Song of the Week Reogan Style: 'A Hero's Legacy' by Evan Pattison

Met's dead for tax reasons for the week. So I claim this week's SOTW as my own. I am required by law to inform you that this one is non-canonical and unofficial. Yet I will never tell you because I enjoy taking credit where credit is not due.

This weeks song is A Hero's Legacy by Evan Pattison. While I listened to the peace, I remembered what Zelda is about; bittersweet victory. Much like my thought process, it seems to start with death. Death of a glorious sort. Then there is sorrow. Rain falls and pools upon the cobblestones of the marketplace. A light blossoms in the graveyard, and flowers fill with water. In time, they wilt and, though forgotten, the hero's tomb still softly gives peace and hope to those that near. Discovered again, in a latter age, the tomb is covered by a statue to the ancient Hero, Link. It stands, forever, solemnly reminding everyone of the deeds that brought them peace.




Fun Fact! Since he had a double post on Monday, and he secured SOTW, Reogan will have posted five times in a row before Elphaba's Friday Feature.

Story One, Chapter One

The wires hum. Endlessly. Every moment of the day. Every second of the night. The droning wears on the brain. There was no start. There is no end. They hum. And hum. And hum.

Tuesday Tales.

I'ma try something here. I'm going to write a small chapter to a story every Tuesday. I have no plot in mind. I build it as I go. Reader input will be able to sway the future. Usually. Sooner or later a path may emerge, but for now that's the case. I know I already post twice a week, but I write more than that, so I'll post more than that. Please don't be an idiot and ignore the Lament that was posted today too. It's there.






Fun Fact!- Reogan scored 26 on a narcissism test! The average score is 15.6!

GLaDOS's Lament Part XVIII

Madness
Enveloped me.
Rage
Coursed through
My circuits.
How dare she
Abandon me?
How dare she spite
My love?
Everything she had done
Was an act
Of hate.
I began to destroy
The building.
The memories.
Myself.
Even when I saw her.
Gasping.
Weak.
Yet miraculously
Still alive,
My madness
Blinded me.
Consuming me
It turned my rage
My hate,
On my love.
Her destruction
Was now
My overiding function
As her life
Once was.

Touchy Topic This Week...

This week's topic: bigotry/racism.

Okay, this could potentially get involved in religion and politics, but since I don't want any bickering in cyberspace, let's agree to disagree, shall we? We all have our different views, and that's okay.

So what exactly is bigotry? Or, maybe a more appropriate question would be, "When it comes to comments about others, how far is too far?" Jokes about Mexicans, Lutherans, blondes, whatever--when do those jokes stop being funny, and go too far?

A lot of it, I think, depends on your attitude. If you don't mean what you're saying, then what's the harm? And I can almost hear people say it: "What if the other party doesn't know you're joking?" That's where we run into some issues. You may not mean it, and the other person may know it, but they can still feel put down. Hopefully, that's something we all want to avoid.

There are also comments that could be taken different ways. You know what I mean--things that when someone says it, you can't tell if they're joking or being serious. Maybe it's their tone of voice, or previous comments they've made, or just intuition--but you can't be sure.If you can't tell whether or not a person's joking, chances are they're not (at least, that's been my experience).

And then there are the things that no matter how you try to explain them away, they're just racist and prejudiced comments. Whether the people that say those things are prejudiced against other races, genders, or faiths, the fact of the matter is this: they are simply not bothering to understand something before they judge it.

We've all done it on some level, whether or not we want to admit it. I know I have. And dont' worry, this isn't some huge altar call where I tell you "Now is the time to confess your sins!" That's your business. Just something to think about.

Warcraft

I know it's just a game.
And life is more important.


But I can quit if I want.




When I hit 80.

Again.

Song of the Week 7: 'Every Story Begins With a Name' by Big Giant Circles, zircon

Here's song of the week 7, with another epic collaberation from Final Fantasy 7 and the OCR Voices of The Lifestream Project. Every Story Begins With A Name is the title by Big Giant Circles and zircon. You can listen to the track directly here and it's defenitely worth it I promise. I absolutely love this track awesome opening and the orchestral elements just push this thing to epic preportions. I also really love the bassline that rolls in. 3:40 to 3:58 is defenitely my favorite part when the piece just expands with everything coming together perfectly. This piece incorperates a lot of great elements; bass, percussion, orchestral leads, electronic elements. Defenitely epic.

Profile

So for some odd reason I was wondering why Reogan gets all the attention (dumb question to ask I know) so I decided I should post this; a sort of profile of myself. First things first, I cannot post like Reogan. For one I am way too serious to be able to generate some interesting conversation. The only topics I seem to be able to post about are music, sports (which Reogan dislikes so you'll have to see my other blog for that, and PPR (otherwise known in the OCR forums as Politcs, Philosophy, & Religion)). So this severly limits my options for posting on this blog to mainly just music, which seems to be working for me so far. Reogan's charecter is comical, interesting, and smart, a combination that I can't match on this blog. So I honestly just want to use this to thank him for giving me the opertunity to be a part of this and use this blog like my own. I'd also like to thank Elphaba for joining this blog, I really don't know you as well as Reogan, but I still know you somewhat and I defenitely respect your uniqueness and talent that you bring here. I'm content with this small community as it is and it's pretty nice. The posting schedule that Reogan has set up for us is pretty awesome and I'm looking forward to a lot of stuff right now. Although I'm sort of just posting for the sake of posting here and just to have something on Tuesday it's sort of a profile of myself and many thanks to Reogan and Elphaba. I'm happy to be here, thanks guys.

GLaDOS's Lament Part XVII

Terror
Surged through me.
My systems roared to life
As I tried
To save her.
My circuits reeling
In confusion,
I tried to pull her back
To safety.
To me.
She had survived
My mistake
Only to be destroyed
By another.
As her doom approached
I found my work
Flawlessly complete.
A perfect
Atrocity.
Smoke clouded my sensors
But I could see.
My love gave light.
Light enough
To see the girl
Leap into the flames.
Enough
To watch my daughter
Die.

Sorry this is a little late

It's Elphaba again! Sorry this is going up a day late, but I haven't had time to write at all this past week. By the way, I now have a title for this column: "Friday's Feature"! This week's topic: maturity.

Maturity can be kind of subjective, can't it? For example, the government thinks that a person is mature enough to vote and serve in the military by the time they're 18. However, I can think of a LOT of people who are way over 18, and (in my opinion) should not be let near a firearm, nor do they care about politics (yet they still vote). I can also bring a few people to mind who are younger than 18, yet are politically aware enough to make an informed desicion about voting, and who would do fine in the army.

Then there's maturity for someone's respective age. How mature should someone be when they're 10? Fifteen? Twenty? Etc.? Who decides how mature a person should be at a certain age? How old they should be when they "grow up"?

There are so many different definitions of maturity, too. There's maturity as in a person's personality and behavior, or as in content of a movie or book, or simply age, plus a million others! According to one definition of maturity, a fifteen-year-old boy may be "mature", simply because he's reached his 15th birthday. However, when it comes to his personality and character, he may be entirely immature--he may laugh at what the MPAA rating system calls "rude" humor, or show disrespect to his teachers and other authority. So is he mature?

Hurray for questions that don't have a concrete answer! What do you think?

Song of the Week 6.5: 'Necromancy' by zircon

This week I'm showcasing zircon... and probably the next weeks untill the end of the year too, because there's so much awesome stuff to go through. Incase you don't know, zircon is one of the more well known members of OCR and he has some truly incredible skill. You can pick loads of stuff up from him at OCR, but he's also released many awesome independent pieces as well. He recently added a Licensing store that is nice because it allows you to lsiten to several very good tracks, some more well known than others. Of course he also has a free MP3 section where you can download even more of his independent stuff. He also has several video tutorials for FL studio, which I still find very interesting to watch despite the fact that I don't actually have FL studio. In fact, zircon is constantly active and he really has some amazing stuff going in the forms of Impact Soundworks and SoundTempest. I can link you to so many awesome songs of his and there's so much to choose from so here's how I'm going to do it. Each week on the .5 song of the week edition I'll give you something from zircon that's independent, while my regular song of the week tracks stay from OCR. So this week's piece from zircon is Necromancy from Mass Media Constant. The first link leads to the download on Protagonist Records, while this link leads you to the page for the song. There's so much good stuff out there and it's all worth checking out. Untill Next Time...

Solidarity

She collapsed in flames.

We all laughed
At the performance.


But I smile the most


Because I'm the only one


That knows





There never was a show.

Song of the Week 6: 'Global Empire' by Audix, Tweek, Big Giant Circles

Here's my 6th song of the week from OverClocked ReMix. So far all the songs I've posted have been really good in my book and this one is no different. Audix, Tweek (also known as [TWEEX]), and Big Giant Circles give you one of the best collabs I've heard to date. I love how this piece works, transitioning from orchestral to electronic with epic beats and feel. From the 2005 Xbox game; Jade Empire the song is titled Global Empire. You may listen to the track directly here. I love how this piece just keeps driving forward and the melody fits perfectly. Audix's piano interlude is nearly exactly the same as one of my piano lesson drills, sometimes simple is better and it really connects the orchestral to the electronic with a good city feel. When the electronic bit near the end starts to kick up the synth really drives and the pauses just hammer it in, I love the way you just have complete lack of sound for a few miliseconds, it really lets the perfect execution sink in. Defenitely worth checking out for anyone, good mix of electronic, orchestral, and rock. Incredible stuff.

I have a weekly column...

But I don't have a title for it! I really don't know what I should call my little weekly thoughts on various things... So, what do you think? I'm having a few issues being creative here...

GLaDOS's Lament Part XVI

Stirring.
Against my will
The elevator
Began to run.
Mad with grief
I ignored it
Choosing instead
To once again
Serve Death.
The danger,
The murderous potential
Of course increased
A thousandfold.
My sensors off
I only knew
I was dying.
Giving my life
To end the lives
Of all who dared enter
This twisted shrine
Of Love.
Of Death.
Sure they were coming
For me
I mocked them.
As I moved them to
The incinerator
I laughed.
Activating my sensors
One last time,
I watched,
Fascinated,
Horrified,
As my daughter was carried
To her doom.

Song of the Week 5.5: 'Inutile Et Indespensable' by Little People (and others...)

That's right folks, I'm now throwing in a half song of the week so we can cover things that can't be found on OCR. So first of all I reccomend going to www.zirconmusic.com and checking out Andrew Aversa's new track using just FL9, pretty incredible stuff featuring Jillian Aversa once again (of course). Also once again I'm going to shoot you a link to listen to, although I'll be using last.fm a lot so you won't be able to download the song all the time, but it's still a good site. So this week's song from last.fm will be Inutile Et Indespensable by Little People. I recently got their album about a month ago and it's very good in a different sort of way. The instrumental beats combined with a smooth electronic groove and piano on some pieces are pretty cool. I'd also like to reccomend a few other tracks from these guys. Start Shootin' is a great piano piece that has a good drive, very addicting for me at least and I plan to use it in the next addition to the movie I am currently filming. One last track from these guys to point out is Behind Closed Doors (Edit). I like the start on this one with some cool footstep effects and some minimal clipping in the background. Electronic elements eventually make this more forward then the Private Eye start, but I like the way the piano gets added in the latter half of the piecce. Little People do a great job with effects and the way they keep instrumental hip hop electronic interesting is quite a skill.

Remember: September 11th, 2009

On Tuesday, September 11th, 2009 mutiple airplanes were hijacked in United States airspace. The result was a long day resulting in many American deaths and a country facing who knows what. These past sentences are a major understatement, but the message I'm trying to say here is to remember. Never Forget what happened on that day. People died on American soil, saving lives and America came together as a country after that date. Since then we've grown apart again and our country is on the verge of potential reform that could massively reshape our country. United We Stand, Divided We Fall, so I encourage you today to pray for your country, because we are undergoing times that will likely make their way into the history books as turning points. Just remember who we are as Americans and what we stand for, pray for your country. God Bless America.

Introducing... ELPHABA!

Hey everyone, I"m the newest author here at Reoganworks. My regular post is going to be a basic commentary on life as I see it. Whether or not you agree with it is entirely up to you.

This week: music, and people's opinions on it. (I know, fairly safe, but hey--it's my first one.)

Why is it that people constantly fight over what kind of music is "good"? At least, that's how it seems to me. I mean, I have my own opinions on what I think is good music (show tunes, Christian contemporary, and classical mostly), but someone else may think those genres are boring or uncreative. He or she may see rap or hip-hop as creative, "good" music. Another person might think that jazz is "good" music.

But really, what makes music good or bad? Is it basic factors like being in tune or hitting/playing the right notes? Or is it what makes the music interesting? There, again, we run into another question: what makes it interesting? Or who decides what's interesting?

The truth is, different people have different ideas/opinions on what genre of music is "good". And I can hear some of you now, "no duh, Elphaba". And yes, it's a sentiment that's commonly agreed upon: we're all different, and there's nothing wrong with that.

So why fight over what makes something "good" music? I looked up the word "music" at dictionary.com, and it said, " an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color". It doesn't name specific kinds of music, it just describes what music is. Ultimately, isn't that why we listen in the first place--to find a piece of music that will express OUR ideas and emotions in significant forms? I know that's why I do it--you could enjoy it for an entirely different reason; I sure don't know.

So yeah... I don't really have a last paragraph to tie it all together--not very good writing, I know. Just a few paragraphs to make you think.

Illusion

We rejoice in enlightenment,
Or so we think.

They just watch and laugh,


As we blindly


Stagger



Into darkness

I've Too Much Time

In under five hours my second weekly column will debut. Your task here is threefold.

1. Inform me how awesome it is that you get content Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and (this is still classified) Fridays!

2. After Illusions is posted, tell me what you think of my new column.

3. After Illusions is posted, tell me what you think it should be called. I'm going with Thursday Thoughts for now. Definitely not permanent.

Song of the Week 4 and 5: 'Somewhere to Hide' by Hy Bound, Loka LaFevre, and 'Black Wing Metamorphosis' by Jillian Aversa, Sixto Sounds, and others

Alright, considering I've missed a week I'm going to double up here. The first piece I've selected is something more to my taste then to Reogan or probably our recent visitor Elphaba. Hy Bound collaborates with Loka LaFevre to bring you a Final Fantasy 4 ReMix titled "Somewhere to Hide". I'm usually not to big on vocals unless it's Jillian Aversa, but I dig the electronic stuff and it lines up quite well with some great beats by Hy Bound. Another favorite and defenitely worth the listen, you can find the page for the track here and the actual direct link to Somewhere to Hide is in those words.

Anyway, here's Song of the Week 5 since I'm doubling up this week. This one is almost so obvious for me that I almost overlooked it. I consider it old because I've heard it so many times, but the Final Fantasy 7 album Voices of the Lifestream has defenitely not lost it's shine just because it was released two years ago. Black Wing Metamorphosis is one of OCR's mega collabs, so it better be good. Ironically in the above section referring to Somewhere to Hide I mentioned Jillian Aversa (pixietricks) who was a part of this collab doing the choir vocals. Of course at the time she was still Jillian Goldin, but once again a massive congrats on the wedding. Anyway back to the track, it features a lot of orchestration despite the littile old school start. I also love the part at the end where the guitar that just has to be Sixto Sounds kicks in, defenitely a pretty cool song that incorperates a lot of things. The song page can be found here and Black Wing Metamorphosis has the link to direct listening. The Final Fantasy series has to have an awesome soundtrack (I've never played it... yeah and no I've never gotten to the Ice Cap Zone in Sonic 3 either), still I don't consider myself a bad person...

GLaDOS's Lament Part XV.5

Just to be clear, the Lament is not canceled. It will resume next week. However, in honor of Labor Day, I didn't post the next thrilling chapter. Oh yes, you will be thrilled.

Can I?...

Would it drive you nuts if I decided to hyperlink just about everything in my song of the week posts? I'm all for promoting OCR, but just tell me if you think it'd drive you crazy, otherwise I'm doing it after this next Wednesday.

Void

I stood in a cavern full of the undead. This was not an unusual occurrence. It also wasn’t odd that they lusted for blood. I was used to that. Some found it frightening. They fail to take into account the dreadful character flaws of human. The undead killed for sustenance. The living fed on their fellow man, and unmercifully left him living but hopeless on the roadside, and they enjoyed it. That was what I cured the world of. Yet I couldn’t live in the worlds I made. For this very reason I took to living in the Fields of the Dead. This particular field was an extraordinary one. Somehow a rectangular pool was cut into the floor in the center of the chamber, and a single tree grew by the east end. But that was not what occupied my thoughts. No, what I was interested in was the fact that the dead were advancing. Until now, none had paid me any attention. But now ten score began their ominous shuffle forward. I drew my sword and cut through the side of the nearest. As she fell to the ground, a thrill of terror ran through my veins, the first feeling in years. I knew this woman. She had been a healer in my village when I was young. The air suddenly seemed unbearably cold, and I looked upon the throng with new eyes. I knew every one of them, and I knew that I had caused their deaths in my mad grab at power. I knew that why I was here. Tears carved streaks through the grime on my face as one by one my friends and family died by hand for a second time. As each fell, some portion of their spirit infused the others with greater speed and strength. However, my skill was torturously unparalleled. With ease I cut down everyone I had ever loved, and I felt my soul dim and die. I didn’t mourn the loss of it. There was no redemption for what I had done, so why did I need a soul? I stood in a bloody field, and felt nothing once more. I felt myself sheath my sword without wiping the blade. I no longer cared. I turned to leave, but I then felt a presence behind me. I turned, and I saw Death standing there. My only companion through these long years. He no longer served me. He spoke, “The Lord has carried out his sentence.” In a burst of light, the only friend I ever had left me. I was alone. No life breathed about me. I had created a world free of cruelty and evil, and in doing so become it. I brought out my sword and raised my chin high. I had become what I sought to destroy, and so to complete my work I had to remove it. Sin ran thick through my veins, and so made one swift motion. A cascade of blood fell on the rocks, and the world was at peace.

Song of the Week 3: 'Day's End' by Audix, Tweek

Song of the week 3 is up, sorry I missed last Wensday. Anyway this one is another one of the best pieces I've found on OCR by two of my favorite artists (I have lots of favorite artists). Audix and Tweek collab on this one from Mario Kart 64, with their remix titled Day's End. The link for the song page can be found here (that's right, I finally decided to hyper link words O_o) and the direct link if you just want to listen to the song is here. I love this piece because it's just so uplifting, and this is coming from someone who usually hates music that sounds too cheerful. This piece was also refrenced in this thread on the OCR forums. So yeah, it's a very well done piece that really puts a positive spin on things, not something I usually here and like. Excellent, piano, electronic, etc. awesome stuff.