CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

(this is a repost from my LiveJournal that I just wanted to share. wasn't sure if I should put this in In the Spotlight or Jam Session...lol)

last night was awesome. why? I'll tell you.

sometimes Brad's work raffles off free tickets to local events. Brad put his name in the drawing and won some yesterday. the tickets were for a concert: the Oklahoma City Philharmonic performing the music of John Williams. I didn't even know Oklahoma City HAD a philharmonic, but that's beside the point. the point is...John Williams is the greatest American composer of our time. and I've been a huge fan of his work since I was a kid. I think anyone who DOESN'T enjoy his work in some form or another needs to have their head examined. he's just that good.

hearing things like the Star Wars main title and the Indiana Jones theme performed LIVE by a REAL ORCHESTRA was just absolutely fantastic. they even played the Cantina Band song. it was just one of the coolest things I've ever been to in my whole life. I was almost brought to tears because it was just so awesome.

they performed Princess Leia's Theme, which is a beautiful piece and almost makes me cry when I listen to it in the first place. it's just so full of emotion, especially the solo violin toward the end. (if you've never heard the whole piece, go find it right now.) then later on, they performed a song he did for AI: Artificial Intelligence. more emotion there. and THEN they performed the theme from Schindler's List. so yeah, it's a wonder that I -didn't- start bawling.

ET was a movie that I never really liked, but wow, what a fantastic score it had. same thing for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

an orchestra is a fascinating thing. it's almost like a whole instrument in and of itself...it's a beautiful thing to see so many people working together so perfectly to make such a wonderful sound.

so, if any of you ever have a chance to go to something like this, DO IT.

you suck ShiHi.

I WANNA SEE THAT!!

yeah, it's one of the few times in my life that I've gotten lucky....lol

Cool stuff Shihi. I would love to see him...but my bet is he does not even know where Maine is...

well, it would have been awesome if he had really been there, but he wasn't. still, it was great.

Awesome ShiHi. I've had the great opportunity to experience something similiar--it was the Houston Orchestra performing John Williams music. You're absolutely right, his work is incredible and it was amazing to hear Star Wars, Darth Vader's march, and Indiana Jones from right there!

omgosh! i love john willams, he is AWESOME

I was in a symphonic band last school year, and we played a John Williams medley for a few of our concerts; it was fairly enjoyable. Since the college I attend is a fairly conservative Christian school, we tactfully omitted from the program the fact that Hedgwig's theme was a part of the medley. Still, it's cool that you had the opportunity to hear his music performed professionally.

well, it would have been awesome if he had really been there, but he wasn't. still, it was great.

D'oh I read it wrong. I am a goober.

I am a goober.

Can I get that on tape?

I'm truly amazed at the range of work Williams has done. From the big, epic movies of the 80s/early 90s like Star Wars and Indiana Jones, to the more modern stuff like A.I. That's a mark of talent, if you ask me: transceding the decades and genres.

AT the end of the starwars limited edition double CD score collection is a recording of him conducting the opening score to S.W.A.N.H. It goes through multiple recordings with the woodwinds taking the lead sometimes, etc. It's marvelous. John Williams is definately one of the best moden composers.

he definatly is one of the best modren, and maybe even of all time, he is amazing

I still like Arthur Sullivan better, but John Williams is definatly really great. I love the theme to Jurasic park (among many others).