Best 10th Gathering.

The 10th Gathering of the 12th Street Guitar Hero Fanciers' Association. That's a milestone, isn't it? For this Gathering Report, I wish to spotlight 3 brand new members of the Fanciers' Association.

Tyler

Tyler. Tyler is the young sort of super-talented mega-genius that has essentially never played a video game, never listened to a note of rock music, and attends a super-exclusive college for the super-talented (Cooper Union[he's such a mega-genius that he already teaches classes there]{Let's not be silly, there can't really be a connection between no videogames and no rock n roll and going to genius school}). But unrelenting peer pressure (and the fact that he's on Spring Break and was in the neighborhood) lead Tyler to attending his first Guitar Hero night. How did he fare? You'd expect that his complete lack of experience with video games and rock music would equal difficulty with a video game about rock music, right?

Wrong. Turns out super-talented mega-genius trumps all that other stuff everytime. While it took Tyler a minute to take in the concept of Guitar Hero (he found the requirement of strumming AND pressing down fret keys especially objectionable) once that minute was passed Tyler was a king of the game and playing songs on Medium after a song and a half on Easy. We pretty much had to keep him away from the game before he overtook us all.


And, like any savant would, Tyler also immediately tapped into the need for rock star posturing to truly enjoy the game and demanded the same of his game-buddies.



Jared

Jared Clark* is in town. Jared Clark came to Guitar Hero Night. It could be left at just that, right?

But let's not leave it at that.

As could be expected, Jared brought the moves, especially when teamed up with co-conspirator Jeff.





And when not playing Guitar Hero, Jared was busy observing and unlocking its secrets.


*Please don't tell me you're, like, the one reader of Steady Mobbin' unfamiliar with Jared and his works of art? Come on. Go to like, half the blogs I link to and search them for posts about him. He's everywhere. Or, better yet, go to his own blog and take in his work. He's constantly taking it to another level. Constantly. Just as I was typing this, he took it to another level. Again.
Brooke

Fact: I first met Brooke during the Summer of 2001 when we were both living in Chicago.
Fact: I am from Chicago, Brooke is not. But Brooke definitely spent more of her 20's living in Chicago than I did.
Fact: While Brooke was living in Chicago during her 20s she made friends with my friend Lucas. It is possible that Brooke has spent more of her 20s hanging out with Lucas than I did.
Fact: When Brooke was planning her move to New York she asked me to investigate the most depressing little apartments I've ever seen for her. People can say what they will about Soho being a nice place, it's also home to the mosted crampedest, most overpriced apartments you could imagine. Imagine harder. You aren't thinking nearly small enough.
Fact: Brooke lives in Queens now in an apartment that's probably totally gigantic.
Fact: Brooke has a blog. I've seen it before. But I cannot remember the URL.
Fact: Brooke was Laura from Project Runway for Halloween, do you remember that?
Fact: Despite all these facts, Tuesday Night was Brooke's first Guitar Hero night. Which I'd say is a shame, but the fact that she was pulling off a mean backlean with Michelle before her first song had even begun suggests that she's already made up for lost time.