Otaku Matsuri (Geek Fest!)

This week, it's the time to let your inner geek shine. Between a live symphony concert of Final Fantasy music and E3, the getting's good for all serious (read, 'obsessed' ^^) gamers that happen to be in LA this week.

I was very lucky and happened to meet someone who had extra comp tickets for the one night show "More Friends", featuring music from Final Fantasy 6,7,8,9 and 10 composed and directed by Nobuo Uematsu. ... in my humble opinion, the main reason the FF series is so popular is because of the intense emotions that the art and music evoke. Most fans of Final Fantasy will be able to tell you two names: Amano and Uematsu. Amano did the beautiful concept artwork and graphic designs, and Uematsu did the soundtracks. The nice part is that both of their work can be enjoyed entirely out of context by people who aren't even remotely interested in games. They're simply incredibly talented. *^_^*
Anyways, I went with some friends, three of whom had never played any of them, and by the end they were considering playing them! The concert was at the Universal CityWalk ampitheater, which seated 2,000 people. Just walking in there, looking around, and seeing ALL THE SEATS FULL was quite an experience!! heh, all for video game music. I guess it's probably because this is the week of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Which brings me to my next topic!

Man, E3 was so much fun. This was my first year. I've been to Siggraph, Anime Expo and Comic Con, but this really topped them all. It felt like Las Vegas on crack.

The games I liked the best were: Okami, the new Prince of Persia, Katamari Damacy 2 (so addictive!) the Kingdom Hearts sequel, and the DS game 'Ace, Attorney at Law' (I think?)... but mostly I just walked around in a haze, surrounded by bright lights, colors, and loud noises. I gotta say I was sad because I couldn't get into either the Square-Enix show (tickets were gone about 20 minutes after the doors opened), the new Legend of Zelda display, or the PS3 demo (3+ hour lines?! I thought about it but chickened out in the end). ^_^; Did anyone make it into those shows? What did you think? I was very impressed by the Xbox360 and was strangely attracted to the itty-bitty new nintendo portables, the size of an original nes controller ^^

I hope everyone who's going tomorrow has a good time! If you are, I have two pieces of advice:
1) you may see the convention parking lots filled, and crazy lots selling parking for $60! Don't be fooled, there is plenty of free street parking as little as 4 blocks away. I parked on Albany and Flower both days for free from 10am-4pm, no tickets, no problem.
2) Get there early and run to Square-Enix's booth as soon as the convention opens (at 9am) to get a ticket for their show at a later time in the day. As soon as you get your ticket, go to nintendo's booth and get in the zelda line. I didn't make it myself, but my friend assured me if you go first thing, the normally 3hour wait is only about half an hour.

Anyways, take care!! *^_^*