The Go Game

Even More Playfully Awesome. (Mei)

11/16/2009 9:01:57 AM

Over two weeks after the fantastic Playful conference and we're finally just getting to writing up our thoughts. It's cause we've been too busy playing! NOT. We've been too busy working. But actually, the lovely thing about The Go Game is that a large percentage of the time work is play and play is work and everything is fun and awesome like PANDA BABIES AT THE PLAYGROUND (except when it's not).

But anyway. I'm getting off the topic of this post, which is supposed to be the Playful conference. Or more specifically, the insightful, hilarious, creative, laugh-out-loud funny, drop-your-jaw cool, rock-your-world exciting thoughts and ideas spouting from the mouths and bursting from the slides of this year's speakers. I could go on for hours about all the fantastic things I heard but to make my life easier and your life awesome, the lovely guys at Pixel Lab have already done the full-on recap on the Playful Blog. Here are their links:

What Happened, Part 1. My personal highlight - Roo Reynolds talk, especially the Minesweeper movie. If, like me, you spent an embarassingly excessive amount of time playing Minesweeper instead of doing your homework in high school, you will find this roll-on-the-floor hilarious.

What Happened, Part 2. Personal highlights were an interview with the creator of Alice & Kev, a touching, honest, and brave story of a homeless family in the Sims 3, A New Theory of Awesomeness and Miracles from James Bridle which Chris mentioned below, and a great talk from Katy Lindemann on Game changing & Change Through Play, who later told us she was at the Go Game panel at SXSW! I wish we had met then so we could have chatted about fun things like cute robots and making not-fun things fun. Cause I'm all about that. She showed these two videos, which I very much liked.

On making communication with the government fun and full of dirty words as well as real messages:

On making recycling fun!:

Okay, I realize this blog post is getting long. If you're still with me, we're on the last part:
What Happened, Part 3. Part 3 included one of the most enjoyable talks I've ever seen (if that makes any sense), a series of drawings displayed on an old school overhead projector by the illustrative genius known as Rexbox.

He drew sheep, game consoles, funny pictures of himself as Tina Turner, and cool stuff like this:

I also really loved Simon Oliver's points on the tightknit, supportive, friendly, help-a-brother-(and-sister)-out world of game designers. We've definitely felt this love times a million since we moved to the UK.

So there we go. Some of our favorite stuff from Playful. Go dive in, click around, watch some videos, and prepare for the awesomeness.

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Playfully Playing at Playful (chris)

11/16/2009 6:58:25 AM

We've finally pieced our brains back together after they exploded from the brilliance of Playful 09. This who's who of UK gaming professionals overloaded us with networking opportunities and ideas - so many that we're just now getting back around to posting about the day.

The one day conference was organised by Pixel-Lab with the broad goal of 'highlighting the importance of play.' Well, Mission: Accomplished. There were nearly 20 presentations dealing with all manner of playful things. My notes are copious and full of pen-heavy drawings and musings that were incredibly profound at the moment but are now incomprehensible. For beautiful (and coherent) notes check out Nick Marsh's brilliant graphics (via ThisIsPlayful.com):

One of the overarching, if not explicitly stated, themes of the conference was the question of what defines the idea of 'play' and 'games.' Not surprisingly, the Playful umbrella covered a diverse range of playful things - from Leila Johnston's choose your own adventure book for nerdboxes like us to James Bridle's zomgawesome talk about the concept of awesomeness.

Back at The Go Game panel at SXSW in March (which seems like 9203482342 years ago) someone asked us what games we play. That question has bounced around my head for 8 months now and I still can't come up with a concrete answer - I play so many games! Sure there are the standard ones: the treasure hunt type team building events we do, the craziness at Hide&Seek's Sandpits (next one is on the 23rd btw), the video games I play (the current obsession is Redneck Rampage), the random flash games online, Connect4 with Mei and Prolific on Facebook (be my friend!). But there are so many other games I play with myself - just today for example I played the

- how many times can I hit snooze before I irrevocably ruin my day game (lost)
- can I make it to the coffee maker in under 10 steps from my bed game (WIN)
- can I swish the mouthwash in my cheeks for 30 seconds before it gets too tingly game (WIN)
- can I beat Mei to the comfy chair race (WIN)
- can I ignore the incessant jackhammering outside of the office game (draw)
- can I get the Playful post up by 3 pm game (lost)
- can I make this list longer than 6 bullets game (WIN)
- can I make this list longer than 8 bullets game (draw)

This is hardly a new concept, but it's always fun to see the world via games. That is, before we go nuts John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. Until then, want to play?

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Busy Weeks, Boiler Suits, and Big Hands (Mei)

10/28/2009 5:16:07 AM

It's a busy week here at the Go Game UK office! We're running a promotional game tomorrow that will have teams sneaking and snooping through the narrow streets of London's Chinatown. We're excited to break out the orange jumpsuits and show off some Go Game magic!

But even though we'll be getting some orange jumpsuit action tomorrow night, we've decided recently that the full body boiler suits are not enjoying nearly enough time out and about. Which is why we'll be wearing them to what looks to be an absolutely fabulous event, an all-day conference on Friday called Playful: A Day of Cross Disciplinary Frolicking. What better way to frolic than in orange from head to toe?

Playful promises to be full of entertaining shenanigans, fantastic ideas, creative people, fascinating technologies, and all sorts of excitement. We know the speakers are going to be good because, first of all, the lineup features none other than our friends Alfie and Paula of Bus.Tops fame! In case you haven't heard of this amazing project, it was the winning submission for the Artists Take The Lead project for the London 2012 Olympics and the corresponding Cultural Olympiad. It's going to be a series of digital canvases of LED screens on top of Bus (S)Tops that lets the public submit art, graphics, messages, and games. Imagine hopping on the bus in the East End, climbing up to the top deck, and settling in for a ride across town. As you travel around the city, you spot all these unexpected little visual treats invisible to the passersby below - maybe it's a secret message or a cool design or even an interactive display that connects back to an interesting website built by someone from the other side of the world. Even better, maybe it's giving coded missions for a Go Game-style treasure hunt!

We feel pretty special because we got to meet with Alfie, Paula and some other visionary minds back in the planning process, and so we were beyond psyched to hear that the project won funding! Yay! We make games! We're the public! Woohoo! And Alfie wants to work with us too! He said so in print (okay, in print online) so we're going to hold him to it:) And of course it's just exciting on its own merits - we here at the London office are big fans of double decker buses (why don't they have them everywhere - seriously, why?) and surprising urban quirks and public art and basically everything that Bus.Tops stands for. Can't wait to hear Alfie and Paula talk tomorrow!

We're expecting to be wowed by all the other fantastic speakers at Playful too. Even just reading their bios wowed me a bit. And the following video, made by one of the speakers Chris O'Shea, wowed me a lot. Wowzerama. Wowielicious.

I think it's going to be that kind of day...

Hand from Above from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.

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Hooray For Game Makers! (Mei)

10/23/2009 8:03:36 AM

A gaming friend passed on this video of a super cool (and remarkably well-spoken and poised) 16 year old from Australia, one of the winners of an online tech expo for teens around the world called Digital Open. He created a game called Sneaky Card which 'uses social interaction as a platform.' More specifically, he made cards with instructions for fun or silly tasks or games which he would he would 'put-pocket' (the opposite of pick-pocketing) into the pockets and belongings of his classmates, teachers, and other people. Here's a fantastic video on his project:

It's great to see someone who is so engaged and aware of social interaction, especially a person who could just as easily be a typical whiny and self-obsessed adolescent like we were at his age:) I love this quote:

'I attempt to make people see the world in a different light...Life is almost like a technology. It's a platform. Just like the Internet. But it's REAL. And you only get one life. And no save points.'

Funny, engaging, inspirational, and altogether awesome work, Harry. Consider us impressed.

Check out the full article on BoingBoing.

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PICNIC - Best. Conference. Ever. (chris)

10/13/2009 6:26:00 AM

The Go Game has done quite a few conferences in our time. There was the 3200 person extravaganza in Dallas and the crazy 72-hour free for all at SXSWi this past March. But no conference we've been a part of compares to PICNIC, held just a few weeks ago in Amsterdam.

The organisers of PICNIC have tagged the event as 'Not Your Ordinary Picnic,' which is true, but doesn't give you the full scope of the event. In reality it's not your ordinary ANYTHING. PICNIC is a mash up of the finest tech and design minds in Europe that produced spectacular results. Life size Etch-A-Sketch? Check. RFID tags and games? Check. A DJ? Check. A twitter tree? Check. Free coffee? Check.

The conference took place at the Westergasfabriek, a converted gasworks on the edge of downtown Amsterdam. The hub of activity for the event was the Picnic Club which you can tour in 360 degrees to get a full scope of the crazy things going on.

We played The Go Game in the Picnic Club and integrated things like the Etch-a-Sketch and make your own collaborative music video booth into the game. Of course there were ample opportunities for teams to explore PICNIC's dining options and interact with the local wildlife:

If you are in the tech, arts, design or interactivity sector here in the UK or Europe I hope to see you at PICNIC 2010. For now, we recommend viewing the PICNIC Flickr photostream below:

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The Go Game Does igfest (chris)

9/15/2009 7:23:43 AM

We were in Bristol last weekend for the amazing igfest 09 games festival. Before the recap, we'd like to take a minute to acknowledge the wonderful people from Simon Games and Pervasive Media Studio. Special thanks should also go to The Simons, Richard and the amazing Helen.

Now let's talk about us! We created a modified Go Game that was shortened to 90 minutes and included almost no location-based missions. The modified format didn't do anything to hamper the creativity or the hilarity of teams like The Pretty Committee:

It's all about perspective. The Pretty Committee imagines a monster attacking Bristol

Recreating their favourite scene from the world's biggest blockbuster. Feel free to add a soundtrack.

For this next photo we're just happy that team Once signed a blanket waiver (they even have the wristbands to prove it):

Team Once doing something they've never done before. We love that the woman in the background is completely unconcerned that this bus is crushing a fellow human being.

But our winners, the family friendly The F*&ktards, managed to outdo themselves and everyone else with their 'Wrong Way Bidet' snapshot:

Surely this is something that none of us have ever done before. Hopefully the team all immediately went home and showered.

Thank you for playing, we'll see you again at igfest 10! As a bit of a bonus, check out The F*&ktards Stupid Human Trick (vid credit to Michael Corbett)

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Games, Games, and More Games! (Mei)

9/8/2009 8:26:34 AM

Check out this awesome awesome video about the Hide & Seek Weekender featuring all our UK gaming friends like Alex, Holly, Simon 1, Simon 2 (sadly not Simon 3), our best buddy Tob, and a bit of The Go Game! We're at minute 1:30 and I am sounding particularly unable to speak the English language. But hey. At least we look damn good in our orange boiler suits.

Video is originally posted here with more info.

Hide&Seek Weekender 2009 from Hide and Seek on Vimeo.

Oh we almost forgot! Speaking of amazing games festivals, we're going to igfest in Bristol this weekend! We'll be running a specially encapsulated Go Game to make sure everyone has enough time to play all the other exciting offerings going on. So if you're in the area (or even if you're not...hooray for a good train system!) come to the festival of interesting games. It's going to be a blast!

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Go Game Writeup on the Kiva Blog (Mei)

8/31/2009 2:40:57 AM

For some hilarious player perspective on the Kiva Go Game a few weeks ago, check out our friend Kieran's take on the game. His writeup (with photos and links and all that good stuff) was originally published on the Kiva Blog.

***

Kiva's most recent Go Game event in London was a huge success! I spoke with Kieran Ball, a former Kiva Fellow, and here's what he had to say:

"Come back! I love you! Will you marry me?!" This is what I found myself shouting across a busy-yet-soberingly-quiet pub on a sunny Saturday afternoon in central London. The teary-eyed girl in the white wedding dress broke into a grin and skipped towards me through a sea of open-mouthed onlookers.

Thankfully, I hadn't just 'done a Ross', and even more thankfully, nor had I splashed out the extorionate amount of cash needed for a wedding in central London. I was in fact taking part in a Kiva fundraising event organised by The Go Game, a San Francisco based innovator in technology-driven teambuilding games.

On Saturday August 15th over forty people gathered in an (almost) secret location near Oxford Circus to take part in the game. Described only as a "hi-tech treasure hunt", attendees were eager to find out what they'd got themselves into. We were rewarded with a hilarious, fun, and surreal afternoon chasing through the busy streets solving puzzles, completing photo and video missions, talking to total strangers, singing to pirates, and chasing cows, brides, and fairies.

The event culminated in side-splitting video and photo presentation of the highlights of each team's efforts. Notable pant-wetting moments included a frankly scary reconstruction of the evolution of man in a city park, the best/worst chat up line of the day ("Do you like my t-shirt? Yes. Do you know what it's made of? No. It's made of boyfriend material"), a business model based on carrying members of the public across the street for a small fee, too many people in a phone box, human speedbumps, and a mad cow galavanting around the streets.

A huge thanks to everyone that took part, and special thanks to Mei and Chris at The Go Game for giving up their time and resources for free, and to the actors for forfeiting their dignity. Also thank you to Ahkun.org for shipping over some original Cambodian Kramas made by Kiva borrower Kakeda Sun to give out as prizes. A big apology to the man with the eyepatch who was unfortunate enough to be on the same street as our unidentified pirate actor.

The event raised $1000 for the Kiva Fellows Program and generated some great publicity. If you missed it, don't fret, just make sure you come along next time!

Kieran Ball (former Kiva Fellow)

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Go Game for Good: Saturday Night Kiva!!! (Mei)

8/17/2009 7:55:42 AM

To be precise, it was more like a Saturday afternoon. But it was certainly a smoking hot, disco ball-glittering, early John Travolta suaveness, flashing dance floor kind of extravaganza when we put a Go Game together in support of Kiva this weekend.

For those of you who don't know, you need to know about Kiva. In their words, 'Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.' But an even better way to learn about Kiva is to read our friend Kieran's short blog post about Kiva and watch his even more amazing video. Kieran was a Kiva Fellow who recently returned to London from Cambodia and helped us organise the game. Thanks dude!

We had a seriously kickass group of players come together in the Oxford Circus area for an afternoon of shenanigans. To make their experience even better, we had an incredible cast of actresses sprinkled around the game zone causing all sorts of Saturday afternoon trouble. Check out Bessie the Mad Cow who had quite a difficult day:

We hear the teams also had a lot of fun with the bride, pirate, chat-up fairy and naughty wizard, but we can't share all their secrets.

Now Kiva does a lot of work to assess the borrowers applying for Kiva loans and making sure they have a viable business model. Just for fun, we did a creative mission where teams had to come up with the WORST possible idea for a business to apply for a Kiva loan. Here, Team FoxForce Five shows off their ingenuity without even having to humiliate or endanger themselves in the photo! Would you want to send your kids here? Not so much..

On the other hand, the team members from Thank You Mr. Moussaka are no strangers to public humiliation and disregard for personal safety. Attention Health and Safety Association: No Go Game players were harmed during the taking of this photo. We promise.

This ridiculously creative team also submitted a phenomenal historical ballet on the Evolution of Man. We'd show it but there's just...not quite enough clothing involved:)

Thanks to everyone for putting so much creativity and energy towards supporting Kiva! We raised over �600 (almost exactly $1000!) for the Kiva Fellows Program! And one of our players will soon be heading off to San Francisco as one of the newest Kiva fellows. Good luck, Nicki!

If you're interested in lending to Kiva, we'd love for you to join our Lending Team. And check out The Movie Game in support of Kiva that happened back in San Francisco!

Check back here for more info on the next Go Game for Good, coming soon!

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Go Game at the Hide and Seek Weekender at Southbank Centre! (Mei)

8/4/2009 6:48:02 AM

What do you get when you combine over 2000 people, 75 games, thumb wrestling, huge balloon sculptures, werewolves and monsters, sleazy politicians, and The Go Game? Welcome to the truly fabulous Hide & Seek Weekender 2009, a 3 day festival of social and pervasive games that took place at the Royal Festival Hall, part of the Southbank Centre on the Thames.

We had an absolute blast running the video screens and watching all the gaming go down right before our eyes. After two days of observing high-speed parcel passing, massive multiplayer video gaming, and the adorable antics of stuffed animals, we got the chance to show off The Go Game on Sunday!

Since we knew we had a die-hard group of experienced and up-for-anything players, we emphasized team interaction and public performance a bit more than usual. To that end, we created missions where people had to sing to strangers, shake the hands of random passers-by, create a 'thank you' dance for the Hide&Seek volunteers and, of course, play Ring-Around-The-Rosie in a public fountain. We had 14 wonderfully hilarious teams stage all kinds of creative exploits. Here are some of our personal favourite photos from the day:

Team CrazyGoNuts (pronounced with a thick Italian accent) went crazynuts in the fountain and had the highest scoring photo in the 'Cliche' mission, a hilarious rendition of 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.' I don't even want to know how they got that pigeon involved.

They may have had the cleverest photo, but Team OMG!!! won the adorability contest with a photo starring the cutest player of the day. Here they give us 'Navelgazing':

We loved the all-ages team of the Geek Squad, who did a fabulous Indiana Jones finger movie as well as an absolutely awesome reverse rendition of Torvill and Dean winning Olympic Ice Skating gold. Here's their team enjoying a lounge on the outdoor furniture on the Southbank:

One of my favourite parts about the Southbank Centre was the multiple rooms filled with foam furniture and beanbags that you could move around any way you liked (I happen to really like soft things). We had a mission to set up a scene that everyone would recognise using these blocks and pillows and we particularly liked Team Talde's rendition of the London Eye:

Lastly, this intrepid soul from the Pink Tomatoes really took one for the team with the 'Bad at Hiding' Mission. Well done, you.

Fantastic job, everybody! We had such a great time running the game and hope to see you all again sometime soon!

Cheers and happy gaming from Mei and Chris.

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Monday Music Club: One Hit Wonders (chris)

7/21/2009 3:58:09 PM

Well hello there. Fancy meeting you here. Sure it's been a couple of weeks and we know that you've been waiting for a new Monday Music Club. Well here it is...on a Tuesday. You see, we took a week off to mourn the death of Michael Jackson. One week of mourning and dance parties turned into two weeks and...well...here we are.

Picking one hit wonders is hard work and here are some of our favourites!

Mei's Choices

1. Divinyls - I Touch Myself: This song is nonstop entertainment.

2. Lipps, Inc. - Funkytown: My list is essentially the best 80's music from bands whose names you would never remember. I guess that's the point of a One Hit Wonder, right?

3. Soft Cell - Tainted Love: I can't stand the way you tease me.

4. Toni Basil - Mickey: Immortalised thanks to Wayne's World. Toni is now a judge on So You Think You Can Dance and man, she is a weird one.

5. K.P.& Envyi - Swing My Way: Found this on a One Hit Wonder list and simply reeks of high school memories.

Chris's Choices

1. Skee-Lo - I Wish: I wish for a lot of things. A '64 Impala is very close to the top of the list.

2. Primitive Radio Gods - Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand: Any song that references Maryland and New Orleans has my vote. But it's also got that B.B. King sample - um, yes please.

3. Deee-Lite - Groove is in the Heart: I think it's humanly impossible to listen to this song and not smile. Well, almost impossible.

4. Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You: The fuzzed out guitars and the lusty singing combine to make this one of my favourite songs ever.

5. King Harvest - Dancin in the Moonlight: It's a sexy song with a toe-tapping beat and delightful instrumentation. Basically all you need for a one-hit wonder.

What are your top one hit wonders? Tell us in the comments!

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The Go Game UK Update! (Mei)

7/17/2009 3:46:38 AM

In case you're wondering just what we've been doing over here besides sipping tea and wearing fascinators to Ascot, here are some photos we just discovered online. Good photos, Katz!

First up, here's a photo of us speaking at the bTWEEN conference in Liverpool last month!

And here's us looking bright and cheery at our booth. Doesn't all that candy make you want to play The Go Game?

And for some more fun shots...Chris and I have been getting into a bit too much trouble over here in England, faffing about in our orange boiler suits.

Oops! Guilty as charged.

Thanks to the incredibly talented Seamus Ryan of Sunday Shoots for the totally serendipitous occurrence of the mugshots. After all those prison jokes...

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Community Game Recap: The Super American Spectacular Go Game! (Mei)

7/5/2009 5:50:52 PM

WOOOHOOO! AMERICA!!

The Go Game UK and Europe hosted the Super American Spectacular Go Game this weekend! As a community game open to the public, it was a fantastic Saturday getting everyone to get together to have a good time. For the U.S. expats in the crowd, it was a chance to honor the 4th of July and American independence back home. For everyone else, it was a unique opportunity to take the piss out of those bloody Americans by celebrating the best and the worst of the good old U.S. of A.

Teams wandered the back alleys of Shoreditch solving puzzles and meeting our undercover foreign spies, brought all the way over from across the pond. We had American actors facilitating all sorts of ridiculous themed challenges - meet your very own George-Bush loving hillbilly, or experience your first American frat party! The teams also showcased their creative chops and let loose with what they REALLY think about America with some hilarious photos and videos.

We had spectacular dancing moments of American history, from iconic moments like the fabulously danced death of JFK as well as the recent Roddick vs. Murray Wimbledon triumph as performed through ballet in a pub. We're pretty sure the other pub patrons hate America now. We also had teams stage a photo of a stereotypical American scene, perform a video about the next US invasion, and of course pay tribute to a recently departed American icon � the King of Pop.

Following the tradition of showcasing our favorite missions from each community game, we now present the highlight photo and video from Saturday's Super American Spectacular!

From The Professionals, our only group of all Brits, we have a stereotypical American scene entitled 'The Patriot.' I was quite impressed that this team held their own amongst all the rowdy American flag-wearing, beer-chugging Roddick fans in the house. Nicely done, Professionals!

Our favorite video came from the team that ultimately took home the big prize - Team Uniform Sierra Alpha. We asked them to film a short movie showing America's next invasion and they came up with a hilarious video: 'America vs. Hogwarts.' Ingenious idea, special effects, great acting, and Chris even throws in an intro and soundtrack. I can't even tell you how spectacularly happy this movie makes me.

We had a fantastic time celebrating the Fourth of July with both Americans and non-Americans, but most importantly with lots of Budweiser and a whole lot of 'F*@% YEAH AMERICA!' Thanks everyone for playing and we hope to see you next time!

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Monday Music Club: Our Favourite Michael Jackson Songs (chris)

6/29/2009 7:48:13 AM

Well we had a different Monday Music Club all set to go, but MJ dominated our hearts and our Twitter feeds. Michael has been on constantly at The Go Game office since last Thursday so there were a lot of tough choices here. Without further ado, our favourite MJ songs. Get some rest Michael!

Mei's Songs - Ed. note: sure she's away on holiday, but she still brings you her thoughts!

1. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' - Discussions over this song resulted in a date with the dj once.

2. The Way You Make Me Feel - If I ever had a theme song, this would be a top contender.

3. Don't Stop Til You Get Enough - Internal debate raged whether to include this, Blame it on the Boogie, or PYT for the essence of danceability, but the intro to this song just can't be beat. also including songs from off the wall, bad, and thriller demonstrates the breadth of Michael's work - who has this many spectacular songs on so many excellent albums anymore? you don't become pop royalty for nothing, obviously.

4. Dirty Diana - Intense.

Chris: Reminds me of Keanu

5. Human Nature - Most MJ songs I love because they're pure pop perfection. Here Michael gets all reflective and imparts some wise life lessons. RIP MJ.

Chris's Songs

1. Blame It On The Boogie - I was at a table singing this at a Turkish restaurant with a group of friends when we got the news about MJ's death. (sad face)

2. Man In The Mirror - In my first year at University my roommate would wake me up each day with this song. It can still motivate me to great heights. Thanks Trevor!

3. Rock With You - A phenomenal song for the dance floor when you need to slow it down. Hopefully they'll play this at the MJ Tribute.

4. I Want You Back - My fav of the Jackson 5. The best of Motown AND Disco AND Funk? Yes please.

5. Billie Jean (Live) - There really isn't any other way to end than with my favourite Michael Jackson song. This performance at the 25th Anniversary Motown Tribute is stellar - he debuts the Moonwalk! Even without the dance the song is legend and The Guardian sums it up far better than I ever could here.

What are your favourites? Comment below!

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Monday Music Club: Our Favorite Beatles Songs (chris)

6/22/2009 3:14:31 AM

We were in Liverpool a few days ago for the bTWEEN 09 conference and have been on a Beatles kick ever since. Attempting to narrow down my top 5 Beatles songs was the toughest Monday Music Club challenge for me thus far. Mei disagrees and wants you all to know that:

This list formed itself pretty easily with three all-time favorites coming to me instantly and two favorites-of-the-moment that have been on serious iPod rotation for the past few weeks.

Good luck making it through all of the commentary. Yikes.

Chris's Songs

1. I Saw Her Standing There: Not just my favorite Beatles songs, but one of my favorite songs ever. Go ahead, I'll let you roll your eyes (like Mei did), but it doesn't get much better than 'one, two, three, FAH...'

2. While My Guitar Gently Weeps: This song has it all: critical acclaim, Eric Clapton, a continuation of the 'Paul is dead' meme and, most importantly, my love.

3. Ballad of John and Yoko: So simple it only took two of the Beatles to record it yet so good it winds up in my top 5. I still don't like Yoko though.

4. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away: I've always enjoyed the way John sang "heyyyy" in this song. It's not unlike the joy Juvenile brings when he says "unnhhh" in Slow Motion. Comparing John Lennon to Juvenile? I'll accept my nobel prize now thank you.

5. She Loves You: This bubblegum pop is so sugary and so tasty. This tune always reminds me of summer and makes me want to roll down the windows of my car and sing along as loudly as I can. Plus the only words I know in German are Sie Liebt Dich.

Mei's Songs

1. I Me Mine: This one�s a new favorite. Yes, it�s super clich�, but I listened to the Beatles the whole way to Liverpool, and the dreaminess of the first part is perfect for watching the English landscape pass by out the train window.

2. A Day in the Life: One of my favorite songs of all time. I read in one of the few authorized Beatles biographies that a number of the lines were inspired by actual headlines. I also like the addition of the funny little section by Paul in a primarily John song, as well as the massive orchestral randomness bits. Apparently they got a whole orchestra together and just told them to start at one note and then just improvise playing up the scale to all end on E at a certain time. So many moments of genius in this song.

3. Golden Slumbers: This is one of those songs that I love with a passion, a song that transports me somewhere every time I hear it. I�ve included Carry That Weight as well because the two were actually recorded as one piece. Ideally, I�d like to include the Polythene Pam/She Came in through the Bathroom Window lead-in, but those are technically separate songs, even though they were generally performed together, and that would be cheating. So my fourth song is one I�ve been listening to a great deal lately...

4. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window: For some reason, I am currently obsessed with this song. As I�ve already mentioned, it hurts to hear this song without the Polythene Pam intro. Abbey Road is one of my favorite albums of all time and the latter part of the record flows so perfectly as a cohesive unit. I feel that all the songs really need to be heard in context or there�s something missing. However, this isn�t really the case for the songs at the beginning, which brings me to what may be my favorite Beatles song, one of the few written by George Harrison...

5. Something: For a long time I wondered about the similarity between this song and another song I love, James Taylor�s �Something In The Way She Moves.� Turns out it was initially based on Taylor�s song. I guess there�s just...something about both those songs. This one reminds me of sunny days in my kitchen in San Francisco. It�s so beautiful that it�s hard for me to talk about without sounding ridiculous so we�ll just end this here.

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