Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Guitar Hero Encore: Rock The 80s

My most recent gaming purchase has been (deep breath) GuitarHeroEncoreRockTheEightiesWHEW!---an appropriately silly name for a profoundly silly era in popular music. I've always loved the way that rhythm games give the player a perspective from which to examine the music (interactivity may be a dubious storytelling tool, but it's a fantastic teaching device), and there's all kinds of insights to be gleaned about 80s music in the course of playing. For one, it's a potent reminder of what a cocaine-driven decade the 80s were---all the new wave songs are obsessively downstroke-downstroke-downstroke-dwnstrk-dwnstrk-dnstk-dnstk-
dnstk-dskdskdskdskfasterfasterfasterfasterfastertightertighter. Eighties pop, like eighties interior design, is all about shiny, perfect, impenetrable surfaces executed with gleamy-eyed obsessiveness.

Along with the hits ("I Ran" is surpassingly fun to play guitar on), there's also a lot of the lesser-known punk rock and new wave that's way more exciting to me than the hair metal (and for which they seem to be catching some flack). When I saw the song list, I was simultaneously psyched to play Guitar Hero to the Dead Kennedys and X (Husker Du is too much to hope for, I know), and wracked with sorrow for smash-the-system music turned into a level in a video game.

So I am happy to report that the in-house cover band has censored the punk lyrics heavily---"Los Angeles" has lost a few lines, and the Dead Kennedys "Police Truck" has been more or less altered into incoherence. If I were 15, I might bitch about the System being afraid to let people really hear what the Kennedys were saying; now I'm strangely comforted that there's still something about the music that is, if not terrifying, then at least Not Allowed.

Critical Thoughts on 'First Post'

Thanks Fuzzy, and I'm delighted to finally get this underway. I'd start off my first post with an explanation of what this blog is about, but anything more specific than movie, video game, television and media culture in general would be too ambitious. Maybe a sprinkle of urbanist political perspective you'll hear from me from time to time, too.

Most of my media intake these days is via DVD, my main shows these days being 'Tanner '88', 'Battlestar Galactica', and I'm starting to get into 'Freaks and Geeks'- which Fuzzy Bastard has generously made available to me, but since it's summer- I've been trying to get out more, see the museum exhibitions, and avail myself of the great outdoors. I might also mention a Joss Whedon-centric three year media enrichment in some ways influencing my pop-cultural perspective.

In time, expect to hear my thoughts on the just-closed musical Grey Gardens based on the legendary Maysle's Brothers documentary of the same name, which I caught two weeks ago just in the nick of time.

Until then, yours in chocolate, Tintin, and jewlery,

the belge

Monday, July 30, 2007

First post!

From: That Fuzzy Bastard

Testing... testing... Is this thing on?

First post on our blog... the very day Bergman dies. I feel somehow responsible. Bergman is one of the many holes to be plugged someday in my cinematic knowledge----I've only seen two of his films, The Seventh Seal (which I found pompous) and Cries and Whispers (which floored me). So I'll leave Bergman blogging to those who know better.

Just saw Godard's Masculine/Feminine and John Landis' Slasher today---I'll try to get a post together about that this week. In the meantime---oh Belgian, wanna try adding to this to see if it all works?