Happiness is a warm Guitar Hero controller

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith comes out soon, and I just read that there's a small chance that there may be a Beatles-themed game in the future. I'll believe it when I see it, but they're looking into it.

Now this intrigues me as a lifelong Beatles fan, but it got me wondering which songs they'd want to use.

"Love Me Do" is catchy, but it's not really Guitar Hero fodder, you know? So I decided to tax my poor little brain and come up with some suggestions.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Helter Skelter

And Your Bird Can Sing

Taxman

I Feel Fine

Day Tripper

Birthday

Don't Let Me Down

For You Blue

Something

Free As a Bird

Happiness is a Warm Gun

Here Comes the Sun

I Saw Her Standing There

I Want You (She's So Heavy)

I've Got a Feeling

Norwegian Wood

Paperback Writer

Rain

She's a Woman

Think For Yourself

Michelle

I Call Your Name

Getting Better

The End

That's about 25 Beatles songs, but to fill it out, you could include either bands that inspired them, like Buddy Holly and the Crickets, or bands that covered Beatles tunes (damn near everyone).

I'm sure I'm missing one or two songs that would fit in this kind of game better, but this is a good start. Feel free to add anything I missed in the comments.

I'd almost certainly buy this, though I can't imagine they'd actually be able to use the actual Beatles recordings, so it would be a bunch of cover versions like in the early days of Guitar Hero, but I think I would kick some serious ass at this game, having listened to Beatles songs my entire life.

The song lineup might change a little if this used the full band peripherals that this fall's installment is supposed to use, but I wouldn't imagine drastic changes unless they introduced a piano peripheral, which I tend to doubt.

But I'd be willing to bet that no matter what, "Revolution No. 9" won't make the cut.

Now cut that out!

Here for a fun Friday night are two of my comedy heroes together: Jack Benny and Ernie Kovacs. Enjoy!

Press F5 to construct an adventure

As a pale youth, I spent many an hour perfecting my DC Universe-themed game on Adventure Construction Set, one of my favorite programs for my trusty Commodore 64.

This program allowed you to essentially design your own top-down RPG. It had a metric crapton of tile art that you could repurpose for your gaming needs, and with time and effort, you could even share your completed game with friends.

I was hoping to replicate the then-relatively recent Crisis on Infinite Earths maxiseries. Trying to rename characters and choosing semiappropriate tile graphics took so long that by the time I'd get to renaming locations, I was getting punchy.

I never quite got to the finished stage, alas; too many details kept cropping up. I'd polish up a bunch of stuff, get impatient and let the program finish designing the adventure for me, and then when I played it, I'd get things like Green Lantern entering the Fertile Crescent and being attacked by a snake or something goofy like that.

I also had the pinball and music construction sets, but this one was by far the most played.

Here's an example of the intro and a demo that highlights some of the features. This version is for the Apple II, but it's close enough for our purposes here.



Just thinking about this program makes me remember all the sounds the computer made. Closing the disc drive, listening to it whir, and thinking that you could gauge the progress of the loading by the sounds it made.

It's over 20 years later, and I still have yet to play a kickass Crisis on Infinite Earths game. Maybe I should bust the ACS out again...

Working hard at hardly working

Brody came to work with me today for Take Your Kids to Work Day. We had quite a time. His favorite part aside from hugging all the girls was riding on the train to get there.

And he probably enjoyed our excursion to the nearby toy store. He told me, "The City is my favorite and my best," phrased that way because he's on a Charlie and Lola kick.

He met my coworkers, hung out with other kids and looked deathly bored any time I tried to show him my desk--aside from all the toys on it.

He even got his own badge to wear while in the building, which I think he liked quite a bit.

The part that surprised me the most was when my work pal Jessica asked if he wanted her to tie his balloon to his hand when we left so it wouldn't fly away.

Keep in mind that Brody doesn't like things to touch his hands unless they're other hands. At Trader Joe's, God help us all if someone offers him a sticker.

But he just said, "Okay," and held his hand out as she secured a slipknotted ribbon to his hand. I don't know if she was using the Jedi mind trick on him or what, but I was surprised.

We had pizza for lunch and got to watch a movie later in the afternoon. Good times.

At the end of the day on the ride home, I don't know who was more tired--him or me. I'm just going to go ahead and guess me.

I'm surprised I even managed to stay up late enough to post thizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Catharsis

The fine folks at CNET have crowned their biggest nerd. Wait till a minute or two into this video. It will pay off, I promise.

I think I'm in love with the sundown

I really wish I had the time and skill to create mashups sometimes. Especially in this case, because I can't imagine too many other people making this admittedly tenuous connection.

When I first heard this catchy tune by Beck, there was a little phrase in the verse that sounded familiar, and I couldn't place it until I was listening to it on my way to work one morning. It was early in the morning, and for some ungodly reason, once it hit the chorus, I started to sing "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot.

See what you think:






Not a lot the same, but I'd really like to hear these two mashed up...

Bye, George

Just read about George Carlin's passing, so I thought as a tribute to one of my favorite linguists (no kidding), I'd offer up a version of his famous "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" routine.

You might want to put in the headphones unless you work in a coprolalia clinic.



Not only do I have albums and concert videos, but about half of my son's Thomas the Tank Engine videos are narrated by Carlin. There's a mashup waiting to happen...

Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

Have I mentioned that there are some Three Stooges shorts on Hulu now? Here's one of my favorites. Watch for Lucille Ball in this one.