I regret to inform any reader of this blog that the silence from my end is due to my inability to find the words to express my emotions, and as such will consider that this blog will be on hiatus indefinitely. While there will be occasional posts, I have little to share to the world and even a smaller arsenal of words to use in the process of sharing my experiences. Such is the price for living an uneventful life.

I’m simply posting this to make sure this blog is working after the upgrade.

I have decided to change the theme for my blog, simply because I was getting tired of the previous one. I will need a new logo as well, but for right now, the only material is an added link or two.

My blogs and I have been too quiet, far too quiet for far too long. I would promise to rectify this, but these promises are often shattered on the obstinate knee of laziness. I will instead acknowledge my fate in the hopes that it will lead to the changing of the same.

Once again, I have something to write about. This past Saturday, July 11, 2009, I attended an incredible concert at Heinz Hall, Video Games Live. A more thorough synopsis of the Video Games Live concert can found at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette review of the event.

I arrived at Heinz Hall shortly before 7 p.m.. I worried that I may have been underdressed in a causal shirt and pants, but my anxieties were quickly dispersed by the attire of those surrounding and inside Heinz Hall. I foolishly went to the “will call” line, even though I already had my tickets. After some preliminary confusion, I spoke with an usher, who informed me that the auditorium would be open in a half-an hour, which gave me time to look around. I went upstairs and heard the beautiful sound of a young man playing arrangements of various video game tunes. The keyboard player, Dominic Cerquetti, as well as others in the area such as Adam, Dac, and several others were of a contingent representing MagFest

In this section, there was a young man playing Chrono Trigger for the Nintendo DS, going down the long staircase in the Ocean Palace. Part of me wanted to stop him and ask him to battle monsters, but I knew better, as he was clearly engrossed in the game, switching through menus in a flurry of button presses. There was also a multi-player station set up with various arcade beat-em up classics such as X-Men. I even got to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles In Time, a game I had never played before.

Before I knew it it was time to take my seat, and the concert began. An animated video of “Yuri The Only One” by LeetStreet Boys preceded the performance. A second, live-action video set to Junior Kickstart’s “The Go! Team” featured a person in a Ms. Pacman costume was being chased around New York City by three of the ghosts. Finally, we were treated Michael Jackson tribute where sprites from the Moonwalker game inserted into various gaming scenes. It was both humorous and touching.

After this, the concert began in earnest, with Tommy Tallarico as the host. He encouraged the audience to make noise and respond during the performance, and as a rejoined one audience member shouted, “Leeroy Jenkins!”

He introduced the first selection, music from the Metal Gear Solid franchise. During the orchestra’s performance, a person covered in a cardboard box similar tiptoed across the stage (a convention from the Metal Gear Solid games), avoiding an enemy soldier. As in the games, the soldier noticed the movement (causing a exclamation point to “appear” above his head). However, the person in the crate was not apprehended, and later Tallarico stepped out of the box.

Interspersed in this half was music from Civilization IV and God of War, as well as moments of more direct audience participation. Tallarico asked for the participation of an audience member, with a prize being offered.  I thought about raising my hand to be chosen, but I thought better of it and remained motionless.  Instead, a young fifteen-year old lady was chosen for the challenge, to beat the first level of Space Invaders in two minutes.  She certainly did better than I would have done.  However, her efforts were not good enough as she lost all of her lives with approximately 30 seconds to go. As a consolation prize, she got a copy of Space invaders to practice.

There also an intermission in which the participants of the costume contest lined up on stage. There were quite a few entrants, including two Link and Zelda pairs, a Mario and Princess Peach pair, and a boy dressed as the Joker. The winner was a young man dressed as Kratos from God of War.

Martin Leung also entered the stage in this half. Going to the piano, he played a beautiful medley of Final Fantasy music, incorporating Aerith’s theme from Final Fantasy VII, Eyes on Me from Final Fantasy VIII, and several other iconic Final Fantasy theme songs.

There was an intermission and I returned to the MAGFest section to listen to more impromptu remixes and rearrangements. It was soon time to return to the our seats for the second half of the concert, which opened up with the immensely moving orchestral version of Kingdom Heart’s central theme, “Hikari.”

The next section was the second competition, where the winner of the Guitar Hero competition went up on stage to perform, with the objective of getting 200,000 points Contrary to what what the Tribune Review would have you to believe, though, the second contestant did not complete the song and win the challenge (although he did get 86% of the way through and excellent score), but he did get the prize.

After this we were treated to music from WoW. Leung was then brought out again to recreate his famous blindfolded performance of Super Mario Bros. on the piano. Tallarico tied a terrible towel around Leung’s eyes, which elicited a “Here we go, Steelers!” chant from the crowd. Leung played the piece excellently.

Next were selections from Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. Chrono Trigger was represented by to themes, the Middle Ages overworld theme from and Frog’s theme, both benefited tremendously from the enhancement of a live orchestra. The theme set to the introduction of Chrono Cross, a difficult piece in which I noticed one orchestra member losing his place in the performance. (It made the performance more enjoyable than it would gae been, not less, as it’s a testament to how video game music has evolved and of course, the various mistakes gamers make when actually playing video games.) During this segment, both Tallarico and Jack Wall both performed an electric guitar duet, enhancing the already superb arrangement to the pinnacle of music.

Tallarico then suggested that if the audience wanted an encore, that as a group hold up our cell phones and handheld gaming systems.  I held up my DSi, which was still on as I had Chrono Trigger on pause. There was a surprise. Music from the Castlevania series greeted the audience’s ears, so many familiar themes performed in such a sublime fashion that I wished the concert would not end.

Finally, after polling the audience, a rendition of Final Fantasy VII’s “One Winged Angel” closed the show. After the, there was a prerecorded selection of Street Fighter II remixes played, although I am unaware of the source of the remixes.

After the concert, I went back up to the MAGFest crew and asked for music from Mega Man 2. In a breach of good manner, I sadly did not give Cerquetti a tip for exceeding my request. A few minutes passed and it was time to go home.

Overall, I had a tremendous amount of fun last week, so much so that the days that followed were absolutely depressing in comparison. At least for that night I enjoyed myself. I can only hope I have more events about which I can rave with equal enthusiasm.

I am writing simply to state that there is nothing new to report or talk about. I may have something to write about in a few days, but as of now, nothing.

I return you to your regularly scheduled silence.

I don’t normally write about the deaths of famous people. Plenty of people will miss the individual who has passed away, and I am unable delude myself to think that any words I write will be any more than self-serving reflections that will be rightfully be forgotten in time.

However, Michael Jackson was not just a celebrity. His impact on the entertainment industry goes without saying, but he wasn’t just an icon, a legend, “The King of Pop,” or any moniker — good or bad — you could throw on him.

Micheal Jackson was the type of man I never envisioned dying.

Realistically, death is certain for all of us who are fated to live, but in my mind, I never thought I would outlive Michael Jackson. To me, he was a fixture of my very existence. Since I was born after his Jackson five days, I only know his earlier work through the Jackson Five as recordings, and portal to a time before I was even a though. Many of his songs were the backbone of the soundtrack of my childhood, but, of course, as a child in the 1980s, it was his videos. which favorite video was Thriller. I remember watching the recording of The Making of Thriller on Beta over and over again. I remember going to Disney World when I was six and watch Captain EO — those 3D effects scared the daylights out of me back then! I had the privilege to see him perform when I was seven, but I was far too young to truly appreciate the concert for something other than noise in the dark.

Over the years his physical appearance changed, and elements of his music changed as well. I still vividly remember watching the video premiere of “Remember the Time” on FOX and falling in love with the special effects and the story it told. In later years, he became more well known for behavior and allegations, yet that voice of his remained recognizable and immutable, and he still possessed many of his signature moves. He was labeled as having a “Peter Pan Complex,” but you never expect Peter Pan to die.

There is much to analyze about the importance of Michael Jackson to music, to American and world culture, to the entertainment industry, to anything and everything. That I will leave to those who know what they’re talking about. Michael Jackson was important to me, both as a little girl who once saw him as the pinnacle of everything as a performer, and as an adult who is cursed with the knowledge that a greatness that will never be approached by anyone else is now lost to this world, forever.

The Penguins have won the Stanley Cup in the same calendar year that the Steelers won the Super Bowl.

Now if we could only do something about the Pirates.

One of my least favorite tasks is deleting links, because so often I find interesting things on the Internet and almost as often I lose track of them. As a result, the few items I can remember to hold onto are the ones upon which I tend to cling far too long.

Three links that were once in my blog roll are now absent due to either a shift in the writer’s attention and direction or my own. But, to be honest, I doubt the writers will miss my attention anyway. Perhaps if my interests and theirs tend to cross paths again, we will meet again, and once more I will have a greater selection regular reading material than I do now.

If a local football team blows out another team 76-0, does it make a sound?

Apparently not if the winning team happens to be the Pittsburgh Passion.

The relative media silence disturbs me a little. I understand that the Passion’s fan base may be smaller than that of more well-known teams in the Pittsburgh area, but what happened this past Saturday night at Newman Stadium should have been reported by the local mainstream media, rather than leaving the recounting to “the blogs.” This was not a typical dominating Passion performance, this was an overwhelming display of a team that played so well, the event may have been one for the teams’ record books.

On Saturday, I attended the final Passion home game of the 2009 regular season. Since the time of my last post about the Pittsburgh Passion, the Passion no longer play at Cupples Stadium on the South Side, but in the aforementioned Newman Stadium at North Allegheny High School. Another change is that the Passion now play in the IWFL instead of the NWFA, which exposes the team to new opponents. (Several of their former NWFA rivals — as well as the Pittsburgh Force, another local football team — now play in the WFA).

The air was dry, but a little cool for May, to the point where I had to put on the jacket I brought as the sky grew dark. But the Passion tore the field ablaze with touchdown after touchdown. Their opponents, the Connecticut Crushers, put forth an effort, but the Passion were simply that good. Sadly, the crowd was a little quieter than I expected, but I think that was due to the overwhelming nature of the victory and the location change. There were certainly enthusiastic fans present, especially for Michelle Brevard. Brevard and many other Passion players had a phenomenal game, and will probably have great ones to come.

Maybe the next time they do, someone in the mainstream media will write about it.