Stuck In A Pagoda With Motoko Aoyama

In honor of International Wota’s 1st Anniversary:

“Okashi Tsukutte Okasui” by MiniMoni - their harmonies on this song slay me everytime.

And in the interest of equal time, we also have pie:

And because I’m going to the special hell: I’m sure we all know what kind of pie two lucky bastards have been getting from Aibon and Nono lately

The video came out yesterday but I didn’t get to see it until this morning. My reaction: Fuck, yeah! And Reina’s one of the centers? Put that “Fuck, yeah!” on a tape loop.

Simply put: They do not make pop music like this in America anymore. This song is capable of slaughtering every song on the current Billboard singles chart that isn’t named “Nine In The Afternoon” or “Sensual Seduction”.

5. Alvin & The Chipmunks “Christmas Don’t Be Late”. Original, OLD-SCHOOL Alvin and company. No CGI or ProTools involved.

4. Joey Ramone & Friends “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Wanna Fight Tonight)”. A live rendition from the last show Joey ever performed (12.11.01).

3. Reina Tanaka “Kira Kira Fuyu No Shiny G” . Not really a Christmas song, but it was on Morning Musume’s 7.5 Fuyu Fuyu EP that came out right beforehand, and what Tanakachiii fanatic wouldn’t want The Wonkylicious Sex Bomb under their tree?

2. PetitMoni “Pittari Shirari Xmas”. A live version. This one’s for Vee, who adores Hitomi as much as I adore Reina.

1. Spinal Tap “Christmas With The Devil”. From their appearance on Saturday Night Live… in May of 1984, complete with the interview that preceded. At least there wasn’t an 18-inch Stonehenge this time around.

And finally… one of my short stories, “The Man In The Hummer”, was accepted for publication by Jaded Silence Press for their horror anthology Deliver Us From Evil, to be released in early 2008. More on a release date when I get it. I found out Saturday afternoon and sent them the corrected final draft yesterday.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Just in time for Hell (aka Northeastern Pennsylvania) to freeze over, the sick bastards that put together compilations of hair-metal one-hit wonders have left a big piece of coal on record store shelves:

To wash the idea of aging hair-metalers and shitty weather out of everyone’s mind, here’s a song that I end up queueing on my iPod every time I have to step outside during the wintertime, H!P shuffle-group 7nin Matsuri’s “Summer Reggae Rainbow”:

Came across this clip almost at random last night while doing a little YouTube surfing; a late 2004 TV appearance by Morning Musume and W. Outside of the presence of “Namida…” and “RoboKiss” in the set list, I can’t peg the clip by anything other than its approximate time of recording and broadcast. Man, how things changed so quickly for many of the participants in this clip:

Nozomi Tsuji became a Morning MILF last month. Kaori Iida will be the next Morning MILF next month. Ai Kago, depending on who you ask, is either exploring the Kama Sutra with that creepy old guy in New York, or planning a post-H!P comeback. Or both, for all we know. Mari Yaguchi left MoMusu a few months after this clip and is way fucking overdue for her solo debut album. Rika Ishikawa left MoMusu right before Mari did to be a full-time Viyuden. Makoto Ogawa went on an educational hiatus in late 2006. Asami Konno went to be a full-time student, but came back to H!P part-time as part of Ongaku Gatas. Hitomi Yoshizawa graduated from the band (and thankfully hasn’t been as musically idle as Marippe, thanks to Ongaku Gatas). Miki Fujimoto is laying low (and getting laid), holding up future GAM and solo releases in the process. Reina Tanaka, Sayumi Michishige, Eri Kamei, and Risa Niigaki all became legal.

It’s things like this that give me more grey hairs than I should have, even at my age. No real complaints though (except for what the fuck was up with those antennae Aibon and Nono were wearing?) - it was real cool to see this clip.

Today Taiwan, Tomorrow America (I hope…)

The wealth of fan tribute videos to Her Royal Hotness - the great majority of them seemingly originated here in America - never ceases to amaze me. Imagine how popular she’d be if MoMusu were actually promoted in the USA by a proper major label.