Blog - Weekly revue: 2017 weeks #47-48 (November 18 to December 1)

Weekly revue: 2017 weeks #47-48 (November 18 to December 1)

Food: - Oden at Tapir (again!) :)

Exhibition: - Went to see the Tara Books exhibition at Itabashi Art Museum. Tara Books is a publishing company in Chennai, India, which silkscreens by hand many of its picture books. We had the chance to find some of their beautiful books at a bookstore in Delhi. Turns out they are known everywhere in the world, especially for "The Night Life of Trees" which was translated in many languages. This exhibition teaches about the publisher and its silkscreen process, and there is a lot of beautiful artwork exhibited, and of course the books themselves which can be browsed freely. This exhibition goes on until January 8.

Music events: - On Sunday November 26, I went to "Joy Ride vol.240" at Akihabara Cypher mainly to see Elektel, a unit I've loved ever since finding out about them on [the old] mp3.com in 2000! Elektel did a very cool set featuring singer Tomoko (ex-Jellyfish), with a mix of old and new songs!

I also got to see Love The Candy's (unit of Cutemen's Picorin), which had a very cool 90's techno sound, Omoshiro Sangokushi, and Francis (aka Ori Makoto, ex-Collectors) who surprised with a funky set that mixed elements of electro, chanson, rock, finishing with a cover of "Copacabana" that had everyone dancing. I got Francis' latest release, Francis avec Haruko "Jamón, jamón" which is great!

Elektel set list: Desktop Music Adventure / Runway Star / Panoramic View of Jazz / My Favorite Sunday / Better sound for better kindness / Touch & Go / Midnight Samba

Francis set list: S'il vous plaît, Ha! / Alexandre (Nino Ferrer cover) / Kameari Pop (P-Model cover) / Jamón, jamón / Da Du Da Di décadence / kawaii mocha / Delaware / Copacabana (Barry Manilow cover)

- I dropped by a mini-live event by Vanilla Beans at Shibuya Marui, in promotion of their new greatest hits album "Vani Best II", actually a collection of all their singles since their debut in 2007. Yes, 2017 is their 10th anniversary! They sang "sakasaka Circus", "Tokyo wa yoru no 7ji", "Please me, Darling" and "sweet life". Normally photos aren't allowed at their shows, but this time was an exception so many were busy taking photos throughout the show. :)

- And on December 1st was bimonthly event "hoshikuzu Salon" hosted by Macoto Tezka, the director of 1985 cult musical movie "The Legend of the Stardust Brothers" ("hoshikuzu kyōdai no densetsu"). Follow-up movie "The Brand New Legend of the Stardust Brothers" ("hoshikuzu kyōdai no aratana densetsu") is about to start being shown in theaters next month, so this event was a bit special as it featured several of the cast and staff. Several music scenes from the new movie were shown in uncut or specially edited versions, along with some from the old movie. One of those shown was the scene where Nomiya Maki sings "hoshikuzu kyōdai, tsuki e yuku", a great space disco track which is now available on iTunes, etc.!

After a break there was a short show by Akagi Chūji (Films) and Kubota Haruo (Pearl Brothers), who played some songs related to the movies, including "Monitor". For the encore, all of the cast and staff came back on stage to sing together the theme song, "hoshikuzu kyōdai no Theme". A very special evening! It was announced that the official soundtrack (including all songs from the new and old movies) will be released on January 10. And I can't wait to see the movie again! It starts on January 20 at Theatre Shinjuku. I bought a poster-sized edition of the movie ticket, autographed by the director!

Music release news: Wakita Monari, Izumi Ookawara x P.O.P, The Aprils, Record Day 2017 (Oh! Penelope, Roger Nichols, Kyoto Jazz Sextet, Salome no kuchibiru, The Pen Friend Club, WHY@DOLL, etc.), YeYe, Perfume, Vanilla Beans, Nomiya Maki with Stardust Brothers