If I can manage to keep working back home in New York City, having just freshly rolled off of my Illinois project, I'm going to be attending a weekly, informal Guitar Hero tournament at McAleer's Pub. This pub is 15 minutes away by foot and is a nice, divey little cul-de-sac on an avenue full of... uh... divey cul-de-sacs. Right around the same area, there's Jake's Dilemma (where, this past Saturday, a friend and I got pounded in Beer Pong by the same pair who pounded my boy Gideon not 15 minutes earlier), The Gin Mill and The Dead Poet. Let me not forget Brother Jimmy's BBQ. It's really a nice little group of watering holes, but McAleer's now has my vote for coolest venue for the simple fact that I can go in on Thursday and almost guarantee myself four shots for free: Every time a tourney round ends, the survivors get a free shot. I went for the first time with my friend Raymond and won the entire thing, and the bonus was that the shots were actually really tasty. They weren't the strong, unbearable crap that you do just to slam one down and make a pained face afterwards. Those are great too, but... four in a row? Nah, I can't handle that. I'm a wuss -- so sue me.

There is a caveat. If someone rolls around who's better than me at Guitar Hero, and on Gamespot alone there are too many to name (though I'll shout out ShenlongBo since he inspired me to wave my strumming hand around while doing some hammer-on/pull-offs just because it's fun), I am in no way guaranteed those shots. Thing is, there was next to no comp at that place. Sure, I was in very real danger of losing because the tourney starts out at Easy and one false move means I lose at the hands of someone who knows Easy, Medium or Hard like the back of his or her hand. But still, it'd be nice if there was more and stronger comp there overall. As such, if you live in New York City, and you can get to 80th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, show up every Thursday between 10:30 and 11:45 and sign your butt up. The hostess even put up a notice in the Guitarhero.com Tournament board, so you can find out the details there. It would be awesome just for the fact that I could meet up and share a brew with some local fellow Gamespotters.

Speaking of Guitar Hero and all that jazz, I'm in search of some new music. Anyone got any suggestions, per my non-gaming blog? It's funny how it's taken videogames to get me to start expanding my sonic horizons, and not until last fall, but that's what happened. I figure it's never to late to explore, though. So, there it is.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword still rules.