Business Passport to Japan in Rotary and OchTamale

Sue Shinomiya and Brian Szepkouski's new book, Business Passport to Japan, recently popped up in OchTamale, the University of Redlands magazine (Szepkouski is an alumni) and In Flight, the paper of Rotary International District 7470. OchTamale calls the book "a practical how-to guide," and In Flight tells the intriguing story of Szepkouski's journey from student to teacher to scholar to international businessman, based in New Jersey with his heart in Japan.

Teruyo Nogami is Coming to New York and DC!

"A wonderfully intimate and beautifully written portrait of one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived...essential reading.”
--Martin Scorsese

The legendary Teruyo Nogami, author of Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa, will be traveling on the East Coast with actor Tatsuya Nakadai in June 2008, supporting the HUGE Nakadai retrospective at Film Forum. In addition to numerous film screenings, in-person events include:

June 21: Tatsuya Nakadai and Teruyo Nogami at Kinokuniya Bookstore, Bryant Park, 1073 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 3 p.m. in the 2F Event Space
June 22: Yojimbo screening with Nakadai and Nogami, Freer Gallery (Smithsonian Institution) and I Am a Cat at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
June 25: 50 Years with Akira Kurosawa: An Evening with Teruyo Nogami, Japan Society, New York, NY

Scoop on the Bonnie Simmons Show tonight

Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again! author Wes "Scoop" Nisker will be on the Bonnie Simmons Show on KPFA tonight, 8pm-10pm, supporting his new book and his upcoming performances at The Marsh in San Francisco and The Freight in Berkeley. If you don't like the news, buy a copy anyway!

Here's a preview that the San Francisco Bay Guardian wrote for a different Scoop show a little bit ago. Still applies:

Wes "Scoop" Nisker is probably best known as the KFOG news commentator who ended each broadcast with the words "And if you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own." Nisker, the author of several books and a leader of Buddhist meditation groups, is full of good-humored, wry insight into the political and social questions of the day.

(They also listed the opening at the Marsh here)

China Survival Guide Feature and Booksigning

The Grand Rapids Press recently ran a feature about Larry and Qin Herzberg, co-authors of the China Survival Guide. Speaking to the Press' Nardy Baeza Bickel about the need for a humorous and detailed travel guide to China, Larry noted:

"There are all sorts of planners that talk about what to see, where to see. But they don't tell you the nitty-gritty."
(read more...)

Larry and Qin will be doing an in-store booksigning at Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on June 21 from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Put it on your calendars! Details TBA.

McCarthy and Sharp at the Barbican and Beyond

The Anime Encyclopedia co-author Helen McCarthy is as busy as ever. Upcoming events include:

May 3: Kihachiro Kawamoto films at the Barbican Cinema in London. McCarthy will be joined by Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film co-author (and Barbican Senior Curator) Jasper Sharp to discuss Kawamoto's work before the third program at 4:15 p.m. (more info...)

May 11: Bristol International Comic Expo. McCarthy leads a panel on Osamu Tezuka's impact on the anime and manga industries. (more info...)

May 31-June 1: McCarthy at A-Kon in Dallas, Texas.

September 11-16: McCarthy curates a film season at the Barbican Cinema devoted to Osamu Tezuka to mark the 80th anniversary of his birth. Screenings will include titles previously unseen in Britain. A further short season in Spring 2009 will continue the celebration.

Wes "Scoop" Nisker on West Coast Live and Green 960

Two more upcoming radio appearances for Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again! author Wes "Scoop" Nisker!

May 11: "The Peter Laufer Show" on Green 960AM, 9 a.m. - 10 a.m., San Francisco

May 24: Sedge Thomson's nationally syndicated "West Coast Live," 10 a.m. - noon, taping at the Ferry Building, San Francisco, followed by a booksigning (you can buy tickets to attend the show and signing)

March/April News & Reviews

In the Spring issue of Film Quarterly, Stephen Prince reviews Teruyo Nogami's Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa. Prince writes:

"This exemplary memoir showcasing Nogami's devotion to Kurosawa and to the art of cinema is a treasure trove filled with passionate, funny, wry, and incisive portraits of a golden age in Japanese film."

Waiting on the Weather was also reviewed in The Asian Reporter, where Mike Street wrote that "Weather is both enjoyable and essential...film students as well as Kurosawa fans will find it revealing and engaging."

Josephine Yun, author of jrock, ink., contributed a four-page feature on the current state of J-Rock to the April issue of Otaku USA.

The new Stone Bridge Classics edition of Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Isabella L. Bird's intrepid 1880 travelogue, was excerpted in the Asia Weekly and reviewed in the April issue of Metropolis, where C.B. Liddell writes:

"The fact that it doesn't try to please a modern audience is one of the book's charms, but its main virtue is that it provides us with a vivid and unforgettable picture of Meiji Japan..."

In the April 27 Japan Times, Gregory Clark reviewed veteran Japanese journalist Fumio Matsuo's Democracy with a Gun: America and the Policy of Force, writing:

"Matsuo is...meticulous in trying to find how the initially democratic and humane aspirations of the early Americans could evolve into the cruelty of today's military interventions around the globe."

Harvard University Press released Eve Zimmerman's new book, Out of the Alleyway: Nakagami Kenji and the Poetics of Outcaste Fiction. Great timing, as Stone Bridge concurrently released a Stone Bridge Fiction edition of Zimmerman's award-winning translation of The Cape and Other Stories from the Japanese Ghetto.

In The Asian Reporter, Josephine Bridges complimented Fumio Shiozawa's "lovely and surreal illustrations" in Divining the Asian Zodiac: Anient Guide to Life and Love.

Tonight! Wes "Scoop" Nisker at City Lights

Wes "Scoop" Nisker will be reading and signing at City Lights Books in San Francisco tonight at 7 p.m. to celebrate the release of Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again!. Come on by for Buddhism, humor, "The Evolution Sutra," and maybe even a little song and dance...
(more info...)

Four New Releases from Stone Bridge Press

Out now!

Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again!:
Handbook for a Spiritual Revolution
by Wes "Scoop" Nisker
This seriously funny investigation of religion, evolution, cosmology, and Buddhism -- the second Cody's Book from Stone Bridge Press -- is a self-help book for people interested in helping more than just themselves.


A Wild Haruki Chase:
Reading Murakami Around the World
Compiled and translated by The Japan Foundation
Jay Rubin, Richard Powers, Kim Choon Mie, Inuhiko Yomota, Roland Kelts, Shozo Fujii, Shinya Machida, Ivan Sergeevich Logatchov, Koichi Oi, and Issey Ogata, with a special essay on translation by Haruki Murakami
Novelists, translators, and critics explore novelist Haruki Murakami’s phenomenal international appeal.

Exploring Kyoto:
On Foot in the Ancient Capital
by Judith Clancy
With detailed maps and two new walks, the essential guide to exploring Kyoto on foot is now even better!




The Cape:
and Other Stories from the Japanese Ghetto
by Kenji Nakagami, trans. Eve Zimmerman
A new Stone Bridge Fiction edition of the award-winning translation of Kenji Nakagami's riveting stories from the Japanese ghetto.

Reminder: Frederik L. Schodt at the LA Times Festival of the Book this weekend!

Frederik L. Schodt, author of The Astro Boy Essays and numerous other books about anime, manga, and Japan, will be at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this weekend. Schodt will appear on the "Reading Manga" panel, which will be moderated by Charles Solomon. Librarians, readers, booksellers, take note -- this is your chance to get a great read on one of the fastest growing industries in the world!

Schodt will be available to sign books after the panel discussion.

Reading Manga: A Japanese Phenomenon Comes to America
Panel 1114
3 p.m.
Saturday, April 26
Location: Humanities A51
(more info...)

Two new interviews with Yoga Poems author Leza Lowitz

The April issue of WOW! Women on Writing features an extensive interview by Suzanne Kamata with Yoga Poems author Leza Lowitz. Read it online here. Kamata notes that Lowitz just published her fifteenth book!

Also, in "The Art of Gentle Surrender," Lee Peau speaks with Lowitz, who runs the Sun and Moon Yoga Studio in Tokyo, about the connection between yoga and writing in Wingspan, All Nippon Airways' in-flight magazine.

Helen McCarthy and Jonathan Clements on the BBC

Stone Bridge authors and energetic anime experts Helen McCarthy and Jonathan Clements appeared on the BBC's Woman's Hour this week to discuss "controversial Japanese comics." The show is archived here.

Tomorrow, 4/20, McCarthy will be on BBC Radio 4's Go4It, discussing anime with children aged 7-11. The show streams from here.

Inspired? Order your copy of The Anime Encyclopedia today!

Tonight! Crazy Wisdom book release at new Cody's Books

Join Wes "Scoop" Nisker and Stone Bridge Press tonight at the new Cody's Books store in downtown Berkeley to celebrate the release of Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again!, Nisker's seriously funny new book on Buddhism and science. Leah Garchik mentions the release in her column for the San Francisco Chronicle today, and Buddhist master Jack Kornfield recently had this to say:

“Brilliant, consciousness expanding, profound, mysterious, and very funny. Ah, the audacious joy of crazy wisdom!”

Tom Robbins, author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, loved Nisker's The Essential Crazy Wisdom:

“Twenty-three times more liberating than the Bible, the Torah, and the Koran combined. It may be crazy to say such a thing but it is also wise.”

Monday, April 14, 2008
7 p.m. in the store
Cody's Books
2201 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley
(more info...)

Author Events Update: Schodt in Japan, Fang on Radio, Scoop in the Bay Area, and Bacarr on Playboy TV

The Astro Boy Essays author Frederik L. Schodt has upcoming events in Japan and Los Angeles:
March 22: "Tezuka Osamu, Astro Boy, and the Roots of Modern Manga and Anime," JAT meeting, Shibuya, Tokyo, 14:00-17:00
March 24: "Osamu Tezuka and Astro Boy," presentation to Paul Sutcliffe's manga class, Temple University Japan, Tokyo, 11:30-12:30
April 26: "Reading Manga" panel discussion at the LA Times Festival of Books.
(More info on Schodt's events)

***
China Fever author Frank S. Fang has become a frequent radio guest. Appearances past and upcoming:
March 19: WMTR Radio Morning Show (OH)
March 21: WBIG Radio Morning Show (Chicago, IL)
March 21: Charles Barone's No Boundaries Radio Show, 8-9pm EST (MA) listen live
March 25: Michael Dresser Show, 6pm EST listen live
April 8: KGAB Radio Morning Show (WY) check it out
Many more appearences TBA -- stay tuned!

***
Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again! author Wes "Scoop" Nisker will be appearing throughout the Bay Area in April and May:
April 14: Book release at Cody’s Books, Berkeley, CA
April 29: Reading at City Lights Books, San Francisco, CA
May 16–17; 23–24: Comic routine at The Marsh, San Francisco, CA
May 29–30: Comic routine at the Freight & Salvage Coffee House, Berkeley, CA

***
The Japanese Art of Sex author Jina Bacarr will be on the "Naked Sushi" episode of Playboy TV's 69 Things to Do Before You Die. Details TBA, but for now check out the great promo video!

Frederik L. Schodt to Speak at USF on Tuesday!

February 26, 2008, 5:00-6:30 p.m.
USF Main Campus, Xavier Hall, Maraschi Room

The Anime/Manga Revolution: Osamu Tezuka and 'Astro Boy'
A public lecture by Frederik L. Schodt

In this illustrated presentation, noted Japan expert Frederik L. Schodt examines the art of manga and anime, the connection between fantasy robots and technology, and the lifework of Osamu Tezuka (1928-89), the pioneering genius of manga and TV animation in Japan. Tetsuwan Atomu, or 'Mighty Atom,' (known in the United States as 'Astro Boy'), is his life's masterwork because of the character's profound cultural impact. Befriended by Mr. Osamu, Frederik Schodt combines the pespectives of friend and cultural historian in assessing the growing significance of both anime and manga in his new Stone Bridge Press book, The Astro Boy Essays.

Presented by the USF Asian Studies Degree Program. Coponsored by the University of San Francisco Center for the Pacific Rim.

China for Businesswomen in Bay Area Business Woman

Business expert Tracey Wilen-Daugenti's new Stone Bridge Press release, China For Businesswomen: A Strategic Guide to Travel, Negotiating, and Cultural Differences, was featured prominently in the January 2008 issue of Bay Area Business Woman in an article by Julia Dodge titled "China is doing business with women." Dodge was clearly inspired by the book, ending her analysis with this: "So don't believe the hype...women can do business in China!"

The Astro Boy Essays at the Comics Village

The Comics Village features a review of Frederik L. Schodt's The Astro Boy Essays today. Reviewer Michael Aronson writes: "It’s hard to go wrong with Schodt at the helm. . . . [T]hat which he offers up is particularly revealing"
(read more...)

Frederik L. Schodt Around the World

This photo from The Astro Boy Essays author Frederik L. Schodt's recent talk at Mission San Jose High School demonstrates just how fun Schodt's presentations on Japanese culture are for all ages!

Schodt will be all over the world in the coming months. Here is an up-to-date list of his events. Check back often for updates.

Feb 9: With Tim Hornyak on Robots in Japanese science and fiction. At the Kennedy Center (Millienium Stage) in Washington D.C. 3 p.m. Free! (more info...)

Feb 26: Presentation on manga/anime and Osamu Tezuka at the University of San Francisco. Details coming soon.

March 19: Lecture at The College Women's Association of Japan in Tokyo. More info coming soon here.

March 23: Book talk at Good Day Books in Tokyo. More info coming soon!

April 26-27: Author appearance at the LA Times Festival of Books in Los Angeles. More details coming soon!

Roland Kelts at the Japan Society in San Francisco

Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica and contributor to the April 2008 Stone Bridge release A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World, will be speaking at the Japan Society in San Francisco on Wednesday, February 6. More info.

Anime Classics Zettai! in School Library Journal

School Library Journal is the newest fan of Anime Classics Zettai!: 100 Must-See Japanese Animation Masterpieces by Brian Camp and Julie Davis. In SLJ's February 1 issue, reviewer Jamie Watson writes:

"The book will be of interest to teens and also serve as a great reference for collection development. . . . Indispensable for anyone with an interest in anime."
(read more...)