live your life - like a wild beast
fly - like a bird
set no boundaries - to confine you
swell - like an ocean
always - and forever
-Casey Rankin
The year was 2009
I first heard of one of Mr Rankins songs not long after I had broken up with a girl I had been dating for three years. We've all been through the pain of a break up and I of course was going through the motions that one would undoubtedly go through when dealing with the fact that the person you were with no longer wanted to be with you-well whatever.
Anyways while dealing with the pain I threw myself at my beloved hobby,gaming, at this point in the story I should tell you, dear reader, I have a hobby WITHIN,if that makes any sense to you dear reader. Well my hobby within a hobby is collecting and playing foreign video-game titles, most notably import titles from Japan.
This is acquired taste mind you, since I only know very little Japanese the games I get tend to be of the action variety (usually featuring giant robots) games that usually require very little if any knowledge of the language to play but every once in awhile I'll dabble in text having strategy games.
Anyways I was playing one of these titles which was based off the plot of throwing several different characters from various Japanese animation. Sort of...having some of the most famous cartoon characters join forces to face a common enemy. Anyways while playing this game I heard a theme song playing, the song,of course was in Japanese but through the internet I found out the name of the singer,Casey Rankin, A singer who was born in america and lived most of his life in Japan. Anyway-His song "Sky Hurricane" despite being in a complete alien language to me was uplifting and for a bit raised my beaten and battered spirits.
(The Song in question)
Anyways It seemed that Mr. Rankin lead an interesting life- he started his musical career right here in the stats, but because of his wife at the time (who was worried that he would go down the same path as his drug using friends) he moved away to Japan-I mean you can find his bio online-The man literally just left his house and home, called his friends and was like "I'm leaving town, the house is unlocked and the keys for the car are in the ignition" and he just left! just like that!
Granted to most sensible people this seems absurd "you're living a reasonably comfortable life, why leave it just like that?" This is why I love Casey he didn't care for worldly things in the way that some people do, he didn't cling to them he just upped and left for Japan for his wife and son. Now you're probably asking yourself "what does this have to do with video-games?" to be honest, not a whole lot-
The year I heard that song and decided to research and discover more about Casey, also ended up being the same year that the man passed away from cancer. It's just the fact that hearing a small riff of an artists music in a game which happened to cheer me up, prompted me to try and find out more about the artist and the life he lead while he was alive.
(The Song in question)
Anyways It seemed that Mr. Rankin lead an interesting life- he started his musical career right here in the stats, but because of his wife at the time (who was worried that he would go down the same path as his drug using friends) he moved away to Japan-I mean you can find his bio online-The man literally just left his house and home, called his friends and was like "I'm leaving town, the house is unlocked and the keys for the car are in the ignition" and he just left! just like that!
Granted to most sensible people this seems absurd "you're living a reasonably comfortable life, why leave it just like that?" This is why I love Casey he didn't care for worldly things in the way that some people do, he didn't cling to them he just upped and left for Japan for his wife and son. Now you're probably asking yourself "what does this have to do with video-games?" to be honest, not a whole lot-
The year I heard that song and decided to research and discover more about Casey, also ended up being the same year that the man passed away from cancer. It's just the fact that hearing a small riff of an artists music in a game which happened to cheer me up, prompted me to try and find out more about the artist and the life he lead while he was alive.
