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Ten Years of Meandering Musings

Seems to be tradition at this point that when I manage to do retrospectives for the blog I’m at least a month past the actual anniversary (actually a full two this go round). My sense of time certainly is off kilter nowadays and summer simply blurred by.

And with the pandemic upending the world and me being largely on hiatus for a few years it’s been a while since I did one of these. But better late than never, and my tiny little corner of the internet somehow got to a decade old this past July.

Overview

It’s been four years since my last blog retrospective, which was post #682 at the time. This is post #728 (I’ve deleted exactly 2 entries ever, so my total number of posts written since last time is 48). Under 50 posts in 4 years is on the low side to my previous output, but there was practically nothing from 2021-23, so not too bad overall for my slow and struggling return over the last year and a half.

I did not make 700 posts by end of 2021 as I hoped to. In fact I didn’t write anything else in 2021 after the retrospective, had only 3 entries in 2022, and nothing in 2023. My chronic illnesses and others things have impacted my life in big ways. But this blog is a passion project of mine, I enjoy being able to share my thoughts on my hobbies, and I’m glad to be back, sporadic as it’s been.

Those 3 posts in 2022 were fairly significant at least, featuring Reika Saiki’s retirement, Yuna Mizumori leaving Gatoh Move, and a light reference article about exhibition matches in joshi wrestling and the unique environment of Ichigaya Chocolate Square.

In early 2024 I was preparing to return to the blog with another retirement piece and some art related content. Instead those came later and my first post in a year and a half was an emotional farewell to one of my favorite wrestlers who unexpectedly passed away extremely young. I had the privilege of attending Asahi’s debut match in person, and was a big fan of the effort and emotion she poured into her wrestling. She is greatly missed.
Rest in peace, Sunrise of Hope.

 

Specific Post Details

Looking back in aggregate there was a lot of variety in my posts and there’s a lot to cover in terms of stuff I’d like to highlight. Writing was often a struggle during this time period and it’s nice to be happy with the results of that effort.

While the genres covered are largely the same through the life of Derailments of Thought, the specific manifestations have morphed a bit. With my health limitations in a post pandemic world I’m not able to go out nearly as much as I used to, and I can’t really travel at all. So my Japan trips and the live event coverage that resulted will remain a thing of the past for the foreseeable future.

I was lucky enough to manage a few local events across the last couple years though, including a fantastic NXT Roadblock at MSG and some concerts of the incredibly fun Atarashii Gakko. I also made it to one film of Japan Cuts 2024. Japan Society’s annual film festival was something I attended heavily in the past and was a big part of the early years of this blog, so it was cool to be back in some fashion and share thoughts on Great Absence.

As in the past some of the most special and personal posts are wrestler specific pieces that are usually about retirements, major career changes, or in a few unfortunate cases memorials. Several of my favorites have retired recently, and there are more announced to come.

These are all new posts since last time’s retrospective. Please see that post for links to a great many prior entries of these types.

In addition, I wrote a special spotlight early this year about the joy wrestling can bring in general with particular focus on ChocoPro’s newest and youngest member, Kaho Hiromi.

Retirements:
Reika Saiki 
Sayuri 
Hikari Noa 
Arisa Nakajima 
Sayuri Namba 
Meiko Satomura 

Career changes:
Yuna Mizumori leaves Gatoh Move 

In Memoriam:
Eternal Sunrise 

Other:
Joy in Pro-Wrestling and Kaho Hiromi 

Other wrestling content I’ve done recently focused mainly on match spotlights, ranging from unusual and/or potentially overlooked matches to stuff I wanted to revisit or just caught my eye.

The unique Tokyo Game Show matches that happened in 2022 as part of promotional hype for AEW’s video game had never been aired until they were added to Wrestle Universe late last year. These included several once ever matchups featuring favorites of mine crossing paths so were a real treat to finally get to see.

In the last couple months I’ve looked back on some matches wrestlers currently performing in the US had in Ice Ribbon way back when, including Giulia, Stephanie Vaquer, and Asuka. They feature Giulia’s biggest match ever in the promotion she started in, a contentious match of hers against fellow rookie Asahi, Vaquer’s first match in Ice Ribbon as well as her facing one of the company’s rising stars, and a hidden gem of a match with veteran Kana against fiery rookie Yuuka. Was really cool to look back on all of these.

Another big part of the blog lately has been focused on the collecting side of things. I did card spotlights on BBM’s 2024 and 2025 Women’s Wrestling card sets, as well as features on specific types of unusual cards like printing plates, other metal cards, comic cuts, and minis.

Some of the posts I’m happiest about sharing featured several incredible artists from whom I have a wonderful collection of cards and other art. They include Miki Okazaki, Ice Ribbon’s Yappy, Lydi Li, and Veronica O’Connell.

In an effort to avoid mentioning and linking to every single post I did in the last couple years I’m going to gloss over the occasional book/movie/game reviews I did, but they remain an important part of the blog and I got to read/see/play some really cool stuff.

Lastly, one of my all time favorite writers passed away in May after a long battle with health issues. Peter David’s work shaped a ton of my views on what comics and novels could be.
Rest In Peace, Writer of Stuff.

Top Posts

Going to approach this part a little different this time, primarily because the top 4 posts are exactly the same as last time, and going nowhere. They all had over 1,200 views then (plus a proportionate handful each since), which is dominant for my meager ramblings that have about 20 regular readers.

On that note, a copied reminder from my last couple retrospective posts regarding my most viewed posts:

“Derailments of Thought is 100% a personal hobby blog, and my little corner of the web is generally pretty modest in terms of views. More than half of my posts garner under 20, and the “highly viewed” posts generally end up with a few hundred. This is fine, and I greatly appreciate everyone who takes the time to read. I’m pointing it out for context for the extent in which a couple of my pieces have deviated from the norm. I’m sharing this short list because I find the mix of subjects and other little details interesting.”

So #1-4 in order remain
Japan Cuts 2017: Mumon: The Land of Stealth  
Japan Cuts 2019: Samurai Shifters
Raven’s of Thri Sahashri Beginner’s Guide 
A Ray of Light Gone Too Soon 

Since last time only 2 posts have overtaken the 587 views 5th place’s Tokyo Joshi Pro 1/4/16 Live Thoughts had then, so I’m going to spotlight them specifically in lieu of rehashing thoughts on the above. Please see last time for more details on those posts.

One last note: my blog homepage itself gets a much larger percentage of the views than it used to, so all of this is highly approximate as there are no counts of what specific posts people read off that or tagged sections. I imagine my artist features are a bit undercounted as I get decent interest for those as I post about them on Instagram, where there’s no direct link to the individual post just a general blog link in my bio.

The TJPW 1/4/16 show is now at 813 views, which would place it 6th now if this was still list format.

Yoshiko 686 views:
The first new addition that caught on isn’t actually a new post since last time. It has been published just a few months before and mentioned in that retrospective and was steadily climbing in views. It’s a look back on one of joshi wrestling’s most infamous incidents after several years had passed and presented my thoughts on important context that I felt needed to be considered when looking back on it.

Farewell to the Muscle Idol: Reika Saiki’s Retirement 999 views:
The other is amusingly being mentioned and linked to for the third time within this post. The Muscle Idol, Reika Saiki, was incredibly popular as a wrestler, an idol, and in her “muscle” related work and remains so even after retiring from it all. Not surprised this one piques people’s interest, and am glad to share my memories of her career.
(Side note: that ridiculously precise view count is legit as of time of writing and was not fudged in any way.)

——-

Asahi PSC by Veronica O’Connell

So that’s a decade down. Wild how time flies.

Thank you to anyone who took some time to read through this retrospective, and I hope you found at least a post or two of interest to check out. I currently can’t guarantee any sort of update schedule, but I have stuff in the works and intend to keep at this as I’m able.

In the not too distant future I’m hoping to do more collecting and/or artist spotlights, as well as maybe continuing with more match features on interesting little moments from the past. There are a TON of recent and upcoming retirements so I’m playing around with a new format to share a few key memories of several wrestlers in one post. We’ll see if that pans out. And of course occasional book/movie/game reviews and other randomness will be sprinkled in.

Here’s to another ten years or so.

Again I’m extremely thankful for everyone who’s read, shared, and or commented on things I’ve written. Doing so is much appreciated, and often needed, support.

If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.

Categories
Japan Music

The New School of Music is Here: Atarashii Gakko

Last November I got a simple text from a close friend that would end up having a pretty significant effect on me: “Hey, do you want to go to a concert tomorrow night?” And thus a new music obsession was born.

My friend was going to see Atarashii Gakko no Leaders (“New School Leaders,” now commonly shortened to Atarashii Gakko) and someone had to cancel, leaving an available ticket.

I had never heard of the group before, so did a quick search and checked out the first video that popped up. Thirty seconds into Nai Nai Nai I messaged back that I was in. The second video I saw was their performance of  Otonablue on First Take, and I was completely blown away and hooked on their music from there.

I made it to the concert the next day, and was lucky to do so. I deal with a variety of chronic health conditions and my ability to function is highly variable day to day. Plans with me are always tentative until they happen, and I’ve had to cancel on a great number of events including many planned months in advance. On the flip side, my friends often check in with me when last minute opportunities arise as there’s a chance it falls on one of my good days.

Atarashii Gakko always seems to catch me on my good days, a quirk of fate I’m extremely grateful for. That show was the first concert I’d managed to attend since pre-pandemic, and it was a treat.

The concert was just as the extremely talented group was starting to grow in popularity. Among other things it happened a month before their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live aired.

The Music Hall of Williamsburg is a small venue, and the sheer presence of Suzuka, Mizyu, Kanon, and Rin filled the space. I was in the balcony with a partially blocked view so didn’t get the full effect of their dancing, but what I did see and more importantly their fantastic vocal performances and catchy music blew me away and made me a permanent fan. I had a blast.

Late in the concert Suzuka ventured out into the audience (appropriately accompanied by staff, although keeping up with her was a task). A couple of her stops included directly below me at the audio station, and a couple people down from me when she came up to the balcony.

Considered to a point to be anti-idols, Atarashii Gakkko embrace elements in both their songwriting and performances that buck traditional idol trends and embrace their individual styles. Their songs and performances have a touch of indescribable uniqueness and feel extremely genuine. They do their own choreography as well, and everything comes together in a captivating manner.

Suzuka generally sings lead, but all four have amazing voices and a variety of their songs highlight each member at different times. I’ve grown to adore their music and the way it touches on several different styles, and listen to them regularly.

My second fortuitous opportunity to see them perform live came in a vastly different situation six months later. They appeared at the Head in the Clouds Festival in NYC in the open air venue Forest Hills Stadium. They killed it, and received an excellent reception particularly for being one of many performing acts. Also poor Rin was thankfully fine after tripping over an unfortunately placed speaker and playing dead for a few moments.

Back indoors for my most recent stroke of luck, last night I saw them perform at Terminal 5. I got a ticket months ago when the concert was announced, and despite an extremely difficult day for a variety of personal reasons I was thankfully able to attend in the end.

This was a chance to experience Atarashii Gakko at full power, with stunning multimedia visuals backing them up in a venue that holds 3,000 people. The experience was fantastic. Their shows are just pure fun, and with the possible exception of hearing a couple of my favorite songs that were absent I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

The atmosphere was electric. The crowd was already super hyped to see them, and they know how to pump the audience up even more into a frenzy. Suzuka in particular showed a phenomenal ability for crowd management in a foreign language. She also continued her venue exploring tendencies during their designated main concert ender, the previously mentioned Nai Nai Nai.

She went all over the place (with a small group of support staff in tow), including singing in the balcony again and later ending up right next to me for a moment at my spot behind the audio station. Wild, awesome experience.

Atarshii Gakko are charisma personified, and I highly recommend anyone that gets a chance catch them live. Wishing them the best of luck on the rest of their world tour.

Categories
Music

Truly “Weird” and Wonderful

Back on September 24, 2016 I had the pleasure of attending my first “Weird” Al Yankovic concert at the end of his Mandatory Fun Tour at Radio City Music Hall. “Mandatory” or not, it was in fact an incredibly fun time full of splendor and spectacle with intricate and outrageous sets, videos, costume changes, etc. It was a celebration of his hits and a “mainstream” delight in the best possible sense of the word. As such, it was admittedly mostly focused on his more famous work and recreating the songs as you’d hear them off the albums.

 

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Last night I was excited to go back to see him at the Apollo Theater. I don’t tend to research concert tours outside of performing act and date so didn’t know that his “Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Ill-Advised Vanity Tour” was going to be a very different kind of show. No elaborate production, costume changes, etc, just Al and his band sitting on stools rocking out and riffing on more obscure older songs of theirs for a glorious two hours. He mentioned it was loose, flexible kind of tour and they purposely played an almost entirely different setlist than the night before at the same venue and I wished I had caught both shows.

 

 

They worked in some of their ridiculously long songs like Albuquerque and Jackson Heights Express, the latter of which he said was from Mandatory Fun but was left off that tour since they didn’t think the larger, more mainstream audience would want to “sit through a nine minute song about a delusional man on a bus… but you might.” They pushed boundaries and played around with genres, including a (pre-encore) finale that was an incredible medley of variations of some of their songs done in different styles. In the same vein the show opened with bluesy version of Dare to Be Stupid that I can’t possibly stress enough how much I adored.

 

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Despite sometimes perhaps looked a little down upon for the parody/comedy nature of his creations, Al is one of the most versatile performers in music and his concerts are always an absolute joy. Catch this if at all possible.

 

Categories
Music

A Great Night with an Old Friend

So unlike the usual ramblings I share in this space I’m not here to write a review this time. I simply want to reminisce about a great time with a childhood buddy and brag a bit on his behalf. 😉

 

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A few months ago (my apologies for the writing delay), a friend of mine (Dan) and his band (Stavo) came down to my neck of the woods to play. But it was more than just a local concert – they’d be the opening act for Pat Travers at B.B. King Blues Club.

I’d been keeping an eye on Stavo via social media, but hadn’t had the pleasure of hearing them live before. I also hadn’t seen my friend in a few years. I was extremely excited to see him again, hear them play, and for the awesome opportunity they had to perform at such a famous venue. In fact it would be actually my first concert at B.B. King’s, although I had been at the venue for other events (of the pro-wrestling variety).

 

 

Music’s more difficult for me to write about than other forms of entertainment. I just don’t process it the way I do books, movies, wrestling, games, etc and can’t pull it apart and analyze it in the same way.  That’s another reason (beyond the personal nature of the evening) this isn’t a review per se: the finer nuances and perspective needed to evaluate music as an art form are lost on me. Let’s be clear – I LOVE music in general and listen to all kinds of stuff all the time, but when it comes to sharing my opinions all I can ever really say is whether or not I liked it.

And man did I like what I heard that night. Stavo plays with heart and have fun with it and both came across in spades. They were a great choice for an opener too, as their music was complimentary to the style of the headlining Pat Travers Band while being distinct enough to stand out on its own. I imagined (and confirmed with my friend after the show) that the nerves flared a bit as they came out, but they put on a great performance and were well received by the crowd.

 

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I have to admit (and here’s where Dan likely kills me … ) that I wasn’t familiar with Pat Travers’ music before that night. Man was I in for a treat. His natural demeanor gives the immediate impression of being the rock star he is in the best possible way and his music was enthralling. Both bands jazzed things up a bit at points in tribute to the venue, which was of course awesome.

Afterwards I had the privilege of chilling with my buddy, his band, and a rock legend. It was an incredible experience for me, and I hope even more so for Stavo.

Thanks to anyone reading for sharing along with my somewhat self indulgent recounting of a hell of a fun time. 🙂 It was a joy to see my friend with such an opportunity and even more so to see Stavo make the most of it.

Check out Stavo here.