Dhsu

And yet are trying (and complaining about) typing the URL in directly. I'm just gonna call retardation on this one. I mean really, people are free to make their life harder for whatever reason, but they have no right to complain about it later.

Seriously, I'm counting several hundred dollars in figures alone (most of which are a bit...risque ). And *two* Spartan helmets, what the fuzz? Where do you get all this money??

Man, I've been looking for that collection for years. It's not even on eBay. :/

I'm surprised you still *have* a girlfriend based on the contents of this room.

My roommate in Houston got a DLP projector for like $600 and it was pretty great. It was a little harder to play dark/low-contrast games during the day (e.g. Bioshock), but for the most part the image was fine for our needs. It's still one of the things I miss most about living there.

Sum dead n00b.

Yeah, she's got sort of a tsundere thing going on, which is a type of moe I guess. I think she's too slutty in general to be really considered as such though.

Craziness. Thanks for sticking around so long to help me with my achievements, guys. Especially Bahamut, that last one took forever.

The whole idea of a Genocide City Zone is shocking and hilarious at the same time.

If one successfully made a program that could do this accurately, he would probably become a very rich person.

"The Secret Guards of Kale"? Haha, stay tuned for the sequel, "The Brotherhood of Celery."

Saw this being pimped at GamingForce and checked it out. Tight stuff, yo. Loved the Megas cameo.

You crazu, Monobrow. I'll tell you mine: I honestly believe a composer's mind is not so inscrutable that a performer cannot comprehend his intention. Composers are human just like performers, and if they're doing their job properly, it's perfectly possible for a performer to know exactly what's going on in the mind and the heart of the composer. Many performers spend many many hours in research in order to do just that. And when that is achieved, it's just like following a recipe...like the original chef, you might use a few more milligrams of flour on one occasion, or a few less grains of sugar the next, but you'll still get a delicious cake every time.

The conclusion I'm getting here is that the ultimate performer would be a robot programmed with the composer's interpretation. And my response is that very often, composers (even very good and famous ones) can't or or simply don't want to provide such a specific interpretation. And that is why we need performers who will. I'd like to get a more direct response about my bad mother analogy though...you stated that some people shouldn't be composing, but the fact is that they do. Is it still the performer's responsibility to adhere to the composer's amateur concept of interpretation?

Well, I was more referring to cases like Bach where it was technologically impossible to have things like dynamics or legato, so they didn't specify anything in that regard. In that case, it's the modern performer's responsibility to do what he feels is best for the music. Unless you feel that everyone should stick to playing Bach on clavichords. Anyway, just to clarify, are you saying that in the specific case that the composer had a specific interpretation in mind, classical performers are expendable because they should only play what the composer intended. If so, I guess I can understand such an opinion. However, like Sil said, that would immediately disqualify countless compositions from famous composers like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. They wrote them out of need, not emotion. It was their job...they just wrote the notes, like someone would write a business letter or a software program, with nothing particularly "deep" in mind. For all you know, they couldn't have cared less about how their music was performed, as long as they got their paychecks.

You and your sex analogies. Comparing performing a piece of music to having sex is completely specious. How about we take your mother/child analogy from earlier...there are bad mothers, just as there are bad composers. Just because you spawned the child doesn't mean you will treat it properly. A performer might be analogous to a babysitter...yes, you're expected to follow the parent's instructions, but most likely she will leave certain things like lunch and games up to your judgment i.e. INTERPRETATION. Like I said, there are many cases in which the composer didn't have that sort of depth in mind...he's only concerned with the notes, not the performance. So in this case, it's true that the performer doesn't know the composer's intention (because the composer didn't intend anything regarding that particular aspect), but they can use their own experience and skill as a performer to highlight the parts that the composer did create intentionally. I repeat, what would happen to composers that couldn't perform their own work? If Beethoven had no one to perform his work, he could publicize all he wanted, but with no one to perform, there would be no one to listen, and he'd still be forgotten. Like I said, you may not believe me. But that doesn't stop it from being a true. And the real point isn't that rhythm has tons of emotional potential, but it's there, and that's what makes it music. Yeah, the reason I asked was to get you to clarify your views on classical performers. How can you call someone like Horowitz great if he's no better than a studio musician who doesn't know his role? And why do you keep talking about actors when you've already adamantly stated that they can't be compared to musicians??

Let's turn that around: what would happen if there were no performers? Then what would composers who couldn't perform do? Like Sil said, they're forgotten. I didn't say ANYTHING about depth, but since you asked, then yes, I'm sure there are percussion pieces that have just as much depth as anything Mitsuda ever wrote. You might not LIKE it personally, but it's music all the same. I'm not even going to touch this. You're digging your own hole here. Yeah, but I said "based on." Why are you making this distinction? I thought your argument was that performers as a whole are expendable? I'm getting very mixed messages here...it sounds like a lot of the time you're implying that you respect studio musicians more because they "know their role," but then you praise concert pianist like Horowitz. I think we're making some progress here. I'm not so interested in changing your mind anymore (although it would be to your own benefit) as much as I am interested in sorting out your main ideas, and I think I'm almost there. Which is good because it's almost time for bed.

And yet even his own interpretation varies slightly between each performance, perhaps because his mood has changed, or maybe because he just wants to try something different. If even the composer can interpret his own piece various ways, why is it such a crime for another person to do the same? Another thing to remember is that it's possible for a composer to be concerned only with the melody and harmony without caring about dynamics or phrasing, perhaps because he doesn't really care, or is a bad composer, or didn't have the technological capabilities at the time (for example, Bach harpsichord pieces have no dynamics). It's then up to the performer to decide what interpretation brings out the composer's musical ideas best. Then again, you may very well be of the school of thought that playing Bach on piano is blasphemous, in which case I'll just let you think that and move on. But you can't, because none of those "worthless" performers played it.

She'd probably prefer if I sold them actually, although perhaps not necessarily to buy unneeded fancy clothes. But that's analogous to someone having a poor interpretation of Beethoven's music, which I guess opens up an entirely different debate... Technically that's true. But now we're talking about a very different form of expression...

Heh, that's good, I was just having a little fun. All I'm saying is you seem to prefer shonen action shows. If that's the case, check out stuff like Naruto or One Piece.

And you would be wrong. DEAD wrong. I'm going to go back to my "music is expression" statement. Performers express themselves through their interpretation. Thus, there could potentially be as many interpretations of a piece as there are people in the world, if not more. Even if Beethoven had a certain phrasing and timing for every single note in mind (which like Sil said is unlikely), he is dead and gone now, and other people are free to arrange and interpret his music as they like. Again, you're free to think what you want, but you're only hurting yourself by limiting yourself to such a narrow mindset.

Yet in literally the previous sentence you say this: So are they great performers or worthless? Yes, under a very weak premise involving "sheeple." But just to humor you, I'll say that popular classical performers have their own share of mindless fans as well. You're free to think this, but realize that this is a very, *very* narrow-minded concept of music. I'm going to quote something you yourself said in the very first post: Quite frankly, that hits the nail on the head: music is just expression through sound. While you might not believe me right now, trust me when I say there are ways to do this without any sort of pitch. I honestly don't listen to music lyrics...the music itself is catchy enough to warrant my attention. And are you seriously using the number of chords as the qualification for music? Do you know how many famous classical pieces contain 4 chords or less? The whole GENRE of blues is based on three chords, and there are plenty blues pieces without lyrics. Do you know what a studio musician is? I know very well what they are, but again you also said this: So my response remains the same. And here's the thing...the only thing that separates studio musicians from concert performers is the venue and level of skill. Neither of those is INTRINSIC to the performer himself at all!

It's simply really, just don't die.

But you are comparing them to composers aren't you? What I'm saying is that composers are NOT intrinsically better than performers...simply writing notes on a page does not automatically make you more valuable than someone who knows how to play an instrument. Why is it hard for you to accept that there might be great performers as well as great actors? Oh so now you're the final authority on what is and isn't music, eh? Where are you getting these arbitrary definitions?? Try replacing a Horowitz or Van Cliburn recording with a less famous performer and see if anyone agrees with you.

A-HA! My point EXACTLY. So now we're not talking about INTRINSIC worth, are we? We are talking about SKILL and what makes something GOOD. Merely creating is nothing to praise...it is when creating something beautiful that one is to be commended. Haha, now you're disagreeing even with yourself. Sorry, it's hard for me to take anyone seriously who uses the world "sheeple", but I will try. All those bands you just mentioned compose their own music...are they intrinsically better than classical performers even though you don't respect the music they've written? A lot of people, actually... That is where you're wrong. Plenty of songs are written specifically to fit a given set of lyrics. Musical settings to religious texts have accounted for a prodigious amount of works over the entire history of the art form. Perhaps, but I'm just trying to highlight the beautiful symbiotic relationship that results in performers relying on composers to write the notes, and yet composers relying on performers to play the notes. A composer's most complex ideas and emotions are worth nothing if he can't write it in a form that can be performed.