Economics and Rock Band

I don't know how much random commenting I'll do, but I did see some relevence with this Freakonmics interview with Alex Rigopulos.  Alex is the co-founder of Harmonix, the creators of Rock Band and the previous incarnation of Guitar Hero.  It's unfortunate that Freakonics gives the headline to Guitar Hero, but that's a story best left to a different blog.

I love Guitar Hero and Rock Band.  In fact, for the second year running I hosted a Rock Band party for New Years and for the second time running stayed up until the sun rose with my brother and sister-in-law.  However, one of the issues I run into is that when ever Rock Band becomes too difficult, I see no reason to practice it when I have a piano in the other room.  I think the theory that it leads to studying a real instrument is convincing.  If I can ever figure out a way to have a 3 piece band with keyboard, bass, and drums, Eight Arms of Terror will become a reality.

In an unrelated argument that my brother and I had on the aforementioned Rock Band Party V, most of the critics I found feel Gerard Butler sings in falsetto in Phantom of the Opera.  However, there is some disagreement, and it probably can't be settled definitively without a direct comment from his voice trainer, him, or a scale.  Regardless, I'd say Don is right, though I could be persuaded back to the other side with some evidence.