I just ran across this old track of theirs while digging around in my library for something else, and it occurred to me that, since her discovery of antique punk rock in the 2330s, Azula has probably listened to it - and indeed, the entire album it comes from - quite often.

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There's a watch in my pocket and its hands are broken
The face is blank but the gears are turning
Confusion is a fundamental state of mind
It doesn't really matter what I'm figuring out
I'm guaranteed to wind up in a state of doubt and
Sanity is a full-time job
In a world that is always changing
And sanity is a state of mind that you believe in, sanity

There's a shadow on the wall where the paint is peeling
My body's moving forward but my mind is reeling
Depression is a fundamental state of being
It doesn't really matter how my day has turned out
I always end up living in this world of doubt and
Sanity is a full-time job
In a world that is always changing
And sanity will make you strong if you believe in sanity

And sanity is a full-time job
In a world that is always changing
And sanity is a state of mind that you believe in, sanity

- Bad Religion
"Sanity"
No Control (1989)

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Other tracks on No Control likely to resonate with our heroine are... many, but the standouts include:

"Change of Ideas"

So many theories, so many prophecies
What we do need is a change of ideas
When we are scared we can hide in our reveries
But what we need is a change of ideas

"The World Won't Stop"

Enormous things to do, others' practices to eschew
To be better than you is impossible to do
But the world won't stop without you
No the world won't stop without you

and of course the title track.

There's no vestige of beginning, no prospect of an end
When we all disintegrate it'll all happen again, yeah
If you came to conquer you'll be king for a day
But you too will deteriorate and quickly fade away
And believe these words you hear when you think your path is clear:
We have no control

(There's a song on another album, Against the Grain, called "Entropy", which includes what may well be the finest science nerd lyric ever included in a punk rock song, "Don't speak to me of anarchy or peace or calm revolt, man / You're in a play of slow decay orchestrated by Boltzmann.")

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.