-What they have at Disney now is FastPass+, where after you register, you can select FastPasses for 30 days in advance, or if you're staying at a hotel, it's 60 days in advance. The thing that sucks is that they limit you to 3 FastPasses.
Universal has a better option if you're a Florida Resident like me, so you can buy an Annual Pass, and then an unlimited Express Pass, which is valid every day your normal admission is valid. The downside is, you live in Florida.
-Mickey Mouse as proven himself to be vengeful:
-Ben's scheme has to be in one of the top 10 Most Harebrained Schemes in I'd Rather Not
If I can guarantee that we can get some fallout on RAW the next night I'm good.
-Owen's provision of preventing us from starving to death is a lot like AM in "I Have No Mouth I Must Scream", where he keeps his survivors from starving to death so he can continue torturing the five survivors.
-I'm kind of honored how I'm the crew's ideal of a "buff guy".
MIZUCON RECAP? ALREADY?
Yeah, weird, right? First, I'd like to thank the con chair for being such a chill guy and hooking me up with a show!
After I got a monitor so I can hear myself, the show went well, and the new song I've been playing (so far) only at cons has been really fun to play, and has gone over big! I don't plan on keeping it "live only", but I think playing it first to a much smaller crowd (i.e. Not The Internet) helps work out some of the kinks.
A group of people I see at a lot of South Florida cons and events is/are The 3000 Brigade. I didn't know what they were for the longest time, whether they were a podcast, an indie studio, a creative collective ala Chaotic Neutral, etc. However, I was able to catch their stage show Saturday night, a Super Smash Bros themed Telethon.
I learned two things that night:
1. They only play once a year at Mizucon, which is why a lot of the jokes were about the stage quality and low ceiling
2. They put on a damn good show with music, choreography and costumes, for what is essentially gonzo crossover fanfiction.
3. #DicksOutForToad
Mega Ran also performed that night, and as a rare treat was joined on stage by YTCracker. My only regret is that I didn't have something silly on hand for Ran to freestyle rap about.
FUN FACT: While Mega Ran was the first rapper licensed by Capcom, who were the other two to come later?
THIS WEEK'S JAM:
How did I go so (12 days) long with out mentionin Green Day has a new song?
It's all right. Heavier than their usual fare, got a kinda Sex-Pistols thing going on.
Now, what I'd like to draw your attention to is the name of Green Day's new album: Revolution Radio, which comes out October 7th.
There was a similar album released October 9th last year with a similar title...
YOU DIRTY MOTHERFUCKERS.
WHOOPING LIKE A MILLENIAL:
Normally any news article with Millenial in the title wants to make me punch my monitor and crack the spine of the old motherfucker who wrote it like I'm Bane:
However this article I think warrants some discussion, because the shift from the switch from the fifth to the third, or as the author calls it "The Millenial Whoop" is one of those things that once you notice it, you see everywhere.
"Whoa-oh Whoa-oh". Click the link to hear what I'm talking about, but it's a lot quicker than pop-punk whoa-ohs. Here's a supercut that's kinda what the author's talking about:
Though it's unfortunate that the example used is The Lonely Island's song, "Fuck Off" is the most clear (and catchiest) usage. There are a couple good examples he lists, like Katy Perry's "California Gurls" and Owl City/Carly Ray Jepsen's "Good Time", but the rest that come up aren't as solid. Some are songs made by people who came before millennials.
Overall, while it's an interesting trend, I'm not entirely convinced it's a Millennial Thing or a Whoop. It's more of a vocal HOPO (Rhythm Gamer term y'all!) then something that can be properly established.
Still, I'd love to see if there's something similar in previous generations where there's a similar vocal shift used in a lot of the same songs if there's any social externalities or influences from other popular genres outside the Top 40.
MIZUCON!!!
Working my ass off to get my set perfect for this weekend. If you were at Mini Iwai, you heard a new song I've been working on, hopefully by Mizu I'll have another one ready.
Regardless, Mizu was one of the first cons I played down here in FL, so I'll definitely be down to have a good time, especially to catch Mega Ran's show. Friends Chaotic Neutral will be running a shiiiiiiitton of panels, and they have been pretty fun.
Also running a special deal: If I get 500 FB likes before Mizucon, I'll play shirtless. ;) You can tell how desperate for attention I am because of the clickbaity title. THIS WEEK'S JAM:
Much appropos, since Mega Ran. Any time he's got Xavier Woods/Austin Creed on the brain he puts out some good stuff. I hope that one day he makes it as the official theme to one of the PPVs. One day, him and Keith Apicary will show up on a proper WWE event, and at that point, wrestling will finally be real.
Shovel Knight's got a great soundtrack, and I think only Undertale rivals it in how many awesome remixes I've seen from a recent game. I MADE A GAME!Giant Bomb held a community Game Jam called "Giant ROM" and I made a game for it! It's a top-down shooter called "The Last Game You'll Ever Play"
The thinking behind it was to make a game in the vein of something like Ridiculous Fishing or Indigo Prophecy (in theory at least with the latter) where the better you do in one half, the more challenging the second half is.
So for TLGYEP, what I thought of doing was an E3 presentation where you pitch a game to a bunch of cyborgs, who you eventually have to fight. Right now there's only five options and one question, but fixing the game and expanding it is on the greater priority over fixing the art and presentation.
-Arcanon, we're your friends. Please stop doing crimes. First you
start off by having been mistakely banned in GTA V then you commit more
dire crimes, like marijuana needles or saying the cusswords.
Remember: When you want to do crimes, instead eat a lime.
-Having since played Lucioball, I can confirm that it's really fun to
play, and lends itself better to a proper soccer proxy than ROcket
League, since your characters don't move as fast or as loose as a car,
so you have more control, and more players per team lends better to
having strict positions (usually forward/midfield/goalie)
-FUN FACT: The Soldier being healed by a medic in TF2 is called the
"Pocket Soldier" and the un-Medic Soldier is called the "Roaming
Solider"
-"Cowboy" by Kid Rock
-Here's just one example of Ubers's cosplay witchcraft:
The Goon is seriously really good, and when it takes a break from the
hilarious action to focus on The Goon as a human being, then it gets
required reading for any comic fan. Yeah, there's punching zombies and
all some freaky mob shit going down but yo, check this: The mob boss he
was The Goon for gunned down the aunt who raised Lil' Goon who then
bashed the boss's head in with a rock out of vengeance.
-Rhythm Bastard's Super Group
Vocals: Janelle Monae
Lead Guitar: Tom Morello
Rhythm Guitar: Nile Rodgers
Bass: Flea
Drums: Travis Barker
Arcanon's Super Group
Vocals: David Draiman
Guitar: Tom Morello
Bass: Justin Chancellor
Drums: Neil Peart
Jeff's Super Group
Vocals: "Zoli" Téglás
Guitar: Trevor Riley
Guitar: Tepe
Bass: Matt Freeman
Drums: Brooks Wackerman
Mystakin's Super Group
Vocals and Guitar: Orianthi
Bass: Rob Trujio
Drums: Zack Starky
-Now, I'd like to address two moments early in the podcast.
Owen and John: Heihachi? Heahachi! Heihachi. Heihachi!
Jonesy: Who's this Heihachi fellow? Are the Japs coming back?
Alex: Can we call an audible? I don't want to focus on them being fat people, how about "your car is filled to capacity".
Me: That is an acceptable substitute.
John: Or how about just sweaty people?
Alex: Filled to capacity with sweaty people.
John: I FUCKING SWEAT A LOT! or something like that
Looking back at these two moments, there was no reason for me to use that particular language and a substitute was readily available.
Same as with the Kaiju episode a few weeks ago. Was there a reason I had to use "gypsy"? Why not "witch" or something?
Like Jonesy could have said something like "Wasn't he a general
during WWII?" Or "I prefer to drive American!" Something that shows that
he's still in that era and an idiot, but not using that particular
term.
Or my half of the question: why did I specify
fat people? The change we made kept the main thrust of the question, and
none of my responses changed as well.
Because society, they were the "natural" response. Mystic powers and vengence? OF COURSE gypsies. Sweaty and stinky? OF COURSE fat people. But why?
It took just a smidgen of effort to change it to where I would be able to communicate the same endpoint and nobody would be excluded/offended.
It's why all of these people who complain about "PC CULTURE IS RUINING COMEDY! WHY IS EVERYONE SO OFFENDED?" come off as lazy. Slurs and stereotypes aren't the backbone of comedy and ideas, they're a crutch that defy reality and keep those already marginalized down. For example, I could have used "bitch" instead of "complain" in that first sentence. However, I caught myself doing it often, and decided to use the word I actually meant.
Every post, every song, everything I do is a challenge. As Mark Rosewater from Magic The Gathering puts it, "Restrictions breed creativity". Status Quo Radio was a set of restrictions. My Magic The Gathering songs are a set of restrictions. The fact that I try to connect something real to this unrelated thing is what I love about doing music, and it's a restriction.
If "respecting people who are different" is a restriction too large to bear, then please vacate society.
MINI IWAI:
Mini Iwai, for those of you further behind, is a "sampler" show before the proper Anime Iwai in November. Other than a couple sound issues, the show went well! It was a really small event, and felt more like a party with vendor's tables set up as opposed to a proper con. No guests and a lot of panels that are interactive, like Discussions, Trivia and Game Shows. Still a fun time, though.
I'll get a table for the bigger event, since by then I should have some more, cooler stuff to sell by then.
I've finished playing VLR. It's a really good game if you liked Newgrounds Escape Rooms, and dumb pseduoscience. Next on my list is the final entry in the trilogy, Zero Time Dilema. Hopefully that provides a "happier" ending, because VLR ends on kind of an "Empire Strikes Back"-esque note.
Still, it makes me want to check out other visual novels and see what the genre has to offer. Of course, the pinnacle of the genre has been accomplished with "John Cena's Sexy High School Adventure"
FUTURE STUFF: Mizucon!
...Still don't know what time I'm playing....!
STATUS QUO STREAM:
Status Quo Streaming will come back... eventually. I think I'll go back to the old style of just playing whenever and uploading it on YouTube. I would like to make it a regular, planned thing, but my schedule is all nuts from my new job.
Lots
of interesting stuff in there, but that $30 price point without any
extra DLC is very hard to justify. I guess with the pre-order bonuses,
it's a little better, but imagine NOT being a Rock Band fanatic or
getting into it the first time and looking at that. The preorder DLC is
good, making for some great party times, so I can at least use that as
an excuse.
The problem is that I don't think the new features are worth $30 on
their own. Both are great modes, but I'll have to wait until we have
more details to see how deep they go.
Rockudrama looks stupid and ridiculous, which is exactly what I wanted from this.
The Rivals mode has me excited and if Pokemon Go is anything to go
by, people love being part of arbitrary teams. As long as the challenges
keep up like a Hearthstone or something, I can see people checking back
in daily to help out their crew.
-Fitbit: Are They The New Subject Of Numerous Thinkpieces?
Arcanon had a picture up on his instagram that showed he got 1337 steps
and I'm furious I can't embed those images into this website's CMS.
Either way, I'm glad this and Pokemon Go are helping people move around
more.
So, to make up for that, here's a picture of Fitbits and Vape Rigs:
-Echo Chamber Creepypasta: One secret episode that IU listened to at
6:66 PM it was really scary and Rhythm Bastard started screaming and
Jeff said how much he loves anime and Arcanon said how much he hated
anime and then hyperrealistic blood came out of my headphones.
-Miley Cyrus's "Can't Be Tamed"
Wow, where did all that shit come from? EDM has a habit of going from
0-60 in a matter of measures. It did chart the most interesting part of
the song, though.
It is possible to chart EDM, as evidence by Mr. Owen himself:
-Type Rider I was expecting to have a story like Braid or Limbo or
something where there was a greater story in the background, but it's
refreshing to see an edutainment game present differently than what
we're used to.
-Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing/Mario Teaches Typing were some of the
big games when I was a kid (at least that I could play while I'm in
school). Thought I question how much that really helped us with typing
since the whole "Home Row" thing never stuck. Like, as I type this it's
half muscle memory and half me looking at my keyboard and jamming shit
in as fast as I can and OH GOD I'M LOOKING AT MY HANDS WHILE TYPING I AM
NOW MANUALLY BREATHING SOMEONE HELP.
-The Daigo Parry Video we were talking about is impressive even without knowing all the mechanics:
This article as goes into detail on how this moment works, but what I
find fascinating is that Justin Wong could have won by DOING NOTHING.
In a game like Magic The Gathering, you can see the level of strategy
step by step. In Hearthstone, it also shows you the past few spells cast
so you can go back and see what happened.
But in fighting games, all of that happens at a way faster pace. If
you've ever had trouble pulling of a Shoryuoken consistently, imagine
having to not only be able to pull it off on demand, but also devote
mental energy to playing what is essentially MtG without the benefit of
stopping.
For me, this moment would be HBox's Bracket Reset at this past EVO:
No offense to Armada, who gave Hungrybox a HELL of a run for his
money and could have easily taken it, but he looks like someone or knows
someone who has unironically uttered the words "Cultural Marxism".
-Top tier meme:
-This is the Mew Card that was a promo for Pokemon The Movie 2000:
Translate: Mew w/ 30 HP 2 PSI Energy- Psychic: 40 Damage
-80's Overwatch Setlist has at least 2 not 80s songs on the playlist, but it's still got tons of fucking awesome jams: I'D RATHER NOT EPISODE 21 I see Mr. Robot all the time during WWE Raw, and the first episode got a little too close to home for me as far as his mental problems go. It's brilliant, but it got too real to me. Klingons wouldn't be that tough because of what's known as The Worf Effect.
For those of you further behind, Worf is a character on Star Trek: The Next Generation from the Klingon species. He's a warrior, but he always gets his ass kicked to show how tough the antagonist is as if to say "If they can be Worf, they must be the baddest mofo in the universe!" FUCK RONALD REAGAN The bit where we talk about Office Hours and the cafeteria sounds reasonable compared to the other shit talk about. I'D RATHER NOT EPISODE 22 60% of Twitter went with job security because, duh, millenials. 999 has 6 endings, and Virtue's Last Reward has 9. Though I think VLR has like 24 tracks. I've never read any HP Lovecraft shit, so my only "Cthulu God" knowledge comes from C'thun of Hearthstone, the Eldrazi in Magic The Gathering and Cthulu Saves The World. Benny's scenario in I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream's Good Ending, where this happens: This is article lays out all the things Finland does right in regards to schooling. Like alot of things the Scandinavian countries do, us Americans look at it and go "WHERE'S THE HARSH PENALTIES FOR FAILURE? HOW CAN WE FUCK OVER BROWN PEOPLE?" Me according to John and Andy:
Also, John is a fucking idiot, because I do not do leg day on a machine. SQUATS FOR DAYS, DEADLIFTS FOR EON, LOWER BODY GAME STRONG AS FUCK.
3:30 PM at the Double Tree by Hilton in Deerfield Beach, FL.I'll bre premireing a new song, and playing all the hits!
THIS WEEK'S JAM:
While at AFO, I finally got the second part of the Zero Escape series, "Virtue's Last Reward". I played the previous entry in the series, 999: Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Nine Hours. So far I haven't even seen an ending (of which there are AT LEAST 9), but from what I know of the previous entry, I love learning about the greater lore and the pseduoscientific bullshit that makes National Treasure plausible.
AFO RECAP:
AFO Rumble went really really well, all things considered. We didn't get enough people to do a proper royal rumble, but the matches we did have were OFF THE HOOK. Terrible Toad King was the Heel to my Face announcer, and
Ubers Cosplay put on a really good panel that served as a good Cosplay 101 class. Certainly a good primer for anyone wanting to learn a couple basic skills.
Got to particiapte in the Orlandia event this year, which is a card game that goes on every year at Anime Festival Orlando. This year I played some more of it, and it was really fun getting involved and going on the little quests they have laid out.
There were are also a couple raves over the weekend, one solely inspired by Undertale, where GameChops played some parts from their new Undertale Remix album. The other was just the general rave, but at 1:30 AM when I surfaced to catch some air (and because of my creak 28 year old man bones) I stumbled upon a group of 4 giving job interviews. It was fun, and reminded me of why I like cons in the first place.
