Another Hiatus?
Ok, so I did it again. I took a ton of time off from blogging. I have no excuse. I am a horrible person. Other stuff took precedence, like school. What's that you say? Its summer now? I have no excuse anymore not to post here? You're absolutely right. With all this time on my hands, I will attempt to update this at least once a week. I don't expect you to believe me, of course, since I've made such promises before (just scroll down the screen a bit to see for yourself), but I'm going to try, nonetheless, since my summer thus far has consisted of work, sleep, more work, the occasional drink and bar, shuffleboard at the Great Dane and the Silver Dollar, Guitar Hero, and lots of listening to music and downloading. So in other words, not much.
It is the last area (music) that I'm going to post about today. I love music. I wish I could play a musical instrument. Those of you who know me best know that one of my life goals is to learn to play one (most likely guitar or drums). I'd like to think that I'm doing my best at learning guitar by playing Guitar Hero like crazy lately, but I'm sure there's much more to it th
an the video game entails. Still, its progress. Good news though, the makers of Guitar Hero are going to team up with Electronic Arts and MTV to make their next game, Rock Band. If you haven't heard by now, it is going to be EPIC. Play with 4 friends -- one on vocals (a microphone peripheral), one on lead guitar, one on bass guitar (both using the familiar guitar peripheral, shown at right), and one on drums. Drums I said! In fact, in a recent Game Informer article (by the way, I am LOVING getting this magazine in our mail at the apartment lately), they revealed a picture of what the peripheral will look like for the drums. Awesome. The same article quotes a Rock Band developer as being VERY proud (with good reason) of the fact that if you get good enough at playing the drums to excel on the "hard" and "expert" levels of the game, you will have effectively learned how to play the drums. This is completely different from plain 'ol Guitar Hero, which only effectively simulates playing guitar without actually teaching you how to play chords and whatnot. So let me get this straight. If I play Rock Band, with or without friends (I hope with), I can realize my dream of being able to play a musical instrument by playing a video game? Wow. That is happening. Can't wait for the Christmas season, when Rock Band is supposed to come out. Now if only I had the upwards of $1000 to spare to spend on buying the game, the PS3/XBox 360, and peripherals to actually play the damn thing. *Sigh* We'll see what happens.
But more importantly in my personal music "scene" lately, I've discovered a new Internet radio "station" (if you can call it that, since it is completely customizable to each person) from the other student at work. Its called Pandora and it pulls music from something called the "Music Genome Project." Read more here if you're curious about the process and "nuts and bolts" of how the thing works. What's important is that just by navigating to the site, you can input a few of your favorite artists and start listening. After about 5 songs or so, the site asks you to register (which is completely free) so that you can listen as long as you want, to whatever you want. For me, I started by putting in one of my favorite new artists, Cary Brothers, and just started listening to test it out. I was amazed by what I found. All the acoustic guitar, piano, melody, orchestration, etc. that I could stand! I put in a few more artists (John Mayer, Until June, Switchfoot, The Fray, Mat Kearney, Matt Nathanson, Snow Patrol, Jon McLaughlin, Anberlin, Bloc Party, John Mayer, and The John Butler Trio, just to name a few) and let it do its work.
A few hours later at work, and I have a slew of new artists to enjoy: Feeder, David Usher, Mae, The Perishers, Pete Yorn, Calhoun, and Eric James & the New Century. I've honestly never seen an Internet radio website so customizable, varied, and just genuinely featuring as good of music as this. Do yourself a favor and just give it a try, even if only to find some new artists, songs, or even genres of music to listen to. You can thank me later.
More posts to come, I promise (sorta).
It is the last area (music) that I'm going to post about today. I love music. I wish I could play a musical instrument. Those of you who know me best know that one of my life goals is to learn to play one (most likely guitar or drums). I'd like to think that I'm doing my best at learning guitar by playing Guitar Hero like crazy lately, but I'm sure there's much more to it th
an the video game entails. Still, its progress. Good news though, the makers of Guitar Hero are going to team up with Electronic Arts and MTV to make their next game, Rock Band. If you haven't heard by now, it is going to be EPIC. Play with 4 friends -- one on vocals (a microphone peripheral), one on lead guitar, one on bass guitar (both using the familiar guitar peripheral, shown at right), and one on drums. Drums I said! In fact, in a recent Game Informer article (by the way, I am LOVING getting this magazine in our mail at the apartment lately), they revealed a picture of what the peripheral will look like for the drums. Awesome. The same article quotes a Rock Band developer as being VERY proud (with good reason) of the fact that if you get good enough at playing the drums to excel on the "hard" and "expert" levels of the game, you will have effectively learned how to play the drums. This is completely different from plain 'ol Guitar Hero, which only effectively simulates playing guitar without actually teaching you how to play chords and whatnot. So let me get this straight. If I play Rock Band, with or without friends (I hope with), I can realize my dream of being able to play a musical instrument by playing a video game? Wow. That is happening. Can't wait for the Christmas season, when Rock Band is supposed to come out. Now if only I had the upwards of $1000 to spare to spend on buying the game, the PS3/XBox 360, and peripherals to actually play the damn thing. *Sigh* We'll see what happens.But more importantly in my personal music "scene" lately, I've discovered a new Internet radio "station" (if you can call it that, since it is completely customizable to each person) from the other student at work. Its called Pandora and it pulls music from something called the "Music Genome Project." Read more here if you're curious about the process and "nuts and bolts" of how the thing works. What's important is that just by navigating to the site, you can input a few of your favorite artists and start listening. After about 5 songs or so, the site asks you to register (which is completely free) so that you can listen as long as you want, to whatever you want. For me, I started by putting in one of my favorite new artists, Cary Brothers, and just started listening to test it out. I was amazed by what I found. All the acoustic guitar, piano, melody, orchestration, etc. that I could stand! I put in a few more artists (John Mayer, Until June, Switchfoot, The Fray, Mat Kearney, Matt Nathanson, Snow Patrol, Jon McLaughlin, Anberlin, Bloc Party, John Mayer, and The John Butler Trio, just to name a few) and let it do its work.
A few hours later at work, and I have a slew of new artists to enjoy: Feeder, David Usher, Mae, The Perishers, Pete Yorn, Calhoun, and Eric James & the New Century. I've honestly never seen an Internet radio website so customizable, varied, and just genuinely featuring as good of music as this. Do yourself a favor and just give it a try, even if only to find some new artists, songs, or even genres of music to listen to. You can thank me later.
More posts to come, I promise (sorta).
posted by Lank-Sauce at 9:32 PM
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