A Living Appreciation #1 - John Williams

John Williams was born in New York in February 1932 and is currently 83 years old.

To say he composed the music of my childhood would be an understatement, as his film scores for Steven Spielberg and George Lucas in particular have been so embedded in my mind that they are evocative of a time and place and a feeling more powerful than most pop songs of the same time.

Not only is his film music special and memorable and so closely associated with each film he scored, but his compositions have also transcended the films they inhabit to become instant mood setters or sign posts to certain moments in time.  His simple theme for the film Jaws came to represent the shark in Spielberg's masterful thriller, but it's also used all the time now to convey any impending danger.  His score for 1978's original Superman movie is now synonymous with flying and breaking free from earthly constraints and soaring.  The recent movie trailer for the new Jurassic Park film called Jurassic World featured just a few moments of his original score, and instantly viewers were transported back to that magical summer in 1993 when we first believed dinosaurs were back roaming the earth. And a burst of his original Star Wars music sent tingles down my spine while I watched the 88-second trailer for the new Star Wars movie coming later this year.  A glimpse of the Millennium Falcon and John's music transported me back to being 8-years old and watching Episode IV for the first time in 1977.

Mr. Williams has been awarded many prizes, including 5 Academy Awards, over the years for his film scores.  But you can't quantify what his music has meant to me over the years.  And he's still reaching out to new generations of movie-goers, with his music for the first three Harry Potter films setting a tone that the other composers would follow and make that music and indelible part of their childhoods as well.

The whimsy and adventure and emotion in his scores for films as diverse as E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List, and Star Wars show that he is a man of extraordinary gifts as a film composter and conductor.  Many people talk about this band or that singer being the "soundtrack to our lives" and for sure I have a few of those as well.  But I spent much of my youth watching movies, and re-watching movies on this new 1980s technology called a VCR, that Mr. Williams's music is truly the soundtrack of my life and I want to say "Thank you" for so much great music and movie moments over the years.  I can't imagine a world without your film scores.

Introduction to the "Living Appreciation" series

One of the main reasons I wanted to start blogging again was to commit this series to paper, so to speak, and share my appreciations with everyone.

So many older entertainers, singers, actors, directors, novelists, etc have laudatory and praise-filled pieces in magazines and online media AFTER they pass away.  It's only natural to honor their memory.  What I would like to do with this series is say many of the same nice things about some of my most favorite people while they are still alive so they can appreciate the praise while their still living.

I'm going to concentrate mostly on those performers and experts in their field who are over 65 years old.  Despite the sudden departure of Robin Williams and Philip Seymour Hoffman recently, those are unexpected and tragic, I would like to focus on people who've had a long career and hopefully a fulfilling life.

I have the first 3 or 4 subjects already in my head, but after that I'll just be winging it with whomever comes up that week getting the slot.

I hope you enjoy!
-Jason

Yahtzee & Dice with Buddies

I roll dice everyday.  Many times a day in fact.  But I never actually touch real dice.  They're virtual dice in two of my favorite iPad/Smartphone apps - Yahtzee and Dice with Buddies.

I've always loved playing Yahtzee.  But it's one of those games you really can't play on your own so much.  You can play for a score, but you need another player there to witness your awesomeness and compete against.  One place I used to always spend hours playing Yahtzee was on airplanes that have that screen in the back of the headrest in front of you so you can watch movies and play games, etc.  I always picked Yahtzee and would play against the computer for hours of my trans-Pacific flights.

So I was really happy when I got my first smartphone in 2010 and I saw that EA and Hasbro had made an official Yahtzee app for iPhone, Android and tablet.  I bought it immediately and it soon became my go-to game for waiting rooms, long lines, anything where I needed to occupy a few minutes doing basically nothing.  I amassed some pretty impressive stats over the next few years and would challenge friends and co-workers to play whenever I could, since the AI in the app became rather predictable.

Then, about a year ago, I saw a new app on Facebook called Dice with Buddies.  Like "Words with Friends", it was a simple Yahtzee rip-off, with two distinct differences.
1 - You had a chance to use a "bonus roll" after the three standard rolls of each turn.  You could win free bonus rolls by playing well in the game, but you could also buy as many bonus rolls as you like thru in-app purchases, for about .17cents per roll or about $2.99 for 18.  This opportunity, of course, changes the game drastically and so it isn't as "pure" as Yahtzee, but I found myself playing it almost exclusively because of
2 - You play against other real people.  There is no computer opponent.  You take a turn and then wait for your friend (online or real) to take theirs.  I have one friend in America and we both like to play so much that we usually have 6 or 7 concurrent games happening at once.  Plus, the time difference works in a way since we usually have time to see that day's moves and then make our own before the other person wakes up.  I also play against a few people in Japan and a few that I met thru the game and I have no idea where they live or what language they speak.
This aspect of always competing against another real person and the ability to bonus roll yourself out of tight spots has me hooked and I play about 1 to 2 hours everyday.

And again, my stats are pretty impressive if I do say so myself.  I have a 67% winning percentage and am already a level 9 after only playing for about 9 months.

The ONLY thing I've never been able to do in all the "Challenges" that the Yahtzee app gives you to complete is be a "minimalist."  That means scoring 5 points exactly in a game.  It might sound easy, but it's terrifically difficult.  In order to score 5 points in a game, which is the lowest score you can get, you have to put a zero in every category except "Chance" which simply counts up the number of your dice and gives you a score. And in that category, you have to score a 5-of-a-kind (Yahtzee) in ONES after already having put a zero in your ONES category AND your 5-of-a-kind category.  I don't try to do it that often, but it's really hard and I would love to hear from anyone that has been able to do it.

OK - enough about my Dice obsession...  but if you want to play, my DwB name is JasonJapan.  See ya and thanks for reading!

Wow - it's 2015 already...

Hello!  Ohisashiburi desu ne.  Long time no see - no write - no blog.  I stopped writing in this space way back in 2011 and 2012, but here it is, three years later and the blog still exists.  Google or Blogspot or our internet overlords never saw fit to delete this blog.

Which is good, cuz recently I've felt an urge to get back to writing.  And starting tomorrow, I will have 5 weeks of vacation with little to do each day.

So I have some plans for this space...  I'm not sure who will be reading, but I guess my first series of posts will mostly be for me, but hopefully of interest to others as well.

I don't think my writing in the next few weeks will be too Japan centric, so if you mostly follow me for my vids and thoughts on Japan, then these may or may not interest you.

Anyway - if you are reading, I appreciate it, and if you want to leave a comment, I will do my best to read them and reply as needed.

More soon,
Jason