THOMAS PODVIN’S FREELANCE WORK
Freelance writer - translator - Editor

http://nippop.com

Much like the country itself, Japanese music is as intriguing as it is puzzling. Every month, new aidoru (Japanese idols) are presented to the general public; in the main, manufactured stars about as fresh as three-day old sushi. With the press giving blanket coverage to these teen icons, it is difficult to delve deeper into the talent rich world of Japanese music. Enter nippop.com, an English database of artists offering profiles, photos, biographies, as well as regular columns on Japanese pop culture. Launched in January 2005 by three gaijin (foreigners) with insider knowledge of the music industry (former Tower Records Japan CEO Keith Cahoon; former YesAsia.com Japan General Manager Bill Haw; and Billboard’s Asia bureau chief Steve McClure), the site claims to be “the world’s best English-language resource on Japanese music”. This may be a slight exaggeration, but where else on the Internet (in English, at least) can you find everything you ever wanted to know about acts like Malice Mizer, Guitar Wolf and Dir En Grey?

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
July 2006 issue

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com

Much like Shanghai, the Big Apple is an astonishing mélange of cultures from around the world; a city where anything can happen, and anything and everything can be said – and heard. Established in July 2003, overheardinnewyork.com shows New York at its coarsest and weirdest, by presenting everyday street conversations in the form of anecdotal quotes. This hugely entertaining blog is run by contributors S. Morgan Friedman and Jenny Weiss, supported by various friends, street spies, and a city of eight million eavesdroppers. It delivers quirky, surrealistic and irreverent wisecracks on race, sex, fashion, relationships and NY life, voiced in tones the rawer the better by people who live there: white collar workers, hip girls, beggars, kids, tourists, drunkards and the rest. Here’s an appetizer: “The quality of life here is so bad ... I mean, if you enjoy drinking all night and having random sex, you’ll like living in New York.” Sounds just like home.

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
July 2006 issue