Patriotism to the Mac's
Haley informs me that in France, they have "Yankee Sauce" at McDonald's there... No I don't know what it is, what is tastes like, or what color it is. I already asked. It is one of those great mysteries that even a 5 second Google search would probably not slake my curiosity.
Speaking of Patriotic, what better to celebrate the birthday of our nation than to set off fireworks? Well, there are probably lots of great things (making a fuss about real freedom for one) that are better, but I was just using the expression, you know.
Anyways, my father set off some here there other night and I have to say, I was a fan of one in particular- the FLAMING WHEEL OF DESTRUCTION. This really hits home and makes me proud to be an American. What better to personify the American spirit than some Athenian-looking warrior Goddess driving a chariot through a field of lightning? Yeah, scary. I was intimidated too until I realized that it is actually a unicorn, and they are all about peace, right? WRONG! This flaming unicorn is one BAMF... Enough of these trivial things.
So I love how musical terms make their way into strange places. I noticed this quite a bit with cars. Like the Hyundai Sonata or Kia Rondo... Some of the lesser known, and perhaps more entertaining are the Honda Quintet or the Austin Maestro.
Another place that seems pretty unlikely is in video game titles. I'm thinking of several of the Castlevania titles... "Symphony of the Night", "Harmony of Dissonance", "Aria of Sorrow", "Lament of Innocence" (not as blatant as the others, but opera buffs would still make a strong case for it)... I think maybe I am most amused by the fact that the Japanese titles are different when translated word for word BUT, they are still musical terms! (i.e. "Harmony of Dissonance" was known in Japan as "White Night Concerto" or "Concerto of the Midnight Sun" and "Symphony of the Night" is "Nocturne in the Moonlight".) To come completely clean, I haven't played any of these games (I did play Circle of the Moon though) and maybe there is some huge underlying musical element in the games or plot-line. Don't get me wrong, I don't think less of them for using musical terms, I just think sometimes musical terms are used as some kind of filler word when you have some cool adjectives to pair it with to create a flowing title. Why not Story of the Night, or Castle of the Night? They definitely get double points for Harmony of Dissonance. All I'm saying, from what little I know about the games and my experiences playing them, the titles are just there the be catchy and antique sounding. Like, Circle of the Moon had nothing to do with the moon as far as I can remember. I guess it did have a better ring to it than "Castlevania: Castle's full of Vampires and Monsters again :-/"
Why did I get to this? Right- today at work, I was throwing magazines and saw something called "Eternal Sonata" on the front of some gaming magazine. At first, I thought it was another clever title exploiting Italian words that lots of people don't think twice about. However, after checking some very reliable sources, I discovered that the game actually has to deal quite a bit with music! I won't go into it, because I only just read bits of the Wikipedia entry for it but I was impressed/amused/ashamed all at once. I think it is great that some people were like "Yeah! Chopin! Let's make him into a game!" but then I read through the characters names and died a little inside... And one character's main weapon is listed as a "Clarinet canon"? Wow. That is great. I guess I am just a little disappointed that it is called "Eternal Sonata" and not "Eternal Ballade" or "Eternal Mazurka" or "Eternal Nocturne" or "Eternal Etude" since he was more of that kind of guy (He only wrote three sonatas). Oh well.
Here is the part where I was going to list some made up video game titles that combine a musical term (the more obscure the better) and some dramatic adjectives or something. I'm too tired now and frankly, I think it would be me fun to see what other people can come up with. Here is a link to a decent list of musical terms and that. If anyone has bothered to read to this point, I'd love it if you left a comment with some of your own fabricated dramatic titles that use music terminology.
I better accomplish something this summer otherwise I won't get anything done...
Thought of the day: If the people who didn't try to secede from the union were called Yankees, does that mean that everyone else was a Yanker? Anyone else see an eerie similarity to a British obscenity?
Speaking of Patriotic, what better to celebrate the birthday of our nation than to set off fireworks? Well, there are probably lots of great things (making a fuss about real freedom for one) that are better, but I was just using the expression, you know.
Anyways, my father set off some here there other night and I have to say, I was a fan of one in particular- the FLAMING WHEEL OF DESTRUCTION. This really hits home and makes me proud to be an American. What better to personify the American spirit than some Athenian-looking warrior Goddess driving a chariot through a field of lightning? Yeah, scary. I was intimidated too until I realized that it is actually a unicorn, and they are all about peace, right? WRONG! This flaming unicorn is one BAMF... Enough of these trivial things.
So I love how musical terms make their way into strange places. I noticed this quite a bit with cars. Like the Hyundai Sonata or Kia Rondo... Some of the lesser known, and perhaps more entertaining are the Honda Quintet or the Austin Maestro.
Another place that seems pretty unlikely is in video game titles. I'm thinking of several of the Castlevania titles... "Symphony of the Night", "Harmony of Dissonance", "Aria of Sorrow", "Lament of Innocence" (not as blatant as the others, but opera buffs would still make a strong case for it)... I think maybe I am most amused by the fact that the Japanese titles are different when translated word for word BUT, they are still musical terms! (i.e. "Harmony of Dissonance" was known in Japan as "White Night Concerto" or "Concerto of the Midnight Sun" and "Symphony of the Night" is "Nocturne in the Moonlight".) To come completely clean, I haven't played any of these games (I did play Circle of the Moon though) and maybe there is some huge underlying musical element in the games or plot-line. Don't get me wrong, I don't think less of them for using musical terms, I just think sometimes musical terms are used as some kind of filler word when you have some cool adjectives to pair it with to create a flowing title. Why not Story of the Night, or Castle of the Night? They definitely get double points for Harmony of Dissonance. All I'm saying, from what little I know about the games and my experiences playing them, the titles are just there the be catchy and antique sounding. Like, Circle of the Moon had nothing to do with the moon as far as I can remember. I guess it did have a better ring to it than "Castlevania: Castle's full of Vampires and Monsters again :-/"
Why did I get to this? Right- today at work, I was throwing magazines and saw something called "Eternal Sonata" on the front of some gaming magazine. At first, I thought it was another clever title exploiting Italian words that lots of people don't think twice about. However, after checking some very reliable sources, I discovered that the game actually has to deal quite a bit with music! I won't go into it, because I only just read bits of the Wikipedia entry for it but I was impressed/amused/ashamed all at once. I think it is great that some people were like "Yeah! Chopin! Let's make him into a game!" but then I read through the characters names and died a little inside... And one character's main weapon is listed as a "Clarinet canon"? Wow. That is great. I guess I am just a little disappointed that it is called "Eternal Sonata" and not "Eternal Ballade" or "Eternal Mazurka" or "Eternal Nocturne" or "Eternal Etude" since he was more of that kind of guy (He only wrote three sonatas). Oh well.
Here is the part where I was going to list some made up video game titles that combine a musical term (the more obscure the better) and some dramatic adjectives or something. I'm too tired now and frankly, I think it would be me fun to see what other people can come up with. Here is a link to a decent list of musical terms and that. If anyone has bothered to read to this point, I'd love it if you left a comment with some of your own fabricated dramatic titles that use music terminology.
I better accomplish something this summer otherwise I won't get anything done...
Thought of the day: If the people who didn't try to secede from the union were called Yankees, does that mean that everyone else was a Yanker? Anyone else see an eerie similarity to a British obscenity?