Cellist and recent nominee for the “Spirit of Scotland” award, Peter Gregson, wowed the Web in April with his live performance of the 40 part vocal motet, “Spem In Allium,” alongside five other commisioned works in eight speaker surround sound. As it turns out, the event’s sponsor, Fujitsu Ten’s Eclipse Speakers, was also quite captivated with Spemcast. They liked it so much they decided to take the show — first performed at Greyfriars Kirk in Scotland — across the pond for a promotional tour that’s sure to excite the ears of audiophiles on the American continent. The first performance will take place at Trinity Church in Boston on November 7th and will also be webcast, boasting even higher quality sound and picture than the original effort thanks to the fine folks at Fujitsu. The tour kicks into higher gear in February with shows in NYC, Michigan, San Francisco, and L.A. before hitting Japan. For more info on the Boston show and other upcoming dates, check out Gregson’s website.

Clever as ever, the Japanese have combined an animal shelter with a teahouse to create the Tokyo phenomenon known as “cat cafes.” To understand why the Japanese would pay ($8-$12 an hour) to play with someone else’s cats, you have to consider their culture. Tokyo is one of the most overworked cities in the world, with its denizens facing long commutes and hours of unpaid overtime. Residents lack the time and space to devote to pets of their own, but need the stress-relieving benefits of a feline companion. Successful cafes like Neko no Mise have a dozen cats on staff, play relaxing music and provide comics for their patrons. Sounds pretty great to me. Any benefactor interested in starting up a cat cafe stateside…Meow, Music and Manga?

If the words Tall Bike Jousting, Track Bikes, BMX, Alleycats, Critical Mass, Bike Polo, Cycling to Recumbents mean anything to you and you’ve got October 1st through 4th free in London, then we are here to tell you were to go. The Bicycle Film Festival has made its way around the States and is ready to launch in London. The festival is a celebration of all things bicycles through the media of art, film, performance, music and riding. The festival schedule for London is up here, but one warning — this is only half the schedule … maybe even a fourth. The Bicycle Film Festival comes packed with a culture of after parties, urban rides, bicycle hacks and some of the most pimped out bikes you will ever see. If any readers have been one of the BFFs in another city let us know how it is (or check out these Youtube videos). Pick up your tickets for the London event here.

Grab your passports, put your seats and tray tables in their upright and locked position, and get ready for PSFK’s Conference in Asia. Piers and crew are headed to tax-haven and very international city of Singapore to help spread the gospel of good design, marketing, advertising, communication and so forth.

The conference agenda “Creativity for Change, Ideas To Make Things Better” looks to be one of the tastiest I’ve seen yet, speakers include:

My pal Jeff Staple who will talk about how his great ‘accidental career path’ landed him at the help of an international company, Piers (the PF in PSFK) talks about “making things better” and a handful of others from places like W+K, NASA, Mindshare, Panasonic and MTV will be taking the stage (full list here). Also, Mark Dytha of Pecha Kucha fame will speak– that should be interesting. Tickets are on sale now, with the even happening on Friday, October 10 is the day. Say hi to everyone for me, I’m sorry I’ll miss it.

With a few locations around Tokyo, Uoshins is my new favorite Japanese sushi spot. It’s affordable, incredibly fresh (fish is laid out on ice when you walk in) and casual. The location I went to in Nogizaka is an old converted gas stand with outdoor/indoor seating and a great, fun, buzzing atmosphere. Make sure to try the uni, maguro-kama, and just about anything else on the menu (which is in Japanese, so good luck reading it, just smile and ask for Omakase, the chefs choice…)

Directions and map (thanks Alex) in English after the jump.

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