Intro
If you didn't read the sidebar, you should. This post is about things that I love to do, and things that I love to do a LOT. This might be a bit of a long read, but it's my first post, so some slack is expected.
Music
I like music. It's an awesome thing to experience and be involved in. I'm not an accomplished musician by any means (talk to my recording partner Louis about that), but I feel that I have a reasonable ear and an amount of knowledge that the average listener won't have. I have an affection for the music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially stuff from Camille Saint-Saëns and George Gershwin. Saint-Saëns is intriguing because of his unusually complicated music but careful structuring that allow the sound to be somewhat accessible to new ears; Gershwin, on the other hand, sounds like the 20's. Saint-Saëns earlier works were considered 'musical poetry', and such style is exemplified in pieces like Danse Macabre.
Gershwin, interestingly enough, studied classical music (such as Saint-Saëns) in France in 1924, three years after Saint-Saëns death. Their musical styles differ, however, as you can hear in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (this song is featured in the 2013 film The Great Gatsby in Gatsby's introductory scene).
This is not a picture of Camille Saint-Saëns
Gershwin, interestingly enough, studied classical music (such as Saint-Saëns) in France in 1924, three years after Saint-Saëns death. Their musical styles differ, however, as you can hear in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (this song is featured in the 2013 film The Great Gatsby in Gatsby's introductory scene).
They're both great works, and somewhat representative of what each composer has to offer.
Also, if you read the sidebar, I'm a Bluegrass fan. I love Tim O'Brien, and he's well-characterized by his instrumental, Land's End/Chasin' Talon.
Other great Bluegrass artists include Alison Krauss and Union Station, Rich Mullins, and a few others I'll talk about down the line.
Video Games and Other Activities
I looooove video games. I'm an avid player of StarCraft II, and it's easily my main game right now. I like fast-paced 1v1 action, and I'm not much of a team game fan (like League of Legends, DotA2, or CS:GO). I played Brood War back in the day (admittedly quite poorly), and I tried to play Runescape dedicatedly for a while and lasted for an entire summer, but never played it regularly after that. I've always been playing StarCraft II, and even though I'm only a Platinum Terran, it's still fun for me. I also love watching tournaments just because of the sheer excitement and drive to play I get from spectating. Sometimes I think about how that works - simply seeing something you have an intense passion for spurs a reaction, a strong desire to work and progress in that passion.
Anyways, I am a Nintendo fan (Super Mario Sunshine ftw hell yeah), and I like to watch SSBB and SSBM tournaments. I'm horrible at both games, but they're fun to watch and to see how open and down-to-earth the competitors are kinda makes me feel like the scene for these games could get really big really fast. I recently watched the Apex 2015 tournament, and it was much more relaxed in terms of player restrictions than, say, a professional StarCraft II tournament. In SCII, players have to sit in soundproofed boxes and stuff. In SSBB, I thought it was awesome that the competitors were sitting next to each other in the open air (even to the crowd), talking and laughing in between matches. That's what I kind of imagine in terms of my eSports ideality: in the end, it's all about having fun. Playing the game for fun with the people you like to play it with, just like when we were kids.
Anyways, I am a Nintendo fan (Super Mario Sunshine ftw hell yeah), and I like to watch SSBB and SSBM tournaments. I'm horrible at both games, but they're fun to watch and to see how open and down-to-earth the competitors are kinda makes me feel like the scene for these games could get really big really fast. I recently watched the Apex 2015 tournament, and it was much more relaxed in terms of player restrictions than, say, a professional StarCraft II tournament. In SCII, players have to sit in soundproofed boxes and stuff. In SSBB, I thought it was awesome that the competitors were sitting next to each other in the open air (even to the crowd), talking and laughing in between matches. That's what I kind of imagine in terms of my eSports ideality: in the end, it's all about having fun. Playing the game for fun with the people you like to play it with, just like when we were kids.
That's good for a first post.
I think this went well, I really do. I'm excited to write another post for everybody, and I appreciate everyone that even decided to glance at the article. Thanks for reading everyone, and I'll be back soon.
