Unfortunately, we missed what must have been a wonderful demonstration in Scotland. It was probably March or April when we were in Edinburg, but they still had this poster up. Not to mention a giant peace sign of dead, brown grass marked on the front lawn of some important building. Who knew you could make a statement with spray-on grass killer?
We did, however, happen to arrive in Barcelona on the night of the international anit-war demonstrations - February 15, 2003. Remember? They had one in DC, Rome, London, every major city across the globe, it seemed. Everyone knew Bush was taking the US to war in Iraq, and no one but the British government thought it made any sense.
I have no idea how many people were on the streets that night because it was just an undulating mass as far as you could see in any direction, and every mouth was singing. We couldn't speak the language (Catalan), but we proudly wore our stickers proclaiming "PAU" (peace), and everyone understood. It was pretty incredible, to say the least, and I still feel exhilarated when I think that I was a part of it.
Also in Spain:
In Italy, you couldn't look up in any direction without seeing PACE flags (pronounced pah-chay, meaning "peace"). They hung from apartment windows, balconies, doorways, draped across backseats in cars and over bicycles... people even wore them wrapped around backpacks and coats. The trend spilled over into neighboring countries, and thousands of the bright flags made it across the puddle to the states... like this one I picked up in Milan:
* Well, that's The End of my Travels Abroad Travelogue because the rest and the best of my pictures were taken with my Minolta. If you want to see those or hear about the other crazy places we visited back in 2003, I suppose you'll have to hunt me down... on second thought, don't. I don't need stalkers. Stay tuned, maybe I'll share a Travels Domestica series. 
The Me'Shell album that I have is Peace Beyond Passion. At first, I was a little put off by her song structures, but it grew on me, and I came to appreciate it as the work of her well-honed personal style, and inspired me to seek my own voice musically.
I'd like to check out the albums that you mentioned, thanks for your detailed takes on them!
I believe that many people can find in them a means for creative expression, but every person is different and has to go through their own process to uncover and hone their creative virtues. I myself can't draw worth crap. In high school, my friends were forming a nirvana cover band and I was relegated to the bass. I was bummed, but when I picked up that sucker, it was love at first pluck.
"well, you don't have to sign up for it if you don't want to."
I heard this and my head totally asploded.