Santa Barbara :: Guitar Hero

I arrived in LA last night and was picked up by Freeman and Gill in their blue Dodge Caravan. The timing of it all had a sense of starling efficiency. It would have been even smoother but Mikey missed his original flight. Something about traffic. Eventually we got everyone assembled, headed to Burbank, picked up Mark and ended up at Chad's at 11:20.

One thing Mikey and Freeman made sure to pack was their extraordinarily large video game controllers. It was all part of a plan starting with an e-mail message that detailed the location of Gill's PS2 (it was at Chad's house). The controllers, their axes as they call them, are for use with the series of video games called Guitar Hero.

You may have seen this in a local arcade, but basically the game follows the lead of the incredibly popular Dance Dance Revolution. And like DDR, it is inexplicably fun and hilarious to watch people try it for the first time. Mikey, Gill, and Freeman are seasoned pros, but it's surprising to see how fast you can pick it up. No idea to mediocre is quick but decent to Jimmy Page takes a long time.

The games (Guitar Hero 1&2) have a really good selection of songs and it's cool that they actually let you play the entire thing rather than an abridged version. The solos are where it becomes really interesting and the most difficult but also the most fun.

Stay tuned, next you may get to hear about the Trailer Park Boys.