Oof. It's been three months. I was originally hoping to update this blog around once a month or so, but, well, life. I am older, my hair is longer, and I'm back in Chi-town to start the new (remote) term at NU. It's been nice being back in my own place, with my own #things ("memories," as Benjamin would say), and the term has had a decent start. That which occupied the majority of my summer—my final qualifying exam, on theories of musical arrangement and borrowing from the parody mass to the cover song—is finally complete and currently under review. Though the original plan was to have it completed by mid-summer, I ended up putting the final touches on it the day of my soft deadline (i.e., the day when I was planning on submitting it). The exam gave me no small amount of stress, largely because of the scope of the project. I had multiple friends call it "ambitious"; this was not intended as a compliment—nor as an insult—but speaks to the "doing more than I probably should have"-ness of the project. To put it in perspective, it ended up being 50 pages when it was supposed to be closer to 35-40.
...I need to do a better job of running project ideas by friends before I start them. Sigh.
But now that that essay is done, I hope to have some time to write more casually again. There are a few blog posts I've been wanting to write: one on One Piece and media theory (since early in the summer!), another on The Great Pretender's OP (opening theme), and perhaps another on SAO and critique. Actually, on the topic of anime and as another update, I was recently a featured guest on my friend's anime YouTube channel! In the podcast-esque video, we have a conversation about our top anime recommendations on Netflix. Definitely give it a watch if you have any interest in anime, as we include a few recommendations for first or gateway anime as well.
Returning to topics for the blog, I of course have more I can say about some favorite artists (and, on that note, I've added some exciting new pieces to my collection!). I also have some thoughts on hifi listening and anxiety I might formalize, a confession concerning Final Fantasy VII Remake, and—website related, though not blog specifically—I might try and record some new pieces to add here. I've also started trying to read for fun again! How long this will last, I can't say for sure, but I've been taking my time reading Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being since... I think last summer? I can't quite recall. The format of the book kind of lends itself to picking it up every now and then which I appreciate. Gamewise, I'm also juggling Octopath Traveller (for research) and Persona 5 Royal (more for fun), plus a handful of indie games I downloaded over the summer. I might write about any number of these in future posts. Alas, I will also be teaching this quarter, and prep for remote instruction is considerably more draining than for in-person instruction. So we shall see.
But this is where I will conclude this post. So if you're especially interested in reading my thoughts about any of the topics above—or anything else, really—let me know and I'll probably end up prioritizing it!
p.s. I recently interviewed one of the arrangers for the LoZ: Symphony of the Goddesses program! He recently premiered his Final Fantasy Overture on YouTube: give it a listen!