Podcast Recaps for 1/29/2016- No Gods, Fox Only, Final Destination

No Slayers Of Decadence this week, but it is wrapping up, so this might go back to just Zone-Casts Stuff, but it IS worth it, as I write a goddamn essay on the G-Diffuser.

ECHO CHAMBER EPISODE 153
SERIOUSLY, HE HASN'T LEFT SINCE WE RECORDED THE PODCAST. I KEEP THROWING HIM OUT, BUT HE KEEPS COMING BACK
 
-As per our intros, our Magic The Gathering Cards. When I'm less pressured to put this up early, then I'll do better ones, but for now, here goes:

SITE RECAP BONUS!!!!!

 I envisioned Jeff's deck to be about +1/+1 counters and 2-for-1s, but I think that might be a bit too OP.

In his card I reference both his music projects, Single White Infidel and The Sixth Shot.
His BONUS SPELL CARD is a reference to his song in Amplitude "Assault On Psychofortress"

Paolo's deck is about getting the Rock Band Instrument Artifacts out and winning the game. He plays Yu-Gi-Oh, and his strategy is akin to getting the four pieces of the Legendayr Yu-Gi-Oh monster Exodia onto the field, and his spell that gets rid of creatures and enchantments helps with that by keeping him alive just long enough to do that. His spell's flavor text is a reference to something he told me on Twitter about his usage of Palutena in Smash.

-OK, I got Peter Molyneux to leave my house, but only because I told him there's an even bigger cube he can tap called the sun. NASA will be properly funded in... soon...

-Final Fantasy is an expansive series that has defined the Role Playing Game Genre and has reinventied itself with every console generation.

INSERT REST OF ESSAY HERE
 

-Cracked used to be a rip-off of Mad Magazine, with humorous comics parodying pop culture:

To the thinking man's Buzzfe-

That phrase made me throw up in my mouth, so I'm going to stop there.

Seanbaby still writes for Cracked on occasion, but he only does about one article per year it seems. Since then it seems he's been working on a game called Calculords, which is getting a sequel soon.
Back in the day, Seanbaby was the absolute coolest video game guy ever. He had pink hair! He said cuss words! He talked shit about bad video games! HAHAHA! Then I graduated high school. I linked his website above which has some absolute gold, including tracking down someone featured in an issue of Nintendo Power. I e-mailed that address about a year after discovering the article and they claimed they were trolling Seanbaby.



One classic I remember the best, but aren't immediately available on the site is his article on Mega Man bosses, and the introduction of the Mega Man Robot Naming Comittee.

-Sigh... Reposting Mickey Mousecapades on Game Grumps:

-I was going to write a summary on the Kingdom Hearts Series, but fuck it, someone else can do it:

-Andrew Huang's "Hotline Bling":

This sounds a lot better than the original. Huang's singing is crisper, and the fact that every sound is made by hitting things gives it more energy than the very dour "holding music" of the original.


-The G-Diffuser is a piece of technology in the Star Fox and F-Zero universe that is supposed to remove the effects of gravity on the pilot and, according to the Arwingpedia, is also the power source for shields and propulsion.

More accurately, as I said in this episode "Some sci-fi engine sounding thing"

Allow me to nerd out, since there are two explanations for this technology: The first is the "kayfare" or "Thermain" explanation, which is that they create an artificial gravity field around the ship, that can provide an Earth-level environment so that the ship can move laterally quicker (such as performing a "barrel roll"), and so that the pilot is comfortable. This gravity field is then turned inward when the ship boosts and moves into hyperspeed.

The other explanation (which I am borrowing liberally from the Arwingpedia) is how it can exist in real life. This requires manipulation of Zero Point Energy. Zero Point Energy, is the ground state of a quantum mechanical physical system, From High School Physics, an electron in its ground state is when the electron is in the lowest possible orbit. When energy is added to the system, the elctron gains energy and is moved into a higher state, or a higher orbit.

Vaccuum Energy is the zero point energy of all the various electromagnetical fields in space, which leads us to believe that the vacuum of space is not empty, just at the ground state. If this is true, then that means that energy exists with space, and according to relativity, exerts a gravitational force, as would a mass (such as a planet).

With advances in ZPE, this energy can be manipulated to simulate the effects of the G-Diffuser.

SOURCES:
Arwingpedia: G Diffuser
Wikipedia: Zero Point Energy

-OK, now for more science:



So, the "Barrel Roll" in Star Fox 64 is actually an Aileron Roll, in which an aircraft does a full revolution along its axis (i.e. nose and tail are at the same height, the rest of the aircraft spins around).

A proper barrel roll is in a helix motion, where is looks like the plane is going around the outside of a barrel.

A rudder roll (aka The Pacman) is a tigheter version of the barrel roll where the rudder is used to slip into the the roll.


-Another hit from LazyPillow, that sums up this episode in a nutshell:

​

From Parts Unknown, It's The Status Quo Sunday!

Brock Lesnar is doing the Mega Knee on everyone right now, so this week's jam is:


Also apropos, because Ben Briggs, fellow Florida music type dude hosted a stream this weekend to help raise money to get his life back on track, and I managed to catch some of it. Mainly the highlight was Hot Pepper Fan Fiction: Eating a habanero, then reading through shitty garbage fanfics, including one so bad, it made, as Ben put it "forgot to get high".



And what a goddamn trooper, still throwing shade when he's dying.

OMNI EXPO EVENT NOW ON FACEBOOK!  
There it is! First convention show of the year!

NEW MERCH IN THE BANDCAMP!
First off, the cover for the album:

 
Another shout out to the incredible Mervyn McKoy, all I did was stretch it out a bit. I've had it for sale at conventions, but never thought to put it on the Bandcamp.

Next up is the Kickstarter Poster:

Artwork by Lancelot Richardson at clockodile.com.
I found out about him through a TF2 Fandom Secret Santa, and he does incredible fantasy work, which you can find on his site.

MUSIC UPDATE- NO WAIT, LEMME GUESS NOTHING?
I've been getting work done, with a couple songs are in progress. Nothing concrete yet, but at least I'm at the point where I can focus on putting stuff in Reaper again. There's been a lot of other projects that crossed my mind and I'm in the habit where I have my guitar accessible and Reaper open.

My headspace in a post-album/in-between album world is all about getting over the little psychological things. If I focus less on lyrics, I can focus on other areas to move the song forward. If I finish songs, I don't need to worry that all of this is shouting in the void, because I'll always have something going on. If I build a Reaper File, even if it's just the basic drum beat, then I have a place to put all my song ideas.

There's still the big psychological things: stress from work, worried I'm going to lose it, always being "on call" for my family be it chores or anytime a fight goes down, it's nuts.

Being a millennial with any kind of stability or success is like shelter in a zombie apocalypse: you're OK for now, you might even have people to watch your back, and maybe some food and water, but there's the lingering threat that any second, zombies can burst through the barricade, or the asshole who runs a fascist society could come along and curb stomp your ass.

All I can do now is try to work in between fighting off the hordes.

Podcast Recaps for 1/22/2016: Raising Stakes As Well As Children

First of, Zonecasts started doing recap videos again! Yay!

ECHO CHAMBER EPISODE 152

dril TWEETS ARE THE NEW HOTNESS ANYWAYS
Holy shit 2016 has been terrible so far. After losing Lemmy in 2015, we lost Glenn Frey from The Eagles, DAVID MOTHERFUCKING BOWIE, ALAN GODDAMN RICKMAN, "Iron" MIke Sharpe, goddamn... My "God's Trying To Make A Supergroup" Theory becomes more and more real by the day.

Bowie and Rickman both died of cancer at 69. You know who's a lump of human cancer and is 69 years old?

DONALD TRUMP

OK on to less depressing things, here's "Bowie In Space":

-Again, I am upon another heading that I wrote down when doing this recap: Chrono Cross? Postal 3?.
At the time, I didn't get the reference when Arcanon compared Chrono Cross to Postal 3, in that they were both spiritual successors, considered terrible by fans that had nothing to do with their predecessors. Mostly because I thought there wasn't a Postal 3.

Then I remembered watching a video on Asshole Simulators and I was like "Oh yeah, there WAS a Postal 3!" It was released in Russia before the US.

Postal is the only thing Running With Scissors has ever done. yay edgelord games.... Like seriously, Taliban Jokes in 2015?

-I CAN'T SPEEDRUN BATTLETOADS
That's true Mystakin. Oh wait, you said THE EXACT OPPOSITE LAST WEEK. See the video above.

And since this is the recap on MY site, here's a Battletoads Speedrun:

-UpUpDwnDwn is Xavier Woods' videogame YouTube Channel, and it's a really interesting watch. He/Austin Creed's not the best Let's Player, but I love watching him play with other Superstars, watching them break Kayfabe and have fun together. It's mainly the reason I want to see Heath Slater and Damien Sandow on TV again.

However what I'm looking forward is a reignition of his rivalry with Dirty Dan Ryckert Giant Bomb at PAXAMANIA:

-Rock Band's Soundtrack has MAYBE two main setlist songs completely unrecognizable at first glance(Those most likely being "Electric Version" AND "Dead On Arrival") . Chances are, someone from some generation will recognize something, and songs like "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" and "Here It Goes Again" are still fresh in people's minds from various advertisements, there's plenty of songs people ask for by name. As the games wore on, the setlists opted for less recognizable hits but bigger bands (U2? VAN HALEN?)

-The Simpsons and Family Guy are shambling forms of their old selves, and the ways in which they attempt to innovate are more patheric as time goes on. The Simpsons look to cash in on the latest pop culture craze after animators spend 9 months working on it, and everything seems to be retreading old ground. I need to wartch it again, but looking at the Wiki page, they seem to have eased off the Celebrity of the Week Episodes.

Family Guy on the other hand has become Loss.Jpg the series. While it's shock humor and pop culture references are wearing thin, they tried getting "real" by introducing more serious storylines, such as Brian contemplating suicide, Glenn Quagmire's mother being transgender, and Glenn's sister was in an abusive relationship.

-In this week's edition of "Rhythm Bastard's Not Crazy", the word I was looking for was Pankration,
All it was is a mix boxing and wrestling, which seemed to be the official fighting style of mythical figures. I was right, but wrong at the same time. But the most important thing to take away from all this is....
I'M NOT CRAZY!

-In I'm not crazy news part 2:

I listened to this guy during work, I've checked the related videos, and I realized I shouldn't have done this during work.

So from what I remember from browsing business articles Facebook shoves in my face, I know that discovering unexploited niches is key to being a successful provider of internet content. Let's Plays are mined to fuck, you might not know anything about makeup or fashion, and your apartment isn't sad enough to rant against women existing, so "Chugging 40s In A Ski Mask" could be an Innovative new Youtube trend for #thebest #web #content

#RhythmBastardIsNotCrazy


-Shinsuke Nakamura is known as The King Of Strong Style and has a dope-ass theme song. He also fought Kevin Owens (then known as Kevin Steen) in 2014.

-Yotam Perel, very good animator, hosts his Tosh.0 Special and unwraps a naked baby:

-Speaking of Awkward Streams, Channel Fireball's Travis Woo got fired for talking about Mein Kampf.

Man, this week's theme seems to be "shitty web content". Hmmm... What can I do to counteract this....

All better!
SLAYERS OF DECADENCE EPISODE 7



Hey, look! The Gods of Fortitude actually managed to be parents this time! So we have the second half of the "Not Fucking Up A Child" montage next week, but this week we partake in my favorite trope: Kindunos and Zun Quib Slay working with each other by working against each other.

It happened when we retook Firefly: "I'm going to seduce the General!" "I'm going to have my army kill everyone and squaking with my eagle face!"

Same here: "You should totally steal all those goats" "Bro, you gonna take that shit?"

The First Rule Of Status Quo Sunday Is

For Fucks Sake Talk About It, Because I'd Like The Promotion.

Anyway, this week's jam:


Another GHTV discovery. I'm kind of glad Guitar Hero doesn't make a big deal about their new songs the same way Rock Band and Rocksmith do, so you forget about it for a while, then come back and say "Huh,, didn't know they added this" on top of the fact that the stations keep everything random so it doesn't get repetitive.

The Mowgli's are a real life version of the Portland Cloud Orchestra from Guitar Hero Live: A big alternative/folk group that is involved with many charities, and "San Francisico"'s message carries that to a T. It's peppy, and it makes me happy. I know my musical writing vocabulary is very limited, and it's another jangly alt/folk song, but it made my workday suck less when I had it on repeat, fuck you.

MUSIC UPDATES:
Nothing.

WHAT?
Nope. I've been trying to finish up my Oath Of The Gatewatch Song, but progress has been slow on that. I went 3-3 on the prerelease though, so that's cool.

WAIT, WHAT?
Yeah, I didn't pull any big money cards, but I had a pretty sweet colorless-

WHY?
They're random booster packs. I'm not guaranteed to-

NO I MEAN WHY NO MUSIC?
Reason 1: I'm polishing up Think Geek Is Not Nerdcore

Reason 2:
Punch Club:

I've never played a game that made me love it, then hate it, love it again, hate the ending, and now I want to replay it.

Truth be told, I have a fondness for all the dumb, grindy "simulator" type browser games, and Punch Club is no different in the framework.

Where it makes up for it is the fact that it's more ambitious: the fighting system, while automated, is faily deep and allows you to switch which moves your fighter can use based upon your opponent. The story is suprisingly interesting, and branches depending on what choices you make. It's no Until Dawn, but it's an appreciated extra for a game that I wouldn't expect to make for. It's nothing you haven't seen before: train and fight for reasons, There's even a section where you go to Russia and fight a fighter named Ivangief.

Pop culture references are everywhere, and you'll either find them cute and charming (Jay and Silent Bob outside a convenience store, Jules and Verne from Pulp Fiction in a diner) or obnoxious and overdone (you fight Teenage Mutant Ninja Alligators, convenience store cleck is an Indian Guy named Apu, aforementioned Ivangief, girlfriend character named Adrian, manager named Ding King). All of this makes it feel like the game doesn't have an identity of its own and is screaming PLEASE LOVE ME!.

Would I recommend it? Depends on your tolerance on the grind and if you would plan on replaying it. I wouldn't have paid the full $10, though, at least as my initial playthrough stands. There's other avenues you can take with fighting styles and storylines, but there is a bit you have to put up with for an ending that's unsatisfactory.

Then again, I'm a crazy person.

For a video game with a slightly better price, you can download "Omnikron: The Nomad Soul" for free until the 22nd.

Anyway, I should have more for you next week, life's a little like Tetris right now: clear one thing, more keeps piling up. 

Podcast Recaps for 1/15/2016- Speedrunning Through Childbirth

ECHO CHAMBER EPISODE 151

AT $2000 THEY'LL DO A BLINDFOLDED RUN OF THE PODCAST
Wait, how do we do this again?


-The "Now Say It In A British Accent" Thing is because host of the Jimquisition and gaming personality Jim Sterling- I mean, JIM FUCKING STERLING SON, usually introduces his Quick Look videos (called Squirty Plays) with an insult toward the audience. Jim Fucking Stering, Son.



Been following him ever since the Destructoid days, and he's managed to shine in and out of publications.He's the one that originally turned me on to Deadly Premonition, which made me do this:


-Shaymin:

Technically they're genderless (according to Bulbapedia) so I don't know if they can really be sluts.

-When I write these things, I try to remember everything, but all I have here are "VIDEO GAME SKELETONS" Mystakin mentioned one that included Undertale, but neglected Grim Fandango, yet I couldn't find it. This list, while lacking a pop filter does include Manny Caravela.


I forgot which one he was referencing. Also a cool skeleton in video games is the one that was inside you all along uwu.

-I haven't played much of Amplitude, but the idea of a video game as a concept album is pretty awesome, the only problem being longevity. Thankfully the other songs round out the soundtrack a bit more, but even those are hit or miss (LOOKING AT YOU CRAZY RIDE) and are only unlocked after repeated plays.

-The most creepiest thing about GH LIve (other than HOW EVERYONE IS LOOKING AT YOU) are the signs in the audience: "YOU GUYS ARE COOL" "YOU GIFT MY EARS" "BEACH PARTY" Seriously? Were these songs written by 5 year olds who only heard what a rock concert is?

As a former extra, I can only imagine how difficult all that must have been to put together since crowds that large are like herding cats (source: Extra shoot for the movie New Year's Day).

If they ever make more venues like that, I'd like to see them play around with the concept: Pointing at the player when a lyric has the word "You!" seeing the camera shake because you got smacked in the back of the head, the bassist motioning to the sound guy to cut your sound, etc.


-Animorphs was the fucking shit back in the day. I read all the books I could and even watched the TV series. And Mystakin, like the fucking dumb idiot he is, (or the game is), got the premise all wrong:

So 5 kids discover an ancient alien artifact from a species known as the Andelites that allows them to transform into any animal they touch (for a maximum period of 2 hours). They use this power to combat the Yeerk, a brain parasite alien species that's pretty much the books version of Toxoplasma, where the host are compelled to feed and recharge (I forget the specifics) the parasites.

-Speedrun Couple is getting their own stage play/musical called "Rushing To The End" or possibly "Backuyp Strats for Your Relationship". Also it's a strong contender for "Segment I'd Animate If I Remembered ANYTHING From Flash.

-Resident Evil would NEVER get made as a AAA title these days. A spooky mansion with limited saves and obtuse puzzle sounds like something straight out of the ever increasing indie market. It's a surprise that more horror games try and follow in the original RE's footsteps as opposed to the first person games like Slender.
As dumb as it is now, I would love to try and figure out some batshit crazy chemical mixing puzzle to kill an overgrown plant, or find the various Chess Keys or whatever.


If there's any other game that follows in RE's footsteps (puzzlewise, not horror wise) let me know!

SLAYERS OF DECADENCE EPISODE 6 


I don't do these as indepth as the Echo Chamber, since there is story involved and I don't want to spoil it.

Yeah, so the main thing I forget is that we're Gods and we can pretty much do whatever. Like, we can be invisible and show up out of nowhere or hide forever. We can move shit around behind the scenes and if anyone thinks we're a ghost or gets suspicious, it doesnt matter because A. Ghosts aren't real and B. We're gods and they can't do shit.

But even as an all powerful diety I'm still an awkward dork.

Also this was another fun episode since we do some problem solving, have some fun fate shenanigans, and Kindunos gets to punch shit. Like, we started a communist revolution by making Galt's Gulch.

Kidding aside, we've been getting into some deep shit in this campaign. Like, how to raise children, how to build a community, what values we think are important, etc.

Maybe the real God-like power is that we have it within ourselves take control of our own world.

Tabletop Campaigns are usually at their best when the PCs are royally fucking everything up, like accidentally blowing up the earth, but that other shit is fine too I guess.

...

I wish I started a death cult :(

JUST GUYS PLAYING GAMES ROYAL RUMBLE!!!!

I do have a couple con recap videos in the pipeline I'm trying to finish up, but for now, here's something I was a part of.

Inspired by PAX Wrestling, this is a panel I did from UltraCon with the crew of Just Guys Playing Games

STATUS QUO STATE OF THE BASTARD 2016!?!?!?

Yup!

1. I MADE A GODDAMN ALBUM AND RELEASED IT!



2. As many of you had heard of by now, musician David Bowie passed away this morning, and his amazing singing voice, daring showmanship and eagerness to innovate, and I'm glad he was able to give us so much in his last few days.

He is one of my major influences, because every facet of his career, every phase, has had something I can take from it and say "This. This Is Where I Want To Go With My Music". He was a man that embraced the new and different with open arms and said "Challenge Accepted".

He made being weird cool, because he pulled it off better than anyone else could.

"Everyone Says Hi" was the first song I remember associating with David Bowie, as it was off of the video game Amplitude. While I've heard his other stuff before, most of it was part of the Classic Rock Radio White Noise. The Metro Mix included with the game mixed the song in a way that made it sound more upbeat, but also more lonely and distant, like a child's voice lost in the din.

The song is about (to me at least) someone in denial that a loved on died, that they're on a trip instead, so that it doesn't sound like that person is gone forever. Which makes it the perfect fit for this occassion.

 

 

 

3. I'm 28 now. It's not quite old, but the "YOU CAN TOTALLY!"s become "You could....". It's an odd feeling because I'm now starting to get things stable, but it's not a life of my own yet, and it's become even more crowded since my brother's fiance moved in. That's compounded by these weird in-between feelings I've had and all the missed deadlines like too old to make it in music, not married/having kids at my age, etc. 

Thank Xenagos I've had such a strong support network of family and friends to keep me going but man am I just feeling awkward 150% of the time. 

Even stranger, I'm OK with it, because it's better than where I was.

4. NEWEST SONG: Not ready yet, but my most recent one is my "Battle For Zenidkar" song "ATTACK ON ELDRAZI!"

5. FAVORITE SONG I DID AT 27: "Bastards Reunion" BY FAR

It was the culmination of so many things WORKING. I was taking voice lessons so my singing was better than ever, I had a strict goal mind when writing it, and it's been FUN to play at every show I've done.

6. CON GIGS? 

I remember last year I said I want to do less, but this year feels like I've been doing more cons:
Miami Hurricon, Omni Expo, Hero Hype Con, Mizucon, Chibi Pa Victory, Chibi Pa Sampler, Holiday Matsuri, Orlando Nerd Fest....

Well, at least I liked the ones I went to more. 

CONFIRMED FOR OMNI EXPO 2016!!!!

6. 28 YEAR OLD RESOLUTIONS?
-A music video. The concept I had for the Status Quo Radio album as film ala The Wall or Quadrophenia isn't feasible, but there are a couple stand alone songs I can do both on and outside the album. 

-More presence and making myself more accessible.. I've always done this stuff for fun, and for the experience of meeting new people and just having that "ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN!" feeling of living in the city. The post I made about cons was just about expanding my horizons. I'm trying to reach out, 'cause if you like my music, or my writing, or my podcasting, then I like you :D

-Stream more, be it gaming or music making. I love games, and I want to have you all along for the ride. Also biweekly Twitch concerts would keep me in practice for bigger shows.

7.PODCAST STUFF!

ECHO CHAMBER- Music, video games, and More?

INSERT QUEST HERE- Part of a campaign called "Slayers Of Decadence" 

8. OK NOW GO OUTSIDE THE BOX-

GAME OF THE YEAR- "Undertale" 

I've said it on Echo Chamber, and I'll sum it up here:
Everything in Undertale is intentional. Toby Fox knows what you will do, what you have done, and expects it to deliver memorable moments and an intriguing world that will stick with you for hours after you finish.

WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS BEFORE AWARD?- League Of Legends

The most popular game on Twitch and I just bothered to play it this year.

BIGGEST ASSHOLES- Rich white people. No shit.

GREEDIEST MOFO WHO IS NOT A VICTIM OF CAPITALISM- God

You kill Rock Legends such as David Bowie and Lemmy so YOU can jam with a supergroup? THANKS A LOT!

Also you let these assholes continue to live:

MOVIE I WAS WATCHING WITH GREAT TREPIDATION- Star Wars:: The Force Awakens

Was expecting to go in underwhelmed, came out charmed. Good job!

MOVIE I AM GOING TO BE WATCHING WITH GREAT TREPIDATION- Deadpool

Hopefully we get Joe Kelly/Gail Simone Deadpool and not Daniel Way/4chan Deadpool

TOP 40 SONG I HATED THE LEAST- "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk The Moon

I found this one out last year on Tumblr before it made its rounds on the alternative and later pop stations, and I'm glad I got into it BEFORE it was cool. 80's throwback songs are nothing new in the alt rock landscape, but everything about it invites ENERGY from the clap-friendly into to being able to yell SHUT UP in public without Mom getting mad at you.

Whether or not "Different Colours" will be a big follow up hit or if they have one at all is yet to be seen, but I hope they stick around for a little while, since we need more rock in the charts.

"Exes and Oh's"by Elle King

Runner up for this one, because I always manage to catch the chorus, which has a lot of OHs like a lot of music seems to have instead of an actual chorus these days, but it's a fun song to play in Rock Band, and a dusky voiced female who can write a good breakup story is always a plus in my book. 

9. ANNUAL STUPID REMINDER THAT I SHARE A BIRTHDAY WITH MC BAT COMMANDER

 

When's Your Next Con?

I've been doing conventions in Florida for almost 3 full years now, and while there have been cons all over the state, I see a lot of familiar faces wandering the halls. If you look at my recap videos, you'll see some people pop up in different costumes, or the same costume twice, etc. and we super fun awesome times. However, the most common question I asked in this scenario is:
"When's your next con?"

I'm glad to get asked this question, because it means people want to see me again, whether they stopped by a show, or we just hung out in the halls. However, periods like these where I don't have anything scheduled (too early in the year), it's hard to answer.

Pretty much all of my con performances are when I've straight up asked or submitted a panel application. Sometimes I get rejected, but go anyway, but I can't do that with every con.

That's where you all come in. If there's a con you're going to, let me know! Better yet, let the people in charge of the con know that you'd like to see me there, because at the end of the day they want panels and guests to make sure people come.

So, if you have a con you're going to and you'd like me to play, shoot them an e-mail. In exchange for helping out, I'll hook you up with a T-shirt, a CD, a poster and play an acoustic concert for you and your friends!

Status Quo Sunday Has Some Sick Strats

 STATUS QUO RADIO NOW AVAILABLE ON CD!

AGDQ is back on for 2016! 
I forgot Kirby gets to be Darth Maul in the Crystal Shards game

And this week's jam is...

SPEED METAL!!!

Another song I found off of GH:TV. This sounds like a Sonic The Hedgehog theme song before Sonic the Hedgehog was even birthed. While normally I don't like a lot of metal, since at a point a lot of it runs together, Anthrax is a band I was able to get into, because they're a punk band whose testicles dropped.

MUSIC?
A LOT of stuff got backed up on my end, but there are a shitton of pages in my notebook, and this weekend was the genesis of a lot of tracks. I even hosted a songwriting stream. I made some progress, but I think they might be a little boring to watch. Still, it's an hour a week where I can sit down and dedicate myself to writing and hashing things out.

SO....?
My next song will be a cover of MC Lars' "Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock", I just need gang vocals for that one. Other than that I'm in various planning stages, including my song for Oath Of The Gatewatch, the next Magic The Gathering set.

WHEN'S YOUR NEXT CON?
I'm working on a full post for that... soon.... but I'm going to save that for it's own post because there IS something cool for that. Right now I'm doing a large sweep of upcoming cons.

ANYTHING ELSE?
Yeah. I've been reading 33 1/3's take on the Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack.



Very interesting read so far, especially if you're well versed in either music theory or how the NES sound files work. There's a lot of unpacking to do here, since I'm not terribly well versed in either. It's very indepth, making much of what was going on with what is essentially a 3 minute long sound tracks, (4 songs: "Overworld", "Underworld", "Underwater" and "Castle" are the only 4 non-incidental tracks) even going into detail about the sound files. I'm not 100% finished yet, but this kind of stuff had to be created in an era before things like foley work and sound mixing were easily done.

At the very least it's gotten me to look at my Super Mario Series Guitar Tab Book.







Three observations:
1. These songs are awkward to play on the guitar, at least how their tabbed, or maybe my skill level.
2. Considering that technology that primitive would have troubling dealing with something like "thirds", it's impressive how much he managed to do.
3. I forgot a lot about how to read proper sheet music.

Episode 150: Echo Chamber GOTY Awards!

DOWNLOAD HERE!

So, I'm doing a separate post NOT on the blog, since usual those are just general things we all talk about that episode, and this GOTY stuff is more personal, so I'm going to keep that space as is.

My choices for GOTY weren't necessarily rhe ones I played the most or were the most "fun", it's the games that made want MORE. Like, despite all the meh in the AAA industry, these are the five games I'd put in a time capsule and preserve for the future:

1. Undertale
2. Her Story
3. Until Dawn
4. Rock Band 4
5. Saints Row IV: Re-Elected Edition

On the podcast I already justified my choices, and I'm not listening to something over 4 hours long.

Instead, I'm going to discuss five games I enjoyed this year, but didn't make the cut:
 

1. Guitar Hero Live- aka The Other Rhythm Game That Came Out This Year. It's an accomplishment that deserves accolades that, not that we have a new Guitar Hero (there was a period around GH5 where things got SUUUUPER wonky), but that it's good AND manages to differentiate itself from the new Rock Band.

The new guitar is satisfying to play, GHTV is a great way to discover new music, and I even got a few chuckles out of the GH Live mode (seriously, who brings a sign that say YOU MAKE ME WANNA DANCE! to a concert)

It's only off the list because the direction for the future isn't as clear as RB4s, which, while Rock Band 4 has plenty of ground to make up for, Harmonix has been way more open about where they're going.

 

2. Borderlands: The Handsome Collection- Yes, a rerelease, but a rerelease in a universe I love to pieces. The wastelands of Pandora are filled with bright colors, crazy flora and fauna, and the perfect mixture of a society past the point of no return with the logical conclusion of capitalism. Every installment brings a whole new batch of weird with new undiscovered regions, new playable chacters, and seeing how old ones returned. It's 2 AM and I just beat BL2.



3. NBA 2K16- Spike Lee's Ghost Adventures aside,I played the SHIT out of this when I first got my Xbox One. It might go without saying, but as I played more, I got progressively better at the game and becoming a better player. Yeah, no shit, but something about the perspective of playing a single person as opposed to a whole team, changed the way I view the game, and as someone who barely touches any sports games that can't be preceded by "extreme" anything that gets me in is a bonus.


The most interesting thing though, is that there's a decent community for this game. It has a couple online modes like MyLeague and MyPark, but it's one of the most streamed Sports Games on Twitch.

As I mentioned earlier, the reason this didn't make the list despite spending so much time with it is that it's still a basketball game. A good one that has pkenty to sink your teeth into, but a basketball game nonetheless.



4. Magic The Gathering Puzzle Quest- I play this game any place where I can get internet access but it's slow as fuck and came out THE DAY we recorded this podcast, so I'm going to combine it with Magic Duels and combine this entry since I sold my soul for cardboard rectangles.



5. Shovel Knight- Came out on the Xbone this year, and it was last year's GOTY, so I'm counting it.