Zelda Symphony and other stuff

So on Saturday I went to the Sydney Opera House to watch the Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses (Fig 1). I was a bit apprehensive about it because 1) the ticket was pretty expensive and I thought I shouldn't have forked out so much when a cheaper ticket would let me hear the same things (and I don't really need to watch the orchestra play) and 2) because I had already listened to most of the songs through the CD that came with Skyward Sword.

Figure 1. Program leaflet for The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses presented by the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

Plus, I went by myself because I didn't really bother going around asking, "Hey, you want to listen to a bunch of people play music from this video game series I like? Oh, you don't like that video game series? Oh you like it, but not the music (haha, nobody exists in this category)?" So I sat awkwardly by myself (after waiting awkwardly by myself outside) while everyone around me was either dressed up as a Zelda character or wearing a Zelda t-shirt or playing Zelda on their 3DS. I wore a Pokemon t-shirt.

But then the music dimmed, and the Sydney Symphony started playing the Prelude, and the tears started flowing.

The concert hall was packed (Fig 2) and it was full of people who love Zelda and love its music. They were people who, like me, were drawn in by the magic of the ocarina and the windwaker and ... wolf howling. Strangely they played very little of the music from Skyward Sword, but you can probably see there are two harps there. They played much better than Link on his little dinky Goddess Harp.

Figure 2. The packed Concert Hall and the Sydney Symphony accompanied by Cantillation, conducted by Eimear Noone.

Anyway, after the prelude I stopped crying, since the initial shock of hearing my favourite music being played live wore out, and so I simply sat in admiration of show that Sydney Symphony, Cantillation and Eimear Noone had set out for us. Eeimar Noone, by the way, is also the composer for the music to StarCraft 2, Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft, so as far as video game music goes, she's a pretty big deal. And her passion for it really showed as she conducted the Symphony. And the cheers that erupted when she drew forth the Windwaker itself to conduct the Windwaker Symphony movement was spectacular, only beaten out by the cheers for the second and third encores, which played Gerudo Valley (personally one of my favourite pieces) and the Majora's Mask medley (which I am ashamed to say I have not played!)

Speaking of Gerudo Valley, the concert inspired me to finally return to Ocarina of Time to try to beat the Gerudo Fortress, which I had previously ragequit at due to sheer amounts of bullshit. It wasn't as difficult this time around, so I quickly beat the mini-dungeon and I'll try to finish the game sometime in the next couple of weeks. Since uni is starting soon and all, so I should probably get that done and dusted.

Oh, and I did say other stuff.

But I think that's enough for now.

I guess I'll just say I watched Django Unchained and I liked it? It was reaaaaaaaaaaaaally long and it felt like it was never going to end. But then it did, and it was an all right ending. I guess. Lots of blood as per Tarantino standards.

All right I'm off.