-Every member of the podcast is within a year of each other: Weff was born in 87, Me and Mystakin '88 and Arcanon was '89, so we all have the same frame of reference for pop culture.
-Family Feud's NEKKID GRANDMA!
-Family Feud's BUTT
-As far as Game Completion goes, a lot of that falls upon that person's personal psychology. I'm the kind of guy who would prefer to buy a game I can obsess over and play the shit out of it, then spend 60 on a game I'd only play once.
While I enjoy games like Dishonored and ZTD, there's not a lot of replayability in those games. With Stardew Valley, there's enough to do to keep me occupied. With HITMAN (2016), there's a big environment to play around in with lots of challenges sprinkled throughout.
-HowLongToBeat.com is a website that lets you import your Steam Library and let you know how long it would take to beat the games in your library.
For a major pop star, a lot of people have been sleeping on Ke$ha. She's wrtitten a lot of songs for other artists (her mother is also an accomplished song writer), and is a genius in her own right, having a 140 IQ, and getting a 1500 on her SATs. It's a shame that she signed a recording contract before finish High School, especially considering A. How Dr. Luke convinced her to sign her first recording contract and B. How well that all ended up for her.
I got into this song after Twill Distilled was on I'd Rather Not and did such a good job the podcast. I remember Ke$ha doing a song with Iggy Pop, and was thinking of this to collab with Twill on, since Twill's collab with John turned out so well.
Ke$ha's energy is infectious on "Dirty Love", and Iggy Pop, doesn't do much, like his other collabs,. But he still brings this kind of sexy, intense delivery to his verse.
HOLIDAY MATSURI RECAP
Oh yeah, I was at this thing. TIMELY, HUH? Nah, but seriously, I enjoyed it. Some quick hits:
-A LOOOOOOT of Team Skull cosplayers. A LOT.
-There was also some HUGE meetups for Borderlands and Overwatch.
-Instead of partaking in Saturday festivities I went to the Geek Easy to check out some music friends Jackson Parodi, Eye-Q, Sci-Fried, and Roborob.
-Sunday morning was my show, and while people came in and had fun, it was still a Sunday morning show. Afterwards, I caught Noise Complaint, who collected a shitton of the Magic cards I threw out and enjoyed the show. I also caught fellow con regulars Geekapella.
-The Iron Robot Cardboard contest was very fun, and I think my team did well despite only being 2 people:
I still have the helmet in my room.
The only disappointment is that I didn't get to show off the cosplay I've been working on, because everything fell apart THE SECOND I got out of my car. So I'm fixing some things and am going to be stress testing my stuff in the coming weeks so that for next con, I'll be ready.
Other than that, nothing really around here until March.
Since it's the holidays, I'm going to be giving away T-shirts, CD, posters and more! Also I'll be premireing some new songs!
In addition to that, there will be plenty of other songs music acts throughout the week, such as Ben Briggs, SPF, Teh Walleh, Noise Complaint and Geekapella! I'm also going to check out the Iron Robot Cardboard Cosplay event Propeller Anime got running, which is basically making a giant robot cosplay out of nothing but cardboard, construction paper and duct tape. Back in college, we had a boat race called the Roth Regatta where everyone had to build a boat out of cardboard and duct tape. JAM OF THE WEEK:"California" by U2 For all the shit they've gotten over the release of this album (it just showed up in Apple iTunes libraries), I've been enjoying the songs we've gotten from Songs Of Innocence in Rock Band. "California" is the one that's shown up the most, and the one I've liked the most. I can see myself cranking this up when I go up to Orlando this weekend.
U2 was always known for "big" sounding songs, meant to be blasted in arenas the size of two football fields, and songs off "Songs Of Innocence" don't feel as big, and it's nice to see them dial down the bombast, akin to what Green Day has done in recent years. The orchestral flourishes are still there, and Bono is still singing to the back of wherever the hell he is, but they sound just as good on a smaller scale.
Sci-Fried, Jackson Parodi, EyeQ and DJ Roborob all throwing down some music in celebration of the Star Wars! $5 cover at the door, and raffles for tons of cool prizes!
-The Who Super Bowl Smash Up is the only way we get any Quadrophenia
on Rock Band. "5:15", "The Real Me", "Love Reign O'er Me", "Sea and
Sand" WHY CAN'T WE HAVE SOME QUADROPHENIA?
-:Fire Water Burn" by The Bloodhound Gang
-For an example from Deadly Premonition, one of the side missions you
do is for Michael, an aide to Harry Stewart, an eccentric businessman
who is also an aficionado of gas masks. At the time of completing the
game, Michael is only seen as speaking for Harry and escorting him
around.
Michael adds weirdness and mystery to someone who ends up being a
central character while getting little to do himself. Not a useless
character, but he just serves a prupose. However, after running an
errand for him, you find out that Michael is adopted and wants nothing
more than to please his adopted father.
-"Stopping Points" in video games are a double edged sword. Yes, they
can provide a "Hook" to get you back, but it's also a place to leave
the game FOREVER. Arcanon brings up Borderlands, and like Skyrim, it's
easy to forget what you're doing in a game like that because the quests
are so small, and the world is so big, so if by any chance you DO come
back, you're like, "Eh...."
The key there is to make the segments digestible enough in 30-60 min
bursts that provide both significant value, and something big enough to
come back on. I understand there's SO MUCH ELSE that a game has to
account for before player psychology, but at least games are at the
point to where we can have this discussion.
-John's "Killer Voice" is but the latest in the roster of "weird voices we happen to do" and I hope, like Jonesy Spencerson, he make a comeback.
-Owen has 2 Daddies came off the tail end of the Mega 64 Podcast that day where they talk about the phrase "Daddy Give Me The Cummies" whcih is probably the least appetizing phrase in the English language behind "Trump Era Republican"
-And now, to give you some brain bleach, the worst thing I ever did:
-Marc Summers suffers from OCD, which is all the more badass considering his job as host of Double Dare. Then he got fired from his job on a talk show after disclosing it. Though "Lunatic Fringe" is a tad insensitive when he's suffering from internal turmoil.
HOLIDAY MATSURI
Yeah! The Facebook Event is up! This is going to be a fun one.It's late, I know, but I have confirmed arrangements for both HolMat and PAX East, so as I say, LET'S DO THIS!
THIS WEEK'S JAM: "Downtown" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
All right, I'm digging it, Macklemore's pretty good, but I don't see why-
DOWNTOWN!!!! *Foxy Shazam Outta Nowhere!*
Yeah, this is the same jokey Macklemore we saw on "Thrift Shop", where most people fell in love with him, but it feels like a step up in the rapping department. All well and good, then motherfucking Eric Nally from Mother Fucking Foxy Shazam comes in with the hook that takes a low key chill beat and turns it into an epic theatrical number with blaring trumpet, pounding tops, and Nally's vocals.
ROCK BAND RIVALS NEWS: #THEMEGAMIX IS NOW BLOODSTONE! HEY BASTARD, WHATCHA PLAYIN'?
Stardew Valley. Like, can we talk about Stardew Valley?
I'm not going to mince words here, this game is basically "Harvest Moon: 2016". But you know what?
I LOVED Harvest Moon for the GBA, and spent hours at a time on it.Stardew Valley is Harvest Moon with all the trappings of a modern game. There's crafting (you need to harvest resources to make buildings), RPG elements (you can level up your proficiency in skills and tools), and online multiplayer (haven't gotten to that yet). It's not an original idea, but it's an old one I've longed to revist for a while.
ECHO CHAMBER EPISODE 189
-For the sake of comparison, here's a handy chart that has all the vocal ranges:
There is some overlap between
vocal ranges, for example bass (lowest male voice) and soprano (highest
female voice) overlapping by middle C. Of course, it varies from singer
to singer and song to song, but given that you can sing a note in Rock
Band in a different octave and still have it be "correct", so it's not
that bad. Of course, this was recorded two weeks ago, and the challenge
will be different by the time you read this, so fuck me.
-Sombra's the newest playable hero in Overwatch:
While I haven't given her much playtime, I'm glad she exists because
Overwatch needed its equivalent of the Spy from Team Fortress. Usually
I'd bring out the Spy when the other team has a lot of defenses set up,
since, like Sombra, I can go invisible, get behind enemy lines, and fuck
shit up.
In general, OW is more dynamic then TF2 with each charachter having
ultimate abilities popping off quicker, thereby enabling the tides to
turn. However, her hacking ability gives the game that much more back
and forth, and can do things like hack Torjborn's turrets, and Bastion's
sentry mode, two of the biggest STOP signs on the battlefield.
-Between Inspector Gadget and Godzilla, if Matthew Broderick was involved in a movie based off something from your childhood, it's not going to be good.
Instead I got Zero Time Dilemma off the eShop sale. Like most games in the Zero Escape series, they take a while to get started, but once the requisite "WE'RE STUCK SOMEWHERE?" and "ZERO IS ONE OF US?" questions end, the game gets really interesting filled with all that anime pseudoscience I know and love.
The one thing I'm not liking so far is that you can't play it through until you reach a fail state; everything is so compartmentalized. Instead of VLR's one long timeline, ZTD breaks them up into smaller sections.
THIS WEEK'S JAM: "POLKAMON" by Weird Al Yankovic
It's Weird Al, Pokemon is the clickbaity thing I'm going with here.
I took part in the Patreon Launch Livestream for Insert Quest Here! (I come in at arount 55:00 in). Ray's a super cool dude, the podcast is super fun, and hopefully he has me on more in the future.
I play the love child of Tibalt (from Magic The Gathering) and Captain Kirk.
-PCPartPicker.com is a pretty cang good website, with recoomended builds, advice, and price comparisons. Thankfully my computer is at the point where I can upgrade shit piece by piece, but building a PC from scratch is a good exercise, just so you can better understand what can and will go wrong.
-For those who are further behind, here are the two decks I've been using for Hearthstone: Beast Druid Midrange Shaman
Neither are too expensive to put together, you just need to play through the last two solo adventures and Ragnaros The Firelord, which is in the Classic set.
-I was going to do some number crunching with regards to who was the best question asker, but I think Trace just swept it. Or everything will have to measured in fractiions of Traces.
-
Given my research, as it turns out, you won't be "eaten" so much as "vored" by Griffin McElroy, because "eaten" implies that your flesh will be torn, whereas vore is- Wait where are you going? I HAVE RESEARCH FROM DEVIANTART TO SHOW YOU!
ANIME IWAI RECAP
Anime Iwai, coming from the ashes of Chibi-Pa, hit the ground running in its first year. While not filled with big guests or ULTRA HYPE EVENTS (aside from the usual glow party/raves/costume party), there was still enough experience behind the staff that it made it a good time.
S.S. Hanami, short a man, still managed to do well with their show, the late night variety event was loads of fun, and like AFO, it had a dumb metagame to keep people involved. Only instead of collectable cards for Warriors of Orlandia, it was ribbons. Just ribbons. I wanted all of them because FUCK YOU.
I'd like to take the time to give a shoutout to Alex, who runs the Video/Gaming Room at these events. He also does the sound for the Iwai events and Fandomania. Every game room, in addition to the latest consoles for mostly fighting games/Halo and the now requisite Project Diva setup, has a LAN set up with 8 PC that have a lot of games new and old.
On top of all of that, it has my favorite thing to do when I've had post-show drinks: the big screen playing AMV Hells. Just kick back, buzzed as hell and letting it all wash over you.
THIS WEEK'S JAM: "She Sells Sanctuary" by The Cult
The challenge this week was 80's songs (This coming week is female vocal bands), and given the topic I'm discussing down below, it makes sense. It was also one of the first songs I learned on guitar, because the first pedal I got was a Flange Pedal.
I love how everyone else in the band looks normal, but the singer switches between a pirate and The Undertaker.
"She Sells Sanctuary" was on the soundtrack to Dave Mirra BMX 2. While Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was all about energy, the songs on Mirra were more laid back with songs from Sublime and A Tribe Called Quest. The vibe of the game in general was more chill, with more goals focused on exploring, and wrestling that janky ass system trying to grind one specific rail in one specific rail.
BULLSHIT THING YOUR RELATIVES ARE GOING TO BE BITCHING ABOUT NOW: SANCTUARY CITIES
One of Donald Trumps main "DAY ONE" things was the defunding of what are known as "Sanctuary Cities", which refers to cities that do not prosecute undocumented immigrants just for being undocumented. If they're arrested on other charges, they can still be deported, but they can't be asked about their immigration status otherwise.
It was started in the 1980's, not under Obama, because the kind of person to bring up sanctuary cities is also the kind of person to blame Obama for everything.
What this does is prevent profiling, so you can't stop anyone who "looks" a certain way and demand do see their papers, and allow illegal immigrants to still report crimes without fear.
Mainly the orange one elected to the office of President last Tuesday.
Shit, there's been a billion hot takes on it, and MC Lars really has the one I can relate to the most, how we hoped it would never happen, how we all wondered why it all went wrong, and proceeding forward by Making Good Art.
The key word at this point in time is Vigilance.
Donald Trump has given us NO reason to trust him. His entire campaign was spent othering people who aren't Cis Straight White Dudes. Everyone he wants in his office is clearly reinforcing this notion; from his vice-president Mike Pence, who is SUPER evangelical and anti-LGBTQ, to his most recent appointment of chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, who runs Briebart, which is where you go after Fox News rejects you for being "too racist". All of his debates were spent talking over Clinton, lying about everything, showing an overall poor temperament and just spouting catchphrases ("ISIS!" "EMAILS!", etc.).
The motherfucking KKK is happy about this.
Now you see stories about how he's going back on several of his campaign promises, and everyone's saying "he might not be so bad", and how we should work together and-
What I mean by vigilance is that this validated a lot of shitty people, and be vigilant by sticking up for those who are going to be hurting from all this. Sometimes just the fact that someone is watching is a discouragement. If you're witnessing harassment, interfere.
You can write your representatives:
Make your voice heard, and keep talking. Dissension keeps this shit from being normalized. We've come too far as a nation to have all of that reversed.
Trump supporters, be vigilant too, but not for "Un-American Activities", but to be critical of the man you elected.
Let's not assume you're racist, sexist whatever. You voted for him because he was going to change things up? He hired Newt Gingrich, Rudy Guillani and Chris Christie to his transition team, about as inside ball as you could get. Going back on some his promises, such as when he wants to keep parts of the Affordable Care Act? When the KKK and the American Nazi Party are doing the Daniel Bryan YES! chant over the decisions he's making? Ask yourself "Is this what I signed up for?" every step of the way, and it is perfectly fine to say "no". See the "Contact your representatives" part above.
THIS WEEK'S JAM: "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now" by The Dead Kennedys
Well, duh. Of course, this is super relevant because I'm about to crack into the 33 1/3 version of Dead Kennedy's "Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables".
SOMETHING POSITIVE TO END ON THAT ISN'T STEREOTYPICAL CUTE FLUFFY ANIMALS
If you're reading this, you're still alive, and can do something about the future
NEW SONG! sort of... "FREDDY FAZBEAR'S PIZZA (1975)"
Finally recorded this for Ill Gill's Nerdcore Halloween compilation.
ANIME IWAI EVENT! I'm going to be going on at 5:30 PM on Saturday! Anime Iwai/Chibi Pa is always a good time, and while there aren't a lot of guests, there's plenty of panels and plenty of people!
1080p is off her previous album, Infusion, and is an uplifting tale about getting your shit together. In the song, she details all the shit that went down in her life the past two years, and it's a cathartic listen that can show through therapy, medication and proper care, your worldview improves significantly.
-Something... happened last week? I think. I dunno, the podcast is the same as it ever was!
-Dumb Bullshit Jared Leto Did To Get Into Character For The Joker:
1. Sending random gifts to his coworkers like used condoms and anal beads.
2. Fucking with his coworkers by being "in character" the whole time and insisting everyone call him Mr. J on the set.
3. Dropping a live pif in the middle of a table read.
Yeah, everyone hated him.
Jared Leto feels like the director was egging him on the whole time. Like, all the other actors were like "Man, not this shit again" and David Ayer, the director, along with the marketing team was like "HOW MESSED UP IS THE JOKER GONNA BE?"
-Why I Am The King Of Five Nights At Freddy's: without my kickass song, nobody would have heard of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Markiplier, NateWantsToBattle and Game Theory are all liars and charaltans. Never played the games, but I'm the real King Of Finve Nights At Freddy's: A Game I've Never Played.
-"Bad Things Happen Warehouse Starring Jared Leto" is what is on the marquee at every 30 Seconds To Mars concert.
-Creepy Stuff Scientist is how I imagine John would act if were still alive and unactivated by The Protocol after [REDACTED] activated it.
-Real people painted like animatronics? Did you mean Steam Powered Giraffe:
-If we're doing jump scare muppet house, I'm surprised we haven't brought up the one guy who's got "innocuous object but REALLY SCARY" on lock down: ECHO CHAMBER EPISODE 185
-Rockudrama, while not meaty, is really big on dry humor, like, as Arc mentioned: Jake and Amir. While nowadays it seems "DORKLY" is the big CollegeHumor brand, CH in general was pretty good at that aloof, "bullshit with a striaght face". I thought the series ended when I graduated college, but it's still going on, like this from a couple days ago:
Let's look at comme-
oh... oh... oh...
-I've come around on Kool Terry. Kool Terry is Kewl with Mee. He's like onions: when made to put in a dish, it's great, but you can't eat it on your own. Also it smells bad.
-The TRUE AND HONEST Nintendo Switch Trailer:
-The curly fries look SOOOOO GOOOOD, but those Beef and Cheddar Sandwiches could look better.
NEW SONG INCOMING?
Yes! Well, it's a song I've only played live, and it's going to be featured on an upcoming compilation album "Nerdcore Halloween".
If you want an MP3 of the song, I'll be sending it to the mailing list, as well as some last ditch merch stuff. I'm not going to release it until I get the go ahead from IllGill, but at the very least keep your eyes peeled for the Nerdcore Halloween Compilation when it drops this Monday.
THIS WEEK'S JAM:
We talked a lot about "Flagpole Sitta" a couple podcasts ago, and I was wondering about whatever happened to Harvey Danger. Out of curiosity, I checked out the album "Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone" to see how far the rest falls behind the One Hit.
In every Todd In The Shadows "One Hit Wonderland" series he has a segment at the end where at the end he asks "Did They Deserve Better"? YES. YES THEY SHOULD HAVE. Now, after "Flagpole Sitta" it's hard to go to something LESS poppy, but at least we can look at Harvey Danger and go, "No, these guys can fucking rock".
The first track off Merrymakers "Carlotta Valdez" sounds like Dookie-era Green Day with less crunch and better production, and it has WAY more energy than "Flagpole Sitta". While Flagpole is a good song, it takes a while to get to the climax.
Compared to the Barenaked Ladies, who's "One Week" was the only song with any energy off Stunt, Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone was incredible from beginning to end.
-I've seen a lot of episodes of "One Hit Wonderland" and I'd like to see the Harvey Danger/Flagpole Sitta episode. The song is just so good, and encapsulates all of that late-90's quirk and angst that the band would have nothing left to say after that. The song was about the commodification of the Seattle area in the wake of the alt-rock boom, and it's at the crux between pop and weird.
“Flagpole Sitta” unwittingly resonates on multiple levels. On the
surface, it’s a pop song that can be appreciated for its earworm chorus
and how it crescendos to a perfectly calibrated, cathartic punk
explosion. It can also be viewed as a neatly packaged encapsulation of
the decade’s underground signifiers and teen angst. Dig a little deeper,
and it’s a rallying cry for anyone who loathes the pomposity of the
mainstream alternative pantheon. Dig deeper still, and it’s a crisp,
intellectual evisceration of pseudo-rebellion and bloated
self-importance—but yet, skillfully and luckily, doesn’t fall prey to
either of these foibles.
-Treat You Better Video:
...Well, at least it gives the Domestic Violence Hotline number, so it's not entirely useless. I don't entirely hate Shaun Mendez, but he's part of an already oversaturated niche, so while I won't immediately shut the radio off, I'll usually do a couple laps to find something better.
-"Jugga Jigga Wugga" comes from this Strong Bad Email, "Death Metal":
-Hatsune Miku Pedal
Now to think of some anime words that start with "de-"
DE-SU! jugga jigga wugga
DEATH THE KID! jugga jigga wugga
DE-KU TREE jugga jugga wugga I'D RATHER NOT EPISODE 33
-For reference a toonie is a Canadian Two Dollar Coin:
It's about the size of a Golden Dollar, and would hurt like a motherfucker.
-This is where Sailor Henry's origin comes from:
Is Sonic just a little pudgy, or is he pregnant too?
-I think if we combine these two prompts, then we have the making of a pretty good cyber punk novel. I mean "Trace Evans" already sounds like a Cyberpunk protagonist name. Speaking of Trace, he was adorable to watch on the Skype video chat. If we did a video version of this podcast, you will see us doing a lot of finger quotes and me dabbing.
![frigidloki:
“☆ gang boss disrupts locals by squatting and sipping soda too loud
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do not republish/repost my artwork or remove my comments.
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