Status Quo Tik Toks The Year Away

Uh.... Hey all, Scott- I mean, Rhythm Bastard here!

At least I've been busy!

ANIME IWAI RECAP

2018 was the last Anime Iwai I had an event every day, and it gives the downtime some kind of purpose when you have an event either later in the day, or just finished something. Most importantly, it gives me a guide to recapping the weekend that is both self-centered AND well-organized!

Friday, I had my concert, and while I'm loving my new setup with a tablet to control my backing tracks, I'm still getting used to it. Downside was that it was earlier on Friday, and when people are in line for 2+ hours for a local convention, people arriving on time end up being late. The smartest cons usually print out their badges beforehand, so that guests can come and pick it up later. 

My acoustic song that set was "What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes, from the trailer to Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City, which released two weeks later, which ended up being a rushed mess that couldn't let me glom on to anybody. It felt like the movie was cutting between two different movies that happened to end at the same place, and left me with a sensation of "...What happened, there HAD to have been more..."

Saturday was the HCNCW Live event, Iwai-vor Series, with the winner getting to be in HCNCW canon, because we couldn't get a toy belt in time. Still, I forgot how INTO these games people can get. The crowd was going nuts every match for a 20+ year old Nintendo 64 Wrestling game, and there were no "well, i guess..." entrants. The final match was ALL women, and the winner ended up being Kayla of the 3000 Brigade!

Since she didn't know much about the game or wrestling, what we did instead was have a Kayla Canonization Match, where 8 characters she played throughout the span of the show fought in a Battle Royale match, which, even though she didn't know anything about wrestling, still had a fun time commentating with us!

I also finished my Thrash head, with his hair included! It was supposed to be a mohawk, but it ended somewhere between punk, greaser and scene, which yeah, it works!

Sunday was the Cosplay runway event, and I ALMOST didn't participate, but uh, we'll save that for the next section. 

I went as Meowscles from Fortnite and despite not winning, I was clearly a fan favorite.

GOING VIRAL

So I'm on TikTok now, because at the aforementioned Cosplay Runway event, someone uploaded video of me flexing and put it on there, so now I'm like "WELL, I GUESS I'LL DO THIS THING". Still, the thirst got me through a VERY rough move.

@zent0fu

suddenly I’m ninja 🌝 ##fyp ##fortnite ##meowscles ##animeiwai ##animeiwai2021

♬ U RIGHT X LUXURIOUS - Baby Q💖

OTAKUFEST

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm playing Otakufest the weekend of Jan 15th and 16th! I've never been, but it looks like there's a lot of big guests and it's at the MACC, which it's been almost a couple years for me now, so I'm psyched to play again! AND only the weekend after...

MAGFEST!

Sadly, I'm not performing (yet), I'm going to be on staff. It was an opportunity I HAD to take to see everyone! I will also have a couple test burns of Hardcore Nerdcore Punk Rock on me, since that's nearing completion, but you'll be hearing about that VERY SOON.

I am helping with the Rock Band stage, so come by and say...

JAM OF THE WEEK: "Hello, Hello" by Trixie Mattel

I get the feeling that it's been so far between these things that I forget what I've talked about and how I've fallen down the RuPaul's Drag Race rabbit hole.

Anyway this is a song from Season 7 competitor, and All Stars 3 winner Trixie Mattel. I was linked her cover of Lana Del Ray's "Video Games" from my old partner, and she really turned it out. The arrangement felt lonelier and desperate than the original even though it had extra instrumentation and more going on. When you listen to her more country leaning work, it's clear there's this air of longing and desperation in her songs, which I WANT out of country music. When I think of country, I think of sparse, beautiful landscapes with no other human being around, and these people telling you a story that you

It's refreshing, but scary at the same time. 

"Hello, Hello" is a mid-2000s alt rock jam, aka the kind of stuff I was learning to play when I started guitar, and it's just fun.

Trixie Mattel for Rock Band!

Status Quo Sunday Catching Up With Cons

 Yup, one of these again! You'd THINK I'd learn to be more on top of these, huh?

Welp, let's start from the beginning...

MEGAPLEX!

First off, credit to Wolico/ToxicFreakHound for the promo picture:

Because the show was VERY late, I needed something to hand out. It was still a fun time, and I was able to collapse in my VERY nice hotel room. Considering this is my second time around, I saw more familiar faces and tried to know more people beforehand via Telegram chats and the like, and hey, turns out a lot of furries are nice people!

I also got paid to play a party, so that's on the table for future cons!

Still maintain that Megaplex has the best solution for the artist alley: $10, 4 hour shifts, first come first serves. It's a great way for artists to get their foot in the door since it's not a lot to set up, and you're not wasting a lot of time and money if you're too new to really sell well. Though finally having Swoletariat tanks for sale also helped.

 Telegram was ALSO a good place to learn how to take on a certain project, namely...

 

Making a Thrash Panda head! At this point it was very rough, I didn't even have a back, but getting it to this point was a work in and of itself. I'll make a video highlighting the process, but it was so satisfying to get to at least here. I really felt I leveled up during this project because I learned how to work with foam, work with leather and work with fur, and at the end, I had a head I can wear.

MIZUCON!

Primetime show, baby! Also had BastardMania for sale on CD!

This show had another thing that I'll never go back from: BLUETOOTH. P A SYSTEM. Made the show much easier to work with. Mizucon's staff was also very on top of things and VERY helpful with the show. I'm eager to see what they come up with next year when we have more elbow room.

Also saw the premiere of Thrash Panda Mark II

 

 Thrash Panda, drinking a Salty Raccoon

ANIME IWAI SHOW!

 2:30 on Friday, in Main Events

Hope to see you all there!

I'm also booking for room parties if anyone is interested, provided you let me carry a backpack o' merch!

NEW MERCH! SWOLETARIAT TANKS AND BASTARDMANIA CD!

New for fall! These have been selling very well, and it's great to have this stuff upfront, in person, since people always walk away happy. You can't ALWAYS rely on people to remember to check out your Bandcamp or Threadless page.

FUTURE STUFF? 

I've been juggling around some projects, and one of them is a visual novel that will go out to my patrons first, then I'll post up on itch.io, akin to many other VNs, like The Echo Project. 

Still don't know how I'll peter it out to the levels of Patron, maybe
$1 - Build of the game
$5 - Soundtrack
$20 - Script

But all that's up in the air, and I'm adding these VN updates in rotation with original music and covers, so it will be sporadic. 

Status Quo Sunday's Got It In The Baaaaaag

It's been a whiiiile, but cons are starting up again!
Namely...

I'M PLAYING MEGAPLEX 2021

12:30 AM on Saturday in Socials 2!

First con of the year, I'll be playing at Megaplex in Orlando, FL!

Granted, it's a Midnight Show, but I'll be sure to make it EXTRA worth it so you can party EXTRA hard!

I've gotten all my shots, but I'm still going to take some precautions, and Megaplex does have some protocols in place. Unfortunately no in person game room, but a lot of people are probably bringing their own stuff, and I am bringing my Switch for impromptu Fuser Raves.

SOUTH AFRIFUR INTERVIEW!

 

On June 20th, I was interviewed by a radio show called South Afrifur on the radio station Furry.FM and it was probably the most in-depth interview I've had in a while, and they were very excited to have me on! Also there was a live chat while the interview was going on and it seemed like people were interested, so who knows?

Ivic, one of the co-hosts of the show is unfortunately dealing with a brain tumor right now, and the people at Furry.FM have started a donation drive to help him deal with medical costs.

NEW MERCH: KICK DRUM LOGO DUFFEL BAG!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since conventions ARE starting up again, what better way to show up to your hotel room in style with this sweet Kick Drum Logo Duffel Bag?

ENBIETY helped with this design, and the logo on the ends works so well. It's got plenty of room to fit everything you need for a weekend of partying and at least two bottles of booze! 

I do have a lot more merch ready for the coming months, and am trying to get Hardcore Nerdcore Punk Rock ready for Iwai. Right now as far as this goes, I'm trying to find other ways to get people to the shop, since a lot of the stuff on there is very comfy, but I'm not a web designer :(

Also still have a casting call open!

JAM OF THE WEEK: "Dancing On My Own" by Robyn

I haven't thought about Robyn since the late 90's when "Show Me Love" was making the rounds, but while the rest of us weren't looking she was still making great dance music. What got me to finally check this song out was a passing mention of "Dancing On My Own" in a Top 10 Best Of The Year from Todd In The Shadows saying mentioning that a lot of the "Best Songs of the 2010s" lists that music sites put together place it as a solid contender.

And his assessment of the song is on point: "[Dancing On My Own is] a brilliant track that proves that you can have a high tempo dance song that's still one of the saddest songs ever written. When they make movies about the early 2010s, that's the song all the characters will be dancing to." 

She's lonely, she knows it's over and he's never going to come back again. Still, she's there, watching and trying to make it look like she's fine on her own. Don't worry about it :....)

Robyn SELLS it in the music video, and the dances punctuate the feeling so well. I've been that guy and seen that girl and yeah, there's a very specific rhythm to "My outside says 'Fuck it I'm just here to dance' while the inside says 'What the hell is he doing?'"

Incredible pop all around!

CASTING CALL: Models Wanted For Merch Stuuuuuff

Hey everyone! If you live within a reasonable distance from south Florida, make some money and get FREE STUFF, then come help out with a photo shoot to show off all the cool things coming to me Threadless store!

As con season is, turns out, happening. While I don't have much locked down YET, one thing I have done is to open up a merch store via Threadless!

RHYTHM BASTARD'S COOL MERCH BOOTH FOR ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE!

(just pretend my stuff is here)

Currently I have:
-Kick Drum Logo shirts

-Join The Swoletariat Tanks

-Synthwave Kick Drum shirts!

-Thrash Panda Merch!

-A GOD DAMN SKATEBOARD!

 

If you want to participate, send me an e-mail at rhythmbastard@gmail.com and we'll respond when we have more details!

The ONLY restrictions:
-You must be 18 or older
-Sizes go from S to 2XL, so keep that in mind, since we want to show off everything fitting comfortably