Most of us in the J-Pop Blogosphere know the story of an old, rather creepy fan of the trio Perfume, screennamed Perfume444, who used to post video blogs on YouTube, spurred on by his love of the group. I hadn’t heard of the guy until this article was posted on International Wota, so he was nowhere on my radar until that particular post, and only for a few minutes. He openly declared, according to IW, that since the objects of his, um, interest, basically blew him off after a token few minutes at the Cars 2 premiere in L.A., he was done doing videos.

That was two months ago. Since he saw fit to comment almost randomly on the IW post again, he’s apparently not done whining.

What is especially disturbing is one of his claims as to why he did the video blogs in the first place – to get more attention for his favorite group. It disturbs me because one of the reasons I do this music blog is to do the same for Morning Musume and other Japanese bands.

The difference is plain: I go about the goal by writing about the music, and writing about it on the same level playing field as any other music I write about. What this Frank dude does… yeesh! It definitely doesn’t have anything to do with the music, far as I can tell. The fact that he has bitched about the lack of attention Perfume and their management gave him says volumes.

Perfume444′s goals, then and now, are selfish. He wants the focus to be around him, not his favorite band, even though he claims otherwise. Perfume and their management apparently know this and, without a doubt, their private policy is described as succinctly as, “Forget that loser.”

I want to see Morning Musume and other groups get a better profile in the States and elsewhere. That’s a rather generous intention. Would I love to meet them? Of course, but I’m not going to go about it the wrong way and it’s not my primary motivation for supporting them and groups like them in this blog – meeting them would be a bonus.

SMOKED PAPRIKA CHICKEN THIGHS

First, we start off with some music to accompany the food prep: in this case, my iPod in its JBL speaker/dock delivering the Cramps’ first long-player Songs The Lord Taught Us (RIP, Lux Interior).

While Lux’s vocals and Ivy’s guitars permeate the air of my kitchen, we gather the ingredients: 

• 10 – 12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (appx. 2 packages)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Smoked paprika
• Kosher or sea salt
• Cracked pepper

On the day I shot the photos for this post, I only made half the recipe, enough for one person (me!). One package of chicken thighs should feed two people, but these are so addictive that often it ends up being one package per person.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly coat the bottom of the baking dish with the olive oil. Open up the chicken thighs as much as possible and arrange in the dish (it is perfectly okay to have the thighs touching together). Cover the thighs with smoked paprika, but not so much that you can’t see the original color of the chicken underneath.

Sprinkle pinches of kosher or sea salt onto the thighs to taste. (Yes, that is an Alton Brown salt container of my very own, filled with kosher salt. Alton is the man. Fans of any other Food Network star that isn’t Raechel Ray or Masaharu Morimoto from Iron Chef can e-mail toughshit@thegroovemusiclife.com!) 

With a peppermill, add the pepper to taste. Sprinkle the thighs with olive oil. Bake uncovered for at least 45 minutes or until the internal temperature of the thighs reaches the standard 165°F. 

Serve immediately. Devour like you’re Edward Cullen and the chicken is Bella Swann. 

For those of you that still want cake, some special cake is being served over at So Hot She Shits Fire…