Y Thursday, June 21, 2007
12:02 am
Looks like the June holidays is coming to an end. I'm willing to admit, it hasn't been as productive as I thought it'd have been. Still, my target of mid July doesn't seem too unreasonable yet, guess it just means double time.Honestly, going back to school doesn't seem half bad. Come what may, we're gonna have to take the blasted O levels, so the school's there to help us out. The one and only gripe (which I had since time immemorial) I have is having to wake up at ungodly hours. Take into account that I live relatively near and chartered a private bus service and you can come to the conclusion that there are others who have to use sheer willpower to overcome the sleep in their eyes at even earlier hours.
Would have been a lot better if school began earlier but ended later. Well, this makes lunch in school mandatory, but I don't hear the canteen vendors complaining. (Or a certain teacher, in VS's case.)
It's been awhile since the last post, lots of stuff have happened. For the whole of this week, it's been mostly remedial lessons, and with the exception of the first geography lesson, (which I swear I did not know was scheduled) my attendance was perfect. Really, I didn't mind attending said lessons at all. Unsurprisingly, a healthy portion of the class also showed up for lessons they were not drafted into.
The more interesting event was Chester's sweet 16. Happy Birthday moral failure! (: Though I have to apologize. Darren and I bought the Play! tickets back in April, and we honestly didn't anticipate Chester's birthday being on the same day.
The end result wasn't ideal at all. We were the first to arrive at Chester's place, dumping the consoles (They're heavy) which didn't get used much, but we do it every party anyway. Hanged around for a bit before leaving at around 5ish for the concert. MC and gang JUST arrived.
According to MC, the bulk of the guests graced Chester's place at around 7, during which Darren and I were away at the Esplanade.
Oh, bloody hell, I regret not eating before we left. The Esplanade doesn't have food which takes into account the wallet of your average teenager. Fine, it's THE Esplanade. Call it an oversight or whatever. The meal at ThaiExpress consisted of a $10 bowl of noodles (which didn't even taste good.) and a $5 milkshake. The bill went up to about $40 in total, and Darren had similar stuff.
We met Nicholas there, and boy did he dress weird. He came in a black video game tee, some brown working pants and a formal belt o_O. Shirt tucked in. I TOLD him a shirt and jeans would do just fine. Singaporeans always under dress anyway. At the very least one'll blend in with the crowd.
And so came the much anticipated concert. There was a man in a gigantic Blue Dragon costume, I posed and took a picture with it. Must've been pretty warm inside that suit. Other than that, there were no other attractions outside the theater. Darren and I each snagged a souvenir program for $30, waited for Daryl and Melvin before heading into the theater.
It was really funny. We were greeted with the Super Mario song as it was played in the actual video game. Cute!
I actually regret going in so early. See, we were sitting at the corner of our row, and the people inside had yet to arrive. When they did, Melvin, Nicholas and I had to get up to make space for them to pass.
Soon came the concert proper. We were greeted with a piece specially composed for Play! by Nobuo Uetmatsu-san. For those unfamiliar, he composed nearly all of the Final Fantasy songs. Right from I to X. Final Fantasy would not be what it is today without his talent for composing.
In a video game, there're audio and visual elements. Have you ever tried playing a game without music? Doesn't it sound really weird? Like there's no "kick" somehow? The music of a game does play a big role in defining a player's experience. I won't go into detail, as the only scores I can read are Chinese ones and I don't think I'm qualified to describe the music in detail.
All in all, my favourite suite was the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It wasn't because I preferred the music itself, but more of it was the best suite the Singapore Festival Orchestra played.
I absolutely loved the Super Mario suite. It waas soo damned funny. On screen, you could see the various versions of Super Mario. From the original N64 version to subsequent 3D sequels, make no mistake, it's Super Mario through and through. The song elicited much laughter and nostalgia from the audience, I guess it's because Super Mario's a game we grew up with.
The most disappointing piece was Stormwind from the World of Warcraft suite. When I first heard the piece as I stepped into Stormwind in World of Warcraft, all my goosebumps were raised. In front of me were great statues of the heroes of Azeroth, lining the bridge to the city. A short drum build up followed by cymbals and choir "ahhs". It felt epic, indescribable.
The original piece would then proceed with assorted brass instruments (Sorry, can't identify them.) before having cymbals building up to yet another choral part. The song fades into the background with the BASSISTS humming regularly along with drumbeats.
What we got here in Play! was extremely weak cymbals. Before I proceed, let me declare that I am NOT an MCP.(Male Chauvinist Pig.) Yes, it was a lady manning the cymbals. It lacked the punch. Humanity is dying, heroes of the old have left. Stereotypical dramatic stuff. But dramatic stuff don't get accompanied by feeble cymbals.
Then they replaced the end of the song with sopranos humming away instead. What an insult!
Aside from Stormwind, the rest of the concert was enjoyable. As you can tell, it was one of my favourite pieces, and I had high hopes for it. Darren concurred that the WoW suite was generally disappointing. Maybe we just didn't like their rendition.
Here's the funny. At every Play! concert, one of the composers would make a guest appearance. Here at Singapore, the Asian Premiere, we had the composer of Shenmue I and II (I don't know what that is.) and DAYTONA USA. (LOL.) Yeah, some of you may be wondering "Does that game even have music in it?"
I'm telling you, YES. Listen carefully, in the Advance track, you'll hear "Daytona, let's go away! Daytona....!" The composer was a really funky, sporty man. After the intermission, everyone was rather sedated, as the pieces directly before were unfamiliar and not too catchy. This man.. the moment he stepped on stage, everyone seemed to have been injected with steroids.
He came up, grabbed a mike and shouted "HELLO SINGAPORE! WOOOOOO!" then introduced himself, his work etc. Said composer (Sorry! Forgot his name. Left the program at Chester's place) saunteered to the piano, and played the Daytona tune. Here comes the biggy!
Now, we all know pianos can't replicate the techno sounds you hear in some games. That's where the all-powerful, flexible human voice comes in!
"Toot doo doo doo doot doot! Toot doo doo doo doo doo doot doot! Daytonaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
I swear. He sung out all the techno parts and the lyrics. It was HILARIOUS. That guy's such an awesome sport it's unbelievable! Even the Play! conductor Arnie Roth said "Well, we don't get to see him often, but when we do, yeah, it's wild."
This was followed by (In my opinion) their best suite, the Oblivion suite, a few other unfamiliar ones (Mostly Zelda and Castlevania) before the finale. Now, this would be my second favourite in the concert.
One Winged Angel.
'nuff said. This song's the stuff of legends. Played during the final boss fight against Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII, it's an epic, dramatic and definitely memorable piece.
I especially love the choral parts of this song. Chilling vocals which could rise from repetitive, trance-like murmuring to frenzied crescendos screaming "SEPHIROTH!" are an instant win. In fact, the choir pretty much makes up of half of the song. It gives the song a haunting kind of feel.
Well, we had an encore of some oldschool Shinobi game, then a final encore of One Winged Angel again and that was all for Play! A Videogame Symphony, Asian Premiere.
Final thoughts from the concert are that it had a lot of potential, but the SFO just didn't pull it off. There were numerous parts where the music could have been expressed more, but this could probably be attributed to the possibility that the musicians themselves have not played the games. (What bugged me was that they showed the video of Lordaeron when playing Stormwind.) It was a great effort, and they probably had little time to prepare the songs. (Errors could be heard occasionally.)
It was back to Chester's place. None of the guests really left yet, but they were caught up in doing their own stuff. 4 girls were at the mahjong table. By doing so, they pretty much closed themselves to the rest of the party-goers. Granted, it was late (11-ish) and they might have been a lil tired, but yeah. In a party, aren't you meant to socialize? I wanted to, honest, but they seemed so happy doing what they did it seemed that leaving them alone was for the best.
The other group was... stoning o_O. But two of them were about to be stoned for a much longer time! Drinking games!
It's funny poking fun at intoxicated people. They respond funny. Answers which make absolutely no sense in the slightest, not even the obscurest of links.
"Are you drunk?"
"No la! Face red only. Got reaction.. reaction... very hot la, very hot. I'm very hot, you're very hot, we all very hot!.......... I wanna RAPE someone."
Sure you're not!
"I'm not drunk! Really! *squeals* YOU'RE DRUNK NOT ME! Oh dear... I think I'm really drunk. Oh shit what am I gonna do. I can't let my brother see me like this. NO! HEHEHE. I'M NOT DRUNK..."
We believe you!
"Recite the alphabet backwards."
"Z, Y, W, abcd...wxyz.. X, U, V..."
A sober person would actually stop and think before blurting out a series of letters. Ok, but I gotta admit, the girl was pretty cute in her tipsy state. The guy was hilarious. XD
After awhile, mostly everyone left, the few that stayed behind did so for the mahjong, I did because.. well it was late and I was lazy to get back. Besides, I already brought said stuff for sleepover.
Played a bit of the consoles then hit the sack. 5 agonizing hours of half-sleep later, it was time for breakfast. Pity I had gastric and couldn't really enjoy the beef kuay teow.
Before I knew it, I was whisked back home by my mum, went out with the family (Father's Day.) and that was Sunday.