Publicity and Thank you

A big thank you to Freerun magazine and also to LJ a free magazine that you can pick up at music stores and more around Japan. Freerun did a nice two page spread covering the Blueblood 10th anniversary party that was held in Tokyo last month.

Also big thanks to LJ for a nice interview and feature in their latest issue. This is a cool magazine that covers music mainly music festivals and also camping gear and locations. It is free and you can find it at Tower Records and lots of other cool shops and cafes.

If you read the interview and feel a sudden urge to buy a copy of my book “BLUETiFUL”. You can find a copy at Shugakuso in Sapporo. I went there today and confirmed that they have three copies still for sale!

Next event in Sapporo!

Posted this earlier today on my Honeyee.com blog so you may have already seen it…

Next up! Release party at “Concept Shop by Garage 69″ in Sapporo. I will be there on December the 17th from 3pm to about 9pm. Please stop by if you are in Sapporo. I will do two slideshows and also some DJing! It is going to be a fun party in a very cool shop!

Slideshows from 5pm and 8pm.

みなさんお元気ですか？
いよいよ本格的な冬！12月の師走でお忙しいとは思いますが、札幌を代表するカメラマン「ニール・ハートマン」の写真集”BLUETiFUL(ブルーティフル)”の出版記念パーティをコンセプトショップにて行うことになりました！
ニールとは随分古くからの付き合いになりますが、アメリカ人でありながら札幌に根を張って早20年。私達ももうすぐ札幌に根をはって20年と、ほぼ同時期に札幌に魅せられてここを拠点にすることにした似たもの同士！
ニールとの会話の中で、せっかくの地元でのお披露目は、形式ばったものではなく楽しくにぎやかなパーティにしたいねという話しになりました。
そこで、今年最後のイベントはゲンテンスティックやマウンテンリサーチなど、”山”にまつわるショップ「ConceptShop by garage69」で楽しい企画満載で開催します！！
開催日は12月17日（金）午後15：00〜夜22時位（？）まで。翌日、山や海に行きたいスノーボーダーやサーファーに合わせた時間で企画しています！
お昼から夜にかけて、おいしい食事はもちろん、お酒を飲みながら皆で集まりませんか？？
当日はニールのこれまでの映像を集めたスライドショーやニールやタクヤによるDJもあり！！
たくさんの人達が集い、知り合い、輪を広げる機会になると嬉しく思います！
エントランスはフリーです。どなたでも気軽に遊びにきてください！
待ってま〜す！

BLUETiFUL exhibition

Thanks to all who came out for the opening reception at Slope Gallery on Tuesday.  Finally I am back home after a long trip and I have a few photos to share from the exhibition.  This is for those of  you who won’t be able to make it to Slope Gallery before December the 28th!

Over view shot of the whole gallery.  Yes I painted the mountain lines you see on the wall.  Nice to be able to paint directly on the wall of a gallery.  The Slope Gallery management very cool and liberal.  After each exhibition they paint over the walls.  The 20 pictures you see on the walls are actual copies of the books mounted directly to the wall.  The left page features a sequence photo of Ken Shibuya from about 7 or 8 years ago.  When you flip through the book quickly you can see his riding come to life like a comic strip.  I wanted to express that and feature that section in the gallery, so I thought there is no better way then just showing the book!

I put foot markings at two spots on the floor because if you stand right there and look left…..

The sequence lines up very nicely!

I also made four large A1 size prints and had them mounted back to back.  The carpenter Otomo made some beautiful teak wood frame that look great.  From the inside of the gallery you can see these two shots I made of Mt. Yotei.  They are actually landscape photos that have been trimmed to fit vertical in the A1 size.

And there it is lots of  copies of Bluetiful on desplay and for sale at the gallery.  If you are in the harajuku area before the 28th of this month please stop by and check it out!

Here is a closer look at how the books are attached to the wall.  Very simple screw and washer set up straight through the binding of the book!

Slope Gallery link!

Blog post on the Bueno! Books site

Exhibition in Tokyo starts next week

I have a photo exhibition starting next week in Tokyo! Just wanted to take a moment to invite everyone to come to the opening party on December the 7th! I will be at the Gallery from 6 to 8 pm on that day serving hot wine and snack! Please come by and check out the photos and maybe pick up a copy of the book BLUETiFUL! Thanks so much.

Click for a larger image.

More info below!
http://www.buenobooks.com/slopegallery/exhibition_bluetiful.html

BLUETiFUL news and links

Lots of blogs and websites are posting info about my book “BLUETiFUL” release.  thought I would share a couple of the links here.

http://ugnadare.blog134.fc2.com/blog-entry-93.html

http://www.northstyle.jp/home/blog.asp?uid=73

Champion Visions

http://www.championvisions.com/blog/archives/1467

http://amphibios.seesaa.net/article/169121768.html

Even Enjoy Tokyo website is posting

http://www.enjoytokyo.jp/museum/event/387877/

React Magazine

http://www.reactzine.com/release-information｜bluetiful/

Snowsteez

http://www.snowsteez.jp/news/2010/11/11/news_225801.php

Shinya’s blog

http://shinya78.blogspot.com/2010/11/bluetiful.html

Sapporo Life

http://www.sapporolife.com/blog/blog.asp?uid=92&threadID=4076

Uemura blog

http://hlna.jp/blog/ue/

Diggin Mag

http://www.digginmag.com/blog/20101117042408.html

Nagai Takumi

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/takuminagaitriforce/e/75bb0721173c65b463b8e2966f82dbab

You can buy BLUETiFUL here

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/auc-rgbdvdstore/10004605/

 

I also found out that there is a BLUETiFUL the clown in San Diego California

http://bluetifultheclown.com/users/awp.php?ln=112799&p=intro

Then I found this epic song with the same title “Blue-tiful”

“Its a bluetiful day”

“Its a bluetiful world”!!

 

 

BLUETiFUL on Hayabuya.bz

The fastest media in Tokyo is either honeyee.com or hayabuya.bz  Check out a review of my book BLUETiFUL on www.hayabuya.bz  This was published on Monday before the Blueblood party.

Many thanks

Many thanks to everyone who came out for the Blueblood 10th anniversary party on Monday night.  Great turn out and a lot of people picked up a copy of my book, Bluetiful,  which made me feel good.  I was too busy to take many photos, but here are a few.

Check out the festival type set up that was created for the event.  Tents with store windows.  Free curry, drinks and more.

Thanks to all who came out to buy a copy of the book.   It was fun to sit and chat with you all and hear what you think about the book.

Since it rained on Monday, the Blueblood team riders made a dash to buy the tarps seen below.  It worked out to be the perfect set up.  The rain was pretty light right up until the end when a sudden downpour came.  The tarps saved the day and made the party.

The peak of the party, I never even got to eat the curry!

Big thanks to Higashida Tomohiro for the live performance!  As always he made the crowd one!

Next afternoon in Shibuya from the 7th floor of the Tower Records building.

Tower is selling “BLUETiFUL” right alongside my Car Danchi series, very close to the register, check it out if you are in the Shibuya area.

Thanks to Matsuoka for a nice interview, which will be coming out in the street mag Hidden Champion next month!

On a final note, this is what happens to good people after drinking  too much Tequila!  The after party on Monday night got a little out of hand and we emptied three bottles of Tequila.  The casualties were two guys passed out and Mino Yuusuke pictured below wearing a jacket he should not have on for a photo session!

Book to Snow

Well the time has come to make it official here on the blog.  I will be coming out with a coffee table style photo book on November the 27th of this year!  I have been holding off talking about this project on the blog, because I always had this feeling that the whole project might fall through.  Now we are in the final stages of producing this book and yesterday I got to color proof and actually see a printed version of the book, so the reality is sinking in!  It is actually going to happen!

Having a photo book has always been a dream so this is really an exciting moment for me.  Over the last few month I have been working with the very good people at Bueno! Books out of Tokyo to produce this book and they have been fantastic.  I think we have something here that will shake people up a little.  The paper, the cover and the binding are all different from anything I have have seen done with snowboard related photo books.  I am so excited to get this out to book stores, so please let me know what you think when you can actually hold a copy in your hands.

Anyway, still a few more weeks in the pipeline so hang in there.  I will keep you posted with more news as the date gets closer.  Yesterday made all the needed orders for color changes, etc and the printing company is now putting in the overtime to get that done and still keep to our on sale date.

Here is a look at a test print of the cover that I got today.

My mock up of the book for color proofing.

The title of the book is “BLUETiFUL”  a new word I created for this book.  The photos were selected from photo shoots and sessions with the Blueblood team and other friends and riders over the last 10 years.  So the “Blue” part comes from that.  And I also wanted to state my love for the beautiful winter season so I combined the two words together.  It also has a classic Japlish kind of ring to it.

Now check out the latest weather report which predicts  20 to 30 centimeters of snow overnight for the Hokkaido mountain areas!

Now look at this!  A typhoon is actually heading up towards Japan at the same time!  What is going to happen when that meets this big cold front hitting us now?

There you have it cars getting buried in my front yard on October the 26th!