A Retrospective

One year ago today I was in Chicago seeing Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy. That was 'defiantly' the experience of a lifetime! And a great birthday gift to myself.


I remember having a really hard time getting to sleep the night before, following Distant Worlds on Facebook and watching as they talked about Nobuo Uematsu getting to Chicago and what he was up to before the Concert. I couldn't believe that I was actually sleeping (or not) in the same city as one of my heroes!


The next morning I tried to sleep in but that didn't really work either so I decided it was time to explore the world map. First off I had myself a wonderful egg omelet for breakfast and it was pretty dang goooooooooood. After that I headed out to Millennium Park. It was really big and beautiful and I took quite a few pictures. (All of which I have lost because I dared my friend to run over my cellphone with his car to see what would happen, well guess what.... it broke.....) It was a really hot day and the sun was really bright but I enjoyed myself none the less.


After wandering around the park for a while I found myself near an art exhibit and decided to walk in and take a look. It was nice to be out of the hot sun and there was some pretty neat stuff in there! I wandered around in there for about an hour and a half and kept wishing that there was someone else there with me so that they could appreciate it with me. And so that I didn't feel quite so silly when I would say to myself out loud, "Gee, that's pretty cool. What do you think it means?"


I soon noticed that I had very little time to get to my concert so I made my way to Symphony Center and boy was it crowded, it made me a tad uncomfortable. So I walked around to find a place where there weren't so many people and as I walked down a hallway I was greeted by some AWESOME pictures! The whole hallway was covered with pictures of performances from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra including pictures of some of my favorite conductors like Riccardo Muti.


As I was looking over these gems I started to hear faint music. At first I thought perhaps it was just in my head because there's always music in my head and of course I was really excited about what I was about to participate in but I noticed that if I went closer to some doors along one wall (which turned out to be side doors to the hall.) I could hear the orchestra rehearsing Dancing Mad with Arnie Roth. I was surprised that no one else walking through the hall had noticed, although there were not a lot of people there and most of them were just walking through while talking to there friends and probably did not take the time to listen for the quite music. I sat down next to the door and just listened for about 10-15 minutes before they stopped but I felt privileged to be the only fan there to get a preview of the music.


When I finally got to go sit down I could hardly hold in my excitement anymore! I was towards the middle in the second row. THE SECOND ROW!!! When the concert finally started and Nobuo Uematsu came out on stage to greet his fans I was almost close enough to touch him! And boy did he get a good reception from us! Of course the concert was really fun and Nobuo Uematsu and Arnie Roth even preformed a new piece together. It was quite a treat! Especially since it was a world premiere!


After the show I had the opportunity to meet Nobuo Uematsu, Arnie Roth, Benyamin Nuss, and Susan Calloway. Admittedly I (and most others) didn't care much about meeting the last two but it was still pretty cool. I hadn't brought anything for them to sign though because I thought that the shop they had at the front of Symphony Center only accepted cash which I didn't find out until later that night was wrong. So I asked people in line next to me if they wanted me to get anything signed for them and this guy behind me takes off his backpack and pulls out this HUGE stack of Uematsu merchandise! After looking though his things he found one that he wanted and handed it to me. People in line looked at me like I was crazy for doing that but what else was I supposed to do? Arnie Roth and Nobuo Uematsu found it pretty surprising too but I think it made a good impression on them. :)


After that I went back to my hotel room briefly to get something to eat and to clean up a little before the next concert. When I got back I found out I could buy stuff with my debit card and bought a cool shirt, the Distant Worlds art book, and the Distant Worlds: Returning Home DVD.


The second concert was also great! And they did a super fun One-Winged Angel singalong! That was probably the most fun I've ever had!


Then I got to go meet the cool guys again and this time I actually had the art book for them to sign. I also gave Nobuo Uematsu a complement that I hope he remembers, he sure gave a good reaction when I said it too him. I told him that his music was a gateway drug and that now I was listening to crazy things like Penderecki! 


After getting my art book signed I pretty much ran back to my hotel with my treasure! It was a really great day!


And now one year later I'm getting ready to do it all over again! Just this morning tickets went on sale for the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Final Fantasy which will be held in Rosemont, Illinois which is just about 18 miles from Chicago. So this December I'm going to get to meet Nobuo Uematsu again! Sorry if you where hoping to see me for Christmas. ;)