The Last Candle

So. Jocelyn, Paul, and myself saw the Saturday showing of Dear Friends at the Detroit Orchestra Hall. A quick review:

This is, of course, the best party you can have in Final Fantasy 6. (The discerning Final Fantasy-er will note that the characters are even aligned in accordance to Row protection.) This formation assumes that Edgar has the chainsaw and Terra and Celes have their black and white magic libraries heavily supplemented, natch. <p/> Dear Friends is kind of like the aforementioned party formation in a wacky, nerd-gamer kind of way — which is say, erm, something fairly inexplicable, so I’ll just turn the whole thing around and say that the concert was absolutely phenomenal. TRUTH. <p/> The original orchestral arrangements such as Liberi Fatali and One-Winged Angel were ever more spectacular with the 70-piece orchestra and 30-piece choir, and the more game-oriented themes were given terrific arrangements to draw them beyond the comparitively repetitive and bleepy-boop sound of the game originals. <p/> Jocelyn wrote about a similar impression of the concert, as well as supplying one of the tunes! Great find; the one problem with the concert series is that they haven’t released an album of the music. This is enough to make me want to kill a man. Hopefully Squeenix will announce something soon — and my bone saw will continue to be clean.

For the curious, the concert’s playlist:

• Liberi Fatali [with the Stoney Creek High School Chamber Singers, who were terrific]
• To Zanarkand
• Terra’s Theme
• Theme of Love
• Dear Friends
• Vamo’alla Flamenco
• Love Grows
• INTERMISSION! Consumed at the bar: one shot of Grey Goose vodka (to say that I did, naturally), and a Heineken
• Aeris’ Theme
• You’re Not Alone
• Ronfaure
• Final Fantasy I-III Medley [which includes the classic Chocobo theme! hooray!]
• Cloud Smiles [from Final Fantasy: Advent Children]
• Final Fantasy [aka the Prologue theme]
• First Encore: One-Winged Angel
• Second Encore: One-Winged Angel [yep]

While there was not a lackluster song in the bunch — Liberi Fatali had all the grandeur and sweep of the game’s original orchestra times about a billion for being live; Zanarkand still had the gorgeous piano plus 20 violins behind it; the melody of Terra’s Theme was very thankfully given to the woodwinds, but swept through all the sections; and the Prologue theme was as adventurous and soaring as I’ve ever heard it — the big winner in my mind for the night was You’re Not Alone, a relatively unheard-of song from the easily forgettable Final Fantasy 9. The original is not bad in the least, but the orchestral live arrangement took the simple but memorable melody and spread it among all the sections, bouncing it from violins to oboe to as a soaring trumpet solo. An amazing arrangement to a song that deserved it. <p/> Also surprising was the dual encore of One-Winged Angel. I mean, I knew Final Fantasy 7 was popular, but enough to get One-Winged Angel out there twice with people cheering whenever Sephiroth showed his mug on the LCD screens above the stage? Nutty. Not that I’m complaining about the double-dosage of One-Winged Angel; in all honesty, it was the most epic and powerful piece of the show, and a hell of a way to end the night. <p/> So, in conclusion: if another boring Saturday night was, say, Ultros, and Dear Friends was the party of Celes — er, wait, is this the Opera House? — um, Edgar, Sabin, and er, whoever…Cyan, yes. Yes. Ultros would be DEAD, and on the first time you meet him, too. Game logic aside and all that. <p/> I’d also like to mention that this is a very poor time to go missing my FF7 discs and for all the nearby stores to not have Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls in stock. Maybe I’m feeling sassy enough to play a little FF8, though…

A Clash of Kings it is!

Wow:

During a routine patrol in Baghdad June 2, Army Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer, a medic, was shot in the chest by an enemy sniper, hiding in a van just 75 yards away. The incident was filmed by the insurgents. <p/> […] After tracking down the now-wounded sniper with a team from B Company, 4th Battalion, 1st Iraqi Army Brigade, Tschiderer secured the terrorist with a pair of handcuffs and gave medical aid to the terrorist who�d tried to kill him just minutes before.

He could have easily and legally just shot his could-have-been killer. Instead, he saves his enemy’s life. Is that the smartest thing to do? Probably not, but the mercy and moral composition in this event considering precedence set by the insurgents, the immediate enemy, and the situation blows my mind. <p/> On the other side of the scope, The Army Times link has the video filmed by the insurgents that makes my blood boil as the insurgents chant the name of Allah as they shoot Tschiderer. I wonder if the sniper was calling out “Allah Akbar” when he was given medical treatment? <p/> Probably not.

It’s a strange thing to wake up in the morning — the real wake up, where you realize the return to sleeping quarters after a tough night of melting bricks, tying dogs to clouds, and flying around the Scottish countryside during a meteor shower — and have the first thought in the groggy mind be: “We now live in a world where there are six Harry Potter books.” Thank you, Mr. Hype. <p/> That’s right up there with the time I woke up thinking about the pig and his liking towards fancy napkins. Argh. <p/> I’m planning to drop into Ann Arbor to pick up the copy of Half-Blood Prince Mother Dearest reserved a week ago, but I haven’t decided if I’m going to read the durn thing. The problem: I’ve started George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. After listening for years to everyone saying how excellent the books are, surprise: they’re fantastic. Book one was finished up last night to at least give me the option of giving today for a Half-Blood Prince beginning, but after the incredible detail, character scope, pace, and deep politicking from A Game of Thrones, Harry Potter just seems so, well, juvenile. <p/> Of course, the Potter books are more juvenile for several reasons (including being purposefully written for a younger audience, and Martin going in the completely opposite direction), but that doesn’t remove the fact that the books are just so easy and so damn fun to read. Order of the Phoenix is 900 pages, you say? No sweat: give me three or four days. Piece of cake — every bite enjoyable. <p/> Or maybe I’ll spurn both series and go back and read Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by good ole’ Tad Williams. The books have less maturity in characters and relations than Ice and Fire, but Williams’ books are much more replete with great adventurin’. <p/> And so, now is the time: To Ann Arbor, and then the big decision: What will I read? Gods, what will I read?!?

Massive post of London bombing news, blogosphere reactions,<br/>and many, many other tidbits over at Project Nothing. <p/> Also: truth. <p/> Update: As always, Instapundit has a thousand and one links of his own.