Making Music & Friends

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Despite the fact that I hadn't had the chance to pick up a RedOctane guitar-shaped controller and attempt to play a video game that is probably designed for people 30 years younger than myself in quite some time, it was nice to see that I hadn't reverted to being so bad that I got boo'd off the stage by the virtual audiences of Guitar Hero II.

I was fully expecting to hang my head in shame while I missed note after note and feebly tried to explain that at one point I really had beat the game in career mode - at least on the 'easy' level - but thankfully I not only remembered how to play but even managed to play a couple of songs on 'medium' without doing half bad. Not too shabby for an ailing dispatcher who could probably have made good use of some form of osteoarthritis relief for my left hand by the time I finished playing!

Amanda and I had a wonderful time visiting with Jason and Amy last night and in the course of the evening I think Amanda managed to make herself a new friend in the form of their daughter, Katie. The girls had met previously when we all went to the Projeckt Revolution concert together back in August but due to the circumstances they hadn't really had a chance to talk while we were at the concert. Amanda was too busy meeting some of the members of Mindless Self Indulgence and glomping me in her excitement while Katie was having a case of the nerves about going backstage to meet the members of Linkin Park. Under circumstances like that, it's no wonder they didn't have a lot of time to sit down and talk!

As soon as we got to Jason and Amy's home, Amanda couldn't wait to get her hands on the X-plorer Controller for the Xbox 360 and try out her prowess on several My Chemical Romance songs that Jason had downloaded. One of the cool things about the XBox versus the Playstation is that you can download additional songs from the internet that aren't available on the Playstation version so there were songs that Amanda had never had the chance to play. Show-off that she is she managed to fly through Dead!, Teenagers, and Famous Last Words on 'hard' while having to slow down to 'medium' for her first time through How I Disappear. In the meantime, Katie stayed in the corner of the couch and declared that she had never played, had no desire to play, and preferred to just watch and criticize her Dad while he played (truth be told, she sounds like a kid after my own heart!). Eventually though she decided to give it a go and after suffering through the tutorial she jumped right in and did quite well with her first couple of songs.

As a way of saying thank you for taking us to Projekt Revolution, I had picked up a second guitar controller to give to Jason and Amy as I knew from previous experience playing on Dan's PS2 that playing with a second person could be a lot of fun. After the girls had done a couple of songs, the adults took over the game taking turns playing in 'cooperative' mode. Amanda and Katie recessed to her room where they apparently talked about all things MSI and other things that they found they had in common including anime. The evening flew by quite quickly and before we left the girls were talking about getting together again. Amanda is hoping that Katie can come over at some point and she'll show her how to make a plushie doll amongst other things.

I've got to say that I am thrilled that Amanda has met someone her age who seems to share a lot of the same interests that she has as, frankly, I've been a bit worried that most of her friendships these days seem to be in the form of one electronic media or another. Since becoming a "couple" Dan and Nicole have virtually disappeared and Amanda very rarely even talks to either of them on the phone or via instant-message anymore. I had the rotten feeling that was going to happen when Dan and Nicole decided they liked each other as "more than friends" but I wish I had been wrong on that one. Sadly, I wasn't.

Katie lives with her mother out of town during the week but spends every weekend here so maybe the girls will be able to develop a good friendship. I can only think that it would be really good for Amanda and Amy thinks it would be good for Katie to have a friend in the area, too, as not going to school around here she doesn't know anyone else her own age. I'm definitely going to keep my fingers crossed on that one and hope that before we know it, both girls are blowing through every song on Guitar Hero II at the 'expert' level and showing us adults how it's really done!

The Return of "Mom"

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It's been awhile since I've had the chance to put down any tunes or work on my awesome guitar prowess with Guitar Hero II being that Dan took his PS2 home sometime in August (the nerve of the kid!) but tonight I'm going to get the chance to rock on again when Amanda and I go over to a friend's house to play the XBox 360 version.

I have a sneaky feeling I am going to be totally out of practice and will have reverted to my "oh wow, I really suck at this!" stage that will no doubt have the 'audience' booing me off the stage in no time flat but I'm really looking forward to it. Even if I play worse than William Hung sings, it's a night out with friends so what's not to look forward to?

Amanda is, of course, excited about the chance to try to play some My Chemical Romance tunes that aren't available on the PS2 version of the game. The only time she ever got to try an MCR tune on the XBox 360 version was over at her brother Mike's house this past summer. It was a short-lived moment of glory but she really loved trying to keep up with "Dead!" and made a valiant effort at the "hard" level. I'm sure she'll pick it right back up again, kids always do. As for me, well, it might not be as hot as the new Hannah Montana tour that everyone is talking about but tonight my band "Mom" will rock again!

Come on back later and I'll let you know how it goes! There might even be pictures if you're lucky!

Rock On - Virtually!

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If I had my life to live over again I would love to have learned to play drums and been the female equivalent of Ron Bushy, the drummer for Iron Butterfly and master of one of the best drum solos ever in rock & roll history during 2-1/2 minutes of the 1968 rock classic, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.

Unfortunately, I don't have my life to live over again and besides, where Amanda has been blessed with musical talent, I wasn't. Oh sure, I can tap my foot in beat with the best of them but I'm not coordinated enough to actually play an instrument. Somehow I don't think a kazoo counts! Especially not when it comes to rock bands.

It appears that the closest I am ever going to get to being a rock star is in attempting to play Guitar Hero II, the PS2 game that Amanda's friend Dan left here for awhile so that she can play while he goes to visit his mother in Florida for a few weeks. Amanda first played while visiting her brother Mike while at his house in Rhode Island for Thanksgiving and I think she drove him just as crazy as I drove her yesterday while I was trying to learn to play.

Video games have changed vastly since I was younger. Heck, I'm old enough to remember Pong which was one of the very first video arcade games ever and it didn't require a whole lot of coordination as it simply involved batting a ball back and forth across the TV screen - sort of an electronic ping-pong game. Yawn!

Guitar Hero II actually requires not only hand-eye coordination but a good sense of timing and a love for rock music as songs run the gamut from Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box" to The Rolling Stones' "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" to The Allman Brothers Band's "Jessica" as well as Avenged Sevenfold's "Beast and the Harlot". Some of the songs I've heard and some I was completely lost on.

The object of the game is for the player to use a guitar peripheral (which resembles a miniature Gibson SG) to play scrolling notes by holding the corresponding fret button on the guitar neck and simultaneously pressing the strum bar. If it sounds easy, trust me - it isn't!

There are four levels you can play at - easy, medium, hard, and expert. My son Mike and Amanda's friend Dan can play quite well at the expert level; Amanda does pretty good on hard and some expert levels; Jamie does pretty well for a new player; and I am a complete hack on the easy level!

I named my band Mom (it seemed somehow appropriate) and chose Judy Nails to be my lead guitarist. In the Career mode we hit the road to play in eight different venues with the difficulty of the songs increasing along with the size of the venue. Play well and the crowd loves you while cheering and clapping but hit too many clunkers or miss too many notes and they get ugly with plenty of catcalls and boos. Even the lead singer manages to look disgusted if you screw up too badly! Needless to say, I had a pretty ticked-off lead singer for most of my sets!

After spending way too many hours at it, I did finally manage to beat the easy level and got a letter from the Death Threat Record Company welcoming me to the "big time" and suggesting I now step it up to the medium level. Uh ... no, I don't think so, I tried one song on medium and I stunk - on ice. Better that I leave the big time to the experts!

Still, it was fun and given the right setting I suppose I could almost manage to pretend that I was a rock star playing in front of my adoring fans ... until I missed too many notes and they boo'd me off the stage!





You'll notice that there are no pictures of me actually playing the game as I prefer not to further embarrass myself by showing you what intense concentration it required for me to just conquer the easy level. Instead you get pictures of Amanda laying down video licks while playing Anthrax's "Madhouse" at the expert level - show off! Maybe someday they'll make "Drum Hero" and then I can show these kids how it's done! Maybe ...