The March 2004 edition of Studio Voice is out. The theme this issue is 'Magazine Graphism Legend, 70-85'. Here's the 'found poem' Babelfish (and the fish really is the greatest poet of our time, certainly the greatest automatic poet) makes of the contents list:

Monthly PLAY BOY Tanaami Satoshi one
70 age: Illustration golden age MATRIX
Surprise house system
Wonderland - treasure island
World of man!
Superstar age of illustrator!
85: Magazine new wave profusion period
Own country magazine design orthodox history
Magazine cultural testimony record
As for Kimura permanent Nosaka Akiyuki trees justice Hiroshi Yamaguchi seeing
MAGAZINE the myth to FUTURISM - tomorrow

white transmission
Ruins theory cultural = politics World Wide Warp
Shutter island
the one of wonder it touches,
Future is wild
Sand connected tail reason + Terada you see and are dense, Yanaihara beauty, Kuroda growth world
5 days of … March × William Youko Ando
Outside club occupation force of this world of sequential Osamu Sakamoto ー to full-time killer
Love actuary
Return of load of the ring/king
Drum line
Italian lecture because it becomes happy
Zebra - man N.Y. Type happy therapy

White transmission, ruins theory, and 'sand connected tail reason'. This issue seems to have de-evolution as its secret theme. 'They tell us that we lost our tails evolving up from little snails'. I want some of that happy therapy people are doing in New York with a zebra these days. And a surprise house system! And a love actuary!



The new Paper Sky leads with Tokyo Paradise, a feature on the islands of Ogasawara, 'where the city ends'. According to the fish of babel, though, all is not as idyllic as it sounds:

* Toe sewer traveling of - island life Ogasawara memory

Does Ogasawara host Tokyo's sewage works? Other features in this issue, according to the reliable fish:

Father island mother island MAP
FROM A TO B vol.4 cool running
Jamaican reggae traveling of marathon
Literature travelling vol.5 minor mood of Shibata original happiness
From CHINA Kazakstan family "the fox you hunt"

Happiness again seems to be a key theme, although I'm not sure Chinese family fox hunting is quite the way to achieve it.

From AUSTRALIA the stairway of month climbing
From AUSTRIA artificial island
From JAPAN soy sauce data mansion
The foam/home in Tokyo whose from ROPPONGI HILLS MINI is new

Now that's my kind of happiness! Climb the stairway of the month, check out an artificial island, visit a soy sauce data mansion (fantastic!) and admire a Tokyo foam/home! And there's more:

The Nepal fish tail lodge
Setting sun of castle EXPO tower of sky
FooDECO where the face is visible! Vol.8 sweet potato
Vehicle design of the design vol.4 railroad which is moved



The new issue of Kidswear magazine (sadly the last with the original team) carries my story The Playground Inspectors, with photos of Japanese playgrounds by Michael Danner. Here, to give you the flavour, are a couple of paragraphs:

May 6th, Kinryu Playpark, Osaka Prefecture

We arrive at midday in the usual formation: I am the 'parent', and Artur and Jeremias walk on either side of me, holding my hands. I occupy a bench, nod to those present, and hand my assistants two small plastic bottles of Qoo to sip. Immediately a quarrel breaks out: Jeremias has 'white grape' flavour, but wants Artur's 'momo peach'. He snatches at the orange-pink bottle and screams. 'Urusai!' I exclaim in maternal tones (I am dressed as a Japanese housewife for my work); 'You are too noisy!'

If I stand out in this park, it's not because I am a man dressed up as a woman or a westerner impersonating a Japanese person. It's not even because I am accompanied by mongoloid dwarves dressed as children. No, it's because most Japanese parents these days have only one child and treat their little paragons like royalty. To raise one's voice, or -- heaven forbid! -- the back of one's hand to a child is simply taboo. Well, undercover researcher I may be, but I will certainly not risk spoiling my dwarves. I cannot deny that there is a part of me which will remain forever Roritanian. I'm on the point of dealing Jeremias -- or 'Yuichi', as I call him on duty -- a good old-fashioned cuff with the back of my hand. Luckily he sprints away just then to join a group of boys on the flight deck of a mysterious pink space pod.