The Cola Wars

I saw another Star Trek ad recently (I will not provide the name or link, out of respect for my peer) and naturally the ship in question had not only Marines on board, but a fighter wing as well.  This has become increasingly common for Star Trek games over the years, adding both Marines and fighter craft to ships even when including either makes no sense whatsoever.  It is obviously an attempt to garner more players rather than an attempt to produce the sort of game the GM wants to play...unless the game the GM wants to play is a war game rather than a traditional Star Trek game.

The last sentence induced me into writing a long, long rant about how over rated Deep Space Nine is, but that is not the focus of this article.  The focus is how in an attempt draw in players GMs have resorted to gimmicks.  They have decided that they have to have Marines on their ships, even though there are no Marines in Star Trek (Someone argued with me that GMs cannot be bound by canon.  While this is true to an extent there is a difference between creating a new race for an adventure and an entirely new military branch that has never been seen before and implying that it had always been there!).  They have to have fighter wings on their vessels, even though very few ships would actually employ fighters.  Because unless you are going to have a ship carrying twenty or more fighter craft, unless the vessel is a dedicated carrier (which would then be surrounded by support craft to defend it) then carrying fighters make no damn sense.  But it goes even beyond that, with GMs adding diplomatic officers, intelligence officers, foreign affairs officers (Just what, exactly, is the difference between diplomacy and foreign affairs?), etc.  In their (sometimes pathetic) desperation to get people to play their games GMs attempt to make their Star Trek game be all things to all people and all too often it just does not work.  The fact is, The Next Generation did just fine telling stories without all these extra departments.  And yes, DS9 added the role of Strategic Operations officer when Worf was added.  Do you know why Worf was added to DS9?  Because the show was desperate to maintain ratings.  Do you see a parallel here?

A person at one of the fleets argued that what if they wanted to run an adventure where a diplomat was needed?  Then you add a diplomat NPC to the mix.  The Original Series did it all the time in episodes like The Galileo Seven, A Taste of Armageddon, Journey to Babel and Is There in Truth no Beauty?.  What, exactly, is the diplomat's player supposed to do during adventures where no diplomacy is going on? 

And how do most 'Trek games start?  The crew are assigned to a new ship, they are interviewed by the  captain, some of the players do joint posts with one another while others quietly disappear because they discovered the captain could not write or they realized some of their fellow players were power gaming munchkins.

Wow.  Scintillating.

I will give Jeri Taylor, Michael Pillar and Rick Berman credit when they wrote the first episode of Voyager: Caretaker.  In it the crew getting together was part of the adventure.  Chakotay and Torres were Maquis rebels, Tuvok was under cover, Tom Paris was persuaded to come along and with the death of the ship's doctor was dead so the Emergency Medical Hologram had to take his place for the duration. It was exciting television.  Of course, the producers pissed all that potential away over the course of two seasons, but the point is they did something Different.

All of this led me to thinking that maybe, juuuuust maybe, Star Trek games have run their course.  There has not been any new Star Trek on television since Voyager went off the air in 2001.  Enterprise does not count.  Enterprise never counts.  Yes, we had a movie in 2009 and we have a new one coming out in 2013 but I do not think the former generated, nor will the latter produce much if any interest in players getting involved in a game taking place JJ Abram's universe.  Also the format of most Star Trek games can prove to be problematic for GMs.  Think about it; for a Star Trek game to work effectively a GM needs: a First Officer, an Operations Officer, a Chief Engineer, A Security/Tactical Officer, and a Chief Medical Officer, along with possibly a Flight Control Officer and Science Officer.  It used to be a GM could find replacements easily if/when other players dropped out unexpectedly but these days I do not think there is as great an interest in PBEMs like there was at the height of Star Trek's popularity so finding enough players to populate your game is much harder.

So, what is the answer?  What sorts of sci-fi games can GMs run that might garner more interest.

I'm glad you asked.  Perhaps it is time to taste the other cola:

To my surprise Star Wars, The Clone Wars is now in it's fifth season and going strong (I caught a couple episodes this season and I concede that the writing does not suck.).  George Lucas released the original trilogy on blu-ray a little while ago.  Star Wars is very much in the public consciousnesses these days.

Star Wars also has the benefit of being able to be played in different eras, much like Star Trek can.  And also like Star Trek some eras are more popular than others.  There are not many games taking place during the first six 'Trek movies and The Original Series, for example, mainly because many of those fans are, well, getting older and dying.  In Star Wars' case I can imagine a great many people might be interested in playing during the Clone Wars because of Episodes I-III and the animated series, but I still think there is a large fan base for episodes IV-VI.

A very large, firm fan base, always willing to take on stiff competition.  A fan base that stands erect wh-

Okay, I'm going to stop there.

But wait!  You might say.  Star Trek is all about exploration and science as well as war, and Star Wars is just a fantasy war epic in space.  And to those who might say that, I respectfully disagree.  Look at later Star Trek franchis and you see a growing distance between the more science fiction aspects of The Original Series (The Original Series predicted floppy disks, cell phones, Blue Tooth, advanced medical diagnostic equipment) and an approach towards magical technologies seen in The Next Generation and beyond (holodecks, replicators that can make anything, all problems solved with technobabble, which may as well be people reciting magic spells).  Star Wars has The Force, Star Trek has Q so each one has their own mystic plot devices as well.

And both franchises have had their respective brain farts:

Oh look, I've gone and hurt their feelings.

I have read some of the Star Wars comics, the ones published back in the day and penned by the likes of Ann Nocenti.  Star Wars was as much about diplomacy and espionage as it was straight up war.  And with a little tweaking a GM can easily make stories about exploration and science work.

Now, if I decided to run a Star Wars game I would have it take place during the post Episode VI era, because if you run a game during Episodes I-III, (Which includes the Clone Wars television series.) there is a sense of inevitability to it. You know the Republic will fall, don't you?  I would much rather run a game during a time period where there is a blank canvas.  And yes, I know there are some novels that are considered canon by Lord Lucas but I do not think it is fair to potential players to have read these books in order for you to enjoy your game.  Oh sure, you could describe what happened in those books, or direct them to web sites like Wookiepedia but how much fun is that?  It's like trying to describe a television episode to someone; there is no joy in second hand knowledge.  Worse, it's like assigning homework.

So if I ran the game I would say the Emperor is dead, no one outside of the Rebellion inner circle is aware of how he died and the Empire is in chaos. The New Republic is on it's way towards being born but there is still quite a few Empire vessels out there, controlled by ambitious and ruthless Admirals.  And while momentum is on the side of the New Republic it still means they have a long way to go before they win.  They are going to have to make deals with the less reprehensible commanding officers of those ships to take them out of play or to turn them to their side.  They are going to have to convince hundreds of systems to return to the Republic.  This is all stuff covered in some of the novels and it is in this sort of world I would rather run a game, where I as a GM have some creative freedom.

There is one issue to address up front, the wampa in the room, as it were.  Jedi Knights.  I tried running a game with an all Jedi group and in retrospect I think it was a mistake.  Trained Jedi Knights are lethal murder machines.  Danger Sense, enhanced reflexes, super leaping, super speed, telekinesis, mind control.  All that combined with a unique weapon that can deflect blaster fire and dismember people with ease and a GM would really need to work hard to come up with legitimate threats that go beyond sending waves of droids or storm troopers.  Boba and Jango Fetts are rare and while it would be neat to see a squad of those bad asses-

it is not something you can do often.  The same goes for the Sith.  You could allow a single player to run a Jedi knight but that seems so very unfair and unbalancing to the game. So no Jedi Knights.

Say for the sake of argument you take my advice and run the game post Ep. VI.  There are a great many opportunities for world building here.  Yes, the Emperor is dead, that does not mean his admirals and Grand Moffs are just going to roll over.  Likely they are going to build their own empires or flee in the wake of war crime tribunals.  In all of this chaos then it is up to the PCs to either fight the good fight…Or make a buck.  Thus we have the two types of campaigns to run.

The first type of game is inspired by the Firefly television series…

...which was in large part inspired by the first Star Wars movie:

The crew of an independent light freighter operating one step ahead of the law has an undeniably romantic appeal.  Your characters could be working class stiffs trying to make a living and winding up running into trouble from both sides of the conflict.  Do they risk the easy cash of smuggling goods across battle lines or are they having enough trouble with the local Hutt crime boss?

Or what if they are secretly New Republic agents posing as shady characters, operating among the criminal underworld on secret missions.  Your characters might have to stay one step ahead of the law in order to maintain their cover while at the same time dealing with the scum of the universe with little back up.  Hey, no one said being a secret agent was easy!

There are lots of different models of light freighter to choose from: the Corellian YG-4210 light freighter, for example. Or the YT-2400.  Or the Ghtroc 720 freighter.  Or the YT-2000.  There are lots of choices and there are places where you can find deck plans for some of these ships.

Perhaps a military game is more your bent?  If so I think the way to go would be to either run the PCs as a sort of special unit tasked on ground missions, or the crew of a small corvette, or as a fighter squadron.  Or

And then there is a third option: mercenaries.  War produces chaos, and there are often different theaters involving different sorts of problems for both sides.  And in some cases some backwaters that cannot be adequately defended can fall prey to opportunistic predators.  If the New Republic cannot spare the resources to defend them then perhaps it is up to a ragtag band to do the job?  Deserters, adventurers, alpha males who don’t respond to authority very well.  These could be the sort to step up to defend the far reaches where pirates, freebooters and the odd Imperial boot comes a-steppin’.

And then there are the bounty hunters.

Dog looks both silly and awesome...awesomely silly, if you will.  I can see how some of his gear is necessary but it feels as if he is attending some sort of cosplay event.  Still, the point I am trying to make here is that Dog is not a bad guy.  He is a bounty hunter who goes after people who legitimately need to be hunted down.  And playing a bounty hunter in an environment where the New Republic is ascending might be fun.  Think of all the Imperial scumbags your character might want to track down?

Here is an example of a game I tried to run until it imploded…and yes, I freely admit I was in part to blame for the circumstances.  In one case I let someone play a furry from another dimension.  Yes, I was stupid.  Let’s move on.  The concept of the game was the players were Republic agents posing as mercenaries.  The PCs were pilots who flew a variety of small craft.  I was inspired by the anime Area 88, which is about a group of mercenary pilots who fight a war in a fictional desert country.  Each pilot flew a different sort of fighter craft and it was a pretty awesomely animated series.  I am sorry I did not try harder to make the game work as I think the fact that players were able to choose their own fighter craft rather than being forced to pilot X-Wings made them enjoy it a bit more.

Here is another example of a game I did not run but it is inspired by the idea of characters forced together through a shared crisis. In one Dungeons & Dragons game I ran a caravan was assaulted and the PCs had to flee.  The first story arc involved pure survival, total strangers bound together by necessity.  I mentioned in another article about a DM I knew named Ned who did something similar (his idea inspired mine) where a town was attacked and the PCs were literally bound together by a chain.  You could do something similar in a Star Wars game.

Imagine this; the planet Nurest is a backwater, a lightly populated planet and one the Republic has little interest in.  A few Republic ships are there based at a small settlement for repair, some tired crew take solace in the minor recreations while they await reassignment.  It is a safe place.  Until a surprise attack by Imperial forces compel the inhabitants of this settlement to band together to survive!  Bounty hunters, Imperial deserters, freighter captains and Republic personnel all must find a way to escape and survive!  There you go.  The PCs have a wide variety of character types to choose from and they have a shared goal.  From that the GM can find a way to keep the gang together after the initial crisis is past.

Or here is another idea.  Science fiction and fantasy writing demigod David Drake wrote a Hammers Slammers novel called Rolling Hot:

 

 

 

The premise was a group of battle fatigued vets and raw recruits based at a staging area far from the front are called upon to stage a desperate run to the planet's capital to prevent the war from being lost.  So you've got this bunch of misfits who don't know one another, led by this battle fatigued captain who is starting to lose it.  It is an awesome read.  Now imagine you using it for a campaign.  A group of veterans and rookies, or a group of Republic pilots and some misfits, are called upon to break a planetary siege, perhaps to deliver a much needed vaccine or counter some form of ecological warfare.  No one else is available, it is up to this motley bunch.  And in the end perhaps this motley bunch realizes that hey, maybe they work pretty damn well together.

You see?  Something a little different from the same old boring 'Trek formula.

So next time you think about running a Star Trek game, think about that other franchise and consider that perhaps it might be the tastier choice.

Song of the week

As we approach the Halloween season I thought it might be fun to find a few horror based songs for SOTW to lead up to it.  Our first entry is from Rob  Zombie, Dragula:

Song of the week, other stuff

So I don't know when, precisely, I am going to be getting another here that will be something other than the song of the week or an obituary.  Hopefully it will be a long, long time before I do find myself doing the latter.  I have been concentrating on writing articles for The Agony Booth and I guess I find that more challenging, more fun.  No one there has said anything, no one gives me a deadline, but I do find myself with the urge to contribute, to be part of that community.  So I try to get an article up every six weeks.

Hey, comedy is hard.  Besides, say I review 18 of the 22 Star Trek, The Animate Series episodes.  I can drag that out some two years.  Maybe during that time I will find another outlet.  I had considered being a full-on internet reviewer but my brother Jon has given me some very good points to think about.  Internet reviewers (and I'm talking about people doing video reviews) do it seemingly because it is their full time job or it is a hobby while they are going to college.  Or they are in positions where they can get away with being wacky online without any consequences to their regular jobs.  And while I do not think I would do anything that might put my job in jeopardy, do I really want to risk it?  Jon also suggested that if I went that route I should adopt an alternate identity and do faceless reviews like SF Debris.  He has given me a lot to think about.

But if that happened that would be months and months down the road.  I would have to learn how to edit films, discover how much editing software would cost me, etc.  I'm really not sure if I want to pursue the hobby that passionately, and if it interfered with my GMing that would suck.  I still very much like being a GM for a great bunch of players.

What else?  Oh, yeah.  Years ago I used to love Yahoo(!) Music.  The format was set up where you could easily find acts, and acts were also listed by their level of popularity.  I came across bands I had never heard of before, like Kittie and Rachel Farris (I have to remember to put them on the list for SOTW later).  Then Yahoo(!) altered the format and I thought it kind of sucked.  By then Pandora came on the scene.  But anyway, I remember listening to a lot of Sevendust  back then.  So today we have a one-two punch of Sevendust!  First is Praise:



Second is Enemy:

Song of the week

Sucker Punch.  Hmmm.  I remember when I saw the ads for the movie, the posters, the hype machine in full effect I was, ah, suckered into seeing the film.  I mean, Zack Snyder did it.  This was the guy behind 300 and Watchmen and I loved those movies!  How could he go wrong?

Well, he could.  300 and Watchmen were both preexisting properties he adapted to the big screen, while Sucker Punch came out of his own head.  His own sick, twisted, demented head.

The plot of Sucker Punch is as follows.  A mother dies and her two daughters are now at the mercy of their wicked stepfather.  After one daughter accidentally kills the second in an attempt to prevent the stepfather from raping them, the wicked stepfather has her committed so he can control the assets she was bound to inherit.  In the asylum she awaits the day when she will receive a lobotomy, arranged by the wicked stepfather.

So then the movie goes off the rails and the girl starts to imagine that instead of an asylum she now is in a brothel, because Snyder wants an excuse for the girls to wear sexy clothing.  So while the girl is fantasizing she is in a brothel she has further fantasies of fighting giant robot samurai or fighting along side steam operated zombie German soldiers, or fire breathing dragons.

Don't get me wrong.  I followed the plot just fine.  No matter what visuals I was being assaulted with, I followed the narrative.  I just didn't dig the movie because at the heart it was about women being abused in a mental institution.

Which brings me to the song of the week.  As much as I did not like the movie, the visuals are stunning.  Combined with the Korn/Skrillex song Get Up and I think it is a pretty cool music video.

All, Some, None

Sometimes, when running a game, things do not always go according to plan.

Oh, who am I kidding?  Things never go according to plan.  The mark of a good GM is dealing with those time when things go seriously off the rails.  A bad GM keeps the train running forward until the whole thing crashes.  A good GM lays new track.

And yet, even if you keep things rolling you are still going to upset some passengers.  Players.  Whatever.  The point  is, you are bound to upset someone.

Let me give you an example.  In my Vindicators game there has been this epic storyline running since March.  Lord Dread, inspired by Marvel's Doctor Doom-

Of coure!

...right.  Lord Dread has blown up the Starscraper, a space station used by the world's heroes.  Hundreds are dead, including some of the world's most iconic super humans.  My players were stunned I would do such a thing.  Stunned, but excited.  Because I had added a serious element of uncertainty to the game.

So this epic has been going on for months and we are finally at the culmination, the face off against Dread.  I had planned for this fight to last quite a while.  Dread has been around for decades, he knows how to fight teams of super powered beings.  He has numerous tactics and an arsenal of weapons at his disposal.  I had fully planned on making my players suffer in this final battle.

But...

During the adventure Robin dropped out of the game, leaving me running his character Apex.  Then Alan contacted me, telling me he was disillusioned with his character Knack.  So he did me a big favor and took over running Knack while I modified the game to come up with a way to kill off Knack in a heroic manner.

See how the game doesn't exactly go the way you expect?  And there is no getting angry here.  People are people.  They sometimes disappear from your game, or they get tired of the character they are playing. You roll with it and your appreciate it when they do you a favor.

So Knack gets his heroic death.  He pilots the Vindicators' alien shuttle into space and rams Thor, a military satellite taken over by Dread to drop tungsten rods onto Disneyworld.  Knack is another casualty in the war against Dread.  Meanwhile on Earth round one is done and I am ready to punish the players.

And Chris writes like a man possessed.

Chris runs Trickshot, and Knack was sort of his best friend.  Both were outcasts, both possessed similar powers, both had inhuman advisers.  Trickshot was magical, Knack technological.  And so when Ry’Lahh, Trickshot's magic bow, informed Trickshot Knack was dead, Chris decided that this called for an epic post in response.

“no.”  It was a whisper; inaudible given the situation.  Knack was…gone?!

”I call the top bunk!”  the young archer shouted as he and Taylor raced towards their room.  The space station corridors were just wide enough to allow them to jockey for the lead as the two jostled and joked, entering their living space as reckless as usual.  Charles threw his duffel bag filled with clothes that had been purchased by Brian Griffith onto the upper bed.  A moment later he leaped up onto the mattress; the archer’s feet dangling close to Taylor’s head.

                “What the frag-grenade?!  You dirty virus, that’s rigging!”

 Trickshot had just recently gotten to his feet.  His legs felt like jelly and he was sure that the floor was shifting beneath him.  “No…”  The look in his eyes was one of bewilderment and utter devastation.  It was reminiscent of an Alzheimer’s patient after a moment of lucidity.  He tried to focus on something – anything; but it just wouldn’t happen.

The music at the Canadian nightclub thumped rhythmically; the bass causing many nearby drinks to ripple.  Charles looked over at Taylor and had to smile.  He looked odd and out of place in his own skin.  His hands were placed on the table and they nervously fidgeted with a cola.  The fair haired archer leaned in to be heard over the loud music.  “Ok, listen up.  See those chicks over there?”  He pointed to a table of all girls who were giggling and eyeing the two of them.  “We are going to go over there and talk to ‘em.  You remember your line bud?”   Taylor nodded and sipped his cola.  “Yeah.  I am going to say ‘Are you tired?’, is that right?”  Charles nodded; keeping his eyes on the girls; he caught one’s attention and winked.  “And what do you say after she says ‘why’ – Tay?”  Again the younger man responded.  “I’m going to say ‘because you’ve been treading grav all day.  Is that one right?”  Trickshot palmed his face for a moment; then shrugged as he smiled.  “Close enough!  Onward, to the chase!”  He put his arm around Taylor and they began to slither through the dance floor headed for the table of women.

He could feel intense pain as gravity pulled at his numbed limb.  The shoulder of the costume had been disintegrated, exposing charred bright red flesh.  As he moved, the wet glimmer of bone showed through on occasion.  Tears welled up in his eyes, obscuring the color and light show that displayed behind Lord Dread.  “NO.”  He began to move towards the villain, stumbling at first.

Taylor looked like a kid in a candy store as he climbed up the ladder into the big metal robot.  This was their sixth reality hop.  This one looked terribly like Anime.  Before the archer could even get to his own rig – a motorcycle, the cooling tubes popped off and in no time Knack was piloting a robot like he’d been doing it since birth.  “WOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOO!”  He shouted over the com links.  It was times like this that Trickshot really enjoyed hanging with his friend Taylor.  He hurried to get into his own setup and raced after the flying machine.

His footing became more stable after the first initial steps.  He had little regard left for his own well-being.  He had no quips, no jibes to taunt this villain.  He had no mirth to bolster his team.  It was as if all the goodness and joy that dwelled within the flaxen haired hero had been snuffed out suddenly and without warning.  All he had left was pain and anger.  His shoulder flared in agony; white hot tendrils of pain jolting into his brain and making him want to scream.  His trot turned into a run.  It wasn’t much farther now…”NO!!!”  He leaped into the air; sailing over several stairs as he sought to inflict as much pain and suffering as Lord Dread had just done to him.  He screamed unintelligibly; a snarl full of rage and hate as he swung Ry’Lahh with all his soul.

 This is a player who has stepped up and wrote a tremendous post.  And I confess I saw this post as being a way out.  Remember how I mentioned Robin and Alan earlier?  Well, they were not the only issues going on.  I had one player, Dave, who wanted to return to the game and had been patiently waiting months to do so.  And a guy named Don had contacted me, wanting to join the game.  On top of that Paul had gotten in touch with me privately, telling me he wanted to take a leave of absence.  Combined with the other issues I had faced earlier as well as the fact that I anticipated this combat to possibly last as long as another month (My plans had been for Dread to be a stunningly difficult opponent)...

I took the easy way out.  Even though Chris' character Trickshot had been stunned for that round, I wrote it so his character staggered forward and smashed Dread on his helmeted skull, killing him, bringing the combat to an abbreviated close.

And this served to frustrate Earl, whose character had been less than effective these past few months, combat wise.  In retrospect I could see where he was coming from; Earl's character has what is probably the most effectively terrifying weapon in the game: a holy flame thrower that burns the souls of the wicked.  Imagine if you were a criminal and you knew this guy had such a weapon.  You would either 1) make it your top priority to take this person down first or 2) you run away.  At this stage of the game Everyone knew about the holy flamer, that's what happens if your character has been adventuring for a few years and criminals exchange information.  And in this day and age information sharing is as easy as a text.  So did I overcompensate a little too much where Earl's character, Battle Maiden was concerned?  Yeah, I probably did.  Earl had been looking forward to that final fight and when he was robbed of his opportunity to do something big and cinematic-ally impressive, it justifiably pissed him off.

In the end I let the combat stand.  If I reversed my decision then that would have likely upset Chris.  Worse, everyone would have known the end result of the combat: bow smash to skull.  All I could do was apologize to Earl both privately and publicly and apologize to the group as a whole and explain why I did what I did.

The moral to all this?  When you are dealing with a group of individuals you are not always going to be able to make everyone happy.  There are going to be times when you make unpopular decisions, wrong decisions.  And I can assure you that if you are a GM for long enough you are going to make wrong decisions.  You are going to upset players, either singly or some or the group as a whole.  And the question you have to ask yourself is, is it all worth it?  Is it worth the frustration and risk of upsetting people?

After twelve years of running The Vindicators I would give an unqualified Yes to that question.  Have I upset players?  Of course I have.  Have I consistently entertained them far more?  I would say so.  No GM bowls the perfect game.  What you do is try and do better next time, to come up with ways to make sure a similar event does not occur.  For me I think I need to insure these mega-events do not last as long, somehow.  It would be a start, anyway.

Song of the week, other stuff

To my pleasant surprise, I was actually able to knock out a second Star Trek, The Animated Series review.  The first one took me some eighteen months to write, this time just five weeks.  I don't know if I will be writing reviews of other televisions series.  One of the reasons I chose TAS is not many people talk about it.  Somewhere down the line I am thinking of doing something along the lines of Manly Movies, talking about old action films like The Dirty Dozen, Ice Station Zebra, The Magnificent Seven, or...

If I continued to do internet reviews I would rather target flicks other internet reviewers are not talking about.  Really, there are so many interpretations of Michael Bay's Transformers at this point that no one needs to hear another one from me (Although I do confess The Cinema Slob's take on it made me laugh.).  I love the Bourne movies but so much time is spent on the protagonist agonizing over who he is and all the people he killed.  They are good movies, but I also relish the escapism of good old fashioned action films.

Now, on to the song of the week!  I am not going to pretend this song is ground breaking, earth shaking, trend setting, or even great, for that matter.  However, the song has been stuck in my head and unlike, say, Call Me Maybe (Which radio stations here in the Metro Detroit Area simply love), I don't mind it being there.

I give you the Swedish duo Icona Pop and their song I Love It:



Hmmm.  Nikki and The Dove, Nero, and now Icona Pop.  My musical tastes seem to be sliding more towards electronic pop these days...

Song Of The Week

When it comes to Van Halen fans you have three camps; those who prefer the David Lee Roth era, those who prefer the Sammy Hagar era, and those who find merits in both.  I fall into the first category and when I heard that Roth had left the band I had been a little depressed.  Their cover of Pretty Woman was one of the first videos I had seen on Mtv, their concert videos for Unchained and So This Is Love received lots of airplay.  1984 was a massive album for me; I played that cassette to death.

But then I heard Sammy Hagar had joined the band and I did not feel so bad.  I actually preferred Sammy's voice over David's and I figured this was the best of both worlds.  I tuned in when their first single together, Why Can't This Be Love, was played on the radio and I thought it was fantastic (and it is still one of my favorite Van Halen songs). 5150 is a great album, one of Van Halen's best.  It was not until OU812 came out that the honeymoon was over and Van Hagar soured for me.

So for SOTW I choose what I think was "Van Hagar's" best effort, Why Can't This Be Love: