A Couple of Things on the Horizon

As any of you who were there (an in fact, informed me of it), know, the Tanjyoubi no Ichiban Special party at DaSein, was a huge success, equal parts fun and madness for all involved. First off, thank you all for giving it your all! Although I know most of you are waiting for the crazy photos of the night, no I have obviously not edited them yet, since I was back home at 06:00 and had to go attend to a Junior High’s student’s education in Physics at 13:00 (AND I was 30 minutes late). However, there are a couple of things that need to be said, some in back-story and some as a prelude for things to come.

This party started taking shape after some of us thought that Flexxxy was a little TOO depressed of late and a J-party would improve his mood (with the added perk of pretty much all of you showing up, hehe). Then, when I visited the PhotoVision exhibition at the Eastern Airport Convention Center along with Velvet Vortex, her sister and JS (thank you for giving me the guided tour Velvet-chan!), Velvet told me her birthday was very close to Flexxxy’s and she was wondering what to do for a celebration. Then it struck me: we could profess that the party would be birthday-related but keep from Flexxxy it also concerned HIS birthday. Well, OK, THAT didn’t work out as intended, since Flexxxy got wind of it and proceeded to publicize it in one of his comments over here (in fact, he gave away a third person, who wanted to keep his birthday a secret – tattle-tale!). However, by then we realized that we would be probably talking about a rather large number of people from the Greek Japanese music community… That, in and of itself, did not suffice to make of it something more than just a really fun event (which is the number one priority in my opinion, but regardless).

Enter, Nozomi Ongaku. Nozomi is a mysterious team that’s been around in MySpace since November and about whom, their page says very little, except for their desire to propagate modern Japanese culture in Greece, in all its forms. In fact, they have been following closely all the Greek events and have also been present in quite a few of them, since their inception. Getting wind of this party after its announcement, they were interested in contributing to its organization and communication, as a sort for pilot event. The Nozomi group has a rather peculiar, though interesting mentality: they give no member names online and request that they remain unknown, apart from the people they cooperate with. The reason behind this is simple: personalization is the breeding ground for misconceptions. Nozomi is not a DJ team, although some of its members may be DJs, graphic artists etc. They are not planning on hosting parties themselves, but rather help groups or individuals (the condition, of course, being their desire to receive help) who will do so, with communications, connections and so on and so forth. In fact, they say a lot more about what they are NOT, rather than what they are. In my opinion, they see themselves as a coordination tool for those who have a genuine love for modern Japan and want to share it with others. At any rate, that’s how I see it… Only the future can tell.

Anyhow, during the planning out of the party, I was introduced, through Nozomi, to a new and upcoming DJ team who will focus mainly on anime music and cosplays, Akai Panda. It was therefore arranged that one of their members make a guest appearance as our surprise DJ – in fact, it was someone most of you know through Anime.gr, Namida! The funny factoid is that, since I had full guns loaded with anime music and KrizD is… well, KrizD, Namida would have to cover most of the non-anime J-Rock of the night. Personally, I believe he came through beautifully (with a little help from a mutual friend, hehehe). Since I have not cleared a more extensive presentation with Akai Panda, I will leave it at that, but keep your eyes open for more on this.

The bottom line is, even with Murphy’s Law plaguing it (sudden rain, as well as fractured availability of trains), the absolutely amazing attendance of this party is an indication of good things ahead and yes, new things are already being discussed as we speak.

Arigatou,

Speedgrapher

P.S. I just wanted to post Perfume’s “Chocolate Disco” and the making of the video clip, since it represents one of the funniest moments of the party.