Coconut daddy's Shack : 2013

Friday, December 13, 2013

オタククリスマスの12日間 12 days Of an Otaku Christmas

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Help Me My Daughter listens To Asian Music

by Sean Bartlett

I Guess you have noticed your daughter or someone's else's daughter listening to the grooves of Girl’s Generation or maybe you have danced the Gangham Style. Then are those who know the words to the chorus of Pon Pon Pon By Kyary. That’s right your daughter has been infected by the Asian Music bug. Oh no its not a bad thing and I will show you by debunking some of the arguments against Asian music.

1. J-pop is Creepy !

First of all I have to ask why do you think J-pop is creepy. They will point to groups like AKB48 and say look at all those girls pandering to Asian men. Akb48 was started for the Gaming community which I guess is around 12 year old to 30 year old boys and men But get this if One of those girls actually have relations with a man they are fired can you imagine the Drunk pop star who sleeps with a Under wear Model have the same rule they would not last too long in Akb48. Being an Idol is hard work it takes training and it takes Discipline something most American women know nothing about before the Idol Graduates from the Group they have to stay Sober, Clean and Virgins and people think this is creepy. If a Manager said to me well we want your daughter in our group but she must be sober clean and a virgin I would be like sign her up! It would be like sending my daughter to catholic school and do not tell me men do not fantasize about the Catholic School girl but No one says I am not sending my girl To Catholic School Because its creepy. Don’t tell me That men are not thinking about giving Miley a sledgehammer. When did girls in a fluffy dress become creepy and Girls Naked swinging on a wrecking ball and Twerking with 30 plus man not creepy?

2. J-pop Idols are so young

yes they are but some range from 12 year old 40 years old. We live in an exciting time in the J-pop world we have now have the J-pop star which have broke the old Idol barriers down into a star one where creativity can be pursued like Kyary came mocking the ways of the old Idol now imagine a cute Lady Gaga and you have Kyary.

Now lets go back in time and realize where the whole Idol persona came from. Well it came from the USA. When producers could make money off of Short Playing disk Called 45’s . So in the early days of Motown Young girls could sing different songs with one band. These girls would be as young as 13 years old! I do not know much about the Motown era at the time but I do know little more about the Nashville early Opry Idols lets call them that. They were not going to be outdone so many like Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn who by the way was married at age 15 were geared to sell music to Older men. let me explain. Coal Miners Daughter was played in -`Honky Tonks across the nation filled with drunk men. They were obviously enticed by the voices of the young girls and would go out by the records. Now lets skip to the 70’s when Japan has a booming economy and Businessmen are stressed so they get drunk and playing at the Local Karaoke bar is a tune to relieve that stress. Do you understand where I am going with this?

3.Asian Music is not creative.

This is totally Bogus. Lady Gaga has been accused of Plagiarizing and one of the groups she has been accused of Plagiarizing was Girl’s Generation. Girl’s Generation have almost become one of the Most famous Girls’ Groups of Asian Music they have Crossed over to Japan and probably have become the Most Americanized group as well and Don’t forget who won Video of THe year on Youtube Not Taylor Swift not Beyonce Kanye but Girl’s Generation. So stick that in your Microphone and smoke it. One group 2ne1 should have been the crossed over group if you listen to their song “Fire” the recording of the drums is spectacular you can actually hear and feel the air being pushed and this is from someone who has been recording music for about 20 years. On the J-pop side you have such creative little videos from the cute little Idol groups like Momoiro clover z who videos are so unique in the way they tell a story they totally capture the Anime culture and sci fi that is today and if I was a young girl I can see me being captivated by the hypnotic look. Which makes us come to why your Daughter likes J-pop and K-pop.

4. It’s cute

I do not know how else to describe this but when your daughter was say three or four she probably picked the cutest doll in the world not the ugly one. If your Daughter had the choice between the Kyary doll or the Miley tattoo wearing doll she will pick the Kyary doll almost every time. We live in a cynical and ugly time so when they see the cute and kind Idol it is rare and it is special. I can go down the street and find ugly and mean girls but it is hard find someone who is pretty ,cute and respectful to others which just impresses a young lady who does not see that anymore!

5. Its a new culture

We tell our kids to expand their mind some of these young ladies learn Japanese and Korean through this music so it is not just fun for many its educational it is a way to experience another culture while most American Pop destroys the English language.

6. The modern American Pop has become Stagnant there has not been anything in our Music to really get excited about since Nirvana and I am not a Nirvana fan but you could see the Music start changing . You could see kids getting excited. The Hip Hop has not changed for 20 years it still the same crap where you see a Boisterous egotistical maniac rapping to a Eighties sample. If girls today want to listen to men acting like teenage boys they would just go out with the boys in school. You can only sample Hall and Oates for so long before people really get tired and on the other side the female pop stars just want to see how fast before they are singing completely naked on stage I cannot name or sing one of the songs except Lady gaga and I know that from Watching South park. The J-pop has girl groups Like Baby Metal They Combine the heavy Metal of the Past and The Fluffy J-pop Idol No sampling here to Led Zepplin here just plain ole metal matched with cuteness and in their latest tour they will be paying tribute to one of the best Metal Bands of All Time Metallica.

7. too many Fan Girls act Like Asians

This one of the most racist statements I have ever heard but lets play to your Stereotype Imagery for one moment. Here is a Stereotype Asian are good at Math well how is that a Bad thing. They are Respect to the elders yes many in the Asian Culture where taught this. So lets say this is your Stereotype of the Asian Culture. I want to know how this is the Bad thing? For my daughter to be good at Math or Respectful to their elders of Be a punching bag for Chris Brown. I will take acting like The StereoTypical Asian for 1000$ Alex so think about it for the Moment and turn on the radio then you can tell me why your Daughter listens to Asian Music. You know What I love it. I think I will call my Friend in Korea And see if he Needs some help.

Thanks Guys Peace and play it safe

Monday, June 24, 2013

The Three Years

I think finally I can close the book on chapter on my life for a while at the end of this month. I never dreamed that we would think about shutting down the Toru Takanuru channel. It was on the chopping block after working on other channels where we were getting more views than the Toru Takanuru channel . What happened?! I can divide the Toru Takanuru channel timeline into three parts The First Year It would be the tribute years. The second year would be The contact year and Sage, and Yuka-Pon year This was a great time as well and the final year would be the Midwest Asian Music Dancer year.

1. Tribute years

I have to admit it was one the most fun of my life this year of innocent finding out there was music out there then the music I was recording or I had learned about. The Internet opened our eyes to different cultures it connected us with people all around the world. I was a newly graduate from Recording workshop I wanted to jump into immediately into the music industry. I found a home at Fantastique Recordings I began working on an independent project called Tekcentric. The goal was to make videos and to sell the music with the links we provided from I-tunes or Amazon. I was messing around with videos and adding my music and attaching the link. A Young German/Russian would be the first dancer to sell my music through you tube I was so happy she was not graceful but she was cute like other DJ's had found out that if you have a cute dancer you could sell your music.

It would not be long that I was playing with effects and took a video from a dancer by a you tube user named Bekluvsdiru that I made a remix of her video and posted Immediately the views just shot up. After doing a tribute video for a couple of dancers and receiving one of the best messages a person could receive from a dancer I won't mention for I might embarrass her. I thought if Bekluvsdiru gets lots of views why not ask her if she would dance to one my songs if I paid her. I immediately looked for the pricing of what a dancer was paid in Nashville for dancing that was the offer I was going to propose to her.

I emailed Her (Bekluvsdiru) and was eventually led to her management and was told she was working on a project already. I realized it would be a conflict of interest for her to work for two different recording outfits so I sent that in an email and realized her management was signing every dancer I liked. I had to do something I had to think fast I needed and Independent dancer who would dance for us on you-tube but it seemed like all the dancers were getting signed or taken by another project.

I really liked the Otaku dancers and I thought I hated the music industry I was in why not be a part of another one that I might enjoy? I wanted to work with a dancer and I wanted to work with one that wanted to have fun just like me and probably tour the Anime conventions. The question was what if we had to leave the country to do it? I had just came back to America did I want to leave the country again? I walked outside and looked at my passport. I needed a sign from God I needed to know whether to go or not. I am a Fatalist and I believe if this was meant to be then God would open a door for me to do this. I thought to myself there is one dancer who I wanted work with at the time. The only one to me who could make me laugh at the same time and also who liked the dancing. I Sent her message and opened the conversation about contracts it seemed to takes us away from the point of working together. I felt that Fate had moved in and God had sent me the sign not to go any further with trying to work with her I had no desire to work with anyone except for the ones who were previously under contract. I know that I have told this story before but really think about this If she said Yes there would be no Toru Takanuru channel I would have been her manager in the background I had Ideas for her to do skits and stuff like that and singing and dancing but I felt that it was not meant to be and that it was a sign from above for us not to work together.

You tube's popularity was rising and the channel needed to change. I was receiving surprisingly female fans which kind of shocked me. I thought only guys watched cute girls dancing this was one reason while I decided to split and do a solo channel . I was just focusing on the editing and the dancer channel. I just took the principles of the dancers and decided to start a channel to create an audience I didn't care about money, gaining friends and I especially did not want to ruin my life with a girlfriend after parting ways with miss drug addict of the year. All I cared about was views . I cared about creating the best video there was. I created my own effects I worked days just to get a video right. Yes I enjoyed the emails and I enjoyed the compliments but I wanted to top the video before it most of all.

Yes there was the shameless promotion yes the girls emailed me to do videos for them I am not going to mention who and when but they wanted the videos done for promotion I accepted it as a challenge and I there are few young ladies who did not ask for videos but that is okay some I did because we became "net" Friends and some I liked and some I knew if I did a video for them it would gain views. Either way I was part of the community now but when the first year came to an end I wanted more.

To show you how dedicated I was to the channel You have to go to Yuka-pons video "I am turning Japanese." I must of been putting in 12 hour shifts and I remember working on her video in the break room at work. At the time I was just trying to get One video a week in. I never thought that video would do what it did and It has to be all Yuka-pon because I was not in a great studio effects environment when I put that video together. This video shows that my attitude had change I did not want to work with dancers or meet the dancers I just wanted views. I remember at the time having to ask for some time to film a client who was performing at a local restaurant at the time Restaurants were uncharted territories for musicians. I had plenty film time in my own environment so the thought of leaving my environment to go film dancers did not cross my mind at the time because if it did I would of contacted Yuka, to be honest I was so shocked how people around me fell in love with her but I thought she was targeting an younger audience at the time. This also was a concern to me. I had really focused on Dancers who did K-pop or J-pop. Dancers who only did J-pop seemed to be a little young so thus the sister channel. I thought it would divide the audience a bit but it backfired because what happened was the younger dancers wanted to be on the older channel and older dancers wanted to be on the younger channel so I just had the sister channel to be more for tutorials and that sort of thing..

By the time Thanksgiving came around I had to take some time off at work due to a physical injury for the entire month of December I was stuck alone inside of my house. There were days of snow and Wind and days of Rain and seclusion that surrounded me now those emails that would get now became personal friends. There were days I was snowed in and days because of my injury I could not go as well it was a chore just to go to a family thanksgiving dinner . I know now Making videos helped me to maintain my sanity and there were request made to do videos and this helped the time pass by I remember sitting at the computer all day just answering emails Tweets and personal messages and then working on a video.

After the healing of my body came about I still did the channel and a year was approaching by. I remember looking at the screen of my channel and wanting more I wanted more subscribers and I looked at screen and the answer was to work with a dancer.

2. The contact year The Sage, and Yuka-Pon year

I remember her mentioning on Facebook that she was going to perform at a convention why did I ask her if I could send someone to film her? I don't know. I expected her to decline after all I did not know her and she did not know me. She accepted then there was a chance she could blow me off and just be nice and say yes she didn't. Why did Yuka succeed at the time? Yuka was not afraid to take risk and guess what that is the trait of successful people. I have only worked with two dancers who had the trait that Yuka had. A lot of you won't make it and that is because you do not have the desire. You are afraid to take risk. The first dancer we recorded was Izzie the colors the Background were marvelous .

When I received the Yuka footage I took care of it like a baby I was so scared to ruin it. the time the effort to make the video. I wish critics would know of the time Yuka spent and the Cameraman and me who put forth the effort we did to bring a decent video. I saw criticism saying that the background was wrong that was baloney if you watch Korean artist in pink they would use blue backgrounds you would not use a pink background because it would clash you would want a darker background to enhance her gorgeous outfit. I saw stupid statements that were outrageous. I wanted to entertain. I was having fun. I didn't care so what girls stopped talking to me it felt like I had chosen a side and that side was Yuka-pon and you know what it was a good side to be on because of the most narcissistic Nay-Sayers at the time could never possess what she had and that was determination. I told everyone who worked with her to get as much time as possible because she was as good as gone. Yuka was Japan bound and I knew there was no reason to develop a deeper relationship with her because she was as good as gone and I felt she was never coming back.

I wanted to work with a dancer. I proposed a plan with a young lady who lived near Yuka. Since Yuka was going in my eyes I wanted a face for my channel a body someone who represented the channel Yuka was an enterprise on her own. I was immediately connected to Sage mentally, she was so much like people I grew up with everything she said just attracted me to her. This was the body of the Toru Takanuru channel. I wanted someone who other girls could relate to , I wanted someone who could get along with other girls and I wanted someone with great legs and Sage had all of those. I loved working with Sage it was great and I Love her deeply I think of her like a little sister and that was the problem that gave us a high alert that we needed someone who could keep her personal life from her entertainment life but if we mentioned this to Sage it might quench the light and life that is who Sage is. Then came the other young ladies who flooded the area in Sage's territory. I do not know if it was jealousy or what it was but now we were not just talking to Sage anymore we were talking to a group.Greed I think blinded us and Sage eventually started developing personal problems that I do not want to discuss. We eventually started working with older young ladies up north and enjoyed it they were more cynical and at the same time we did not think of a group we were having fun by this time criticism was no big deal. Yuka was in Japan and I thought that was great she opened doors for me to work with some of the most beautiful young ladies in America so I thank her for that. We technically had now two divisions of young ladies and Life really did not seem to get any better not too mention some of the co splay models we got too film as well and a growing fan base and a contest that brought it together.

3. The Midwest ASIAN Music Dancers

I guess on and off I wanted to have a group but I began to look at why all these projects were failing and then the answer came to me they could not connect and I wonder who could connect them? It did not take long to put together 30 dancers who talked to each other and some who did not. We had dancers in the group who refused to connect with other dancers we began planning, sending emails to talent agents to Conventions to press to anyone who would listen. We had a righteous indignation to let the dancers dance our motto "was get them out of the hallways and on to the stage". We connected with projects around the world the question was our young ladies serious enough to take that plunge in to stardom? This meant competition, discipline and training. We received the answer around December it really seemed that some wanted to be serious and others did not. I really did not want to go any further and recruiting any more dancers I felt tired I felt that the righteous Indignation in trying to push any further could be put to other use.

I feel good in what was done we have young ladies who became good friends and some have more of a courage to do the dancing. I on the other hand am tired of a getting young person excited about dancing for a short while and the they decide they do not want to do it. I have learned with teens they have a excitement for something then they lose that excitement that is part of being a teenager they have to commit to something they would have to commit to something a long time to do this. It means commit to it when people are supporting you and commit to it when they are not. It is shame but my only connection with them was the group and that was it. We cannot have a connection besides that but it was fun while it lasted it seemed to me all the criticism in the past was gone. If it was three years earlier yes it would have been different but maybe the young ladies would of found out the truth the Cruel Angels found out as well.

The truth is American Music is not interested in Japan or is it Japan does not want to share their culture with Americans lets face it. Korean and American Audiences are merging and the Japanese Idol will always stay in Japan.Anime Conventions are now trying to pursue Japanese Idols instead local talent who imitate Japanese Idols. Talent contest are awarding Disc jockeys not J-pop Idols fan girls. I love creating J-pop and K-pop Videos and I will always love it but there is a difference between doing something you love and doing something meaningful and what I am doing in my life right now is meaningful and I mean J-pop and K-pop is fun! Gangster Rap and R&B sluts are just gross I mean give me a cute girl in a fluffy dress girls singing about vegetables than whores singing about partying.

I have found my purpose for right now but I can never shut the door on J-pop and K-pop Videos and If I ever find the ability to do both I will but for right now that door seems to be closed on one and opened on another.

I want to verify that I have worked with over thirty dancers and 100's of cosplayers and I dare you ask them if we did anything wrong because we didn't some of these people had the time of their life some might not but we never did anything inappropriate. We had fun! I wished it could of turned into something more meaningful as careers for all them but oh well you know how the story goes.