Kizyr

Erm... maybe. The only reliable break I have this summer is -after- 8/21, since my summer classes end on 8/22. I'll be at the listening party, definitely, but I don't want to imply I can make a video until I'm more certain I'll actually have time to do so. KF

I know! These animated GIFs of Jill and Deia fighting are burning a hole in my memory card. KF

For no reason in particular' date=' I decided to put this into Wordle's WordCloud and got this... With names: [img']http://www.lunar-net.com/kiz/OCRMVC4-WC01.jpg With just chat: LOL. Yeah! Video! KF

I just contributed! If anyone would like to know, the OCR Music Video competition had a great turnout this time around. Check the thread for more. KF

Just in case anyone's curious, the official count I got (at the time of the first video) was 21 people in attendance, 8 of whom already contributed. I think that's a record! KF

To spread the news, I'm offering a bit of a donation-related incentive for tonight's OCR Music Video Challenge Viewing party (THREAD HERE!) Here's the details: OCR MVC Viewing Incentive I'm gonna give $5 to OCR for every person who shows up tonight at the viewing party--and for every person who's already donated that shows up, that goes up to $10. So that's $5 for every user in #ocrmvc, and $10 for every user who's already donated in #ocrmvc, for the party tonight. In case you forgot, it's at: irc.esper.net #ocrmvc May 1, 2011 @ 9:00 PM EST Be there or be Squarenix. And yes, I'm completely serious about this. KF

Interestingly enough, none of the tracks match between the Sega CD and PS1/Saturn versions of the game; the remake was kind of a complete one, and every track from every corresponding point in the game was changed. (Eternal Blue for Sega CD, on the other hand, had a nearly identical soundtrack as the PS1/Saturn versions, though with different quality.) I like both soundtracks, but personally the Sega CD version is far more endearing to me. Anyway this is an awesome mix. This song was really calling out for Dale North's vocal treatment. As some folks know, Lunar is my absolute favorite series, and I love seeing a really good mix from there posted. KF

Thought I'd announce a little something here to get folks more psyched up for the viewing party tonight: OCR MVC Viewing Incentive I'm gonna give $5 to OCR for every person who shows up tonight at the viewing party--and for every person who's already donated that shows up, that goes up to $10. So that's $5 for every user in #ocrmvc, and $10 for every user who's already donated in #ocrmvc, for the party tonight. In case you forgot (or the 'first page' link is too far), it's at: irc.esper.net #ocrmvc May 1, 2011 @ 9:00 PM EST Be there or be Squarenix. And yes, I'm completely serious about this. (though if, like, 4chan or something trolls the place then I gotta call foul, sorry) KF

I'll toss out a few suggestions... Qawwali is one genre I really like (Pakistan-origin), and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, to me, had the greatest voice ever given. A couple of resources: NPR Bio Site with some videos/translations Mustt Mustt, (er, ignore the comment thread)Rai is another genre I used to listen to a bit (North African origin, more of a mix of contemporary and folk), not as much these days though. If you've heard Cheb Mami or Cheb Khaled, they're sometimes well-known elsewhere. Wiki article , Altan Urag is one band I like (Mongolian folk-rock), but I can't get any of their albums in the US... I just know them from having worked on the soundtrack to Mongol: Blue Mark RaKH II I listen to some French hip-hop and R&B--the main artists/groups I like there are Sniper (now disbanded), Tunisiano (was part of Sniper), and Zaho. Latin American pop/rock is something I've been listening to for decades now, same with Japanese rock and hip-hop. But all of those genres are probably way more accessible and easier to find out about from others. KF

I always prefer CDs. As someone whose hardware has failed (or been stolen) several times over the last decade, files don't give me any sense of permanency. Even if it's someplace that'll offer me a re-download if I want it, I don't trust that the same site will be around in 5-10 years (as an aside, this is why I don't like being forced to get a Steam account to play Civ5--I want a game I can come back and play 10-15 years from now). The only time I'm willing to get download-only is if it's (a) the only way I'll get an album, and ( if it's not from some other central service (like iTunes, Amazon, etc.). 'Cause if my hard drive and MP3 player simultaneously crap out, I could probably email folks like Zircon or A_Rival and get another download. Also, I can't get anyone to sign an MP3. Funny thing is, I rip all my CDs to MP3 anyway and put it on my MP3 player. But, well, me being in control of that process is rather important to me. KF

My computer's been having issues lately and I just finally up and got a new one. We'll see where this goes, but a lot of it critically depends on me being able to get a few programs working in WINE with my recorder... Eh, it's looking less likely that I'll be able to do this in the time I have. I'll cross my fingers. KF

I think I may have worded that poorly, my mistake. The quotes make the song title vs. game title clear, definitely, but I was thinking of how to make this clear in MP3Tag (or some other tag program) if, say, I wanted to organize it into subfolders based on games or something. It was really more of a MP3Tag/utility question, not one about the tags themselves. The Subtitle field basically solves all of that. I could use the quotation marks in the Title field as delimiters as well, but an errant apostrophe in the title would trip that up (e.g., "Super Mario World 'Super Mario's Sleigh Ride' OC ReMix could end up with 'Super Mario' as the remix title). KF

If I get this done, I'm totally not going after either of you guys. Last thing I need is a tough act to follow {^^}. KF

Yeah, this is definitely the case. I think he may have also redid the lyrics with another choir? (The Soweto Gospel Choir was credited in Calling All Dawns, but not in Civ4). The song was really revamped since (I'd say) he repurposed it for use in an overall album rather than for the opening of Civ4. Which incidentally is why Christopher Tin is pretty awesome--he knows how to fit the song to the medium he's using to convey something. But anyway! This is great news. I can't remember the last time I actually cared about a Grammy win. KF

Apologies if you've gotten this question way too much, Larry, but is there an ETA on the new torrents becoming available? Are we talking a few weeks, or still another couple of months? One issue is that, with the quotes, I'm not sure how to distinguish between the name of the game and the name of the track, unless there's another few fields and an updated version of MP3Tag that I'm unaware of. Anyone tagging experts know an easy way to do this? KF

I'm going to try and do one. If I get enough headway into one a few weeks before the deadline then I'll sign up. (My main concerns are that (1) I might not have enough time to devote to it before my short summer break, and (2) I just switched to Linux and I'm having to learn a bunch of new software.) My plan is for one or more of the Super Mario World remixes, by the way. But if someone else wants to pounce on that then go ahead. KF

Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday! Ha-- sorry, Encore is doing a marathon of Groundhog Day (meaning 24 hours of nothing but Groundhog Day on repeat all-day today) and I think it must've affected me. --ppy Birthday! KF

??? HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAWG. Wait, no, I think I'm doing it wrong... Happy birthday Deia! KF

Google Translate'd be hilarious though! But seriously, what do you need translated? Lyrics are tricky, especially if you want to get at the original intended meaning and connotations. I could, but you'd be infinitely better off finding a native speaker of Japanese where English is their second language, than the other way around. KF

It was definitely fun! Thanks again for hosting it Amy, and thanks to everyone who entered. ...I'm no good at filming/editing live video, but I have a bit of experience with editing game footage (but not for music video purposes). I might try to make an entry for OCRMvC4... KF

Apologies if I already missed it, but you wouldn't happen to have Rare Candy recorded, would you? Mentioning this because Rare Candy's crowning moment of awesome during their set was when they busted out with Double Rainbow. q-pa: ...do you recognize this? Me: Yeah, I feel like I've heard this before... q-pa: It sounds familiar... Me: ...I'm sure we'll find out once they hit the choru-- RC: DOUBLE RAINBOW ALL THE WAY! YEAH, YEAH! Me: O_o Also I can't recall, were they the ones who played "Canyon.mid" last year? KF

I'll be there! By the way, I like this idea. I usually have videos/multimedia running on a separate computer than IRC, so it'll be easier to queue stuff up like this. Also, since this is the 3rd, I think I completely missed the 2nd music video challenge... KF

I finally got my photos up (I swear, Facebook is just getting more and more cumbersome with the simplest things--it took me 40 minutes just to caption and tag them all on account of the lags and poor interface.) It's not very extensive, since I don't really do drunken parties and wasn't as camera-happy this time, but there're some good shots in there. Anyway... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2405235&id=5305416&l=cd4f1482a3 I made this viewable by everybody, but if anyone who's tagged in it wants it restricted then I'll bump it down to friends-of-friends. KF

I scored Policenauts for the Saturn last weekend. Anyone know more about it? It seemed like a good deal, and I'm told that if I love Snatcher then I should like this one, too--everything I know about it indicates that I'll enjoy it. KF

MAGFest is over now First I have to admit, I had more fun at MAG 8 than at MAG 9. The reason was mostly timing: MAG 8 really started with the New Year's Eve party, I was able to be there all day every day for the entire time, and I didn't miss a thing; MAG 9 was competing with other stuff I had going on at the same time and I had to miss chunks of Thursday and Friday. But other than that, it was just as awesome as always. The bad: Not as much concert variety--it was like 90% metal this year Timing, like I was saying earlier The good: A_Rival and The Megas More arcade game variety OCRemix and OCAD panels Parking (I FOUND PARKING IN THE HOTEL'S LOT ALL 4 DAYS, HAH) The awesome: Stevo, Brushfire, and Dyne all helped me out with getting some extra badges for Jenner & Anand. Really guys, thanks a ton. Getting to see all the folks here, of course, and especially those of y'all I got to meet for the first time Stevo's after-MAG wind-down party Restaurants--both Kyoto Sushi (thanks for taking my suggestion) and Busboys & Poets (thanks to Amy for the suggestion) The WTF: Stevo I did not spend a decade studying Japanese so that I could translate FF7 porn! Then again it's not the first time I've done that... (EDIT: Video now has captions) See you guys at MAG next time, and hopefully some of y'all even sooner than that! By the way, next year I'm going to try to organize something ahead of time for dinners and Sunday lunch, so that it doesn't take us so long and folks can plan ahead (by 'ahead of time', I mean like 1-2 weeks in advance so we can get headcounts, reservations, etc.). I'd like to do Busboys & Poets again, and Kyoto Sushi again, if folks are up for it. Once we get word on if MAGFest 10 will be in the same place, we can start getting that together. KF