Status Quo Sunday's Ten Lessons Learned.

Album's going strong, a little ahead of the game, so, let's look back 2014!

Cesaro's on RAW and he's talking about how-

Oh, right. Um, something relevant... OK-

MY TOP 10 (IN NO ORDER) CONVENTIONS OF 2014! (and the lessons learned)

1. Sands Of Anime
Location is everything. It was by this really nice, beautiful beach, and with some time, it could be a destination con, ala Umicon Daytona. But, they also put the music act opposite the voice actor panels. And the merch tables were out of the way.

2. Miami Hurricon
BRING A FUCKING MIC STAND.

3. Omni Expo
Never underestimate the power of a good connection. I met up with a lot of people there, who I would go on to work with and become good friends with, such as the guys from Orlando Nerd Fest and Sci-Fried, DJ RoboRob (who's producing Status Quo Radio), and Geekapella.

Also, KNOW WHAT DATES OTHER THINGS ARE AT.

4. Hero Hype Con
Learning from your mistakes. Hero Hype Con picked up the slack, and knowing what to expect and being prepared for anything, let me perform better. Also, I got a really sweet spot, before the cosplay competition.

5. Anime Festival Orlando
You don't need to hustle 100%. I feel like I need to at these things, but I was having way more fun once I settled down and played some Magic The Gathering. Really, A LOT of Magic The Gathering, lol. My concert went well, but again, cons are supposed to be fun, and I don't have to be on the clock.

 6. Creator Owned Expo
Supporting the little guy feels really good, and as I'm watching RAW, it reminds me of the benefit of putting guys over. Which they don't do on RAW. Be like Ron (Kerronian, head of COE), not RAW.

7. Orlando Nerd Fest
Hard work feels great when it pays off. Like Creator Owned Expo, it feels really good putting guys over, and when that person does the same to you (like what MC Lars did to me), the feeling is euphoric.

8. Umicon Music Initative
Act like you never made a mistake. A string broke, I was inbetween two other acts, and I only had so much time left. I just translated everything and went along with it, and became EVEN MORE OF A DORK.

AARON DISMUKE, I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!!!

9. Chibi Pa: Suki Desu
Putting the artists alley infront of the Dealer's Room is a REALLY smart idea, and it's almost TOO obvious to think of.

I was also going to put something here about good turns deserving another, as when I lent my amp to the staff to borrow for an event, fate rewarded me with Andrew from S.S. Hanami helping me out on drums, but con organizers should also take note of this list.

10. UltraCon
Putting the panels and what times they're at RIGHT OUTSIDE THE PANEL ROOMS is another REALLY good idea.

But, there's also another bonus lesson here: Know your limits. I'm not at the point where I'm marketable enough yet to where I can sell merch at cons via table. I'm a hard sell; original content in an environment based off of fandom.

So I'm going to be less aggressive in trying to snag cons this year. I'm definitely not quitting, but I'm not going to shotgun everything, and waste money on tables and stuff like that. I might even try to snag some small shows on Clematis Street, like a REAL musician.

It's a big world out there, and 2015 is going to be a big year.

Huh, my birthday's on a Sunday this year....

Upsetting The Status Quo Sunday

I would be remiss to not mention the hotbed that is Ferguson, MO. But people have been summarizing better than I could. All I'm saying is, when I fucked up at my job, I got fired. When I'm feeling insecure, I do something that makes me feel accomplished, even if it's that last little thing on my to do list. More on the podcast recap.

Back to videos that won't depress you, my Creator Owned Expo recap video is now up on YouTube:

Special thanks to everyone who participated!

CHAOTIC NEUTRAL
VB KENNEDY
KECHAL COMICS
COSMIC TIMES
JEFF CARROLL
CRISTY REY
J.D. NETTO
RESISTANCE ENTERTAINMENT
OOPS: THE COMIC ADVENTURE
THINK ALIKE PRODUCTIONS (THE AGENCY)
THE C-LISTERS HOMEPAGE

Really, listening to all these pitches is very satisfying to hear, because I got a decent range of different kinds of people giving all different kinds of story ideas.

Next show is UmiCon Daytona, and I got my Square in the mail, so I won't run into a situation like last year where I was offered... alternative means of payment.

ALSO, I now have the posters for sale on my Bandcamp site.
Hopefully I can get more soon :)

My Dad's in the hospital right now for his much delayed craniotomy. We're going to see him tomorrow. The operation went smoothly, now it's the days afterward that I'm worried the most about. I really hope he's cognizant enough to recognize us.

Status Quo Senpais and the Art of Being Noticed

I am a 26 year old man with a job. This week, after I sort out all the numerous business cards I've gotten over this past weekend, I am going to set up a doctor's appointment and then find a place to get my windshield repaired. This morning for breakfast I had Cheerios w/ Protein, which also has the fiber I need. After taking my multivitamin this morning, I drove to work, a commute which takes 40 minutes on average. I have very strong opinions about driving on the I-95. It sucks. A lot.

Yet, the last words I said after my long weekend of two cons and two shows were, in a giddy voice: "SENPAI NOTICED ME!!!" I ain't even watch that much anime. 

The end cap for this weekend was catching MC Lars's set at Orlando Nerd Fest this past Sunday, being brought up on stage to skank to "This Gigantic Robot Kills", and then him giving me a shout out on stage for putting his music in Rock Band and playing earlier that day.

Made the whole weekend worth it.

Anyway, there have been two main takeaways from this weekend:
1. Giving people money for something they worked hard on feels really good. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I always like to pick up stuff from the artist alley and the guys publishing their own comics. It helps them out more, and I know I'd want someone doing the same for me. Like, I could get that Wobbuffet plushie, but I'd rather get someone's CD.

2. It also feels good to be remembered from stuff. A couple people have seen me from an Orlando show or two, and of course, my SoFloConBros from every con south of where I live. Also wearing the same at every show helps, like MC Lars and his A's hat.

But I think the two "scenes" have a different feel to them: Orlando cons tend to be bigger, and more focused on anime/Japanese culture, where as the ones in South Florida are more genereal interest, but smaller.

Creator Owned Expo- They asked me to MC the cosplay competition and do all of the raffles. It was really fun. The sound setup was OK, and for the last song my mic gave out, but still managed to put on a good show. Definitely want to go back next year!


-Recap Video!
Will be coming soon! I just need to fix the sound and add subtitles.

-COE was started by Ron Kerronian, who some call "Black Wolverine", since he has the mutton chops and cowboy hat.

This year, it seemed

like everyone

decided to cosplay as him.

Maybe we should start calling Wolverine, "Short, White Ron"


- (WARNING: MAGIC THE GATHERING SHIT AHEAD) Bought a Funko Pop! Nissa, then pulled a Brimaz and Iroas, God Of Victory from purchasing 3 Theros Block packs. Though unfortunately, not one game of Magic was played all weekend :(
To my credit, it's the only non-creator owned thing I bought.

-One of the guys I sold a copy of Dino Hunter MD to at Miami Hurricon actually had a booth there at We Are Chaotic Neutral.

He loved it, SO MAYBE YOU SHOULD PICKUP A COPY.

-Shout out to all the prerequisite SoFloConBros:
Grifter Cosplay
BTL Collectables
Irving of UltraCon South Florida
Martin of Cosmic Times
Zippertan and Mervyn of Paperlab Studios

Orlando Nerd Fest- WOW this was awesome. I totally regret not going when this was called Nerdapalooza. My set was tight as hell, and the crowd was about as good as I can say for an 11AM show the day after "LET'S GET CRUNK EVE" in the smaller stage area.

The set right after me was Random Encounter, doing a lighter set with Professor Shyguy on bongos.
Random Encounter does a lot video game music, with like a pirate rock tinge to it. It was a pretty solid show. Then afterwards we went to get some Dennys.

-Fortunately for me, there was a freeplay arcade in the Jamspace to keep people in. I played OutRun, and I bodied some mofos as Sagat and caught some of Doug Funnie's set.

-Next group I saw was RPG Unit, a nerdcore supergroup that recently put out an album based off Borderlands.

-Then I saw MC Lars and all the good stuff happened.

See you next week! Next show is Umicon Daytona!


-

Status Quo Sunday Goes A-Hunting

NEW SONG! "Hunting Bigger Game"


Join the mailing list, and you get a FREE download!
 NEW VIDEO! Anime Festival Orlando 2014 Recap



TWO NEW GIGS!!
CREATOR OWNED EXPO-

Creator Owned Expo is designed to encourage Literacy, Artistic Creativity, innovations in Technology, and Social Interest in the sciences via panels, workshops and Q&A,s which are geared towards Art, Sequential Art, Science fiction, Fantasy, Novels, Creative Nonfiction, Folklore, Historical Fiction, Mythology and other related genres.

This event promotes Independence in the areas of creative media, comics, art, animation,film, and self-published literature.  We are a close knit ecosystem, a community built to encourage communication between the creators and the audience.
“This event celebrates creators of various media, genres and the fans who love them.”

ORLANDO NERDFEST- The Orlando Nerd Fest is an annual celebration of nerd music and culture. The festival is commonly referred to by it’s acronym ONF. (ie. #ONF2014)

This is going to be ONE HELL of a weekend for me, but after that, I'll be resuming work on Status Quo Radio. I'm looking for artists to do album art, and will start contacting them after this weekend, since I want to have the first two acts done.

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED, SEND ME AN E-MAIL TO rhythmbastard@gmail.com
  Also, I'm looking to update my link bar, so hit me up!