The Beatles: Rock Band Festivities

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I wouldn't say that buying The Beatles: Rock Band is like buying friends.  Because we already have friends.  I swear.  But it is pretty eerie how all of our friends want to come over at once all of a sudden.

And why shouldn't they?  The video game, in addition to featuring the best music ever made, is incredibly fun to play, especially with a group of people.

On Friday, September 11, we had about a dozen people over to play the game.  I was a little concerned about getting people to play (especially sing), but Kevin, Stacey, Chris, and Kim, four of the first to arrive, picked up instruments and microphones right away.  We went through a lot of the early songs together, and then after the first group left, we had a second band that included Jenny's friend Michael on lead guitar, Keith on drums, and Kelly and Jenny singing back-up. The new group finished out the night with a mix of later songs like Here Comes the Sun and Come Together.  All in all, it was a great evening with some great friends.

Then, a week later, my family came into town for a Beatles: Rock Band weekend.   I had been building this game up for quite a while, but I had no idea how they would actually receive it.  My parents got in on Friday night and my dad and I spent some time listening to a couple of the remastered CDs he had picked up, Rubber Soul and The White Album.  He thought Rubber Soul sounded great but wasn't sold on The White Album (he has always said that it was not a great album fidelity-wise, especially compared to Abbey Road).  I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that he's used to listening to the LPs and not the pretty poor original CDs.

On Saturday morning the seven of us (Brandi, my parents, Alicia, Cristina, Cristina's boyfriend Daniel, and I) went to have a South Austin breakfast at Polvo's, my favorite place for breakfast.  Then we got home and got comfortable with the Story Mode of the game.  We switched around on instruments a little bit, but people pretty much got comfortable with a particular instrument pretty quickly.  My dad liked the bass, Daniel played a lot of guitar, Alicia sat at the drums, and Cristina mostly sang with a little drums.  My mom had declared her intentions to play drums, but she quickly found it to be difficult.

We made it through all of the early live venues as well as most of the Abbey Road studios songs before we stopped for dinner.  I grilled chipotle pork tenderloin on the grill along with corn on the cob and asparagus, and Brandi made a peach salsa, macaroni and cheese, and a great apple caramel cake.  After dinner we tackled a few remaining songs before finishing with the Rooftop Concert.  It ended up being about an eight hour Beatles Rock Band marathon that was a whole, whole lot of fun.

After the family left, I took a little break from The Beatles: Rock Band, to volunteer at church for an evening (with Brandi) and to celebrate a wonderful 2nd anniversary dinner with Brandi at Truluck's.  Before getting out the Hofner bass this evening to play a few songs, I had endured a three-day respite from The Most Important Video Game Ever.  That was my second longest Beatles Rock Band drought ever.  The longest?  June 13, 1978 through September 8, 2009.  Boy, that was a rough one.

My Favorite Beatles Song: A Timeline

Neither of the regular readers of our blog should be surprised to find out which Liverpudlian rock and roll combo is the subject of this post.

1987-1991: Penny Lane
I first became really aware of the Beatles just before the age of 10, primarily through listening to Beatles LPs with my dad and a Beatles segment that played every morning on the local oldies station on my way to school.  I have a distinct memory of showing my aunt all the Paul is Dead clues sometime in the late 80's, I think right before a Thanksgiving dinner.  "Penny Lane" is the one that sticks out in my memory from this time---one of the instantly catchiest songs you'll ever hear.

1992: Nowhere Man/In My Life
My dad's earliest Beatles album is Revolver, so I was thrilled to find out about the existence of an album called Rubber Soul, which contained my then-favorite song, "Nowhere Man," in addition to several other classics.  It was the second Beatles CD I purchased (after Magical Mystery Tour), and I was pleasantly surprised to find "In My Life" on the disc as well, which became a favorite for a short time.

1993: Rain
The early to mid 1990s was the first time I really started buying albums that were newly released.  Previously, I stuck to The Beatles, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and other classic rock acts, as well as picking up some early They Might Be Giants records, but this was a great time to be getting new music.  (Still, I'm somewhat embarrassed that the Cure's Wish album was (I think) my first new CD to purchase.)  The new alternative, or modern, or whatever, artists that were popping up were way more interesting to me than the Guns N' Roseses that came before.  I kind of think that "Rain" would have fit well in this 90's revival, with its sonic experimentation and trippy feel.  Goes to show how timeless the Beatles music is.

1994: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Speaking of timeless, the lyric "well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane" could easily have followed after "in the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey" (if only it rhymed).  For some reason, in this song, more so than "I am the Walrus," Lennon really impressed me with his ability to string together crazy but incredible lyrics and bridge multiple musical styles.

1995: From Me to You
1996: She Loves You
Several things were happening in '95 and '96.  First off, I carpooled to school with my neighbor Kirk, who had Live at the BBC in his regular rotation (along with Let It Be and Weezer's debut album).  The BBC album had a little 30 second snippet called "From Us to You," which turned me on to "From Me to You."  Also, I wrote my junior year term paper on the Beatles, so I became very acquainted with the quality of their early stuff.  Finally, the Beatles Anthology came out for television and CD, so that also had a broadening effect on the Beatles stuff I was listening to.

1997-1998: The Long and Winding Road
I bought the Anthology 3 CDs when they came out in October of 1996 and played them almost constantly in my dorm room.  This song stood out because I was pretty indifferent about the Let It Be version but couldn't believe how good the Althology version was.

1999-2001: Hey Bulldog
This one was always in the mix, but I definitely played it into the ground after the Yellow Submarine songtrack was released.

2002: Paperback Writer
At some point I determined that "Paperback Writer" was the quintessential Beatles song.  Not even sure what that means.  I guess coming from the middle of their career and having great harmonies and guitar parts figured prominently in that determination.  I suppose I should have picked "Day Tripper" as the prototypical Beatles track because it's from around the same time period and is written about half by John and about half by Paul.  But I still like "Paperback Writer" better.

2003-2004: Here Comes the Sun
I don't think this has ever been outside my top five Beatles songs.  If "Paperback Writer" is the quintessential Beatles song, then "Here Comes the Sun" is the Platonic ideal for a pop/rock song.

2005: The Long and Winding Road
I went back and looked up a Top 75 Beatles Songs list I did in 2005 and was somewhat surprised to find this song back at the top.  I think it has something to do with picking up Let It Be...Naked around this time.

2006-2008: Two of Us
This one has a lot to do with the lovely lady standing above this text and in front of the Roman ruins. "Two of Us" is another song that was always a favorite but got some added attention when I met Brandi.  It became one of our songs, and in addition to playing it and singing it together on numerous car trips, we put it on our wedding CD that I played in my car pretty contstantly for a while.

2009: Hey Bulldog
This song has sort of become my default favorite Beatles song, on account of it being so great.  My anticipation of The Beatles: Rock Band probably has something to do with this one being on my mind of late, as it is, in my opinion, the perfect Beatles song to transfer into the Rock Band format.

From 1991, when I spent hours recording songs off my dad's records to make a mix tape for family car trips, to 1997, when I bought an Abbey Road poster to put up in my dorm room, to 2001, when I made sure the turntable I purchased was capable of playing the White Album backwards, to 2006, when my girlfriend of a few weeks knew enough about my Beatles fanaticism to buy me a bootlegged Let It Be DVD, Beatles memories have definitely been woven throughout my life.  To date, only two of the above twelve songs have been confirmed as being on The Beatles: Rock Band track list.  Oh, how nice it would be to see a "Hey Bulldog" or a "Rain" creep in there!

The Beatles: Rock Band: Thinking about the final twenty songs

As of yesterday,  the list of known tracks on the disc for The Beatles: Rock Band has ballooned to 25, after having been stuck at 10 since June 1.  This means there are only 20 tracks remaining, a very exciting sign of how close the game is to being released but a little sobering for anyone with a laundry list of songs they would like to appear in the game.  While yesterday's announcement brought the extremely welcome news of songs like "Eight Days a Week," "Paperback Writer," "And Your Bird Can Sing," and "I've Got a Feeling," it also created less room for gems like "This Boy," "Hey Bulldog," and "Happiness is a Warm Gun."  To give myself a better idea of what the final 20 might look like, I created a few different scenarios, subject to a few simplifying assumptions.  I created a best case (in my opinion), likely, and worst case scenario, and the good news is that all three options, combined with the songs we already know, look really good.  Even the worst case (which I populated with some well-known songs to keep it somewhat realistic) is looking pretty good.   

Here are my assumptions:

• Each of the five venues will have a total of five songs.  That means that of the final 20, two will be in the Cavern Club, two at Ed Sullivan, three at Shea Stadium, one at Budokan, and two on the rooftop of Apple headquarters. 


• With "Get Back," "Dig a Pony," and "I've Got a Feeling" already announced, it sure looks like they're setting up a historically accurate rooftop concert.  This means that the final two songs for that venue will be "Don't Let Me Down" and "One After 909."


• Songs should feature vocals, guitar, bass, and drums.


• There should be a mix of lead singers and albums, though the lone remaining spot at Budokan made it tough to include Rubber Soul tracks.


• For the worst case scenario, the idea was not to pick my least favorite songs but songs that, by and large, pushed out something I would have wanted more.  Creating a list consisting of "Revolution 9," "Her Majesty," "Wild Honey Pie," "A Taste of Honey," and "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" would have been pretty meaningless. 

Best case:

Please Please Me (Cavern Club)
From Me To You (Cavern Club)

She Loves You (Ed Sullivan)
This Boy (Ed Sullivan)

A Hard Day's Night (Shea Stadium)
Help! (Shea Stadium)
I'm Down (Shea Stadium)

If I Needed Someone (Budokan)

We Can Work It Out (Dreamscape)
Drive My Car (Dreamscape)
Nowhere Man (Dreamscape)
Rain (Dreamscape)
Strawberry Fields Forever (Dreamscape)
Happiness is a Warm Gun (Dreamscape)
Helter Skelter (Dreamscape)
Savoy Truffle (Dreamscape)
Hey Bulldog (Dreamscape)
Come Together (Dreamscape)

One After 909 (Rooftop)
Don't Let Me Down (Rooftop)

Likely:

Please Please Me (Cavern Club)
From Me to You (Cavern Club)

All My Loving (Ed Sullivan)
She Loves You (Ed Sullivan)

A Hard Day's Night (Shea Stadium)
Help! (Shea Stadium)
I'm Down (Shea Stadium)

Nowhere Man (Budokan)

Rain (Dreamscape)
Got to Get You Into My Life (Dreamscape)
Sgt. Pepper's (Reprise)/A Day in the Life (Dreamscape)
Hello Goodbye (Dreamscape)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Dreamscape)
Helter Skelter (Dreamscape)
Hey Bulldog (Dreamscape)
Come Together (Dreamscape)
Let It Be (Dreamscape)

One After 909 (Rooftop)
Don't Let Me Down (Rooftop)

Worst case (really a misnomer; I like so many of these songs):

Love Me Do (Cavern Club)
Money (That's What I Want) (Cavern Club)

All My Loving (Ed Sullivan)
Act Naturally (Ed Sullivan)

Ticket to Ride (Shea Stadium)
Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby (Shea Stadium)
She's a Woman (Shea Stadium)

She Said She Said (Budokan)

Doctor Robert (Dreamscape)
I Want to Tell You (Dreamscape)
When I'm Sixty-Four (Dreamscape)
Blue Jay Way (Dreamscape)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps [I just think this one has to be in the game] (Dreamscape)
Why Don't We Do It In the Road? (Dreamscape)
Yer Blues (Dreamscape)
Helter Skelter [See "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"] (Dreamscape)
Come Together [See "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"] (Dreamscape)
The Ballad of John and Yoko (Dreamscape)

One After 909 (Rooftop)
Don't Let Me Down (Rooftop)

Enter Sandmen

 

 

Here are a few pictures to show off the start of our latest home project, our kitchen renovations. First, we had new countertops installed. The pictures make it difficult to see the true colors but it is a really nice swirl of deep brown, cream and bits of black. We also got a new faucet and deeper sink! We knew we wanted to do something with the cabinets but as soon as the countertop installation was completed, they started to look more orange and outdated.  We decided to sand and stain the cabinets darker (rosewood) to better compliment our new countertops. When we were halfway through I decided to take a few pictures to show the contrast between the old and new cabinet color.

 

It was the weekend of Father’s Day when we decided to start the kitchen and we put my dad to work! Mom couldn’t make it this time, so my dad came up to help us get started on this big project. My brother, Dad, Daniel and I started sanding at 3pm on Saturday and decided to take a break over hamburgers and beer late that evening. Steven, Jerome and Laura came over to visit that night and we were exhausted. It was so hot and we all wondered aloud why we didn’t tackle this project in the winter. Do not try this at home (especially in June/July) unless you are prepared to have your kitchen a mess for a few weeks, like to sweat, and enjoy eating sawdust!! I’ll admit it is more work than we thought.

 

 

 

With all of our weekend travel I am not sure how long it will take us to finish the top half. Once the staining is completed we will be learning how to install a tiled backsplash. Any tips you have, Internet, on making our next and last project as painless as possible we would appreciate. We just have to learn to be patient with the mess as we are living with our kitchen contents on the dining room table for now. I would say end of July would be our goal. Stay turned to see completed pictures of our kitchen, and once we are finished with that, we’ll be moving on to the master bath for our last big project on this house before we invite our realtor over!  

 

Six Flags, Four Hooves, and the Arlington Nine

For my birthday we met my family in Dallas for a weekend of theme parks, ballgames, and horse racing.  We got a great deal on the Arlington Hilton and made it up there on Thursday night, where Brandi and I promptly went swimming.  It lasted all of about ten minutes as the water was very cold and the hot tub, which we quickly switched to, displayed a penchant for throwing water all over the place.

Our first stop on Friday morning was Fuel City, which Texas Monthly has given the distinction of the best taco in Texas (the picadillo).  We all had breakfast tacos at the giant gas station that looks up at Interstates 3o and 35 while sitting in our cars since strangely enough there wasn't any seating, and a couple of us had the picadillo, which was nice and spicy.   Four of us, my dad, Alicia, Brandi, and I, then went to Six Flags.

Six Flags is suffering from a serious case of theme confusion.  Originally, Six Flags was organized according to the six flags over Texas---there was a section for France, Spain, Mexico, the Old South, Texas, and the United States.  Now we have all six of the original sections plus Gotham City, which I think doesn't exist in the same sense as those other places.  Also, there's an affiliation with Looney Tunes, so there's always a chance you'll see Wonder Woman walking past Porky Pig.

We started out with the Runaway Mine Train, which is kind of the classic roller coaster for me.  Then we did a lame river ride where you have to capture a paint-chipped old timey animatronic Yosemite Sam, the Titan, with its giant drops and intense speeds, and the Texas Giant, which is like a cross between ridinig a giant wooden roller coaster and running the gauntlet.  We left that one feeling bruised and battered; I kind of thought it was fun, but I was pretty much alone.  After lunch, Brandi and I rode the Batman ride, which leaves your feet dangling as you go upside down, and I tried the three-point shooting contest.  You get four shots from each of three different spots, which, with a money ball on each rack, gives you a possible total of 15 points.  I got six only after sinking my final three shots and won a UT basketball.

We met my dad's sister and much of her family at the Rangers game that evening.  My aunt and uncle, Martha and Ralph, showed up with my cousin Monica and her husband, my cousin David and his wife, my cousin Maria and her husband, my cousin Jon and his girlfriend, my cousin Anne, about 8 or so little kids, and about a billion hot dogs. They even have four more kids that weren't able to be at the game. It was great to be with them as they were one of the reasons we decided to do a trip to Dallas.

The game was a 6-0 shutout with a Beach Boys-themed fireworks display after.  And the wind was crazy!  There was more trash blowing around on the field than I've ever seen.

Saturday for my birthday lunch we went to Sonny Bryan's, a great, tiny, old smokehouse in Dallas that is in my top 5 of all time BBQ joints.  We had their great brisket sandwiches and onion rings in their little desks and then made our way to the race track.  I made everybody place at least $10 in bets, and the person who netted the greatest amount on their first $10 in bets would receive a prize pack, concocted earlier that morning during Brandi's and my morning jog and conveniently put together at the 7-11 half a mile from our hotel.  Cristina, who was going with her heart and picking the best horse names, hit on an 11 to 1 underdog for the win, so she won easily at $23.40 on a $2 bet.  My parents and Alicia got back between $3 and $7, and Brandi and I lost all of ours.  Let's just say that a $2 trifecta box is a colossally stupid idea.

We found a nice Mexican restaurant called Avila's for dinner---we thought we were going to a place I had discovered online, but I forgot the name and brought us to a restaurant contained in a smallish house, but still good.  We went back to the hotel and played some crazy word-making card game of Alicia's to finish off the night.

On Sunday after church we had lunch at i Fratelli, where my cousin David is the manager, and headed on our separate ways, Brandi and I to Austin and my parents and sisters to Houston. My birthday was a fun, family-filled weekend that included not only Six Flags but included a tribute to the Beatles with gifts of the Cirque du Soliel performance of Love and funds towards my anxiously-awaited purchase of The Beatles: Rock Band.

Exploring Cajun Culture

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So I’ve been meaning to write a post about our trip on the last weekend of April, but the last several weeks have been busily filled with old friends and renovations. I celebrated Cinco De Mayo at Z Tejas with Andrea, Anna, and Laura—we worked together at Keller Williams became close in a short time. I also went to Cover 3 for a XHHH (which refers to a happy hour with my girls I remain friends with even after all of us have since left Holt, Rinehart and Winston—hence the X). We even have more to share about our fun Memorial Day weekend in our next post. And lastly, we are knee deep in home renovations this spring. Our early May project was for Daniel to hang dry wall to finish out the garage and hang shelves and hooks for all of gardening and yard tools. The most recent is staining the bathroom cabinet to complete the half bath renovation we started earlier in the spring.

So the last Thursday in April I called my parents on the way home from the Hilton after the end of the close of Masterminds (one of my events I manage for KW) to see if they were on board with going to Louisiana for the weekend. When Daniel and I went to Jasper during Easter weekend we talked about crawfish season. Since we decided to split up our Easter weekend with both families it meant I wasn’t going to get to go to the crawfish boil at Memaw’s so we mentioned how it would be great to get back to Louisiana again. Both of my parents have family in Louisiana, and Dwight Breaux, my Mom’s cousin, owns a restaurant known for delicious crawfish, Cajun dishes and barbeque on Sundays. Somehow we ended up with a tentative plan four weeks ago, and the planner in me had been anxiously awaiting the confirmation that the trip was a go. I had talked to my mom  several times and by Thursday night my parents were finally ready to commit—Whew! I only had one day to unpack from staying downtown for a week, wash clothes, book the hotel and research some museums in the Lafayette area. Much to my parents enjoyment I was a little wound up! Since my Mom and Dad can kind of roll with ideas and remain fairly spontaneous they think my planner tendencies are curious and funny!

Friday night when Daniel got home from work I had us packed and ready to leave for Jasper. We spent the night in Jasper and then drove to Vidor to pick up my mother’s sister and my Dad’s stepmother; our entire family lovingly refers to her as Memaw. We had great car rides all around with good stories about farming from my Memaw and my parents chiming in on how different life was 40 years ago. And soon, we arrived in Lafayette. We had seen a couple of Acadian Museums online and decided to go to St. Martinville. It is the 6th oldest city in Louisiana and is where many deported families first arrived from Acadia. Acadia is in Nova Scotia and is where many of the French decided to sail to so that they could start a better life for their families. The museum had a great narrative of people of color in Louisiana (slaves and Creoles) as well as the history and culture of the Acadians---I never knew that the term “Cajun” is taken from “Acadian”!  On Saturday afternoon we went to Iris and JC’s house to visit, as that is where my mom’s uncle Dallas lives now. We had a good time and he is looking remarkably good for his 101 years of age!

Then we went to our hotel.  Daniel picked out the hotel, and he made it painfully obvious why he should always leave the travel arrangements to me.  The Lafayette Crown Plaza was undergoing some renovations, and they’re obviously still getting their stuff together.  The woman at the counter tried to claim my dad’s credit card didn’t work, and when we got to our rooms they had not been cleaned and looked like a rock band had stayed the night there---they were absolutely trashed!  The second set of rooms had no televisions, but the third set of rooms were just right!

Dwight’s restaurant is one of Lafayette’s hot spots for crawfish, and he treated us to a great meal.  I really loved the charbroiled oysters, which were served topped with cheese and in cooked on the grill in their shells.  The crawfish were great---Dwight’s even has holes in the middle of the tables with buckets underneath to easily discard your carcasses.  We caught up on family stories and met with the whole family, including Maverick and Mary, and Suzie and Dwight’s daughters Brandi and Chelsea.  After dinner Dwight showed us around his kitchen.  He has some great innovations for transporting, sorting, and cooking his crawfish and other foods.  He even has one woman whose only job is to shell all the smaller crawfish for etouffee and other dishes.

On Sunday, we went to early Mass and then headed out to the Acadian village.  They had numerous houses that showed how people of the late 18th and early 19th century lived, as well as some of their belongings.  We think that my great grandmother’s spinning wheel is among the donated items that are featured in the village, but unfortunately we couldn’t figure out which one it was.

We had lunch at Dwight’s---his Sunday barbeque is a buffet line that you can either take out or eat in the restaurant.  I had some really good etouffee, and I also had some of Daniel’s ribs and sausage, which he thought were really tasty. He’s kind of BBQ connoisseur.

Our trip to Lafayette was a great mix of food, family, and history.  We hope to have more trips like it very soon!

The Minnesota Maxes

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Texans should be forgiven for harboring a little resentment toward the Land of 10,000 Lakes.  After all, when Adam and Jenny Max left Austin for Minneapolis in the summer of 2005, it broke up the one-hit wonder known as Ausbats.  I had a homeschool conference in St. Paul last weekend, so it gave Brandi and me an opportunity to go pay them a visit.

Brandi and I got to their house late Saturday afternoon and got immediately acquainted with their two children Owen and Audrey.  Now, saying these kids are cute is kind of like saying that Ben Sheets is a dubious guy to take in the 15th round of your fantasy baseball draft.  (Quick aside...Adam and I had our fantasy draft Thursday night for Adam's "B" league, and it was poorly attended.  There were two humans and eight automatons, but with the errors Adam and I made using the draft software, it might actually have been better to be on autodraft.)   Owen is really into throwing things, so he and I got along swimmingly, even if he was a bit bashful to begin with.  And Audrey crawls all over the place!  It's hard to believe that the last time I was in Minnesota, Jenny was about five months pregnant with Owen and I had, just the week before, had a really bad second date with a girl I'd met earlier in the year.

On Saturday evening we had some pizza and played Taboo down in the basement.   We also played some Wii Sports.  Brandi and I brought our Miis all the way from Austin, which ended up being a lot of fun.  I set a new record in Home Run Derby and stormed out of the dugout like George Brett when Adam declared my home run swing to be illegal.  And the Lauves got plastered by the Maxes in the first four-person game of video tennis any of us had played.

On Sunday we started off at Edina Grill, which has some of the best French toast I've ever had.  Then we went sledding--remarkably, a few inches of snow fell overnight, and even though it started melting before noon, it gave us a nice window to take a couple sleds down the hill.  Brandi had never been sledding before, so I really enjoyed seeing her take it all in.  Later, Adam and I had a rousing game of Wii Game Party while the ladies went shopping.

Then we all met up at General Mills headquarters.  We got to see all the different mascots, the Betty Crocker Mixer show that Jenny is working on, and the experimental cereals that are about to hit store shelves.  I won't ruin the surprise, but suffice it to say that gummy bears and peanut butter make an excellent combination!

Every chance we got to play with the kids was a blast.  Owen's a rambunctious kid who enjoyed intentionally tripping while running around the house, and Audrey is very talented at putting everything in the house inside her mouth.  Adam, Jenny, and Brandi think she may be teething.  Owen and I remain on the sidelines of the teething debate, awaiting more evidence.

For dinner Jenny and Brandi made chicken breasts with a tomatillo sauce, along with rice and vegetables.  It was so great getting to catch up with a couple people who were such a huge part of the two years I spent in business school.  Our lives have all changed in huge ways, but it was great to know that we still have so much in common.

On Monday morning we said goodbye to the Maxes, got checked in for our flight, and headed off to the Mall of America.  We rode the SpongeBob Rock Bottom Plunge, and Brandi visited lots of...get this...clothing stores!  If you took the roller coasters out of the Mall of America, what you'd have is basically a collection of stores under one roof connected by escalators and featuring a food court.