onigiri shimasu!

I have a general plea to people reading this post--I am desperately wanting some upbeat, catchy songs like Ageha, Beating Hearts Baby (I've become badly addicted to this song ^_^;), Must Be Dreaming, Aozora no Present (all these songs have been played way too many times lately)...Any recs? Please? Share with me your favorite infectious song! Music files would be very much appreciated...

Also, I did want to share a Very Amusing Exchange my friend had with a new co-worker that he wrote to me about...

I told Bill Cassidy that it just so happened that
the day he started work at [company name], I watched a japanese cartoon that
introduced an american character named "Billy Cassidy"

him: "no way, was he cool?"
me: "um, well he was a teenage tennis playing ex rodeo dude"
him: "..... what? like lassos?"
me: "yep, he had a serve"
him: *makes motion of lasso* a SERVE?
me: "yep"
him: "yippie kai yay, love 15?"
me: "yep" :D

yippie kai yay, love 15...

*dies*

(mostly) live acoustic music!

This week is Sakamoto Maaya week at seiyuu...I have a lot of her music already, but a special radio program, Studio Live Special - Shounen Alice UNPLUGGED, was posted. There were some very pretty live acoustic versions of songs including Tune the Rainbow (the only good thing that came out of the RX movie). ^_^ Anyhow, my friend ripped only that most lovely track from the 50+ min program and I wanted to share it...

Tune the Rainbow (Live Acoustic) by Sakamoto Maaya
[Japanese lyrics with an overly lyrical (the translation puts more words into the song than the original lyrics) translation]
[Another set of lyrics and translation with some mistakes]

My friend sent me music tracks ripped from a Utada Hikaru acoustic live DVD today, and I rather liked this version of Wait & See. When I checked out the lyrics I realized I like the lyrics as well. ^_^

Wait & See ~Risk~ (Unplugged Version) by Utada Hikaru
[Lyrics and translation]

And on the topic of acoustic live versions of Utada Hikaru songs, the same friend had sent me an absolutely fabulous version of a song I didn't like originally. It is another rip from a DVD. ^_^

Colors (Live Acoustic Version) by Utada Hikaru
[Lyrics and translation]

And last but not least, a non-live song. :D I was checking out the original versions of the Utada Hikaru songs above on a mp3 DVD and started listening to other music on it as well, including this great Garnet Crow song with a really long name and a gentle beat...

Kimi no Uchi ni Tsuku made Zutto Hashitte Yuku by Garnet Crow
[Lyrics and translation]

And this time I personally tested every link to see if it downloaded and played correctly. >_< I've discovered that yousendit doesn't like the "[" and "]" characters very much...

Speaking of downloaded stuff, for some reason I have a Tenipuri On the Radio session on my hard drive...this one with Tezuka, Fuji, Kamio, Sengoku and Ryoma's VAs (I don't remember when or from where I downloaded it). I finally listened to it today...( and I babble about it a bit... )