snagger.org http://blakeellison.posterous.com Most recent posts at snagger.org posterous.com Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:35:19 -0800 How was the Zelda Concert? Well... http://blakeellison.posterous.com/how-was-the-zelda-concert-well http://blakeellison.posterous.com/how-was-the-zelda-concert-well
Back in early January, I got to use a birthday gift I was given back in December: two tickets to the Legend of Zelda performance at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

I got a couple questions pretty frequently following the show. From Dallas Arts District regulars: "How was Jaap?" That referred to the DSO's celebrated conductor and was an easy question to answer: he wasn't there. An Irish woman conducted the performance as part of the touring company that was putting on the Zelda concerts around the nation. 

The other question - "How was it?!" - is much harder to answer. It depends on what you think about games and what you know about music. 

"It was definitely an experience," I wrote to my brother, who I had unsuccessfully begged to come down from Oklahoma to join me at the concert. A professional musician and a devout Zelda player who even managed to sneak an Ocarina of Time reference into one of his successful compositions? Who should come but him? (On an aside, the excellent writer, world traveler and equally passionate gamer Hudson Lockett was an even better bromance-date for too many reasons to list here.)

The definitive trampling all over classical music tradition was in plain sight from the moment we walked in the place. Dress was all over the spectrum, from dating couples in suits and black dresses to cosplay groups in little green, elf-like Hylian outfits. The giant white board above the stage, visible in one of the pictures with this post, is a washed-out video screen that showed video clips from the games being referenced in the music.

The idea, it seemed obvious, was to educate listeners about what places or moods are being evoked within the music. The piece that we had all been assembled to hear was the "Symphony of the Goddess," a four-movement 'symphony' composed by an American spanning the Zelda franchise and a name derived from the latest game, Skyward Sword. 

The 'symphony' was, Hudson and I agreed, just an elaborate medley. Individual movements were medleys from individual games, so there was very little depth of atmosphere. Smaller details typical to the classical music tradition, such as the conductor's handshake with the first-chair violin, and not applauding between movements, were forgotten entirely.

Worse, the DSO sadly didn't do this music justice. The pianos and fortes were all in the right places on paper, but the group generally had a lack of chemistry that would move the audience. It sounded like the DSO hadn't had much rehearsal time at all with our Irish conductor. Criminally, the Fairy Fountain theme (you know it from every Zelda game's file selection screen)...

...was utterly butchered. No other way to put it. The poor harpists had to play their shortest strings to get those notes out, but by the looks I got on a video screen close-up, one player was older and had arthritic fingers that caused her to miss most of her notes. Stranger still, our composer thought it wise to do some call-and-response thing between the two harpists, but all that did was mess things up further when one player hit her notes and the poor other one didn't. It was cringing, dear-god-look-away awkward and equally painful to listen to.

So the performance itself really straddled the range from awful to (for tiny fractions of seconds) blissfully euphoric. And to cap it all off, our conductor left the stage two or three times, giving the audience the impression that they were being treated to a whole series of encores. That resulted in multiple (unnecessary) standing ovations.

That brings us back to your opinions on games and music. If you think games are art, then to celebrate them in the hallowed ground of a major city performance hall is an honor that they've earned. If you think games are the devil's work, it's sacrilege to let them into that hallowed ground. And if you're educated about classical music, then serviceable orchestration don't make up for blah arrangement, a wildly inconsistent performance, a huge video screen floating in the room shouting "HAY THIS IS THE PART WHERE ___", and all the smaller details of classical performances thrown out the window. But if you're not educated, you probably wouldn't have been bothered by any of those factors.

"You were probably not right not to come; you'd have hated it," I also wrote to my brother. A classically-trained musician, he wouldn't have enjoyed what was academically a lackluster piece of music and a bad performance to boot. Many real musicians probably committed suicide that night just so that they could roll over in their graves in response to the lack of musical convention and tradition. I honestly don't know if Kris would have been in that group.

Regardless of opinions, however, the facts speak for themselves. The Zelda symphony is the DSO's only sellout in its entire season and the fastest sellout in the organization's history. The arts, always more susceptible to patronage than we like to admit, will soon notice that gamers are a powerful, loyal and untapped demographic. In their (our) defense, is it so wrong that we call into question four hundred years' of tradition and appropriate classical music as our own when we pay for the artists? Who says we can't applaud if we hear something cool? Who says video can't augment a performance? Who says we have to be educated before hearing a symphony if we now have the technology to be educated while we listen?

As a birthday present, it combined pomp-and-circumstance and one of the greatest gaming franchises of my life. How could I hate on that?

Three or four standing O's, however many there were, were one final nail after another in the coffin of musical tradition. But from those gamers, those fans, those guys and girls across generations rocking Triforce tattoos and elf cosplay: I have no doubt that all of them were from the heart.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:15:00 -0800 Nintendo + Apple http://blakeellison.posterous.com/nintendo-apple http://blakeellison.posterous.com/nintendo-apple

The connection - or rather, similarity - between Nintendo and Apple is incredible.

Here are a few choice quotes from Osamu Inoue's Nintendo Magic, one of the better Nintendo books from the last few years:

"I think they have a lot in common with us in that we both make unique, interesting products that surprise people. I really respect and think highly of Nintendo. I myself own a Gamecube and a Wii." -Phil Schiller, 2008

Apple takes pride in its software development, bringing new experiences to its customers on the twin pillars of hardware and software. On that count, it's certainly not unlike Nintendo. [Nintendo president Satoru] Iwata himself agrees: "We want people to be surprised, and we want people to call our approach unique. That's what people say about Apple, too.

It's cherry-picking the numbers, but if you stack up quarterly sales numbers from 2005 through 2008 the lines are identical. Apple's are higher by a steady margin of about $3 billion, but the lines are identical in shape:

Photo_on_1-16-12_at_11
That's Apple on top, in black, and Nintendo below in grey, and me creepily peering around from behind the book

The quotes are endless about how either company wants to surprise people, or focuses on R&D heavily, or holds employees accountable, or how execs use each other's products, or has been to the brink of death and back, or has millions of people waiting with baited breath before product announcements.

My personal favorite common factor about the two companies is how both reach into their back catalogues of experiences and bring them back in unexpected ways. Roughly 48% of all media coverage of the iPad has referenced the Newton (a prototype PDA from 1993, pretty far ahead of its time). Other recurring themes include the Macintosh and iMac unveils, but you'd have to find a dedicated Apple fan to get you more examples than that. 

I can give you some Nintendo ones, though. The 3DS is, in a sense, a refinement of the Virtual Boy that came about once the technology improved. Nintendo has some product failures, such as Virtual Boy, just like Apple had the entire 1990s and the Motorola ROKR. Products aside, Nintendo brings back some small details in very subtle ways. Check out this little tune, which was bundled with a DSiWare animation app called Flipnote Studio:

Seems innocent enough, until you find that someone snuck a very similar tune into a secret level of Super Mario 3D Land:

And it turns out that these little tricksters have a long history of doing this stuff. If you owned a GameCube, you may not have ever known that the calming ambient system menu music is actually borrowed from a Famicom (NES) accessory that never made it to the US:

Speaking of hardware that never left Japan, learning about Satellaview blew my mind. It was a SNES addon with a satellite modem that let players download small segments of Nintendo games and even play along with live broadcast audio tracks, creating a sort of Legend of Zelda-meets-radio drama kind of feel. 

But the "download small segments of Nintendo games" is the big thing here. New bits of content for games like Link to the Past, F-Zero and Dr. Mario were created exclusively for the service. So, in effect, Nintendo was pushing the boundaries of what we now know as downloadable content and episodic gaming. In 1995. Here's a commercial, and even though it's in Japanese, you can get a basic idea of what's going on:

So in one corner you have Apple, which tried to take the computer mobile nearly 20 years ago with Newton and failed because the technology wasn't ready. And in the other you have Nintendo, which tried to reinvent gaming by way of connectivity over 15 years ago and failed because the technology wasn't ready (at least on the small scale of Japan, which didn't have terrestrial Internet in 1995). The ideas were always there, but the means weren't.

After being an Apple user for some five years, and having read Steve's bio, I'm finally coming around to understanding why someone would be an Apple fan, someone who follows the company out of something more than attachment to the products themselves, someone who sticks by in thick and thin.

I'm understanding it because I'm the same way with Nintendo, a very similar company.

Postscript
In all fairness, Nintendo didn't invent the gaming modem. The Sega Channel beat Nintendo to the punch in 1994, but the precedent for failed gaming modems goes back way further than I ever thought. 

In fact, attempts at connected gaming go all the way back to the Atari 2600. If Wikipedia is to be believed, that failed attempt became the eventual core technology of AOL.

If Nintendo had to be 'first' at something in the field, it was the use of a broadcast satellite, although even the Golden Age-era consoles used cable TV to achieve much the same effect.

(On an aside from my aside, Ed Rotberg, the creator of Battlezone, even told me that gameplay analytics were thought of at Golden Age-era Atari but the machines needed modems to phone home. Does the gaming industry have any ideas that weren't originally thought up in the 1970s?)

And while I'm doing the errors-and-corrections segment, I may as well admit that the 48% statistic about Newton is totally made up.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:25:42 -0800 Playlist: Catching up on all of 2011, pretty much http://blakeellison.posterous.com/playlist-catching-up-on-all-of-2011-pretty-mu http://blakeellison.posterous.com/playlist-catching-up-on-all-of-2011-pretty-mu I haven't told the world what I'm playing, reading and listening to since March of last year!

Ack!

Let's get down to it:

Spotify 
I should mention Spotify first, since the service is a decent music player but it's really an amazing platform for me to shout out my musical opinions and tastes to the people who may want to know about it. I haven't really been able to share music with my high school amigos since high school, thanks to the inevitable demise of our LAN parties, too much laziness to run FTP or other filesharing servers, and the increasing difficulty of using common desktop apps to send files back and forth.

Within a week or two of being converted to Spotify, Aroon, Alex and I basically got to play catch-up on several years' of diverging music collections. It's really good to be coming back together. If you're not using Spotify for its social features, it's because you don't have a taste in music.

All that said, I'm listening to:

Kenichiro Nishihara, Life - Mostly misses, especially compared to Humming Jazz, but don't miss Now I Know.

Funky DL, Blackcurrent Jazz 2 - DL's best since The 4th Quarter. Fantastic from start to finish. Don't miss Le Jazz Courant Noir. This is already the soundtrack to the rest of my time here in the US.

Nujabes, Spiritual State - You already know what I think.

Chris Botti Live in Boston - Sometimes you just need a little jazz.

Gaming

Forza Motorspot 3 (yes, 3) - So good that I switched away from GT5. Can't wait to get my hands on 4.

Yakuza 4 - I loved 3, so no surprise I enjoyed this one. There was less to surprise me in this one, and no new environments, but the enhancements over 3 made it worth the run.

Uncharted 3 - Personally, my Best Game of 2011. I started playing and next thing I knew Aroon was planted on the couch watching the action. Then, next thing I knew, we started over and Nick planted himself on the couch too. This is what a blockbuster - game, movie, whatever - should be.

Battlefield 3 - Actually really enjoyed the singleplayer campaign, if only because it's marginally less ridiculous than Modern Warfare. I really should've paid the $10 for multiplayer access.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Hats off to Eidos Montreal. They pulled off what every studio promising a big reboot promises, except they actually delivered. I adore the atmosphere, the world, the attention to detail. Looking at the augmentation, or the hacking mini-game, or the linearity, and it isn't classic DX. But the spirit of the narrative - the poverty, the paranoia, the way that globalization gives way to corporate rule - is completely and satisfyingly present. Can't wait for the inevitable sequel, and I'm just fine if it takes five years to execute again.

Donkey Kong Country Returns - As a trip down memory lane, certainly better done than most Nintendo platformers that aren't Mario. As a platformer, however, waggle controls are annoying and disappointing. And the cartoony, low-poly look that the Wii is known for doesn't do DKC justice. It's worth 2 or 3 hours, but from that you've scratched the itch and you can put it away.

Sonic Generations - I'd been hankering for a good Sonic so badly that I bought Sonic CD and gave it my first whirl ever since I never had a Sega CD growing up. Then along came Generations and - holy moly - it's good! A good 3D Sonic! Hallelujah!

Skip

Tropico 4 - Like a Zynga game but with a bad interface. Shudder.

Kirby's Epic Yarn - A game that showed incredible promise on its art style alone turns out to be a ho-hum platformer. I'd let my kids play it, if I had any. But I don't have kids, so skip it I did.

Final Fantasy XIII - Not worth the 60 hours it'd take to appreciate this game. After 5, I still have no idea what a fal'Cie is and I hate every character except the awesome black dude with the 'fro. Still, my hat goes off to the people who implemented the seriously beautiful motion graphics. Those little details were fantastic.

Reading

Steve Jobs' bio is worth the read.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:24:00 -0800 False Nostalgia http://blakeellison.posterous.com/false-nostalgia http://blakeellison.posterous.com/false-nostalgia
There's a clip just like this one that was always used as B-roll footage when Japan was in the news every day at the end of the 80s. Sunset palette, city traffic, and those really boxy vans are really all I remember of it. It symbolized Japan's rise in the world, although I was still too young to make the connection between my beloved Nintendo and the nation of Japan - the economic juggernaut, the world power, the orderly society and the O.G. peaceful rise.

Still, there's something that that image triggers for me. For a native Japanese, it'd probably trigger nostalgia, if anything, for that brief moment when Japan sat at the top of the world. For me, well, it's almost nostalgic but never could be. How could I look back fondly on a time and place where I never lived?

That sense is probably why I loved Shenmue, an old Dreamcast game with a cult following that was known for its ahead-of-its-time open world more than the story, fighting or controls. Even though it hasn't aged well at all, at the time it felt like an incredibly realistic, explorable re-creation of a 1980s Tokyo suburb. Shenmue allowed me to visit this imagined place from the B-roll and see what it would have been like.

That sensation is also why I count Crazy Ken Band among my guilty pleasures. The song below, like most of Crazy Ken's, is itself an exercise in nostalgia: for summers past, for old Detroit muscle cars, for an older rock-n-roll sound, for youth, and always for an alternate-reality sort of Americana pinpointed to the sailor-filled port city of Yokosuka, where American influence has been heavy since the war. It may not be for the bubble heyday, but Crazy Ken acts the same in remembering an older Japan, mixing details real and imagined for a very specific feel.

The feeling is even why I love Sushiyama, a Dallas sushi restaurant that doesn't try to chase the chic, modern, date-friendly decor that so many American sushi joints go for. While the place is actually a tacky pseudo-Japanese mockup of a cozy izakaya, when I'm there I willingly buy into it and feel a little bit temporarily transported.

Between all the images of the country I've consumed over my lifetime, I think I've sort of created a false memory for myself that looks back fondly on a Japan gone by.

The Japanese have a word for nostalgia: natsukashii. But to put it as simply 'nostalgia' in English is a poor translation. In Japanese the word has a more specific, nuanced meaning that leans toward the emotions stirred up by recalling times past - which can be collectively shared, thanks to Japanese uniformity in experience. 

Let me put it this way: if you say "that's so nostalgic" in English, someone could ask you for more detail. "Nostalgic for what?" you may be asked. But say it in Japanese - natsukashii desu ne - and the response will be more like "I know what you mean."

Oddly enough, this dude took a camcorder (VHS!) to Tokyo at the end of the 80s. For people who know the city, it's easy to recognize East Shinjuku in the video. It's amazing how little the area has changed in 20 or 30 years. So if Tokyo in 1987 was very nearly the same as it was in 2007, maybe my memories of the area at Japan's peak, false though they are, aren't so inaccurate. 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:44:00 -0800 A layover that's lasted a year http://blakeellison.posterous.com/a-layover-thats-lasted-a-year http://blakeellison.posterous.com/a-layover-thats-lasted-a-year

The layover is, according to Google's define: feature, "a period of rest or waiting before a further stage in a journey." According to Anthony Bourdain's marketing department, it's an underrated opportunity for adventure on a more compact scale. 

I'm not one to write year-in-review posts, but in the case of 2011 my life was both. I uprooted myself and settled back down twice with a third trip on the horizon.

The first move was from San Diego to Palo Alto, SoCal to NorCal. I had spent the last several months in SD in that period of rest and waiting. With one quarter to go in school, I came pretty close to burning out, so I took a supremely easy quarter and spent my time enjoying the place, the weather, and a very positive relationship. 

Now, with 6 months' hindsight, I hate having left. San Diego rocked, and I miss living in an atmosphere of constant learning, constant international exposure, and constant ramen while living in a wonderful, comfortable apartment. Alas, graduation happens.

The second move was from Palo Alto to Dallas, from the place I always wanted to live in to home. With less than 6 weeks' hindsight, I wish I hadn't left. PA rocked. Aroon made me learn that I actually can live with the right roommate, and that it's really fun to live with a techie gamer who loves being social, loves beer and happens to be an awesome friend all around. A visit from Ale was that return to the best parts of the high school days that become oh-so-rare after age 25. Nick and Sam, I'm forever in debt to both of you. Everyone at Apple (especially iOS Maps and Keyboards; Tableau employee spouses who throw awesome parties and former employees bound to other startups included) is awesome, and my hat collectively goes off to you. The privilege of still hanging out with some of my favorite grad school friends there was icing on the cake.

I absorbed so much of the professional atmosphere there, and not just the lack of dress code. I worked at a tee-tiny startup for a couple months as a contractor, showing me the value of fast failure, being decisive, and just getting things done yourself - lack of skill isn't a valid excuse. It's the pace, challenge, control and collaboration I want. Can't wait to come back with a thicker resume and do something awesome.

That life was still one of waiting - to see if I could land a job. To see if I could move out of Aroon's place, get an apartment, and go on an IKEA shopping rampage. There were days when I wanted nothing more; I felt like that had been my destiny for months. I was ultimately waiting to see if someone would make a bet on me. Alas, they didn't. I wasn't pigeonholing myself properly.

My pigeonhole is overseas. My job search did end, and it's off to Tokyo I go. Since the search was over, it was time to clear out of Aroon's place (but thank you again for the generosity dude!) but I have four months to go before my job actually starts.

So here I am, in Dallas, resting and waiting before the next stage in the journey. It's an awesome chance to get quality time with hometown friends and family before that opportunity becomes exceedingly rare. 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:42:11 -0800 Christmas wish list :D http://blakeellison.posterous.com/christmas-wish-list-d http://blakeellison.posterous.com/christmas-wish-list-d All I want for Christmas is gift certificates here, here and here.

Oh, and you! Whoever you are reading this, I want to hang out with you.

That's it! :D

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:39:43 -0800 To Tokyo I go (in a while) http://blakeellison.posterous.com/to-tokyo-i-go-in-a-while http://blakeellison.posterous.com/to-tokyo-i-go-in-a-while The cat's out of the bag. I'm moving to Tokyo!

I told Facebook (ie, my friends and loved ones) about a week or so ago, but I've more or less known I'd go for a while longer than that. It was really just a matter of reaching a particular level of certainty that crazy random twists wouldn't happen at the last minute.

I guess they still could happen, but at this point I'm OK with stopping the job search and turning down whatever leftover job search calls that trickle in. (Why do I care about this? About 48 hours before my first departure to Japan, back in '07, Google called completely out of the blue. Making that decision was agonizing and sleep-depriving.)

Where ya going?
So, for the handful of readers who haven't already been exposed to the news somehow, I'm headed to Rakuten, Japan's #1 in e-commerce. (That's pronounced 'rock-ten.') I'll start in April 2012, so I'll be moving at the end of March. 

What're ya doing?
Honestly? I don't know. They'll assign me after a month of training. Could be their core e-commerce business, or it could be new lines of business (like Travel, Golf or Weddings!), or it could be international rollouts of existing products (how about Edy for your NFC money needs?), or it could be assisting in international acquisitions (which have happened so far in the US, UK, France, Russia and China by joint venture). They're a big company but still have room to grow at 7,000 employees (for comparison, Amazon has 43,000).

Are you nervous?
You mean about radiation? Not so much. I'm more nervous about leaving loved ones very far behind here in the US.

Are you excited?
Hell yes! A UT alum already working for the company was cool enough to reach out to me and tell me all about his experience. Seems like he's having a great time. When I was living and teaching in the boonies, I came to Tokyo to recharge my batteries. Now I'll live there.

Isn't it expensive? Are you making enough money to live on?
Tokyo housing isn't as bad as you may have been led to believe. I've found apartments online for about $1,000 a month in rent in awesome locations. Small, sure, but definitely not shoebox-sized. It'll be less if I let Rakuten set me up with housing. The company is located on the southern edge of central Tokyo, in Shinagawa. That's a major bullet train stop and is just around the corner from Haneda Airport, the swanky city one that just started taking international flights. I'll live somewhere roughly 30 minutes from Shinagawa. If I'm lucky it'll be in another big neighborhood such as Naka-meguro. Otherwise I'll just be a teeny-tiny bit closer to Yokohama: convenient to work but a little further from all the fun action.

For other money matters, Rakuten has free breakfast and lunch and pays for my commuting. I just need to pay for suits to wear!

What are you doing in the meantime?
I'm headed home to Texas to enjoy the winter at home, rent-free, with Mom. I'm going to miss California a lot but it'll be a good place for 4 months' downtime before things get crazy. Oh, also, I'm looking for an honest 4 months' work in Texas! So, uh, bring me in as a temp or something!

I'll be home before Thanksgiving! 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:59:40 -0700 The day I traveled back in time 10 years http://blakeellison.posterous.com/the-day-i-traveled-back-in-time-10-years http://blakeellison.posterous.com/the-day-i-traveled-back-in-time-10-years Blake, 16: Whoa, what the hell!

Blake, 26: Yup! I'm you, in the future. Go ahead, check me out.

Blake, 16: Well, you're too close to me to be someone else screwing with me. But I fill out, eh?

Blake, 26: You'll fluctuate. Your - well, our - stomach is pretty sensitive, so any time you go abroad you'll lose weight fast.

Blake, 16: So I'm still alive in 10 years, that's good. And going abroad? That sounds cool, if a little scary. Are you here with some other kind of warning?

Blake, 26: Nope! Just good news. As for the abroad thing, you'll actively seek out that challenge. It's not scary, because you tend to go prepared.

Blake, 16: OK, lay it on me straight - do I work out the 'girls' thing?

Blake, 26: Yes! Oh man, do you ever figure it out. College gets interesting but you start going crazy after college. By the time you're my age, the fun wears off so you go back to caring about personality and stuff.

Blake, 16: Anyone I know?

Blake, 26: Yeah, but you wouldn't believe me if I told you the circumstances. None of your current crushes, I will say that. You may as well go play more games.

Blake, 16: Oh yeah! What are you playing?

Blake, 26: You ready for this? Ico, its sequel, and Deus Ex. Occasionally Quake 3.

Blake, 16: WTF? Those are already out now.

Blake, 26: Remakes and re-releases kind of become a thing. The Deus Ex is a new one and it's really good, though.

Blake, 16: Sounds like I'm still a gamer. Not that I doubted that.

Blake, 26: Even more good news in that way: you'll not only achieve your dream of going to Japan, you'll learn to speak the language fluently and you'll live and work there.

Blake, 16: Sweet! Do I work in the industry?

Blake, 26: In Japan? No. You'll go once to be a teacher (it's a really famous exchange program, don't worry about it) and then again to work for an Internet company. You'll work in the industry in the US, but you'll have a really contentious relationship with it. In two jobs you'll be fired from one (the boss is an idiot, don't worry) and laid off from the other after a couple months at each.

Blake, 16: Boo! Can you - err, we - do anything about it?

Blake, 26: Nothing that we came up with at the time. OK, so there is a little bad news in the bigger world: Bush wins the election on a crazy technicality after a nasty contest and things turn seriously bad politically. It starts to resemble Deus Ex - the US gets attacked by terrorists in NYC and it results in a big bad power grab by various government agencies. The rich get richer and the middle class starts getting eroded. We'll go to war, but the army is really small these days - there's no draft and you won't go.

Blake, 16: Aiee.

Blake, 26: Personally, you'll be fine. Mom gets rich. Try to be nice - she works insanely hard to get you everything you need and even want.

Blake, 16: Wow, uh, thanks, parental me?

Blake, 26: Hey, just sharing wisdom to make your life better. You didn't think a time-traveler visit would be all stock tips and rainbows and puppies, did you?

Blake, 16: Oh hey! Yeah, how about stock tips?

Blake, 26: Sounds weird now, I know, but do this: buy Apple stock. Totally serious. They start making really cool stuff.

Blake, 16: OK, really now, any warnings for me?

Blake, 26: Nah, you'll be fine. You might avoid dating in high school altogether - your friends are much more worth your time - but aside from that the next ten years are pretty awesome. OH! One last thing - when you get sick in Japan, stop drinking the coffee, and when you get to San Diego (yeah, you go there) drink a LOT of water - it'll save you from quite a lot of pain.

But really, the next ten years look good for you. Enjoy them!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:54:55 -0700 A bit of politics http://blakeellison.posterous.com/a-bit-of-politics http://blakeellison.posterous.com/a-bit-of-politics Recently there was a wave of forwarded emails and Facebook copy/pasting wherein students showed their support for passing some sort of law that would forgive all student debt.

I even got it from my mom, and she stopped forwarding MoveOn.org emails to me after the 2004 election. (Then again, she moved a little more to the right in the intervening years, but I digress). My grad school classmates, my band of brothers in job searching, blew up Facebook with it.

Sounds nice, right? Drop a year's salary in debt on a Masters degree, find that it doesn't get you a job, then let the debt slide since you did the good American thing but it didn't work out for you anyway.

Too bad it can't happen. 

Gr-student-loan-debt-300
Total student loan debt hit $830 billion this year, a 4x increase from just 10 years ago. American university education is officially a racket.

Remember AIG? The "too big to fail" guys? Their market cap was just $200 billion at peak and held just barely $1 trillion in assets. For $830 billion in debts to suddenly vanish overnight would be a serious, serious problem for the guys who own that debt.

And at 8 percent interest - that's what you're paying, grads! - the $830 billion easily balloons its valuation into the trillions of dollars. As much as I hate to say it, I suspect that forgiving student debt would actually be a systemic risk.

You could make the argument - and perhaps those on the left do - that if the government were to pay off those debts at face value, and the government has spent nearly as much money on deficit stimulus in recent years, you'd avoid financial collapse and still do the right thing.

To them, I wish them luck in persuading the government to spend nearly a trillion dollars on the country's small sliver of most educated people.

That said, as a student debtor, I'm obliged to say that I would support such an action in the alternate universe in which it could happen. But since I don't believe in online petitions or political action via Facebook posts, I'd like to propose some more concrete political action:

I will donate $10,000 to the campaign of the President who passes student loan forgiveness.
(*by way of a shell corporation, since it's above the limit for individuals.)

Sound crazy? It's more money than I have, yes. But it's a small fraction of my student debt and since I have good credit, I could pay back that loan at way less than 8 percent.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:21:00 -0700 Happy 10 years! Hello from Silicon Valley! http://blakeellison.posterous.com/happy-10-years-hello-from-silicon-valley http://blakeellison.posterous.com/happy-10-years-hello-from-silicon-valley

Happy 10th birthday, humble little blog! 

I've been blogging for ten years. In Internet Dog Years, that's a full lifetime. When I first started:

-I was 16
-I had crushes on girls on the internet. (At least they were fellow bloggers!)
-I was playing Quake for roughly 10-15 hours a week and my clan was my life
-I posted totally silly inside jokes based on conversations with my best friends at the time. Interestingly, Aroon and Eric (both of whom I quoted extensively) are still in my life.

If you want to know what I was like as a teenager, or an early 20-something, the archives can be found below, or in the sidebar, based on whatever this site's design is like at the moment. The short version, though, is that I've changed very little. You can ask Aroon, Eric, or anyone else who's been in my life for that long.

So, I've come across some free time since I graduated back in June. But I haven't been prolific here. What gives?

Well, I'm in a state of transition. I've thought for a while I'd be starting on the next big phase of life, and at that point I'd start writing again. But here I am, one month and counting in flux. No sense in staying radio silent.

I uprooted myself from a comfy and happy life in San Diego, threw all my worldly possessions in the back of my car, and drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to Silicon Valley. That drive may have been the very first thing to go on my Bucket List way back when, so it was cool to accomplish something and cross it off the list. 

So now I'm in Palo Alto, crashing on Aroon's couch and job searching. 

I've talked to people privately about the job search, and a few have said that I should blog about my experiences. I wish I could. Unfortunately, blogging about these things publicly is an invitation out the door of the selection process. Even if I were to disguise companies or whatever, most HR 'drones' (my favorite word for low-level recruiters, courtesy an IR/PS alum) would find it distasteful of me to say that some anonymous recruiter was a total idiot or that some VP was a total dick, and it wouldn't be very informative to all of you.

An alternative would be to get a job and then spill the beans, but back in college I saw a good friend lose a summer internship over simply criticizing a product from the company that hired him. Internship rescinded via email. He hasn't blogged since, and that's a shame.

Like blogging about girls you have crushes on when you're 16, blogging about jobs you do or don't want is really nothing more than a way to jinx yourself.

But if you're curious about what's up, definitely drop me a line! I've had some really cool experiences alongside the 'blah' ones, so it's not all whining and lameness. Update: following a suggestion from the wonderous Katherine Fan, I've set up a Google+ circle to fill people in on everything: the good, the bad, and the tips.

Anyway! It's now 10 years and I've gone from high school to real world. Curiosity to cynicism, crushes to actual relationships. PC to Xbox 360, by way of the Gamecube. Depths of the South to my motherland of California. From quirky nerd who loves to laugh, to, well, quirky nerd who still loves to laugh.

It's been a fantastic 10 years! Thank you for reading, and I hope you'll stay with me for 10 more.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:21:00 -0700 Alex + Aroon + Blake + Weekend in SF = http://blakeellison.posterous.com/photos-from-big-sur http://blakeellison.posterous.com/photos-from-big-sur

-Adventuring amongst nature and climbing down a cliff around Big Sur
-So much immaturity you’d be amazed three 26-year-olds could do this legally
-4 iDevices
-Sheer awesomeness that hadn’t been enjoyed like this since high school

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:56:00 -0700 I graduated! http://blakeellison.posterous.com/i-graduated http://blakeellison.posterous.com/i-graduated

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I finished grad school!

I did it!

There’s even photographic proof!

I apologize for the terrible photo quality. Point-and-shoot + ‘cloudy’ setting on a sunny day + shaky hand = photo fail.

But you can still make out my face (it’s the one with the hat, sunglasses and a nice red sunburn). 

Dear classmates, I have several more photos that aren’t posted in this entry that’ll probably go up on Facebook. Keep an eye out.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Mon, 30 May 2011 04:16:08 -0700 To-do list http://blakeellison.posterous.com/to-do-list http://blakeellison.posterous.com/to-do-list In rough (but certainly editable) order of priority:
  1. Australia
  2. Vancouver
  3. Taiwan
  4. Hong Kong
  5. India
  6. UAE
  7. Mainland China
  8. Somewhere in northern Europe when it's nice outside

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Sun, 22 May 2011 14:25:18 -0700 Tears to my eyes http://blakeellison.posterous.com/tears-to-my-eyes http://blakeellison.posterous.com/tears-to-my-eyes This Shing02 performance actually brings tears to my eyes. It's from last summer's Nujabes tribute show, but it was also the premiere of part 4 in Shing02's collab series 'Luv Sic.' It's beautiful.

(the new track comes in after 6:00, but you really should watch the whole performance)

You know those really touching commercials Google is running about sending photos to your daughter and finding French churches to wed the life-changing Parisienne? This is my Google commercial. I couldn't be in Shibuya last summer, but the videos on YouTube let the whole world watch. 

It's such a blessing.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Sun, 22 May 2011 00:07:00 -0700 Prom (part 2) http://blakeellison.posterous.com/prom-part-2 http://blakeellison.posterous.com/prom-part-2

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I went to prom!

OK, not really. My grad department had its annual Spring Fling, an end-of-year party with everyone dressed up. This one was on a boat. (The DJs, of course, made sure to play I’m On A Boat.)

Much fun was had by all, as was much champagne, and it was an awesome way to salute classmates (and first-years we’ll leave behind) with just three weeks until graduation.

The lovely Suihan made an excellent date; however, my jacket was not an excellent fit for her when she got cold. She was a trooper, though.

Also, everybody loved her shoes. And my tie, which matched her shoes. That was her doing.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:29:00 -0700 Unexplored territory [warning: OMG sooooo nerdy] http://blakeellison.posterous.com/unexplored-territory-warning-omg-sooooo-nerdy http://blakeellison.posterous.com/unexplored-territory-warning-omg-sooooo-nerdy
In ancient times, I probably wouldn't have been an explorer. The world was too big.

But now, the world is small. So what few places aren't well-charted, or known, or inhabited, always leave me curious.

In the real world, this is true of small Pacific islands used by Americans in the mid-20th century. There are places that were of serious importance for things ranging from guano mining to logistics in fighting against the Japanese to nuclear bomb testing. And since those uses they've been largely abandoned. 

For many of them, the US Fish & Wildlife Service stops in "every year or two" to check up. Aside from that, it's wild birds and wild cats that were brought along on ships. Maybe the occasional airstrip for emergency landings.

I mean, we could go to these places. It's possible. We just don't, because they're not important anymore. Who knows what they'll be needed for again in the distant future.

Meanwhile, think of the people who still do go. They're either military personnel there to clean up an airfield, or Fish & Wildlife staff to record a statistic or two. Are these jobs totally cushy positions because they're quiet and situated on the world's most private beaches? Or are they hideous for being so disconnected from modern society? 

I get the same vibe from the Internet.

No, really.

The absolute center core of the net is a more fascinating way to explore history than any museum could be. Just take the endings of web addresses you know and love: .com, .net, .org, .edu and so on. Then add in the countries: .uk, .jp, .kr, etc. And the miscellaneous stuff like .biz, .info, and even .museum. (All of these endings are called domains, so keep that in mind if I drop that word later on). But there's more than that. 

For a while there, you could just enter in http://to/ and that was a valid address. (That's really .to, the two-letter code for Tonga, but since there's no words before it you don't even need the dot). But there's also .arpa used in the root networks - the guys who tie the backbones of the backbones together. That's because ARPA, the US military's research agency, funded the inventing of the Internet. And their basic stuff, which was supposed to be replaced, is now keeping the entire world connected. 

Then there's a whole shadow Internet outside that system. Anonymizer software, frequently used in countries with repressive regimes, uses domains like .onion and .freenet. These things are "on the Internet" in the sense that you access them over a network with your computer, but they're also "not on the Internet" because it's not within this one big unified network. 

But it's not limited to just democracy advocates trying to fly under the radar. Allegedly, NSA internal email uses .nsa and Hotmail's internal workings are inside .gbl, so that they can't be reached easily by random Joes on the Internet. As far as your computer is concerned, it's never heard of .nsa or .gbl.

The Internet wasn't always so centralized for ordinary users, and technically still isn't. Leaving the domain stuff behind for a second, dial-up services in the 90s like AOL and CompuServe often listed what features their service came with. A lot of it involved special content or unique chat rooms, but it was also access to certain parts of what was coming together as The Internet. So they listed 'WWW Access' as just one feature alongside other stuff like Usenet and Gopher. Nowadays, things are much simpler: your ISP sells you Web access and off you go, because the Web ended up replicating the functions of Usenet (forums), Gopher (uh, just browsing), Finger (blogs) and so on. [Yes, techies, I'm glossing over the differences between domains and protocols. Apples and oranges. If you know, that's great, but I'm not burdening readers who've made it this far with that.]

But those things didn't die forever. You can still use Usenet and Gopher. Usenet fell into the hands of warez jockeys, so ISPs dropped it and you have to go pay someone a subscription for access. Gopher is around, and free, and usable right now with a Firefox plugin or alternative browsers like Camino. Wikipedia suggests that there are 150 Gopher servers hanging around. That's a tiny amount. On that alone I gather it's a little old club for old guys who enjoyed "the good old days" on Gopher sites and occasionally want to stroll down memory lane. 

But in a sense, playing with these things is like diving backwards in time. Gopher, or Darknet (which is a spinoff of the .onion thing mentioned above), lets you see what the Web looked like in the 90s. For me it's a whirlwind back to childhood. It's the only history museum that's ever been interesting, and it's because you can actually relive some experiences, however trivial, instead of looking at an object in a glass case and making your imagination do all the work. So it is as the root of the Internet, too. We take for granted that the entire thing is held together by some links that ARPA strung together in the 70s and 80s. 

What we have now will eventually be Memory Lane too. The ARPA stuff is staying in place, even with a big conversion we'll all have to make to IPv6, but the whole domain thing is about to get real freaky. They added support for foreign languages. So right now, if you're Japanese and you want to read about Nintendo, you to go www.nintendo.co.jp - those are English letters, which many Japanese aren't so good with. (That's probably why they picked up QR codes so fast, but that's a different story.) In the future, it'll look more like: http://例え.テスト. By the way, you actually can click that. Look at what it does to your URL bar!

This stuff blows my mind. IT'S SO COOL! 

Ahem. Sorry. Nerd freakout.

It all makes me wish I could see that root. Maybe it's like getting out of the Matrix and meeting the Architect. Granted, it's probably just a data center somewhere, but it's only in Hollywood that the inside of the clockworks looks interesting. The core of the Internet is put together by an offshoot of IEEE, which is a big academic body for engineering. 

So basically, whether you're on the world's most remote island, or at the center of mankind's greatest invention, you're really looking at a handful of academic types hanging around, being all academic-y.

There's an awesome book in that parallel somewhere.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Sat, 16 Apr 2011 22:39:00 -0700 What I'm Up To (in pictures) http://blakeellison.posterous.com/what-im-up-to-in-pictures http://blakeellison.posterous.com/what-im-up-to-in-pictures

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:45:09 -0700 Televised racing is awesome http://blakeellison.posterous.com/televised-racing-is-awesome http://blakeellison.posterous.com/televised-racing-is-awesome In the last month or so, I've fallen in love with telecasts of Formula 1 and American Le Mans Series races. You should too, and here's a few awesome reasons why:

An amazing team sport. Winners often credit their teams (that is, their crews and engineers), while the crews and engineers treat the driver like another part of the car. That's not a lack of respect, that's chemistry to an extreme. A football team specializes only along the range from huge and fast to huge and faster. A racing team ranges from PhD mechanical engineers to dudes who can lift serious weight using their necks.

Travel the world. Formula 1 hits a new destination in the world about every two weeks. Gaming career, what? What's a startup? I totally want to do something menial for Red Bull's F1 efforts just so I can follow the team around.

Way less advertising. Advertising in American sports has gotten way out of control. The first down line is sponsored. The line of scrimmage is sponsored. The scoreboard is sponsored. The commentators' predictions for who wins are sponsored. Individual clever comments or identifications of key plays are sponsored. The halftime show is sponsored. The two-minute warning is sponsored. Instant replays are sponsored. Oh, and the postgame show is sponsored too.

ALMS? In two and a half hours of continuous racing I've seen maybe 2 minutes of commercials and a 2-minute shameless plug interview with someone from Mobil 1. F1? Can't recall any shameless plugging, at least on the BBC broadcasts. Sure, there's plenty of logos all over the cars and drivers, but that doesn't detract from actually watching the action. Nor do commercials, because there really aren't any.

Decent announcers. You might enjoy Charles Barkley's trrbl talk but I could use something a little more intelligent. Racing announcers aren't always MENSA members, yes, but they're capable of taking complicated engineering talk and reducing it down to pedestrian levels. Pretty cool.

Plays nice with new technology. F1 fan? BBC's iPlayer has you covered. Le Mans fan? ESPN3 lets you watch entire races, commercial-free. No blackouts, no regional nonsense (unless you're British - I torrent F1 since there are no US sources to my knowledge), and no other such silliness deriving from American cable TV monopolies. 

So join me and start watching so we can talk about the races!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Sat, 26 Mar 2011 16:08:35 -0700 Blake Recommends: the Lightning Round http://blakeellison.posterous.com/blake-recommends-the-lightning-round http://blakeellison.posterous.com/blake-recommends-the-lightning-round Holy moly, school hit me hard. I haven't updated what I've been consuming since last summer. Well then, it's time to catch up, and to do so quickly, I'm going to borrow a concept coined by my dear friend and colleague Adam Wright: the Instareview.

The Instareview is almost like a haiku in that it conveys a lot of information, or one very poignant idea, using a minimum of words. Hopefully, it'll take less time than dilly-dallying in the details and the track listings and the analysis, but still give a good idea of how I really feel about something.

Let's get to trying this out!

Music

Cee-Lo Green, The Lady Killer - Good all the way through, not just 'Fuck You.' A classic? Maybe not.

DJ Deckstream, Deckstream Soundtracks 2 - Like a gourmet steak from a fusion place: weird first taste, but definitely meaty with a great aftertaste. On heavy rotation.

Jasmine, Dreamin - The only ever time I've 'pulled an Aroon' and played one song, on repeat, for hours on end. 

Kenichiro Nishihara, Humming Jazz - In a post-Nujabes world, there's a gap in Japan's hip-hop, and Nishihara comes closer than anyone else to filling it. Don't miss the collab with Substantial.

modal soul classics vol. 2, DEDICATED TO NUJABES - Speaking of Nujabes, his old crew released an album to say goodbye. You can hear the celebration of life in some tracks and the hurt in others. 

Kero One, Kinetic World - An album so DIY, you can hear the Garageband in it. (But I'm still psyched for his next one, or a live show).

Lupe Fiasco, Lasers - 18 tracks of some overproduced rapper (feat. Lupe Fiasco).

Passion Pit, Manners - I admit it. I'm hooked. Love these guys. Next thing you know I'll be driving a Volkswagen, using Apple products and watching comedies on ABC. Wait a second...

Think Twice, With a Loop and Some String - Half of Specifics does his 'own' album, half of which is collab with Specifics MC Golden Boy anyway. Who knew Canadian hip-hop was so consistently good?

Games

Yakuza 3 - Are you a Japanophile? Did you like Shenmue? Do you like some really good narrative in your games? The more you answered yes, the more you should play this game. I'm biased, but it was my game of 2010.

Gran Turismo 5 - It's Pokemon with cars. BRB, gotta keep catching 'em all.

DJ Hero 2 - Everything I, the boy who fantasizes of DJing, wanted 1 to be. Devastated there won't be a 3.

Halo: Reach - Bungie knows how to stay ahead of the curve. 

StarCraft II - I'm too white to play this game. I'm also too white to play football. Doesn't stop me from loving watching either one as a sport.

You Don't Know Jack - Best trivia game ever gets best modern revival ever.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - First time I've ever said 'meh' to a Mario game. What happened?

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future - First time I've ever said 'meh' to a Layton game. What happened?

Call of Duty: Black Ops - Now's a great time to sell your Activision stock.

Red Dead Redemption - Objectively, extremely well made, but I can't get it out of my head that this is GTA4 with horsies. Sorry, Rockstar SD.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - The cool kids call it AssBro for short. And they stick to the extremely addictive multiplayer mode.

Movies

The Social Network - This movie speaks my language: specifically, techie startup business technobabble written by Aaron Sorkin. If you're me, you'll love it.

Sucker Punch - What's the word for "a mess of messes"?

Pirate Radio - Every bit as cool as 60s/70s Britain.

----------

OK, so it's not as good as Adam's work, but man, I had a lot of pop culture to get off my chest there.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:54:49 -0800 RIP Music Games, 2005-2010 http://blakeellison.posterous.com/rip-music-games-2005-2010 http://blakeellison.posterous.com/rip-music-games-2005-2010 Today, I finished DJ Hero 2.

(Yeah, I'm way behind on my gaming backlog, school is utterly demolishing me lately). 

It was the best music game I've ever played. When Guitar Hero came out, it was widely loved for how it enables 'power fantasy' - the ability to suddenly be awesome at guitar, without all the work and calluses. I always, always wanted that for turntables, a symbol of the music that more appealed to me, whether hip-hop or electronic. Getting to imaginarily play the part of DJ was as appealing to me as electric guitar is to white people.

DJ Hero came out in 2009 and lived up to the promise, just. It was a flawed game, a 3-out-of-5 in most reviews, but I was just happy that the thing existed. But DJ Hero 2 seriously tightened up the graphics on level 3 - better visuals, yes, but more gameplay depth, more difficulty depth, and much better music. Out of all the tracks I played, I'd only give about 2 tracks less than a 3 out of 5. Most were very good, and a large number were seriously awesome. This game is, objectively, a 4 out of 5. 

For me? Subjectively? A 5 out of 5. I'm ready to buy this game for good and keep it on the shelf forever. I love it.

But sadly, today was also the day that Activision put the final nail in the coffin. Its entire music game business is done, as are 500 employees, meaning no more Guitar Hero or DJ Hero. The train stops here. It's only shocking when viewed in light of statements from annual reports and conference as recent as two years ago: that the music genre was one of (only mildly paraphrasing here) "three pillars" of Activision's business.

Not that Activision is some sort of unique bad guy for getting out of the music games business. Harmonix (the geniuses who made this whole thing happen) was put on the block over the holidays and they've already begun shrinking. The only 'bad guy' move here was irrational overinvestment.

Anyway. It was truly a good run. Harmonix wowed and amazed us with the original Guitar Hero during the 2005 holiday season. Let's not forget that sensation of the first time we all played it. And let's face it: Rock Band was the superior product all throughout its fight with Guitar Hero, because it was Harmonix's baby. Activision was just along for the ride. 

Want proof? Look at the tie-ins when things started getting skinny. Activision looked at some spreadsheets and came back with some big, mass-market names: Metallica, Aerosmith, Van Halen. Harmonix dug into its heart, looked at the stars and came back with the trump card, the ultimate tie-in: The Beatles.

Activision was just along for the ride... until DJ Hero. Acti dug through its large organization, its celebrity Rolodex, and put together a new and original entry for a whole new set of gamers. And all the muscle that that development exercise built up was fully and satisfyingly flexed for DJH2. 

That was for the holiday of 2010. The whole genre has risen and fallen in five neat years. During that time there were some great moments for me, and for everyone I know who's played the genre. The first "oh holy wow, this is cool" moment. The axe battles with friends. The drunken band nights. The stage events. 

From here, plastic toy instruments will fade out of use but not out of existence. They'll start going for clearance at game shops, and then stores will refuse to buy used ones, and like the crazy gaming peripherals of our past they'll fade into closets and garage sales. But there are tens of millions of them out there, so they won't become eBay token rarities like some oldies from the 80s and 90s. 

So in ten years' time we'll all have old, incompatible plastic toy instruments in our closets and when nostalgia strikes we'll say, "Remember Guitar Hero?"

It was a really good run.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/204085/n7901690_47301950_935.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4bhwSFzfEBkB Blake Ellison blakerson Blake Ellison