Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

Oh crap, still getting work done... Should be ok though, Steris can take the Lopen out with one arm tied behind her back. Congrats @Herowannabe, Human crushed it, as he always does. Nice roast too @Felt, that was a fun round.

Get your tiki torches out, grab a high ball of something strong, set the way back machine to the exotic island crazed 50's and 60's and go on a ride with Les Baxter and and the Teen Drums with the track "Boomada".

If Ray Harryhausen and H.R. Giger decided to team up on making a live action movie you'd get Tetsuo: The Iron Man. I forgot what a hard to watch movie that was, really well made, but man, hard movie to watch. How about The Watchmen, speaking of watching... (movie or comic)

This is exactly what I needed to hear, thanks Briar King. Giving it another go... Thanks for the advice too, at @Ammanas, I don't really think it's a case of Malazan fatigue though, if I do end up throwing in the towel, it will be after RotCG, and it will only be Esselmont. I love Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, sadly no audio book for that, but it's fun to see Jeeves and Wooster as amoral necromancers, pretty dark, but funny stuff.

Hahaha, so good! @whattheHoid, Cowboy Bebop can be summed up as follows: Too short, need more episodes. Christopher Nolan Batman movies are really good, despite having Christian Bale. The following is spoilered because if you like Christian Bale, you probably don't want to look at it. Batman Begins is my favorite non Tim Burton batman movie, so here's the summary of that one. The Hero's Journey get's turned on it's head, the Wise Mentor of the protagonist is in fact a crazy anarchist bent on destroying civilization, needless to say, Batman stops him. Michael Kane is a great Alfred. A bit of an obscure movie, but it's one of my all time favorites, how about Werner Herzog's Aguirre: Wrath of God?

We don't know what 4th Era Scadrial tech is, maybe it's all about moving electrons through complicated silicon based switches... And there was much rejoicing.

Oh, I care— A LOT. You should totally post this, This would be an instance of the very infrequently sighted mathematical conundrum of the Radical of Radical,i.e. what is the square root of Rad? I can only say that it will be definitely proven after firerust posts the theme for Megatronus the Fallen. I've actually listened to this track a number of times again, and what I am talking about is totally valid. The opening of the song promises a certain mood, and I am totally ok with the change form major to minor, but there is a point, specifically at 14 seconds in where a dissonance that is incongruous with this change occurs, and it throws off the otherwise powerful movement. This seems to be the hinge moment where the change from minor to major occurs, but there has to be another way to do this, right? Like I said, I am a fan of this song (I truly think this is one of your best), and I think this is something that you should give another listen to. I think this one of those instances where you can (using your inimitable, god given musical gifts) figure out how to square the circle, it is so close to being perfect that I think I would be remiss in my duties of encouragement if I didn't try and push you towards perfecting it (how you go about that, I have no idea, but I get the intuitive sense that you are SO close and you can do it). Your compositions are amazing Firerust, totally don't want to be discouraging in the least, all I am trying to do is provide some constructive criticism. Your work is amazing, don't discount Julliard, your's is a talent that should be fostered and shared. Maybe my posting this is part of god's plan (I had deja vu while I was typing this, is this because I am sleep deprived or is this because God works in mysterious ways?) You have a God given gift, you do yourself or the world no favors by not exploring/honing it to the finest. For real.

After Erickson, I just don't know if I can do ICE. He's just so clumsy with language. I am about 1/16th of the way into Return of the Crimson Guard, but I don't know how far my love of the Book of the Fallen can take me. My problem with Esselmont is that he tries to write beyond his capacity, and oddly this is the thing that also gives me hope. When he's not trying to use a standard malazan word that he doesn't really understand (like actinic), and he kind of forgets that he is writing, he manages to give up some interesting information about important Malazan characters or important Malazan world building details, in a way that flows quite naturally. So my question is, does he ever give up on trying to be something that he's not? He's not a jaded intellectual (like Erickson) with a poetic turn of phrase. Does he ever find his own voice and write simple, straight forward unassuming prose? Night of Knives is the work of imaginative fiction that I enjoyed least though I completed it, White Sand Volume 2 is a pretty close second, but I really at this point think I would rather read an extensive plot summary than read another Esselmont book. The part in RoTCG where Kyle surges forth to protect the magus was horrible. What's his motivation? Why is he doing this? Why is he more worried about this supposed spirit of his people than the hand he just lost? This all make no sense, but yet I feel the subtle hook of the narrative that his sword just a new powerup, but I'm also wary that this will ultimately mean nothing. I'm also interested (against my better judgement) in RoTCG because Greymane is in it, but this also feels kind of like the quarter you trade in for a token at the arcade, in that you give up something of value (your time) for something that can never be redeemed (revelation). I want to thank you all for talking me through finishing The Crippled God (which was beyond awesome), so I guess I am just looking for some specific reassurance that the journey through the ICE Novels of the Malazan empire has at the end a worthy destination.

Ok, so I finally listened through the whole track collection. I am going to double post, I know this is upon, but c'est la vie. Also, I am going to be dispensing unsolicited advice, I know this can also be upon, but again c'est la vie. Also, additionally, I am not a musician, so treat my advice like Michaelangelo would treat the advice of a fishmonger's wife about the best way to carve the Pieta. First off, the melody line for every song is great, the atmosphere for the scene is spot on, but some songs work better than others. I think this is really only a problem because these songs aren't fully orchestrated (there are times when the synthesizer sounds too much like a synthesizer, and if you had a full orchestra playing this, it would just sound AWESOME). This is totally information to do with as you wish, but as a sentient awakened sword, err I mean human listening to your work, here is the list of songs that I thought were best (from strongest to least strong): Mistborn Suite: This includes a lot of possibly pull-out-able refrains that would be nice to hear in other songs. Kelsier vs. Inquisitor: This song is amazing, sounds like it is already keyed to music, one suggestion would be to read the battle scene and transcribe the scene into musical notation based on key moments of the scene as full stops (this is just a theoretical exercise, but should be interesting I think) and then look back at the song as you have it written, and try and fully imagine the scene with the music behind it. The tone and atmosphere are spot on, but I think that you should possibly record a video of yourself playing this and then add captions or subtitles that explains the action of the scene. Meet Zane: This song is so moodily creepy, it's so good it almost beat out the Mistborn Suite, except that the Mistborn Suite does a great job of capturing the tone and movement of Mistborn. @Chaos really should listen to your Meet Zane song (added a link and a tag so it's easier for him to do it), this will give him a soundtrack for his hatred of Zane. Sazed. So good. Again, this is a song that sounds great, but full orchestration on this one would be AMAZING! There are some depths of the human soul that this song should be reaching, that it can't because the instruments aren't bass-ey enough. The Lord Ruler's Arrival. I don't know if you are familiar with Geinoh Yamashirogumi's soundtrack for Akira the movie, but your composition is just as powerful and moving as his composition "Battle against the Clowns", which I think is one of the best compositions for film ever. Your opening dischord and the minor response is SO GOOD, but I think that this is another one where full orchestration would make this WAY better. They Shall Fear Us Intro: I am totally into this, but there's a musical change that happens 32 seconds in that totally undercuts the tone of all of the proceeding music. Maybe there's a better way to shift this to major? Up to 17 seconds in, this is my favorite of your compositions, but the shift (though it is gradual) doesn't really work for me. Koloss Breach: This is probably the most cinema ready song that you have composed, I can totally see Doxson dying in slow motion with this song playing. So good. I'm going to stop there (you have to stop sometime, right). I think these songs are SO GOOD, you really have to do something with them (whether it's using them to get a full ride scholarship to Juliard, or starting a kickstarter campaign where you actually get them made and they possibly end up as the soundtrack to Mistborn) is totally up to you. *EDIT*: I'm working right now with the Mistborn Suite on repeat, it's an incredibly nice soundtrack to work to.

@Firerust, I don't know if you can compose for a full symphony, but you should start a kickstarter campaign to get these fully orchestrated. I am listening to Kelsier VS. Inquisitor, and it would sound so good fully orchestrated. It's epic in a Carmina Burana O Fortuna kind of way, but the synthesized instruments keep it from being blow your socks out to Jupiter level good (they sadly only get blown out to the asteroid belt between mars and Jupiter). Maybe even talk to the people that did the Kaladin album and see about producing these songs with them, these are freaking amazing. I read in an earlier post that you are going to be starting your mission, why not find out the best place to record this with a symphony and then do your mission there? I'm not LDS so I don't know how all of this works, but it seems like this is a compelling reason to have a VERY specific spot to be sent on mission. I just have to let you know, I am converting these to MP3 so I can listen to them on my phone, holy crap, so good. I would be willing to host a zip download of these as MP3 on my oneDrive, so that people that are having trouble listening to these on their phones would no longer have that trouble.

Rad, I love how Shallan is Steven. Perfect.

Holy crap @Firerust, these are so good! I love the Mistborn suite! The tone and atmosphere is perfect for Mistborn.