Early morning post.

It was a wonderful weekend. Separate post coming on the concert on Saturday - all I'll say in this post is that this concert was like finding out your OTP is canon - very squee-worthy. More to come on that. What follows is the general-purpose link-filled extravaganza.

A few Memorial-Day appropriate articles - the first is an opinion about the right to burn your country's flag in protest, the second comes in a set, about how much Iraq is a dangerous place, where people get shot for wearing shorts. Tennis players, no less. Where the insurgents aren't killing needlessly, now it's confirmed, the military may be. So, where are all the outraged people?

Also, Congress seems to have gotten on their horses pretty quickly after one of their own has his office raided. Tell me what you think about this person's perspective on a potential Congressional double-standard: they'll move to protect their own, but not so much to protect the populace at large.

Visiting Chicago, when I do it, I should pack a bar of map soap to make sure that I can get around... well, or plan my route out in the confines of the shower.

I feel like I've posted this story before, but if so, it's probably worth repeating - suicidal feelings at university? You're in violation of the student behavior code, says George Washington University. Apparently, if the rigours of college make you feel unwell every now and then, then you need to leave rather than risk the college being liable for your reaction to your illness.

Although, if all of this is just noise to you, you can probably do a little DIY soundproofing and make it so that all I'm doing is moving my mouth, with no sound coming out.

Concert report in the morning, as it's too early to do that one justice in this state. Also, very humid, so sleep will be interesting tonight.

The Play! Concert Write-up

Okay, this is the concert post. Play! was soooooooo awesome. The one sentence sum-up is thus: This concert was akin to a fangirl finding out her OTP became canon. I squee'd mightily. And many many times did I squee. The seats allowed me to pass within maybe fifteen feet of all the composers that were in attendance. I was not only in the same theater as Nobuo Uematsu, I could see what he was wearing. Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

(I picked up the More Friends CD from there, which was an import copy, but I probably got it cheaper than it would have cost to import. So that's good. Also picked up Keritae from Yasunori Mitsuda, which I also like.)

After the fanfare (which wasn't that impressive), we got down to the good stuff. Liberi Fatali opened again, and I'm beginning to think this symphonic arrangement is off somehow, as I've heard it in three different venues now, and none of them sounded like the one from the game, which was fantastic. Perhaps there was some help on that recording. Still, might just be a bad arrangement.

Then, Koji Kondo played a sampling from the new Super Mario Brothers for DS, and there was the Mario Brothers suite, which was great. The order of this is a little hazy - when I go back in July, I'll get it right, and probabyl post then, too. So in the first half, there was Shenmune, Battlefield 1942 (which had a special percussionist who did quite well, although he was getting away from the orchestra), World of Warcraft, Metal Gear Solid, and Kingdom Hearts closed out the first half. Properly stoked, we refreshed ourselves and went on to round two.

Morrowind, Silent Hill with a special appearance from the composer to do the lead electric Guitar, Swing de Chocobo, Halo, and then the Chrono Suite. (Again, don't remember the order. Will have to get a book from the Detroit trip)

The Chrono Suite was fantastic. Starting with a piano tune (Home World Marbule, I think, although I don't really remember), we then went into the major march of Chrono Trigger (Chrono Trigger is the name of the track), which then faded nicely into Scar of Time. A transition that was made to happen... did I ever squee and wave my hands in time to the music. Then there was Frog's theme and a little more from Chrono Cross, and it was over. This track is one of the reasons I really hope there's a CD release of this, and one that actually comes over to the US, please?

After Chrono, there was Sonic, then Zelda, and then the finale, One Winged Angel - done well. There was, of course, the requisite encore, whcih the crowd wanted, the maestro was willing to give, but the orchestra missed the memo on - so after a misstep, they did One-Winged Angel again. And it was still good.

We basked in it from start to finish, and when it comes to Detroit, I'm definitely going to see it again. I can't just have one on this one. Once again, super-squee!