mybluedream

Escaflowne – Sora

shigi — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:17:15 +0000

I’m not sure why, but I’ve been on a singing kick lately. I think that singing helps me to relieve stress. I hope you’ll enjoy my cover of “Sora” from the anime Escaflowne. The song is composed by Yoko Kanno, who is an incredibly talented composer. I love her musical style; it’s very mysterious and has so many influences from around the world.

Kiki’s Delivery Service music and cosplay

shigi — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 01:52:50 +0000

When I first watched Kiki’s Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便), I remember relating a lot to Kiki’s character. She was very optimistic and excited about trying out new things; very determined. But her ability to perform her special gift suffered as a result of self-doubt. I loved how she took a break from flying to hang out with her artist friend/older sister figure. She learned a lot about herself during that time, and later on was able to rediscover her gift when it was most needed. I know it sounds strange, but sometimes when I experience anxiety, self-doubt, or lack of motivation I try to think about this movie. It helps me look at the bigger picture.

Anyways, today I bring you a collaboration video that I did with my friend lonlonjp. He is a talented classical guitarist who posts video game music covers on youtube, and he is providing the lovely guitar you hear in this video. And since Metroid always manages to walk into my videos (and since he is a black cat), he gave me the idea to do a bit of cosplay. He makes a pretty good Jiji, don’t you think? Hope you enjoy!

Merry Christmas メリークリスマス♪

shigi — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:43:16 +0000

I sang this song to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful holiday season ^_^

Aero Art Contest Winners

shigi — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:58:18 +0000

Although I’m sure most of you have already seen this, I wanted to post the video announcing the winners of the Aero Art Contest here just in case…

Congratulations to those who won, and thank-you to everyone who entered! You are all so talented and creative, and I’m honored that you chose to participate. It was tons of fun getting to see Aero in so many different works of art; you’ve all inspired me to hold more contests and events in the future! In case you’d like to check out all of the entries, you can find them on this site (courtesy of Reives).

One more video for this week… Per request, here is the music from Zone J in the Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers game for the NES.

Okay now that the videos have been posted… I’m still recovering from this past weekend! We flew up to Seattle for the PopCap Christmas party, and spent some time hanging out with friends from the office. The night before the party, we grabbed drinks at Two Bells with Rich and Gene before going into the office to play King of Tokyo and 3 very funny and memorable rounds of mafia (thanks Tod for griefing everyone, Lindsey for the hilarious story about skiing over the river, Rich for cracking up during the first night, Matt for being a trooper about Tod tricking everyone into killing the sheriff, and George for his King of Tokyo rampage).

The next day we had a team lunch, hung out at the office for a bit, and then head over to the disco themed party. There were disco zombies on stilts walking around, disco balls, live music, dancing, photobooths, food and drinks, and games. But my favorite part of the night was sneaking a bunch of poker chips with Theresa and Halle from the guy running the roulette table, and then running to the dance floor and throwing them into the air shouting “we woooooooooooon!!”

After the party wasn’t as cool… because, well, I was violently ill all night from what I can only imagine must have been food poisoning. We almost missed our flight the next day because I couldn’t stop throwing up, it was that bad. George went out in the middle of the night to find some medicine, and we stayed up basically the entire time watching Cartoon Network in between bouts of running to the bathroom. I know it sounds strange, but I feel oddly rejuvenated from the whole ordeal. Perhaps it’s the contrast, but going from not being able to even drink water without having to throw up, to feeling completely normal again makes me feel so strong! Haha… Anyways, I hope I can get a lot done this week. Thanks for reading my random ramblings. Oh, and Dylan if you’re reading this: Thanks to your family for having us over — we had a great time with you all (and Dan and Zita) yesterday… Even though our island cracked in half!!!

Why I love video game music

shigi — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:31:32 +0000

I’ve been experimenting with a new video setup in order to try and improve the audio quality of my piano videos. I really wanted Hard Man’s theme from Mega Man 3 to sound good because it’s very special to me… it was the first piece of video game music I had ever learned when I was a kid, and it launched me in the direction of loving video game music and eventually pursuing it as a career. So… here is my piano improvisation of Hard Man’s theme from Mega Man 3:

I also suggest listening to the original NES version… the middle part is especially great and really matches the fast-paced feel of his stage. Lastly, here is a vlog that I made explaining why I love video game music (sorry for the weird thumbnail… youtube always seems to catch me in the weirdest poses, or when I’m half-blinking):

Zelda 25th Anniversary Indie Game Composer Tribute Album

shigi — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:30:52 +0000

This post is for all the Zelda and video game music fans out there! A while back, my friend Roger decided to organize a tribute album for Zelda’s 25th Anniversary. He pulled together a bunch of indie game composers from around the world who all share a love for Zelda and Koji Kondo’s beautiful music, and we each contributed a track that was inspired by music from the series. The finished album is now online at zelda25.ocremix.org, and it’s completely FREE to download, so we’d love for you to check it out ^_^

And for those who are interested, this is my contribution (a track inspired by the “Forest Theme” from Link to the Past). It’s called “Fushigina Forest” (which means mysterious forest):

Cube Land

shigi — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:15:39 +0000

It’s been almost a year since I started working on this project, but last night I finally finished the Cube Land music video. I wrote this song after spending a full Saturday playing Minecraft. When I finally pulled myself from the computer I got to thinking a lot about escapism. I thought about all the different things people want to escape from… problems at home or work, anger, fear, sadness, loss, insecurities, painful things that happened in your past; all those inner demons we have. I thought about what I was escaping from. And I got to thinking that one of the most beautiful moments is when you finally break the hold those things have on you. I think it’s not something you do once in your life; it’s something you probably have to do many times.

It’s funny how certain projects materialize so quickly and can turn out exactly how you want them to turn out… whereas other projects won’t let you bring them to fruition for ages! In retrospect, I’m glad that this song and video took so long because I don’t think the ending would have been sincere had I completed it back then. Plus, releasing it now is my way of saying congrats to Notch and the Mojang team for finishing Minecraft, as well as sending a “thank-you” for making such a fun game that brings out creativity in so many people. I know this video might seem a bit dark or sad, but it’s really supposed to be hopeful. I hope you enjoy it:

The Funktrollers present… Tapped Out!

shigi — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 20:01:00 +0000

Hi everyone! I hope you’re all doing well! As some of you know, TIGJam was last weekend. For those who aren’t familiar with it, TIGJam is a yearly event where indie developers get together to work on their projects. People bring their laptops and work together on all different aspects of the game making process (coding, art, music, etc.). It’s also a nice time to hang out with folks, grab a meal together, play games, and participate in some of the multi-player indie game tournaments like the big MADHOUSE bash on the last night. Overall, we had a great time, and thankfully, I was able to get some work done on Melolune… Now I have a more concrete schedule set up for finishing the last section of the game.

A few days before the jam, I had some particularly strong coffee and got weirdly inspired to make a rap video about Magic the Gathering. I asked my friend Andy if he’d be interested in participating (since he’s also into freestyle/rap as well as MTG)… So during the jam, we worked together to write/perform the lyrics, and George helped us film the scenes while on break from working on our games. Afterwards I produced the song/edited the video (I finally upgraded from Windows Movie Maker to Adobe Premiere, yay!). It is super silly, but we had a lot of fun with it so I hope you enjoy ^_^

On a side note… while we were filming in the parking lot, someone called the cops on us! We ended up bringing a bunch of plastic swords and axes for use as props (they weren’t even full-sized; they were children’s toys we got from Toys ‘R Us for like $5… although admittedly they do look pretty cool). But apparently, some people thought they were real and called the police. When I saw a police car pulling up into the parking lot, I thought it might be neat to include him in our video (I had no idea he was there on account of us). So I ran up to the cop car decked out in thug gear, and lifted the shades I was borrowing from DannyB. The conversation went like this:

me: Hello sir, would you like to be in our music video??
cop: Haha, I’m sorry, if I did that I would lose my job.
me: Aww… well, would it be okay if we just filmed you chasing us?
cop: I’d lose my job for that, too.
me: Oh well, thanks anyway.
cop: So is that what the “weapons” are for?
me: Weapons? Oh, you mean our plastic Toys ‘R Us axes?
cop: Hahahahaha
me: Yes.
cop: Have fun!

I was also sad to learn that the Magic Show is no longer being made. But I understand, Evan sounds very busy (with a family and full-time job, it would be pretty tough running a weekly show). Since we were working on the song at the time, Andy threw in a shout-out towards the end… “Rest in peace Magic Show, I’ll crack a pack for ya.”

Last but not least, here are a few bloopers/outtakes:

Flute Attack

shigi — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 05:53:56 +0000

Why were so many different things scheduled for this weekend? Blizzcon, TIGJam, game nights, and deadlines for projects next week… I spent yesterday at TIGJam working on Melolune and hanging out with folks, and today trying to finish up stuff for work (while also taking care of chores and pulling together a random MTG-related project, more on that later, heh heh). I hope I can get everything done!

But for now, I’ll leave you with a random video I took at TIGJam yesterday.

The Rescuers Down Under

shigi — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:44:49 +0000

When I was a kid, there were certain movies that just took me away… Miyazaki films definitely fell into that category, as did most films from the Disney Renaissance. One in particular, was The Rescuers Down Under. It’s certainly one of the more lesser known films during that era, but it is one of my favorites. The story is about a boy in Australia who befriends a giant Golden Eagle after rescuing her from a poacher’s trap. Shortly after, the same poacher kidnaps the boy in hopes of getting him to reveal the Golden Eagle’s nest. In order to save him, a team of very brave little mice (Bernard and Miss Biana from the Rescuers Society) travel to Australia and begin searching for him… If you haven’t seen this film, this scene in and of itself makes it worth watching:

The film also had very beautiful music (composed by Bruce Broughton). Here is my piano video tribute. I arranged this when I was around 10 because I fell in love with the film and its score. I’m such a sucker for films where a human befriends an animal or otherworldly creature (Iron Giant, How to Train your Dragon, The Water Horse, etc.)… Anyways, hope you enjoy!