"I was initially considering submitting my latest Metroid title screen arrangement before re-listening to this one I did earlier in the year and deciding it would be more appropriate for OCR considering my previous submission years ago, "Cut Man Sonata". When I was choosing music for this project, I definitely wanted another Mega Man song that seemed challenging to slow down. I felt this one worked perfectly. I wasn't crazy about the original piano sound I used for this, so I went in and changed the sound and a few settings and I'm liking this new version even more. Additionally, after the current Discord discussion regarding titles, I provided an alternate title for the song, should y'all prefer to use that instead. I'm horrible at titling songs and projects, so I try and avoid it if I can. ':-D

I arranged this song as part of my "Reflections" project and wanted to slow down and accentuate some of the absolutely beautiful melody work of the original track. Even when I listened to the source material in its original, fast tempo, I was able to get a sense of wonder and wistfulness from the composition.

Though not all of my work will always be like this, I wanted the Reflections project to tell some of the stories of myself and those who have shaped my world. I dedicate this arrangement to my dad, who introduced me to a world of beauty and wonder through photography. For my project, the arrangement accompanied a montage of different videos I found and edited together that I had taken over the years combined with film and video that my dad had taken through his life - much of it before I was even born. I'm not any kind of professional photographer by any means, but I realized that my love for capturing the moments of awe and beauty in the world around me through the lens was something I absolutely inherited from my father, and it's something I'm incredibly grateful for. I'm hoping that the arrangement was able to capture some of that quiet kinship, and the shared feeling of impression and awe that my dad and I share when we take a moment to really look at - and be immersed in - the world around us.

In looking through many old photos and home videos for Reflections, it became clear to me that my dad had always been the photographer of the family. I realized that the photos and videos I found were almost always of everyone else he was around - where they went, the things they did, and the things they saw and experienced together. And at a certain point, it occurred to me how very similar he and I are in that regard. I'm typically the "photographer" of our friend group, and have been for as long as I've had cameras I could bring around with me.

When I was younger, I just found it "fun" to take pics and videos of whatever my family or friends and I were doing. But as I'm getting older, I find that photography of all different kinds helps me to appreciate certain things more deeply. Whether it's a sunset, a skyline, a roller coaster, a mom with her child, or a photo of some place I'm visiting with friends and we're taking a goofy selfie together. Though I can never fully capture the beauty of the world around me or the feeling of a fleeting moment, I still spend a lot of time and effort trying to.

After having looked through hundreds of my dad's photos and videos and comparing them to many of my own that I had taken over the years, it was striking how similar we are in our approach to photography, even if some of our photos were taken 60 or 70 years apart. Although Papa Vaff and I are quite different in many of our other interests and hobbies, our similar sense of awe and wonder for the world, and our deep affection for the people around us is clearly evident whenever we're behind the lens of a camera.

At almost 90 years young, my dad still carries his camera around many of the places he goes, and one of my favorite activities is finding new areas to go exploring and photographing together. With this, I wanted to create a visual recollection of our common hobby, and share some of the images we've both taken through the years in different places, in our efforts to capture the beauty and fleeting moments in the world around us through our shared love of photography.

As for the choice of music - after slowing the original track down considerably, this piano arrangement of Magnet Man's theme from Mega Man 3 I created felt like the perfect song to help tell this story. The original tune is upbeat and fun, but the underlying melody also has a sense of wonder and nostalgia to it, which worked perfectly here.

Hope you enjoy, and thanks for being a part of this journey!"

"Straight off the bat, we're opening with an original intro. 0:14 brings in the Magnet Man theme proper. This slower tempo with lots of space for notes to breath is very nice. Allows the emotive quality of the rubato-esque tempo to really shine through.

The octave displacement at 2:00 with a leap up is a great choice to bring in another color without changing anything.

The majority of the change in this piece is textural to let the piece evolve as it goes. I would have liked to see a greater range of dynamics in the piece, but at the same time that's not necessary to have. There's a specific nostalgic and reminiscing feeling that you're going for and more dynamic range might have taken away from that.

What's here is absolutely lovely and very welcome."