Sunday, May 22, 2011

The House Where Throats Are Slit

A few months ago I was browsing Yahoo! Japan Auctions (YJA) in order to find a replacement for my bad CD-R copy of an early Data East album. I did find what I was looking for, and here are some scans:

Front Cover Art

Back Cover Art

Disc

   I had thought it would take $100 or more to get an original, but it was more like $50. I got very lucky. Bear in mind that I have never seen one of these on ebay. Most surprising of all was the condition. Data East Game Music Scene One was released on 9-23-1988, which makes this CD 23 years old. The previous owner kept it out of sunlight, and apparently, rarely touched it. It's about as clean as a CD can be.
     I originally got a CD-R copy of this album about 10 years ago and I never knew it was a bad copy, since there wasn't any official information about the album posted in English. A few tracks were cut short. Now I can finally listen to this gem, which contains music from old Data East arcade games and a few pinball machines.
     So what does this have to do with a house where throats are slit? Well, as I was browsing YJA a few months ago, I stumbled across the cover art of a CD that looked vaguely familiar. I browse YJA in Japanese, which I can't read, and I rely upon the cover art of albums for identification. I recognized one such cover art from my wish list at vgmdb; it was some old album that no one knew anything about. The title of the album is:

Chikudenya Toubei: Hiroku Kubikiri Yakata

(The House Where Throats Are Slit)

The seller had a pretty high starting bid at 7000 yen, which was $85 at the time (it changes daily). I placed a bid of 7500 yen and thought for sure that it would be crushed. But no one bid against me and I managed to get an original of an extremely rare CD that exceeded my expectations. One fellow user on vgmdb stated of my find: "I've been on the lookout for this one for a couple years and to this day, never saw one listing in that time. Consider yourself lucky for finding this and having had no competing bidders." Here is what it looks like:

Front Cover Art

Back Cover Art

Disc

It is a full arrange album, meaning that it does not contain any actual video game music, but arranged music based on music used in the game. Out of curiosity I have been searching YJA for another listing. No such listing has been found over the past 2 months. My guess is that a complete listing, one that includes the obi, would sell for in excess of 10000 yen. The obi is a spine card and is not necessary for enjoying the music, but it is a piece of paper that fanatical collectors will pay extra for. A similar situation is in the world of collecting books, in which a dust jacket can greatly increase the value. One might surmise that I am fanatical, since I was willing to pay $85 for a CD. But that is not the case. If I could trade for this CD, that is, get a CD-R from someone, then I would have done so. But no one has it! I don't even know of anyone that has it in the mp3 format! So I was left with no choice in the matter.

I bought this CD without having heard any samples first, due to the inability to even get samples. This CD was released on 1-21-1990, and is one of my favorite arranged albums. I have listened to it more than 10 times over the past two months. This is a classic and one that I will enjoy for the rest of my life. I had to make a translation request in order to get the track list, since, as you can see, almost everything is typed in Japanese. You can get more album details here: VGMDB official page.

Honestly, some of the music on this album deeply affects me; I find myself not humming, but replaying, it in my mind. It cuts right into the core of emotion, especially the track where the shakuhachi (Japanese flute) is played. I am left with a feeling that is not suitable for words, as the words don't exist. This makes me wonder: Is it correct for me to say that I "love" this music? No, I don't think so. The word "love" has become overused and misused and used to explain anything from slight adoration to maniacal dedication. The best I can say is that my emotions are aroused when I listen to this music. I don't know how to explain in words what that means. I could cheat and act like everyone else and use the word "love".

It's unfortunate that this music is so difficult to obtain.

EDIT:

I have no idea why the text suddenly became double-spaced. I tried to correct it, but was unable to do so. This site is free, and anything free is worth what you paid for it. Lol.

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I am made of particles, known as quarks and electrons, that are at least 13.72 billion years old. Although my body is very young, the constituents are very old and come and go as they please. It's astonishing that individuality exists when each one of us are made of the same basic parts. It's even more astonishing that self-awareness exists, since even objects as simple as paper clips are made of the same parts as human beings.

My body was here before I was born and it will be here after I die.

So while I am in this brief configuration known as life I try to learn as much as possible, since my personality enjoys it. My first fascination in this short life was dinosaurs; I won a Dinosaur Expert Award in kindergarten. For most of my childhood, I read about the Animal Kingdom. I also read more than 100 Choose Your Own Adventure books and numerous other young adult fiction from my school library. Since age 5, I have been reading at a sometimes voracious pace. I didn't start seriously reading science fiction until age 19, though.

My interest in politics is as great as my interest in professional sports and I drink alcohol as often as I get lung surgery. I am heterosexual, but I rarely date women and prefer to read a tale, rather than chase some tail.

Qool Quotes

"The brain, knowing that a person can't live forever in this world, rationalizes a future, or other-dimensional, world in which immortality is possible. In other words, religion is the earliest form of science fiction."
-Philip Jose Farmer (1977)

"Forget Jesus, the stars died so you could be born."
-Lawrence M. Krauss (2009)

"When you ask what are protons and electrons I ought to answer that this question is not a profitable one to ask and does not really have a meaning. The important thing about electrons and protons is not what they are but how they behave - how they move. I can describe the situation by comparing it to a game of chess. In chess, we have various chessmen, kings, knights, pawns and so on. If you ask what a chessmen is, the answer would be that it is a piece of wood, or a piece of ivory, or perhaps just a sign written on a paper, or anything whatever. It does not matter. Each chessmen has a characteristic way of moving and this is all that matters about it. The whole game of chess follows from this way of moving the various chessmen."
-Paul Dirac, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1933

"You will be astonished when I tell you what this curious play of carbon amounts to. A candle will burn some four, five, six, or seven hours. What, then, must be the daily amount of carbon going up into the air in the way of carbonic acid! What a quantity of carbon must go from each of us in respiration! What a wonderful change of carbon must take place under these circumstances of combustion or respiration! A man in twenty-four hours converts as much as seven ounces of carbon into carbonic acid; a milch cow will convert seventy ounces, and a horse seventy-nine ounces, solely by the act of respiration. That is, the horse in twenty-four hours burns seventy-nine ounces of charcoal, or carbon, in his organs of respiration to supply his natural warmth in this way, by the conversion of carbon, not in a free state, but in a state of combination. And what an extraordinary notion this gives us of the alterations going on in our atmosphere. As much as 5,000,000 pounds, or 548 tons, of carbonic acid is formed by respiration in London alone in twenty-four hours. And where does all this go? Up into the air."
-Michael Faraday (1860)

"In modern war, one individual can cause the destruction of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. He could do so by pushing a button; he may not feel the emotional impact of what he is doing, since he does not see, does not know the people whom he kills; it is almost as if his act of pushing the button and their death had no real connection. The same man would probably be incapable of even slapping, not to speak of killing, a helpless person."
-Eric Fromm (1955)

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Sunday, May 22, 2011

The House Where Throats Are Slit

Chikudenya Toubei: Hiroku Kubikiri Yakata

(The House Where Throats Are Slit)

Front Cover Art

Back Cover Art

Disc

It's unfortunate that this music is so difficult to obtain.

EDIT:

I have no idea why the text suddenly became double-spaced. I tried to correct it, but was unable to do so. This site is free, and anything free is worth what you paid for it. Lol.

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