Well I survived Con on the Cob. A glorious busy con we had.

I recently had a chance to set down with a dear friend of mine Jessie Cook and talk about her geek.

V: Whatz your geek? You’re a little bit of everything?
J: Well, if I had to pick something, I’d say video games. Especially video game music. I really like going to concerts with video game music.

V: Music?
J: If you ask me about bands I have no idea their names because I listen to mostly video game music.

V: Name a few you enjoy?
J: I like Tommy Tallarico and Jack Hall as a conductor. I will often pick a video game based off the music first. Because if the music is no good then it gets bumped down on the list of games I want to play.

V: The sound or type of music?
J: The music adds to the atmosphere of the game play, I’m not all about what I can shoot, kill or get the highest score. I’m more about experiencing what it is I’m playing. The music or even the silence with a low hum is very important to me.

V: Do you prefer newer music or older?
J: I go back to Atari and Nintendo. Some of my favorite goes back to Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and that’s not new.

V: That’s what is sad, that’s old now.
J: Yeah, I love the music from Super Mario Brothers the original.

V: How often do you hear a few lines of something and know where it is from?
J: Oh when I hear a few lines I can tell where it is from. I’m pretty good at that.

V: So what got you into the video music?
J: Well when I was a kid I wasn’t allowed to play video games. So I didn’t get my first system until I was in college and it was Nintendo 64. So some of the first games I was able to play with any regularity was games like Perfect Dark, 007 Golden-eye, Legend of Zelda and Gauntlet Legends.

V: You liked their music?
J: I liked the music but it didn’t occur to me why I would play certain games and not others until I played the Final Fantasy games. I happen to be on Amazon and I saw a soundtrack for it. I had never heard of buying a soundtrack for video games before, because back then it wasn’t as big as it is now.

V: Did you buy it?
J: I did, I bought the soundtrack and absolutely fell in love with it. The music was great. I also was interested in the Japanese language and had taken a few classes in college and high school. I had four or five years under my belt. So I would sing along and ever since then I would look for a soundtrack on Amazon and listen to a few tracks. If it sounded good then I would be more interested in the game.