This evening I was jamming with my talented singer-songwriter buddy Keita. Here are two of his songs he’s been working on recently. You can usually find us on Thursday nights at Cozmo’s Cafe in Shibuya. You can see some of our videos here.
Browsing Posts tagged shibuya
Last Friday I was joined by Daniel, Yukki, Jim and Sandra at the Pink Cow to record the Fun Friday for Learn Japanese Pod. I don’t know what happened but we achieved a record with over 1900 downloads in the first 24 hours it was put on line. You can check out the episode here.
It was definitely a fun Fun Friday as Sandra told us about her recent Japanese poster give away competition. Claytonian won the latest poster but she is giving more out. If you want to find out how you can win a crisp clean poster from Japan, check out her blog at Japandra.
Another point we talked about is the Japanese Lounge event at the Pink Cow which will be held on Sunday 18th October 2009. You can see traditional Japanese music including shakuhachi and shamisen performances. Entrance is free so you really have no excuses not to come. If you are interested in coming please sign up to the event on Facebook.
Looking forward to seeing you all on the 18th.
Here is a video of my band doing a gig at Game in Shibuya Tokyo.
Live @ Game Shibuya Tokyo from Alex Brooke on Vimeo.
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This is recording is of an interview I did for my Japanese Learning site Learn Japanese pod.
Recently, Karamoon, Waka, Mitch Altman and myself hung out at a hacker space in Tokyo called 4nchor5 lab (Anchor Lab). Run by Manabe Daito, it is located in Aoyama in Tokyo in an apartment. It differs from many hacker spaces in terms of the size since land is at a premium in Tokyo. Nevertheless it is an Aladin’s cave of electronic components and cool people working on some really interesting projects.
We were partly there to check it out as an inspiration to making a new hacker space here in Tokyo. Manabe told us their history and what they are doing. Karamoon gave us a nice background explaining the concept of a hacker space and how 4nchor5 la6 differes from ones aborad. Incidentally, you can read what 4nchor5 La6 wrote about us here.
Mitch Altman was walking around in the background demonstrating his trip glasses ending in some hilarious responses. Waka tried them on and said the effect was like being in a Doraemon time trip, whatever the hell that is.
We also talked about the coming Make Fair which will be held near Tama Center on 23rd and 24th May 2009. Looking forward to that.
Check out the links below to find out more about 4nchor5 la6, hacker spaces, Mitch Altman and more:
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This video was taken on my roof in Shibuya looking north east towards Shinjuku. This is also an experiment using Flash to see if I can make videos a little more interactive. Recently I’ve been trying to get my head around actionscript. I’ll probably be posting the code I use in my projects as small tutorials so I can consolidate what I have learned and keep all the useful stuff in one place. Hope you enjoyed the video.
Miwaza and co. talk about making a new Hacker Space in Tokyo
Tokyo Hacker space from Alex Brooke on Vimeo.
After Mitch Altman’s talk about Hacker Spaces at Tokyo Barcamp, I for one was pretty inspired to get a new hacker space going here in Tokyo. It turns out that there is already one in the form of 4nchor5 la6 in Shibuya. (What is a hacker space?)
I spoke to some of the Barcampers about why they want to make one and what they want to do with it. 4nchor5 la6 seems to be quite hardware and tech oriented but there is no reason why a hacker space can’t include more diverse projects. From this interview, I think people are interested in combining art and tech. Yes, we can make it work, but can we make it look beautiful?
I think one of the biggest hurdles in people’s mind here in Tokyo is getting affordable space. We tend to think that everything is small, cramped and expensive. However, if one is creative, there are disused properties or cheap places if you look. It’s true that it IS hard but it’s not impossible.
Mitch and friends will be checking out 4nchor5 la6 today to see what they are up to. I’ll try and go along too today and get some info.
