nemuren

I stand corrected. Perhaps it was my lowered expectations, both for how I thought it would play in the game and how I hold Abbey Road in a higher esteem. Or perhaps it's that the guitar parts are generally much harder than they were for AR. Or perhaps it's that it has a greater variety of musical styles than AR, but the full Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is actually quite fun in The Beatles: Rock Band. Even tracks that usually make me zone out ("She's Leaving Home", "Within You Without You") come to life here thanks to the great visuals and for the novelty of sounding like nothing else in RB. Yes, there's a lot of non-guitar stuff mapped to the guitar, but who cares as long as it's fun? I got over it once I remembered I wasn't really playing "guitar" anyway and I sure had a goofy grin on my face playing clarinet during "When I'm Sixty-Four". (It makes me hopeful that Genesis songs could work in RB as they'd require a lot of keyboard mapped to the guitar to be interesting.)

The clear highlight is "A Day in the Life". While I thought it'd only be worthwhile on vocals, I really enjoyed playing it on guitar. When it got time to play the "orgasm of sound" and the music swelled, I got the kind of goosebumps I was hoping the AR medley would give me. It's totally implausible that I'd be "playing" that particular section, but it totally works. It's that perfect blurring of gaming and rock fantasy that epitomizes why I love this genre so much.

So looking forward to Rubber Soul now.

A 10-year anniversary edition of Fight Club (10 years. Fuck.) came out for Blu-ray and DVD this week.

They should've called it the "You Are Not Special Edition".

...I thought that was clever.

"How's that working out for you?"

Just found out I have to work from home for a few hours over Thanksgiving weekend. Guess I'll use some of the extra funds I'll make to get Sgt. Pepper. It'll give me something to do while I'm standing by for who-knows-how-long.

The rest of Sgt. Pepper gets DLC'd for The Beatles: Rock Band next week, and it appears HMX is responding to the many gripes over how Abbey Road was sold. Every track from Pepper will be available individually for all systems and the cost of the full "complete the album" pack is $13.50. That's $3.50 cheaper than Abbey Road and you get about two more minutes of content. However, it doesn't appear there will be an option to play "Good Morning Good Morning", the "Sgt. Pepper" reprise and "A Day in the Life" as a medley. I wonder if they're saving money on licensing that way.

I'm still not too keen on getting the whole Pepper album as it doesn't seem terribly Rock Band-friendly (How do you chart "When I'm Sixty-Four"?), but this makes it a little more tempting.

A dub-only Blu-ray? Really? Am I in high school again?

This could be a bad omen. US anime Blu-rays are rare enough already, but this indicates what American distributors have been saying for a while: Japanese licensors are reluctant to have newer shows put out on BD in the US. The concern is "reverse importing". If a show is selling in America for half the price of the Japanese release, why wouldn't a Japanese buy the American release (especially since US BDs are not region locked in Japan)? Removing the Japanese language track from the US release might do the trick. And with anime Blu-rays selling well in Japan, (and American fans having largely convinced themselves that anime has no monetary value), I can only fault them so much for wanting to make a little money off their work.

1. I need sharper scissors.
2. Even so, ugly raw edges on pattern pieces aren't a big deal because they'll be hidden anyway.
3. When in doubt, think inside-out.
4. A Large-sized pattern is much larger than you think.
5. You'll regret ignoring the pattern's request for stretchy material when you get to the neck band.
6. On a related note, a straight stitich is much harder to remove than a zigzag.

My first cosplay, I glued together from existing elements. My second, I purchased online. Feeling I'd reached the limits of what I could do with "found" items and feeling more fondness towards the costume I "made" than the one I bought, I decided to try to make the next one myself from scratch. What's the next one, you ask? I've told a handful of people what it will (likely) be, but my superstitiousness won't let me make it official until it's more or less a done deal. Sorry, no hints.

Alright, one hint: I'm looking at videogame characters this time.

I bought a sewing machine a few weeks ago, pored over the manual and practiced a bit with the generous amount of unused fleece left over from the making of muppet-Karasu. After picking up handful of cheap patterns from my local Hancock Fabrics, I dove right in. I decided to make a simple shirt for my first attempt. If I could use it with the final costume, gravy. If not, I'd at least get valuable sewing XP out of it. I made it in the pattern's Large size because A.) I wanted it to be a bit bulky, and B.) so as to not destroy the pattern cutouts should I wish to use them again (better to start too big than too small). The tricky part was discerning what the pattern instructions were talking about. I had to google a few sites to be sure I understood what was meant by "right side", "wrong side", "raw", "selvage" and so on. Putting the pieces together felt like a brain puzzle. When stumped, I put the instructions down and used my common sense. "In order to make sure that only a seam is visible on the outside, where does the stitch go?" I enjoyed arriving at those "Eureka!" moments when it finally made sense.

The only real disaster was the neck band. Because I used a non-stretchy polyester (on a pattern intended for sleepwear), I ran out of neck band with 5 more inches to cover. Not only that, it being non-stretchy also meant I couldn't fit my head through it (which, hindsight being 20/20, I should have tested before trying to attach it to the shirt). Not wanting to junk the whole thing, my quick fix was to add a 5" extension to the neck band towards the back of the shirt (which would be obscured anyway in the final costume). Now, it has a neck band, and my head can fit through it, but it's a huge neckhole like on a Naruto character's shirt. I could easily make a cut in the obscured back and resew it or button it or velcro it or glue it to make the neck smaller. Tonight, I sew the side seams and hems and find out just how huge the L size really is.

The end result is neither a amazing garment, nor a hideous joke and possibly even usable given my laziness. Anticipating that I would outright fail a shirt or two before getting the hang of it, it's an encouraging first effort.

U2
Oakland Coliseum
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Got my ticket.

Actual line from an e-mail I got from Red Octane's Guitar Hero Store:

Guitar Hero Van Halen features Lenny Kravitz, Weezer, Foreigner, Queen and Blink-182

And Van Halen too!

Despite Microsoft's crowing earlier this year that Netflix streaming was exclusive to Xbox Live, Netflix announced today the streaming service is coming to PS3. The trick that will allow Netflix to continue honoring whatever exclusive contract it signed with Microsoft is that the streaming will not be added to the PS3's UI through a firmware upgrade. Instead, the service will be accessed when a special BD is put in the disc drive (free to all Netflix subscribers; I already have my request in) that will connect the user to Netflix via BD-Live. Clever, that.

Actually, I've been streaming Netflix to my PS3 for a while using a media server program called PlayOn, though I've streamed far more Hulu with it. Perhaps this direct connection will improve the video quality and make instant Netflix more appealing.

I was disappointed to find that so few people online had bought the Abbey Road DLC. Over and over, I'd see the Abbey songs greyed out on the select screen (the indicator that not everyone in the group owns it). I was hoping to play through the medley at least once with a group (if for no other reason than to finally obtain the 1,000,000 point trophy). Well, I did get to play the medley online once, where I was plagued by the batteries going flaky on my drums requiring several mid-song resets, but the cherry on top was the vocalist in my group failing out at the end of "The End", tanking the whole thing after 15 minutes of work. I had fun anyway, but the trophy still eludes me...

It'd be nice HMX could add a matching service for online play, where you could ask it to find players who own a specific DLC.

My brother borrowed Batman: Arkham Asylum from a friend and between Friday night and Sunday afternoon, I blew through the whole thing. Despite the overwhelming positive reviews, the demo didn't impress me much, but I think that was because it didn't give me a sense of the game's scope. There's a nice variety of activity and lots of nooks and crannies to investigate if you don't want to barrel through the main story. Sure, the story suffers from the typical comic-based videogame's fanfiction-y compulsion to shoehorn in as many villains as possible and the final fight is a tad silly, but I was hooked from beginning to end. And having Batman, Joker and Harley Quinn played by the same actors from the superb Fox cartoon made things even better. 

Speaking of the Fox cartoon, for a long time I had no idea that Harley was created for the show. Knowing little about the Batman comics, I assumed she came from there. As it turns out, fans responded to the character so well (film director/comic nerd Kevin Smith named his daughter Harley Quinn Smith), they started writing her into the comics.

The glorious capper to my weekend was the webcast of U2's concert from the Rose Bowl over YouTube. With no VGA input on my TV or HDMI output from any of my PCs, I watched it on my 10" netbook while it was hooked up to the big speakers I use my PS3 with. The way I saw it, the tiny screen was an accurate representation of the nosebleed seats I likely would've had if I were there. The stream only hiccupped a few times on me and it sounded quite good. The opening three tracks from No Line on the Horizon were spectacular and I loved them dragging out more obscure songs like "The Unforgettable Fire" and "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)". Only real flop was a more drum-driven version (Larry walking around with a conga!) of "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight", which wasn't a great song to begin with and sounded chaotic. This is the first U2 concert I've sat through in a long time that didn't have "Bullet the Blue Sky", "Pride (In the Name of Love)" or "New Year's Day" in the setlist. Not complaining, just observing. The webcast was a nice substitute for the fact that L.A. and Vegas were the closest venues they played to here on this tour... what's that? They're coming to Oakland next June? Well, alrighty then.

( Setlist after the jump. )

The release of the remaining tracks from Abbey Road for The Beatles: Rock Band brings up a curious problem for HMX: They might have got it right the first time. In selecting the initial on-disc setlist, HMX did a good job picking not only a good mix of the Beatles's entire career, but picking songs that would work well in Rock Band and give all four parts something interesting to do. But is it possible there aren't too many well-balanced tracks left in the Beatles' catalog?

( Click if you're not sick of me talking about the Beatles yet. )

The $16.99 price stands for the "full album" download of Abbey Road. If I'm reading this press release right, only "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh! Darling" and "Because" will be available for individual purchase on PS3/360, making all the medley elements (and "Her Majesty") exclusive to the album pack. Meanwhile, Wii owners can buy all the tracks individually (the answer to my earlier question about "Her Majesty" is $1), but do not have the option of buying a full album pack (and would pay $2.50 more if they want all the tracks) or of playing the medley uninterrupted.

Yeah, I'm still going to get it, dammit.

Looking to the future, I doubt I'll get the full Sgt. Pepper pack. The remainder doesn't seem very Rock Band-friendly. Only "A Day in the Life" screams must-buy to me and that's mostly for vocals as there's almost nothing for the guitar to do (I expect a lot of piano mapping there). Rubber Soul looks more promising with four gotta-haves ("Norwegian Wood", "You Won't See Me", "Nowhere Man" and "In My Life"), but I'm not sure I need every track. I hope how Abbey Road is being sold isn't the start of a trend of "album-exclusive" tracks.

It's hypnotic.

IGN revealed the tracks for the DLC release of Abbey Road will be broken up like so:

• "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
• "Oh! Darling"
• "Because"
• "You Never Give Me Your Money"
• "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard"
• "Polythene Pam/She Came In Through the Bathroom Window"
• "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End"
• "Her Majesty"
• "Abbey Road Medley"

So they grouped together the songs in the medley that flow directly into each other. (For those of you not versed in The Beatles, the "Abbey Road Medley" consists of all the songs from "You Never Give Me Your Money" through "The End" and runs about 16 minutes.) It's nice that the mini-medley of Slumbers/Weight/End can be played outside of the full medley, as is often done on the radio and in Paul's concerts. I'm very curious to see how much HMX will charge for "Her Majesty" considering it only runs 23 seconds. Though arguably no one's going to get it who isn't already getting the full album.

Speaking of cost, IGN says the cost of the DLC is "still being finalized" which has me cautiously optimistic that they listened to our complaints about paying 17 bucks for 24 minutes of content. The way the songs are grouped, you can get all the tracks for 16 bucks at standard RB pricing and the full album costs are usually a buck or two cheaper than getting the tracks individually. Though the ability to play the medley uninterrupted can only be purchased with the full album, which may factor into the price. We'll see.

I think there are at least three people reading this post who would instantly recognize the name Katie Vick. For those who don't, she was the center of the storyline that turned me off pro-wrestling years back, perhaps for good. I don't remember all the gory details and I don't feel much like looking them up, but the gist of it was that Triple H accused Kane of killing his girlfriend a long time ago and burying the truth. In a "hilarious" skit to mock Kane, Triple H dons a Kane mask and humps a mannequin representing the dead Katie. The punchline of the scene was Triple H with some goo in his hands proclaiming, "I screwed your brains out!".
 
Anyway, the reason I bring it up now is pure schadenfreude at how Katie Vick is being used against the Senate campaign of WWE CEO (and sometimes onscreen character) Linda McMahon. Gotta love how WWE's response was to remove the YouTube clips for copyright reasons. It may seem like a cheap shot, but I have to agree: I question the judgment of anyone who'd put something like that on that air thinking it was a good idea.

Gold-starred "Octopus's Garden" and "If I Needed Someone" on Bass. As of this post, I'm 114th on the leaderboard for the latter song. Yay me.

EDIT: And "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (Wowzers, I'm 45th!)

Oddly, I got 100% on "I Feel Fine" on Expert and used all the available Beatlemania/Star Power/Overdrive, but didn't gold-star it. A second try got me a higher score of about 600 points, but still no gold stars. Hrmm.

As much as I've praised Harmonix's approach to music games, the existence of Lego Rock Band stands as the greatest "yeah, but..." to my appreciation. With Activision going for a more family-friendly audience with the upcoming Band Hero, it makes sense for Harmonix to try the same. It still feels a little hokey though. Since they're targeting a new audience that doesn't already own RB, they could at least put the LRB songs up as DLC for the rest of us. Yes, you can buy LRB and export the songs, but what if you only want 3 or 4? Looking at the full setlist that was posted today, I can see maybe going for "Ghostbusters", "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" (one of my favorite songs, but doesn't it have no guitar?), "Song 2" and "The Final Countdown" (Illusions, Michael!), but I'm not going to pay $60 (+ $10 export charge) just for those.

It was announced that LRB will have access to the same DLC store as regular RB, albeit a filtered version that only makes "approved for all audiences" tracks available. With age tiers now coming into play, I'd like to see Harmonix move in the other direction and start offering uncensored versions of songs. Right now, songs are either radio-edits (sample lyric from Alice in Chains' "Man in the Box": "Shove my nose in spit") or have the curse words blanked out completely (sample lyric from Tenacious D's "Master Exploder": "My voice is [long pause] POWERFUL!!!") Since the game doesn't penalize using wrong words or singing where there are no lyrics, players doing vocals can use salty language at their discretion. But it'd be nice to have the uncensored tracks available for when you're playing guitar or drums by yourself so you don't have wince every time you hear sanitized vocals.

I'm happy to report I earned gold stars on two non-Colbert songs:

GUITAR: "She Sells Sanctuary" by The Cult
DRUMS: "Take Me to the River" by Talking Heads

Alright, so neither song has a difficulty higher than '1' for those instruments, but baby steps, you know.

UPDATE: Just gold-starred "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on Guitar in The Beatles: Rock Band. That felt good.

EXTRA BUMP: And "Yellow Submarine" and "Twist and Shout" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

I'm getting better at Rock Band drums, but still only stick my toe in the harder difficulties on special occasions. So I was pleasantly surprised when without planning it, I earned the trophy for getting 100% on an Expert drum part. All thanks to "Charlene (I'm Right Behind You)" by Stephen and the Colberts (which is free to download!), a song that only runs about 75 seconds and on Expert is no harder than most Medium parts. You might say that's a coward's way of earning it. Me, I like to think of it as a gift from Stephen himself. Now when can we download "He's Singin' in Korean"?