JOHN ROBINSON/ DJ
In the year 2000, Planet Love after-hours parties became a huge success, thanks to
everyone out there! Playing on the street in Manila on Jan 1 for 25,000 people was good
too! I will release a track in Europe in January, and will be bringing the Planet Love
vibe to other countries, too. What changes do I think will occur in the music scene' The
beauty of the music scene is that it's always in a state of flux, the sound is always
changing and evolving. After a couple of years of the anthemic trance stuff, we seem to be
moving on one hand to a deeper groove and on the other to a more hard-edged sound. Is it
OK here to hope that everyone who sings through their nose in strained falsettos fall off
the planet' Photo courtesy of Velfarre
CORKY ALEXANDER/ EDITOR AND PUBLISHER TOKYO
WEEKENDER
Since I seem to have been in Japan since Year One, sometimes one year seems to blur into
the next. But, 2000 marked a couple of landmarks for our publications and, on the very
personal side, a birth in the family. We welcomed our seventh grandchild, a little girl
named Celina. She is, it goes without saying, the apple of my eye, along with the three
boys and three other girls who comprise my progeny. My field, as seen from the broad view,
is the newspaper business and coverage of significant events. I predict my colleagues over
the world will stay on top of things. How's that for going out on a limb' The one
challenge internationally, I feel, is to try to keep show business out of the news
business and stick to straight coverage of breaking news without ballyhoo or fanfare.
Also, the Weekender will introduce an entirely new look at the beginning of 2001. Photo by Beezer
Past and future
A new year and a new millennium is fast approaching. It's time to take stock of the highs
and lows of the past year and make plans for the future. This week, we asked some famous
Tokyoites how their year went and what's on the agenda for 2001.
DONALD RITCHIE / WRITER AND
FILM CRITIC
It takes no great prescience to predict that during the coming year and the coming
millennium as well, so far as I know, Japan will continue to be pushed and prodded to redo
itself along the lines of the approved models. It will stall and grumble but slowly it
will change. In so doing it will gain something and will lose much. I have long known that
if all the things I did not like about Japan were removed it would no longer be the
country I love.
ZELJKO PETROVIC / FORMER URAWA REDS (J.
LEAGUE) MIDFIELDER
This year was very sad for me in the sense that I had to leave Japan to go back to
Holland. Next year I will continue my football career with Dutch club RKC and hope to be
back in Japan as a tourist or TV sports commentator. Courtesy of Zeljko Petrovic
TOKYO TALK: