What ? It is 2007 and not everything in the world comes in the form of an RSS feed?

Yes, even in this day and age some sites don’t have RSS feeds – it’s probably because unlike 90% of the internets they aren’t some crappy blog, but sites with actual content.

I used feed43.com to create a custom feeds for Midnight Eye: “The latest and best in Japanese cinema – interviews, features, film reviews, book reviews, calendar of events and DVD releases”, the site about Japanese cinema that *does* live up to its tagline.

Midnight Eye RSS
 

The end of an era for Akihabara ? That’s what Patrick Macias is writing about this month in the Japan Times online.

Akihabara has apparently become too famous for it’s own sake : it is now alienating the very otaku that made it what it is. The big money is here : corporations are reshaping the neighborhood, massive uniformisation is underway and akiba is progressively loosing what made it unique. Otaku never intended to be part of the mainstream, they just wanted a place of their own, and if Macias is right on this, it won’t be long before they have to look elsewhere for it.

dmp (is that guy Swedish or German by the way ?) has a new mix up. It is called “Italofied” and it is available on his website.

This stuff is really, really heavy italo, so italo newbies beware.

However if you’re not italo shy, I really recommend checking out his previous mixes, my favorites are his third and fifth mix:
- Computers Are Dictators (03)
- Return Of The Flying Synthesizer (05)

Welt-am-draht is a great German web radio focused on dark electronix of all genre. They broadcast live every other Thursday evening.

Toulousian dj and producer aratkiLo (aka Makina Girgir) is a regular contributor, his latest mix for Welt-am-draht is the third part of his “no-groove” mix serie aptly titled I don’t like to dance.

Check it out here : aratkiLo – “i don´t like to dance III” (via welt-am-draht.de)

Unfortunately part I and II, which were broacast in 2006, aren’t online anymore.

David Marx, who’s been prolifically blogging since 2004 about all the dysfunctional things we love (or love to hate) about Japan, has started a new collective site called néojaponisme (note the accent aigu on néo – how very Japanese to use French as name decoration).

There isn’t anything in term of content on the new site yet (apart from the manifesto), but it already has a gold mine : the Neomarxisme Archive. It is a page featuring the best articles and essays from David Marx’s old blog neomarxism, arranged by subject matter. There are some good reads in there about everything Japanese, such as:

- Japanese culture aka “Gross National Cool” taking over the world (or failling to do so ?)
- Why everyone really hates the ganguro
- Saaya Irie and the underage “idol” obsession
- The underbelly of Japanese politics : Uyoku the “black trucks” yakuza-based right wing groups or Shinzo Abe and his Class A war criminal grandfather Kishi Nobusuke
- Why it’s “cute” for gaijin tarento (in this case Leah Dizon) to speak adorably broken Japanese
- The otaku boom
- The gaijin complex : all foreigners with interest in Japan hate all the other foreigners with interest in Japan
- Japanese universities : “fun time” before a life of dull employment ?

And of course David Marx’s personal obsession: CanCam, the number one fashion magazine in Japan.

Sometimes the articles are just a starting point and the most interesting part is the discussion that follows.

Hard rocking party last Saturday (August 25) in Geneva !

Location:
Le Paresseux (Perle du Lac)

Line-up:
Most
X-bobo
I-F
Plastique De Rêve

Thanks to them for the massive (lethal ?) dose of Italo and good electronix. As far as I’m concerned this was probably the party of the year… We don’t get parties like this twice a year in the welsch wasteland of Switzerland.

And I’m not just posting to brag about how amazing it was (altough it definitely was) : most of the sets are now online !

- X-bobo afternoon mix (via konerec.net)
- Most afternoon mix (via konerec.net)
- X-bobo night mix (via konerec.net)
- I-f night mix (via cbsmix.net)

Thanks a lot to I-F and X-bobo for posting them !