I wish I could say I wasn’t worried, but to a degree I was. It was pretty obvious that Avex wanted to focus more on other projects within the genre, such as their vocaloid release with Super Hatsune Beat.

With a delay in the latest Super Eurobeat album, we’ve been lucky enough to find some alternate routes to fill the void, including new and consistent releases from indie-labels like Portland, Oregon based Disko Warp Records and Quebec, Canada based J-Mi and Midi-D. We’ve also seen the first “fan-made” Eurobeat compilation Eurobeat Forever, published by the indie-Eurobeat label Paradise Last, including work from Disko Warp, Travis Stebbins (Ken Blast of Delta fame) and others. But… where’s our “Domino?” “Ace and Fastway?” “David Dima?” – the top contenders in the crazy world of Eurobeat? Pressed on a CD sitting on the shelves of Avex Japan HQ collecting dust?

I’m afraid that if Avex starts delaying this release more and more without a concrete explanation, and if there is no alternate way of accessing new tracks, the genre is just going to fizzle out. Since the livelihood of this genre is largely based around new releases, if no new songs are released the fans are going to lose interest fast and move onto the next “thing” (and trust me, it won’t be vocaloid and it will be a genre of music not published by Avex.)

To generate some discussion, if you had the ability to gain better access to new Eurobeat, without having to wait for Avex to release their monthly compilations, what would you prefer to throw your money at? If the big Italian labels decided to start releasing their songs through other mediums, what route would you like to go? For example, if they decided to go old school and start pressing new tracks on vinyl – would you buy them? What if they included one-time download link for the songs on the vinyl for your iPod/MP3 player? Or, would you prefer to buy physical CD albums? Digital downloads from iTunes, Amazon, JunoDownload, etc.? How much would you be willing to pay?

Even though it was the anniversary special, they didn’t do anything special other than give out anniversary keitai straps like they do every year.   No prize raffle, no performance, no drinking game.  There were so few people at Starfire this month too, even less than on a normal month.  Bancho said they’ll do something big for the 15th anniversary.  I wonder where I will be during the 15th anniversary.  Age 32, still going to Starfire?  Hopefully

It was sad when Many, the Canadian exchange student, went back home a few weeks ago, but now we have yet another new gaijin paralist joining us in Tokyo for a few months – Felipe from Brazil.  I was surprised that he knows a lot of dances and he speaks Japanese really well, so I’m sure he’ll fit right in.

The euro lesson this month was ALIX / MAXMISIN’ from SEB 215.   Techno was a techno remix of the SEF euro In My Arms.  Both were average in my opinion.

After the lesson DJ Teru announced that he’s taking a leave of absence from Starfire.

Bancho also announced that in May they’re doing a Nagoya tour.  I really want to go!

Then they brought out the tequila and made the Tequila 5 get on stage and drink.  They were using the tequila instead of champagne for people’s birthdays last night too, yuck.  It wasn’t nice tequila either.  I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to drink at Starfire because I came down with tonsillitis a few days earlier, but I was back to normal by the weekend so I decided to be bad and skip the antibiotics for a few days so I could drink, haha.  Drinks at Pasela are really strong now, almost as bad as at a-life.

In Ginza in the morning as we were leaving Starfire they were setting up for the Tokyo marathon. But I went home and slept.

Happy 12th Anniversary, Starfire!

Last night was the first SEF of the new year and the first SEF at its new venue at Maharaja.  If I had to describe it in one word it would be “small”….   Everyone I talked to was saying the same thing. “It’s too small”  “It’s so crowded” “I knew it would be small but this is too small.”  They made three small circles on the dance floor during the euro sets and even then everyone didn’t fit on the dance floor.  The second most popular comment of the night was “There are too many events at Maharaja and they all feel the same now.  I can’t tell if this is SEF or Magical Rave or Tenkaichi.”  I felt that way too.  In your head you associate an event with the venue.  A-life was a good match for SEF but I guess it was too expensive.  But all that aside it was still a fun night.  All the regulars were there so even though I was there by myself I had fun mingling and dancing all night.  And I do like how I’m friendly with a few of the bartenders at Maharaja now so it’s nice to have them greet you by name and come talk to you, etc.

They gave out SEF DX 010

1.  Wheelpower and Go

2.  I Dream of You

3.  Passport to Dance

4.  Shalaka Boom

5.  Power Two

6.  Up & Dance

7.  Ministry of Power

8.  Rain

9.  Rock’n'Dolls

10.  Text me too much

11.  Erotic Chemistry

The only new song is techno, Rock’n'Dolls.  It’s filmed at a-life, last one to be filmed there I guess.  It must have been filmed a while back because Manami’s had extensions since November but she doesn’t have them in the dvd.  (also eyepatch?)  My favorite is Shalaka Boom because they get the a-life bartenders involved again.

There’s no otachidai at Maharaja so they made a makeshift otachidai by pushing the two circular stands from the corner up in front of the DJ booth.  The euro lesson was Poodle/Y&Co.  It’s a cute song.  Techno was Pop the Track.  You can watch them on my friend Max’s youtube channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/maxsubobs#p/a

After the lesson they had a prize raffle.  At the door we each got a slip of paper with a number on it and then they pulled numbers out of a box and gave out prizes.  There were five SEF prizes (SEF DVDs and goods), five avex prizes(avex goods), one Maharaja prize(Maharaja t-shirt and goods).  Then there were four top prizes – a digital, camera, gourmet steak, pair tickets to Tokyo Disney, and a one year free pass to SEF.

Neoneo’s girlfriend Momoka won the Maharaja prize, Kensuke and Lumine won avex prizes.  Techno Yuki won the Disney tickets.  The creepy guy with the Care Bear tshirts won the digital camera.  I laughed at Uga’s comment: “Don’t use it for anything illegal.”

The very last prize was the SEF free pass, and they drew number 126, my number!  I was happily surprised to get some cheers from people in the crowd when I went up to receive the prize.  Uga asked me, “Is your visa ok for the year?” a reference to our friend who’s had some visa troubles this year.  Toshi-san told me I have good luck so I should buy a lottery ticket.

After the prize raffle was the tequila matsuri where they hand out free tequila shots to the crowd.  It was SEF member Manami’s birthday so they put her up on stage and made her drink, and then took her back to the VIP room and made her drink more – typical parapara event birthday celebration.  They also did ex-Vivid Anna’s birthday.  After the koushukai is when people really get on the drinks.  Tequila 5 Yosshi bought ten mexicoke’s and was passing them out…he must be loaded.  I did some janken drinking with Saki and the young people.  But no one got really bad this month.

My prediction for SEF is that attendance is going to fall since they moved to Maharaja.  I think they’ll lose a lot of the young gyaru crowd.  I think the younger people feel out of place in a disco atmosphere like Maharaja.  They’re used to always being able to get a seat in a club.  The older generation probably doesn’t mind it being crowded as much, because that’s how it was when they were young I imagine.  But I’ll be there every month, especially since I get in for free! 

Here’s another little video that I had laying around. It took me forever to edit it since I’m lazy. I hope you all enjoy and please feel free to subscribe to my youtube channel.

Happy Holidays everyone! We’re all so busy with life at the moment, but we’ll be back into the swing of things very shortly. There’s a few projects that are being planned right now. So keep your eyes open in 2012 for some new videos and lessons. For now I’ll leave you with a photo that I screen capped last night during a Google + hangout with Dom, Jim, Tony and myself.

It’s been six months since the last blog entry, there’s so much that we need to fill you all in on. For now I’ll leave you with this fabulous new video from ZYX. It’s a Disco NRG original choreography to Every Heart Wanna Fly/Irene from SEB 218.

The filming was yesterday afternoon, a few weeks later than originally planned because things got delayed after the earthquake.  They used the same studio as the B-1 cosplay dvd.  The Starfire staff is obviously very used to filming because they set everything up right away as if they were professionals.   The techno boys went first with Dragon and they only took a couple of takes.  We were supposed to go fourth, but since the other teams weren’t ready yet they had us go next after Dragon.   Our song was New Horizon, and I’d heard that Ryohei is very strict about getting every move just the way he wants it, but he was pretty gentle on us.  He did change some details of the furi on the spot though.  In that respect it was good that I hadn’t practiced as much as I should have.  Max had practiced a lot so the old furi was stuck in his head and he had a lot of NGs.  It took us 7 takes but I didn’t have a single NG.  But our last take was probably my worst take so I’m not super happy with the final result.  For the first few takes I was super focused, but after a couple of NGs I started to relax and I let my guard down too much.  Plus for some reason on that final take I started to get paranoid that I was stepping backwards, and I was worrying about that and not focusing on my arm movements as much as I could have.  It always feels like I’m dancing big but when I see the video it’s always different from what I felt in my head.  But it’s done and we’re a part of Starfire history now yay!

There was a big earthquake during the filming.  It was a shindo 5 in Ibaraki so about a 3 in Tokyo.  The people dancing didn’t even notice so it was ok, but it’s just a reminder that even though a lot of things are back to normal we’re still dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake.

We didn’t stay to see everything, but Rh, Ke-tan and Negiko did Tell Me Why and they had more NGs than we did so that’s good.  The worst was Hellworld.  They had two random girls I’d never seen before dance Hellworld, and it looked like they had just started dancing parapara last month because it was not good at all.  They did about 6 takes, and then got sent back to practice with Ryuuichi for another hour.  I wonder if they were ever able to get a final take.  They had the Lakshimi girls do Dragon and My Load.  I didn’t see Dragon but they did a Juliana’s take on My Load.  Harumi and Satomi did Sex Killer.  Satomi is such an amazing dancer<3  Harumi’s kid was there running around and he is a handful.

Anyway I’m excited to see the final product in a couple of weeks.  Disco NRG’s name will be in the credits next to my name so look forward to that★

Heather

I think the bartenders at Starfire have been taking notes from the bartenders at SEF because their drinks have gotten super strong.   So I was very happy all night hehe.

The lessons were:
Sex Skiller / Go Go Girls
My Lord / Techno Mob

Sex Skiller is definitely a Ryohei routine.  All 3 members of T-rrex were there for the anniversary. 

My Lord from Hyper Techno Mission felt like a cop out by Ryuuichi.  It was meh.

I think it’s funny that they choregraph these routines the day before the event.  They have a whole month to prepare.

Then it was time for the prize raffle.  Each of the members gave out a prize, and I won the Inocchi prize! I finally won something.   It was Samourai perfume, the same thing I won at SEF Rena and Suzujun’s wedding .  It’s good perfume. 

Matsuno-san from avex gave out bags of avex goods.  Last was Bancho.  And ironically the person who won Bancho’s prize was Satomi, who he loves to pick on.  It was a really good prize too – Starfire t-shirt and every Starfire dvd.  Bancho had wanted it to go to a young person who didn’t have the dvds, so Satomi was nice and gave them out to people. 

Next they gave out something called the Starfire Mastercard – a card that lets you enter Starfire for only 1000 yen each month for a year (normally it’s 2000 -3000 yen).  But they made you earn it in a “Guess that Tune” type game.  The DJ played the intro to a song, and if you could name the song and the artist and dance the routine, you won the Mastercard.  It’s a fun idea!  The DJs weren’t making it easy and kept using deceptively similar songs.  Ryuuichi was judging the techno songs and he was being super picky about the furi.  But it was taking too long that way so they gave it to the guy who danced “Get Up” even though he made a mistake in the sabi.  It was a really weird nerdy guy and he looked so serious when he was dancing.  Nobu and Nori were yelling “you’re Ryuuichi!” while he was dancing haha.  Then he fell on his knees when Ryuuichi gave him the mastercard.  weird guy.

The winner of the eurobeat mastercard was Jasmine, with Go Speed Racer Go.   The gaijin were representing last night. 

Then each member of Starfire gave a message on stage.  Ryuuichi’s was: “I’m looking for a pupil so I can focus on being a movie star.”  He’s done with parapara I guess.  I guess Nobu isn’t a good enough pupil.  Ryuuichi is pretty irreplaceable. 

They also celebrated Ke-tan and T-rrex Ryohei’s engagement.  They each got their own bottle of champagne to down.  They’re a heavy drinking couple  ^^;

Then we drank and danced until the event ended at 6am.  After Starfire finished we went to Denny’s down the street, which is the only restaurant open at that hour in that neighborhood so everyone goes there afterwards.  It’s fun because you can have eggs and bacon with Ryuuichi and Bancho sitting at the table next to you.   Not many people were there this time so it wasn’t that great.  But having food and water after a night of drinking is a great idea.  That’s probably why I was only a little hangovery this morning.   

It’s too bad that Starfire only happens once a month because it’s such a great event.  I’ll have to check out the all you can drink special at B-1 Dynamite this Wednesday.