Just a Lark

So I’m Accidentally Into French Music

Nothing at all against France. They may like to turn tail and run or simply surrender (see: most every major conflict), but this is also the country that Jean Reno, Luc Besson, croissants, and most importantly, Daft Punk and Air are from. The reason I’m accidentally into their music is because I had no idea that either of them were French groups. OK, Daft Punk is composed of robot dudes and unless you happen to hear about them you probably wouldn’t figure this out, but Air…well, they have French lyrics and stuff so it’s a lot harder to not know this, but in my case I hadn’t had much exposure to them (though Cherry Blossom Girl is still one of my favorite songs). That, and putting foreign languages in your songs has always been considered “hip” so gimme some leeway.

Anyway, I had the fortune of seeing Daft Punk in July which was the best thing evar, and I just got to see Air on Thursday with my brother, who had bought me the ticket for my birthday. It was a pretty rad show, despite having a douchebag directly in front of me (I hate it when dudes push their way directly in front of you and stay there, something he managed to do twice despite my best efforts) and some crazy girl to my right who kept shouting out requests (a pet peeve) and trying to push her way pretty much onto the stage. Also, they had five guitars up there on stage that they swapped out for songs, and anyone who has five guitars (Gibson SGs all, it looked like) is OK in my book.

Arcade fires just sound tragic

Thanks to Mindy and Vincent, I got to see The Arcade Fire again (I don’t know why, but I just get peeved when I hear people just refer to them as Arcade Fire, and the same goes for when people talk about Master Chief: they both have the word “the” prefixed. Same goes for the Leanansidhe if you’re talking about Irish folklore. God I’m a fussy nerd and this is a long parenthetical aside) at the Shoreline Ampitheatre. We rented a Zip Car and drove on down to Mountain View where we hijacked a parking space at Google and proceeded to further hijack their shuttle service to the venue (suckers thought we were employees!). Nonetheless, because of work (fuck Halo 3!) we missed the opening act, who’s name escapes me because they’re not important, and only caught the last three tracks of LCD Soundsystem. Sadtown.

But that said, getting to see The Arcade Fire twice in the same year is pretty freakin’ sweet, because they are pretty freakin’ sweet and thus getting to see them is, by the transitive property, pretty freakin’ sweet. Plus, the fact that it was free makes it even more pretty freakin’ sweet. That’s like a whole new realm of sweetness, and I might need to see my dentist after Friday.

Guitar Hero

Well, this is actually old news to me but I figured I should actually start to work on it this week. So one of my friends in Reno had a party a month or two ago in which some of his friends from back East came out, and I ended up attending to say hi to them. It was requested of me to bring Guitar Hero, and I complied since that game is awesome and there’s nothing more awesome than playing that between rounds of Beer Pong at a party (except for maybe playing Mario Kart in a bar). Anyway, so that’s exactly what happened (they had weird-ass house rules at Beer Pong, but this was probably an attempt to make up for the fact that completely sucked at it. Yeah Gabe, if you read this, I went there) and I destroyed them with my moderate shredding skills.

So a month goes by and I get a text about how Steph, one of the girls I tore up (you see what I did there?) decided she didn’t want to let it die and had gone out and bought a PlayStation 2, Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero 2, and Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80’s, just so she could practice and someday come back to beat me. I think she even pre-ordered Guitar Hero 3 and fucking Rock Band. That’s pretty hardcore.

So I’ve started a workout regimen to get better. I do pushups with my axe and climb mountains and shit with it on. Clearly, this is designed to make me better at the game. Maybe I should sign up for actual guitar lessons and bring my plastic guitar. I’m sure that’d go over well. But really, I do need to practice, cause I’m not all that great. I can do most of the songs on Expert and all, but simple techniques like hammer ons and push offs are something I still need to master, as is the ability to strum both up and down.

Work work work…

Work’s still awesome. I mean, I play games and stuff most of the time, how can that not be awesome? But lately, I’m playing even more games more of the time. Back when Greg M left I volunteered to do some reviews, and it’s finally happening thanks to the holiday season. Sure, I’m not exactly reviewing the cream of the crop, but you have to start somewhere, right?

With any luck, my first review will go up tomorrow. Or today. Monday. Whatever day that happens to be. You’ll be able to check my GameSpot blog to find it when it goes live.