By Rya Backer

Last night, while writing up everyone’s favorite weekly blog recap (”Project Runway”!), my second-favorite late night show, “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” played in the background. I listened passively to O’Brien’s banter, concentrating more on how to best convey the subtle nuances of genius that are Stella Zotis through written word, until something totally face-melting crawled into my ears.

I turned around only to see that these riffs and wails were coming not from a member of the Max Weinberg 7, but rather from the tiniest, adorablest little boy I’ve ever laid eyes upon. There he was, playing (and sometimes, singing!) such standards as Ozzy’s “Crazy Train,” the Eric Clapton-popularized blues classic “Crossroads” and Char’s “Smoky” (I didn’t know that one either).

That tiny, adorable fretmaster is Yuto Miyazawa. According to his Myspace page, my favorite prodigy was born on February 21, 2000, and his influences are “Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads … Eric Clapton, Kiss and Metallica.” What I’m trying to say is you’ll be hard-pressed to find a cooler 8-year-old (my nephew is 8, so don’t tell him I said that).

Anyway, I only have so many forums to reach out to people, and since Yuto probably doesn’t check my Facebook status, I’ll have to use this blog. Little man, if you’re still on these fair shores, let’s hang out? Let’s cut a package of you playing “Rockband”? Or better yet, let’s cut a package of you playing one of your real guitars; that instrument that’s physically about twice your size, yet is dwarfed by your ample talent?

Hopefully, you’ll be seeing more about Yuto on MTV News soon!