“Kiss me, darling — Kiss, Kiss me, baby — We can’t do it yet!”

PROLOGUE: I am a lot happier now. I was a little bummed that all the AKB48 Family videos  — which includes those by the JKT48 sister group — have been banned from being seen or shared  America. I wanted to see more Haruka Nakagawa performances, especially leading up to her graduation later this year.  Ding-dang it — I am not allowed to view JKT48 Official Channel – even though I subscribed!  Fortunately, some YourTube users in Indonesia posted some great LIVE performances from the past couple of years.

There is a great series from this user and others which feature the girls performing in their home theater in Jakarta! It is like you are right there in the front row. Several hour-long shows have been posted — however I wanted to at least share this Yasushi Akimoto song: “Tanjoubi No Yoru”.  JKT48 sing it in an Indonesian dialect, which translates the song as “Malam Ulang Tahun”.  There is even a little English thrown in as you will hear. Full lyrics are available linked here.

It would be a cute and fun Idol show to watch. Image standing in the from row and seeing Harugon and Melody and all the others so close up.

I have not seen so much tender thigh meat since I was on that tour of the Tyson factory!!!

(Denny imitating Dr. McCoy’s famous “I’m just an old country doctor …” quote):

I’m just a big fat fanboy, but these stage shows are great to watch and listen to at work. I can re-size a window, work around it, then imagine that I am right there in the JKT theater, while I spend several hours processing requests for agricultural fertilizers.

These shows may not be as elaborate as the stage show of a big American rock band, but I love watching them. The girls wear a variety of great Idol outfits. Some songs are cute, some are sweet, and some are pretty sexy. (Well, they are all pretty at something.)

I love the individual beauty of each of the ladies. The JKT48 girls have an amazing array of attractive faces. Each one is more lovely than the next. No, they do not look like supermodels. Arguably, they look like “just your average pretty girl” — if you know what I mean.  You know, like that really unique-looking, but also very pretty girl who works the checkout at the supermarket? You know, like that super-stylish pretty girl you always see in the coffee shop? You know, that really pretty friend-of-a-friend’s friend? You know, like that quiet, but very pretty girl you see on the bus all the time? You know, that real girl you would rather have a million times over any Hollywood actress?

These videos show that the JKT48 team are real girls. Sure, each has talent to varying degrees, and it has been fun to watch their talents grow. There is nothing phony about the JKT48 girls. These girls are not just models. Better! — they have natural beauty. All are Indonesian (except Haruka), but there is a great diversity of faces in the group … those magnificent faces .. those uniquely beautiful, … wonderful … life affirming faces. Each one is its own universe …

… Its own lifetime. Really, any one of them would be a dream girlfriend. If I were a young man, I would share my life with any of them. You can see why a guy would be willing to get up and go to work every day. Did you see those faces? Those heavenly thighs? You can see why a guy would dedicate his life to making his dream girl happy.  I’d even talk to an insurance salesman.

Have fun re-sizing your windows, but get back to work on those data forms …

Is it just me — or are this world’s women getting more and more beautiful? Maybe I have that perspective, because I am just so old, well past the midpoint of life. I can even see the abyss from my vantage point.  We should appreciate and celebrate beauty and fun more often. We are here on this Earth to love each other, not to make trouble, create pain or hurt each other because we buy a different brand of socks. I know now what is truly important now: Find a pretty girl, then get your face between her thighs. Make babies … then love them. This is what I want to be on my tombstone*: Denny’s advice: “Worry less about stupid stuff  … and eat more pussy.”

I would rather watch the JKT48 girls sing and dance more than any of the edgy, progressive, supposedly significant singer songwriters I grew up with. I know what you are going to say Bob: “Denny, when you were a young new-wave-arty-punk-rocker  you listened to those deep, dark artists, who you thought were so earthshakeingly profound. You used to write about INJUSTICES! … about all the SHIT in society! …  art that was about all the PUKE!!! …”. 

Well, I don’t want to see the shit and the puke anymore.

I want to see my sweet JKT48 girls wearing pretty dresses – singing about love, being loved and giving love.

Starlight: *Actually, cremate my body, and mix my ashes into the fertile Indonesian soil.  The dark, rich, moist, volcanic soil. Mash me deep into Melody’s furrows – er, .. I mean … uh … deep into the agricultural field, that is wet with anticipation.

Is it too early for candy corn?

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Even before the camera moved up, I knew that it was Yukirin front-center here

I know that it is too early for Halloween, but I have been enjoying AKB48’s 41^st single “Halloween Night” released a couple of weeks ago. I think that it is a very good disco song. Yes disco. The group did a very good job at capturing what I hear as a 1970s-style sound.

That is a big accomplishment, because in the 1970s, I was one of those “heavy metal kids” with the “DISCO SUCKS” t-shirt. Most of you are too young to know about this: The 1970s hard-rock, FM rock community I was a part of back then, did not like the Disco trend which was taking over the nation in the late 1970s. We loved Led Zeppelin, The Who, Todd Rundgren, Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake & Palmer, etc. , but would not tolerate any disco music. Looking back, I should not have been such a music bigot. I was young, and had a long musical journey ahead of me. I listen to all kinds of music today, and there are few genres that I do not like at least a little bit.

But .. EEE-gads, if the long-haired, leather clad 18-year old Denny would have known that someday the (something-something)-year old Denny would be loving a disco song by a “manufactured” Japanese girl dancers pop group, he would have thrown up his 12-pack of Colt 45.

… or maybe I would have liked this kind of disco music. I might admit, that there were some disco songs I thought were OK. In fact, The Rolling Stones – who were worshiped by the hard rock crowd – were actually kind of “disco” when I think back on it.  There was no getting away from disco in the 70s, no matter how hard you rocked. Furthermore, most 1970s “chicks” were OK with the Disco. Even if they liked hard rock too, most of the ladies I knew liked to disco dance! The girls had it right. They might rock out at an Aerosmith concert, but they also knew that disco dancing was fun too. I guess I was too “anal” (which is the nice way to say what we heavy metal fans were). 

“Look, if you are going to talk to this chick, you are going to have to go out on the disco dance floor”. 

… and I’m wearing a “Black Sabbath” T-shirt.

Awkward.

Oh, getting back to the new AKB48 single. It is pretty cool. Sashi does a good job centering this single. (All is forgiven. You deserve to be center, Rino-chan.) The integration of occasional English words is pretty cute, and lends itself to that 1970s feel. That “Boogie Night” phrase kills me. “Ready? …”  So cute.

The official music video features the ladies in great (but freaky) Halloween costumes. However, I think that I prefer these shiny-silver dance outfits used in this promo performance video. I think these silver mini-skirts are cuter and sexier than the scary stuff. Overall, I am liking performance videos better than the official music videos these days. I think the TV appearances and other performance videos (PVs) allow for a better look at all the Idols. The official music videos (MVs) are usually cut pretty fast, and are often about something else than the song.

I like to watch the PVs and identify the members who I know. I don’t know ALL the members, particularly with all the recent graduations, and the creation of so many sister groups and sub-units.  I can only identify about 30 current members by name, but may remember the name when reminded in a subbed video — “Oh, yeah … her.” The funny thing is, that I can ID which one is Yuki Kashiwagi, just from looking at her legs. (See top photo above.)  As the camera pans over the dance floor, you just see the girls legs, but then before it panned up, I thought “oh, there is Yuki”. Ha. I am so much of a fan, I can now identify her just by her legs. Hoo boy … I should really get going to work today.

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Here is what some of the “Halloween” costumes look like …

… which you can see more of in the commercial — I mean — the “short version” of the official MV approved by the company..

Sakura is a great choice to be a jester. Mayuyu is adorable as a goth-lolita, and Jurina is a perfect black widow.

If you can get Jpopsuki to load, you can view the entire HN video here. You may have to “boogie” something while it loads, but it is worth the wait.

http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/AKB48—Halloween-Night/d3e3617a69eda9fe181b4c95b7a5e55a

How do they get away with it?

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The music video has a lot of lighted-floor disco dancing — straight out of Saturday Night Fever. There are a lot of dancing dudes too.  “There are girls who look like guys, dancing with guys who look like girls.” I think that I actually owned some of those polyester shirts shown. The great thing about those polyester leisure suits those guys are wearing is that they did not need any ironing or special care. You could “boogie” all night in it, wash your car with it the next day, then hang it up and it would look fine.

We also get to see disco dancing styles from not just the 70s — but some 80s “break” dancing, those 1990s dances, and the more modern “whatever-the-devil-you-young-people-call-dancing-these-days.” It is a very fun concept video, but  I will probably stick with the performance video instead.

OH! If you want to learn how to dance AKB’s “Halloween Night” dance, instructions are linked here. I can only do the “bat” move.

STARLIGHT: Don’t point the telescope at all my embarrassing 1970s Heavy Metal T-shirts!!! … too scary …