Click images for desktop size: "Friendly Monsters" by Anonymous I like video games. I like Grand Theft Auto, the fighting games, even some of the sports sims. I like games you can play with a mess of people.
Games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero sort of bug me.
I can understand how most people are never going to get to be secret agents, explore space, be robbers and killers and swordsmen. Its fun to pretend. But anybody can pick up a guitar or a set of drum sticks and start a band. I don't get the kick in pretending to be something you could easily be.
Its like that weird game where you pretend to be a waitress and have to seat people and deliver their orders ASAP. I mean, aspire to be a waitress? Its a job and thats always cool, but an aspiration, something fun to pretend to be?
Guitar Hero et al seem to be teaching kids how to play Simon to air guitar. Since they've made air guitarists micro-stars, I guess there's something small in that. It just seems it could have been cooler.
Most people want to play music. They want to pick up a chunk of wood and make some noise that shouts out at the world with all the rage and passion they've got inside of them that needs to get out there. Whenever I was in a band there were always a large group who looked at me with envy because I could play guitar.
Some of them even worked up the courage to come ask me for lessons. Not because they wanted to play like me but because they wanted to shout out loud.
Its easy. A handful of chords can let you fake an obscene number of tunes. Learning to barre moves you into semi-pro, lets you dance around the neck and look like something.
Last century somebody came out with this weird guitar. The neck was lined with LED's. You told it what notes and chords you wanted to play and the LED's flashed to show you the proper strings and frets to play.

Click images for desktop size: "Ghost Town" by DiHa1977 I thought this was hyper-gooney at the time. I mean the way I and most guitarists learned was with a crappy Mel Bay Teach Yourself Book, playing along with records, and staring intently at guitarists fingers and amp settings at shows.
Somehow it seemed important to note that Angus from AC-DC did a mini-barre when he played an open D, or that BB Kings left a couple strings out when he did a D Major 7. And all the stuff we could steal from our local guitar heroes until we worked up the courage to ask if we could play with them some afternoon, or if they'd give us a lesson.
Now I'm thinking how much cooler it would be to have to play Guitar Hero with a guitar like that. Instead of pushing nasty Fisher Price colored buttons you follow LEDs and press strings hard enough to fret. You could actually learn to play.
I know how much fun it is to play music together with friends and I can see the rush from getting a Rock Band thing together to mimic a track. But I'm positive its a lot more fun to turn off the TV and see and hear yourself blasting through the years of mediocrity to make a noise that comes from only you.
It'll never happen or someone will figure out how to do it with nylon strings that won't give you callouses on your fingertips and make even more money.
Like I thought that Bill Gates Video was funny where he was playing Guitar Hero and then decided he should go play with U2. That reminded me of when you'd walk in on a friend who was blasting his music and you'd catch him playing air guitar. He'd look at his sheepishly and grin and you understood. Who knew that in a race towards the pablum that sheepish grin could have led to fortunes.

Okay. I'm really LOVING my friends Apple TV. When its set up, which is dead easy, it really feels like you're your own program director. And its unlikely I'll ever rent or purchase a movie "from my sofa" its a cool attribute to ignore.

Click images for desktop size: "Flower" by Wallpapermania Forgetting the fact that I still find the Flickr screensaver its coolest feature (It shows, with Ken Burns effects, you entire Flickr library while your music plays. I find it enthralling and entrancing) the biggest issue I've had with it is ripping my movies into H264 Apple TV friendly files.
That parts easy but its hard figuring what is the best possible format: DVD, Upscaled to 720p DVD H264's, Anamorphic Widescreen, or DivX or Xvid.
I'm experimenting and will let you know what I discover.

And now it looks like spring may actually be here. I have a puppy who demands play time.