Spectrum -- Tomato Ippatsu（トマト・イッパツ）

And a fine time was had by all! Yup, the last few days have had me attending a couple of year-enders. The first was back on Wednesday night with my translation company at Morgan's On The Danforth with some delicious pub fare and a day-glo cocktail called a Danforth Blue (at the very top). Then, last night, it was the annual bonenkai with the anime buddy and other friends at our favourite izakaya, Kingyo, which had tons of dishes including the beef short rib in some of the most delectable sauce that everyone was trying to lap up....by the end, I think we were willing to use Kleenex to soak that stuff up.

Plus, this morning, a couple of my oldest friends and I met up at our old haunt of The Madison Avenue Pub in the Annex for our annual year-end get-together where I had some good Chicken Parmigiana. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to bring my camera for that but I'm hoping for plenty of more opportunities to tuck into that dish.

Then, tonight, I got to hear Lizzo's supremely catchy "Juice" as the intro song for tonight's "Hockey Night In Canada", and I figure that party season has really begun for the Holidays. As one commenter put it, Lizzo and Bruno Mars really have got to collaborate on a song together someday soon.

So I gotta figure. I'm gonna have to start off tonight's duo of articles with something similarly infectiously funky. Hey, why not go with the late 1970s-early 1980s band Spectrum（スペクトラム）? Perhaps they should have been called Tsuchi, Kaze to Honoo...i.e. the Japanese translation of Earth, Wind & Fire.

Certainly, that's the cool vibe that I got with their very first single "Tomato Ippatsu" (Tomato Explosion), thanks to that horn arrangement and the high-pitched vocals. The single was released back in August 1979 (yup...40 years ago), and I have no idea how they came up with a title like that. Perhaps songwriters Yasuhito Miyashita（宮下康仁）and Spectrum were watching the Tomatina Festival in Spain when they had their thinking caps on.

Mr. Wick...do enjoy your party!

I will get back to you in about 10,000 calories!