Hello, and welcome to this latest edition of the M31 newsletter. I'm Jean Snow, and read on for the latest on PauseTalk (with Vol. 100 just around the corner), PechaKucha Night (next week!), and the other fun stuff I'm up to these days.

What's M31? It's a name I used close to two decades ago as my sort of publishing imprint/company label for the activities I was doing while I lived in Tokyo, and I've decided to revive it. It's simply inspired by my birthday of May 31. The logo you see above was designed by Ian Lynam, and is part of a set of 31 logos he created for me back in the late 2000s, which I've decided to start re-using for this newsletter.

All the activities I organize in Shanghai have dedicated groups in WeChat, where you'll get the latest updates, and so please contact me to be added to any of them.

PauseTalk

PauseTalk Vol. 99 was held on Thursday, October 23 at Bananafish Books, and ended up getting the biggest turnout yet for a PauseTalk session in Shanghai, with 20 participants. It was a lively bunch, with of course a long intro roll at the start – that itself ignited a lot of questions and discussion as it was still going. Topics throughout the night ranged from community (why we join them, how to run them), whether language used influences who attends the event more than any cultural influence (i.e. why an event like PauseTalk tends to be expat/foreigner heavy), some takes on fashion in the city, and yes, good ol’ AI, which tends to be a recurring theme, with strong opinions on both sides of the debate on its use. As one of the topics touched on filmmaking, and more specifically, a few in attendance had participated in the recent 48-hour Film Project, we capped it off with an impromptu viewing of the short they had produced (“The Greatest Show-Off”), which ended up winning the top prize.

What’s next? As I had shared last time, I am still planning on producing a zine to commemorate the upcoming Vol. 100, and the collecting of material for that (for those who would like to contribute a page) is likely to mostly happen in the WeChat group we have – but if you’ve ever attended a PauseTalk in the past (either in Tokyo or Shanghai) and would like to contribute something, do get in touch.

As for the next session, PauseTalk Vol. 100, that will normally happen sometime in December, and I’ll share the details here when they get confirmed. I would like to do something special for it (on top of the zine), so we’ll see what I come up with. In the meantime, the best way to stay updated is via the WeChat group (contact me to be added).

You'll find archives of past events on the PauseTalk website, which includes recaps for each session.

PechaKucha Night

October was finally a break for us, following the two PechaKucha Nights we produced in September (Vol. 46 and Vol. 47), and our Vol. 48 is still set to happen on Thursday, November 13, this time at another new venue for us, Art Library in Jing'an (4th floor of the 889 Center on 889 Wanhangfu Road). After that, we're already circling December 11 for our Vol. 49, with venue to be confirmed.

You can always check our Shanghai page on the official PechaKucha website to see the listings for the latest events.

FOTO5

The latest themes that we explored for FOTO5 were ADVERTISING, SQUARES (pictured above), LINES -- and I did a little impromptu set one night on my way BACK HOME. Also, following a suggestion made by one of the group's participants (Bora), I'm now inviting anyone to respond to a particular photo from the previous week's set with a story/commentary/dream/whatever of 100 words or less. As an example, I wrote the following for a photo that had been shared by someone (Michael) during the SQUARES week.

Get up.

Go to work.

Ride the subway. Line 1. Or is that 8. I can't keep track anymore. I just know I need to go.

Go to work.

Time is king. I need to optimize the time I take to go to work.

The clock guides me. All's good, I'm on time. Time will not best me, I will best it.

Go to work.

I've arrived. On time.

It was for the following photo:

If you're interested in participating in the FOTO5 photo club, contact me so I can add you to the group on WeChat.

Shanghai Design Pins 📍

Here are some of the latest Shanghai Design Pins📍 that were shared in the group.

Shanghai Design Pins 📍 is a group on WeChat where we share design-related spots (and events) in Shanghai -- contact me to be added.

One More Thing

I get my hair cut every 6-8 weeks, and I have a pretty traditional routine: I always go to a hair salon (called Chic) located inside the Takashimaya department store (where I use Japanese with my hairdresser, who is the manager of the shop), and then once my cut is done, I go up to the 7th floor to have a tonkatsu set at the Katsukara restaurant. It's my traditional "cut & katsu," if you will.

That's it for this month -- as we are now transitioning into my favorite season (fall) with the weather getting more cool and comfortable, here's looking forward to the next few weeks of events, and hopefully work on the PauseTalk zine (I really need to get started on that).

For more on me, you can alway have a look at my personal website (where I share the newsletters in case you missed them) -- I've been blogging since 1998 -- or for lighter stuff (and lots of movie reviews) you can follow me on Bluesky.