Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Status Quo Sunday Says "Hell Yeah!"

Good news of this week:

As of January 23rd, 2014, "Dino Hunter MD: The Sound Track" is officially one year old!

Of course, I want to thank the usual suspects: Jesse Schopher for doing everything except writing the songs, Matt Willemain for additional instrumentation, and Justin Meltzer and David K. Ginn for starting the series.

So, even though I've explained a lot about everything, I figured I'd give out one fun fact about each song.

COLLEGE PARTY- There's three people named in the song: Todd, who isn't important, and Hall and Oates, two characters who showed up in the first episode "Ptero-dac to School". I think their names are only mentioned once throughout the entire series.

PASS THE CLASS- Even though I came up with this line just to rhyme with something really stupid, I reused it in "Cliffhanger", because the line "Spirit on a ledge" is too weird to just leave there.

ROBOTMAN'S LAMENT- The line "I am but 7 hours old/and I have killed a man" is in reference to Rocky Horror Picture Show song "Rose Tint My World" ("I'm only 7 hours old/and such a beauty to behold")

HEROES DIE- The line "Maybe it's a place/like heaven or Japan" is a reference to James Laudano, former editor in chief of The Stony Brook Press (where we all met), who was leaving the country to teach in Japan. He played the character, Dr. Eric Van Tanner, who died in that episode.

PLAYIN' INVISIBALL- I came up with the basic song 5 minutes after I read the e-mail asking me to make the music, and wrote the lyrics on the way home from work later that day.

CLIFFHANGER-For the setup to this song, I recieved an e-mail that read
"INSPIRATION STATION:
-The movie Cliffhanger
-The CROSSFIRE!!! jingle.

HELL YEAH- The song includes references to all the previous tracks:
("To the college party where we'll dance...")
("Partied hard and I passed the class/Heroes died but we kicked some ass...")
("Playin' invisiball was a blast/Robots lamented of their past...")
("Why is it on this cliff I'm hangin'...")

SPACE TAMBOURINE- This song was recorded entirely on the fly over 6 minutes.

GET IT ON BANDCAMP!
GET IT ON AMAZON!

Bad news of this week:

#BadNewsBastard

I have a cold, and my Rocksmith cable is broken.

The last 30 seconds of the WWE Royal Rumble. I MIGHT skip Guardians of the Galaxy for this. MIGHT.

But...

Once I'm feeling better, I'll probably have a listening party/stream, where I play some video games and crank the tunes for an hour or so, and we all chill.

Or maybe look into a DHMD stream, similar to how they do the Two Best Friends Play stream. I dunno.

Also on the plate for this week, cutting a promo for a podcast, and more music work (hopefully). After all, this coming weekend is the Born Of The Gods prerelease, and the family is headed to Universal Studios.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Status Quo Radio Act 1 Complete

Or at the very least compiled.

For the past few weeks, it's always been the Week Of _____
The first week of the year was The Week of Sands Of Anime
Which then began The Week of Getting Ready for SCG Orlando
Then this past week was The Week of Finishing Writing for TF2 Promptfest
Now, I don't really know what's coming up for this next week, (most likely a Magic PTQ that will get waylaid by doing stuff with friends), but for now, and from now on, it's about working more on "Status Quo Radio".

Between how busy I've been, I haven't touched upon the music that much, but for time being, it's full steam ahead on the album.

ESPECIALLY considering that for the first time ever, I've compiled Act 1, which stands to be about 15 minutes long. It was amazing to have it come together, but it's not without errors. At least now I have a checkpoint.

Since I didn't cover it in last week's State Of The Bastard 2014, I'd like to cover my favorite album of 2013: Janelle Monae's The Electric Lady.

There were plenty of contenders: David Bowie, The Studio Killers and Daft Punk and make badass driving music and are put together beautifully, but they didn't resonate with me the say way Lady did.

Ever listen to something or some one and say "YES! That's exactly what I want to do!" That's how I feel with The Electric Lady; it's schizophrenic, it's strong, and it's all made by a woman who has nothing but absolute conviction in what she's doing. The first half is front loaded with this awesome, catchy music, and the second half is equivalent to Bowie's Low where it's like "Yeah, there's no hook/chorus but you're going to love it anyway"

The skits are OK and do a teensy bit of worldbuilding, but they don't really go anywhere.

All in all, 2014's going to be a hell of a year, just you wait.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

STATE OF THE BASTARD ADDRESS 2014

1. 26 and by the time you read this, I'll be in Orlando for a Magic Tourney. There's a lot to reflect in this part of my life, but right now, just the hits.

2. NEWEST SONG: "Tower Siege"


3. RBN SONGS:
2011- The Year Of The Don
2012- The Year Of The Lars
2013- THE YEAR OF THE BASTARD!!!


Sadly, with the RBN system shutting down by 2014, I do not have anymore songs to put on the RBN. Customs, however...

4. HOLY SHIT? I RELEASED AN ALBUM?

It was a rough experience, but hell yeah, I made it out alive. Big ups to David Ginn and Jesee Schopher, I'm hitting you guys up first when I find my way back to NY :)

5. MUSIC VIDEOS???
Not quite, but I still kept my presence on YouTube, with videos for "Boston Boom Bringer", "Gang Of Nine" and "Lord I Miss Deadly Premonition"


6. CON GIGS!!!
If I do 5 cons in a year, I'll do a little "2014 Tour" but I missed it by THAAAT much...
June 2013- Hero Hype Con
June 2013- MizuCon
August 2013- Anime Festival Orlando
September 2013- UmiCon Daytona

It was really great supporting these cons, new and old, and meeting new people, and getting plenty of fans in the process! Hope to see everyone next year.

7. SO WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT FROM YOU IN 2014?
-"Status Quo Radio" for sure. I'm meeting a lot of creative people to work with, so hopefully it can be more than that as the time draws nearer.
-More music videos!
-More songs!
-More convention gigs!
-I want to be better known this year, and really expand to the point where I'm INVITED to cons, or at least allowed to attend bigger ones.

8. ALSO YOU GUYS SHOULD TOTALLY LISTEN TO THE Echo Chamber Podcast, courtest of Zone-Casts!

9. IT'S THE END OF 2013!!! MY COOLEST STUFFF!!!!
BEST PODCAST- The Echo Chamber
TWO YEARS RUNNING! Though in second place, Heel Turn
In third, the F-Plus makes a strong showing


FAVORITE MOVIE OF THE YEAR- "The World's End"
Rather, the movie I can appreciate the most. While it wasn't as "obvious" as Shaun of The Dead or as funny as Hot Fuzz, looking back, it's still a well made movie that has a really strong central point.

LEAST FAVORITE MOVIE OF THE YEAR- "Anchorman 2"
Yeah. This movie meanders a lot, runs whatever few jokes it has into the ground, and pisses away whatever good will I still have from the first one despite being quote to death.

BEST MOVIE THAT I WAS IN- "The Wolf Of Wall Street"
I was an extra in it... haven't seen it yet...

GAME OF THE YEAR THAT I NEED TO THINK OF BECAUSE I HAD TO GO TO BED SOON- Rocksmith 2014
For fixing everything wrong with the first one, and giving us more awesome songs to screw around with. While it's less "driven", the options available to really learn a song are expanded immensely.

STORY OF THE YEAR- Anything Telltale Games Did. 
For being visceral, for making me lament choices, for making me wait til next episode, for setting up only to knock me down again.

FAVORITE THING VIDEO GAMES MADE ME DO- Feel accomplished.
Too often with most games it's a straight point A to point B affair, where it's filled with obstacles to overcome, and you never really get that A-HA! moment. The biggest game that satisfied this need was Dark Souls, a game from 2011 that's known for being super hard. BUT there was this grand sense of accomplishment whenever I found a new area or beat one of the knights. The game made me feel smarter as I was playing it, and this is what discovery is all about.

Another game I played in 2013 that filled that niche? WOLFENSTIEN 3D, scapegoat (or wolf) of the 90's. No maps, no clear objectives, just navigate your way through this hugh ass level. I had to rely on my sense of direction, and my deductive reason to beat the game. Does it look ugly? Kinda. Do the controls suck? When I can't rotate my guy fast enough WE GOT A PROBLEM, but I found a key, or unlocked a secret door, that gave me my A-HA!s that I don't really get from most FPSs or games at all.

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS SOONER? Dark Souls.
See above.

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS SOONER FOR PIECES OF CARDBOARD? Cards Against Humanity.
Basically, Apples to Apples for horrible people. While Apples to Apples has a lot of spontaneous fun, Cards Against Humanity becomes a sociological experiment, as you can tell which friends are worth keeping by who laughed the loudest at any reference to AIDS and Hitler.

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS SOONER FOR PIECES OF CARDBOARD THAT CAN GET HELLA EXPENSIVE? Magic The Gathering. 
In a year where I learned how to play Yu-Gi-Oh! and MtG, as well as moving next to a dog track that hosted a poker room, it was a good year for me spending money on card games.
What's great about Magic The Gathering is how ANY CARD CAN WORK. RIght now there's a lot of "staple" cards, but when you're drafting (picking cards from a pack), it becomes more about planning and synergy.

FAVORITE WAY TO PLAY A GAME- Duels Of The Planeswalkers 2014 While Doing Squats
Quads gettin' swole, yo.

FAVORITE WAY TO HAVE MY FUNERAL- Antonio Cesaro dressed up as Mario, Giant Swings my body, dressed up as Bowser into a bomb that's attached to the shit ridden corpses of the Koch Brothers, closing the ceremony with Zeb Coulter leading the group in a "So Long, King Bowser"

FAVORITE TOP 40 SONG THAT I'LL ADMIT TO LIKING- "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk
 with "Can't Hold Us" in second. The former song being better composed, the latter song having this strong primal beat accentuated with Mackelmore's rapping.

FAVORITE SONG THAT WAS ON THE RADIO THIS YEAR- "I Love It" by Icona Pop. 
For SOME REASON, it was still on the radio this year, like last year's "Little Talks". Foster The People may be long and gone, but at least she brought the not-give-a-fuckness of Andrew WK to Clear Channel radio.

FAVORITE SONG RELEASED ON ROCK BAND- "Hell Yeah" by Rhythm Bastard

FAVORITE GIG- UmiCon
It was really close: Hero Hype Con were super nice, and super eager to make a mark on the scene, Mizucon set me up with a sweet PA system, AFO introducted me to Divekick, but at UmiCon, I got a pic with Quinton Flynn, hung with the Aquabats and FREE DRINKS!!!

FAVORITE BAND I JUST BECAME AWARE OF THIS YEAR- The Studio Killers
Thanks Europe! Virtual Electro Dance Pop Band, ahoy!

See you on Sunday, where I will have hopefully emerged victorious!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Status Quos Of Anime

Between the recovering, unpacking and last minute thing taking care of, I totally forgot to write about Sands Of Anime!

Overall, it was really good for the very first year of a con. The rooms were super nice, super cheap, and there was a lot to do.While I do have a couple nitpicks with the scheduling and what not, I don't think at any period of time where I felt there was any problem on behalf of the people running things hour to hour.

There was a Casino Night, a Magic The Gathering tournament (which I came in 2nd!), Way Of The Samurai (foam boffer swordfighting), and a lounge area with rhythm games, so all in all, there was a lot to do.

As for my show, felt good, videos are coming soon, but it was also scheduled opposite the voice actors panel, so I didn't get allowed to make a lot of noise. S.S. Hanami also had a similar problem.

Really, the only complaint I have was that it felt a bit sparse. It's a good location, they managed to have some good events, but in its first year, they felt anemic, because the fledgling population was spread out over multiple areas. Whenever a crowd did gather, like at the WOTS tournament, it was a lot of fun, BUT it also took place at the same time as the Random Gibberish concert. 

It'll improve with attendance. Like Hero Hype Con, I really love supporting new conventions, when people decide to share what they love with others.

Album? Yeah, that new song is coming together, but between getting the State Of The Bastard Address 2014 ready, and prepping for spending all day playing cards on Saturday, it'll be ready by next week earliest. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, because more exciting stuff is coming up.

:)