Sunday, December 02, 2007

GTO Christmas Present

My daughter, young Galadriel Tanqueray Onassis, wants Guitar Hero III for Christmas.





Of course, her wishes mean nothing to me. I already gave her an early Christmas present by replacing her terminally damaged cell phone with an E-Bay bought, pre-owned pink RAZR.



Plus, the E-Bay seller whom we met at the QT at 291 and 40 Hwy turned out to be a hot, HOT biker chick that dad would have gladly paid the 60 bucks just to briefly ogle her awesome eye-candyness.


She didn't look anything like this, but who cares?

I told GTO that if someone else gives her GH3 for Christmas, and if she practices and gets really good, maybe I would unpack my congas and bongos and we could perform duets together. Maybe burn them to CDs that she could give out to all her friends.



Her response was less than enthusiastic.

She informed me that "...rock guitar and "hippy drums" don't go together!"



She couldn't be more wrong.



13 comments:

Satyavati devi dasi said...

I don't have much of an opinion about the GH games but Scott gets totally pissed off about them because he feels that if a kid wants to learn guitar then they ought to stop )@%)@%!! around with a video game and just get a guitar and learn how to play it.

Of course, he's kinda harsh. And he doesn't stop to think that most of these kids don't want to really learn how to play a guitar, they want to learn how to play a video game.

I try to remind him how much fun it isn't to slog through exercises and scales over and over-even I hate to do it- but he's adamant about it.

Personally I'd rather see a game like this than some of the gangsta and military games. Unless- does this game have a rewards level when you get a #1 hit where they give you heroin and wild orgies?

Hmm.

SmedRock said...

Nah, she's right. Hippie drums and rock don't go together. What you used as an example is a fluke.

Xavier Onassis said...

satyavati - I mentioned Scott's observation to GTO and her response was, predictably, that learning to play the real thing wasn't as much fun.

She said that "some stupid people" think that getting good at GH actually teaches you to play guitar.

I replied that that was absolutely not true. She asked why I was so emphatic.

I pointed out that playing the guitar involves notes and strings. Holding the strings in intricate, complex and rapidly changing patterns with one hand while strumming or picking them in equally complex and dynamic patterns with the other hand, as directed by notes on a piece of paper.

Since GH has replaced the strings with colored buttons and replaced notes with a SIMON-like sequence of the colored buttons, being good at GH has the same relationship to actual musical proficiency as running the cash register at McDonalds has to running The Federal Reserve.

And I agree...I'd rather see her playing GHIII than Grand Theft Auto.

smed - That was EXACTLY what she said. She said "Santana doesn't count!"

But I'm am so freaking good, I can make hippy drums fit with anything. Turn me loose on "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"!

Anonymous said...

you named your daughter middle name after your favorite brand of gin huh.

Xavier Onassis said...

paintman - I don't drink gin. That was her mother's idea.

Satyavati devi dasi said...

Geez, and I thought you chose her name cause you liked the car.

Anonymous said...

Asked my daughter what my 10 year old granddaughter wanted for Christmas...guess what. Yup.

I get the feeling this is going to cost a lot of money. I'll tell ya something, though. I can give it to em now, or give it to the nursing home 20 years from now, and guess who wins in that little debate in my head.

Xavier Onassis said...

travel - It will be about 80 bucks. At the nursing home 20 years from now, that's like a glass of ice water. LOL!

Want me to give you hippy drum lessons?

Anonymous said...

lol...I think I'm more of a hippy now than I was when there were hippys. Go Dennis Hopper !

Satyavati devi dasi said...

So does this game controller stuff work with that other game Rock Band??

And not to be vicariously disciplining your kid or whatever, XO, but "Santana doesn't count" is worth a good slap and a week grounded in my book.

Oye como va!

Trelvix said...

I'm not a huge South Park fan and would normally give a sideways glance to anyone who would reference the show in a blog or comment - but...

Oh my God - you owe it to yourself to find the episode of South Park that aired a couple of weeks ago titled, I think, "Guitar Queero."

The episode framed the fascination with this game better than I would ever be able to do.

My favorite scene was when the Guitar Queero savant sat and played an "acoustic" set - random clickings with no apparent direction.

"Oh! I love this song!" said someone from the crowd.

You must see this episode. Bonus points if you watch it with your daughter.

Xavier Onassis said...

Satyavati - I slapped her and I'm grounding her until she can figure out how to spell "Oye como va!"

Trelvix - I'm going to hunt it down right now and I will absolutely watch it with her. Last weekend we watched the South Park with the Award Winning Turd. I loved that they measured them in "courics". LOL! Thanks for the tip!

Xavier Onassis said...

Trelvix - As I was on the phone talking to my daughter about this episode (she knew about it and had already seen it), I was surfing the cable menu and saw that it was going to be on at 9 last night. DVR'd it and watched it. Very funny! Loved the ending!