Monday Music

Okay, enough stalling. I mentioned a few weeks ago that my wife and I got a surprise for our son for the end of the school year. Well, it was kinda for us too. We finally buckled and bought an Xbox 360, and Rock Band.

I delayed posting about it because, well, I had a thought that I’d helmet up and play a solo while my wife took pics of my goofy ass for you guys, if not actually record a short video. But then there was that whole plumbing snafu, and we just never ended up getting it done.

Well, here I am. And why not a badass song for Monday Music?

Rush, “Tom Sawyer”

Yeah. Right. I am ENTIRELY KIDDING. That is not REMOTELY me, that’s a killer Rock Band drummer who goes by the YouTube handle of AzuriteReaction. I don’t even think I could dare to aspire to pull THAT one off. The best I can do right now on the drums is a mean “Paranoid” or “Gimme Shelter” on Medium. MAYBE one day I’ll graduate to Hard. After a lot of work, that is.

But really, let me tell you, this game is right up our alley. We’d pretty much decided to take the plunge once we figured out that our son was using it to play the drums in music class at school. My wife already loved the Karaoke Revolution stuff for Xbox, and I’d played Guitar Hero in electronics stores and thought it was awesome. So, why not?

Well, hell, for a guy who always wanted to play in a band, now I’m in a shitload of ’em. There’s my son’s band, with my son on drums, me on bass, and my wife on vocals. There’s my band, with me on drums and my wife on vocals. There’s the band my wife and I started last night, with her on guitar and me on bass. (So far I struggle mightily to play guitar on “Hard,” but I’ve had considerable success on bass on “Expert.” Don’t ask me why, I dunno why.)

But those are all side projects. The Main Band is me on guitar and my wife on vocals. You will hear our names and tremble, for we are the immortal CAKE OR DEATH.

Seriously, this has been a blast. I wish I’d taken a picture of it before he erased it, but for a day or so this weekend my son’s dry-erase message board on his bedroom door read: “I am in RockBand and I am going to rock the earth!”

How can you beat that?

Damn man-crushes.

Mine just got worse this weekend.

This is five-time (and quite possibly future) world champ Valentino Rossi.  Every year he comes out with a one-off helmet for his home grand prix at Mugello, Italy.

How the hell can you not love a guy who goes out in public wearing a helmet like this?

The face on the helmet is his.  According to Rossi, that’s what he looks like inside the helmet, screaming down the hill on the long straight at 205mph.  When he’s tucked in behind the screen on the straight, the damn face does actually peek through the windscreen, and it makes me laugh out loud.  Don’t take my word for it, take 55 seconds out of your life and watch this video.

Ah, me.  (And yes, a guy making tens of millions of dollars does stand up on the footpegs and de-wedgie-fy himself.  In front of 90,000 screaming fans.  And on live TV all over Europe.  Every week.)

Sorry, Nicky, you know I love you, but the more I think about it the more likely it is that I’ll be busting out my Rossi gear at Indianapolis this year.