It kind of interesting to see how what's going on in the world is viewed by my students. These two examples are from sixth grade students.
One:
In their language arts classes, the kids wrote poems using hyperbole. They'd pick an adjective, and write a bunch of hyperbole based on it. Example: "It was so loud babies across the world cried."
One wrote, "It was so happy the Iraq war ended."
Two:
A kid was having a conversation with a teacher about cell phones. The teacher mentioned that he is probably due for a new one, remarking "My phone needs change." The student looked confused for a second, and then said "Oh! You don't mean change like quarters and nickels. You mean like Obama change."
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
The Beatles, 2000s-Style
I'm fully aware that I have owned Beatles Rock Band for almost four months, and the stereo remasters for almost two, and I haven't talked about them yet. I have been busy, obviously, and it's been hard to form what my thoughts are. But here goes.
I was weary of getting the remasters. I'm not much of an audiophile. What was I really going to get out of all of this? Was it really going to sound better to me?
I decided to listen from beginning to end, Please Please Me to Abbey Road. (I listen in chronological order of recording, not release.) I had it all in my iPod, and I connected it to my stepmom's car stereo as we drove into the city before the Yankees championship parade. The difference in sound was instantaneous. It was like I was in studio two at Abbey Road, it sounded that clear to me.
As I made my way through the catalog, I began to hear things that I'd never heard before. There's an extra guitar solo bleeding through in "I'm Down?" There's a piano doubling the brass at the beginning of "All You Need Is Love?" I heard them both for the first time, and I've been listening to these songs in headphones for years.
The mini-documentaries that came along with them were like icing on the cake. So yes, it was worth it, and I don't care if Jonathan says I should have gotten the mono instead.
Beatles Rock Band ended up being more of a delight. Most of the Beatles community that I follow online is just a bunch of older people who just don't get what all the fuss is about with the video game. So it was hard for me to explain how much fun it is. I mean, sure, I can learn how to play the music for real, but this is still a video game, after all. I have photos to collect and achievements to earn!
(By the way, after getting five stars on every song, and not gaining all the locked videos, I realized that to truly beat the game, not only do you have to five-star every song, you have to five-star every song twice. Oy. I was not happy when I found that one out.)
The game has its drawbacks, don't get me wrong. For one thing, you can't use the Xbox 360 headsets as microphones. The game makes you connect a separate microphone for each vocal line, and of course they only give you one to use. I don't have two extra USB microphones lying around.
Secondly, like I predicted, they can't accurately portray the instruments all the time. Many of the "guitar" parts are actually keyboard parts, or other stuff that's not guitar. These things are not meant to played with guitar technique, which makes playing some of them accurately impossible. For example, I downloaded every extra song you can get so far. The guitar part includes the random calliope tape loops in "Being for the Benefit for Mr. Kite!" How is that supposed to be played?! Or when you play the guitar part for "When I'm 64," you're actually playing the clarinet part. When the real guitar part starts, does it switch? Nope, stays on clarinet.
I'm fine with things not being historically accurate, like seeing George play the guitar solo on "Taxman" (It was Paul) or Paul playing bass on "She Came in through the Bathroom Window" (George) or Ringo on drums in "Back in the USSR" (Paul). They had to do that for the sake of the game. But being musically accurate is a different story.
It's just fun for me being able to physically react to these songs that I love so much. I love that you can sing any vocal line when it's set on "harmonies," even when you only have one microphone. I love that with the mixes created for the game, I'm hearing these lines of music like I never have before. I've been getting some of the lyrics wrong too!
And you know that I'll download the other albums when they become available. Can't wait to see how they'll deal with "Revolution 9."
I was weary of getting the remasters. I'm not much of an audiophile. What was I really going to get out of all of this? Was it really going to sound better to me?
I decided to listen from beginning to end, Please Please Me to Abbey Road. (I listen in chronological order of recording, not release.) I had it all in my iPod, and I connected it to my stepmom's car stereo as we drove into the city before the Yankees championship parade. The difference in sound was instantaneous. It was like I was in studio two at Abbey Road, it sounded that clear to me.
As I made my way through the catalog, I began to hear things that I'd never heard before. There's an extra guitar solo bleeding through in "I'm Down?" There's a piano doubling the brass at the beginning of "All You Need Is Love?" I heard them both for the first time, and I've been listening to these songs in headphones for years.
The mini-documentaries that came along with them were like icing on the cake. So yes, it was worth it, and I don't care if Jonathan says I should have gotten the mono instead.
Beatles Rock Band ended up being more of a delight. Most of the Beatles community that I follow online is just a bunch of older people who just don't get what all the fuss is about with the video game. So it was hard for me to explain how much fun it is. I mean, sure, I can learn how to play the music for real, but this is still a video game, after all. I have photos to collect and achievements to earn!
(By the way, after getting five stars on every song, and not gaining all the locked videos, I realized that to truly beat the game, not only do you have to five-star every song, you have to five-star every song twice. Oy. I was not happy when I found that one out.)
The game has its drawbacks, don't get me wrong. For one thing, you can't use the Xbox 360 headsets as microphones. The game makes you connect a separate microphone for each vocal line, and of course they only give you one to use. I don't have two extra USB microphones lying around.
Secondly, like I predicted, they can't accurately portray the instruments all the time. Many of the "guitar" parts are actually keyboard parts, or other stuff that's not guitar. These things are not meant to played with guitar technique, which makes playing some of them accurately impossible. For example, I downloaded every extra song you can get so far. The guitar part includes the random calliope tape loops in "Being for the Benefit for Mr. Kite!" How is that supposed to be played?! Or when you play the guitar part for "When I'm 64," you're actually playing the clarinet part. When the real guitar part starts, does it switch? Nope, stays on clarinet.
I'm fine with things not being historically accurate, like seeing George play the guitar solo on "Taxman" (It was Paul) or Paul playing bass on "She Came in through the Bathroom Window" (George) or Ringo on drums in "Back in the USSR" (Paul). They had to do that for the sake of the game. But being musically accurate is a different story.
It's just fun for me being able to physically react to these songs that I love so much. I love that you can sing any vocal line when it's set on "harmonies," even when you only have one microphone. I love that with the mixes created for the game, I'm hearing these lines of music like I never have before. I've been getting some of the lyrics wrong too!
And you know that I'll download the other albums when they become available. Can't wait to see how they'll deal with "Revolution 9."
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