourite soda you feel energised by the added caffeine, your taste buds are assaulted by the combination of the sugar and acid tastes while your palate is tickled by the playful sensations of the carbon dioxide bubbles. No wonder these beverages are freely available at every restaurant, fast-food outlet, snack counter, school, entertainment centre and sporting facility. No wonder the global soft-drink business is a mega billion-dollar industry.
So what is a soft drink made up of? Let's dissect your favourite soda. It contains a mixture of substances like phosphoric acid, caffeine, sugar or artificial sweeteners, caramel or other colouring agents, carbon dioxide gas, preservatives like sodium benzoate, aluminium (from the can), all added to water.

1.PHOSPHORIC ACID:
Phosphoric acid is a strong acid that promotes an acidic environment in the body with many negative effects. The phosphorus disturbs the delicate balance between calcium and phosphorus in the blood, causing excessive loss of calcium in the urine. This can promote osteoporosis, bursitis, arthritis, gout, bone spurs and kidney stones.
2.SUGAR(SYRUP):
Soft drinks contain a lot of sugar. A 12-ounce can of soda might well contain 12 teaspoonfuls of sugar and with the popular supersizing concept, you or your child may consume more than 60 ounces at one sitting. What makes it worse is that the sugar in most of today's soft drink is not cane sugar but high-fructose corn syrup, a substance well-known to promote obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. One recent independent study demonstrated a strong link between soda consumption and childhood obesity. High sugar consumption also causes the body to lose calcium and other minerals also promoting osteoporosis and arthritis.
Avoiding the sugar by escaping to diet soft drinks may create even more problems. A study published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health found that diet-soda consumption also increases your risk of gaining weight and developing diabetes and heart disease.
3.ASPARTAME:
The popular sugar substitute in many soft drinks, Aspartame. (Equal/Sweet and Low/NutraSweet), is a dangerous and poisonous substance as it breaks down in the body to form chemicals like methanol, formaldehyde and formic acid. These agents are particularly toxic to the nervous system and should not be a part of our diet.
4.SPLENDA:
Even the more acceptable sweetener Splenda has recently been in for question. In the research mentioned before, Splenda was found to reduces the amount of good bacteria in your intestines by 50 per cent and that may have negative health effects, particularly if you're on certain medications.
5.CAFFEINE:
Caffeine is a stimulant naturally present in small quantities in some healthy drinks like green tea and cocoa. Other natural beverages like coffee and black tea are often produced in such a way as to deliberately increase their caffeine content. Soft drinks go a step further: they add caffeine in larger quantities to the beverage to deliver a much higher dose of caffeine than is found in the other drinks. I and other health experts believe that small amounts of caffeine offer great health benefits, but the large levels in many soft drinks can be harmful and addictive.
6.SODIUM BENZOATE:
Sodium benzoate is a preservative used for decades by the global soft-drinks industry. It is derived from benzoic acid, a substance that occurs naturally in some fruits, but is used in large quantities to prevent the growth of mould in soft drinks. For the same reason it is also added to pickles and sauces.
There have been concerns about sodium benzoate and cancer because when mixed with vitamin C (sometimes added to some soft drinks), it produces benzene, a cancer-causing substance. United Kingdom agencies have actually found high levels of benzene is some brands of soft drinks and removed them from the market.
7.CARBON DIOXIDE:
Carbon dioxide is indeed a natural substance, but is also a waste gas that the body eliminates from the lungs with each breath that we exhale. I see no virtue in regularly ingesting more of this substance.
8.CARAMEL:
Caramel is a popular food colouring used to darken many soft drinks. It is made from burning sugar and consumption has been associated with genetic defects and cancer in animals. Many other artificial food-colouring agents have also been under scrutiny regarding possible toxicity, and some have been outlawed.
9.ALUMINUM:
Aluminium gets into soft drinks because phosphoric acid corrodes the aluminium containers used to package the beverage. The industry claims to have solved the problem by coating the interior of the cans with plastic (that may cause other health problems). Nevertheless, toxic amounts still seep into these drinks. Aluminium is a heavy metal that readily deposits and accumulates in the brain and bones and has been implicated in both Alzheimer's and osteoporosis. Incidentally, the other common food sources of aluminium are processed cheese antacids and processed cheese. "

-Online article by;Dr Vendryes(>>NoOneHasToDieTomorrow.com<<)

Disco Dream and the Androids - Love Dance

When I Say I'm In Love You Must Believe I'm In Love L.u.V.

2009-09-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

Zerditou Yohannes - "Bolel"

THE RESIDENTS: favorite

2009-09-11T02:18:00.000-07:00

It's a trippp like no other tripppp you've ever been on before...So brace yourself, open your arms and give in to the total madness that is;The Residents at their VERY best!=

The Residents - Diskomo

Jack your body all over the placE

2009-09-10T04:08:00.000-07:00

Nisennenmondai - Mirrorball

*******************************

TETILAVK ANAUJ ANILOM

2009-09-07T03:51:00.000-07:00

^^ Indie-folk/pop-clubfeel perfection ^^

vv Indie-folk/pop-clubfeel perfection vv

Juana Molina - Los hongos de Marosa(via zipfile)

InterlüdE

2009-09-06T03:38:00.000-07:00

Rod McKuen/ Kranko's Hippie Party

Memories of Youth

2009-09-04T03:26:00.000-07:00

Deerhoof - Chandelier Searchlight

Love Message

2009-09-01T03:20:00.000-07:00

Glissandro 70 - Bolan Muppets

ADDICTION

2009-08-25T05:59:00.000-07:00

JJ - Ecstasy

Body Mind + Soul

2009-08-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

King Kong Ding Dong - Heya

A LITTLE

2009-08-18T02:43:00.001-07:00

animal party for a exbdayboy

********************************************************

time for some caviar

kisses from holland

>>Tom<<

Delft

NOT AT BOLSJEFABRIKKEN BUT >>LYGTEN!

2009-08-13T08:01:00.000-07:00

^^Danes unite n spread the word..copy/paste to whereever u see fit^^
Health - Die Slow

Atmosfæren

2009-08-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

Gas - Track 4(from Konigforst

WEJ

2009-08-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

Pussy Galore - You Look Like a Jew

AC for A-A

2009-08-09T03:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a great 30min. long mixtape that Josh Deacon of Animal Collective did for Allez-Allez back in jan.=

*********************

Tracklist goes as follows:

01:56 - Terrestrial Tones - The Sailor

08.26 - J Dilla - Nothing Like This

10.46 - Syd Barrett - Dark Globe

12.43 - Arthur Russell - You Can Make Me Feel Bad

14.09 - Unknown Track1

5.56 - 13th Floor Elevators - May the circle remain unbroken

18.30 - Spiritualized - All of My Tears

20.49 - Unknown Track

22.20 - Roy Harper - Goldfish

25.04 - Aphrodite's Child - Loud Loud Loud

27.42 - Panda Bear - Ponytail

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Animal collective - Mixtape For Allez-Allez

CityNightLife(Guest_post_host;Hayley)

2009-08-08T04:56:00.000-07:00

GINA T - TOKYOBYNIGHT
****************************

U can visit Hayley right here at >>PUMPTHATJAM-BLOG<<

DIRTY rip off

2009-08-06T04:24:00.000-07:00

!"We are not traditional dj's, we are selectors", so saying about themselves Dirty Sound System.I post them fresh dj set, which proves that them select-work is good like dick.!

Dirty Sound System - Live Dj Set Pt.1

Dirty Sound System - Live Dj Set Pt.2

-Berezzka.blogspot.com

**************

-for more DIRTY mixes go: >>here<< ...n take yr pick-

or visit their own home of >>DIRTYNESS<< ..right there

Brrrrr(Guest_post_host:James Batley)

2009-08-04T02:09:00.000-07:00

Urusei Yatsura - Siamese
Be sure to stay tuned for the release of=
>>JamesFirstPictureShow <<

Let Me Drone Yone

2009-07-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

Indian Jewelry - Hello Africa

PigFluish

2009-07-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

Pocahaunted - ...and how it carried me away

REDdie?

2009-07-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

XYX - Microvibraciones

Thee Four Horsemen

2009-07-25T03:56:00.000-07:00

Telepathe - Devil's trident (Thee Four Horsemen Remix)
get their newest rmx right >>here<<
********************************************************

NOT ON DRUG$

2009-07-23T05:24:00.000-07:00

Speed it uP

2009-07-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

Beasti Boys-Intergalactic (The Strawberry B n J Soles Instrumental Version)

Sov Sødt

2009-07-21T11:26:00.000-07:00

Dash Snow
July27 1981 - July14 2009
found out kinda late...made me real sad

RUN::GHOSTS APPROACHING

2009-07-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

Graffiti island - Wolf Guy

in a cave a cave in a cave a cave in a cave a cave

2009-07-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

WhoMadeWho - Flat Beat

sp(O_O;)ky

2009-07-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

Intergalactic Orgasm

2009-07-17T07:08:00.000-07:00

They Came From The Stars I Saw Them - Signal(Emperor Machine remix)

SONIC DREAM THEME

2009-07-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

Robotnick - Computer Sourire

MAC D ick

2009-07-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

Foot Village - Protective Nourishment

Adorable

2009-07-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

Little Claw - Race To The Bottom

MEXICO SUXXX(guest_post)

2009-07-13T04:06:00.000-07:00

Rafa Reporting from Mexico.Mexico was not that big in a PUNK scene, if we talk about fashion or people who really had a big impact in society this is my top 4 MEXICAN TRASHY SUPERSTARS

1. pop singer GLORIA TREVI had a trashy look in the 90s, her music was very pop, she was in jail like for 3 years for kidnapping in Brazil and made a big comeback, shes famous than ever now!this is her video PELO SUELTO it was her very first hit in the 90s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PDqBg8QixA

2.AGARRATE another greeat single from the same PELO SUELTO album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6O6pmR-rcs and this is CINCO MINUTOS (five minutes) from her latest album SHE KINDA SUCKS NOW!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMv1GMAGIX4&feature=fvst

3.also there was band that was very famous in the 90s in mexico named HEORES DEL SILENCIO they were from SPAIN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgR-s5haMEQ the lead singer was very cute and they had a very 90spreppy spanish style

4.this is a pop singer named JUAN SON he had a band named PORTER but than he leaved the band and now he has this solo project wich is very cute though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iioiWt4OaJ4

i love you nikolaj--let me think in other bands

love u
******
Rafa Cuevas Mexico City ss09

***************************

Visit Rafa >>HerE<<

Hello(guest_post)

2009-07-12T07:26:00.000-07:00

***************************************************

Tom

Delft

*****

visit Tom >>HerE<<

A letter To A Friend(guest_post)

2009-07-11T05:15:00.001-07:00

"this is how i see you now and again"

Broadcast - Black Cat

************************************

Selin

London

Hidrogenessia(guest_post)

2009-07-10T14:06:00.000-07:00

********************************************************

xxx

Iggy

Madrid

*******

Visit Iggy >>HerE<<

Tea_Time

2009-07-09T13:30:00.000-07:00

Unknown Artist - Itaula Bava Yam

Mamma Bush

2009-07-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

The Cramps - Thee Most Exhalted Potentate of Love

Chillaxing after Roskilde09..dead outside alive inside

2009-07-07T03:22:00.000-07:00

The Skygreen Leopards - Let Me Grow In Your Meadow

As Long As I've Got My CaT

2009-06-18T03:44:00.000-07:00

sharon van etten - pickin' up rocks
********************************************************

OOoooOOOaAAAAAA

2009-06-17T03:26:00.000-07:00

Sun Araw - Horse Steppin’
********************************************************

Freak Out

2009-06-16T03:18:00.000-07:00

Yikes - Pink Cigars

SuperFunSummerTimeBeachTunes

2009-06-15T03:05:00.000-07:00

Nobunny tracks times 3:

Chuck Berry Holiday

Nobunny Loves You

Motorhead With Me

********************************************************

2009-06-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

TV Themes - Care Bears

Ulrike Meinhof Boy_I Wanna Be Your BF

2009-06-07T04:33:00.000-07:00

Thee Oh Sees - Bloody Water
*************************************************************

Groovy Spaceman Says

2009-06-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

The Natural Yogurt Band - Space Echo

BICTHIN

2009-06-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

Natasha feat Clipse - So Sick

********************************************************

Hot Shit

2009-06-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

Boney M - Nightflight To Venus(Nightflight To UR Anus edit) ********************************************************

EPIC

2009-06-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

Black Devils;Disco Club album from 1978 is one of my all time favorites.

_//Dark//Fun//French pre italo Disco GOLD //_

"The Disco Club LP" by Black Devil is so amazing that I just had to write a review about it. This is a very obscure release by one of the earliest of the euro disco artists who would later personify an entire genre. Originating from France, this release developed a major cult following all over Europe during the last 25 years and it is now considered to have been a major influence on many of the early 80's italo disco and euro disco artists who emerged on the scene shortly after this release. As for this LP - it's a 2-sided vinyl release with 6 songs all having a copycat sound effect that makes each song sound similar to the others. The only difference is a few tweeks to the synthesizer, the speed of the drum machine's BPM and some different vocals which ultimately allowed the amateur artists behind the Black Devil act to create their one and only LP. The songs were all recorded in real-time and all begin with that dark and wicked drum beat that sounds less like a disco song but more like the procession of a tribal ceremony in the jungles of Africa. Very bizarre, very rare, and very good music. Get it if you can!

-review taken from discogs

...So, join the cult n get the whole album right here(rapidshare):

Black Devil - Disco Club

********************************************************

Center-Fold

2009-06-02T04:14:00.000-07:00

Tommy Seebach Band - Bubble Sex
********************************************************

Beat This

2009-06-01T14:12:00.000-07:00

Mach - On And On

********************************************************

Love Interrest

2009-05-30T03:14:00.000-07:00

These New Puritans - Navigate, Navigate(full DH 12min version)
********************************************************

Cloud nr. TEEN

2009-05-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

Ganglians - Hair
********************************************************

8===(^-^)===8

2009-05-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

Wavves - California Goth

Wavves - Beach Goth

Wavves - Surf Goth
********************************************************

"MINIMALISM"-PEACHISM >> AWESOME_ISM

2009-05-27T01:53:00.000-07:00

DanceTranceMania
Peaches - More
********************************************************

Collective Feel Now!

2009-05-26T14:27:00.000-07:00

Animal Collective - We Tigers

********************************************************

Voyage Voyage

2009-05-25T14:03:00.000-07:00

the juan maclean - one day (the emperor machine remix)

********************************************************

Funky Self Salvation

2009-05-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

Tom Tom Club - On The Line Again(Brennan Green Edit)

********************************************************

))<>((

2009-05-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

.....Forever

Neokarma Jooklo Trio - Night Revelation
********************************************************

Comforting Sounds

2009-05-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Julianna Barwick - Dancing With Friends(Má Farma Sessions)
********************************************************

Vicious

2009-05-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

Pink Floyd - One of these Days
********************************************************

Middle Eastern Glory

2009-05-11T03:32:00.000-07:00

This is too good to be true...=

Omar Souleyman - Leh Jani [When I Found Out]

********************************************************

Pool Of Love

2009-05-10T04:22:00.000-07:00

The perfect love-song=

Abe Vigoda - Wild Heart

********************************************************

Hanging On To What?

2009-05-09T03:58:00.000-07:00

Bruce Springsteen - State Trooper

********************************************************

I See Raw Shiny Colours

2009-05-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

Oasis - The Shock Of The Lightening(Primal Scream remix)
********************************************************

Open widE

2009-05-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

The Skull Defekts - Rythm Is The Key

********************************************************

Same Shit>>New Toilet.

2009-05-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

An interview with Japanese fashion critic Takeji Hirakawa:

Journalist Takeji Hirakawa is one of Japan's leading fashion critics and now teaches fashion criticism at universities in both Japan and Europe. Although Hirakawa has 25 years of experience in traditional collection coverage, he has now turned his eye towards looking at fashion as a way to peek into the social fabric.

How much time do you spend in Tokyo every year?

I spend half a year in Tokyo and half a year in Paris. I go back and forth between the two once a month. I've been doing that for 23 years now. Originally, I was working freelance, just trying to keep my eye on interesting fashion. But now that's turned into 23 years going back and forth.I am a fashion critic, but I also teach at fashion colleges in Tokyo and in Europe, based on my experiences as a fashion critic. I don't teach what the current trends are. Instead, when I see a show, I start collecting clues to the entire trend structure, almost like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Then I bring together those pieces, and I can see how the new "fashion scenery" next year will unfurl.For example, at the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, I came up with the fashion concept "protect/protection" as a keyword. This meant underwear, sportswear, and bondage gear found at sex shops. I predicted that these items would be brought into the fashion system and made into casual wear, because I saw evidence for this in the shows. I first started paying attention to fashion, because I thought that "mode" was the best way to view the "surface" of our era. From viewing the latest fashion, you can understand the upcoming values of our era and of our society.

How would you define what is and what isn't a "trend"?

First of all, I believe that fashion is not an "art." Aesthetic ideas and techniques are used in its production, but the final product — a jacket, for example, is a jacket. Companies make consumer goods, meant to be consumed. So obviously fashion brands want to sell a lot rather than a little.Second, fashion designers do not create trends. Fashion designers only "design" trends. So who makes the trends? There are a few big syndicates of textile and material makers, who get together a year before the designers make collections, and decide what they should make for the next year. For example, the Paris textile show Premiere Vision that they do twice a year. University professors, cooks, and artists are contracted to Premiere Vision and come together to talk and brainstorm about things like where they vacationed over the last six months, what they think is visually attractive, what films they liked, what exhibitions were interesting. They talk about these things and put them up on the blackboard. They then organize these words into blocks and look for keywords within those blocks. Then they try to imagine particular colors from those blocks. In this process, the textile makers create trends as a "frame" for what to produce the next year.The textile makers make the frame, and within that frame, fashion designers go and purchase fabric from those manufacturers and then design trends that reflect their individual personalities. So designers design trends, but fabric manufacturers make the trends.Then the media turns the fashion shows into an informational resource. And from that, everyday people start recognizing the trends: the colors, prints, or jacket sleeve for next season.

Last autumn, color tights were a huge trend for young women in Japan, and all the magazines — almost on cue — provided information about color tights at the exact same time. Where did the magazines get this unified information?

Magazines picked that up from the collections in Paris, Milan, London, and New York. Recently, there are also shows in Barcelona and Tokyo. Fashion journalists and magazine fashion editors go to Paris, Milan, London, and New York, and they see shows where designers have designed personal takes on the trends, within the frame created by the material makers. After everyone goes to the shows, they start to categorize everything they've seen. So for that season, lots of designers used color tights in the Paris collection, which means they starting showing up in magazines.Looking at the latest collections, the trend of using gradation coloring will probably start showing up in Japan about a year from now. This may not become a mass trend, but the magazine people — those at the top or those at the cutting edge — always are taking up the next next trends. There are mass trends, and then as a "second trend," there will be mass trends that have continued from the previous season. The newest trends exist as a "second trend" that will continue within the mega trends and become the next mega trend. There are also always a few trends that create an opposition to the spirit of the mega trends. Next season, I think there will be amazing play with the idea of modernism: I call it "new mechanism" — like a machinist ethic that 30 year-olds will take on. But there's also an "ecology" trend in opposition to that.There is always opposition: small trends that fight against the big trends. Concurrently, however, there is revenue competition between the big trends in decline and the sub-trends that become the second trends of the next season. But all of the competition happens within the fashion system. The fashion industry makes a frame of multiple trends within which they basically can't lose: "Hey, if you don't like that, try this!"Seeing a show makes it easiest to grasp the trends. Those who can't see the actual shows can now see them at Style.com.

I was really surprised to see high-fashion magazines like Spur and Ginza pick up the same trends as low fashion magazines like CanCam, and it's not like the CanCam editors are going to the European shows.

Yes, editors at the CanCam level are not going to the foreign shows. The main source of "Japanese fashion" comes from the street. Post-war fashion for men started with Ivy league casual wear like the brand Van. Even now, casual is the mainstream, and the roots of casual are on the street. So "Japanese fashion" has the organic-growth from the streets rubbing against the luxury goods made in Paris. But essentially, the Japanese fashion ethic is street casual. The big source for that is the American sports casual wear that came into Japan after the war: sporty, every-day wear.

But Spur and the low fashion magazines are picking up the same trends like color tights.

That's because media are all starting to homogenize.

They weren't doing the same trends ten years ago?

No, there was a gap. The fashion world, along with the economy, has become globalized. Look at production: in the past, if Dior wasn't made in France, it wasn't Dior. Now all the French factory does is make the "aesthetics" for Dior. Dior goods have such media power that products made in Hong Kong, China, and Africa all sell well just by attaching the Dior brand. The way of looking at fashion after globalization in the 21st century is what I think of as "fashion DJs." There is no way to make anything new, in a creative sense. I think that "creation" completely ended in the 15-20 years I have been watching fashion since 1985. As long as the human body does not change, there are no more ways to create anything new. If we started to have three or four arms, then creations would change. But that's not going to happen.In our era, the designers' job is just "sampling" of the past or "remixing" or "remodeling." I believe that there used to be "fashion creators" who lived in their own world and made their own creations. Then when Tom Ford showed up in 1992, we got a new category of "fashion directors," who do merchandising for brands based on an specific image. Tom Ford has never studied fashion himself, but he doesn't need to know anything about fashion design. He can say, "This is what's right for our era" and direct the creation of cool things and work towards a "Gucci" flavor. That is what a fashion director does.Now we have Raf Simons. He works for Jil Sander just as a fashion director. A year before he worked for Jil Sander, he was a visiting fashion professor at the University of Applied Arts at Vienna. When he got the Jil Sander job, he brought together all the young students and teachers around him and formed a team to send things to Jil Sander. The directors now sit in between those actually sew the clothes and the designers.Last, you have those working at Japanese apparel companies doing merchandising. I call the young designers who came up from the streets "fashion DJs." When they think about what to design, they design the "atmosphere" of the times or sample or remix. The archetype for a "fashion DJ" is the designer Jun Takahashi of the brand Undercover.

In the past, you have sometimes been critical of Undercover and designer Jun Takahashi.

When he first came out, he was a very typical "fashion DJ" of the new generation. The Ura-Harajuku movement centered around Hiroshi Fujiwara, Nigo (of A Bathing Ape), and Jun Takahashi. But even though they came out of the same Ura-Harajuku neighborhood, Takahashi started to seperate himself from the others. He had come out of the proper fashion school Bunka Fashion College. Nigo studied with him there, but did the "editor" course, so Nigo's always been a complete "businessman." When Jun Takahashi debuted, he was a fashion DJ, but lately, his style has changed, and he has decided to take the burden of risks and costs of showing in Paris in order to challenge himself. He's not trying to "wear two hats." What I mean by that is, in the past, most Japanese designers would show at Tokyo Collection, sell their name in Japan, get exposure in the media, design for a big apparel companies, do collaborations, work with sports manufacturers, and make fashion goods and bags. They would start a license-based business. Then with the money they earned, would debut in Paris.Once they showed their goods in Paris, they would make a lot of money by bringing back to Japan the fact that they are a "Paris collection designer." This has been the model for Japanese designers over the last 30 years.

This is true of Kenzo Takada and Issey Miyake?In Kenzo and Miyake's time, "fashion design" meant "license business."

When Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons appeared, they mostly obsessed over their own image, and because of that, their image became part of their corporate "holdings." They wanted to direct their own business, and so they created distance from the license business. And they took all the risk themselves when they went to Paris.Jun Takahashi is similar. He only runs his own brand. He is risking the whole game on one bet. It takes a lot of money every year to show in Paris twice. He is always working hard to find his own originality. For example, there is a big difference between the brands Number Nine and Undercover. They are both of the same fashion DJ generation, where there are no possibilities of "new" creations. Designers make three types of clothes: things they want to make, things they want to sell, and things that they think will sell well. So when I see a show, I judge the proportion of these three categories in the show's clothing. For Comme des Garçons, 80% is what she wants to make. The other 20% is things she wants to sell, but they are mostly inner-wear pieces you don't see in the show. Undercover is always 70% things Takahashi wants to make and 30% clothes the brand wants to sell. Number Nine, on the other hand, is made up of 70% clothes they want to sell and 30% of clothes that they think will sell well. There's a real difference between the two brands.Another thing is that Takahashi's "creative world" comes from the typical Japanese streets. So everyone is anticipating that he will show how far original Japanese street casual fashion can penetrate into the big fashion world of Paris. Unfortunately, Comme des Garçons has become too large of a company to really to play the insurgent role. Kawakubo has gotten older, so she's brought in Junya Watanabe on deck and Tao Kunio at third-at-bat. She's creating a whole team.I think Jun Takahashi is amazing that he's come this far for being basically just another little punk from the streets. He has used his own money and has persevered by his own will-power. I think he is very earnest. Everyone else is cashing in, but he has created such goodwill by his sheer force alone. As a journalist, I believe I should be assisting young designers, and I want to see how far Japan can slice itself into the current system.

Nigo's brand A Bathing Ape (Bape) is doing well overseas with the hip hop crowd, but that success does not seem to have any effect on the brand's sales in the Japanese market. Is the era of gyaku-yu'nyu (reverse importing where Japanese artists who succeed overseas later become popular in Japan) over?

Yes, it's over. This latest generation of Japanese, what is "new" for them is not "novelty" brought in from abroad, but an interest in their own country. This could become a superficial kind of nationalism. Kids these days are very low-ambition; boys, in particular, are no longer going overseas for vacation. They think it's fine just being in Japan: Why would we go? We have everything here.I think this is a bit scary. You can only form your own identity after experiencing lots of different things and comparing yourself to others. This youth generation is closing itself off and overprotecting itself. But even if they are protected, they have things they want within the superficial Japanese consumer society.I was born in 1945, right after the war, but my 34 year-old son's generation knows nothing of the time before the war and nothing of old things in Japan. We are comfortable and safe, so they are only interested in discovering the things they are already interested in.

What do you think of the "real clothes" boom?

Japanese consumer society has made Tokyo into pure "consumer decadence." You can get anything you want as long as you know it exists. That is the reality for youth these days.When I am in Tokyo, I always visit Shibuya 109. Just looking at the displays, you can generally tell what young people want to wear and what they can afford to buy.One of the most original things from the Japanese media is the idea of "street snaps." Street fashion magazines like CUTiE or Spring send out cameras to Harajuku. Lately street snaps — and Japanese street coordinated fashion — are appearing in French and other foreign magazines. The Japanese media are also starting to expand the idea of street snaps and taking pictures of people and models and industry types in their street clothes at the Paris collections off stage and then turning that into magazine pages. The textile makers I mentioned before are looking at those Tokyo and New York street snaps when they are putting together the textbook to create the next year's trends. People are making clothes from these photos.Since the end of the 1990s, instant cameras came into vogue, then the digital camera, then the cellular phone. Everyone could take pictures wherever they wanted, and everyone became used to being a "subject" and learned to make anything into a visual. A long time ago, you could only become "visual" if you were on TV. So in this way, Japanese high-technology has really come into our every day lives at a high-speed. And if you are making visuals, you need fashion for those visuals.This is the way things are now. The information flow of consumer decadent Tokyo will start to flow backwards — from the sampling-heavy streets. When we were young, we wondered, what do you do in order to live an affluent lifestyle? What do you make, design? The kids now grew up within a very affluent lifestyle. There are very different vectors between generations. Young people today are "refugees of affluence." They're like boat people — who don't know where to go to get away from the affluence. I am looking at Jun Takahashi with the idea that these boat people may also have great possibilities. He's providing his own money to do collection shows in Paris — not New York — and all of his clothes that he makes are clothes you can wear. Compare that to John Galliano. Compare any originally-Japanese "real clothes" designer to Paris mode.

What was the first magazine to do street snaps and what was the cultural context for their origin?

I believe that the word "kawaii!" (cute) started to be used heavily amongst girls around 1991 or 1992. Around that time, publisher Takarajima started publishing the magazine CUTiE. I think the street snaps started around then.The origin of street snaps is the photographer Shoichi Aoki, from the magazine Street he was doing. He was in Kyoto and liked fashion, so who he would take pictures of fashion kids in weird clothes. He said that he wanted to go to the Paris collections to shoot all the interesting people there too. So at first he shot the interesting people on the Japanese streets for Street and then he went to Paris.So Aoki is the originator. But CUTiE was the first big magazine to run them.

Did these photos come out of the "street fashion"?

Japan did not have a class society like in Europe. Paris fashion always came from the top. In the mid-1980s, Jean Paul Gaultier was trying to be political, so he took ideas from the bottom and threw them into the "top." That was Paris fashion in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. That was the era when everyone started to get bored of the "elegance" of fashion that came from upper society. If you looked horizontally, there was a lot of interesting stuff going on with vintage clothes.Jean Paul Gaultier is the one who took the interesting stuff on the street and threw it into mode. But then Martin Margiela is the first to deconstruct mode and street. He worked for Gaultier for a few years. He ultimately went to Hermes to design, and he did a throwback to classic mode. At 50, he decided he didn't want to work anymore, so he sold the company. Japanese designers can't do this, because they work as a team. Garçons has existed for almost 30 years, but I don't think Kawakubo will sell the company until she dies. From the end of the 1980s to the end of the Bubble Economy in the early 1990s, street fashion started to become an interesting counter to mode, as a reaction against Bubble tastes. The original "street-kei" style started with CUTiE in 1991, 1992. I wrote about it then as "look: even unattractive girls are wearing Comme des Garçons now." At the time, everything for those girls was "kawaii" (cute).I feel like the number of young girls who say "cute!" has decreased in the last few years. Last autumn, I came back to Japan and went to visit the temples at Nara. And I saw all these schoolgirls on a class trip to see the Giant Buddha (daibutsu), and when they saw it, they said, "Yabai!" ("Whoa!"). That's the word they use now. "Kawaii" is a word that's meant to show agreement with yourself. You yourself want to be "kawaii," so everything you see is "kawaii." Yabai is a word that is about differentiation from yourself. I'm like this, you are yabai. So I think the word yabai goes back to the idea of overprotecting yourself.

I was very impressed with A Bathing Ape when I first saw it in 1998 — that they were using the Planet of the Apes logos. It's a kind of "cool" that works on an international level because of the ubiquity of the reference. But now you look at O-nii-kei fashion or Ebi-chan, and it's a closed-off fashion that would only appeal to Japanese tastes.

Everyone in Japan used to look abroad for ideas. Nigo's Planet of the Apes idea, for example — he got it from the movie. You don't get those ideas unless you have a touch-point for global culture. But since Japanese are becoming too overprotective, they don't go abroad, and they think that Japanese movies are good enough. So if you compare the two generations, the new generation's tastes are greatly simplifying.I think that kids now are totally in a paradox. They opened the door to the world and noticed that that they are standing in the middle of everything. So now they have stopped looking for anything else. They closed the door. That means that there are no seeds for the next consumer culture, subculture, and street culture. I think they will probably want to find something new in Japan's original traditional culture and customs. If they get comfortable with these tastes, the next generations can continue those traditions. I fear now that the level of fashion coming from the streets is seriously declining. There's a mental part to that too, because suddenly the yankii and other lower-class subcultural tribes are becoming fashion.

Until the late 1980s, perhaps, the mass media generally looked down on yankii and domestic working-class subcultural fashion. Do you think that the kogyaru boom in the mid-1990s changed that and brought that stream of culture into the mainstream?

There are the gyaru, yes, and then I believe there's also the store Hollywood Ranch Market. The owner Gen Tarumiku worked at Van Jacket. In the late ‘60s, he was doing sewing work and then went to live in Los Angeles. He lived as a hippie for seven years, wandering around Los Angeles and San Francisco.When he got back to Japan, he liked clothes, so using the seven years of experience in the U.S., he started doing a used clothing store. That was the start of Hollywood Ranch Market, which later became huge.Looking at his story, I think that Japanese street fashion comes from young yankii fashion. When he got back to Japan and started working, he brought in a lot of Japanese things, like indigo dyeing. He did denim, t-shirts, and jeans using traditional indigo dyes by artisans in Kochi-ken (Shikoku). At one point, his Hollywood Ranch Market jeans got big in America. In the process of being a hippie and coming back to Japan, he was able to bring in the best parts of Japan into his own clothing. I think that the ideas and ways HRM makes clothes always are conscious of "Japan." For example, every New Years', they do a traditional mochi (sticky rice cake) pounding next to the Daikayama HRM shop. This event shows an awareness of Japanese culture. They also enforce a very strict hierarchy within the company. If the top boss says "Yes," then all the other opinions don't matter. This is the world of a subcultural tribe.At some point in the last 20 years, a lot of yankii designers from the streets became designers in big apparel companies like Onward Kashiyama. The prototype for them is Ura-Harajuku. I used to state that the guys who broke big in Ura-Harajuku were "alleyway designers." And magazines like Takarajima were "alleyway newssheets," since the community

used them to communicate things like, "Those guys are making and selling this, so we should make that too." They thought that the best employment relations were for one person to become boss, issue orders, and have a hierarchy to follow the orders. So they've moved that organizational style into fashion and are making money on it.Once the guys who worked as sales staff in Ura-Harajuku figured out how the factories and textile makers work, they knew what they could produce to be successful. The guys who first started to make showrooms/shops around Ebisu were called the "Ebisu posse." In terms of brands, this is Number Nine and Hollywood Ranch Market in Daikanyama. I've written that the world of the yankii and the subcultural tribes has continued to change while the fashion industry wasn't looking. My view of society is too slanted but I think that this yankii culture is one of the core movements of the new strange superficial nationalism. Everyone is getting a tattoo and wearing chains and making their own clothes.

Do you think that there are a lot of non-yankii designers that respect the yankii and want to bring their ideas into mainstream fashion?

Another way I look at Japanese culture is through what I call Doers (toujisha) and Onlookers (boukansha). My generation had the student movement. Those that took on the ideology of the time and participated in the protests were the Doers. Those that surrounded the student protestors but thought it was bad for society and rejected the philosophy were the Onlookers. Japanese culture lies in the balance between these two groups.From the late 1960s to the first half of the 1970s, the Doers had the energy and emotion, so they lept into action at the time. But the Onlookers were the ones who created the second-half of the 1970s and the 1980s. Because they didn't participate in the student movement, they were able to get jobs at good companies. But when they finally reached management positions, they brought back in all the Doers from the student movement.The ‘80s and '90s saw the repeat of this. So in fashion now, you have Doers who were the ones coming up from the streets, wearing weird clothes, and doing what they wanted. And those around us, but just observing were the Onlookers. The media — mostly magazines — made closing the distance between them into a business. At some point the distance disappeared, and now everyone is the same. So what I think is scary, is that fashion is beginning to take on this generation's superficial feelings. The "refugees of affluence" seem like they are starting to come home towards an non-philosophical nationalism: "We are Japanese." There's the Doers who were in bosozoku motorcyle gangs and the Onlookers around them. And now the Onlookers are asking the Doers, "Do you want to do something?" I think it's scary what may happen when this structural cycle hits a world that has no intelligence.

Lately, Oniikei yankii fashion has made a splash in the men's fashion world, while hostess-inspired Koakuma fashion has made it big in the gyaru world.

These both show the short-circuiting world of the young Japanese. When kids are thinking about how to make money, more and more are looking towards the mizu shobai host club and hostess club world. Before that, kids wanted to become celebrities. They wanted to be on TV. But now, in their very narrow world view, being a host or hostess is the best way to make money and the coolest way to live. The Japanese women's fashion world always had the Ginza hostesses as a motivating factor for consumption. During the Bubble Era of the late 1980s, men would go out drinking after work at the Ginza hostess clubs and they'd look at the hostesses' fashion. Whether Armani or Versace — they would go buy it for their wives and girlfriends as presents. These hostesses had a value to the men as a slightly glitzy part of their normal lives. But now that glitzy part has become so down-to-earth for everyone. Hostesses are recruited on the streets... Oh, if it's so easy, why don't we do it too... Oh, if I became a host, I could make a lot of money.I feel like their lives are becoming more and more short-sighted. What young people have lost in sense, they've made up in desires in the consumer decadence.

The Ramones - Do You Wanna Dance???

**********************************************

Sacred

2009-05-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

Padded Cell - Triple X Syndrome

********************************************************

Wanna Suck Your...

2009-05-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

Red Lipstique - Dracs Back

********************************************************

Wee Bee Bush Clubbin

2009-05-03T02:45:00.000-07:00

Sal Principato + Dinamo Azari - Immaculate Contraption

********************************************************

Say What????

2009-05-02T02:44:00.000-07:00

Never in my wildest dreams would I think I'd want to actually buy the new album from The Horrors!!!But this epic 8 min. long adventure just blows me away and keeps me hungry like the wolf for more...The track is already a few months old and since that counts as ca. 600 cat years in the blogosphere -I still wanna pass this on,just in case there's a few unbelievers left out there who haven't been blessed yet.

The healing has begun!

The Horrors - Sea Within A Sea
********************************************************

Lost

2009-05-01T03:47:00.000-07:00

*******************************************************************************

Spacemen 3 - How Does it Feel?

*******************************************

TO KEEP THE FAITH

2009-04-30T12:07:00.000-07:00

**********************************************************************************

Black Lips - M.I.A
**********************************************************************************

JÄVLA BRA POP FROM SWEDEN

2009-04-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

Damn Swedes..
They're everything I'm not
+They make the best pop!
Jonathan Johansson sure knows how to flaunt it without acting like a total tramp
(both musically n visually).

Jonathan Johansson - En Hand i Himlen

Florence Valentine sounds 99,5% like the spawn of Håkan Hellström...and any spawn of that handsome killa is a spawn worth keeping a musical eye on.

Florence Valentine - Spring Ricco

Weird Vintage

2009-04-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

Yura Yura Teikoku - Sweet Surrender

Contrast

2009-04-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

Asa-Chang & Junray - Hana

late FALL in early SPRING

2009-04-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

I have got to get my shit together.My laptop has the hickups.I wanna say goodbuy to everything and everyone and run away.
My cat needs a lover,he's masturbatin like crazy.There's something called pigflue.I don't feel like wearing my ann dem flowerpants in public.I can't spell and my mind is possessed by a crazy emo-demon..

Twin Lion - Comfort in Bearhugs

My wet dream is about to come true

2009-04-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

Finally the real releasedate for the new Spike Jonze movie; Where The Wild Things Are(Based on the wonderfull book from 1963 by Maurice Sendak),has been made official=16th Oct of 2009!....if it's just 1 procent as magical as the trailer,I think I'll prolly die from hyperBliss watching it in the cinema.
....Bah Come Fall,come Spike Jonze,Come Monsters!

Eight Legs - These Grey Days(Full DiorHomme version)

Psychedelic Pony_ride

2009-03-29T12:59:00.000-07:00

Boredoms - Heart

Goth Pool

2009-03-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

-Praying to the fashiongods that they haven't eaten your funny bones.Come out of fashion_WorkHell_trance Tommie...Now..pretty please!

Berth Jansch - Courting Blues

} Drugs Lifts UP Religion }

2009-03-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

Nodzzz;
I don't wanna
(smoke marijuana)

What's that white stuff on your forehead?

2009-03-08T03:39:00.000-07:00

..If you want to dance like a warrior, you have to sleep with a warrior.
>>----For----The-----Experienced-------------------->
Been there done that?Then this is for you=
OOIOO live at the empty bottle(Chicago)
PART 1
PART 2

What's that crawling out of yr pants?

2009-03-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

(*x*)We've got a mice problem at my work(*x*)
----------M.T.-----Times------2---------->
Maureen Tucker - Spam Again
Maureen Tucker - Heroin

If I Were Ay Lonely Normad

2009-03-04T15:20:00.000-08:00

.......I wouldn't need your love tonight.

Jeremy Love - Hold Me In Your Arms Tonite

bEst bEdroom view EvEr

2009-03-01T12:33:00.000-08:00

I wish I could have stayed there for ever and ever...that cemetary bedroom_view in London really got to me....Very;old-preserved-jewish-cemetary==="I LOVE YOU"
------------------------------------------
I have no idea why...but this is what I have been listening to all day long(I've got this weird bad taste in my mouth..but that's why people use toothbrushes I guess).
Noooo I'm not on E,but this is soso mE.PUMP up the JAM PUMP it up yo PUMP it=

Alter Ego - Fuckingham Palece(Ner Derk Leyers remix)

Feel Like Giving Up The Fight

2009-02-26T13:45:00.000-08:00

My internship is starting to feel BAHHHHHHH!
My AldiMarket laptop is starting to act BAHHH!
My will to survive is making me wanna BAHHH!
--------------------------------------------------------------
My love for The Whitest Boy Alives new album;"Rules" on the other hand...Makes me wanna scream YAHHHHHHH!
Makes me feel like picking up my bloody sword again and fight all night.

Here's 2 shining tracks from the more than recommendable record:
1.High On The Heels
2.Island

COLOGNE_S/S_08

2009-02-07T13:33:00.000-08:00

Here's some pics from a quick,yet mighty fun,bustrip--->to german Gross kinda Stadt:Kôln back in the summer of 2008.everything was either VERY MGMT or VERY Mariah Carey.Vielen dank Santi-chan!
_(^-^)_(^-^)_(^-^)_(^-^)_(^-^)_(^-^)_(^-^)_

ImagIne

2009-02-06T07:06:00.000-08:00

All images taken with mobile by Che

Poopee and the N.Y. Squrrels - Bust That Nut(Downtown Mix)

Got Time?...

2009-02-05T08:35:00.000-08:00

Then spend a few hours(4 to be exact)to watch and digest these 2 important movies:
Zeitgeist 1=

Zeitgeist 2==
Rebel:rEBEl:RebeL

IRIS+VAN+HERPEN

2009-02-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

-------------------------^Best out of AmsterdamFashionWeek^---------------------Iris Van Herpens show at Amsterdam Fashionweek was a mindblower of dimensions...Some international Fasiawn streetcreD is deffinently deserved!

KERNKRAFT400/KRAFTWERK - ZombieNation/Robots(sqgl rmx)

JEPPE ÜBER ALLEZzZZzzz

2009-02-02T15:04:00.000-08:00

PartyBear and Ex JuniorSenior(_R.I.P_)member Jeppe Laursen performed last week at the danish MGP competitions for going to the Eurovison 2009 in Russia.It was alright I guess.But,certanly not as top notch I'd expected:(!...But,he was still WAY better than all the other contestants.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>v

Unfortunently,he didn't even reach the semifinals(>_<;)

Here's a few personal faves from Jeppes *sparkling* musiCChest..So far=
Superheroes feat. Jeppe - Johnny and I
Junior Senior - Shake Yr Coconuts(DFA "distortion" remix)
Junior Senior - HeadPhoneSong

In Loving Memory of Ye Old /M/J/ LooK

2009-01-31T07:17:00.001-08:00

Chicks On Speed - Wordy Rappinghood(Playgroup remix)

D<3AST -comfort zone

d

Bubbles n Whiskers;" Jesus Murphyit's a reindeer party"

Oh No He Didn't!

Big expectationS

Mr. Divine

R.I.P. jalokin y oizangi

Mu Mons

Digest Dogpoo Today

TRick OR TReat - OR BOth?

When I Say I'm In Love You Must Believe I'm In Love L.u.V.

THE RESIDENTS: favorite

Jack your body all over the placE

TETILAVK ANAUJ ANILOM

InterlüdE

Memories of Youth

Love Message

ADDICTION

Body Mind + Soul

A LITTLE

NOT AT BOLSJEFABRIKKEN BUT >>LYGTEN!

Atmosfæren

WEJ

AC for A-A

CityNightLife(Guest_post_host;Hayley)

D*I*R*T*Y rip off

Brrrrr(Guest_post_host:James Batley)

Let Me Drone Yone

PigFluish

REDdie?

Thee Four Horsemen

NOT ON DRUG$

Speed it uP

Sov Sødt

RUN::GHOSTS APPROACHING

in a cave a cave in a cave a cave in a cave a cave

sp(O_O;)ky

Intergalactic Orgasm

SONIC DREAM THEME

MAC D ick

Adorable

MEXICO SUXXX(guest_post)

Hello(guest_post)

A letter To A Friend(guest_post)

Hidrogenessia(guest_post)

Tea_Time

Mamma Bush

Chillaxing after Roskilde09..dead outside alive inside

As Long As I've Got My CaT

OOoooOOOaAAAAAA

Freak Out

SuperFunSummerTimeBeachTunes

Ulrike Meinhof Boy_I Wanna Be Your BF

Groovy Spaceman Says

BICTHIN

Hot Shit

EPIC

Center-Fold

Beat This

Love Interrest

Cloud nr. TEEN

8===(^-^)===8

"MINIMALISM"-PEACHISM >> AWESOME_ISM

Collective Feel Now!

Voyage Voyage

Funky Self Salvation

))<>((

Comforting Sounds

Vicious

Middle Eastern Glory

Pool Of Love

Hanging On To What?

I See Raw Shiny Colours

Open widE

Same Shit>>New Toilet.

Sacred

Wanna Suck Your...

Wee Bee Bush Clubbin

Say What????

Lost

DIRTY rip off