One Winged Angel

My trip to Chicago-right before Christmas-was a much needed time away. It had been a long stressful 2009, and this trip was so much fun that I realized I need to pamper myself more often. It really recharged me. I felt like a different person.

Chicago is a wonderful city. We stayed at the Omni on the "Magnificent Mile" and can't say enough good things about this hotel. Got a great deal on the room, boy it pays to look on the net. We had so much fun in Chicago that we stayed two extra nights.

Every corner of the Mag Mile was decorated with Christmas lights, evergreen boughs and Christmas trees. First night there, we ate at the hotel restaurant "676" (food was great!) overlooking the sights of the city. It started to snow big fluffy flakes as we dined to Christmas music. After that wonderful meal, I felt ready to pounce at the city and that's just what we did. We danced (I still dance like Beavis), took in a few jazz clubs and shopped...tons of good eating, couple of chocolate shops, lots of walking and all the museums my feet could stand. Even with good walking boots on, my feet were still hurting from all the miles. I don't know how they do it, but those Chicago ladies walk around in four-inch high heel boots on icy sidewalks, while the wind whips their hair all over the place...I was like, WTD, how the heck do they do that? They walk kinda funny 'cause their feet are killing them, but they look darn stylish doing it. Stylishly funny!

A few pics of downtown Chicago:

First night there.

Now for the Concert. It was a blast. It was by far the best Final Fantasy concert I've been to. Nobuo Uematsu with his Black Mages performed a rock version of "One Winged Angel" (twice!) and brought the house down. It was amazing to finally see it performed by Nobuo. I love Uematsus' work. Own many FF and game soundtracks, but that's another story Watching him perform was sheer delight. Sadly, I wasn't able to meet him. They had special tickets for a meet & greet which sold out fast. I'm going to make sure I'm part of his next meet and greet.

The conductor, Arnie Roth added more content to the concert, so it was three wonderful hours long. He played the much anticipated "Dancing Mad" and Susan Callaway sang one of my fave songs from FFIX. Excited is an understatement how I felt being there.

Videos of Susan Calloway. If you'd like to hear her singing. First is her voice and clips of FFX. Her lovely voice vibrated through the hall and everyone fell silent when she sang this song beautifully. 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrAcbXV7RP0[/youtube]

Miss Calloway singing a song from FFX, "Suteki Da Ne" (she did five) which she sang perfectly:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3Huy8lzi5Y[/youtube]

And, one of my very favorites is "Melodies of Life from FF IX:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7PC7XqZSsU[/youtube]

I don't think I did the youtube videos right, but if you'd like you can click on them.

There's something about hearing it sung live in a concert hall while seeing CG cut scenes on a massive screen. You had to be there to really hear and feel her stunning voice filling the air. We all feel in love with FF IX all over again. I still perfer the Japanese sung version over the English one, but Miss Callaway did a wonderful performance.

FF IX is old style. I guess that's what draws me into it. It's a very charming game that grabs your attention at once with its opening scene. Unfortunately, Square has pulled away from making FF games like this for a more modern feel. I'm hoping they'll go back to their roots and bring some of us hardcore FF fans a much needed old style game. ViVi, Moggies, what more could you want from a game-or from life for that matter?

I got a few pics of Nobuo and Square-ENIX walking to the concert hall.

He always wears his trademark head scarves.

From concert:

SEPHIROTH!

This is as close as I got. For some reason they let me get close enough to take this pic and he even looked up and smiled at me I felt like a kid unwrapping her fist system.

Now, if you'll excuse me, off to find warp pipes! . . .