mDuo13

I am actually kind of remiss in not mentioning this until now, but I guess technically today is the "official" release date for my talented friend Ty's new album, We're All In This Together. I've been listening to this album pretty much nonstop since Friday, so I can attest firsthand that it is good music.

I've been following Ty since he was just posting orchestral Zelda arrangements on VGMix, and chatting with him on IRC and so forth thereafter. (Actually, he's the main composer for my visual novel project, ReVamped.) I was a little surprised when I found out he made rock music, too, but pleasantly so. After all, the first such track I heard, "Faded Grey", has become one of my favorite songs of all time. I like the way his music contains a message, but not a heavyhanded, unilateral one. Despite how he considers the music Christian Rock, explicit references to God or Jesus come up only super-rarely (not at all in the new album!). It's there if you listen closely, but he keeps the religious aspect of his music respectful without being condescending or insipid. There are also fun little geeky references hidden in the music, too: as mutual pal OverCoat points out, Ty uses the "Hey!" sound from the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles videogames as percussion in track 4. Anyway, I could've probably talked Ty into sending me some mp3s for free, but I bought the album instead because it is worth it and I think you should too. (You can at least stream the music on the site.) If only there were hardcopies available...

With that said, it is time for today's kanji update! The three kanji of today are:

• 米 - bei, mai, kome - "rice"/"America" as in 北米 (North America), 南米 (South America), 欧米 (The West), and 玄米 (brown rice).
• 多 - oo, ta - "many" - as in 多い (many), 多分 (probably), and 多少 (more or less).
• 朝 - asa, chou - "morning" - as in 朝日 (morning sun), 朝ごはん (breakfast), 朝刊 (morning news), and the irregular 今朝 (this morning). (Supposedly this kanji can also be read ashita but that sounds like a useless bit of trivia used to get it confused with 明日.