From the archives: Adventures

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Out with a Bangkok

Friday, 21 December 2007 — 6:59am | Adventures

This is my final transmission of the calendar year, as I will be spending the rest of it in Thailand for the World Universities Debating Championship at Assumption University. I visited the country four years ago under related circumstances and got a hearty taste of the Bangkok-and-area tourist experience in all its kickboxing, tuk-tuk-riding, Buddha-sighting, Patpong-prowling, elephant-riding, snake-farming, Chris-Samuel-losing, international-heritage-preservation-treaty-violating glory, but this year’s excursion promises a broader sweep of the country.

Now, if you have been paying attention to world news over the past fifteen-odd months, you probably know that Thailand is currently ruled by a military junta that seized power in a bloodless coup endorsed by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej himself, whose patriotic musical compositions the army played on the airwaves as they shut down lines of communication. (The King, you see, is a revered clarinetist, saxophonist and big band composer who once shared a stage with Benny Goodman.) It just so turns out that the military, having drafted a fresh constitution, is relinquishing power on 23 December, the scheduled date of a general election. And I’m going to be there.

I’ve never been in a country in the midst of a transition out of martial law before, and I have to sheepishly admit that I’ll be disappointed if nothing noteworthy happens, and tourists can just go on with their exploits without noticing a thing. In theory, it should have some of the uncertainty and excitement of being in a foreign country as it moves into a state of martial law, but none of the risks and logistical hassles. Naturally, we should keep in mind that the legitimacy of the election is already suspect, but the people of Thailand are no strangers to seeing their votes invalidated.

I’ll naturally be carrying pen and paper at all times, so if there is anything interesting to report beyond the bird’s-eye-view of the media, it will eventually make its way here. Happy Christmas, and may your holidays be adventurous.

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Innocuous Hylian wedding music

Sunday, 3 July 2005 — 10:48pm | Adventures, Game music, Music, Pianism, Video games

It’s usually dangerous to claim an immeasurable first unless the activity in question involved the creation of something wacky and original derived from your own warped consciousness, often something that nobody would dare touch. The world is sufficiently large so as to render true originality almost unachievable – or if achieved, unverifiable. The flipside of this is that one could also stumble upon an unanticipated conjectural finish line, be the first to do so, and not know it. Either way, I will make no claim to having done anything special of late. Speciality kneels to probability.

That said, I would find it unlikely that very many others have underscored a formal Catholic wedding with music from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for Super Nintendo.

The signing of the registry is unpredictable when it comes to timing, you see. So not only do you need something sweet, romantic and unintrusive – it needs to be extensible, yet easy to conclude on cue. For the latter requirements, turning to classic video games should be the obvious solution, though not one that a lot of mercenary musicians will spot. And to be fair, there aren’t a lot of old Nintendo anthems that make good tearjerkers.

An ounce apiece of “Kakariko Town” and “Zelda’s Lullaby” turned out to be the perfect melodic cocktail for the occasion. The music was very well received, and the source went by unnoticed and strolled off on its innocent little way. It keeps things in perspective that the standards of the game music in-the-know that everyone recognizes and everyone plays – the Kakariko theme, for one, or “Terra”, or “Corridors of Time” – are pretty enough in their own right that they don’t connote frantic button-pushing to the casual observer, unlike, say, anything from Super Mario Bros.

The whole kerfuffle validates one and only one hypothesis: a Koji Kondo melody is a beautiful thing. In a way, I think he will go down as the great lost composer of the late twentieth century, someone who took finite sequences of beeps and whistles in infinite repetition and found art, and receded into the shadows of his accomplishments. Nobuo Uematsu’s already getting his due with the legitimation of game music; the American synchronized swimming team performed to music from Final Fantasy VIII. Zelda aside, though, Kondo and his associates haven’t done a whole lot that translates directly to the realm of the symphonic. For someone who’s written themes that everybody knows, he remains comparably obscure.

Oh, and the honorarium was generous.

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