Archive for the 'Rock Band' Category

Hallaline a chanchaline

Published on Friday, March 12, 2010 in Claire, Claire-isms, Conversations, Fun, Games, Language, Music and Rock Band. Closed Tags: Preschoolers are weird but we love them anyway.

“Momma, sing me this song,” Claire says.

She often asks me to sing songs for her, and I try my best. Sometimes, I’m really good at it…and other times, not so much.

“Which one, sweetie?” I ask, wondering what it will be this time. Beyonce? Oasis? Man in a Box? Lump? What. Anything is possible.

“Hallaline a chanchaline,” she says.

“Halla what?” I ask.

This isn’t the first time she’s requested this song. The other day, she asked me to sing this song, and I couldn’t figure it out. When we’re not trapped in the car, I can pull them up on my iTunes or Youtube if I don’t know how they go. As this wasn’t an option at the moment, I was able to distract her by singing a different song. She forgot all about her original song request, and so I had I…until now.

“Hallaline a chanchaline,” she says again. “You know, the one on Rock Band.”

That doesn’t really narrow it down. We have a lot of songs on Rock Band.

“Say it again,” I coax her. She’s usually really good at pronouncing words, and there are very few times when I don’t understand her.

“HALLALINE A CHANCHALINE,” she says, exasperated. “It goes, ‘Hallaline a chanchaline. Hallaline a chancheline. Wouldya like time. Wouldya like time.’ Ya know? Come on, Momma. SING IT.”

Uhh… “Hallaline a chanchaline” I sing, matching her tune.

“No, sing ALL of it,” she says. My trick hadn’t worked.

The tune and the words are distorted as they travel from her four-year old brain out her mouth, but she sings it the same way every time. Now, she’s signing it over and over, the exact same way every time, hoping that I’ll finally understand it.

I don’t.

Soon she finds that singing it louder doesn’t help me figure it out any quicker.

“Okay, you said it’s on Rock Band. Which one? The first one or the second one?” I ask. Maybe she’ll give me a clue.

“The second one. Duh! HALLALINE A CHANCHALINE! HALLALINE A CHANCHALINE! WOULDYA LIKE TIME. WOULDYA LIKE TIME.”

“Okay, calm down. We’ll figure it out. Just give me a second,” I say as I’m wracking my brain. I love puzzles. I’m good at puzzles. Most normal, sane people would be amazed at some of the things I figure out, even on the smallest of clues.

Normally, I can Name That Tune in two notes, Jim, or knock Twisted Lyrics for 1,000 out of the park, Alex.
But not this time.

Hallaline a chanchaline? Wouldya like time? The second part (that she’s now shouting) sounds vaguely familiar.

“Rock Band 2?” I say, stalling.

“YES,” she says. “HALLALINE A CHANCHALINE! ON ROCK BAND TWO! It’s the one where the cars are racing, and then they crash! And he’s bald! The guy singer. He’s a man! He’s singing! And he’s bald! And the drummer guy is drumming! And they crash! But they keep singing! And they go whhhhhoaaaa, and they fly! And they keep singing!” She’s showing all the animation for this, of course.

She’s describing the opening song/animation of Rock Band 2, so I know we’re on the right track.

“Okay, so it’s on Rock Band 2,” I say. “Is it the song they sing during that opening or is it on into the game?”

“HALLALINE A CHANCHALINE!” she sings again. “They play it! Hallaline a chanchaline. Wouldya like time. Wouldya like time.”

Luckily, we’re at home, close to youtube. I could go downstairs and get Rock Band all set up to see exactly what the opening song is, but I’m sure I can find it online. I can picture the opening in my mind, but the song totally escapes me, what with all the Hallaline a chanchaline being shouted at me.

Sure enough, we find it, and she’s thrilled!

“THAT’S IT!” she screams as Cheap Trick‘s, Hello There starts playing. “HALLALINE A CHANCHALINE!”

Want the translation? Hallaline a chanchaline is “Hello there ladies and gentlemen,” and Wouldya like time actually sounds exactly like that to me, but is technically, “Would you like to.” (As in “Would you like to do do a number with me? Would you like to do a number with me? Would you like to? Would you like to?”)

So, the mystery is solved. We listened to the song a few times, and then I shut youtube and started to go about my day.

“Sing me a song,” she says.

“Okay, sweetie. What would you like me to sing?” How about Lump, I think to myself. I love singing that song, and I know the tune and all the words by heart.

“Hallaline a chanchaline!” she says with a smile.

I wish other things had a No Fail Mode

Published on Thursday, December 4, 2008 in Fun, Games, Moms' Group and Rock Band. 3 Comments Tags: Party Like Rockstars, Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Xbox 360.

On Tuesday night, I hosted a Rock Band Party here at the house for some of my Moms’ Club friends.

As you may remember, my hubby and I have been hopelessly addicted to Rock Band for over a year now. (Yes, it even has its own Category here on the blog!) When we were trying to figure out what to do for our Moms Night Out for the month, someone mentioned Rock Band. Of course, I jumped at the chance to share my addiction with others.

My hubby and I have actually been playing the newest version of Rock Band (Rock Band 2) for a couple months now, and we love it! There are some features that were not in Rock Band 1 that are just amazing…especially for the party scenario.

My favorite?

Three words:

No
Fail
Mode!

In the original version, if one of your bandmates can’t keep up, they can “fail” and actually be boo’ed! And, if another bandmate doesn’t “save” them in time, the entire band can be boo’ed off the stage! Or, worse yet, if a bandmate fails three times, that’s it! The whole band is done with the song!

Oh, the pressure!

My hubby and I play in that brutal, unforgiving mode when we’re doing different challenges and playing different gigs to gain fans, fame and glory with our band, but to the untrained rockstar just wanting to party, it can be daunting.

Hello, No Fail Mode!

In this mode, it doesn’t matter how well you do…you can finish the song and rock it hard core anyway! You can be a total newbie and still rock it out with the experts! This is perfect for parties! (It’s under Extras in the Main Menu…We have the Xbox 360 version.)

The ladies had so much fun Tuesday night! We set up our characters as a rockin’ girl band, and we played all night! Every one of us tried our hand at every spot in the band: drummer, bassist, guitarist, vocalist. There were five of us partyin’ it up like rockstars, so we even had the groupie spot filled!

Every band needs a groupie.

And, I dare say, a great time was had by all.

It was a blast!

I wish other things came with a No Fail Mode. I’m thinking the kitchen would be a great place to start…

One Woman Show

Published on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 in Claire, Fun, Games and Rock Band. Closed

It’s no secret that I am totally smitten with the game Rock Band. Yes, you’d think that after so many months that our love for the game would diminish, but it hasn’t! There are weeks that we can’t play as much as we’d like, but we try to get some band time in as much as we can. It’s something we can do as a family, and it keeps us off the streets.

So, this last weekend, aka The We Didn’t Go Camping Because Our Trip Was Thwarted By The Summer Snow Storm Weekend, was the perfect opportunity to snuggle on the couch and play some Rock Band. I don’t mean to brag, but I beat the Expert Level on Vocals a long time ago. It is what it is. Vocals are my thing. I’m a novice when it comes to punching colored buttons and strumming a fake guitar string in time with the colored spots that fly toward me on the huge TV, but hand me a microphone and I can sing. Over the months that we’ve had the game, I’ve sung every song more times than I can remember. Most are good songs and I love them. I can sing those songs in my sleep, with my eyes closed. Or while chasing a toddler around the room. This is a good skill to have…when everyone else in the room is tethered to an actual instrument.

Saturday, I decided to take things to a new level. My hubby was doing some things on his computer, and I wanted to try a little experiment. I had him help me get my headset microphone set up, and I tried my hand at singing AND playing bass AT THE SAME TIME.

I just wanted to see if I could do it.
This hurts my brain, but was actually a lot of fun!!

At the top of the screen, you have the song whizzing by karaoke style, right to left. At the bottom of the screen, you have your guitar or bass “notes” flying at you from top to bottom. Off to the side, you have your toddler trying to covertly jump from the couch to the ottoman (which is a no-no), because she thinks no one is paying attention.

Needless to say, there’s a lot going on.

So, I set the Vocals on Hard (which is an easy level for me…what can I say? It is what it is.) and the Bass Guitar on Easy (because, I’m not really very good at the other instruments…I can do it, but it takes a LOT of concentration…and any level harder than that would not be fun for me.)

And, it went really well! I got 100% on Vocals and 86% on Bass. So, in theory, nothing changed. I get those scores anyway. Ha.

So, I went through the playlist and tried songs that I can sing with my eyes closed. I rocked it out. All by myself. I was my own band! My vocals didn’t suffer, but I was actually getting a little better on the bass…on some songs. On other songs, not so much.

And, that’s the thing about being a One Woman Show…if one of the bandmembers isn’t doing well, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself!

It all went really well until Claire threw a pillow at my head, which knocked my headset off that then got tangled on my guitar strap and caused all pandemonium to break loose. Somehow I was able to pause the game, get untangled and then get back on track.

Sunday, two of our friends came up to play in our band, so my skills as a one woman band weren’t needed. We had all positions covered, and, as always, we had a fabulous time.

And, for old time’s sake, here’s a cartoon that I love. I know I’ve posted it before, but it’s so appropriate.

Rock Band by xkcd

Rock.
On.

We calls it as we sees it

Published on Friday, August 15, 2008 in Fun, Rock Band and Travel. 5 Comments

Well, as the rain started falling last night, and is still falling this morning, we are confident in our decision. As much fun as driving on the mountain roads in the rain would be, and as much fun as it would be to set up a tent and all our gear on the wet ground, in the rain, and as much fun as it would be to keep a toddler entertained in the rain, while sitting in our wet tent, on the wet ground, in the rain…only to have it turn to snow when the temps dip near 40 (degrees Fahrenheit)…we decided to bail on our camping trip!

I know! It was such a hard decision!
*cough*

We NEED the rain, so I’m not complaining.
We NEED the cooler temps, so I’m not complaining.

I mean, I complained before and look where it got me?

So, last night, in an attempt to make us feel better about missing out on our fabulous camping trip that was not to be, we got some new song-packs on Rock Band. There is just something about Margaritaville and Wonderwall that makes all your troubles go away…

We’ve decided to adopt our Travel Zen Mentality and tweak it for our Close to Home and Out of the Rain and Snow Weekend.

Fresh mountain air or not, we will have a great time.

Friday Night Fun – Rock Band & a Movie

Published on Saturday, May 10, 2008 in Fun, Games, Movies and Rock Band. 2 Comments

We had such a fun night last night! We started the evening with a round of Rock Band. Yes, we’re still playing that game. Yes, it still rocks.

We had something frustrating happen with the game a few months ago, right before I lost my voice. My hubby and I were on our last set of the night. It was a four song set. We finished it with flying colors. In fact, we’d passed one of the songs with 4 out of 5 stars and three of the songs with 5 out of 5 stars. The screen flashed something about 127,000 fans, and we were ecstatic! We’d already reached 600,000 fans, and our goal of reaching 1-million was even closer!

Then, we looked closer. It said we’d LOST 127,000 fans. WHAT!? We still don’t know what happened. A glitch in the game? Something had to be wrong. We’d rocked out those four songs, passed them with really good marks, and we LOST fans!? I was livid.

My hubby was upset too, but kept trying to remind me that it was just a game. He’s right. It’s just a game. But still! How could we lose fans after passing all the songs in a set? I didn’t even understand…and I still don’t.

Shortly after that, I had a lot of problems with my voice and it was hard for me to play large sets. We’d play Rock Band here and there, but not as much as before.

When my voice healed, we started playing again, and last night, we finally surpassed the 600,000 fan mark. Again. We closed out some venues and I feel good about the game again. We peeked at the Leaderboards (the list of where everyone online ranks), and there are bands out there with 342,000,000 fans. That’s more than THREE HUNDRED MILLION fans. Unbelievable.

Kudos to them, but who has that kind of time?

But, Rock Band wasn’t the only fun part of our evening. After Claire went to bed, we decided to watch one of our Netflix movies. Last night’s choice was Death at a Funeral. We haven’t laughed so hard at a movie in a long time. We actually had to pause the movie at one point, because I couldn’t breathe. (Now, that’s a good movie!) We both had tears streaming down our faces, and we still laugh about it today.

Death at a Funeral is a dramedy (a mix of drama and comedy) about a funeral (obviously). Some rather dysfunctional things happen and lead to a totally chaotic and hilarious fiasco. Personally, I think it has the feel of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead with a little bit of Grandma’s Boy and Forty-Year Old Virgin mixed in, yet it’s not like any of those movies at all.

It’s not for everyone. We have friends that we know would love it. And, we have friends we know would hate it. So, if you see it and then wonder what in the world is wrong with us, I apologize. If you see it and then hurt your ribs laughing, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I think my hubby summed it up best when he said, “That movie was so funny! And, well, weird… Then again, so are we.”

Rock Band Update: Addendum

Published on Wednesday, January 9, 2008 in Claire, Fun, Games, It's a paycheck and Rock Band. 2 Comments

At 5pm, Claire had had enough of me working my day-job and told me it was time to go downstairs and sing. I was in a good stopping-place, and it was time for a break!

So, sing we did! The last two songs in the Vocals List are completed! All 58 songs have been passed in Expert Level, so I no longer have the “but I’ve never even heard this song before!” excuse. And, I didn’t get any achievement points for it, but I “earned” a silver microphone to go with the gold one I got for completing the original tour.

I will say that one of the last songs (second to last, actually) is originally sung by Timmy! Yes, Timmy! of South Park fame. What? That’s a real song? How funny!

In honor of there being two Rock Band Updates today, here is a neat webcomic I found at xkcd.com:

Rock Band by xkcd

A direct link to the comic (by Randall Munroe) can be found here.

Real or not, Rock Band sure is fun!

Rock Band Update

Published on Wednesday, January 9, 2008 in Fun, Games and Rock Band. 2 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve given an update on our escapades in Rock Band! This last weekend was full of good stuff.

I already mentioned that I completed the Vocal Tour in Expert. Well, my hubby completed a Guitar Tour in Medium and a Drum Tour in Hard! AND, he successfully completed ALL the drum songs (including the bonus ones) in Hard. ROCK ON. (I’m currently two songs away from finishing all the bonus songs in Expert. I don’t think I’ll ‘win’ any special achievements for it, so it’s just something ~~my OCD is making me do~~ I’m doing for fun.)

Edited to add: I completed it! Check it out here.

And, as a band, we have over 600,000 fans. The fans. It’s always about the fans. Our goal is to finish a full city tour (We’ve played in a bunch of cities, but we’re really close in Rome.) and gain 1,000,000 fans, whichever comes first…or both! Hopefully our gear holds up! My hubby has already broken one drumstick and had to do some repair to the drum pedal. This Rock Band stuff is hardcore; I tell ya!

On Sunday, we joined some of our friends from the West Coast online and rocked it out. We had so much fun! They had just gotten Rock Band for the Xbox 360 that week, so they were still new to the whole thing. But, that didn’t stop us from having a great time! The only challenging part was that you have to play different roles, and there were two lead singers…me and one of our friends. So, for the first couple of songs, I sang and she played the drums. For the rest of the evening, I handed over the mic and tried my hand at the bass guitar. My hubby handed the drums over to our other friend, and he played lead guitar. It’s actually a lot of fun. (I’d played the bass guitar a little bit during our Thanksgiving Tour, so I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with it.)

After our West Coast friends had retired for the evening, I sat down at the drums and did the Drum Tutorial. I then played a couple songs. I now have a bigger respect for my hubby! They are pretty complicated, but not too bad on easy mode. (Granted, the man has played the real drums for about 20 years, so he’s a tad more experienced than I am. I’d like to say that my years and years of playing the ‘real’ guitar help with the Rock Band Guitar, but it’s totally different. The drums, from my understanding, are pretty similar. Singing is singing, and that’s still my favorite part.)

My hubby jokes that he’s going to get me a mic-stand and make me sing AND play bass guitar. On some songs that may actually be possible. Insane, but possible. As long as we don’t lose too many fans if I mess up. Because, at the end of the day, it’s all about the fans.

Oh, and because I recently got my hair cut, I’ve updated momma’s photo:

momma

And, here is a picture of my hubby:

animal

What an awesome name for a drummer! Personally, I think the mohawk makes the whole outfit. And, yes, he looks exactly like this in real life. (or not) Ha.

So, that’s an update regarding the addiction that is Rock Band. I had no idea this would be so much fun.

ROCK.
ON.

Five Gold Stars

Published on Sunday, December 16, 2007 in Claire, Fun, Games and Rock Band. 2 Comments

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know of my ~~obsession~~ newfound liking of the game, Rock Band on the Xbox 360. I recently finished “a tour” in the Expert Mode, which was a goal of mine. (Hey! Don’t laugh. We all need to have dreams.) I had mentioned then, that the only other thing I wanted to accomplish with the game was to sing one of the songs 100% correctly in Expert Mode. Then, I could just play for fun and not with some goal in mind. (Me? OCD? Why do you ask?)

Well, Friday night, as my hubby and I were playing a gig, Claire, our biggest fan, kept begging for us to play “Dani California” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. So, we set up a play-list and included that song. I set my level to Expert in hopes of breaking my 99% streak and finally winning the achievement. When we got to the end of the song, we both knew that we’d rocked it out, and sure enough! The screen showed that I got 100%! But, where was the fame and glory associated with it? The little green achievement circle didn’t make its blooping sound and pop onto the screen. Denied!? Apparently, you have to be in a Solo Tour to win achievement points like that? Bummer.

So, when the drummer’s leg finally went out (that’s what he gets for getting the day off and using it to go skiing), and he requested a break from all the action, Momma switched to the Solo Tour mode, determined to repeat her 100% on “Dani California.” With Claire dancing around the room and singing along into her pretend microphone, Momma pulled it off and actually hit every note perfectly, unlocking the illusive five gold stars.

Claire wasn’t quite sure why Momma dropped her microphone and started screaming with pure joy when the song ended, but she didn’t let that stop her from celebrating. Of course, Momma and Daddy had different reasons for rejoicing: Momma had reached her goal, and Daddy was happy that he didn’t have to listen to the song on repeat for the rest of the night…

Rock Band – Sweet Success!

Published on Saturday, December 8, 2007 in Claire, Fun, Games, Rock Band and Video. Closed

Well, last night Momma (and ‘momma’) completed all the songs in the Expert Level in Rock Band! This was my main goal and not an easy task. Actually, it was a lot easier than I anticipated…until I got to “Reptilia” by The Strokes. Yeah, I’ve never heard of that song either. Somehow I’d passed it in the Medium Level (a week or so ago, I completed all the songs in that level and decided to jump right to Expert. I sang one song on the Hard Level and got 5-stars right away…you only need 3-stars to pass the song, so I decided to spend my time tackling the Expert Level. Beating that level will automatically give you points for the levels below it.)

Anyway, “Reptilia” was wiping the floor with me and my microphone. I just could not get it. The way the game works is if you’ve built up some ‘points’ you can mess up a portion of the song and still move ahead if you can pull it all together quickly. The problem with this song was the fact that the first part of the song was extremely difficult for me, and by the time I made it through to a part of the song I could actually sing, the screen would flash red, and because it was the beginning of the song, I had no points built up to save me. I’d fail the song and get boo’ed off the stage. And, that’s really tough on my rockstar ego!

So, Claire and I found the song on youtube and I made it my personal mission to master it. (Yes, I’m a dork.)

Here it is, although, I don’t care to ever hear it again. Of course, after listening to it on repeat all day, it kinda wears on ya.

For some reason, the video isn’t embedding properly, so here is the link.

So, last night, Daddy had been invited to play in someone else’s Rock Band. While he went to ~~be a traitor~~ play drums and guitar with his friends from work, Momma and Claire had their challenge for the evening. Beat “Reptilia.” Move on in the game. (It was the last song to complete before moving ahead…you can’t move ahead until you’ve properly sung each song in the “city.” And, if you’re stuck on one song: too bad, so sad.)

I put the game in practice mode and tried something that I’d been working on all day in my youtube sessions. The lead singer’s voice is so bizarre to me and impossible for me to match. So, I had been playing around with octaves. You don’t have to match the voice or octave if you can match the note…so I tried it in practice mode, and by my calculations, I had just enough points to maybe pass the song!

So, I went into the “play a gig” mode and chose my White Whale of a song. Whatever I’d done with all my youtube practicing worked! I passed it with no problems! Success! It was all a breeze from there. In two hours, I’d sung through all the rest of the songs in the remaining cities, and had beaten the Expert Level.

So, where do I go from here? Well, there is an achievement you can earn when you sing a song at 100% in Expert Level. I’m so close with “Dani California” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’m at 99%. This is another of Claire’s favorite songs at the moment. She calls it “Californay” and begs for me to sing it. A lot. All day. Hence, the 99% rating and huge score on that song.

I also have a huge score for “In Bloom” by Nirvana. So, I may try to get a 100% score on that one, too. (And, yes, Claire runs around the house singing “Don’t know what it means……..don’t know what it means……” Ha!)

And, to get “Reptilia” out of your head, here is “Dani California” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers:

For some reason, the video isn’t embedding properly, so here’s the link.

You’re welcome.

Rock Band Momma

Published on Monday, November 26, 2007 in Claire, Fun, Games, Photos, Rock Band and Thanksgiving. 2 Comments

We were able to play a lot of Rock Band this weekend! Our friends Dick and Grace came over and joined our band. For the most part, they played bass guitar and lead guitar while my hubby played drums and I sang.

The game was so much fun that we accidentally played for FIVE HOURS straight! We went downstairs to our entertainment room to play around 3pm (after we’d all stuffed ourselves with wonderful food), and at around 8pm we realized it may be time to eat again. We’d been playing that whole time! Needless to say, we ROCKED.

After another round at the dinner table, we played for another THREE HOURS. Yes, we spent the equivalent of a typical work day in a band, and it was awesome.

Claire and I were able to do some more singing in the game throughout the weekend.

Here are some pictures of the character I “created” in the rock band. (The pictures may not be very crisp, because my character keeps moving around and I can’t use the flash to take the picture…) She is aptly named, ‘momma,’ since that’s what is screamed at me all day anyway. Plus, that makes Claire’s little pleas of “Sing it again, Momma! Sing again!” so cute…and appropriate.

I’m not sure what the score means, but it sure looks impressive.

Here is another picture, because you can’t see my rockin’ boots in the first one.

We named our band Nebulon 6, which is an inside joke. In fact, before Claire was born, our name for her was “Nebulona Roku,” (Neb-you-lawn-uh Roh-koo) which is a female version of Nebulon and the number 6 in Japanese.

But, after playing for a total of EIGHT HOURS on Thursday, we were in pain the next day! We realized that maybe we should rename our band The Oldtimers.