Categories
Movies and TV Video Games

Rock Band 3 might make you bang on the keys

Fresh off my morning feed reading, Giant Bomb is reporting that Rock Band 3 might have keyboard support:

… downloaders of the Green Day: Rock Band demo…received something of a tease after finishing the bite-sized, two-song offering. After hitting “exit,” they were greeted with a big old Rock Band 3 banner that displays pictures of two guitars, a set of drums, microphones … and a keyboard right next to the “3” logo.

If true, this would be both awesome and frightening. One thing that has bothered me while playing many of the classic rock tracks (and I have a lot of them) is that the guitarist is often required to cover the keyboard or organ part. Given that the instruments approach runs and melodies differently, it feels unnatural and sometimes outright difficult, especially when you consider that the RB guitar is really a poor approximation of the instrument.

On the other hand, being a trained pianist, I’m aware of exactly how complex keyboard parts can be. And there’s no way Harmonix can escape using a real keyboard with real black-and-whites. I’m interested to see how notes will be tracked on screen, since I’d definitely prefer a treble clef. Finally, can I bring my own? I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy a new keyboard, and this would definitely be an opportune moment.

Update: Ars reckons it’s a keytar!

Categories
Food

Pea and ham soup

I made my first-ever batch of pea and ham soup today. It was a lot easier than I thought. I found a basic recipe on the web, but rather than go through the modifications, I figure I’ll go through it all step by step again since the original is a bit flaky.

See below the jump for the recipe.

Categories
Movies and TV Reviews

Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 picks up not long after the first film. Tony Stark is dying of Palladium poisoning from the arc-reactor embedded in his chest, he is coming under increasing pressure to turn over the Iron Man suit to the US government, especially when a new threat in the form of Whiplash, the alter ego of Ivan Vanko, a Russian physicist with some strong grievances against Stark.

Overall, I had a great time with this film. I really enjoyed the first one, and I get the sense that the studios have learned a lot from the relative flops that were the Spiderman sequels. There are some good nods to the comics, especially with the inclusion of Nick Fury and the SHIELD initiative.

Categories
Movies and TV

Shiny New Firefly Fan Flick

Looks great. I’d be keen to pick up a copy when it’s released.

Source: Wired

Categories
Music

Dio has rocked for a long long time

Ronnie James Dio
Source: flickr user NYCArthur

Although there were conflicting reports on the weekend, one of heavy metal’s kings has passed on to that guitar store in the sky.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I’ve been listening to Ronnie James Dio‘s music since I was a kid. My mother, especially was into Rainbow. It wasn’t until much later when I grew an appreciation for metal that I discovered exactly how great Dio’s voice is, and how inspirational he has been to rock music.

I feel fortunate that I was able to see him perform with Heaven & Hell when they toured a few years back.

Ave Dio. I hope you won’t mind if I send you off with Tenacious D’s tribute to you: