Spring Report

Well, the house is almost finished and we're going nuts packing and moving our stuff little by little. Goldie's been stressing out a bit, as the new place is a bit smaller than our current place. I hadn't worried so much as I thought i didn't have a lot of stuff to move. That all changed today when i started packing my crap and realized that i have way to much junk i never ever use but I hold on to for various reasons. So, as we only have mondays to do anything non-gallery related, we went nuts today getting the move ready. Were we able to get it all done? not by a long shot. We move next monday and we're barely 10% done i think. this will be one massive challenge. Needless to say that the schedule at SoHo will remained unchanged while all this moving's taking place. What's more, no one will ever notice the great great deal of stress we're under, that just wouldn't do. Anyhow, after business hours is gloves off and we'll be expressing ourselves rather colorfully for the next few days. we'll post again once the move's finished and put some pics up.

Aights, TTYS!

C.

January Report

Woah! 2008 flew by! and January now seems like a blur. We started the year doing some work on the cottage, which needs TLC by the truckload. We're very happy to be working on it, and can't wait for it to be ready. It will be sometime before we can stay there, as it needs some major repair work and many other things.

Our friends George and Tamara came to visit last week, and we were so happy to have them here. unfortunately we were really busy with an off site exhibition and couldn't spend as much time as we wanted with them. However, it was the first time both of them had come to Japan together, and I'm very happy they could come. In previous visits we had shown them different parts of Osaka to each of them and I think they spent some time showing the city to each other. It had been almost a year and a half since we last saw them. We're going to try to head over to Seoul again and spend some quality time with them before they return to Canada.

As for the shop, things are really busy, or have been really busy. We curated and organized a really cool art show with a friend's gallery from Shanghai. It was an amazing experience and everyone's works were really incredible. We are so proud of each of them and want to do everything we can to make their work shine.

“Soñar con Japón”

Queridos amigos, tengo el placer de comunicarles que "Soñar con Japón" ya ha salido a la venta el dia de hoy. Este lindo libro fotográfico, producido por David Morales de Fotocompra.com, junto a un equipo de bloggers españoles radicados en Japón, comprende imagenes de este bello pais y esta escrito en ambos idiomas; castellano y japonés.

Tuve el gran honor de ser invitado a participar en este proyecto, y es con mucha felicidad que les invito a visitar los siguientes enlaces para ver un poco más de cerca este libro.

“Soñar con Japón”

Editor: David Morales (Manager, Fotocompra.com)


Autores:
Alejandro Cremades
David Esteban
Héctor García)
Javier Serrano

Prólogo: Celio Barreto

Concepto original, diseño y maquetación: Fotocompra.com
N° de páginas: 100
Tamaño: 19x19cm
Primera edición: 7 de Noviembre de 2008

Dad in Japan

Last week my old man came to Osaka to visit for a few days. We had a great time hanging out. It was his first time in Japan so I took him to a few key places in and around Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe. He was very happy indeed. He ate all the stuff I ordered for him and left the country fascinated with Japan. Here are a couple of pics:

PSP 2000

I am thoroughly convinced that the PSP 2000 was designed specially for me :) here's a list of the stuff I usually do with it:

Websurfing. by far the best web surfing gadget. full color and great res. the real portable web!

I watch TV on it. It's smart enough to show subtitles and I can listen to shows in english with the SAP function. Also, i record some of my fave shows with it and transfer them to my older PSP.

GPS. I jimmied up a mount for the PSP on my bike, so I get to plan my rides and use the PSP as a navigation unit.

Radio. I download a crapload of news and other radio show podcasts to keep me updated and entertained just before I go to bed, or on a slow day.

Movies. I sometimes plug it to the tv and watch movies on the big screen or projector at work.

Camera. great backup camera and video camera, been taking some pretty cool shots with the native 16:9 video format.

Games. Hmmm... not really, with all the other stuff this little machine can do, who needs games?

I'm older now

On tuesday yours truly turned one year older! Yey! but the "wisdom" gauge hasn't moved much :) . Goldie threw me a surprise party at SoHo and it was a blast. I was very happy to see everyone, and we had the grill going with some yakiniku brugogi. I want to thank everyone for coming out and for all the wonderful gifts i received. I didnt get a chance to take any pictures.

Tuesday was also Suguru-san's show opening as well as Hatsukano-san's 21st birthday. They had a blast as well. We wrapped the party up by about midnite, with stomachs full and heads spinning :). Thank you very much once again, and thanks be to God almighty for another year of life. To all of you who couldn't be there, I missed you, but there's always next year.
Thanks again!

What a day!

Today was one of the most interesting days we've had at SoHo. Zane and his cast and crew came to film the final scene for his film: "The Olden Days are Now". There was a great turnout of extras for the shoot thanks to Lawrence Hong, who brought in great people for the filming. Zane was thoroughly impressed with the cooperativeness and patience of the extras, who for hours populated each video frame take after take. I want to thank each and everyone of them for their support and effort.

Thank you to everyone involved for an unforgettable experience. We hope to see many of you at the premier, to be held at SoHo in spring 2008.

Takakiya Aki Matsuri, October 20th 2007, Osaka

Photo Courtesy of David Morales, Copyright 2007
Here's a pic of our little art stand at the Takakiya Shrine Aki Matsuri (Autumn Festival). It was a lot of fun and we got to meet a lot of people in our neighbourhood. The festival's focus was on hand mande arts and crafts, as well as other cultural expressions such as dance and performances. There was a big group of Japanese Flamenco dances, a belly dancer and Shinto performers. It was a blast! Our many thanks to David for taking pics of our little stand! Gracias hermano!

Photo Class

Photography class at SoHo has started, Yey! I have two students who signed up for the 4 week intensive digital photo class. It's been pretty cool and interesting, the students, Mon and Jenniffer are very keen in this art. There will be a one day exhibition on oct. 31st to showcase their work. I am looking forward to continuing with this course, as it is quite enjoyable and we get to go on short little field trips to take all kinds of pictures. We then critique them, use a bit of digital darkroom magic to work out some of the kinks, or take pics again from scratch.

There are some minor changes and adjustments I need to do to the curriculum to improve the course further. Anyone interested in signing up, please let me know!

New PSP Slim

So I got myself a new PSP a couple days ago. It is slimmer and lighter than the first PSP I bought. It feels more responsive and faster. i also got the Digital TV tuner accessory and it rocks, and the battery seems to last forever. i copied a couple of files into it, like my web bookmarks and podcast list from the old PSP and was ready to go in no time. I think this new PSP is basically an entirely different machine that looks like the old PSP. The old PSP however is still a classic, and I won't be getting rid of it anytime soon. both machines are wonderful pieces of engineering and industrial sculpture.