Posted by Dave Bull at 8:35 AM, September 1, 2010 [Permalink]
Whole bunch of things are cooking this week, so it's another 'grab-bag' update ...
First, I've had a bunch of emails asking about the Playboy story. I wonder why! I have to tell you up front that this is nothing to do with typical 'Playboy' material. As I mentioned, they do a regular feature grabbing a few people who do a particular job, and put their 'data' up so that readers who are considering that field as a career can get a bit of an inside look at it.
Anyway, it's done, and the data for seven of us was published in the magazine yesterday. A scan is on this page of the Woodblock Shimbun section of the website. As it turned out, I am the oldest of the seven; the others are doing 'chalk art', 'spray art', acryl, and western painting. The lady directly above me on the page bills herself as being an 'Artist for Eros and Peace', which I guess might explain why this magazine chose her ...
Moving right along ... :-)
The Summer issue of the Hyakunin Issho newsletter is now online: [English] [Japanese].
It includes a story on the recent sizing experiments, and that leads me to the next item in this update ... the NHK project.
The producer was over here again today for another planning session. This is good news, as I have learned that the more time we spend in planning, obviously the better the finished program will be. But it actually caused a problem today.
I had done another batch of sizing this morning, for the paper for the second batch of printing on the 5~6 pair, and got it all hung up for drying just before he arrived. It's a dry hot day here, so I left the windows open up there just a smidgeon, so that the paper would begin to dry slowly.
During our conversation, he asked about the sizing (having seen it in the newsletter) and we went upstairs to look.
!!
It was bone dry. Every sheet, bone dry. And because it had dried too quickly, here's what it looks like:
Very wrinkled and distorted - exactly what I had been warned against. It dried too quickly.
I can't blame the NHK guy for this, as I myself would almost certainly have waited that long before checking anyway. But it's one for experience ... watch the weather, and crack those windows open/shut accordingly!
Anyway, as for the program, they'll be here for a couple of days in a couple of weeks for filming, and I'll then also be going to their studio on the 30th of the month for the 'studio guest' part of the show. Broadcast is unknown yet, but will be in January, on NHK cable channels overseas, and (probably) on the internet (although that will be a one-shot 'live' deal, and if you're in an inconvenient time zone, tough luck ...)
In other small update news, the 5th print in the Mystique print - the Hasui design - is online on the website, and seems to be in the hands of most of the collectors.
I can also mention that I have updated the A Story A Week website. I have heard from various people that they have had trouble putting comments on the stories, so I rebuilt the commenting system over there to make it match what we have here on the RoundTable. So there is no more excuse for not leaving your comments/criticisms on the stories now!
And finally, the 'countdown' is still clicking away!
