2010
Folks, for now, as you may have noticed, I’m not doing a lot over here at frangipani 2.0 now that I’m living in such a slow and quiet part of the world. I did have high hopes but you know, facebook makes it so easy to stay in touch with people and so I find myself there more than here.
I’m not going to discontinue this blog by any means, and certainly if things get more exciting in my life then I will have reason to post pics and stories, but for now I’d suggest – if you wanna stay in touch – that you visit me at www.martinecotton.com (my official photography site) or at the Martine Cotton Photography Facebook Page. Things are a lot more active over there.
Oh, and people who arrived here looking for my old manholes of Japan galleries, I’m sorry but I deleted the gallery some time back. Seems I get truckloads of referrals from other sites linking to the old manholes gallery. I’m sorry to disappoint you but you were sucking up way too much of my bandwidth.
Hope you’re all well, my friends!
the) BODY of) EARTH
Not sure I ever shared the video that Irish filmmaker Richard Grehan made to accompany the photobook I made with the outstandingly creative whirling dervish Kate E Deeming last year in Shibuya. (I wrote about it a little last year) That was such an amazing night.
Filmed by Richard Grehan, Music Douglas Lee.
In April 2008 Performance Artist/Filmmaker Kate E. Deeming created the character “Body Earth”, as a physical representation of Mother Earth. She then crawled on hands and knees in Shibuya, at Hachiko Crossing, Tokyo, (the busiest crossing in the world) in between the pedestrians as a way of drawing attention to the missing consideration of the physical human dimension in all of our chats about “this environmental crisis”. Martine Cotton, photographer and Richard Grehan, filmmaker, joined her on this exploration to document the ‘performance’. The photos contained in this volume were not staged, but taken documentary style over the course of the Saturday evening. They serve as a potent reminder to our personal responsibility towards the nurturance of the planet. Created in response to Earth Day.
The book is available for purchase at BLURB. You know you wanna….
**A percentage of the proceeds of this book will be donated to the Glasgow Women’s Library
I’m having an exhibition – one night only – The Dr Sketchy’s Exhibition Party!
Dear Blog Friends,
I’m writing to invite you to my third (and perhaps my last?) photo exhibition in Tokyo, next weekend – Saturday November 22. This party/exhibition is the beginning of the end of my time here in Japan, the beginning of the sayonara process…. Oh how the next few weeks and months will fly!
Anyway, back to the exhibition party. I’d love to see you there.
The event will feature a 3 set performance incorporating 6 different shows by various dancin’ girls, and will run from 9 pm – 2 pm, with an afterparty at a different club afterwards. There will also be an art exhibition and a photo exhibition (mine), and 4 different DJ’s. I will be showing 15 different photos – half of them Dr Sketchy’s models, the other half various portraits I have shot over the past year, all printed on canvas at 28cm x 43cm. They will all be available for purchase, natch. We’re also making a calendar with some of the pictures from the massive haul I’ve shot over the past 7 months at the monthly Dr SKetchy drawing night (sooo much fun).
My involvement with Dr Sketchy’s Tokyo has been a truly special experience, and I’m proud to have been a part of the team alongside Lady Elle, Cherry Typhoon, Hilo, Toy and Toby. We’ve been working hard to improve the monthly event and its profile, as well as planning this big exhibition party (which is the result of a hell of a lot of work and long mid-week night meetings). It’s been a pleasure working alongside this lovely team of super-genki artists. Go Team!
Anyway, here is the spiel (and facebook event page here):
Dr.Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, Tokyo presents:
Dr. Sketchy’s Exhibition PartyDr. Sketchy’s is what happens when cabaret meets art school.
Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, Tokyo is a cabaret sketch art salon. On Saturday November 22nd at La Boheme on Kotto Dori (Aoyama) at 9pm-2am the good Doctor will be hosting an art exhibition showcasing the work of Sketch Artists, and Sketchy Photographer Martine Cotton.
The event will be peppered with cabaret performances by a variety of Dr. Sketchy’s muses which include Tokyo’s own Ms. Exotic World Champions Erochica Bamboo, Cherry Typhoon, Safi and The Murasaki Baby Dolls. Hoop star Deanne Tonking will also be doing a show, alongside a salsa dance troupe led by Dirty Dancing Diana.
Among the featured artists are Josh McKible creator of the Nani Bird series recently on display in Shibuya Station courtesy of Art Below, Laura Hammer an artist who found the magic in Crayola and turned it into artistic alchemy and a whole host of professional and amateur young artisans.
DJ’s include Evil Penguin, James Carstensen, Bambi and Norishirocks.
Please email rsvp@drsketchytokyo.com for cheap entry (It’s \3500 at the door, \2500 if you RSVP)
_______________
Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, Tokyo is a community life-drawing event that takes place once a month at the Pink Cow, Shibuya. We search Tokyo to find sexy people who model for you for about three hours. In between poses there are contests with cool prizes, sexy performances, drinks and all sorts of mischief.
Technorati Tags: friends, Japan, Photography, Dr Sketchy’s, Tokyo
6 years of frangipani….. and some news.
On Nov 7 2002 – this day, 6 years ago – I wrote my first blog post here at frangipani.info.
My my, how things have changed. What an amazing 6 years it’s been.
It is a suitable day to announce some big news in my world. After 6 wonderful years in Japan, it’s time to move on. At the end of Jan/early Feb, I plan to move all my worldly possessions to the place where reef meets tropical world heritage listed rainforest; the multi-coloured birds are annoyingly loud; supermarkets and pharmacy’s have product ingredients listed in English; internet connection is slow; coffee is excellent, and the local residents population is around 4000 while the transient population of tourists is around 10 000. It’s a place very dear to my heart not just because my brother and his family live there, but also because when I think of “a better life”, it always looks like this area.
Guessed where it is yet?
Port Douglas, Far North Queensland.
I just can’t wait. But I have a few things to do here first…..
M xo
Technorati Tags: Japan
BiZ Nite (Monday, October 20)
10/20 sees the Biz Nites team move on back to Daikanyama Tableaux after last months Photo Nite. Thanks to all 180 of you who attended Photo Bite despite the pouring rain – wasn’t it an inspirational night! Thanks for the support.
So, this months event is supposed to be running with 30% Hawaiian content but it remains to be seen if we will achieve that. Hawaiians are a rare breed in the megalopolis, it seems! 
We do have the guys from the Uni of Hawaii coming along to do a table and a bunch of excellent non-Hawaiians making presentations, including the snarkily brilliant Dave Gutteridge from the Tokyo Comedy Club talking about the comedy scene in Tokyo.
Other presenters include the Japan Times illustrator Chris Mackenzie, who’ll be talking about illustrating for newspapers and magazines;
…and Artist/photographer Matthew Messner who will be discussing a digital video installation he created that involved the use of multiple video and rapid imagery projections through thin, translucent material in addition to live camera footage and two-way mirrors;
…and Richard Lane from DI.fm, which is the largest fully licensed dance music radio network in the world. They broadcast free internet radio to the world and are 100% fully licensed with soundexchange in America. DI’s daily listenership peaks at over 70,000 simultaneous listeners and is listed prominently in Apple’s itunes radio, AOL music, and windows media directories.
…and our fabulous resident DJ James Carstensen who will help you get your boogie on between presentations.
There are some more juicy surprises being planned and I will be updating the facebook Biz Nites fan page with details over the weekend….
As usual, Tableaux are offering Biz Nites guests drink specials (700 yen drinks) and their delicious buffet (1300 yen). Remember, Daikanyama is just 5 minutes from Shibuya on the Toyoko – directions can be found here.
See you on Monday night, doors open at 6 pm – 11:30 pm
PS – if you are a Tokyo blogger, please do me a favour and make a mention of this event on your blog – (love viral advertising)
Technorati Tags: BiZ NITE, Japan, Tiger Music, Tokyo
www.martinecotton.com
Go and take a look at www.martinecotton.com
Yes folks, I have finally finished my portfolio website at long last. Well, finished may be a premature word. But at least it’s at a point where everything works! The next step is to cull the images in the galleries to about 16 per gallery. An impossible task. But it must be done. The site was made using Lightroom Galleries LRG 3 template, and was relatively painless. Sandi, honey, hope you don’t mind being the star image but I needed to use an image with mostly black on the right side so people could read the about and contact pages, and this pic works perfectly – sorry honey.
Oh and guess what? I have finally got the Manholes of Japan Gallery back up again, after nearly a 2 year absence!
I decided to start up a new blog: http://martinecottonphotography.wordpress.com/. It’s gonna be a place where I write about all things phototastic in my world. I’m gonna keep the photo a day project running here though, (and yes, I know I’m quite overdue for a post – it’s coming, it’s coming) and the more personal stuff I like to waffle on with.
People, I am serious about my photography. If anyone needs a photographer for portrait or event work please get in touch with me through the contact form at the new site. Spread the word. This little chikadee needs work.
Technorati Tags: internet, Photography, manholes of japan, www.martinecotton.com
Stepping back into the ring.
Todays pics were all taken on Sunday, when Sandi, Jeff, M & D & I hit the Muay Thai championships at Differ Ariake, out at Odaiba. So much fun! (zillions more pics to come) Thanks for the tickets, Chisa!
I remember at the beginning of the year writing about my dissatisfaction with life in Japan and how I had decided to try to plug into the foreign community scene some more, to try to get more things happening in both my freelance photography and personal worlds.
In places like Shibuya or Harajuku, I would walk past groups of interesting looking people (Japanese and foreign alike) all hunched over a pile of papers or laptops, excitedly discussing ideas, and it would make me feel so disconnected from the rattle and buzz of this cities’ frenetic underbelly of creative industries. Back in Brisbane, that world was my life: making things happen – events, festivals and festival stages, tours, media PR, planting seeds of opportunity, etc etc etc. I realised just how fulfilled that kind of work used to make me feel. I certainly needed a break from the burn out of those last few tours, but I think 5.5 years was perhaps a tad excessive.
Anyway, earlier this year I hauled my arse out from under the radar, and started going to events and parties – often to photograph them (using my existing network of friends and their contacts), and started meeting new people. In that one simple choice, “getting out there”, I managed to plug myself back into a vibrant active community of stupendously magnificent creative people who are all about the same thing: getting things done and making things happen. The opportunities being presented to me are so exciting that lately some nights I can’t actually get to sleep. I feel utterly alive. Of course, I am also hopelessly weather affected and now that summer is here, the time is right for dancing in the streets.
But this post was never meant to be an ode to how I was lost (erm on holiday) and now I am found. Far from it. It’s to talk up the first of the events I have helped co-ordinate with Tiger Music. And to say to those of you who read this blog and need to meet some people and get things moving in their lives, to please revise the notion that networking is a dirty word. Networking is your friend. Networking plants seeds of potential everywhere because you never know how each person is going to pop back into your life with a proposal or suggestion or introduction that could change your professional and personal life. Step into the ring…. (do you like the way my story kinda oh-so-cleverly segues into the pics…?) But I’m going to do that in a separate post now….
I wonder how it’s all gonna go?
Technorati Tags: BiZ NITE, Daikanyama, friends, inspiration, Japan, parties, Tiger Music, Tokyo
The East/West Propaganda Project [obey giant vs wk interact]
I’ll definitely be checking this out:
THE EAST/WEST
PROPAGANDA PROJECT
OBEY GIANT vs. WK INTERACT
In the east/west propaganda project, agn?®s b. brings together for the first time two preeminent figures of the international street art scene for a confrontation of their respective graphic spheres. Based on the principal of emulation and collaboration, this project initiates a visual dialogue between Shepard Fairey and WK Interact, two artists working in divergent yet surprisingly complementary styles. The artists will produce original works for the show both individually and collectively ‚Äì calling upon the practices of two-handed drawings, cadavre exquis and graphic ping-pong.
Shephard Fairey’s comments on this project:
“I’ve always really liked and respected the work of WK. This show is not a competition but a collaboration. But if a competition it is, then it’s because he has such a high level of work that it’s always pushing me to do better with my own work. In that sense this competition is very healthy. I’m really excited to work on the TWS wall as well as the agnes b aoyama shop walls with him. Our styles are very different but very complementary. I learnt a lot working with him when we did work on the streets in ny. It’s a great opportunitty given by agnes b to work in her gallery in paris as well as the two spaces in Tokyo. She is supporting many artists that I respect a lot such as Futura, Rosstar or Interpol. I’m very happy to be now part of that group with WK.”
and from WK Interact:
“I think Shepard is a great guy and I definitely respect his work over the years. We are all comrades in this struggle and it’s a show / collaboration I am really looking forward to. Agnes b. has been a pioneer in the promotion and the recognition of graffiti and urban street movements. She was the first and most influential in taking it all to the next level and I sincerely thank her for her inclusion of my presence here.”
Sources: The Wooster Collective, Obey Giant
Website: The East/West Propaganda Project.
TOKYO WONDER SITE SHIBUYA
23 MARCH – 22 APRIL 2007
OPEN : TUESDAY TO SUNDAY – 11:00-19:00 (LAST ENTRY: 18:00)
CLOSED: MONDAYS
TEL: 03-3463-0603
Tokyo Wondersite
agn?®s b. AOYAMA
24 MARCH – 22 APRIL 2007
OPEN : EVERY DAY – 11:00-20:00
TEL: 03-3797-6830
Agnes B
Technorati Tags: art, exhibitions, japan, streetart, tokyo
Jeremy’s Gypsies
In keeping with the spirit of talking up those who are manifesting real, creative projects this evening, I wanna tell you about my friend Jeremy’s photo show, which is now up and open. Satra: The Gypsies of Sintesti is showing at the Konika Minolta Plaza Gallery (Tokyo) – although it was shot with Leica’s, Rolliecord and a Mamiya 7 (not Konika’s or Minolta’s…). All camera’s I love and wish I had. Anyway, it’s a project he’s been working on for 17 years now and they are fascinating, beautiful photos.
Read more at Tokyoland (Jeremy’s blog) or The Konika Nikon site.
Technorati Tags: events, exhibitions, japan, photography, gypsies, tokyo, travel
Tokyomade Online Shop: Tokyo style by Tokyo and Japan-based designers
Tokyomade Online Shop: Tokyo style by Tokyo and Japan-based designers: Brizzy [Brizzy = Brisbane, my home town] girl Deanne and her BF have been working hard to get together an online shop of cool Tokyo stuff and today is the big launch day. Happy Valentines Deanne! Good luck with Tokyomade, I’m sure it’ll do really well – hell, I really want that midori romance bag on the home page. Damn, you have some fine taste!
Those Japanophiles out there living far away will, no doubt, find yourselves salivating at some of the tasty stuff you can buy. Go on, whip out those credit cards, you know you wanna!
[posted with ecto]
Technorati Tags: japan, news, onlineshopping, tokyo
The flap and fluster of putting on your own show
Oh shite, whose bright idea was it to have an exhibition? I’ve just realised I know NOTHING about how to produce and exhibit a photo exhibition. Yeah, yeah, I got all the nice papers and stuff, chosen the pics, bought the lovely frames…. now I find that different print settings on different papers radically alter the photos appearance and I can’t decide which ones I like best, and half the frames I bought need to be re-matted to fit the photo sizes and… and…. and… oh crap. I’m in a not-so-mild panic. With only 3 more nights – with 2 fullish teaching days between now and Saturday eve -, I don’t see myself getting a lot of sleep. It’s all been pretty cool in terms of learning – just wish I had more time. But don’t we always. Hope I can pull all this off by Saturday evening. Wish me luck!
Technorati Tags: B&WPhotography, events, japan, kichijoji, life, news, photography, tokyo, toycameras
Exhibition preparation progress report…
It’s been an interesting time trying to juggle my work commitments with exhibition preparation and trying to get some down time in as well….
Technorati Tags: B&WPhotography, blackandwhite, events, holga, japan, kichijoji, life, photography, tokyo, travelphotography
Some cool shows coming through…
These sexy lads in skirts are Arab Strap: one of my all-time favourite bands.
Well it’s been a crappy, rainy 10 degree Sunday here in Tokes, which actually was a very good thing because it made staying in bed with my mammoth hangover completely guiltfree. I vaguely remember being dinked on the back of a bike through Kichijoji and getting my heel caught in the spokes, forcing forward motion into a kinda slow sideways crash – not once but twice. The driver was equally as drunk and, well, it was a hilarious ride. But enough of that. I’ve been checking out the Tokyo Gig Guide which has some GREAT shows listed for the coming months!
Asia repreZent
I need to acknowledge frangipani’s nomination for Best Japan Blog at the Asia Blogs Awards this year. I remember a few years ago (2003) when I came second in Best Asian Photoblog in the same awards (hosted by a different guy that time) and I was so thrilled by the whole thing.
But as time goes by, bloggers (at least most of the ones I know) and their motivations evolve (mutate?) and they become less enthusiastic about recognition, and so, sadly, these kinds of things mean nothing to me any more. I keep this thing running for my family and friends and to keep me motivated as a photographer. frangipani, the blog, is really nothing special (apart from being a great record of my life), and I am kind of embarrassed to have been nominated (but thank you sweet Stefan for considering me worthy enough to nominate initially).
I had planned to take the stick-my-head-in-the-sand-and-hope-it-goes-away-quickly approach but that is being a wee tad disrespectful to the spirit of the/my blogging community, and also to the people using their own free time to make something special for the much under-represented Asia-dwellers on the internet. So, if you have some free time, go check out the awards site and all the great sites that have been nominated this year. There are a heap of categories (erm, even a best Sex Blog…?!), you’ll be sure to find something that tickles your fancy. Go on, you know ya wanna.
Technorati Tags: asia, japan, life, news, photography, asiablogawards, tokyo, web
How will you get home after the big one?
Satoshi Takisawa, writing in Japanese in the Yomiuri Weekly and translated here, asks How will you get home after the big one?:
What will happen when a major earthquake strikes the Tokyo area and transportation systems are paralyzed? Just for argument‚Äôs sake, if 100 people try to walk from their offices in Shinjuku to their homes in Yokohama in such a situation, how many of them will be able to reach home? None, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government…
…If stranded people can confirm that their families are safe and find a place to stay, they can become a useful part of the relief workforce, Nakabayashi says…
…‚ÄúWe should turn people who don’t need to hurry home into volunteers. Single people should join in the relief work rather than walking home,‚Äù he says. ‚ÄúStranded people should be engaged in relief activities–helping injured people, for example–as much as they help each other to go home. The idea is to turn stranded people into helping hands.‚Äù If you’re likely to be stranded, keep his words in your mind. If you hurry to go home, you may encounter danger. You may prefer instead to consider participating in relief work. That’s the idea behind the proverb: More haste, less speed.
Another sobering but interesting article about The Big One. I’ve often wondered about this specific problem, and am really thankful that most of my work is not far from my home. When I do go further afield – even just to Shibuya, I always take my city atlas with me just to deal with this specific situation should it arise. Hadn’t really thought about it before, but I do like the idea of encouraging people not to rush straight home but instead to stay and help wherever they find themselves at the time.
The Big One. Never far from anyones thoughts. Every time I hang out in an old building, or a basement level, or take the subway, or find myself in a crush of people somewhere, I think “not now, please, not now”.
(via Japundit)
Technorati Tags: earthquake, japan, tokyo
Australia meets Japan in the world cup tonight
I can’t believe how excited I am about tonight’s world cup game between Japan and Australia. I am *so* not into sports but the excitement here is so infectious and… well, I’m actually going off to a little bar called Heavens Door in Shimokitazawa to join Tim the punk rock pimp and whoever else is gonna be around to shout OJI OJI OJI OI OI OI lots….
If you’re looking for a cool place that doesn’t have an excessive door charge then come on down. The game starts at 10, we’ll be there from around 9 or so…. The more the merrier!
Really hope Australia wins just so I can totally pay out on all my students and the kids at school tomorrow who have been bantering with me all week about the game. Actually, truth be told, they’ll all be so sad if Japan loses. They’re so into their soccer… I guess I don’t really mind either way. It’s just gonna be a lot of fun.
Sorry the site’s been all crazy the last few days, they’ve moved the site to another server and a few things got messed up in the transfer… it’s slowly being pulled back together… If you notice any gnarliness please let me know so I can let the tech’s know.
Latest Earthquakes in the World – Last 7 days
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program » Latest Earthquakes in the World РLast 7 days: This impressive website has a massive database of current and historical information about Earthquakes.
In light of recent events such as the tragic (and fearfully potentially volcanotastic) Mt Merapi quake, and the ‚Äúwhatever-you-do, don’t-mention it‚Äù curse (activated during saturday night drinks with Christian and Yuiko) in which if there hasn’t been a quake for a while and someone casually points that out then without fail it’ll bring one on in a matter of days, I decided to take a look around the web for recent (and please-let-it-exist: future predictions) quake activity…. 205 quakes in the last week. Holy crap. Scary. Here is the Japan Meteorological Agency’s quake page. At the time of writing it was looking pretty sparse. Just the way I like it. I’m quite sure it won’t stay that way for long…..
This entry was written with the remarkable ectoize bookmarklet tool. I likey.
Technorati Tags: earthquake, news
Bondi Books
Josh and Natsumi from Kichijoji’s only English second hand book store, Bondi Books, have been pretty busy lately relocating the shop from its old location to a much bigger one just around the corner.
Josh says:
It looks absolutely fantastic and very different from our previous shop. The new poetry section looks excellent as does the graphic design, photobooks, packaging and advertising sections and the rare book and first edition sections. The classics and beat generation sections are double the size of our last shop and there is a lot more non-fiction of interest as well. The new shelving system we made ourselves works well and makes the whole shop look and feel very spacious especially compared to our last place.
I can’t wait to check it out! Omedeto Josh and Natsumi!!!!
Dirty Little Secrets
Please bear with me as I step up onto the soapbox to take a few minutes of your time.
It is as many people always suspected:
Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
News of the somewhat questionable contents of a recently leaked “Secret Downing Street Memo” has been floating around the web for a while now, and unsurprisingly in this corrupt world, has hardly made news in the mainstream media. But it will. And I truly hope that all hell will break loose.
1. John Kerry plans to raise the issue very publicly next week,
2. Congressman John Conyers and 88 members of Congress are collecting signatures to co-sign his letter to Bush on Mr Conyers website.
3. Ralph Nader & Kevin Zeese have been calling for Bush’s impeachment for almost a week now.
In other related news, an American judge has ordered that the US Military release videos and photos of the torture inflicted on the Abu-Graib prisoners.
This material, accoring to journalist Seymour hersch (via Washington Times) includes:
“…videotapes of American soldiers sodomizing young Iraqi boys at Abu Ghraib
prison”. The investigative journalist, one of the first to break the story of prisoner abuses, said the Bush administration is holding the tapes of these acts, Aljazeera.net reported Saturday. “The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government at war,” he said. There was “a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher,” he said
In other, again, Iraq related news, journalist Michael Yon has been keeping a blog of his articles as he lives with American Troops in Iraq. It is an excellent firsthand account of what is really going on in Iraq, and actually shares with readers some of the rare moments of humanity in this war.
Well-worth-visiting entries include (get yr hanky ready) Little Girl, Children in Iraq, and this thoughtful take on The Battle for Mosul. There is plenty more here if you want to get lost for a while.
This dirty war is breaking the hearts, souls and bodies of innocent people on all sides. George Bush and compatriots, shame on you. You evil, lying pieces of shit.
OK, I’ll step off my soapbox now. Normal transmissions (complete with photos) will be resumed shortly.
