Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Justice

I've finally sat down and listened all the way through to the solo album of that name from Justin Sane of Anti-Flag. It's good. While lyrics are classic Anti-Flag - a mix of political, crying out against war and people that just follow along, not caring about the youth, about the poor, about anything but money, and songs about times spent with friends, finding friends and a place to go in music - the sound is much more stripped down, it's just Justin with his guitar, sometimes an acoustic, sometimes electric, and Justin actually sings for the entire album, rather than to more racous shouting that make up most of his vocals in Anti-Flag, and he as a much better voice than you might thing. A lot of the songs are medium tempo, almost ballads, and sometimes the music, and maybe Justin's phrasing, reminds me of MEST alittle, sometimes the music put me in mind of Rancid, but then again, I haven't listen to much of Rancid to say that, I suppose. More importantly, a few of the songs made me tear up, like 'Thanks for your letter (from a kinder, gentler America)': a song that includes a spoken bit in which Justin, caught in a moment of doubt, reads a fan letter telling him how much their music means to them, and telling him to keep fighting, and a song called 'The Youth of the Modern World', which ends: 'And what the youth can do is so unbelievable/so unforgettable/so incredible/and don't forget it/don't f--king forget it!!'.

Shibuya's #1 Gal! XD

I was just re-watching the first episodes of the GALS! anime, which I borrowed from Mirai. The series was dumbed down as the anime was made for a younger audience than the manga, and sort of became like an entire series of filler episodes, they still retained the great characters that made the manga so much fun. I really like the first episode, because it follows the manga completely, which gave Ran a chance to show just how cool she really is, when she confronts Aya about doing Enjo-Kousai (or subsi-dates, as the subtitles said ^^;;). I still get shivers during that scene, when she just slaps Aya across the face, and gives her whole speech about how Aya can't call her body a thing as long as she still feels pain. Ran rocks! XD Interesting it's almost the same kind of overwhelming coolness that Oscar has in BeruBara, where, for example, there was a particular scene where Oscar stands up and defends one of the peasants and I actually yelled 'Kakkoii!' at the screen. LOL
I watched some of the English dub, and I have to say, I was suprised to find I liked the dub!Ran. They basically turned the gals into valley girls, but I think it was really the only way to go, since I guess that is the equivalent, and for the most part, it really works. So many American VAs have a valley girl edge to them anyway and it usually doesn't work for their character at all, but here it fit, so it worked out. The slang is a bit overdone at times, but once again, the original Japanese is all slang, so it was the only way to do it, I think. It kind of becomes the anime equivalent of Clueless. LOL I guess Ran's personality - brash, flippant attitude with a strong sense of right and wrong underneath it all fits as well into an American teen archetype as a Japanese one. It was funny, watching the dub, at times I had flashbacks of shows like Jem.

The GC post.

Happy 26th Birthday to Benji and Joel!!

New MADE products are out. I am excited because the made a tee shirt of the Japanese flag me-do shirt Joel for Asia Aid. It's cool when two things you like combine like that. But darn white Joel and his ghetto!angel look, because now I want this new white bleeding heart motif hoodie too.


Also, once again, ( Paul Rocks )