The Random Musings and Writings of Brandon

On this very day, many many years ago, a young girl who was given the name of Dawn and would - not so many years ago - become my friend, my girlfriend, my best friend, my fiancé, and my wife was born. Unfortunately, Dawn is no longer a physical part of the corporeal world and no one who loved her can celebrate this day of her birth with her. Yet, despite Dawn's own ambivalence to people who celebrated "heavenly birthdays," it does seem necessary to me (and, perhaps, for me) to use this date on a calendar to remember my wife. Memory, of course, is strange. Memories of important events get tied to other random events in some quantum entanglement that makes no sense and all the sense in the world at the same time. Dawn's birthdate, of course, is no different. March 30th literally is a week after spring has sprung. It is usually (but not this season) a few days before Major League Baseball opens the season. It is in the middle of March Madness - where Storrs Connecticut b...

Since the War of Choice that the United States and Isreal started against Iraq approximately one month ago, I have attempted to put words together to express my feelings on the war. Yet, as much mental processes that I have put into attempting to put some words down on virtual paper... I didn't feel I had a hook. For, I am not an expert. Not on Iraq. Not on the economy. Not on the contingencies that any hostile actions in this region would ultimately bring.  Yet, I am also not unintelligent. For certain, I am aware of the limitations of my knowledge and my expertise. However, I also am able to listen and read and otherwise make myself more knowledgeable from people who are expert in areas where I am not. So, when our newest Secretary of Homeland Security, former Senator from Oklahoma Markwayne Mullins stated during his confirmation hearing that " I’m not going to be the smartest guy in any room I walk into, " I realized that was the hook. That our government is being run ...

With Babymetal being featured on "Kasuka na Hana" by Tatsuya Kitani (the Opening theme for Season 2 of the Anime Hell's Paradise: Jigokaraku)... I figured it would be a fun project to rank all of Babymetal's collaborations thus far. However, there is one major problem with this: Because Babymetal are the three vocalists for the greater Team Babymetal... and they largely do not contribute to the lyrics/composition of the songs - one could argue that every Babymetal song is - in fact - a collaboration. However, that seems like a morass I do not want to fall into. So, to make it easier on myself - I will only be ranking songs where either Babymetal is a featured artist OR Babymetal is featuring another artist. There will be one exception to this nomenclature (which will be explained when we get there). So, let's get to the criteria for ranking: 1) How collaborative is the collaboration. For example, if Babymetal is being featured - but only Su-Metal is on the recordi...