2023 Reading List Monthly Update: February

Books read in February of 2023:

"The Shards" (Bret Easton Ellis) 2-4-23

"Lie With Me" (Philippe Besson) 2-7-23

"The Lover" (Marguerite Duras) 2-9-23

"Tokyo Ueno Station" (Yu Miri) 2-12-23

"Boycrush" (James Nulick) 2-16-23

"This Side of Paradise" (F. Scott Fitzgerald) 2-17-23

"The Adventure Zone Vol. 5: The Eleventh Hour" (The McElroys/Carey Pietsch) 2-19-23

"Octopus Pie: The Other Side" (Meredith Gran) 2-22-23

"Octopus Pie Eternal" (Meredith Gran) 2-23-22

"The Book of Imaginary Beings" (Jorge Luis Borges) 2-25-23 

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2023 Reading List Total:

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1. "The Medieval Underworld" (Andrew McCall) 1-11-23

2. "Impure Thoughts" (Golnoosh Nour) 1-12-23

3. "Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire" (Judith Herrin) 1-15-23

4. "The Baron's Coffin and Other Disquieting Tales" (Ada Buisson) 1-17-23

5. "Amy Winehouse: Beyond Black" (Naomi Parry + Various) 1-21-23

6. "Convenience Store Woman" (Sayaka Murata) 1-25-23

7. "Do You Like Big Girls? Vol. 1" (Goro Aizome) 1-27-23

8. "Strange Weather in Tokyo" (Hiromi Kawakami) 1-31-23

9. "The Shards" (Bret Easton Ellis) 2-4-23

10. "Lie With Me" (Philippe Besson) 2-7-23

11. "The Lover" (Marguerite Duras) 2-9-23

12. "Tokyo Ueno Station" (Yu Miri) 2-12-23

13. "Boycrush" (James Nulick) 2-16-23

14. "This Side of Paradise" (F. Scott Fitzgerald) 2-17-23

15. "The Adventure Zone Vol. 5: The Eleventh Hour" (The McElroys/Carey Pietsch) 2-19-23

16. "Octopus Pie: The Other Side" (Meredith Gran) 2-22-23

17. "Octopus Pie Eternal" (Meredith Gran) 2-23-22

18. "The Book of Imaginary Beings" (Jorge Luis Borges) 2-25-23 

*= book I have read at least once in the past
+= book I have read before, but not this reprint/edition/translation

Currently Reading: 

"Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art" (Susan L. Aberth) 

Pleasant Tales III complete

It's been almost 3 years in the making (the project began as a few handwritten stories scrawled into a journal during the pandemic lockdown in 2020), but my 4th short story collection, PLEASANT TALES III, is finally complete (for the curious, the first PLEASANT TALES was written by Brendan Connell and the 2nd by Justin Isis). At close to 150 pages and around 59,000 words, it's not as long as my prior collections, but, I think, a good read for those in a hurry. I still have some editing/proofing to do on it, but the main text itself is done.

The contents will be:

1. The Rainbow Road Apotheosis

2. A Soused March Hare

3. The Immaculate Restroom

4. Super Uneventful Oregon Trail

5. Black & White Vagina Odyssey

6. Exquisite Corpse

7. Dazed and Confused

8. Gay Homosexuality (co-written with Justin Isis)

9. Gwschend and I at the Blue Cat Café

Memories Dreams Reflections 18: John Bellairs

“I write scary thrillers for kids because I have the imagination of a ten-year-old. I love haunted houses, ghosts, witches, mummies, incantations, secret rituals performed by the light of the waning moon, coffins, bones, cemeteries, and enchanted objects.”

-John Bellairs, Locus 1991

In an earlier entry in this series (#7) I mentioned some of the books I enjoyed reading as a child, and one of the names I briefly mentioned was John Bellairs. I'd like to go into a bit more detail about that in this entry because he pretty much was the first author I really gravitated to. 

When I was young, I was a huge fan of the gothic novelist John Bellairs (b. January 17, 1938– d. March 8, 1991), who pretty much wrote books mainly for kids and teenagers, though he did a few adult novels as well (these adult novels of which I have not read). Not only were they my entryway to the world of Gothic/horror fiction, but also to the art of Edward Gorey, as his illustrations would usually grace the front cover, back cover, and frontispiece of the books of John Bellairs. I was especially obsessed with Bellairs' series of supernatural mystery/thriller novels featuring Johnny Dixon. Those books take place in New England in the 1950’s, and revolve around Johnny Dixon, a lonely and quiet bespectacled boy who, though he likes nothing more in life than to read his books in peace and quiet, always finds himself being drawn into inexplicable adventures, often revolving around cursed objects, undead wizards, killer robots, time travel, and so forth. Usually accompanying him on these adventures were his best friend and classmate Fergie, his neighbor Prof. Childermass (an elderly man who is Johnny’s second best friend), and Father Higgins, the town priest. The titles of these books were quite evocative: there was The Curse of the Blue Figurine (1983), The Mummy, The Will and the Crypt (1983), The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull (1984), The Revenge of the Wizard’s Ghost (1985), The Eyes of the Killer Robot (1986), The Trolley to Yesterday (1989), The Chessmen of Doom (1989), and The Secret of the Underground Room (1990). Following Bellairs’ death in 1991, further Johnny Dixon mysteries were written by Brad Strickland, but I never read those. I think I responded to Bellairs' Dixon books more so than any of his other series was because in some ways I identified with the main character: a shy, bookish kid living in a small New England town, with a Catholic upbringing, but who was also obsessed with the occult and anything creepy (now that I think back, I believe that Johnny was also very interested in the Ancient Egyptians), and who preferred the company of adults rather than kids his own age. I never wore glasses, though. 

The first Dixon mystery I read was the third one in the series, The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull: I got it through my school’s Scholastic book club sometime around the 4th or 5th grade. I loved it so much that I began collecting the other ones in the series.

Having said that, I also found the books of John Bellairs to be very scary at times. Take The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull. In this novel, Johnny Dixon and Prof. Childermass visit an old inn in a little New Hampshire town. The owner of this inn just happens to have in his possession a clock that had been built years ago by Prof. Childermass’ father, a clock that is said to be haunted. In the bottom half of the clock there’s a small dollhouse room, decorated like the parlor of a Victorian house from the 1870’s. Inside this parlor are various objects, including a tiny skull and a doll of a man that’s supposed to represent Prof. Childermass’ granduncle, who was murdered by a sorcerer many years ago. That night, Johnny sleepwalks down to the inn’s basement, where he has a vision in which he sees the doll come to life, only to get smothered to death by a tall, gaunt shadow. That scene is creepy enough, but things get worse. When the Professor touches the skull, he unwittingly is cursed, and later on vanishes. When Johnny visits the house of his friend, he encounters this creepy scene (the fact that it involved a face in a mirror made it doubly nightmarish in my mind):

“Halfway to the window Johnny froze. He had seen something out of the corner of his eye, a sudden image in the small rectangular mirror that hung over the bureau. He turned and looked. In the mirror he saw the professor’s face, looking haggard and disheveled. His eyes pleaded and, as Johnny watched, his lips formed silent words. ‘Help me.’”

Another of the spookier Dixon mysteries is The Eyes of the Killer Robot. The plot for this one is pretty silly: it’s been years since I’ve read it, but I think the story revolved around this: the town that Johnny Dixon lived in was holding some kind of baseball contest where if you could strike out a major league batter, you’d win $10,000, and some evil inventor planned to win the contest by building a robot that resembled a man in a baseball uniform and using “an ancient magical formula” to bring it to life. The crux of the story was that the robot could only be brought to life when a pair of dead man’s eyes are placed within the robot’s head. The inventor had a grudge against Johnny’s grandfather, so to get back at him he plans on using Johnny’s eyes to bring the robot to life. As I said, pretty silly stuff. Still, there are some unsettling moments, such as this one, where Johnny spots a ghost lurking outside his bedroom window:

“But just as he was turning to pull down the bedspread, he froze. Out of the corner of his eye he had seen something.

There was a figure crouching on the porch roof outside his bedroom window.

An icy breath of fear blew across Johnny’s body. In a flash he knew that the creature was someone who shouldn’t be there, someone who couldn’t be there- it was a visitor from another world. Slowly, Johnny turned to face the thing. The flashlight’s beam cast a ghostly sheen on the window, and beyond the glass Johnny saw a fearfully thin shape shuffling forward on his knees. As Johnny watched, rigid with terror, the shadowy form groped at the window… and then Johnny blacked out, and he fell in a heap on the floor.”

By this point, one would think that Johnny should just stop looking at things he notices at the corner of his eye."

Here’s another of the spookier scenes:

“Not far from the back door of the house stood a bench covered with peeling white paint. It was a garden seat, the kind people used to make so they could sit outdoors on hot summer nights. The bench stood in a patch of wild rosebushes not far from the rugged wall of the mountain, which towered overhead. A man was sitting on the bench- a man Johnny had never seen before. He wore baggy, dusty overalls and a faded plaid shirt, and he had a big mop of straw-colored hair. The man sat hunched over with his face in his hands, and he seemed to be crying. Johnny stood dead still. The bunch of pieweed stalks fell from his numb fingers, and he took a couple of shuffling steps forward. And then, as Johnny watched, the man stood up. He took his hands away from his face and he stumbled. Johnny gasped in terror- the man had no eyes. Streaks of blood ran down from empty black sockets.

‘They took my eyes,’ the man moaned. ‘They took my eyes.’

Johnny opened and closed his mouth, and made little whimpering noises. He shut his eyes tight to block out this horrible vision, and when he opened them again a second later, the man was gone.”

Granted, that’s the kind of scene that, when I read it over now, makes me giggle, but when I was a kid, I thought that was pretty scary stuff.

More info on John Bellairs and his work can be found here:

http://www.bellairsia.com/

Memories Dreams Reflections 17: Childhood Writings

During my grade school years, I began to show an early aptitude towards creative writing. In the second grade, I even won a Young Author's Award, for a story I wrote that was essentially a retelling of the Frosty the Snowman narrative, only co-starring myself and my family. Sadly, I can't seem to locate this story in my archives: if I ever do I'll repost it on here. 

A big influence on my early writings was actually world mythology. This interest began in grade school, and started with the myths of Ancient Greece. I neglected to mention it earlier in the entry related to my grade school's library, but another of my favorite books growing up was D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, by Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire (Delacorte Press, 1962). There are so many delightful illustrations in that book: the family tree of the Greek gods and goddesses that serves as the book’s frontispiece is a nice touch, but my two favorite drawings from the book would be firstly the illustration on page 18 of Echidna (Typhon’s hideous mate) glowering in a cave and nursing her monstrous offspring (the Nemean Lion, Cerberus, Ladon, Chimera, the Sphinx, and the Hydra), and, secondly, the big drawing at the top of the pages 172-173, where we see Jason and the Argonauts sailing the Argo through the narrow strait guarded by the monsters Scylla and Charybdis. 

Generally speaking, as a child I found the myths of the Ancient Greeks far more interesting to read about than the Christian legends I was more familiar with, perhaps because they seemed more exotic… sure, they had some interesting stories like Eve’s temptation by the Serpent, Jonah and the Whale, and (of course) the Apocalypse, but in my mind they couldn’t compare with such tales as Orpheus’ tragic descent into Hades to retrieve Eurydice, Perseus’ battle with Medusa, the follies of King Midas, the exploits of Heracles, Theseus’ adventure in the labyrinth with the Minotaur, Icarus’ doomed attempt to fly to the Sun, Jason’s search for the Golden Fleece, and the Trojan War: all great stories so lovingly illustrated and written about by the D’Aulaires.

As a child I was also fascinated with the culture and mythology of Ancient Egypt. I loved to read about the construction of the Pyramids, the grotesque process of mummification, and of the great pantheon of animal-headed gods and goddesses.  One book that I read (in the 4^th grade) on the subject of Egyptology was Kenneth Allen’s One Day in Tutankhamun’s Egypt, which I later did a short book report on, a portion of said book report which I’ll now type out here:

“The part I liked the most was when it showed a picture of the Hall of Double Justice. On this picture was Anubis setting a huge pair of scales. To his left was Thoth, Ibis headed god. The dead person was allowed to go to the Beautiful West if his heart weighed more than the Feather of Truth, which were being weighed on the scales. If the feather weighed more, he would be eaten by a monster called Ammit.”

Obviously this myth about the Hall of Double Justice has stayed with me throughout my life. Many years later (almost 20 years later to be exact) I mentioned it again, in a short story called "Nihil" that I wrote around 2009. From my first collection Grimoire (Rebel Satori Press, 2012):

“Some people think that when you die your entire life will flash before your eyes. I don't know if this is true or not, but if it is so, there is one memory I hope to see again above all others. A couple of years ago, on a Spring or Summer day, I stepped into the local supermarket, to cash a check at the bank located within the store itself. As I passed through the vestibule, I noticed there was a big butterfly trapped inside, trying desperately to escape through the glass window barring it from the outside world. It had a black body, and its wings were black and blue in color. It was one of the most beautiful butterflies I'd ever seen in my life. After cashing my check, I returned to this vestibule. Gingerly, I reached out to the butterfly and cupped it in my hands. It was the most delicately I had ever handled anything: picture the Virgin Mary cradling the infant Jesus for the first time. When I had it cupped safely within my hands, I took it back outside and released it. I then watched it fly upwards, into the cloudless blue sky, and it kept flying higher and higher until I couldn't see it anymore. But watching that butterfly fly away, I felt an indescribable feeling of peace and joy wash over me, and it was as if my spirit was flying out of my body, following the butterfly into the heavens above. It was one of the happiest and most profound experiences of my life. I've often felt that one act of kindness, no matter how small, redeems even the most useless and meaningless life. And if, after death, I am judged in the hall of Anubis, and my heart is weighed against that of the feather of Maat, may this simple act of kindness make my heart weigh less than the feather, so that my soul will be saved from the hungry jaws of Ammit.

During my Bernon Heights grade school days, I also had a great deal of interest in Native American folklore. In the 4^th grade I did a book report on the Cheyenne Indian tribe, and later on I wrote a bat-shit crazy short story revolving around the exploits of an Indian boy named Eagle Eyes, who I saw as my Indian alter ego. The name of this story was “The Mystery at Troll’s Cave,” and I reprint it below, with typos and all:

 “The Mystery at Troll’s Cave”

 

          A long time ago, about the year 1820, or was it 1500, oh, who cares! It was the time of Indians. It was a bright, sunny, day at the Cheyyanne camp. Birds were flying, flowers were growing, and the woods were whining. That was the weird thing about the woods. The indians at the camp were frightened of the sound. They thought it was a evil spirit. So did I. My name is eagle eye. This is my story of how me, and my friends, Blue Wolf, Mighty Bear, and snake skin, solved the problem. Here’s how we did it. One day the buffalo were running through the field. I decided we should go hunting, because are indian camp was low on food. While we were hunting I caught something at the corner of my eye. That is why they call me eagle eyes. “Look!” I shouted to my friends. They looked to where I was pointing. “It’s the magical Blue buffalo!” shouted Blue Wolf. “Who?” we asked. “It’s the most special Bufflo in the world so lets catch it!” replied blue wolf. Snake skin aimed a spear at it. “I got it!” he yelled! We went closer to it. Mighty bear shuddered. “Blue Blood! Icky!” he said. “I see something!” I yelled. Snake skin pulled out a object. “It’s writing!” he said. We looked at it. It was picture writing. It said: Look for Leave ‘hole at water’s end.’ “Hmm?” I said. “Men, this describes the whining we heard in the woods.” Blue Wolf said. “Let’s go!” said I. We ran into the forest. We went to the waterfall. Suddenly, a giant fish leap out. It bit and dragged blue wolf under the water. I aimed my bow and hit the fish in the back with a arrow. It swam away and let blue wolf go. “Waters end must be behind this waterfall!” Mighty Bear said. We went in and found a leafy room and a hole.

            We went down the hole, via rope ladder. We started serchind through tunnels. “It’s creepy in here!” I exclaimed. Suddenly, a door opened and killer bats started flying out. “Yikkkeeesss!” I screamed. We ran down a tunnel. Then we fell down a hole into the darkness below. “I know!” snake skin said. He threw a rope up. We hung on for dear life. Blue wolf picked up a torch that was on the wall. “Well, at least we can see, what the??!” said Mighty Bear. He had found a stone lever. he pulled it. a door opened on the wall we swung in. Then we saw a treasure chest lying on the ground! “yay! Were rich!” I said. Then I coudlen’t move. I was stuck to something. It was a spider web! We all got caught. Then, giant black widow spiders came down at us, teeth knashing, Legs moving. “Help!” Blue Wolf yelled. Then, a flaming arrow flew through the air. It set the spiders ablaze. Then black figures cut them free. “Thanks!” mighty bear said. The figures stepped into the light. They were trolls! gray skinned, ugly, snarling trolls. They had mouths and eyes, but no nose. “That there is our treasure.” he said. who said that? the leader troll. He had the face of a skeleton on him above that was a ugly, troll face! below the skellton face was a bunch of pointy legs. to the right of that was a giant eye. “We found it first!” I said. “We have

* * * *

And thus the story ends at mid-sentence. I find it depressing that even at the age of 9 I was starting projects that I could never finish. I also find it depressing that back then I was under the illusion that spiders had teeth.

In the 5th grade I wrote another story, entitled "The Creature in a Cave" (interestingly enough, one of Lovecraft's earliest tales was called "The Beast in the Cave"). I think everyone in the class had to write about an animal and I chose the vampire bat. For some reason I seemed to like writing about caves back then: I suppose I was just of a chthonic persuasion.  

The Creature in a Cave

It was the year 1695. New animals were being discovered. Many animals lost their homes. Zoos were built, so the animals could survive. One brave explorer named Michael from Arkansas came to Georgia in search of a new animal. When he arrived he asked a villager if there were any special forests around. “One,” said the villager. She pointed north. Michael trudged through a lonely forest. He soon came to a cave. He switched on his lantern. “It sure is cold in here,” Michael said softly. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a creature attacked him. It flew down at him. He quickly lifted open the door to his steel trap. The thing flew in. “How weird you look!” Michael said. It was all black and had fur. It had small eyes and huge ears. It was now bumping around the cage. “I’ll bring you to Washington to show you to the President,” Michael said. Michael’s arm was drawing closer to the thing’s now. “Ow!” yelled Michael. He had been bitten by the creature. “Have a bug!” Michael said. The creature quickly gobbled it down. They soon was at Washington D.C. Before they entered the White House, a guard stopped them. “What is that thing?” asked the guard. “A new creature to show the President,” said Michael. The guard let him in. Soon they’re in the President’s office. “Is that the new creature I heard about?” he asked. “It is here!” said Michael. Suddenly the bar doors flew open. The creature smashed everything in the room, got stuck in the President’s hair, and bit his neck. “Ow! I shall name this awful, filthy creature a vampire bat!” said the President. So that is how it was named. 

Another story I wrote in the 5th grade was called "The Drug Master" and is too moronic to transcribe, but for completion's sake I did make scans of its two pages, which I'll just leave here:

As a child, I also had an obsession with the planet Saturn, where I pictured my imaginary friend Hammerhead (yes, the alien from the Star Wars movie) lived. Here's a very short story I wrote about Saturn in 1990, when I was in the 4th grade: 

"If I were living on Saturn, I would make my home on its edge. I would skate on its ice rings and I would take pictures to show to people on earth. I would be lonely, so I would make Martians. Then I would teach them to do all kinds of things. We would eat stars, and play all day."

Finally, here's a haiku that I wrote about sharks in the 4^th grade:

 “Sharks

 Mean hammerhead sharks

They have large hammer shaped heads

They swim in oceans” 

Memories Dreams Reflections 16: Valentine's Day

In keeping to the spirit of the holiday, in the 5^th grade I wrote a Valentine’s Day short story, which I now present to you:\

The Weirdest Valentine’s Day

Hi. I am a piece of yummy, mouth-watering, cream candy. I lived happily in a wonderful place named Candyland. One day as I was bounding around a truck came. It picked me up and brought me to a Candy Cream Inc. factory. There, I was put into a piece of wrapping, and put in a box with other creams. “Help!” I screamed. But no one heard me. I was given to a girl for Valentine’s Day. Auggh! She ate me and my friends. It was nice and warm in her stomach. So here I am today, writing this story, for one day the girl got sick and sent us flying out of her mouth. It was plenty messy, sure, but we were free.

* * * *

I’m starting to worry that maybe some readers might be getting a poor impression of me, that maybe they think that as a child I was only interested in gross and disgusting things. But that isn’t entirely true. To prove it, here’s a nice little haiku I wrote about kitty cats (again, from the 5^th grade):

KITTENS

Cute little kittens

I love to see them eating

They are very lovable

Top 10 Video/Computer Game Soundtracks (in Chronological Order)

Recently I thought it might be interesting to post a list of my favorite video game/computer game soundtracks, in the order said games were released.

With that in mind, such a list would start with the SNES port of the classic computer game SIM CITY. I got this game for a Christmas gift way back in the very early 90's and it was one of my favorite SNES games back in the day. The music was done by Soyo Oka, a woman who also did the music for some other classic SNES games of that era, like SUPER MARIO KART (another fave), PILOTWINGS, and SUPER MARIO ALL-STARS. There's not a LOT of music in this game (only about 30 minutes worth), but what there is I really like a lot. My favorite track is probably the "Town" theme, which has a very peaceful atmosphere to it and brings to mind the work of Bach. Funnily enough, as kids my brothers and I could never hear the "Megalopolis" theme, because we could never get our cities to that size (not even by cheating!)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cOvQT9l6CE

Top 10 video/computer game soundtracks (in chronological order) #2: SUPER CASTLEVANIA IV (1991)

It's pretty much a given that a Castlevania game will have great music (I especially like some of the soundtracks for the Nintendo DS ones), but if I had to pick a favorite Castlevania soundtrack, it would be this one (another game I played often back in the day, and replayed not too long ago: it still holds up). The soundtrack for this game (created by Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo) not only features some of the standard classics like "Bloody Tears" and "Vampire Killer," but also many original new songs as well, some of which went on to become equally iconic, like "Theme of Simon." What really impresses me about this soundtrack is the wide variety of moods it represents: like they could have just gone for a dark, gloomy, Gothic sound for every stage but that's not the route they took: consider the background music for the Library stage, which is extremely calming, pleasant-sounding, and suggestive of a vast, airy environment: the perfect song to accompany a traipse through a haunted library. It's hard to pick a favorite track with this one, but I think my choice would be the brief "Password Theme," which has a very sacral tone to it, like something one would hear in a church.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7ZM0-JAc0s

Top 10 video/computer game soundtracks (in chronological order) #3: Doom (1993)

DOOM came out in 1993, though I didn't get a copy (the FINAL DOOM retail version, which came with a bonus 4th episode) until I got my own PC in the fall of 1998 (though I do remember briefly playing DOOM II at the computer lab at Woonsocket High School in the fall of 1997). I've long been a fan of the MIDI format of music, and I think a lot of it can be traced back to my fondness for this game (in fact, a big reason why my own MIDI compositions eventually became more polished was from using the Voyetra Digital Orchestrator program to open the game's MIDI files and see how they were arranged). The music for DOOM was done by Bobby Prince (who also did a lot of other music for id Software games, including DOOM II and WOLFENSTEIN 3D) and famously many of the songs are quasi-covers of popular metal/grunge bands of the era: the rumor I've heard was that Prince used to be a lawyer and knew just how much he could copy from each song without straight-up plagiarizing it (I remember that when I heard Slayer's song "The Crooked Cross" for the first time I thought, "Wait a minute, I've heard this song in DOOM!"). Having said that, it would be a mistake to think that ALL of the songs in the game are bastardizations, and in fact some of Prince's straight-up original compositions are among of my favorite tracks. My very favorite track in the game is "They're Going to Get You," which is the background music to the 4th map of Episode 2 (one of my top 3 favorite DOOM stages, incidentally): I also used the song in my soundtrack to HARLEM SMOKE.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZQc9Uf5eSE

Top 10 video/computer game soundtracks (in chronological order) #4: Final Fantasy VI (1994)

A third game from the SNES? To be fair, it WAS arguably the best console of all-time, overflowing as it was with a wealth of iconic titles that have stood the trials of history. And few SNES games obsessed me as much back in the day as FINAL FANTASY VI did (though at that point in time, in the West, we knew it as FINAL FANTASY III). How obsessed was I with FINAL FANTASY VI? In 1995 I wrote a trilogy of fantasy novels (the Magic Fantasy Trilogy) that was essentially one giant rip-off of the game (with some STAR WARS thrown in for good measure). In many ways FF VI was so ahead of the other RPGs of the time it's not even funny, be it in terms of graphical power, storytelling, and especially music. I can't say this game was my first exposure to the work of Nobuo Uematsu (that would have been FINAL FANTASY IV), but I can certainly say that FF VI was probably the first time I ever truly recognized video game music as something transcending mere background ornamentation into a realm of greater artistic profundity. There was a great quote I read once where someone said about this game, "For a composer the SNES sound chip is like using crayons. Uematsu used crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." That this amazing soundtrack was the product of a painfully humble/modest self-taught musician (one of just many amazing soundtracks he created, it must be said) is truly extraordinary.

My brothers and I were so in love with this game's soundtrack we used a boombox to record much of the music onto cassette tapes, before eventually getting the 3 CD collection (a Japanese import). Looking back, I think one of the reasons why it resounded with my brothers and I was that we recognized many similarities that the music had to the prog rock of our youth (the soundtrack to the final boss fight with Kefka is clearly a riff on the music of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, a band of which Nobuo Uematsu was a big fan of). Would I say it's my favorite video game soundtrack of all-time? I'm not sure. But would I also say that it's kind of the benchmark by which I rate all other such soundtracks? There, I think I can say yes. It's kind of hard to pick a favorite track as there are so many good ones, but I've always loved the 3rd Movement of the famous "Dancing Mad" sequence, which does a mean impression of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor."

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKCMs1QMzs&t=48s

Top 10 video/computer game soundtracks (in chronological order) #5: Chrono Trigger (1995)

Another Squaresoft game, another SNES entry. I got this one for my birthday in 1995, and while I don't rank it as high as the Final Fantasy games of the era, it's still an enjoyable enough game, with a killer soundtrack to boot. Yasunori Mitsuda did most of the music, but when he developed stomach ulcers, Nobuo Uematsu stepped in and helped out as well (I think he ended up doing 10 songs for it). Interestingly enough, despite the fact that Mitsuda did the majority of the soundtrack, my favorite song off it ("Bike Chase") is a Nobou creation.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWmcmzA0zJg

Top 10 video/computer game soundtracks (in chronological order) #6: Earthbound (1994)

Last SNES game on this list, I promise! Yes, I'm aware that EARTHBOUND came out in 1994 (before CHRONO TRIGGER, my last entry) but it was released in the US in 1995, hence its placement here. EARTHBOUND is something of an anomaly on this list as, unlike the other games I'm spotlighting, I not only never actually beat it, but never even got that far in it (I don't think I ever got past the game's 3rd town, Threed). I did, however, watch one of my younger brothers playthrough and beat it, and because this same brother has played the soundtrack a lot over the years, much of the game's music (mostly the work of Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka) has grown on me. Despite the fact the game was a product of Japan, the music's cultural touchstones mostly harken to western pop culture, like the Beach Boys and especially John Lennon/the Beatles. Still, one of my favorite tracks in the game, "The Floating Kingdom of Dalaam," has a very Eastern feel to it.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeAd28PoVgQ

Top 10 video/computer game soundtracks (in chronological order) #7: Shenmue (1999) Shenmue II (2001) Shenmue III (2019)

A bit cheating this, but what the hell, it's MY list, I make the rules. And to be fair, the games are part of one giant story, and most of them tend to use (and reuse) a lot of the same songs anyway. I never played the original two games back in the day (not owning a Dreamcast and all) but finally got to play them in 2018 when they became available for PC on Steam (and of course, I had no issues playing the third game). Unlike some of the other games I've featured, I'm a little fuzzy about who exactly did what songs for these games, though I believe Takenobu Mitsuyoshi is the main source: other musicians seemed to have helped out as well, which makes sense seeing as the first game alone had over 200 songs!

One thing that interests me about the SHENMUE games is that, unlike many other Japanese games I've played that often make much use of Western/Anglosphere music/imagery and what have you (because, I presume, such things must have seemed exotic and foreign to the Japanese audiences of the time), the SHENMUE games seem very Asiatic in design, not just in setting, visuals/imagery, tempo and philosophy/worldview but also in their use of music. I'm not saying ALL the music sounds very Asian (as quite a wide variety of musical styles are featured, everything from jazz to hip-hop to techno), but a large majority of it does, and I kind of like that. It's hard to pick a favorite in a series that has so many killer/iconic songs, but I've always had an especial fondness for the Day theme of South Carmain Quarter (from SHENMUE II):

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqtkgzFeoww

Top 10 video/computer game soundtracks (in chronological order) #8: The Movies (2005)

I've always felt that this game never got the love it should have. It only ever got one expansion pack back in the day, when by all rights it should have had several: I would have loved a pack introducing more sets and costumes, and maybe one that would have added some new genres as well (Action, Comedy, Romance, Horror and Sci-Fi were all well and good, but it would have been cool to have stuff like Drama, Historical/Period movies, and so on). I played it quite a bit when it first came out, and have replayed it on and off throughout the years (most recently, last year). One thing I really dig about this game is the music: I like how both the background music (and the music you can use in your films) changes as the years progress, from lush orchestral/Big Band stuff in the 30's/40's/50's to rock and roll in the 60's, funk in the 70's, synth-pop in the 80's, and techno in the 90's. A nice little touch... the music in the game was composed by Daniel Pemberton, who has since gone on to become a Golden Globe-nominated film composer in Hollywood (he did the score for The Counselor!) One of my favorite songs in this game is this one, which is both the title song and also the song that plays in the background whenever you release a new movie:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV69FwJDcfU

Top 10 video/computer game soundtracks (in chronological order) #9: Sid Meier's Civilization VI (2016)

I consider myself a big fan of Sid Meier's CIV series, though in truth I've really only played the 4th, 5th, and 6th entries for any great length of time. CIV VI is by far the one I play the most (according to Steam, I've logged over 1,500 hours playing it). A big reason for that is simply because I love the game's music so much. The title song/main menu music "Sogno di Volare" (Eng. "The Dream of Flight") was composed by Grammy winner Christopher Tin (he of the "Baba Yetu" fame), but the game's actual main composer/arranger is Geoff Knorr, assisted by Roland Rizzo, Griffin Cohen, and Phill Boucher, and an army of guest musicians, including the entire Prague FILMHarmonic Orchestra.

One thing I like about the CIV VI soundtrack is that each civilization in the game gets 4 variations on a main theme, that changes every two eras (so that each has an Ancient, Medieval, Industrial, and Atomic theme): the first version is usually very simple, but each variation introduces new layers of complexity, until you reach the final version, which features the theme played by a full symphonic orchestra. Each civilization also has a number of secondary/ambient themes (some of which are just as good as the main ones). When you factor in that the game features 50 civilizations, that means a staggering amount of music, well over 600+ songs (and I've heard them all!). The game also went out of its way to make music that was culturally appropriate to each civ, even getting Mongolian throat singers for Mongolia's music, for example. I can think of few other games that have such a global, multicultural soundtrack.

Over time, I've developed a variety of favorite songs from the game, and there are some civs I'll almost always include in my games just because I like their music so much: Poland, Zulu, Rome, Aztec, Egypt, Mongolia, India, Canada, France, Greece, and Zulu are some of my preferred ones. I think my favorite song of all in the game might be the Byzantine "Atomic" theme, which truly is a thing of awe and majesty: based on the Akathist hymns "Ti Ipermaho" and "Kontakion of the Mother of God" it's almost enough to convert you to the Orthodox faith:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suS-P2-CyEA

 My 2nd favorite song in the game is "Thula Baba," a secondary/ambient theme for the Zulu, which could be one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard in any video game I've ever played:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25X8JYsPqyg

Top 10 video/computer game soundtracks (in chronological order) #10: Perfect Tides (2022)

The most recent addition to this list, a friend clued me onto this game's existence last year, and I quickly became obsessed with it, to the extent I now have it in my Top 10 favorite games of all-time, and consider Meredith Gran a genius writer/artist/game designer (see also her comic OCTOPUS PIE). Of course, one reason I love the game so much was the music made for it by Daniel Kobylarz, 22 tracks of pure goodness that perfectly compliment what's happening on the screen. I often listen to these songs while driving to and from work and just listening to them makes me happy, like snuggling under a warm blanket: I'm excited to hear that he'll be doing music for the game's sequel as well (due out in 2024). My favorite track in the game is "Island at Night," an incredibly atmospheric and moodily poignant song, especially when you hear it in the 4th part of the game, which is set in winter: walking around the deserted streets of a small island town under a starry sky at night, with the sound of snow crunching beneath your boots and with this song playing in the background, perfectly captures a beautiful mood that's almost impossible to describe in words...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i35-BjmWeBo&list=OLAK5uy_nWJyHki6SVANlVGxDrVEJ6ZY9cW2DFh0o&index=21

 

 

2023 Reading List Monthly Update: January

Books read in January of 2023:

"The Medieval Underworld" (Andrew McCall) 1-11-23

"Impure Thoughts" (Golnoosh Nour) 1-12-23

"Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire" (Judith Herrin) 1-15-23

"The Baron's Coffin and Other Disquieting Tales" (Ada Buisson) 1-17-23

"Amy Winehouse: Beyond Black" (Naomi Parry + Various) 1-21-23

"Convenience Store Woman" (Sayaka Murata) 1-25-23

"Do You Like Big Girls? Vol. 1" (Goro Aizome) 1-27-23

"Strange Weather in Tokyo" (Hiromi Kawakami) 1-31-23

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2023 Reading List Total:

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1. "The Medieval Underworld" (Andrew McCall) 1-11-23

2. "Impure Thoughts" (Golnoosh Nour) 1-12-23

3. "Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire" (Judith Herrin) 1-15-23

4. "The Baron's Coffin and Other Disquieting Tales" (Ada Buisson) 1-17-23

5. "Amy Winehouse: Beyond Black" (Naomi Parry + Various) 1-21-23

6. "Convenience Store Woman" (Sayaka Murata) 1-25-23

7. "Do You Like Big Girls? Vol. 1" (Goro Aizome) 1-27-23

8. "Strange Weather in Tokyo" (Hiromi Kawakami) 1-31-23

*= book I have read at least once in the past
+= book I have read before, but not this reprint/edition/translation

Currently Reading: 

"The Shards" (Bret Easton Ellis) 

"Lie With Me" (Philippe Besson)