I’ve been thinking about theme songs a lot lately. When I think about it, I can hear theme songs in my head to shows from as far back as I can remember. Not to date myself, but I clearly remember theme songs to Land of the Lost, Speed Racer, The Six Million Dollar Man, Scooby-Doo, and the list goes on. Thanks to reruns, I’m familiar with the theme songs to Lost in Space, I Dream of Jeanie, I Love Lucy, Bewitched, Bonanza, and dozens of others. I hope by this point, you can hear some of these in your heads, too!
I’ve always found theme songs to be essential to setting the stage of TV shows, whether they be cartoons, action-oriented, comedies, or dramas. I’m thinking of The Flintstones, The Munsters, Battlestar Galactica, A-Team, Friends, Dallas, and LA Law. If not these particular songs, I bet there are others that do jump to mind.
Sadly, the use of theme songs has faded away. I’ve heard various reasons ranging from squeezing in more time for commercials, cutting back on the expense of creating the song, and the shorter attention span of views. Regardless, this saddens me. These days you’ll occasionally find a show with a theme song, Game of Thrones, comes to mind, but these are few and far between.
There’s one area of media where theme songs haven’t gone away, and that’s in anime. Many shows have both full theme songs during the opening sequence and different songs playing during the ending credits. What’s cool is that many shows, especially those that have multiple seasons or long breaks between episode releases, will change theme songs, opening sequences, and ending credits to reflect the changing shows.
In coming newsletters, I’ll highlight some of my favorite theme songs, both classic and newer.
I’d love the hear what some of your favorites are as well!
WonderCon 2024
Just a reminder I’ll be at WonderCon 2024 from March 29-31in Anaheim, California. I’ll be in the Small Press section, Table SP-13. I have plenty of books to sell and sign! If you’re attending, please stop by and say hello!
If you can’t make WonderCon, I’ll be at Comic Con Revolution-Ontario on May 18 & 19 at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California. This is a smaller but growing convention and they always seem to have stellar guests. Last yer they had all the surviving voice actors from Avatar: The Last Airbender. This year they have much of the cast from Star Wars: Rebels and the big three from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I’ll post more info as we get closer.
Mechhaven Missives
- Book 5 Progress-The current chapter I’m writing focuses on Connie and something really important happening with her. Next up will be a chapter putting Angel to the test!
- I spent some (quite a bit of) time last week designing a table runner and some other printed materials for WonderCon. I’ve received my order of physical books from Amazon that I hope to sell out of.
- Audiobook Update-I just listened to Chapters 19 and 20 of Pax Machina. These were the climax of the final battle. I smiled the whole way through and am very happy with how it’s turning out. Just one more chapter and an epilogue left to produce. Exciting times!
Mech of the Month
Skysurfing mechs? Sign me up!
March’s Mech of the Month is the Nirvash from Eureka Seven! I started Eureka Seven AO and watched several episodes before I realized there was a whole other series just called Eureka Seven. It took some time, but I found that Eureka Seven was still available on the Funimation app, which I thought had shut down, but it still worked, so I started watching that. So far, I’ve found the animation, mech design, and voice acting really good. I’m going to watch more, but I have a few other new contenders for April’s Mech of the Month that I need to research.
Here’s a quick synopsis of the series:
The series centers around Renton Thurston, the fourteen-year-old son of Adroc Thurston, a military researcher who died saving the world. He lives what he considers a boring life with his grandfather, Axel Thurston, in the boring town of Bellforest. He loves lifting, a sport similar to surfing but with trapar, a substance abundant throughout the air, as the medium. He dreams of joining the renegade group Gekkostate, led by his idol Holland Novak, a legendary lifter. An opportunity to do so practically falls into his lap, when a large mecha, called the Nirvash typeZERO, and Eureka, its pilot, and a member of Gekkostate, crash into Renton’s room. Renton’s grandfather orders him to deliver a special part to the Nirvash called the Amita Drive, which releases the immense power dormant within the typeZERO called the “Seven Swell Phenomenon”. Afterwards, Renton is invited to join Gekkostate, where he quickly discovers that the behind-the-scenes life of Gekkostate is hardly as glamorous or as interesting as printed in the glossy pages of their magazine, ray=out. Only one thing makes it all worthwhile for him: the presence of Eureka, the mysterious pilot of the Nirvash. Renton, Eureka, and the Gekkostateembark on an adventure that will shape their future as well as the world’s.
Summary from: https://eurekaseven.fandom.com/wiki/Eureka_Seven
Featured Promotions
Please take a look at this free promotion. Who knows, maybe you’ll discover your next favorite author!
Featured Authors
I have four featured authors this week: Jaxon Reed, M. R. Parsons, Alex Valdiers, and Jay Toney.
Steam & Aether Books 1-5: Complete Series Box Set
by
Jaxon Reed
2000+ pages of award-winning steampunk science fiction!
Sergeant Ripley Coulter heads up E-Squad, the US Army’s premiere online unit. Fighting in an advanced simulation, he gets pulled into a parallel universe and sent back to an earlier time.
Here, the timeline has changed slightly. London is Ethinium, and all the great European empires are still competing with one another. Technology is steam-based, and the vacuum tube reigns supreme. Magic exists, along with vampires and other creatures, and the Dar control massive underground vaults beneath the major cities.
With knowledge of our world’s history, and the assistance of his gaming implant, Coulter joins the king’s forces, fights against evil . . . and falls in love.
by
M. R. Parsons
An eons-long galactic war pitting man against machine. A federation of worlds that upends every notion of the novelty of humanity. A military institution struggling to hold it all together. And a mental ability that might save life itself.
Roberto Reed’s childhood was marred by tragedy, yet he overcame his past only to become sick of the corporate life and hungry for adventure. When another tragedy forces Berto to leave Earth on a path of revenge in a war and life he doesn’t understand, he receives more than he bargained for. He might be the key to winning the war, but can he trust the two women who’ve recruited him?
Can he trust himself?
The Adventures of Dani Botswana
by
Alex Valdiers
A delusional gunslinger in space
Dani Botswana is the greatest gunslinger in Larragon space, or so she believes…
Wherever she goes, she brings chaos and confusion, but things take a nasty turn the day she unearths a secret moon treasure and tries to offload it on the black market. Little does she know the treasure belongs to a powerful mafia boss who buried it on a secret moon for a reason. Dani Botswana is about to find out, the hard way.
by
Jay Toney
It is only a game—right?
The story is a near future cyberpunk tale. Ariel receives an invitation from her fixer to participate as a beta tester for a new VR game produced by Nexus Advanced Systems Technology, Inc. (NASTI). Word is, what you earn in the game, you get to keep for real—easy money. Also, the with the new technology, everything you feel in the game, you feel for real. But it is only a game—right?
Unknown to the game testers, NASTI receives its funding from DARPA, and a eugenics foundation. The game is a testing ground for a new generation of warfare. War in cyberspace instead of the real world. Die in the game, and you die for real.
Until next time, have fun and read a lot of books!
Greg Sorber