Monday, November 30, 2015

Status Quo Sunday is Really Just Black Friday on Rhythm Bastard Time

This week's jam:


I have professed my love for Janelle Monae in the past, but recently I got turned on to Estelle, who most people who know of her from he role as Garnet on the series "Steven Universe". She also sings the theme songs for that show and "We Bare Bears":


Why Estelle? Well, it recently came to my attention that she sang the song "American Boy" (feat. Kanye West), which is song that always seemed to show up in the background if I were in a public place long enough, recognized by it's sweet, airy chorus. Like most of those songs, the hook is recognizable, but I never had a title, artist or any other part to attribute to it.

ENOUGH OF THAT, NEW SHIT!
Chibi Pa 2015 Recap Video is out!


This one is done (relatively) on time! Unfortunatley, there are a lot of costumes I wanted to feature, but couldn't for timesake (I shoot for under 3 minutes)

PHYSICAL COPIES OF STATUS QUO RADIO ARE COMING!
And they'll be (hopefully) available at Holiday Matsuri! This took way to long to get done, because of internet screwups and everything, and I was going to include some ARG type stuff, but they're coming out, it's going to be very cool, I've been working really hard on all of this, and learning a SHITTON of Photoshop.

I ALSO GOT GUITAR HERO LIVE!
So far, I'm enjoying it, but the new guitar layout takes some getting used to. The feature I'm making the most use out of is GHTV, and leaving it on in the background while I've been working on the album design stuff. The song list/GHTV setlist is very solid, with a lot of good recent songs, and a fuckton of indie songs that don't suck, so the list has been pleasant to play through.

Really, the main difference between the two games is the same as it always has been: GH for loners, Rock Band for party people, but it's imnportant to note that the latter has a backlog of over 1500 songs, and is committed to monthly updates. Rock Band is safe and sound, being very secure in the weekly DLC, and for Guitar Hero to continue, it needs to keep updating with adding more content to GHTV every week.




Thursday, November 26, 2015

Echo Chamber Recap Episode 148

PILGRIMS!!!
 
-Yeah, I'm on Team Christmas, because that's the time of year when your racist ass aunt is obligated by Our Lord Capitalism to shut her damn mouth. Thanksgiving is when she's all like "Hey, you wanna know what I think about INSERT NAME OF MINORITY GROUP?"

Though you don't get ads all the way in September saying "BETTER THINK ABOUT THANKSGIVING!!! ONLY XXX DAYS LEFT!!!". How early do you think about Thanksgiving? The morning before you're supposed to show up to your parents? PSSSSSHH!!!

-Halo, for a while, was the new Goldeneye 007, a game that everyone plays together in the dorm room, but I wonder if it's been beat out by something else, even Smash Bros. Call Of Duty seems to have the online shooter space squared away, so it's hard to see what place Halo occupies in the public consciousness since it's early Original Xbox days.

I've always been aware of the series, and how Master Chief is another "Legendary Video Game Character" to stand shoulder to shoulder with Mario and Lara Croft, but I never got the appeal, until I started playing Halo: Reach. It plays well and doesn't have a lot of what are known as "feelbads", or anything that would hamper a player's enjoyment right off the bat. The DMR was accurate, but still can fire at a decent clip, health regenerates, and ammo was very rarely a concern.



It's a good game, which is why so many are eager to kill aliens and don't afraid of anything.


-It hit me as I was listening to this podcast to write the recap that while I was thinking of The Hold Steady's "Sequestered in Memphis":



Arcanon might have been thinking of "Walking In Memphis" by Marc Cohn, a bit of a one-hit wonder.



-Rock Band Update. Full deets here, we've been talking A LOT about it, so there's not much left uncovered.

-For the record, Brain Dead was the original name the Peter Jackson movie I was talking about, and Dead Alive is what it was called in the States.



-Dark Cloud 2 Advertisement:



May I talk about how much I loved this back in the day? Never played the game, but as a naive high schooler, shit like this seemed possible. "Wow! I CAN DO ANYTHING?!?!?" Hahaha no.

-PAX EAST IS GOING TO BE AWESOME! Tickets sold out quickly, but your plan ain't worth shit. Got my room all lined up thanks to Good Guy Owen, and ready to have some fun in Beantown.,..in 5 months. Hopefully we can get a panel, which means an extra $150 to spend on Magic Drafts.

Maybe we can taste test some mozzerella sticks with Mudry's Mozz...


Also we talked about fainting couches. According to Wikipedia the speculated reason for the existence of fainting couches are sexist as fuck:it's either corsets or "female hysteria".
Also, there's such a thing as fainting rooms. Which have fainting couches. Fuck Victorian Europe. So expect to see plenty of pictures of us flipping off fainting couches.



Tuesday, November 24, 2015

INSERT QUEST HERE: Slayers of Decadence Part 3

GET IT HERE!



So, I wasn't able to attend this session, but it's been a delight to listen to. They take my Dad joke to the next logical step, and teach shepherds to weaponize fire.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Status Quo Sunday vs. The Eldrazi

This week's jam:


NEW SONG! "Attack On Eldrazi", inspired by the new Battle For Zendikar set. I took a lot of cues from The Aquabats! especially the “Floating Eye Of Death!” era.

This lovely art work is made by @godbirds! He was great to work with and you can also follow him on @ciphir and get more MtG-based doodles!

Here’s my other MTG songs:
“Hunting Bigger Game” (Magic 2015)
“Force Of Dragons” (Khans Of Tarkir)

“Change The War” (Fate Reforged)
“Unbroken” (Dragons of Tarkir)

ULTRACON! Didn't play. Some stuff got shifted around, leaving only one panel room, and I got shifted out of a time slot.

I still had fun, and I helped run a panel with Just Guys Playing Games. Inspired by PAXAMANIA and The PAX Rumble, me and JGPG held a rumble of our own, where we held a tournament on WWF's No Mercy on the N64, winner getting a free Luchador mask. I wish it was a little better attended, but we managed to get a full 4 player game going, and were able to crown a winner!

OTHER STUFF I DID!
-Ultimate Championship Wrestling and a game of Zombies! at the same time. I wish I was in the crowd, marking it up like a mofo, but even with my influence, the crowd was only sorta into it. The people affiliated with this were also part of Florida Super Championship Wrestling, but that was closed down by the con that they originally worked with.

It's VGCW IRL, and it was fun to watch. I hope to see it develop/go on more regularly than once a year.

-An Epic game of Epic with the people from ConJunkie. Thankfully two of the people I played against were familiar with MTG. The e-mail for my Champion Tier card came in, and all these games I've been playing have given me an idea of what cards I like, and what I want to have on my card.

-Buying lots of shit, primarily a sweet set of MTG inspired coasters from Nookingtons and a carved wooden deckbox courtesy of Altruistic., which in doing my research for this, also has a Taskmaster Cosplay replica shield.

SO WHAT DID YOU THINK?
Better than last year, for sure. It did feel empty because of the size upgrade and the fact there are two other cons that same weekend, but if the con can stay at this level of quality on a better weekend (since Chibi Pa was last week in the same area, and Megacon had an event the same day), it can start to grow.

WHAT'S NEXT?
For one, the recap videos to these things, also getting the work done for physical copies of Status Quo Radio. I have some new songs in various stages, so hopefully I can get a lot of work done with the Holiday Weekend. With me, the problem is I get overwhelmed with how much I want to do.

Oh well, see you next week!

Saturday, November 21, 2015

NEW SONG: "Wrestling Wayback" (Unused Theme)

 So this was an unused theme for a podcast Owen and John of ProWrestling.Cool were doing, where they'd riff on old WWE pay-per-views. I was asked to make something for it over a year ago, and it fthe podcast finally came out today!

LISTEN HERE JAMBRONIES AND BE HUMBLE

I wrote this song as the "theme" since it was originally pitched as MST3K in setup, but now it's a RiffTrax like show. Still, to celebrate the podcast and give them a plug, I'm polishing off the song and releasing it!

The cover art is by SailorSwayse. 






Wednesday, November 18, 2015

INSERT QUEST HERE: The Slayers Of Decadence Episode 2

Meant to post this earlier, but I didn't have internet... Episode 2 of the Fate Accelerated game I've been playing with the people from Insert Quest Here and Rag Nerd Rok.


Monday, November 16, 2015

Victory Over The Status Quo On Sunday

This weeks jam is... oh... oh... oh........
Wow... Friday the 13th was a son of a bitch... When you have to #PrayFor six different countries, you wonder who fell asleep at the wheel.


-Been out the past week or so because Comcast is Comcast and comcast is awful. I was ready to have CDs on sale, but I wasn't able to submit designs.

-Chibi Pa was the BIGGEST thing going on this weekend. My set took place in what was dubbed "The Society Lounge" which was a little nightclub style place with lots of different kinds of seating with a bar in the back. Wasn't a bad place to play, and the sound was on point. Still need to get used to actually singing more better.

Set went good, premiered a new song, that went good, and I got to drink a lot!

HIGHLIGHTS!
-Seeing all the familiar faces again! From people I've featured in Recap Videos, to So Flo Con Bros, to people who've seen my shows before to SS Hanami who hosted a Koto and Wine Party and played on the days I wasn't there.

-APPARENTLY I DON'T KNOW HOW A SELFIE STICK WORKS SORRY JAMES

-Werewolf looks to be the thinking man's version of Cards Against Humanity in that it's the hip new card game to play, and there's actually something a thinking man can work with.

For those of you further behind, Werewolf is a game for a around 8+ people, where villagers try to find a werewolf among them, and the wolf has to kill everyone else. There are other roles like the Bodyguard who can save a player if a werewolf targets them, or the seer who can point out werewolves.

It's great, because who doesn't love a good mystery? If you have a good GM, it's a lot of fun.

However, what would seem like an interesting logic puzzle devolves into people throwing around random accusations for various reasons, since there's nothing for people to go on in the early stages. For example, I was singled out because of my chest hair.

There is a One Night version, where there's a lot of switching roles and everything, and that works because there's only one night, so the goal is the main focus, and there's less fucking around.



-Also on the events was a "Hentai Variety Show". Now, part of me was expecting the worst, because the only other "Hentai" panel I was at was a "Dub That Hentai", which was jackasses yelling over porn.

This was the opposite because it was good, and funny, and entertaining in which everyone had a fun time. Basically, it was a crowdsourced burlesque show, with a striptease/cosplay contest, where both genders went after the top prize with gusto. Though I think the winner for the men might have been a professional. Or at least practiced.

WILL YOUR DUMBASS BE LATE WITH THIS CHIBI PA RECAP VIDEO?
... Later than usual.... I do have Ultracon this weekend and a bunch of other stuff on my plate, so hopefully I can get some free time.

-Oh, and I went 4-0 at FNM. NBD

-New song is coming.... SOON. I got some feedback on the mix and playing with the EQ a bit, lots of little things I might not have known otherwise. I'm having cover art done by ciphir on Tumblr, who's in the bizness of mking some really funny MtG related stuff.


So, when both those elements come together, I'll make a post about it, and you'll have some sweet new tunes to listen to. Until then, I'm going to be at Ultracon!

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Status Quo Sunday Provides Content For Youtube

This week's jam:


NateWantsToBattle is propably the only way we'll get Old Fall Out Boy for a while. He also has a metal cover of Excalibur's song from Soul Eater that's awesome as fuck.



While he is the most prolific "maker of songs about Five Night's At Freddy's", he wasn't the first. This Halloween I posted up a video of me doing an acoustic version of the song I was commissioned to write for the "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza" chain back in the 70's.


I also helped build and design the robots, which is why they act so evil. Because fuck the night watchman, and fuck the owner, who stiffed me on the commission royalties. Before the second FNAF game was released, I contacted Scott about using the original songs. Unfortunately, the tapes are god knows where, so it's impossible to get a digital version.


I'm not in that deep with the FNAF series, having only played some of the first two games, the rest of my knowledge coming from Markiplier's Let's Plays. Still, I like how it's become a thing. The designer was working at a Dollar General, doing games in his spare time until FNAF drops and everyone wants to play it, or at least watch others play it.

What's fascinating is that the adage "Thank God For Jim Sterling" comes into play. He reviewed of one of Scott Cawthon's earlier games, "Chipper & Sons Lumber Co.", where he commented on how creepy the game looked.

Cawthon's response? He got a bunch of neckbeards and a hack Brittish tabloid rag writer to threaten Jim with rape.

Nah, he was like "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED MOTHERFUCKER!" and make a game about creepy animatronics.

Also this week, I did my TOTALLY ON TIME Chibi-Pa Sampler recap video:


I don't rmember a whole lot, but it was a fun one day outing, and a reminder that equipment maintenance is key to providing the best performance you can on all occasions.

Status Quo Radio is now on YouTube:


Which means I did EVERYTHING from the list from last week, except the Insert Quest Here thing, but that's on that guy.

Next week? A new song? Yeah, sure.