Living with War

I just heard Neil Young's new album, "Living with War". You can listen to a streaming broadcast of the entire album, on his site. Check it out!

One of the things that has really disturbed me about this whole thing with Bush's pet project (the war in Iraq) is how sanitary it has all been. The administration has done everything they can to make this war as painless for the American people as possible. They would even prefer deploying and re-deploying the same troops over and over rather than activate the draft. Why? Because if we had an active draft, the American people might actually feel the effects of being at war. It quits being just another reality show and starts becoming actual reality.

As much as I hate the thought of a draft, I also hate the fact that the American people are not allowed to see the realities of war. Newsmen are not even allowed to photograph the flag-draped coffins of those soldiers who "give the ultimate sacrifice" following the orders of their Commander-in-Chief. Since they don't see it, don't feel it, the average American has become complacent. While our leaders send more and more of our sons and daughters off to war - and whittle away more and more of those freedoms that our sons and daughters are supposed to be fighting for through means such as the Patriot Act, domestic spying, ect - "inquiring minds" are more concerned about the marital affairs of the latest Hollywood celebrities than they are about the war or even about preserving their own constitutional rights.

Neal Young's new album, "Living with War", is a protest album, plain and simple. A protest album of the likes that you'd hear from Michael Franti or a 60s era Joan Baez. Will it change many people's minds about the war? Probably not... but maybe it'll be a catylist to wake those millions of us who are already against the war from our media hypnotized stupor and motivate a greater number of people to actually go out into public and and join in the protests shouting, "Stop this insanity now!"

I can only hope. I will never willingly give up my freedoms... and hope is one freedom they can never take away.

Listen to the album. If you want the CD, you have to pay, but it doesn't cost anthing to just listen. My favorite song off the album is the title song. ^-^

peace

Macross 25th anniversary

Hello, everybody ^-^

2007 will be quite a year! Not only will it mark the 10th Sakura-Con and my 25th wedding anniversary, but it is the 25th anniversary of Macross.

If ever there was a perfect year to invite Yoshiki Fukuyama to Sakura-Con, this would be it!

If you like Yoshiki Fukuyama and attend Sakura-Con or would attend if Fukuyama-san was a guest there, please join me in trying to convince Sakura-Con's Director of Relations to invite him.

Here's a copy of a message I wrote on the Sakura-Con message board:

This really makes me feel old because I was married by the time Macross came out, but it's recently come to my attention that 2007 is the 25th anniversary of the Macross series.

I know there are a lot of Macross fans out there. This is the year to make yourself known! It would be great to have some Macross related guests at Sakura-Con 2007!

http://scmb.sakuracon.org/viewtopic.php?t=13095

Post who you want to see at Sakura-Con 2007. Even if the person you want has already been mentioned, please, mention him or her again. Sabrina is looking at how often possible guests are asked for.

My personal choices:

One of the things that separates Macross from just any decent Mecha show (like Gundam) is the music. For that reason, I would like to see the main vocalists from the two main Macross series: Mari Iijima and Yoshiki Fukuyama.

As everyone knows, Mari Iijima is the voice of Lynn Minmay in the original Macross series. She's done several conventions and would no doubt be fun to have at Sakura-Con.

What some people may not know is who did the 99% of the singing voice and all the guitar work for the main character in Macross 7 - mainly because in the show and even on most of the soundtrack CDs the songs are all attributed to Fire Bomber, the fictional band in the show. However, if you look in the "thank you" section of the CDs and at some of the song writing credits, you'll see his name: Yoshiki Fukuyama.

Even for that segment of Macross fans who thought the only good thing about Macross 7 was the music would enjoy watching Yoshiki Fukuyama perform. I've seen Fukuyama-san in concert. Not only is he an excellent singer and masterful guitarist, but he's also friendly and just plain fun!

Aside from their involvement in Macross, both these performers are currently active. Fukuyama-san especially has been extremely active, both on his own (opening theme to "Overman King Gainer" and others) and as a member of JAM Project ("Panda Z" theme and many others).

Anyhow, if you'd like to see either of these people or others from Macross, we have to convince Relations to invite them. Please, click on the above link and post in that thread.

peace

Thank you for your support. ^-^

peace

Happy birthday, dear website!

It's a few days late, but Happy New Year!

It's been four years now since January 8, 2002 when I put together a few web pages "just for the sake of learning how to make a web site". I guess I'm still learning, because I keep making new pages for the site. ^-^b

I just spent the last few hours doing exactly what I did this day 4 years ago: adding new information to the Yoshiki Fukuyama profile page. It's hard to believe there were only six pages on this site back then!

Ever since Christmas, I've taken the time to slow down a bit and actually catch up on my web site and some email. There's even been a little activity on the BBS! I happy. (^^)

Recent updates in the Yoshiki Fukuyama site to watch for:
- actually finished creating translation pages for the Fire Bomber 2005 DVDs with the help of my daughter, Eleanor, and my friend, Pedro.
- Updated the discography page with some new, some updated, and some corrected (thanks, Zhane) information.
- corrected the titles of a couple songs on the lyrics page (thanks, Zhane)
- updated the concert schedule page for the new year and added new concert information
- checked, updated, and added to the links
- updated the news pages

The rest of this weekend is to be devoted to finishing email. After that, I need to spend the next week or so finishing some work for Sakura-Con. As soon as I can, I plan to get back to translating. As it says on the page, "the translations are done in no particular order as I get to them," but there seems to be a lot of interest these days in the JAM Project songs used in the show "Gravion", so I guess they are next on my list, eh.

There's also a wonderful TV interview transcript a fan in Japan wrote out that would be great to translate for everyone. Here's a link to the transcript:
part 1 http://nagashi.blog2.fc2.com/blog-entry-182.html
part 2 http://nagashi.blog2.fc2.com/blog-entry-183.html

I'll get get caught up, eventually - some year.

In other news, Becca updated her blog again... thanks to Jones soda and (yes, I'm going to say it) assholes. Your going to have to read it to find out exactly what that's all about. I found it quite interesting...

Well, see y'all later, eh. I promise it will be within the month.

peace