Thursday, January 15, 2009

Lunchtime connections and commentary

  • I'm tracking the Kaka mega football transfer story, FIFA player of the year in 2007 may be on his way to Man City from AC Milan for a staggering transfer fee ($200M) and salary (1M/week). He's good, but really, come on, is he (or anyone) really worth that kind of money ? [from Kaka story I spotted the reference to the Time 100 list - nice to see some global sports inclusion in the American mag list].
  • Also on the list is Alex Rigopulos & Eran Egozy. These are not names that most people recognize, but they run Harmonix, the originator of Guitar Hero and now developers of Rock Band. I think the article in the Time 100 piece is a great take on the secondary power of these new music games - I believe they can and will actually lengthen the lifespan of classic rock, and music from many other decades and genres. I think that Kids (and parents) are getting a new (or renewed) passion for great old music and making sure rock 'n roll will never die. Since getting Guitar Hero and now Rock Band, my son has a great appreciation for classics such as Cream, The Stones and Cheap Trick, as well as rarer finds (Eric Johnson), punk (Sex Pistols), new wave (Talking Heads) and alternative (Beck).
  • Steven Van Zandt. He wrote the piece above and his name is instantly familiar. BUT, I didn't know the guitarist with Springsteen was one and the same slick haired Silvio from The Sopranos. I always saw the name in the credits and thought I should know him, but dough-head me never connected the two. Well, he does look radically different in his two roles.

1 comment:

Eco said...

Thanks for the nod to Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson. This is now one of my all time favourate instrumental tunes. I like to "you-tube" it occasionally just to see if there are any new performances by various folks. One of the best is a video of a band doing the song at a high school talent show, with a comment "I'd hate to be the next band after those guys!"

On a side note of generating interest in classic tunes of various genres, I HAD to pickup the guitar tab book for Guitar Hero to start working on some of the songs for real. I'm sure there has been a significant increase in sales of related sheet music and instrumentation as fall out of the popularity (and enjoyment) derived from these games. No doubt it will help the continued appreciation of these tunes for years to come....

Ec