Friday Night Escapade

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I just got back from Dominican University, and let me just say this: Broken Bride was a BLAST!

It was by no stretch of the imagination the best play I've ever seen. The singing was "meh" at best, due to frequent mistakes made by both the director and the actors, and many of the roles were cast poorly (i.e. having a female play "The Boy," assembling a group of primarily tone-deaf singers, etc.) And, while I recognize and appreciate the traditional, minimalist approach to scenery and props, I think the rock opera called for somewhat more than what the stage delivered.

But that's not what I want to focus on. Regardless of any technical errors, the play was not only enjoyable, but actually a really fun time! The zombies marching through the aisles, the dragon wheeling in from stage right, The Traveler spinning wildly in his time machine, even the spotlight pterodactyls made me smile! And I was also impressed by the Mayor's performance, albeit short, especially the part where he killed himself. The use of moveable, stackable cubes as scenery was also a good idea given the various fantastic locations of the play.

All in all, it was a great experience for myself and all the other Ludo fans who attended. It was really heartwarming to see that these people created something not for money or profit of any kind, but for the sheer love of creation and the desire to share that creation with others. Everyone in the audience loved hearing the zombies sing, and you could hear a pin drop when The Traveler was singing "Morning in May": the fans enjoyed every minute of the performance, and all of us had a really fantastic time... for no cost. We didn't have to pay to get in, it was the performers' treat to us! It was so nice to walk in, sit down, and feel like I'm watching something that someone else made because they really, really wanted to do it, not because they wanted to take my money and get on with the show.

Well, that and, "BROKEN BRIDE BROKEN BRIDE BROKEN BRIIIIIDE!!"

Everyone has their own vision of what Broken Bride is supposed to be... like whether "Save Our City" is a part of the plot or just an extra song added to the album, or what The Traveler and his wife are supposed to look like. I think when you get down to a really emotional level, those sort of things become very personal. I guess what made Broken Bride special was that, no matter who you are or where you're from, Ludo is giving you the story and the music, but the rest is up to the individual, and a lot of the appeal of this play is giving life to that aspect of Broken Bride.

Of course, giving life to the dragon was somewhat difficult, but I had a good laugh, so when all's said and done I had a fabulous evening! This is the perfect warm-up for the Chicago leg of the Broken Bride tour, coming to town on October 23rd! (Everyone got your tickets?)

I'd really like to personally thank the directors, Katie Moss and Ian Watts, for putting together such a great performance, and Anthony Patryn, for playing the best damn Traveler we'll ever see! I love what you did with the hair, by the way; channeling Andrew Volpe, I assume? (Of course, they're never going to read this... actually, I really only think 4 or 5 people will ever see this, and only one of them is a Ludo fan.) Anyway, great job!!

I Wish They Were All This Awesome...

BLUE ROGUES, ATTACK!!

Okay everyone, we're going to be doing things a little differently today.

So I made another Facebook quiz... based on my favorite turn-based fantasy RPG of all time: Skies of Arcadia!

The link to the quiz (as well as several other popular SoA themed quizzes I've made) can be found below.

What Moon Were You Born Under?
Which Admiral of the Valuan Armada Are You?
What Skies of Arcadia Character Are You?

I hope you enjoy them all, because I've spent a lot of time on each of them. The fans seem to like my quizzes, so I may just keep making them.

Anyway, as you are no doubt aware, I'm playing through SoA: Legends again... you know, the Skies of Arcadia remake for the Gamecube? (If you'd clicked the dancing link, you'd know by now that the original game was made for the Sega Dreamcast, and it wasn't until later that the remake, SoAL came out for the Gamecube). It's still just as phenomenal as the first time!

Alright, so the graphics are dated. They were dated when they came out on the Gamecube, too... they didn't do much to improve it there. But this is one of those games where it wins so hard that you don't notice. The music (although low sound quality in places) is beautifully arranged, simply moving at times. The story is pure awesomeness, the characters unforgettable. And the battle systems... that's right, TWO (monster fights and pirate ship fights)... keep the random battles from becoming too sluggish and repetitive. It is still a turn-based RPG, after all, but for a game of that genre it's surprisingly exciting and fresh, even by today's standards.

My favorite aspect of the game, however, is the in-game world. It's big... real big. Lots of room to explore and, the best part is, lots of stuff to do. Not only are there optional bounty encounters and side quests galore, but there is a "Discovery" system that I've fallen in love with all over again. Scattered across the map are hidden goodies... when you happen to come across one, your compass begins to spin wildly, and a quick press of the A button reveals what you've discovered. Of course you are rewarded for your finds, but there are just so many discoveries out there on this massive map, you've got hours of entertainment right there! I've always adored games that gave you this great big world with a big, fascinating history behind it, and just turned you loose to explore. Granted, some areas are off limits until you progress further in the story, but that keeps it balanced so that the player has some sort of guideline... otherwise, you'd easily get lost in the fantastic realm of Arcadia.

I'm striving for 100% completion, but I fear that may still be too much for me. 60 hours into a game that took me 100 hours to beat the first time through, and I've already found so many Discoveries and items and even characters that I'd never met before, and I still have so much more to go! My only regret is that there aren't more RPG's out there like this... it is as though SoA has ruined me for all the other nice young games on the market.

Nevertheless, I wait in joyful hope. Perhaps a sequel, Sega? It isn't like you don't have material... you left it wide open. Perhaps a second generation, with Marco as the lead character? Or even a prequel delving into the dark past of Ramirez and the rise of Admiral Galcian? You could even go as far back as the Old Ages... how did those Purple Civilization guys just disappear? And who called down the Rains of Destruction? I'm sure there's a fascinating story behind all that, as well.

Oh geez, sorry guys, I went on a great big rant.

Just stop me next time, okay?

The Interconnectedness of All Things

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So tonight was interesting in more ways than one.

For starters, I was jamming with the Music Workshop gang (Dimitri on keyboard, no Max or Ron however, which made "Josie" kind of difficult) and was introduced to our vocalist, James. However, James didn't sing: he was a rapper. We play mostly jazz, latin, swing, some funk, things like that, so I wasn't sure how having a rapper added into the mix was going to work. I could tell that some of the other members were a bit hesitant as well.

We were all pleasantly surprised when things worked out phenomenally well. The spoken lyrics were not only in time with the rest of the music, but a fresh new approach to songs we'd been familiar with for ages. Of course some were more difficult to work around than others, but for the most part the music and lyrics integrated splendidly to create a more contemporary, modern sound.

This fascinated me: as I played my sax, I started to realize what a contradiction this really was. Jazz and rap are supposed to be near polar opposites on the musical spectrum. But here they fit perfectly. I saw then firsthand the interconnectedness of all musical genres, that all music derives from the same basic roots, and that no matter how far apart you think two points are, there is always a degree of sameness.

This same principle of interconnectedness can extend to people, as well. All people, no matter their background or skin color, are derived from the same basic roots: the same basic DNA patterns and organ tissue formations, the same needs for survival and primal desires. There isn't that much difference between us... it's the difference between jazz and rap.

It's all music, baby.

(In an unrelated side note, we blew the hell out of "Beautiful Love," easily 100 beats faster than it's normally played. As usual, Hunter's solo was poetry in motion, but Matt and I were fighting just to keep up! Now, I'm really tired.)

Broken Bride

BROKEN BRIDE!!

Alright, so this is really exciting!

Ludo's emotionally charged, epic rock-opera, "Broken Bride," has been adapted into a musical by the brilliant men and women at the Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois! If you haven't clicked the dancing link above you, the production will be taking place from August 27-29 and 8PM, and admission is FREE! You heard me: FREE!

This is a super special awesome event for Ludo fans (what with the Broken Bride tour close at hand... everybody got your tickets?) and lord knows when we'll get this kind of opportunity again. So, I encourage you, if some act of divine providence has led you to my humble blog, you are a rabid Ludo fan, and you live in the Chicago area, I implore you to come see the show!

I will be attending on Friday the 28th, and I hope to see you there!

Alright, now, in actual blog-related news, after much fucking around with what little knowledge of HTML, CSS, and Javascript that I've collected over the years, I've fashioned a primitive Random Word Generator on top of the posts (in a snazzy highlighter-yellow border, no less!) and I hope that it provides you with as many hours of entertainment as it did for me.

Also, please take a moment to admire the deviantART widget I added in the sidebar, as well as my beautiful artwork. Input is appreciated: if you feel that all these add-ons are simply too much and that they've bastardized the blogging experience for you, speak up in the comment box! However, I do so enjoy self-promotion, so until I get a significant number of complaints, the widgets stay!

EDIT: I find that, instead of drawing attention and enticing viewers, links that travel from one side of the page to the other are somewhat of an eyesore and are more often than not ignored altogether. Life is just easier when you don't have to deal with such aggravating links. To counteract this, I've programmed the link atop this post to not only crawl across the entry, but also blink. The result, however, gives me a headache. I'm going to leave the offending material up, but I believe this will be the last time I utilize this function.

What Do You Think?

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I really love the new look! The blog was just missing something... a certain flair before. It was the sidebar, it just looked so ugly. Much better now! As you're no doubt aware, I'm going for a minimalist, somewhat saturated tone. I think it suits me well. Anything else would just look gaudy and over-the-top in my opinion.

I guess, if you think about it, blogs are all about opinions. What else is a blog besides a virtual diary, where people write about what they're thinking and what's going on in their lives? The same goes for Twitter and Facebook. I guess it's interesting to think that I'm putting my thoughts and feelings out there, and someone else is reading them. It's an ego trip, really, an act of vanity and selfishness; still, I think it's fun. I'm taking up someone else's server space, and I love it!

Well, no matter. I don't have any followers, and it isn't like anyone is actually reading this.

I'm talking to myself out here!

Oh well. Thinking about starting the vlog. At least then this blog will have a purpose beyond sucking up a fraction of my spare time.

Ah well.

EDIT: The new color sucked. Changing it back to "pastel green." And props to Jon for helping with the HTML! I can change font colors and do the "marquee" thing, but spreadsheets blow my mind!

I Think I'm Alone Now

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Just a special note, the link I have hovering above the post is different every time, so go ahead and click it.

So, this is it. My two best friends left for college a couple days ago. They're getting settled in to their respective, way-too-far-away-from-me locations. So now I'm alone: 16 days until I get to leave. School has started again for the little ones, so the high school juniors and seniors I had hung with before will not be available again until the weekend. And I'm stuck here. With nothing to do but work. Damn.

Well, now I know how life would feel if I simply wasn't going to college. It's awful, I really have to admit. Well, back to the spice mines for me. When I said I have nothing to do here but work, that's code for my father is PUTTING ME to work.

Two Posts in One Day

Okay! Steps have been taken in an attempt to beautify this skin-and-bones blog. In its current sorry state, I seriously doubt anyone would listen to what I have to say (which, admittedly, isn't much, so the visual presentation becomes all the more pertinent).

I'm sure there's something important I'm supposed to be doing right now... but this is important to me. Well, at the moment. Hopefully it will retain its significance, but I can't help but wonder if I'm going to wake up tomorrow thinking, "that blog was a ridiculous idea, I should just delete it right now."

Probably not.

Mm... yeah, probably not.

उम... हेल्लो?

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Alright... first day with my fancy new blog. I don't know what I'm going to use this for just yet. I'm kind of making it on a whim... I'll figure it out as I go, I guess. All this code crap makes little to no sense to me... I can change the color of my text, that's an accomplishment I guess. What do normal bloggers blog about? Hm... as if I care.

Anyway, we'll just need to see what we can do with this. It's probably just going to turn into my idea dump. It would be... smarter... for me to make a vlog. At least then I can tie it in with my YouTube account... hm... idea... fufufufufu...