A dreamlike mix of retro Japanese-style visuals, Victorian imagery and consumer culture iconography is found in the oil paintings of California-based artist Alex Gross.
Koshimaki-Osen, 2003
The Sugar Sickness, 2001
Ice Cream Cone (Despair), 2007
Mammon, 2010
Lanvin (Paris), 2010
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Shinmoe peak (Shinmoe-dake), part of the Kirishima volcano group in southern Kyushu, began erupting yesterday (Jan 26) in dramatic fashion. The eruption, thought to be the largest at Kirishima since 1959, sent a plume of ash 1,500 meters into the air, prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to issue a Level 3 volcano warning for the surrounding area. This spectacular footage of the eruption was captured by an observer in the area.
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Last night's action was also captured on a webcam at Kirishima [click "霧島山 猪子石(新燃岳)" in the menu on the right to display the latest image], and the still images were pieced together into a time-lapse video.
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Here is an assortment of playful Japanese postcards from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, found in a recent book by collector Hiroki Hayashi entitled "Antique Cute Post Cards in Japan" (Nippon no kawaii ehagaki).
Betty Boop (Yamaguchi Seikyokudo Co., Ltd. - c. 1930s)
Betty Boop (1937)
Betty Boop, Mickey and Minnie (1936)
Mickey (c. 1920s-40s)
Kewpie Mayonnaise ad (1932)
The anatomical features of Gamera and his foes are detailed in a set of illustrations found in one volume of the Kaijū-Kaijin Daizenshū movie monster book series published by Keibunsha in 1972.
Gamera
Gamera's features include infrared eyes with night vision, arms that can lift 50,000 tons, an organ for producing the flames he shoots from his hands, electrical spikes on his back, poison claws, sac-like organs for storing lava, coal, oil and uranium, balloon-like organs that blast jets of air out through the feet, and a tail of elastic cartilage that can deliver a powerful punch.
Guiron
Guiron's most prominent feature is his knife-shaped head, which is 100 times harder than diamond and is packed with shuriken-like stars that can be fired from a pair of openings above the eyes. The creature has 360-degree radar vision, 60 times more teeth than a piranha, lungs adapted for long-distance space travel, sac-like organs for storing energy and uranium, balloon-like organs in the legs that blast jets of liquid through the feet, webbed fins for stability in water, and magnetic suction cups on the hands.
Barugon
Barugon's features include dorsal spikes that produce a deadly rainbow ray, an organ to produce frosty liquid (-100 degree Celsius) that can be shot from his 30-meter-long weaponized tongue, a stomach that can digest diamonds (his favorite food), and radar horns atop his head.
Viras
Viras's features include a spike-shaped head capable of piercing through a meter of steel, a brain with an IQ of 2500, organs for producing a force field and controlling the minds of others, tentacles that are 10,000 times stronger than an elephant's trunk and which can emit powerful beams for space travel, and organs to break down cell tissue and control metamorphosis (for creating its human disguise).
Jiger
Jiger's features include a pair of horns that shoot missiles made of hardened saliva and one that fires a deadly "magnetium" beam, powerful suction cups covering her entire body, an organ for shooting jets of seawater at 300 kilometers per hour, a stomach that can melt iron ore, and an ovipositor tail.
[Via: Tokusatsu Figure-kan]
Here's a peek at a few of the bōsōzoku-style custom rides spotted in the parking lot at the Tokyo Auto Salon custom car show last weekend, via Flickr user brunnnno.
Poster by Masayoshi Nakajo, 1988 [+]
Behold a place where the people's needs miraculously meet the corporate agendas. Enjoy a nation of modern cultural perspectives -- "humanication," "forever freshness" and "the super next." Experience a country that does things better, or so its citizens fervently believe.
- Leonard Koren
A commercial promoting the Laforet Grand Bazar winter sale in Harajuku (January 20-24) features a mob of people with flickering LED-illuminated smiles who overrun a dramatic love scene reminiscent of a popular '90s-era TV show.
The ad -- entitled "Geee / Harajuku Love Story" -- makes use of wirelessly-controlled Mouth LED technology developed by artists Daito Manabe and Motoi Ishibashi.
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Here is a rough translation of the dialogue that takes place as the smiling mob approaches.
[Man]: We can make it work. I'll do my best.
[Woman]: Will you come to see me if I get lonely at night, no matter what?
[Man]: I will go immediately. I'll fly.
[Woman]: Will you come and pick me up if I call you from Mt. Everest?
[Man]: I'll fly there right away.
[Woman]: Will you bring me hot nabe soup if I ask for it?
[Man]: I will. I'll bring a year's worth.
[Woman]: What if I asked you to take me to the moon?
[Man]: That might be difficult...
[Woman]: That's not good enough.
[Man]: But I can make you happy.
The commercial appears to have been inspired by an earlier project by Manabe and Ishibashi entitled "Party in the Mouth," which featured a mob of women with glowing LED smiles wandering the streets of Tokyo at night.
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Here is some video from the Laforet website:
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Here are a few classic Japanese monster movie posters from Poland and the former Czechoslovakia. [Via Monster Brains]
Godzilla (Poland, 1957)
Son of Godzilla (Poland, 1974)
Monster from a Prehistoric Planet (Czechoslovakia, 1986)
War of the Gargantuas (Poland, 1975)
Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (Poland, 1978)
Terror of Mechagodzilla (Poland, 1977)
Gappa the Triphibian Monster (Poland, 1973)
Gamera Super Monster (Poland, 1980)
King Kong Escapes (Poland, 1967)
Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (Poland, 1971)
The X from Outer Space (Czechoslovakia, 1968)
Godzilla vs. Gigan (Poland, 1977)
