On the road again

Heading out on the road again, nice thing about being confined some place is it gives you time to do things, not the things you really want to do, but some subset of things

Another nice thing is it reminds me of that Bob Seaver song (although I first heard it via Metallica, and to be honest I still probably prefer that version, I still like my metal): Turn the Page

An excellent song that really lends itself to AMVs:

https://youtu.be/Jl6u6u8LEHM

Of course Metallica’s video for this is also highly recommended 

https://youtu.be/qPOTEs_yTJo

Excuse me if the video embeds don’t work, trying out a new blogging app.

Also, Excuse me as I kiss the sky!

Anywho, moving on, it is important to remember that I woke up at 4:45 AM and that is not a good time and it is starting to crush me with the weight of time and sleep deprivation.

So… there are quite a few good song segways there, but Rand tired

The 4:45 AM is really starting to hit me now.

Bobba booy

Anyways, take it to your head, take it your heart, and remember Rand rocks.

Goodnight Folks!

And God Bless.

Damn it didn't I tell you to Ultra-Relax!

I'm tempted time from time, moment from moment, to worry and think about what people think about me, whether or not I'm normal, whether or not I fit in and all that jazz (all that rotten jazz, rotten apple eating mean non-funky jazz monkey, etc. et al., and so on). But then I remember, always, always, tooooooooooooooooooooooooo

ULTRA-RELAX

Go Kodocha!

And here's the lyrics, via Naokochan (the notes are via spontaneous awesomeness)

Plenty of free time today and tomorrow
(oh so much time, got to webinate the web, but when you gotta be cool, you can find time to cool it up and cool it down)
Taking an overnight trip by the four of my family
(Because my family is awesome, they just are)
Seeing Sphinx with an Egyptian air
(Because more history=more better)
Seeing Texas with an American feeling!
(USA rules!!! But as nice as Texas is, Jersey rocks!!!)
Just be as cool as a cucumber
(mmmm, cucumber)
And laidback all the time
Then bugs in your stomach bugging you
Will just go off!
(those bugs (or maybe they're worms...) might be tempting, but just remember, ain't no bugs in this world that are really worth worrying about... after all, if God's with me, all the world's just a bitty bug ain't it?)
I'm ultra-relaxed
Gracefully, unbeatably relaxed
(Soooo relaxed, though my acid reflux, occasional breakdowns, frequent insomnia might argue different...)
Just a little bit different deluxe
Scatterbrained but...
(Scatterbrained who...something, something, scatterbraininess)
When you call me, "pah pah pah pahng"!
(That's my other name)
I'm always relaxed
Wabi-sabi-seasoned deluxe
(Because nothing's as relaxing as wasabi. Take it with some hot sauce to cool the tempers)
Bright! Clear! -Headed!
Brainy! Pitt! Pitt!
Watch no one but me!
(Because I'm awesome, and though I stress out over everything, but when push gets to pushy, I do become ULTRARELAX!!!)

Oh yeah!

So take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

And God Bless.

Scar tissue that I wish you saw

I suppose at the moment, I'm figuring I'm more likely to share my lonely view with the birds rather than a mate or a community to belong to. Ah, but that's mostly just the depression talking, and a good way to take the edge off that old bug is...

Music...because music rocks.

Let's start it up with:
1. Scar Tissue - Red Hot Chilli Peppers from their classic album Blood Sugar Sex Magic. A delicate song, with immense feeling, but a gentle acceptance. It well captures that sad but understanding attitude of being alone, not by anyone's fault but just by circumstance. The lyrics sketch a picture of a man striving to end that loneliness with romance, but accepting his current failure and looking a bit gloomily at his continued efforts. Then there's that guitar rift that cuts in the middle right into your soul. It's the signal that this reluctant acceptance doesn't come without a passionate protest, but the rift never bursts into an electronic fury as it seems tempted to at times, as the acceptance wins out, but is intertwined with sorrow that the man cannot shake, and which lingers in your heart long after the song has ceased in your ears.

And here's the AMV from the good folks at FLCL. The hyper-energy of FLCL somewhat clashes with the meditative song, but FLCL's combination of humor and darkness, joy and pain, psuedo-philosophy and psuedo-pop matches well the sweet and bitter strains, that look at the birds as brothers, if only to express an alienation from the rest of the world.

But don't let that alienation get you down, because even with that you can still be singing...

2. Tubthumping by Chumbawamba, a great song with a marvelous simplicity in its energy and sentiment (the lyrics too to a degree), but also a marvelous complexity its multiple competing parts and different voices and different tones and...

DUDE: I GET KNOCKED DOWN AND I GET UP AGAIN YOU AIN'T NEVER GOING TO KEEP ME DOWN

You can't stop the music when it hits you that true and strong. Especially when it goes well with a lovely anime called Love Hina. While this anime may not be the best in the harem anime genre, it is a quintessential example, with a hero with a never-say-die attitude and an always-say-die luck which matches the song as well (plus Love Hina has plenty of examples of people drinking heavily which also hits the bells of the tubthumping way (oh I could explain to you what tubthumping means, but I'm not going to))

But to mix it up a bit, as I am inclined to, let's take the energy of the second and the bittersweet of the first and we end up with something close to...

3. Lovefool by the Cardigans - The essential sentiment of the artist in love, rejected but so broken by the lost that she's willing to cling to any thing her love can give her... Well, it's a classic. The tone switches amazingly seemlessly between honestly distraught and flippant to a degree where you can't tell whether you're being too cool for love or too in love to be cool, all you know is you're out of sorts and you don't know what to do and if only you could just have the illusion of love...well, that touches a bit too close honestly. Let's move along...

4. That's right Move Along by the All-American Rejects. This song has a decent deal of lyrical/musical complexity, but not a huge amount. It's biggest claim is the driving push of its energy. And then there's the sentiment, and then there's just the way the voice and music mixes excellently with the sentiment, because it is the loser yelp and the semi-emo, sort-of-punk rock jangle, yeah, these are the All-American Rejects, but isn't being a reject part of being an American? And isn't it glorious?

This AMV might not hit all the right notes. Sometimes the images are a little too spot on, sometimes they're just cool images without the right sentiment, but what the video editor got here is the need for an immense variation of imagery and colors to hit that energy flow perfectly. Plus the characters, like all good heroes, got a nice loser-y look from some angles, and you gotta love a loser...

Because losers are the ones who know how to rock.

I think that's the sentiment to end the night on, and if the loneliness ever gets too hard, just remember music is awesome. It won't take away the pain, but meh, pains not so bad and music, as stated before, is awesome.

So take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

And God Bless.

Ah, for breath of fire

So as I said before I'm a fan of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzuyama. Now the show, even though it's chaotic chronology-wise (although as I pointed out in my review, there's a method to that madness), roughly fit a full story arc. However, there was enough left over and enough left open, and simply enough immensity of fun to invite a second season and so I am eagarly awaiting for that second season to come to translation.

I'm also interested in checking out some of the Haruhi extra features scattered all over the net due to the immense cultiveness of the Haruhi-fandom (which as this post shows I can only claim peripheral involvement in). So when I found on DC++, that there was a new item belonging to the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise on the file sharing hub (the item being called Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou, which I'm not going to even pretend to know), I jumped on it despite the 2GB download.

But then I found it was all Japanese. As I found out from a review of the product (found here), it is essentially a recording of a concert/fan convention centering on the voice actors for the series. Even though I generally shy away from such things my passion for Haruhi is enough that I might have watched it end to end... if it were in English. Here's where the line is drawn between me and hardcore anime fans. Hardcore anime fans will watch anime even if it's not in English. They will learn Japanese solely for the purpose of understanding Japanese. Heck some learn Japanese only from animes (giving them a action/sex-pun centered vocabulary, as Geniksen, a manga (which I have not read) and anime (which I have seen much of and which sould be findable on youTube) about Otaku (the truly hard-core anime/manga/cosplay/sci-fi-fantasy model building/etc. fans), scewers in one of it's characters). Basically they love the media so much, and the culture associated with it, that they're willing to sit through incomprehensible yammering just to get the taste of it.

I have to admire that devotion. Me, I dunno. I could see myself watching something in pure Japanese if it showed a plot point I missed before, but I'd have to fast forward it so I could watch it in as little time possible. Even if an anime was especially pretty, it would be hard for me to imagine just watching it with no dubs or subtitles. You loose so much nuance that way, and some anime I watch would be complete cliches without that nuance (probably His and Her Circumstances, which is why I haven't watched the Japanese episodes on the web, despite being desperate to watch the rest of the series, having only watched half (although given the reputation of the second half, that might be a good thing, but that's another story for another day)). But to wade through another language that is several thousand miles from anything you understand, just to get a little more about a story you love. That's beautiful.

For the most part, at least. There are those who obsess to the point of idol-worship. It's a terrible approach to what might be a fantastic piece of media but in the end is not the center of life. But that happens in most subcultures as well as mainstream culture (more commonly with the idol that seems to top the historical list, money!). I find myself often enchanted though by the straight-forward passion of true otaku. It's amazing how worked up they can get talking about a series, and how much effort they put into celebrating it. Me, I like a lot of anime, I love a few, but that passion... oh well. At least I can watch it as a friendly observer of the subculture. That seems to be my place for most subcultures, but it's not too bad of a place to be, even if it does get a little lonely at times, but once again that is a story for another day.

So take it to your head, take it to your heart, and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

Highly distractible, but nigh industructable

While the latter may or may not be true (time will tell if I am nigh industructable), I certainly am highly distractible, especially when I'm in still a semi-vacationish mode. In fact I'm right now more distractible than I was while I was in full-vactionish mode. Alac, Alac, Alac.

So anyways:

Here's some tunes:

LISTEN!!!!

1. Devil's Haircut - Beck - From the album Odelay - Weird, weird, weird song. The free association lyrics, the nonsensical constant refrain, it's all madness really it is, and I truly doubt there's a straight forward understanding one's supposed to get from all of it (although there are claims of a straight forward meaning to it on the internet, even one by Bob Dylan, but even if Beck were to tell me himself, I'd be like dude, whatever it's supposed to say, it's not saying that in a fashion that anyone should be expected to directly understand). But if I were to guess, and I am inclined to, I'd probably say it's all madness. The lyrics recite a list of crazy bad (eyes ripped from sockets!) stuff happening with the repeated line my mind is fadin', but the tone is all detached, not quite cheerfully so but with a bit of almost amusement, maybe fascination or interest. Then at the end you get an intensity to the voice and something like rage but perhaps more akin to adrenaline rush. Maybe it's all just madness. Least that's how I'm thinkin' of it.

Lyrics

Beck's Music Video - Beck's not one to shy away from the weird is he?

Devil's Haircut AMV - tv show : The Tick - Made by (since making good AMV's takes good work, I've decided to start crediting the AMV makers, in this case an outfit called:) Brilliantwerk (the guy seems to be in a lot of online communities, although I checked the website at the end of the video and that goes no where (the link here goes to his (or could be her) youTube site)) - Now really the whole reason I took this song is because I found this AMV and since I'm using in my title nigh industructable I had to include some Tickige. But the song and the video are actually a really nice match since both are slightly off-kilter in a weird direction. Moreover, by starting and ending with the bomber dude, the video manages to match the tone of the song which isn't quite as cheery as the Tick himself and his cry of "Spoooooooon!"

2. Parallel Universe - Red Hot Chili Peppers - From the album Californication - Some semi-Transendentalist mystic mombo-jumbo (also see the mention of Oversoul in By the Way) + rockin' triumphantcy + Red Hot Chili Peppers = Awesome, awesome song. Few songs are this intense and this triumphant. That made it easy to tweak into my own version which I called Dravidian King, as a song it might be less than great, but as a webpost session it has the spontaneity, emotionalism, etc., let's not go into webpost theory right now, let's not go into music theory right now either, let's just rock out with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Lyrics - For a long time I didn't realize it was California King, I don't remember what I thought it was, but California King is that lyric that's just spit out full force in the refrain, and we all know California likes to rock triumphant

Red Hot Chili Peppers Concert Video - There's no music video for this song, but this is a pretty nice concert video, all the way from the good folk in Brazil.

Parallel Universe AMV - anime : Kiddy Grade - Made by Charles Fontillas - I'm not a big fan of the anime Kiddy Grade, but this AMV is pretty awesome. It's as energized, colorful, and full of life as the song, plus it even captures the Red Hot Chili Peppers psychedelic flavors. The characters are nicely trotted out but not idolized or fan-serviced, the action is brisk but does not detract from the song, etc., overall very great. A nice comparison would be to another AMV of Parallel Universe, this one made with Gunslinger Girl (an anime I haven't seen much of, but which seems pretentious). The second AMV isn't bad but it isn't as good as the first, the whole video is too static, both in subject and shot, and even when there is action, the scene itself is focused on, dragged down the momentum of the video. Admittedly I might think this way due to my biases towards Gunslinger Girl, but then again I'm no fan of Kiddy Grade, then again... then again, it's time to move on to our next contender (for no prize, title or position what-so-ever!!!! (Wooo, what-so-ever!!!!)).

3. Bad Reputation - by Thin Lizzy, but covered more famously by Joan Jett - From the album Bad Reputation - This is a punk shout, so I'm not going into much detail about it. Especially since I did go into more detail about it before in a previous session. So let me just say:

I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT MY BAD REPUTATION!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the Lyrics

Here's Joan Jett's Music Video.

And here's an AMV of Bad Reputation using for the anime the 3rd Series of Digimon focusing on everyone's favorite bad-asses Rika and Renamon (made more subject-worthy by the fact Rika, despite loving her bad-assness, was worried about her mother's reaction for parts of the series). Digimon rules!!!!! (actually I wasn't thrilled with the 4th series and I haven't seen the 5th one, and the 2nd one, while good wasn't as good as the 1st or the 3rd ones.)

Just to cap things off to an off-form entry, let me point you towards the intro credits of Freaks and Geeks which featured Bad Reputation, since Freaks and Geeks was awesome.

4. Saturday Night's Alright - by Elton John - From the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - You know when you look at craftsmanship, some of these older rockers who now have turned into adult contemporary staples, used to be real rock craftsmen. Now I'm all for raw power, but there's also something to be said for craftsmanship, and Mr. Elton John says it well.

Lyrics

A concert video with Elton John

Saturday Night's Alright AMV - (note: the song here is actually covered by Nickleback and Kid Rock)- anime : Love Hina - Made by CrashOverRide83m - A splendid little AMV I must say. Fast as the wind through the lyrics, nice imagery, over-the-top action on the video front to match the over-the-top energy in the song as well as the exuberant embrace of fighting, also nice that the fan-service implications of Love Hina play well with the date connotations of Saturday Night. So overall, a well crafted piece, Mr. Elton John could have probably done better, but that doesn't detract from the fact that this AMV was done very well.

So usually I do 5 songs, but usually I'm not this tired, and even usually the 5th song gets a little bit of the shaft when I'm writing it up and everything. So for now I'm only doing 4 songs, and I might actually make that a new policy. Perhaps. PERHAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So anyways, take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

And God Bless.

You can't stop the music, even if you wanted to

And still the beat goes on. I've been putting off doing a music session for a while for a while because of a bunch of reasons really, I guess I was frustrated with YouTube and the often shallow selection of AMV's there (I mean come on people do you really have put every single song to Fullmetal Alchemist, and Naruto, come on people why Naruto? (I think I actually understand why Naruto appeals to people, it combines a fairly straight forward fighting anime with simple comedy and drama elements, nothing especially fancy, nothing especially well integrated, and not up to great standards, but I can see how people could like it, especially if this was the first anime they saw (or simply the first they saw after Pokemon and Yugi-Oh))). I was also just generally avoiding doing a real session because, well, things fall apart.

And things aren't well, now, but still we must press on, even if we'd rather stop.

Anyways, even though I touched on this before I thought I'd start things off with:

1. A Perfect Situation by Weezer - From the album Make Believe - I'm not going to go too deeply into it since like I said I touched on this song before in this previous session. But it is damn good song, so chuck filled with emotion that at the end all you can say is Ooooooh, Ooooh, Oh, Ooooh, except it time and melody with the song, alright fine, Ooooh doesn't work well when written out.

Lyrics

Weezer's video - An awesome video, funny, cool and still it reaches into your heart and gives it a little squeeze

A Perfect Situation AMV - anime - Midori Days - Despite the anime being about a guy with a girl on his hand (no, this is not porn), the anime's filled with that wishfillness for romance just like the song, and this AMV really brings out that emotion, sometimes its a bit too literal it its imagery but it connects the video with the song and comes out better for it so well, well done video maker, well done.

2. Sunday, Bloody Sunday by U2 - From the album The Joshua Tree - This is an immensely stirring song. It is about the Bloody Sunday Massacre, you can check a small primer on the matter on Wikipedia. It was part of the greater Northern Ireland conflict, but ulitimately the song boils down to a roar against violence. And this was before Bono became so goody-two-shoes that it just makes you want to smack him upside the head.

Lyrics

U2's video - a standard concert video, which I suppose in its simplicity underlines the seriousness of the emotion, but I prefer a later fan made video made with clips from a movie depicting the events of Bloody Sunday, U2 video stuff, and some photos from the day itself.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday AMV - anime - Neon Genesis Evangelion - A damn good AMV, I must say. It certainly connects in terms of energy and mood with the song and much of that connection is due to the choice of elements by the AMV-maker. Still it strikes me as interesting choice thematically since Neon Genesis Evangelion is all about Senji's struggle to find a reason to fight and Sunday, Bloody Sunday is well about not fighting. But the great anguish of war, that's the connecting element the AMV picks out well.

3.London Calling by the Clash - From the London Calling - The desperate, insanity. The utter energetic pessimism. The nihilisticly joyous anger. Ahhh, that's the stuff. That's the ROCK!!!!

Lyrics

The Clash's Video - Now like the U2 video for Sunday, Bloody Sunday this is largely just the guys playing their music (although not at a concert), but the setting, the lights and shadows, the angles and the cutting all create a better video. Just a little tip for you aspiring video directors. (Note this is actually an altered version with some video edits and remastered sound, if you want this is the original video)

London Calling AMV - anime - Rurouni Kenshin - Now I don't like to repeat myself with animes I have unsure opinions on (I used to watch this a couple times but I didn't really get into it then, maybe I'll watch it some time in the future), but I really wanted to have a London Calling AMV and this one captured the chaos of emotions that swirl around in this song, and it does it with swords!!!

4. Best of You by the Foo Fighters (keep on fighting that Foo guys!) - From the album In Your Honor (it's in my honor, not in you guys', I'm the special one here) - I always felt this song was about the struggle to maintain hope and passion against tragedy. Least that's my ways of it, but this much I know, and I know this for trues, this song is awesome.

Lyrics

The Foo Fighter's video - insane video, but if this song isn't about insanity, it's about something mighty close to it.

Best of You AMV - anime - various - This AMV belongs to the cutting edge of the genre, where people use really nice video editing software to punch up their videos with fades and live action implants and the like (as well as obnoxious opening bits), but none of that would be enough without the meat and cheese of AMV craftsmanship (by the way my little sister has gone vegan which means she has given up both meats and cheeses), scene selection, tonal matches, energy correlation, etc. And this succeeds, it contains a sense of strength, of yearning, of deep struggle, of passionate emotions, and of mental anguish. Maybe not exactly what I got from the song but plenty close enough to the song to enhance it and let it shine.

5.Eye of the Tiger by Survivor - From the Rocky III Soundtrack - Dude, anyone who listens to this song before a performance or competitive event and does not get pumped up has no soul, or doesn't the song (but then they're just lame).

Lyrics

Survivor's video - alright this isn't actually Survivor's video, but it's close enough since the song was designed for Rocky III (besides you can't tell me what to do! You're not my real mom (unless mom is reading this)!)

Eye of the Tiger AMV - anime - Naruto - After griping about Naruto before, why feature a AMV with Naruto? Because I can! Also I'm willing to give that Naruto is a decent fighting anime (although I'm not crazy about all that jitsu stuff, I mean I know it gives a systematic sense to made up martial arts, but after a while it just sounds lame), and it is occasionally able to throw its characters into some nice combat scenes that can be nicely sliced up, smacked together and turbo-charged with the awesomeness of this song to explode into greatness (although I will smack this AMV a little for incorporating a lot of scenes from a Naruto plotline actually featuring a special eye (you can tell this if you read the subtitles that are left in (little tip for AMV makers, unless you plan on incorporating the subtitles, just use a dubbed version))).

So that's it for the music biz. And that's the biz with music and siz. It's nice to really invest some effort into a session like this. Even if these music sessions aren't as intense as the normal sessions (and that's a real if, since I'm always surprised by how long music sessions actually take to put together), it gives a little sense of accomplishment, even if my readership is small enough that I could beat them up with one hand tied behind my back and the other connected to an electric beating machine.

Little side notes: Congrats to old Piro and his wife Sera on their baby Jack!

Also my sympathy to Ryan Sohmer for his recent loss of his cat, baby (the comic on that is here and he has a blog entry on it here).

Odd how that ended up. I've never met these guys, but I've always admired them (to a degree), and they inspired me in part to get onto this interweb, so well, well that's that.

As to my own stuff, well, it's my own, and I have other feelings and shout outs I'd like to give, but I don't care to be coy or irreverent and so I no longer care to continue this session (although I should be back for another one tommorow, why? Because I'm just that awesome).

So take it to your head, take it to your heart, and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

Here's your holiday, hope you enjoy it this time (but that song's not here)

I usually feel guilty about not putting up enough text onto the web. But I've done several long texty sessions so I thought it might be time to change things up (because I can't stay still or the clown will eat me), and I'm going to do some of the music thang, as a way of making up to the world for using the word thang.

1.Creep by Radiohead - From the album Pablo Honey - After doing a session explicating this song in reference to my own life, it seemed like a good time to put this out there. Superb song in capturing a ghost of an unnamable emotion that carries so many connotations to it. I could write a session explicating it, and I did, but I could write another session explicating it in reference to general human emotions instead of to myself, but I'm not going to because that would be overly long, probably boring, and probably lame (lame like yo mamma! I'm sorry I'm sure your mother is a very nice lady, I should have said, lame like your face!). Instead let me point out some of the prominent currents of the song. There is a current of praise, which can be interpreted even as love, but there is a massive element of self-hatred in the song. And there is an undercurrent of anger, something I didn't touch upon in my previous session too much, largely because as I explained there I first listened to the radio edit version.

Lyrics

(I'd just like to say that I'm switching to Lyrics Freak as my lyrics site, before I was bouncing around between several different services, but I think some of those sites contained spyware, so I wanted to settle down. The nice thing about Lyrics Freak and the reason I chose it, is because it has a nice, clean presentation, and while the ads are obnoxious, they are less obnoxious than they are on other lyrics sites. Of course, if the lyrics are hard to decipher I'll probably check multiple sites, but for now I'm good with Lyrics Freak.)

Radiohead's video - an simple video that just lets the emotion shine through with some light tricks and cutting to complement it, quite a contrast to the AMV I'm posting for the song, not that the AMV's bad, I'm just saying that Radiohead's video is different but good as well.

Creep AMV - anime - Elfen Lied - This AMV IS NOT FOR THE WEAK OF STOMACH. I'm a guy who saw the movie Seven in middle school and I still found this gory. Still, the goriness complements the darkness and disturbing nature of this song. The song is about a man who hates himself intensely to the point of rage. This anime fits well with that. As to the anime itself, I've only seen a couple episodes and I'm not sure if I can recommend it. It has a pretty good reputation for what that's worth, but it combines cuteness and gore in a mix I can't help but find a little disturbing.

2.Highway to Hell by AC/DC - From the album Highway to Hell - As a devout Christian, I'm not planning to go on a highway to hell. And quite frankly I plan on encouraging others to avoid it as well. But that's not really what this song is about. This song is about the sheer arrogance and joy of living free of society's rules and restrictions. Of course, doing actual wrong and throwing away society's rules are two concepts that are easy to confuse. But one is a matter of throwing away your moral compass and one is a matter of being your own ultimate moral compass (of course the exactitudes of this matter including the role of church, religious leaders, and religious philosophy go far beyond this matter, but I think I should wrap up this philosophical discussion because this song is so damn fun!).

Lyics - "Living easy, living free," usually it's one or the other, but God bless them, AC/DC want both

A live concert of AC/DC - AC/DC, while they probably made some music videos were producing songs in those days before music videos, a whole 30 years ago. Man, I wanted that to sound sarcastic, but 30 years is a decent amount of time.

Highway to Hell AMV - anime - Akira - Now does this AMV glorify violence? Yeah, probably. But it is an awesome AMV, capturing all the energy and power of the song, and it matches in feel even if it shows a darker side to throwing away all of society's rules. Ultimately I watch a lot of stuff I don't totally agree with when it's quality material, because well, quality material sends a message of about the beauty of existence itself. Besides, this AMV doesn't take itself too seriously. But for all of those who might be confused by my stance, no I don't encourage violence (I'll probably elaborate on that sentence in a future session.).

3.You Know You're Right by Nirvana - From the album Nirvana - Kurt Cobain's last hit. I'm not sure if I can describe what this song's about, or really why this song is of the highest quality. But it is. I hope you're doing alright, Kurt, now that you've passed from this world.

Lyrics

Nirvana's Video - I'm not sure how to treat this since my status as a Nirvana fan tints my judgment, but it is good to see all those pictures of the band.

You Know You're Right AMV - anime - FLCL - I've used Fooly Cooly a lot in the AMV's I've posted up, but that's A. because of the prominence of Fooly Cooly among the makers of AMV's, and B. because Fooly Cooly is visually amazing (more impressive than it is, say plot-wise). But perhaps the best reason for using this AMV is that it is one of those rare AMV's that captures the pain and frustration both in the song and the anime.

4.Breaking the Habit by Linkin' Park - From the album Meteora - Screw those who dismiss nu metal this song and Linkin' Park in general are awesome. But on a more pertinent note, there are two ways to interpret this song, one is in a positive light as the singer is breaking the habit of antagonism and depression, that's how I viewed it at first, but after looking at the Wikipedia article which suggested suicide in the video, I can see that as being in the lyrics too, as the singer breaks his habit of his problems by killing himself. That's probably more accurate, but I tend to still see the song in the more positive light. But terms of quality are always key and in that the song has enough to make it here.

Lyrics

Linkin' Park's video - here you see what a music video can really do in terms of being creative while still accenting the song.

Breaking the Habit AMV - anime - Rurouni Kenshin OVA - The idea of Kenshin, a man trapped in the violence of his life, trying desperately to adopt non-killing despite a legacy that returns to haunt him, goes well with this song. But throwing that aside if you haven't seen any of the anime or even heard of it (it also goes by the name Samurai X), the energy and sadness of the video work well with the song, making its quality independent of your knowledge of the anime, as all AMV's should do.

5. Snow (Hey Oh) by the Red Hot Chili Peppers - From the album Stadium Arcadium - I thought I'd clear out the heaviness with this song. It contains that lightness to it that almost makes it seem fragile despite the presence of drums, guitar, etc. What's it about? Can't say. But I'd say the answer lies in part in the lightness.

Lyrics

(Alright, despite my above comment this isn't from Lyrics Freak, it's from another service which I find more obnoxious but apparently Lyrics Freak didn't have this song, weird.)

Red Hot Chili Pepper's video - a sweet understated video which summons emotions as fragile as the song itself.

Snow (Hey Oh) AMV - anime - Gundam Wing - Endless Waltz - I found this was a nice video that mixed with the song but provided some nice contrast as well. But I am concerned about the video quality. I mean it's a well put-together AMV, and given the age of the anime, weak resolution is somewhat expectable, but still it is disappointing, given that it could be so much better if the resolution was better. But perhaps that's just the attitude of a man who's gotten used to ultra-clear resolution and has forgotten that this sort of resolution was extraordinary just a little while ago.

So that's about with that. And so I must depart. But I'll always be in here (which is to say my room (at least until I leave my room)).

Anyways, take it to your head, take it to your heart, and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

We love big dreams, right? or my review of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

I'm Rand the great and glorious, so come on, of course I love big dreams! But I got to say I love the Haruhi Suzumiya's SOS Brigade as well. Even if they don't match the biggest dreams of all.

Kyon is an ordinary high schooler who has just overcome his middle school obsession with the supernatural. Unfortunately he happens to be placed in the same class as Haruhi, who's obsession is still alive and well to the point of her scorning all activities outside the supernatural. Haruhi also unfortunately sits behind Kyon and Kyon has the unfortunate habit of talking to her. This eventually leads him to attempting to talk Haruhi out of her fixation in one of the stupidest let's be normal speeches I've ever heard. His main point is the majority of people learn to be satisfied in the world, and only a small minority stay dissatisfied and they change the world. Of course this backfires and prompts her to change her world by forming a club to seek out aliens, time-travelers and esper (ESP-ers). Of course, she makes Kyon her first member.

She steals the room of the Literary club as well as its sole member. She "voluntarily arrests" a beautiful second year student, because all good supernatural stories have some sex appeal. And she invites in a mysterious transfer student. Of course, these are in order, an alien, a time-traveler and an esper. If this all seems a bit too convenient, well, that's because Haruhi's real power is that she can alter reality to suit her whims. As well as to suit sometimes her terrible melancholy.

I can sympathize with Haruhi, I always wanted to start a club to find the extraordinary, I came close to it in high school with John Corp (a name that sounds awfully close to Spreading Excitement All Over the World with the Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade). And I was also infected by that most terrible of melancholies, the melancholy of having extraordinary desires in an ordinary world.

Perhaps that's why I can relate to Haruhi, even if she is sometimes a cruel character (an amazon reviewer was quite disturbed by this). But her cruelty makes sense in a way, it does not stem from a cruel personality, even if she treats people poorly at times she doesn't actually purposefully mean any harm, but rather it comes from an infinite sense of energy and purpose (even if that purpose is perpetually scatterbrained (a charming feature, although sometimes it goes a bit too far and creates some akward transitions in the middle of episodes). And the energy is in the end infectious. It calls to the audience and it's hard not to respond. It also serves to bend the fabric of the show, creating a bizarre episode order (although the general idea, which is to spit up the central arc of exposition over the entire season without using the traditional bit by bit along side event of the week method is pretty ingenious). The extremeness of the characters personalities also seem to fit with this. In the end the entire series projects an intense excitement, as well as the titular melancholy.

In its quieter moments, the show conveys the desperate longing for something extraordinary in the ordinary world. This too is conveyed in the fabric of the show, as the bursts of intense supernatural activities are interspliced with scenes of the characters facing intense boredom (although the viewer is rarely shown this long enough to actually provoke boredom in himself). The fact that Haruhi is always cheated out of the real strangeness of her life by the determined efforts of those around her, adds to a certain pity for her, as her life is defined by that tension between being surrounded by the mundane and wishing passionately for the supernatural. The central arc approaches this tension with the necessary seriousness, but without ever losing its sense of humor. That made me however, sympathize with Haruhi even more, and it almost made me wish that she (unconsciously) destroyed the world to get a taste of her extraordinary.

I can't say I haven't had similar desires, a bit not that extreme. A wish for something disastrous to happen so that I might have a chance to become a hero. A wish for the entire world to be revealed as a fraud. A wish that I could stumble through the looking glass into a world of magic and never look back. I think we all feel that way sometimes, although it is usually manifested in simply a desire to run away to some different place where something so strange that it's almost supernatural might happen. But in the end we rarely run away, because there are too many people we care about, and too many people they care about, and too little solid out there to be worth risking all those relationships. And in the end, we never really want to destroy the world, because all the people we love are here.

At times it reaches slow spots, at times it jumps from topic to topic too fast even for an avid viewer, at times it is too bizarre even for me (the elaboration of the identities of the aliens, time-travelers, and ESP-ers are completely and utterly insane and make my head hurt), but there is so much energy to this anime, so much sincere effort, and characters that while at times cruel, are immensely charming in their exaggerated insanity. And it conveys so much love for supernatural mysteries that seem just right around the corner that it's hard not to become infected by it. And then it's hard not to be struck by the lack of supernatural mysteries, and then it's easy to relate to the melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

All told, this anime gets an 8/10. So far at least, I hear they're coming out with a new season, which it's hard to imagine will be anything other than awesome.

So take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

More, more, more (but that song's not here)

Ah, well, the music's a callin' and I'm a comin', also I'm chronically short on time, and while by no means short on ideas I am comically only able to access those ideas when I don't feel like writing them down. Or maybe scrap all that, and stick with Music=Awesome, Rand=Awesome, therefore Rand=Music.

1. Absolutely (Story of a Girl) by Nine Days - From the album The Madding Crowd - Although I'm not fond of that album name, I absolutely love this song (you get it, absolutely love, eh, never mind). I suppose it has something to do with the fact that guys love tragic girls, they bring out protection instincts, admiration instincts, sympathy instincts, etc. + it ends with her smiling, and a girl's smile always has a special charm for a heart of a guy.

Lyrics

Nine Day's video - An awesome video, but very odd if you think about it. I suppose it speaks to skill of the director to make the oddness of the video fit the song. Until the end, we may find the images strange, but they all tell the story of a girl.

Absolutely (A Story of a Girl) AMV - anime - His and Her Circumstances - Now, first of all, the fact that I like this anime does suggest that I am actually a girl, but no I'm not, I'm just a guy who likes shojo. But beyond that, what's nice about this AMV is how it takes just the weirdness and problems of the girl star of His and Her Circumstances and make it fit the song even though her story, even as depicted in the video doesn't objectively match the story of the song, still the video makes it feel like they match.

2. Bad Touch by The Bloodhound Gang - From the album Hooray for Boobies - Now I believe sex belongs in marriage and I believe this song, while not explicit on the matter, believes everything but that, still it rocks immensely.

Lyrics

The Bloodhound Gang's video - This video makes no sense on so many levels, for so many reasons.

Bad Touch AMV - anime - FLCL - Given that the title of this anime means "Grab the Boobies," it seems like a good fit. And the video does not disappoint since it keeps everything moving and moving insanely, with a dark undertone which fits perfectly with the song, after all it is a Bad Touch.

3. Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz - From the album Gorillaz - Are you questioning the awesomeness of this song? ARE YOU questioning the awesomeness of THIS SONG? For shame, for shame.

Lyrics - This is one of those great songs for rapping it yourself, again and again, till you have managed the lyrics to the extent that it has become a federal offense.

The Gorillaz music video - This was my first exposure to Gorillaz, and it taught me to love the band and always fear zombie ape attacks.

Clint Eastwood AMV - anime - Cowboy Bebop - It's hard to go wrong with a Cowboy Bebop AMV, although it is possible. But this nicely matches the soft parts of this song with some nice fight scenes of Spike, which work especially well, given the water-based fighting tactics of Spike (read a little about Bruce Lee to see what I mean), while matching the aggressive rapping with Ed, who's as funkier than any ghost could possibly be.

4. Meet Virginia by Train - From the album Train - I have never been fond of the use of a band's name as an album title, but let that not detract from this song. It's beauty is like the beauty it describes, a little bit off, a little bit confusing, a little bit less than it could be at times, but in the end, simply wonderful.

Lyrics

Train's video - a nice soft-moving, self-explanatory video, nothing wrong with that.

Meet Virginia AMV - anime - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - There are a couple missteps to this video, like starting out with the girl showing her bra in a video talking about an unconventional beauty (although that could be said to be unconventional, and the unconventionalness of the girl is established with most of the video). But this video is amazingly edited. It represents in some ways a different level of technical skill than is usually seen in AMVs, that said, technical skill cannot replace skillful matching of video and music (although it can enhance it), and fortunately this AMV does just that. It does it in fact well enough that I decided to check out the anime (I hadn't seen it before, but from the episodes I've seen it's pretty cool, and hilariously funny, Haruhi's got gumption, as another gumption-haver, how can I not love her?).

5. Closing Time by Semisonic - From the album Feeling Strangely Fine - The reason for picking this song to end with is not strange, because as this sentence itself suggests I am immensely corny. But the reason for using this song instead of not using it is a matter of quality, and of the resigned (or perhaps satisfied) longing of the song.

Lyrics

Semisonic's video - See, I told you! Longing.

Closing Time AMV - anime - Love Hina - What does this AMV have to do with closing time? Well, I suppose, it's you know end of the day, and there's that one scene, and... Well, it doesn't have to have anything to do with closing time, in fact given that closing time is only the song's literal meaning and just using that would be lame, it's good it doesn't have anything to do with closing time. Instead, it's about longing, the feeling of the video is matching the feeling of the song, and that's how it's supposed to be.

So gather up your jackets, move into the exits, I hope you have found a friend. You don't have to go home but you can't stay here. Actually you can, and since you're probably reading this from home, your trip home isn't going to take you very long, but anywho... Just remember, a little lyrical longing ain't a bad thing, just don't let it swallow you whole.

So anyways, take it to your head, take it to your heart, and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

The inevitable gravity of Destiny or my review of Escaflowne

That's a beautiful phrase. The Gravity of Destiny. Escaflowne isn't your typical anime, oh wait it is, or well, the truth is somewhere in between. In a way it picks and chooses between anime conventions from all genres of the field, and throws in some European mythology and then it... Well, it ends up beautiful. Just like that phrase. It's a beautiful anime, exquisitely crafted from odds and ends scattered throughout the world. European-style kingdoms, steam-punk elements, mecha, dragons, and the strange techno-mysticism that draws everything together. It is an immensely complex beast.

The story starts with girl lifted from her own world planted in another. She has some pretty impressive odd-ball powers, and she gets involved in war and love pentangles that boggle the mind. Giant robots fight, and one in particular has special powers, and she and the prince that controls it end up fleeing from the evil forces searching for a means to end the war. This show has often been cited as a blurring of the lines between shojo and shonen, that is girl's manga/anime and guy's manga/anime (I think the technical terms shojo and shonen are only supposed to be used for manga but they are commonly used for anime as well), and to some degree it carries the faults of both. It has the gushing emotionals and pointless romantic trysts of a shojo and the convoluted plot of a shonen. But then again it has the strengths of both as well. It has the emotional depth and character development of a shojo, and the ambition and action of a shonen. It's two defining characteristics are probably its emotion and ambition and both come together to something at times confusing, at times frustrating, but still beautiful.

It's plot twists often seem pointless. It takes you from one end of it's amazingly in-depth imaginary world only to throw you to the other end with nothing really accomplished. But every episode, even those that don't get anywhere draws your emotions, engages the eyes, and thrills the mind. There's always action, always something happening, always emotional growth even if it doesn't actually go anywhere, it still gives enough to the episode to make it a treat to watch. The quality of the episodes excuses the scattered plot.

Often the emotions presented seem trivial or repetitive or childish, but blown completely out of proportion. Sometimes I just wanted to slap the characters upside the head to try to get some sense into them. But then there were the moments where the emotions presented were so genuine, so universal, but so personal, that they just took my breath away. At times the show travels through an emotional landscape which includes the terrors of war and their drain on the soul, the desire to end conflict and the means it takes to do so, the sorrow of loss, the depth of love, and all these emotions and ideas are presented maturely but with enough excitement and action accompanying them to prevent them from being dry. But what makes the show frustrating is that both over-blown emotions, and perfectly genuine emotions are both stuffed into every episode, but the latter exceeds the former enough that the experience grips your heart. In the end, the execution excuses the melodrama.

Overall, Escaflowne is a monument to execution. That is not to say it is simply a formula executed, rather it is the execution of a story crammed full of ideas and emotions almost to the breaking point, but one which does not fit any precise formula or genre. Because of that it carries with it flaws from every avenue of storytelling but also virtues from every corner of the universe of imaginative fiction. That alone would not a good show make, but it then shows execution that pushes the ability of anime to the limit, which makes all the flaws excusable, and the final product a legend.

And that is the Vision of Escaflowne, and it receives an 9/10.

So that's my review of Escaflowne, so anyways, take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

Hate to say I told you so, except that song isn't in this post

Well, I bet you thought when I said I was going to use a strategy of posting up music videos to keep myself regular I was lying, I bet instead you thought I was going to eat more fiber. Well, you're wrong, and my colon is still dying ever so slowly. Because I was infinitely busy this day (4 classes in a day, a nice solid block between 9:50 (although I had to leave early since it was at a different campus)-4:40, plus newsbroadcast at the end of the day, plus I left my backpack on a different campus, so I'm not just being a bum here, I mean I'm not saying I'm not being a bum, but I'm not just being a bum, you bums! BUMMMMMS!!!!), I don't have time for a full post, or at least if I want some sleep, which I think it would be a good idea, although you never know, but weighing my options, sleep is good, so let me give you some music + videos, and maybe a little commentary.

1. Here is Gone by the Goo Goo Dolls - From the album Gutterflower - This is a song that's moving, got a great atmosphere, got lots of emotion, complex strong lyrics, multiple moods, and it's excellently executed. All and all, awesome, just awesome. But the song has a special significance to me because of how it reminds me of my second heartbreak, and because it was the first song for which, and to date the only song for which, I did an exposition dealing with various matters. Still even were that not the case, it is an excellent song worthy of being presented.
Commentary on the Lyrics (my commentary, for I am Rand!)

Lyrics

Goo Goo Doll's video - a solid video, a very good one in fact. It manages to move a good distance from the obvious interpretation of the song, or for that matter probably the inspiration for the song, but the video matches the feel of the song excellently. However, my policy for now is one video posted per song, and while this is very good, it's not extraordinary.

Here is Gone AMV (Anime Music Video) - anime - Treasure Planet (not technically an AMV, but I'm going to use that as a general term for music matched with shows/movies cut up. Why? Because this practice really took off with anime, and besides, because I can) - This is a somewhat unexpected combination (I say somewhat because although I would not necessary lump this song with this movie, the movie's soundtrack does include another good, but lesser, Goo Goo Dolls song), but it works, which makes it one of those nice catches you find while wondering around youTube that really deserves spotlighting since it expands your expectations. Besides, Treasure Planet is a highly underrated film, largely I think because it took itself seriously as a film despite being a Disney picture, but in my mind it was quality enough to be taken seriously and I think this AMV helps argue my point.



2. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen - From the Album A Night at the Opera - This song just has so much history that I feel its awesome is just common fact. But if you don't know it's awesome you should be ashamed of yourself. Come on, Bohemian Rhapsody! Queen! Rarely has there been a song which matched ambition with execution. Musically it is highly complex and every piece captures more and more emotions, bringing it all together into something simply amazing. I could probably write a whole post on simply the merits of this song, but I'm doing this music post due to my lack of time, not my abundance of it.
Lyrics

Queen's video - Now I'm not saying this is a bad video, by all means it is a good video, but I never felt it really captured the fullness of the song. The ambition of the song was so great, I feel they didn't have the technology back then to really match it with the right video.

Bohemian Rhapsody's AMV - anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion - Now today's technology includes being able to cut up video and put in new audio. And so now we can get some video worthy of this song. It doesn't hurt matters that the anime used is one of the most awesome and ambitious animes in the history of anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion. At first when watching the video, I thought it was a bit too spot on, matching image to word exactly, but the fact is the author of the video didn't do so causally, rather he or she used the matching to help build an organic feel to the video/song match, which helped them seemlessly blend together into something that naturally captures the human imagination without you even noticing. Also interesting was the choice to use a live show's audio, again I feel this works with the organicness of this AMV. But perhaps it is best to say it is simply awesome.


3. Satellite by POD - From the album Satellite - POD, or Payable on Death (catchy name, no?), was the band that showed me Christian rock does not have to suck. This is a strongly Christian song, but it rocks, completely and utterly. Emotionally powerful, musically charged, lyrically complex, I really need to think of new adjectives to describe songs better, I seem to be tripping over myself a good deal, but that does not diminish how good this song is.
Lyrics

POD's video - The graphics are great, but it's the energy that really makes this video fantastic. A lot of videos are too slow and drag on a song, but this helps capture the spirit of the song and even takes it up a notch.


Satellite's AMV - anime: Bleach - I like Bleach, and I like this video, but overall I'm not thrilled with it. Honestly it is a bit light weight. It just matches a really cool fight with a really good song. It does so decently well, but nothing special. But at this hour of night it is probably the best I could find with this song. Alas.

Unfortunately, this whole matter is taking me longer than I had hoped. Originally I had hoped to put up 5 videos today, but it is extremely late and I must wake up not that early but not that late. And so I must bid adieu with 3. I think my failing was that I overdid it with the commentary, which not only ate up time, but lessened the impact of the posting, perhaps I will curtail that next time, but ah, sleep beckons.

So anyways, take it to your head, take it to your heart, and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

Anime for the lazy May

Except it's July so it's not lazy May. But anyways even though Youtube has annoyingly been removing a lot of it's tv shows (ah, I can't blame them, lawsuits and all, but I'll elaborate my position on this sort of stuff later). Yet there still are some tv shows if you look for them. At least with old anime shows, like Video Girl Ai and Ranma 1/2 and some episodes of Azumanga Daioh (which isn't really old which might explain how some of the episodes have been removed).

OVA won't you play

As any anime fan knows OVAs (only for video releases, basically straight to video tv shows) tend to beat regular tv shows in quality. I always wondered why we didn't have them in the US. Now in fact we are actually starting to see some with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Futurama planning straight to video releases. But in Japan you have shows that have never had any precedent on regular tv released on video, and that is still unlikely to happen. I understand now why though. Most OVAs are released piecemeal, one episode at a time, afterall it's difficult to invest a lot of money unless you know the project is going to go well, and the production time on a full OVA series is often immense. In Japan, where people I think are more comfortable with buying mass quantities of videos and DVDs, that might work, but in the US most people are going to see buying a single episode of a show they haven't seen a bit of a rip. I know I would. On the other hand there are some non-mainstream niches where OVA stuff does well, where mainstream TV doesn't usually go. But I suppose we'll never have a OVA market as rich and diverse as Japan as long as the US is full of cheap-skates like me.

The temptation of wheat or Azumanga Diaoh review

First of all, the theme song makes no sense, no sense, this link has its lyrics, but it includes the above line the temptation of wheat, and stuff like Cake for you, Tea for you, etc., very, very weird, further proof that Japanese people are crazy (of course my assessment of that is wildly innaccurate since I'm basing this largely on my own tastes for crazy anime). Still song crazy, so it gives you a little clue about the show itself.

Actually in some ways the show isn't as crazy as the intro song and sequence would imply, but in other ways it's just as crazy if not more so. It has a few moments like Kodocha where random things pop up but that's mostly just in the dream episodes. Mostly it's just high school life and not even really eventful high school life, overall nothing much happens to these kids except the school life and the breaks and such. There aren't even the crazy romances of normal high school life (except for with one girl and her obsession with another girl and a teacher's obsession with the first girl (don't worry none of this actually amounts to anything but a lot of laughs). There are rarely long plots even within an episode even since each episode is actual 5 5-minute shorts pieced together (the manga was sort of like a comic strip (I think) and the show first aired as 5 minute shorts each weekday and then the week's episodes were combined on Saturdays (I think, I wasn't there to see all that stuff during the first time around, A. it was a some time ago, and B. it was in Japan)). So with no plot and ordinary high school life how can it be as crazy as temptation of wheat? In the end it is because the characters are just crazy, zany, and absolutely hilarious.

This is one of the shows which makes me feel like an absolute girl, it is a girl's show, there is only one male character and he is just a side character playing the pervert teacher with a heart of gold stereotype (mostly the pervert part) (of course this is never really developed much as it would be if he was the star, but there are plenty of other shows for that (including plenty of animes like that)), but that's part of the charm. It allows the characters to just talk easy as friends and let all their quirks and crazies come out. In some ways this strikes me as more accurate than most romance-centered high school shows, because while the romances of high school tend to come and go, the friendships last and talking to your friends, just shooting the breeze (damn breeze, time to die!!!!) that's what high schoolers really spend most of their time doing. So this show is about that. The quirks and crazies of high school girls and their teachers, and about friendship. It could be very dull, it could be, but instead it's absolutely hilarious because those quirks and crazies, while so ordinary, are played up to maximum effect but without taking away from the love you feel for the characters.

The characters are a mix of archetypes and somewhat novel characters (who are found plenty in real life but are rarely explored). For the archetypes (there's a subtle difference between archetypes and stereotypes, while both are basised on the classic notions of the character types, the archetypes have their depths probed, while the stereotypes are pure superficial) You have Tomo, the crazy mega-enthusiastic goof-ball, you have Osaka, the ditzy, out of it goof-ball, and you have Yomi, the all-together, little-snobby, ultra-dieting, and mature girl, and Karoin, the obsessed-with-her-crush girl (although with a twist the love is another main character, aka, another girl), on the less-heard-of-side you have the grade-skipping-ultra-young, Chiyo, and the looks-very-mature, looks-very-cool and very aloof and looks kind of scary but really is very nice and loves cuteness girl, Sakaki and one which might fall on either side given my lacking knowledge of teen shows, Kagura, who's the ultra-athlete. With the teachers you got the standard boke and tsukkomi, that is the ultra-goof-off and serious person who puts her in her place, and then you have as a side character, the perverted male teacher, who turns out to have a heart of gold but is still very, very, very perverted. All these quirks are perhaps not groundbreaking but they are played out in very normal circumstances to the absolute breaking point but without passing the point of making the characters unsympathetic (although to some I've heard the male teacher passes that point, but I think he's cool (that's what is wife says)). Overall it's a good mix, although I wouldn't mind seeing at least one well-rounded guy, but I suppose that might distract from the girl's show atmosphere, which does add a certain lightness and charm to the show (after all the atmosphere girls carry with them is quite charming (although I'm actually probably too old to be saying that when the show is about high school students (and one student who's the age of elementry school kids)) and it might distract from the ultra-cutsyness of the show. Some will be turned off by this, but me, having the tastes of a ten-year-old girl, find it awesome. At times the show does draw on a bit, and you do kind of wish to have more in-depth adventures that might explore some more facets of these characters, overall I kind of had a sense that I wanted to know them a lot better than I got a chance to, but still you know them enough to love them, and enough to laugh like a madman at them. Overall I'd give this a 9 out of 10.

So that's my Azumanga Diaoh review. I think it went pretty well, although perhaps I could pull out a little more analysis if I wanted too. Oh well, the point is, awesome show, watch it, WATCH IT!!! You go now.

So anyways, take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!