Edshugeo The GodMoor

Around this time for the past few years, participating comic book shops have given away free promotional comics to capitalize on the potential for new customers generated by big budget superhero films like Spiderman, and now Iron Man.

I always, always, always miss it, and I'm always, always, always pissed when I get home that Saturday and find out it was Free Comic Book Day. Except for one or two times when I knew about it, and just had other concerns or things to do.

Well not this time. Grand Theft Auto IV killed my XBox 360, or maybe it was a co-inky-dink that the inevitable (for about 33% of 360 owners) Red Rings Of Death just happened to follow an increasing number of freeze ups I experienced while playing that game. I then put in San Andreas which froze up, and upon re-starting the machine, gazed in horror, upon the three flashing red lights.

It's going back to Microsoft after talking to what sounded like a thirteen year old boy over at support. Now that I think about it, I better make damn sure it's actually going to Microsoft and not some teen-aged hacker who's somehow manage to redirect XBox calls to his house. If he had an Indian accent, I'd be less suspicious. I dunno what their child labor laws are like over there.

Anyway, the point was, I've nothing better to do* so I might as well get some free comics and maybe check out Iron Man, which I was looking forward to seeing for a while now.

*Okay, "nothing better to do", doesn't include a number of things I ought to be doing, but it's gonna be interesting to see how much more productive I become in the next 3 or 4 weeks without the 360. I still have a PS2 and a bunch of unfinished/unplayed games, but I know I won't spend as much time on them. Then again....

Free Comic Book Day

Another casualty of GTA IV/RROD

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., comics, DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER, good deal, movies, PS2, video games, XBox 360

Rock Band is the newest music rhythm game from the creators of Guitar Hero. I ignored Guitar Hero because I already play guitar (sorta). I feel guilty enough that I spend more time playing videogames than I do playing music. That would be compounded if I wasted time playing fake guitar when I could be playing real guitar.

Rock Band offers a little something different. In addition to the fake guitar and some kind of microphone (!!?), a USB Drum peripheral: four pads on a stand and a foot pedal for the bass drum. When I heard about that I immediately thought back to a program made earlier this year (or maybe it was last) that turned the Wii controllers into drum triggers on a PC.
Beyond the game itself are some interesting possibilities. I don't think it would train me to be a real drummer, exactly, but there's some music making potential here.

I was wrong to assume that one could choose which version of the package they wanted, but apparently you can't. The plastic drum set plus game would be a decent buy at eighty bucks, but the game only comes with instruments if you get the all in one special edition with game, guitar, mic, and drums. That's about $170.00. The drums do not come with the game. It's $80.00 and the game is $60.00. Not such a good buy anymore and the peripherals won't be available separately until late January/early February.

Next week's release is the game sans instruments, and the special ed, with everything. I guess I'll have to wait. It'll give me more time to think about this.

Currently I'm playing Half Life 2 from the Orange Box (Portal was great) on the 360 and Grand Theft Auto 3 on the PS2.

January 24th, 2008 - The Rock Band Drums will be made available on February 12th, and maybe I'll be able to find the game at forty bucks or less. Some work has been done in getting the 360 set to work on a Windows PC, so I'm looking forward to playing. Also looking forward to learning how to play. That might help.


Rock Band Drums On Windows


A Drum Machine For Your Rock Band Drums


and a YouTube video...





February 24th, 2008 - Speaking of YouTube, that's probably not a bad place to start with drum lessons, like say, learning how to even hold drum sticks. Some info I can definitely use. I picked up the set the other day, but didn't get the game yet. Also ordered a Pedal Metal reinforcement for the bass pedal, which is reportedly very fragile. Can be found on Amazon for about twenty bucks (also on eBay). I should have it in a few days. I installed the driver and the program (via the drum machine link above) and I can now play the drum set on my PC.

Labels: music making, possibilities for creative expression, PS2, video games, XBox 360, youtube

Man, this guy is good. Dokaka is an a cappella-ist somewhat in the vein of Bobby McFerrin (but more of a metalhead) and that guy from the Police Academy flicks who did the special FX with his voice. I'd heard a little of his stuff in a preview for We Love Katamari, from a Playstation Underground magazine/disc, a little while back. Didn't blow me away, but I thought it was interesting. I did want to get the game, though.
The other day, I caught a small article about him in the latest issue of Wired, which I subscribe to (only ten bucks), and thought I'd check out his website. I downloaded a bunch of music, listened to some of it and was like "Holy shit!!!, This guy's fucking great!!! And he is, too. And there's a lot of music at his site. I haven't finished listening, yet.
I think every song of the week in April is gonna be a multi-track a cappella production. Obviously, they won't match the blinding brilliance that is Dokaka, but it does offer me a different way of approaching music for a little bit.

February 23rd, 2008 - there is no longer the huge collection of music that was on his site before, though, there are a couple of songs for purchase. More samples and video can be found on his MySpace.

Also playing in my PSP...

My Only Alibi (four song demo) - A guy I know at work is the lead guitarist for this band. I'm not a huge fan of emo (I think that's what this is), but all of these songs are rock solid. From the songwriting to arrangements and the musicianship. It's a little annoying to know someone about half my age who's this good, even if it's not unusual to find better musicians than myself.

Wendy And Lisa - Lolly Lolly and Are You My Baby from their 1989 CD, Fruit At The Bottom. I need to cut out the album intro from the beginning of Lolly, but otherwise I've always dug these two songs. Are You My Baby is sorta Camille/Prince in voice and production, though maby not much so, lyrically. My first two CDs were this and Living Colour's Vivid (both purchased simultaneously).

Still playing; GTA: Liberty City Stories, Donkey Kong Country, Metal Slug 2, K.E.T.M. and playing with PSPRhythm. Sony's apparently working on a PSOne emulator for the PSP so they can sell Playstation 1 games that work right off the memory stick. That sounds great, but if it comes at the cost of playing the games and programs I just mentioned (except GTA, which is safe), then I won't be participating in the inevitable firmware upgrade. The lure of being able to play Jumping Flash again, though...

Watching Romance Of The Three Kingdoms (up to "episode" 9 of 58, now).

Reading The Smiling Proud Wanderer (still on chapter one, I think), by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). Translated by Lanny Lin.

Labels: Awesome, fun, music, possibilities for creative expression, PS2, video games, wu-xia