I've said it before and I will again: Atlantika is one of my favourite places in all of Japan. The reason is manifold.
Not more than two, maybe three weeks ago (time and space makes considerably less sense these days... If a week is a long time in politics, then it must be an eternity in Fukushima), Pete-san and Miyuki-san held a fundraiser for the victims and survivors of the Christchurch earthquake. So much geological-borne death of late. And I swear to god if someone says 2012 one more time to me, I'm going to force them to read a book on cosmology.
Tonight was a vigil and fundraiser for the northeast. It was a great evening. The music was awesome, but sedate and mellow.
Then there is the entirely superficial yet almost as important fact that they serve mojitos. Good mojitos I might add. I've never had two the same in any of the bars I've ever been to. They range from minty wet mush to an actual rum-based drink. Mojitos in Atlantika are of the best I've had. They probably run a very close second to Sosho.
But I can look past the superficial and obvious reasons to see what it is that this place is. It is a place where I feel at home (you can get fucked there). It is the place I met and continue to meet my favourite people in this country. It is the place I probably learn and speak the most Japanese. It is a place where I can teach others of the English language and western culture, should they be so inclined. On certain nights, the tables are taken out, lights and a smoke machine go up and hey presto you have a mini-club.
Now I've banged on quite a lot about that place since I started writing this wank. But frankly I've not written enough. I do intend to write something proper and decent and complex and I see from the previous paragraph that I am already trying to express it. Stupid fingers. This is about the vigil and so I will try and draw it back to that.
Anyway, vigil:
Nnngghhh. I really couldn't decide which of the two below pictures to put in. The first one without a flash really does capture the mood of the evening and is great. But the second one's great too as it actually has detail you can see... Bah fuck it, they both go in. I'll put the second one at the end though and think of some way to do so without it seeming like flagrant repetition.
To me, Miyuki is the spirit, the heart and soul of Atlantika. Without her, the place would not be. She reminds me so much of Yuko as well... both being diminutive, hard as fucking nails and beautiful throughout. Also with a slight tendency to work like mentalists. She is hyper on-the-ball, constantly. Seems to be able to move at the speed of light and yet retain micron-level accuracy.
Don't get me wrong, I am in no way saying that Pete is any less Atlantika or denigrating him in the slightest sense, oh fuck me no, but if you truly understand my words or have seen that place with your own eye, then you would know precisely what I mean.
Anyway, I'm slipping back into that trap of trying to write about Atlantika when I should focus. Forgive if I recycle some of the things I've written above at a later date.
Now my memory is a bit hazy, but I can't for the life of me remember at what point the observed silence was. Logic suggests that it was after or during Pete's set as he was the one who instigated it. It was only for 30 seconds (I think we could have pulled off a minute), but there is something deeply profound and incredibly moving about a pub full of people sitting in protracted silence for any amount of time. I was in half a mind to film it for a fraction of a second, but decided that it would be disrespectful.
The musical aspect of the evening was largely provided by Colin, a Canadian fellow who as you will be able to see, is pretty damn talented. But I've noticed an inordinate amount of those here. Talented people. It's great.
A little introduction... at this point I'm sitting at the very back. An altogether frankly fucking retarded place to be to try and film/capture what's going on at the complete other end of the room, but that little fact of reality was entirely lost on me for far too long.
Now for some completely ludicrous fucking undiscernible reason that seems to defy laws of physics, the below film is at a 45 fucking degree angle. I have no idea why and I am even less able to fix it. I wonder if there's a little command you can add to the HTML embed code to get this blogware to do it for me, but I'm fucked if I know because I don't speak geek... well maybe I do a little. But certainly not to that extent. I'm sure it's on the interweb too, but that is gonna be long. Plus if I don't find it first pop, I think I'd struggle to rephrase the search criteria... hmm facerape might be the answer here.
I leave it as it is for now, but if I learn this information, I will certainly be changing it.
(Editor's note: it is now as it should be: vertical. Facebook was indeed the answer... I think I'll keep the above text though.)
(Rotation by Beardzilla)
Makes no sense. Do try your best to ignore the unintentional commentary... hehe.
OK, so it was after the above that I realise I'll get a better vid if I actually go and stand by the fucking performer. Oh well. Better late than never I suppose.
Pete. Immensely talented. I've seen him perform a few times now and my opinion of him only increases.
Ah this is Chrissie. I saw her perform at the Christchurch event with some other bird, but she was solo tonight. And apparently so hung over she could barely see, she told me. I thought if that was the case, then you have fucking mad skills, love.
Chrissie again. I was only gonna get one performance of each because I went out with a largely dead battery. Oh yes. True genius, me. But then she went and dropped Redemption Song which is one of my favourite songs of all time, but has been my particular favourite for the past 6 weeks or so. Random is as random does.
And this one is just until my battery runs out. It was kind of Colin's night featuring Pete and Chrissy, so I thought I'd let it run on.
All in all, a great night. The proceeds (and I believe all profits that night, too) all went to the Japanese Red Cross for the northeast. A collection still continues though and people are indeed very generous. The collection is here:
Oooh. See what I did there ? That so wasn't intentional. I would totally say if it was. Good brain. You did well. I think I reward you with some precious nicotine.
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