A Japanese BBQ restaurant, was where I found myself last night, with a bunch of my high school classmates. One of them is the current owner of this gourmet kinda beefy shack hidden underground somewhere in Shibuya, Tokyo.

The owner, named Riki, a nice chubby Japanese man in his late 20’s, is a nice yet business-wise conservative kind of man. So I, as a man full of ideas and not-so-full of Yen to execute them with, proposed him a new heavy-matal-themed BBQ joint.

“OK Riki. You are doing great. And unlike us the starving musicians who are living under the poverty level, you’re paying the rent and feeding a bunch of folks with what you do. Now that’s something. A properly functioning member of the Japanese society. Awesome. I really mean it. But hey, you look kinda bored. So let me share with you some of my ideas for a new EXCITING BBQ joint…”

And I talked on… And here are two of the core essentials of this new BBQ place.

1. This place will be called “Destruction”, and playing heavy metal music only.
A highly targeted niche marketing. Heavy metal sunk so low since,,, forever. Yet there’s still demand for this particular kind of music and there ought to be at least ONE place where they can eat good BBQ while listening to good heavy metal music. Not for the mass, but the ones who’d love it would love it a whole lot.

2. Smokers only. Non-smokers are prohibited.
This day and era when everybody bought into this illusion that if you stop smoking, you’ll live forever, or close to it, to me is absolutely absurd. It might not be the healthiest choice for one to make, yet there are people living on this godforsaken planet who do choose to smoke, or are too addicted to quit smoking.

There ought to be at least ONE place in Tokyo where these newly oppressed individuals are more than welcome. There ought to be at least a place where smokers can openly and wholeheartedly bitch about non-smokers, not the other way around.

Of course, at the entrance of this restaurant must have a warning sign that says something nice and cute like “We won’t be held responsible for the damage to your health caused by the fact that you choose to smoke”. Fair enough.

Don’t you think that the type of people that are into heavy metal would also love BBQ and are more tolerent to the cigarette-smoking culture? I don’t know about you, but I did.

Destruction, THE place for the non-vegetarian, non-non-smoking, beer-drinking, yet highly oppressed Japanese and foreign members of our society today.

The proposal wound up, as expected, turned down very politely.
This is what I do for a hobby.

A nice little break was had. Back to recording.

Take it easy.
hugs,
Aki
Voluntary Mother Earth

Finished recording and editing down the vocals for this old tune o mine which was a local hit in Denton Texas back when I lived there. Soundin real bitchen.

Man, I’ve been working on this album since the past December in addition to rebuilding this website from hell and doing all the manual labor around the band all by myself, and now I’m spent. I’m burned out. I’m fucking tired, on the verge of a mental breakdown. So I decided to take a day or two off, starting today.

Thinking back, if I was getting paid $5 for every hour spent on music, my band, and all the manual labor surrounding them, I’d have been a millionaire by now. Much more than a millionaire.

Rock n roll in 1970’s meant Fame, Money, Drugs, Sex, unlimited supply of which, I mean.
Rock n roll in 21st century is all about doing it cheap.

Live cheap, die cheap, and leave a cheap looking corpse in a cheapo grave. Ain’t life grand.

Talk to ya soon,
Aki
Voluntary Mother Earth

Here are some pictures from my vocal recording yesterday.
The song I recorded is called “Beef Ruined”, and is a rap song. Turns out I sound more like a female rapper than a dude rapper since my natural voice is like F# below middle C.

I just edited the parts down and they’re sounding real bitchen. They’s dope.

The vocal recording is, unlike what I first thought, going purdy nice n smooth. I’ll keep ye posted.
Talk to ya soon.

hugs,
Aki
Voluntary Mother Earth