Jetset

やばい! I haven't posted in weeks!The inertia in correspondence can be ascribed to my friends Midori and Kubota moving from Tokyo to Toronto and crashing at Chez Tanaka until having recently found a place of their own. Kubota worked for EMI and managed the bands Akai Koen and MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS. But now he and his wife Midori are in Toronto for at least a year on a working holiday. I've been busy with work but trying my best to show them around Toronto... mainly taking them to all the great eateries within the Tdot resident chill +/- Scarberia. Places like Prohibition, County General, 416 Snack Bar, Le Select, Khao Sun Road, Sansotei, Joon's, MiMi (pho), Saigon Star, Guu etc

It sucked whaled*ck that I couldn't get time off work to fly to Tokyo last weekend and watch NMFT contingents 赤い公園, sgt。, チーナ, uhnellys and hyacca represent at Eternal Rock City. Although, Akai Koen actually cancelled their performance and a number of shows and are currently on hiatus. Hopefully the turmoil isn't serious enough to elicit a break-up but they're going through some drama and rough times right now. Cheer up girls! You f*cking RULE and I will kick your asses if you even think of calling it quits. :) On a happier note, I heard and read that チーナ and 百蚊 have become extremely tight as friends after playing in Fukuoka together and at Ero Fes. It's NUTS considering the bands are COMPLETELY unalike and probably would have never met or played together had it not been for NMFT. It's awesome to have the ability to take my favorite bands, force them to tour Canada together and have them become such great friends. Even though Akai Koen didn't perform I heard Nao and Hikari still attended Ero Fes to meet with their fans and cheer on their NMFT nakama: hyacca and chiina.

Not being able to make it to Eternal Rock City Fes was a huge bummer but the letdown was assuaged a little bit by meeting Ueto Aya and Abe Hiroshi during the gala screening of Thermae Romae at the Toronto International Film Festival. I made Abe Hiroshi and the crowd at the red carpet near me chuckle by saying, "僕のお母さんの一番好きなドラマは結婚出来ない男です！” (My Mom's favorite J-drama is Kekkon Dekina Otoko!" Unfortunately I couldn't think of anything quirky or witty enough to try and get Ueto Aya's attention. She was too busy signing about a hundred autographs and anything that came to mind seemed too embarrassing to yell in Japanese in front of a crowd. The movie was.. okay. I had seen the anime before so I already knew the story and most of the gags and jokes. Abe Hiroshi was outstanding in the film and Ueto Aya's character who was especially created for the screenplay made the film more interesting but as a comedy I've seen much funnier Japanese films. For example, Summer Time Machine Blues, another Japanese comedy centered around time travel. Nonetheless, it was a blast getting to see Abe Hiroshi and Ueto Aya up close. Abe is one of my favorite actors and he has such a great penchant for comedy. My favorite actress would have to be Aoi Yuu but Ueto Aya has such a fun, down to earth personality and is so ridiculously gorgeous and cute that meeting her is definitly one of 2012's highlights.

Right now Kubota and Midori are in Montreal. I have to work today but as soon as I'm done I'm flying to Montreal, meeting up with them for dinner at Brasserie t! and then going to watch the almighty: deerhoof!! who are playing at Cabaret du Mile End for the opening night of Pop Montreal. Then I have to fly back right away to work a 24hr shift on Thursday. Yes, I'm nuts. But even crazier is the fact that after working out at the gym until midnight, I all of a sudden decide I really want to watch Grimes perform this weekend. Tickets to both the Fri and Sat shows have long been sold out but I see that some guy is selling tix for the Saturday show on kijiji. So I text the guy and he's willing to sell me the tickets but only if I pick them up tonight since tomorrow I'm in Montreal, Thursday I'm working 24hrs at the hospital and Friday would be too late as he wants the cash sooner than later. So I drove out all the way to Scarborough at 1am to get my grimy hands on some Grime(s)y tickets all because of my natural inclinations to wait until the last minute and then act on a whim. Grimes' music is dope but I wonder how entertaining her live show is? I was a bit disappointed when I saw Phantogram at SXSW back in 2010. Their music is great but it doesn't translate as well when played live and I'm worried that the same holds for Grimes. Regardless, I'm amped for the next couple of shows. deerhoof and Grimes, baby! I haven't been this excited for shows in (or near) Toronto since And So I Watch You from Afar followed by Maps & Atlases in the same week.