Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Selphie in Distant Worlds: Vancouver

On Thursday, October 8th, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra played Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy at the Orpheum in Downtown. It's an otaku event, so I MUST be there! It's actually thanks to Radiant Dreamer that I knew about this early on and got tickets for two cheap seats closest to the front. I went with my brother who took some of the pictures here. I also went with Selphie Tilmitt ^_^

I believe this is the first time I went for an outing carrying a figure in my pocket in order to take photos... I blame Danny Choo for this!


Before the concert we had dinner at White Spot, which was only a few blocks away from the Orpheum. A chance to have fun with figure photos while waiting for our food! Unfortunately we didn't bring a proper camera and the lighting was horrible... So camera phone was used heavily and had to deal with what light we have above our table. Pardon the horrible picture quality...

This are our tickets. My brother sat in seat 49, while I sat in seat 48. The waitress came by with our drinks when I was taking this picture. She commented, "how cute" when she saw this ^^;

Here's Selphie trying to sip on my Peach Daiquiri... Oy oy oy Selphie! You're still underage! I ordered peach because I'm sure it'd be yellow and have a good colour match with Selphie. Oh and the Daiquiri was on special that night, so I had to have one, plus I didn't have to drive afterwards XD

Selphie with my Spicy Crunch chicken burger, trying to steal a bite. It was a good burger. The spiciness have quite a bite. Usually western "spiciness" isn't as spicy as Indonesian "spicy". Or maybe I can't really handle spicy that well, lol.

I was planning to arrive at the Orpheum a bit earlier to take pictures with Selphie, but instead I met a friend of mine from high school, whom I knew like Final Fantasy a lot, and in fact the person who got me into FF in the first place (with FFIV). He also pointed me out to another couple of friends who I haven't seen for at least 10 years! We caught up for a bit and found out what we were all up to. Unfortunately people were getting to their seats. In the last 10 minutes I went and search for Radiant Dreamer who was in the front row... Easy to find :P

I finally met Mrs. Radiant Dreamer and she recognized me as the guy with the messy room. Ahahaha! I was quite embarassed that I'm known for that XD So we had a bit of a chat, but unfortunately the concert was about to start, so I had to get to my seat real quickly.

The first half was great! I was enjoying a lot of the FF VIII. A lot of my favourite music was from VIII, but I was loving the music from other series as well. Totally loved the Vamo' alla Flamenco from IX.

This photo and the first photo of the post was taken during intermission. Bad lighting again, plus you can only do so much with a camera phone ^^; Selphie stands ready with her nunchuks... and I'm wondering what the people behind me who are looking at me taking this picture are thinking about XD

Second half starts with FF VII's opening. Another great score! The crowd was loving all the video that was playing on the screen... Unfortunately I couldn't relax to slump on my seat because the guy in front of me had a big head and he INSISTS on sitting up the whole time! I was able to see the screen, but I feel sorry for the person right behind me ^^;

In the beginning of the second half they also showed a video of the original Final Fantasy composer, Nobuo Uematsu, who couldn't be here in Vancouver... He's just finishing the score for Final Fantasy XIV in Germany. Nobuo shows his weird sense of humour in the video XD

The main concert ended with the Opera from FFVI... but of course we had to have encore. They can't finish without playing One Winged Angel! It's a staple to any Final Fantasy concert (at least in North America). It definitely stood out as one of Nobuo Uematsu's finest.

So of course I had to get the CD soundtrack. I've heard it at least 3 times in a row in the car. I usually would get a shirt, but I think the design was too plain. The logo in front of the CD is what's in the front of the shirt. If the wings was in the back and the logo in the front then I'd be sold right there and then.

All in all a very good time was had by all! I met with many friends and had a great night overall. Will definitely go again if they come :D

22 comments:

  1. ZOMG. That sounds like a very unforgettable experience! I wish they would do something like that here... (although it's highly unlikely ;A;)

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  2. Nice outing! It was my first time taking a figure out with me when I did my Japan trip. Most of the time I finish taking pics before anyone noticed but when I got to the Maid cafe, one of the maid noticed my asuka and screamed out loud lol.

    Nice you meet up with dreamer and Mrs. dreamer, lol on being recognized as the guy with messy room :P

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  3. They were thinking...

    "I think the guy in front of us just took a pic of that figure's underpants."

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  4. Wow, now this would have been a ton of fun!

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  5. lol nice! I'm glad Selphie enjoyed the show, and the boozing too. :D

    So THAT'S where you were sitting! Cool!

    I wonder if it sounded better in that area than where I was sitting. First row is nice, but not sure if we really got the best sounding experience.

    I KNOW which White Spot you went to too! XD
    I think the server might be just being polite with you. I wonder what she REALLY thought... probably what FatB posted. Ecchi Man still at large! XD

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  6. Ahh isn't that's a nice experience.

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  7. the daikiri and hamburguer looks delicious.

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  8. Hahah, How come I nvr heard of this event, either way, not a big FF fan.

    Though I would kill to hear One winged angel in an opera

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  9. @ninjovee: You may never know when it would happen in your area ^^

    @Wolfheinrich: LoL you've got some ninja figure shooting skills XD

    @FatB: Sounds about right ^^;

    @Snark: Yah, it definitely is :D

    @radiantdreamer: Well I can't really tell how they sound from where I was sitting compared to yours XD I'm betting the vocal parts might be more clearer from where you are.

    @Yamada: Indeed, indeed!

    @phossil: The daiquiri could've been better, maybe I should've gotten the mango one ^^;

    @GunStray: Oops, I guess you must've missed the post about this ^^; One WInged Angel is definitely one of the most powerful piece to be heard live!

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  10. wish i were there
    the last classical j-culture 'thing' i went to was a piano recital with FF music

    but heck, an orchestral score beats the hell out of a single instument

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  11. @Cyber_chaotic: Ah did they have a piano solo too? I wouldn't mind watching that.

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  12. Hohoho I also blame Danny Choo for carrying figures around in my pocket (first time was when I broke Kagami's twintail actually =.=;) however carrying them around has also resulted in some very nice figure photography xD

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  13. I can't afford to bring figures outdoors - I just can't ^^;

    But wow you get to go to a Final Fantasy concert, and get to meet radiant too! How nice! lol "guy with the messy room" - she sure knows how to remember you XD

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  14. Aren't you afraid of burger grease getting on Selphie?

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  15. @thetsundere: Ouch >.< Poor Kagami... I wonder how Danny always able to bring her around without damaging her twintail. I really need to bring an actual camera to these kinds of events though ^^;

    @Q: LoL is it that bad? But actually I've met Radiant before when I bought a figure from him. This was before I was completely active in DC.com though. And ya, I guess that's one way to remember somebody ^^;;;

    @AnonYImous: LOL See what I did thar? XD
    I actually had a camera trick on that shot. She was nowhere near the burger. She was barely leaning on the plate behind the burger :D

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  16. T.T Jealous

    I brought my figure with me couple times and enjoyed the weird expression on people's face lol

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  17. @Saku: Maybe they'll drop by Toronto one day ^_^

    LoL I'm so focused on the figure that I don't even see people's faces XD

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  18. If I ever go to a concert playing music of anime or games I heard before I might just start crying at the moving parts :P

    As for random staring people (when I take pix of dolls etc) I think I am pretty good with blocking people's faces out ^^;

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  19. That looks it was a fun event ^^ would love to see the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra or watever do something cool like that here in Toronto >_< haha
    Niice food ^^

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  20. Sure look like a happening event to me. Did you see other FF fans in cosplay for this event?

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  21. @chun: Ditto! I was almost in the verge of tears in one these concerts (not this one though ^^;). I had to crop a few of these pictures from this night because some guy's face was in the shot XD

    @Argyle: I really don't see why they can't come to Toronto ;)

    @LEon: I came late unfortunately so I didn't see a lot of cosplayers. I did see a Rydia from FFIV, but didn't get around to see the rest ^^;

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