Today is Remembrance Day in Canada. It is the day where we take time to remember the service men and women who fought in Canada’s military to protect the peace and freedoms that we hold dear. I’ve always felt reasonably impacted by Remembrance Day. Maybe it was because my grandpa fought in World War 2, or that my Afi (Icelandic grandfather) was supposed to, but … Continue reading Revisiting the Ghosts
Wow, October already, eh? What a wild start up. For teachers and/or students reading this, I hope it’s been grand and the machine is running full steam ahead! We had a wonderful PD session on Friday. Actually, “wonderful” doesn’t quite cut it – it was earth-shattering. I barely slept all weekend because I couldn’t keep my mind out of it. The speaker’s name is Debbie … Continue reading Music Ed Monday – The Rollerskating Girl
“Forever Rachel” from Final Fantasy VI, by Nobuo Uematsu Transcribed for live instruments by Eiko Ishiwata. I’ve really been trying to limit my posting of Final Fantasy music since starting this blog. Even though I have so much history with the franchise and I know this music better than any other VGM game or series, there is so much great game music out there and … Continue reading VGM Wednesday – “Forever Rachel” Transcription for Live Instruments
This past month, something that I always felt inside was confirmed: The world is craving emotional classical music about our place in the natural universe. We Are Stars is getting published, Filum Vitae is in submission (but has generally been well-received) and, perhaps most surprisingly, Cosmos has been shared by prominent astronomers, is being featured by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Vancouver) and has … Continue reading Its song, so sweet, compels me…
24 days ago, I uploaded the “Cosmos” choral suite to Soundcloud, hoping that people would listen to it and feel a resonance between the music and themselves. The response has been more than I ever could have imagined. Today, the suite hit 10,000 views 🙂 Thank you. Thank you for giving it a shot. Thank you for writing about it, if you did. Thank you … Continue reading 10,000
“Com64” from Superbrothers: word & Sworcery EP, by Jim Guthrie and released in 2011. This past week, I was recording the Episode 6 of the IRL Podcast with Francesca and Kyle. This particular episode was about the Humble Indie Bundle V, which I talked about last week. They also wanted to talk about the music, so they asked me to come on (from previous Into the Score experience, and … Continue reading VGM Wednesday (Friday) – “Com64” from “Sword & Sworcery”
“A Proper Story” from Bastion, by Darren Korb and released in 2011. So, the Humble Indie Bundle 5 was released just a few weeks past and it included this highly-praised game called Bastion. I’d heard of it, but never played it. It wasn’t until Francesca over at the IRL Podcast sent me a note and told me that Episode 6 is going to be on the … Continue reading VGM Wednesday – “A Proper Story” from Bastion
“Battle with the Masked Man” from Mother 3, by Shogo Sakai and released in 2006. I had a great chat with my friend Joey, at a social* this past Saturday, about this very sequence in Mother 3 for GameBoy Advance. (there appears to be too many commas in that sentence, but if I wrote “I had a great chat with my friend Joey about this event … Continue reading VGM Wednesday – “Battle with the Masked Man” from Mother 3
But the most important lesson to be learned about calling parents at home to praise the achievements of their children is that those calls are actually more effective. The student comes into class the next day with a lighter step, a brighter smile, and usually more of the same wonderfulness that prompted me to call home the night before. – Taylor Mali “What Teachers Make” … Continue reading Music Ed Monday – Good News Calls
“Ending Theme” from Final Fantasy VI, by Nobuo Uematsu and released in 1994. I know that I’ve posted this before, but this version is different and it celebrates the completion of a project that I’ve been working on for quuuuuuuuite some time. But first the music… I’ve heard just about every FF6 live performance/arrangement/orchestration on the web and I was SO happy to finally find this. … Continue reading VGM Wednesday – Ending Theme (Orchestrated) from Final Fantasy VI
