Today’s press release:

THE BEATLES INSPIRE NEW MUSIC VIDEO GAME; APPLE CORPS LTD., MTV AND HARMONIX COME TOGETHER FOR UNPRECEDENTED DEAL

Exclusive Agreement Set to Bring The Beatles Music to Fans for the First Time in Interactive Form Here, There and Everywhere in 2009

New York, NY – October 30, 2008 – The Beatles’ extraordinary music and phenomenal legacy is set to rock across the universe in the form of a video game through an exclusive partnership between Apple Corps Ltd., Harmonix and MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B).

This partnership marks the first time that Apple Corps, along with EMI Music, Harrisongs Ltd, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, has agreed to present The Beatles music in an interactive video game format. Published by MTV Games and developed by Harmonix, the world’s premier music video game company and creators of the best-selling Rock Band®, the game will be an unprecedented, experiential progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles. The game was creatively conceived with input from Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, and enjoys their full blessing. In addition, Giles Martin, co-producer of The Beatles innovative LOVE project, will provide his expertise and serve as Music Producer for this groundbreaking Beatles project.

“The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music. I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out,” Sir Paul McCartney said.

“It gives me great pleasure to be part of The Beatles / Apple and Harmonix / Rock Band partnership,” said Ringo Starr. “The Beatles continue to evolve with the passing of time and how wonderful that The Beatles’ legacy will find its natural progression into the 21st century through the computerized world we live in. Let the games commence.”

“It’s cool. I love it and hope it will keep inspiring and encouraging the young generation for many decades,” said Yoko Ono Lennon.

“People are having so much fun playing Rock Band. Combined with The Beatles tracks, it is a great way to either listen or participate,” said Olivia Harrison. “If you like the music, it doesn’t take much persuasion to get you to play.”

“Introducing the genius of The Beatles to a whole new generation of music lovers through original and inspired ways is extremely exciting to us at Apple Corps,” stated Jeff Jones, CEO, Apple Corps. “We are truly pleased to be working with the innovative forces at MTV and Harmonix as they embody our mutual passions for music and creativity.”

“Many of us have been part of a generation that has long enjoyed an enduring love affair with The Beatles and now we’re looking to extend that love affair for future generations to enjoy,” said Van Toffler.” “Our inspiration for this project comes from a keen sense of history and a place of utmost reverence and respect for the band, their music and their heritage.”

“The impact of The Beatles is forever ingrained in the hearts, minds and souls of millions the world over,” said Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks. “The Beatles are the reason many of us are WHERE we are, and some of us are WHO we are.”

“We are honored to be part of this new way for people to discover the timeless music and art of The Beatles - the most creatively and commercially successful, critically acclaimed, and influential band in the history of popular music,” stated Paul DeGooyer, MTV’s Senior Vice President of Electronic Games & Music.

“By presenting their music and artistry through the creative filter of a groundbreaking video game, we are giving legions of fans and music lovers all over the world a profound, new way to experience The Beatles,” said Alex Rigopulos, CEO and Co-Founder, Harmonix. “This game will be a celebration of the Beatles undeniable legacy.”

Man, I love this job.

Randall Munroe of xkcd has a “cartoon-off” with The New Yorker’s Farley Katz.

1. The sound of a gong ringing
2. The scene change sound from Law & Order
3. The sound that Yoshi makes in Super Mario World

From the official Dave Matthews Band website:

We are deeply saddened that LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 2008, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles from sudden complications stemming from his June ATV accident on his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. LeRoi had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin an intensive physical rehabilitation program.

What a terrible loss. Though I don’t listen much anymore, I was a huge DMB fan for the first half of my musical life. I can’t imagine the band will ever be the same, if they continue at all. Very sad news.

On a tangentially related note, I see that DMB fansite nancies.org has shut down. Nancies was my first online community, and even though I haven’t visited in years it feels strange to know that it’s not there anymore.

Stop the presses: I have made money on the internet.

My Project Wonderful ads over on the sidebar have earned me $10.02 over the course of nineteen months. That’s enough for me to withdraw the credits from my account and convert ‘em into cold, hard cash. Cash with which I can go across the street and buy a delicious cheeseburger.

For the sake of comparison, I earned $10.30 in my two years with Google AdSense. Google won’t pay out until you’ve made $100, though, so that’s not much help to me. Nothing like a steady paycheck that comes every twenty years.

So: thanks to everyone who, for some reason, still visits this site. I dedicate the cheeseburger I plan to buy with my winnings to you.

This is a story about how the internet works. I haven’t tried to extract any meaning from it, and I’m not sure there’s any to find, but I find something charming in its serendipity.

I no longer remember how I first discovered Daring Fireball. It’s been in my bookmarks since before I had a Mac, in my newsreader for as long as I’ve known was a newsreader was. Although I’m not as interested in the minutiae of Apple as I once was, it’s still one of my favorite websites.

Last month DF’s John Gruber linked to a blog called Big Contrarian, promising “Good writing, interesting links, and an original, thoughtful design.” I added it to the newsreader and promptly buried it at the bottom of the list. Occasionally I invoked the “Mark All in Feed as Read” command to soothe the uneasiness caused by unread items.

A week or two ago I added 43 Folders to my newsreader. I’ve been aware of the site (and its proprietor Merlin Mann) for a long time, and have even been an occasional visitor, but I never thought I was the intended audience — I seem to get by just fine without any “lifehacks.” More recently, though, I’ve become a Merlin fan from his hilarious Twitter and, through that his You Look Nice Today podcast, so I thought I’d give his website a chance. It grabbed my attention, and I began paging back through the most recent posts.

In one of Merlin’s posts I saw a familiar-sounding link — Jack Shedd’s Big Contrarian, the same blog Gruber had recommended. I dug it out from the bottom of my RSS feeds and began paging back through his most recent posts.

Jack’s blog soon revealed another familiar-sounding link — the personal blog of Diana Kimball, one of the people behind the fantastic ROFLCon. I read the essay Shedd had linked to — which I highly recommend, incidentally — and then (naturally) I began paging back through her most recent posts.

It only got worse. From Diana’s blog I found one of her other projects, a neat video series called The Tim and Diana Show; from there I found her co-collaborator Tim Hwang’s site, The U.S. Bureau of Fabulous Bitches (which is excellent, and much more cerebral than its title lets on). From there, I decided I had better quit my newsreader and look out the window for a few minutes.

After spending the whole morning skipping from blog to blog and slurping up content as I went, I looked up and followed Tim and Diana’s Twitter streams — fully aware that I risked starting the cycle over again. Who knows how many blogs I’ll end up subscribing to when I’m through with those?

But then I noticed something odd: Tim has been following my Twitter stream for two months now. I imagine he ran a search on ROFLCon and pulled up my mindless tweets from back in April. Maybe I’m leaving another trail of links leading in the opposite direction.

Last week I called out game composer Tommy Tallarico on Cruise Elroy for insinuating that older video game music has less artistic merit, citing passages like this one from his biography:

Tommy Tallarico is a veritable video game industry icon. As one of the most successful video game composers in history, he has helped revolutionize the gaming world, creating unique audio landscapes that enhance the video gaming experience. He is considered the person most instrumental in changing the game industry from bleeps & bloops to real music now appreciated worldwide by millions of fans.

I referred to this viewpoint as “a load of bull.”

Tallarico himself then dropped a line in the comments to defend himself. As it turns out, I overinterpreted him, and we’re more or less on the same page:

I actually agree 100% with you!

I think you’ve possibly misinterpreted my words because of editing. Sometimes when interviews are done they don’t take all the words or parts.

I have always talked about how the “old school” game music was some of the best written because the only thing we really had back then was the melody!

So when I read the Onion A.V. Club’s interview with Tallarico today, I had to laugh at this exchange:

AVC: At that point, it was only programmers who made music?

TT: Yeah, all of the music that was being done was a very simplistic. And don’t get me wrong, some of the greatest videogame music of our generation was written during or before that time. Mario Bros., Zelda, Castlevania…

Anyway, I really recommend the interview. Tallarico is an interesting guy and an important industry figure.

Did you read Minus when I linked it last week? No? Okay, that’s fine. Just, you know, go back to reading Cathy. Philistine.

If you read and enjoyed Minus, though, check out the new blog MetaMinus. It interprets the strip as “a metanarrative of modern thought,” and while it is perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek (”It is significant that the entire comic series begins with a panel of a white ball and Minus. I do not think that I can adequately verbalize the importance of the symbolism found here.”), it’s great fun. Well, it is for me, anyway — this is the kind of thing English majors go apeshit over.

Back when iTunes 4.9 was released in June of 2005, I remarked that podcasts have been “gaining popularity recently, and their integration into iTunes will probably ensure their long-term success.” Naturally, I was right; as you know, I have astonishing powers of clairvoyance.

To be honest, though, I didn’t really get into podcasts until last year, mostly because I couldn’t find a good time to listen to them. I don’t have any long commutes, so I can’t listen then; if I put one on while doing something else, I end up losing track of the discussion. And if I’m out walking around or jogging with my iPod, I want to listen to music, not some dude(s) talking — regardless of how interesting said dude(s) might be.

The solution was to listen to podcasts the way I listen to a new album: lying on my bed with my headphones on and my eyes closed so that I actually pay attention to the damn things. Now that I actually concentrate on them while listening, I’ve found that these podcast things can be pretty enjoyable.

These are the shows I’m currently into:

• MetaFilter Podcast: I think of MetaFilter as my “home” web community; it’s where I spend most of my online time, and where I’ve been hanging out the longest. In the podcast, moderators Matt Haughey and Jessamyn West recap interesting posts from the site, interview members, host call-in segments, and post songs from MeFi Music. It typically runs an hour per episode and comes out once or twice a month. NSFW.
• The Brainy Gamer podcast: The Brainy Gamer is run by Michael Abbott, a theater professor at Wabash College. It’s where all the intelligent and critically-minded gamers trade ideas — the nexus of my corner of the blogosphere, if you will. The podcast features thoughts on games Michael’s been playing, interviews with people connected to the industry, and general discussion of the gaming community. It runs about an hour per episode, give or take, and comes out once or twice a month.
• Downloadable Content: This is the podcast from the Penny Arcade guys, Mike “Gabe” Krahulik and Jerry “Tycho” Holkins. It documents the strip-writing process, which involves reading the news, ridiculing each other, talking about video games, and discussing lunch (and the acquisition thereof). They’re two of the funniest guys around, so it’s frequently hilarious. Episode length ranges from fifteen minutes to an hour, and the release schedule is sporadic. NSFW.
• Play Value: A video podcast about the history of the console video game industry. This is one from the pros, so you’ll see some higher production values here than in the other ones on the list. A decent overview and great source of “Did you know?”-type info from a bunch of designers, writers, and fans (not that I’ve heard of any of them, but they seem to know their stuff). The shows used to be precisely eight minutes each, but are now ten minutes; they come out a couple times per month.
• The Talk Show: A no-frills conversational podcast primarily about Apple, but also covering technology, movies, and general nerdery. Another fine project from the endearingly haughty duo of John Gruber and Dan Benjamin. They go into ostensibly dull topics (e.g., keyboards) with so much enthusiasm and in such detail that you can’t help but enjoy it. Episodes are usually around half an hour, with the occasional double-length show; the release schedule is sporadic, but it usually comes out twice a month.
• You Look Nice Today: An irreverent comedy podcast from internet superstars/Twitter funnymen Merlin “hotdogsladies” Mann, Scott Simpson, and Adam “lonelysandwich” Lisagor. As is common with humor nowadays, the show is rife with inside jokes, so I recommend starting from the beginning. It’s well worth it, if you ask me. YLNT runs 30-45 minutes per episode and new ones are released weekly (or close to it). NSFW.

I mentioned on Twitter yesterday that I’ve been reading about what it’s like to be a video game music composer. My childhood friend Andy and my blogofriend Ben were interested in what I’d found, so here’s a mini link dump:

• An interview with game composer Winifred Phillips on Bella Online.
• An article called “Getting Started as a Video Game Composer” from Bobby Prince. I can’t tell how old it is, but it’s interesting even if it turns out to be out of date.
• Three interviews with game composer/Video Games Live dude Tommy Tallarico:
  • Guinness Book of Records
  • David Perry
  • Gamasutra podcast (haven’t listened to this yet)
• Two communities for game audio professionals, which seem to have some overlap:
  • Game Audio Network Guild (there’s a yearly membership fee)
  • GameAudio Forum (regular ol’ phpBB forum, free reg. required, lots of good info/links)

Ryan North mentioned that the webcomic Minus ended today. I had not heard of Minus before, but went to read it on his recommendation. It’s one of the best comics I’ve ever seen. I read all 120ish strips just now in one sitting.

Take a look.