Here is a picture of Hogwarts Castle being built at Islands of Adventure.

I’ve been playing through The Beatles Rock Band this week. I am enjoying getting to play a bunch of new songs. I played Rock Band 2 last week, and it didn’t hold my interest nearly as much, I think mainly just because I have played Rock Band way too much. I have downloaded lots of songs for Rock Band & Rock Band 2, but I think there comes a point where you can’t just keep playing the same songs. I am somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 songs between Rock Band 1&2 and the DLC. Playing through the first four venues of story mode in The Beatles Rock Band is definitely a treat. But then you get into Abbey Road which is definitely a shift in the music. Mostly trippy weirdness “I Am the Walrus” & “Octopus’s Garden” come to mind. There are some high points “With a Little Help from My Friends” & “Revolution” are very good. By the time “Here Comes the Sun” comes around in it such a welcome breath of fresh air and thankfully the end of Abbey Road Studios. Next along comes Rooftop Concert, ending with “Get Back”, which I think actually means get back to the first four venues because they are much better than the last four venues. The Beatles Rock Band is also a bright (literally) change from Rock Band 1 & 2, with lots of colors that you would expect from the 60′s, since The Beatles arrived just before color television started exploding. I give this game a 7 out of 10. If you are a Beatles fan to begin with, you can probably add a point. If the game allowed you to import all your DLC into it, I would add 1.5 points. Really nothing would be better than playing Nirvana’s “In Bloom” as The Beatles in the Ed Sullivan Theater. I know “In Bloom” is not available as DLC, but if The Beatles Rock Band allowed other DLC, I am sure it would be the first song Harmonix released.

“Dreaming of Love” by Lights Resolve is being given away for FREE!! Gotta always love free songs, sure wish they had more since I have spent so much money already buying songs.

IDW Publishing has announced that DS9 will be back in comics starting tomorrow with the release of its new series “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”. The first issue is “Fool’s Gold!”. Here is the description from IDW: Captain Sisko and the crew of Deep Space Nine make their triumphant return to comics! When the station begins to be overrun by thieves, treasure-seekers, bounty-hunters and other assorted ne’er-do-wells, Major Kira and Constable Odo must find out why. Can they get to the bottom of it before the station’s new visitors bring things to a boiling point?! It says Captain Sisko so I am not real sure when the comics are set and the IDW site didn’t make it real clear. Be sure to check it out. Let us know what you think.

Star Trek 11 from director JJ Abrams had many odes to the original series. Hopefully you saw most of them, if not now that Star Trek is out on DVD it is the perfect time time to go back and watch the movie and look for them. Here are some of my favorites. These are in no particular order. 1) Captain Pike being in a wheelchair. Ode to “The Menagerie”. 2) A tribble when we first meet Scotty. Ode to “The Trouble With Tribbles”. 3) The Red Shirt dies when Kirk & Sulu jump down to the mining rig of the Narada. Ode to many episodes. 4) The Kobayashi Maru. Technically an Ode to Star Trek II, not the Original Series. 5) Kirk “befriending” an Orion woman. Ode to many episodes. 6) Sulu being able to fence. Ode to “The Naked Time”. 7) Chekov’s accent. Ode to many episodes. What are your favorite Ode’s to the Original Series?