The Dead Pool (and RIP Andy Griffith)

First of all, RIP Andy Griffith. Iconic star and from most accounts, as warm a man as his public persona.

My buddy Kyle and I recently set up a friendly wager with a celebrity Dead Pool. When I say recently, we drafted late last night. Dead Pools are quite popular, actually, and quite common. Rules vary, but generally each person picks a roster of famous people who they feel are most likely to move into the great beyond within the next year. You collect points for each one on your roster who goes, and the person with the most points at the end of the Pool year wins. Our year will go from 7/2/12 to 7/2/13.

ABOVE: Clint Eastwood and Liam Neeson in 'The Dead Pool,' the last Dirty Harry film in which Callahan (Clint) ends up on Neeson's Dead Pool list. Neeson is a wealthy psychopath who hosts a high stakes Dead Pool, and takes matters into his own hands to make sure he wins every year. But, do you really think anyone can kill Dirty Harry? Not even Chuck Norris can do that. I guess Callahan was in the news enough to qualify as a celebrity.

Kyle and I opened it up to several other friends, but were surprised and disappointed at how skittish some were about the whole thing. (To be fair, one of them was already involved in another one and he felt that two Dead Pools was a bit much.) But these others are people who are generally not uptight about most anything. I guess we all deal with death in different ways. It is inevitable, it is coming for us all. We can fear it, we can hold it with some religious reverence, we can try to ignore it, we can face it with a little humor...or some combination thereof. I have a great deal of fear about death, in part because I am still conflicted on my own religious beliefs. That is one of the primary issues addressed by religion, so since I am unsettled in that arena I find death unsettling as well. But that is a different conversation.

We've all lost people close to us at some time or another (I've lost a brother, an aunt to suicide, and others), so I do understand the magnitude of the milestone. And I think if you read my obituaries that I write here, I do have a certain reverence for the memory and accomplishments of those who have moved on. Being a historian, I am naturally a bit obsessed with the past to begin with. I teach it for a living, afterall. But at the same time, it is fun to speculate on those in the public eye. So, with one friend already involved in a Dead Pool, another not agreeing with our rules, and the rest not wanting to participate, it ended up being the two of us.

So, we draft last night. The rule was that you can draft any person whose demise would be noted in the national media. Here are our rosters, in draft order:

Dez: Hosni Mubarak, Bhumibol Adulyadej, Nelson Mandela, Jerry Lewis, Fidel Castro, Andy Griffith, Pope Benedict XVI, Harper Lee, Bashar Assad, Eli Wallach, Nancy Reagan, Herman Wouk, Stephen Hawking, Lindsey Lohan, Hugo Chavez, Olivia de Havilland, Todd Bridges, Bob Dole, Robert Mugabe and Dick Cheney.

Kyle: Kirk Douglas, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Billy Graham, Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger, Mickey Rooney, Abe Vigoda, Prince Philip, Judge Joseph Wapner, Dick Van Dyke, Chuck Berry, Andy Dick, Queen Elizabeth, Ernest Borgnine, Fats Domino, Jimmy Carter, Stan Lee, Angela Landsbury, Courtney Love and Bobby Brown.

First, who do you think has the "better" roster? Now that Griffith is gone, I have added Aretha Franklin to take his slot.

Mubarak was an obvious first pick for me, as he is in a coma. I like my Assad pick too, I really feel that he will go the way of Qadaffi if the Syrian people can get their hands on the sonofabitch. And he is under 50, which is worth more points than people 50 or over. We have to have at least 3 people under 50 on each of our rosters. Kyle's first three picks are really solid, I think.

Imagine my surprise when I look at the news and not twenty four hours after our draft, Andy Griffith has left us. Griffith was much more, by the way, than a friendly sheriff of Mayberry or a lawyer in powder blue suits. Check out 1957's 'A Face in the Crowd' for a pretty amazing performance from Griffith.

ABOVE: RIP Andy Griffith. Mayberry has lost its most dedicated protector.

Dez Reviews: The Beatles Rock Band video game

As a true convert to the Rock Band / Guitar Hero genre of video games, I looked to the release of The Beatles Rock Band game with much anticipation. I know I've discussed them before, but as a real musician, I initially scoffed at this line of games. Until I played them. Completely addictive, lots of fun with family and friends. And at least as far as the drums and vocal parts go, they can actually approximate the real deal. (The bass and guitar parts don't really help with your musical skills, other than perhaps with certain rhythms).

Anyway, The Beatles Rock Band takes the familiar Rock Band / Guitar Hero formula and makes it all Beatles. The remastered Beatles music is given the Rock Band treatment.

As a Game

It mostly follows the Rock Band format of guitar, bass, drum and vocal capabilities with Novice, Medium, Hard and Expert levels to choose from for each. Between 1-6 people can play at the same time, so there is great versatility with numbers and friends won't feel left out. Also, each player sets their own level, so I could play Expert bass while a friend who has never played before could play with me on "Tomorrow Never Knows" as a Novice drummer. You can just Quickplay certain songs if you want, or you can challenge yourself through the Story option (the same as the Tour option on the previous games), where you have to work your way through The Beatles' career. This is extremely well done. You work your way through various historical gigs/locations through the Beatles story, starting at the Cavern Club in Liverpool and finishing on the rooftop of Apple Studios for their last performance together in front of an audience. The songs you are required to play are also chronological, which makes sense. You start on the easier tunes like "Twist and Shout" and "I Saw Her Standing There" and wrap up with "Come Together" and "Get Back."


Generally speaking, this is a little easier than the traditional Rock Band. While some tunes are definitely challenging (I did fail out a couple of times), the hardest songs here are not nearly as difficult as the hardest tunes available on regular Rock Band. For instance, my wife being out of town this weekend, I played the game most of the day yesterday solo and already won the entire Story feature within about 4 hours. I hopped around from vocals to bass to guitar to drums just for variety, and was able to get through on either Hard or Expert levels on any instrument with little difficulty (granted I have put in more time than I would like to admit perfecting my general Rock Band skills). On the regular Rock Band game, getting through the Tour option (which I have done as well) took a lot more time and effort.

One other complaint is that the game only comes with about 40 songs. But as they do with Rock Band, they plan on having more Beatles songs available for download in the coming months. My understanding is that in each of the coming months, they will have an entire Beatles album available for download for Beatles Rock Band. I think the rest of Abbey Road (the tunes not already available with the game) is on tap for October. Whatever. I'll pay. It will be fun to be able to play the albums from start to finish. (One of the most fun times I have had with regular Rock Band was in Houston months ago playing with my buddies Jim, Louie, Bryan and Kyle as we worked our way through The Cars' debut album in its entirety).

One funny change they made: yes, you can fail out. But unlike on the other Rock Band games, the crowd does not boo you off the stage when you fail out. You just fail out. Hey, you don't boo the freakin' Beatles!

The only real addition to the game format is the ability to sing harmony vocals. Instead of just one vocalist, the game allows you to have up to three vocalists who dare to re-create the harmonies of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison.

Last night I played a Let It Be-era set trying to play bass while also singing with a mike stand. That is challenging. I was able to stay alive playing Medium level bass and singing Hard level vocals. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. Lots of fun too.

For Beatles Fans

Now, for Beatles fans this is a wonderful goldmine. First, it looks beautiful. With thoughtful and thrilling era-appropriate backgrounds (from Hamburg to psychedelia) and cartoons throughout the game, it is a visual masterpiece. They unearthed rare studio chatter from throughout the band's career, and so as you are waiting for each song to load up to play, you get to hear all of this chatter that is related to the song you are about to play. Nice. As prizes for advancing in the Story game and for scoring high points on songs, you unlock rare photos and even video clips to view. The video clips are awesome. So far I've unlocked a rehearsal take of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" when preparing to perform on Ed Sullivan, some fun goofing on a train while on their first American tour and a rare, fan-club only Christmas record. Great stuff.

Also, if you want to pay for the deluxe set, you can get reproduction instruments to use (my favorite has to be the McCartney Hofner bass). You don't have to buy the instruments since the game works fine with the regular Rock Band instruments (and likewise, the special Beatles instruments will work on other Rock Band / Guitar Hero titles), but the true fan needs the Beatles instruments.


Gameplay: *** out of ***** (when compared to other Rock Band titles available)
As a Beatles tribute: **** out of *****