Nash Music Library -- EXtream EXtasy

From the "Looking Aloft" website

 

The above is the official symbol for thunderstorm...it looks like an "R" with an attitude. At one point in my childhood, I had been interested in meteorology and had even created my own book noting down the weather and utilizing those symbols. However, my interest switched over to biology before finally settling on all things Japan in my adolescence...as you all know by this point.

Now this video features our local news channel's morning show with weather forecaster Bill Coulter in the pastel green outfit doing his usual hijinks. The video must have come from pre-COVID days since he's pretty much the only person now still here with a relatively new morning crew around him. But what I found out from him this morning is that today is (soon to be was) National Weathercaster Day.

Let me go back even further...one of the earliest weather forecasters I remember is Dave Devall from CTV Toronto (formerly CFTO). Although he was no longer doing so in the above video, he had been famous for giving the forecast behind a plexiglass screen with an illustration of Canada where he would be able to write temperatures and weather words backwards on the screen (thanks to his experience in the military). Mind you, as a teacher at NOVA, I was soon able to write English words on paper in our crowded cubbyhole classroom upside down, so I guess I took a chip off of ol' Dave.

Of course, when it comes to weather and this blog, I'm always going to refer to Japan's "Weathernews Live" as I've been doing since summer 2022. The weather casting staff has changed over the past few years but the atmosphere has remained friendly and often funny. And at the same time, since this is a music blog after all, I'm always going to think about Nash Music Library's contributions of BGM for the show.

My first article on NML brought in some of the music that has been produced by them and featured on "Weathernews Live". However, this is the first time that I have brought on one of the themes for any of the three-hour shifts, and this particular song "EXtream EXtasy" is the theme for the final shift of the broadcasting day called "Moon" which goes from 8 to 11 pm JST.

"EXtream EXtasy" is a pretty energized technopop piece for a nighttime broadcast but I guess it could reflect folks finishing work and heading out for some play-hard time in the big city. It was first released in February 2018 as part of NML's album "Buttopi EDM"（ぶっとびEDM...Blastoff EDM）. Y'know...I'll have to play catchup and see if I can feature some more of the shifts' theme songs.