This Week's Status Quo Sunday Has A Picture Of Me Flexing In It, You're Welcome

ANIME IWAI SCHEDULE IS OUT!

Let's brake it down day by day:

FRIDAY! 3000 Brigade Presents: Iwai-vor Series!
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, Panel Room 3

A Tag Team Throwdown where you and a partner can pummel your way through the competition to win the Championship Belt in some old school N64 Wrestling games! There will be thrills, chills, spills, and maybe one of the commenters will wear sly costume! Flashy outfits and ridiculous promo cutting encouraged.

We will also be playing Smack Talk Showdown to break any ties.

The belts are looking really nice this year, and actual effort is being put into them!

SATURDAY! 3000 Brigade Presents: Red Carpet Brawl
8:00 PM to 9:30 PM, MAIN EVENTS

This year's 3KB Extravaganza! A smashing Smash Bros. Show! Who will show? You'll have to go to know! Sexy dances, pulse pounding action, and a beloved Nintendo Character may or may not die!

Also, here's me as Wii Fit Trainer from last year's show:

I look even better from behind ;)

I can't say who I'm going to be in this year's show, but it will be making the most of my beefiness. There is a piece of fanart I would like to recreate if I got 1000 Facebook Likes or something like that, but it's too close to do such a thing. 

Afterwards, there will be a Meet and Greet where we can answer all your questions in character.

There will also be another event on Saturday I Might be a part of, but that's All tentative.

SUNDAY! Hardcore Nerdcore Punk Rock (aka my concert!)
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM, Panel Room 1
I've been working on A LOT of new stuff, and I'm going to be playing it live to close out the show!

I'll also have copies of Dino Hunter MD: The Sound Track back on sale, and of course the usual headbanging madness that ensues. A lot of stuff I did at Mini Iwai worked well, so I think I might have done something right for once... 10 years in...

SPEAKING OF 10 YEARS IN...
This Saturday at 8 PM, I'm going to be doing what the original purpose of this blog is/was:

Playing through all of the songs from the original Rock Band on a real guitar...

 ...via Rocksmith 

That way it's all organized, less stressful, and I can even level up certain parts if I want to git good as a little incentive.

JAM OF THE WEEK: "Hellbent" by Mystery Skulls


The latest in the "Mystery Skulls Animated" Series, this covers a track from Mystery Skulls's 2014 album, Forever, "Hellbent". The rest of Forever is slower paced, meant to let the lush tracks more room to breathe and be felt. "Hellbent" is WAY MORE AMPED UP, but it doesn't suffer at all.

Even the music video, animated by an independent team lead by MysteryBen27 is able to keep up. What I loved about previous animated outings, "Ghost" and "Freaking Out" is that there is movement on every beat, even if it's a simple head bob. Obviously, it's a faster song, so the actions are going to be closer together, but it's all spaced out enough to where it's not confusing.

HOWEVER, the same is happening to this series as what happened to Kingdom Hearts: The first one starts off on a simple premise, the second introduces more elements, and the third builds on it even more as it goes deeper and deeper into its own lore.

Also, here the song doesn't start until about 2 minutes in. The story is still easy enough to follow, and everything is clear enough on a careful watch. 

Even if you want ALL THE LORE, you only have to watch 12 minutes of well done music videos, instead of 100+ hours of gameplay.

Status Quo Sunday Is Back With A Regular Feature

FLORIDA SUPERCON RETRO COSPLAY VIDEO


Yes! It's back!


JAM OF THE WEEK: "Mexico" by Alestorm

I was cranking this all night during my Ixilan Prerelease.

Alestorm is a band I first heard about through the Rock Band Network. The songs they put out there seemed more like thrash metal with violins and accordions, with songs like "Back Through Time" and "Shipwrecked", then the Pirate Rock of "Mexico".

Not a fan of the wraparound of the music video that this all taking place in a video game. The chiptune rendintion of the melody is nice, but it could have been left out and not much would have changed.

I'm just here for the song: A really silly party song about drinking in Mexico.


IXILAN THOUGHTS

Yo ho, Ixilan,
Down to the plane where Jace was Drawn
Vampires and Merfolk spawn
Ixilan, Ixilan

Yo ho Ixilan,
Down to the plane where Jace was Drawn
Dinosaurs for you to ride on,
Let's go to Ixilan

OK, I went 1-2 at the prerelease, so while I didn't do super well, but I can say that the Tribal theme is strong enough to matter, but not strong enough that you should focus on building a deck of that, especially in limited. Dinosaurs seemed to be the tribe that worked best, with fliers in white and big stompy dudes in green. Enrage was a big mechanic, and discouraged a lot of chump blocking.

So, yeah, Green Dinos gave me the most trouble. I'm curious to see if there are any other combos that work well, but yeah, I'm walking the dinosaur this time around.

Status Quo Sunday Has A Full Dance Card

ANIME FESTIVAL ORLANDO!
Was fun! The AFO Rumble went well, I got to cosplay, and I got to see Roborob again! There will be a cosplay video, since I got a lot of good stuff out of that.

New discovery I made? I think Team Skull grunts might be my favorite "overdone" cosplay.


There's a lot at every con I see, but I don't have that same knee jerk reaction as I do with other common ones. I think it's because 1. Skull Grunts are goofy, but quite the center of attention like Deadpool or something. 2. They're meant to go together with other grunts. If you want to see something of beauty, watch two separate groups of grunts lock eyes, then break out into a "TEAM SKULL!" and dance.

JAM OF THE WEEK: "Welcome Home" by Coheed And Cambria


I'm linking a lyric video because the music video for this is boring and 2004-era metal band as shit. Also it cuts the song by 2 minutes.

Rock Band 1 was the first I ever heard anything from Coheed, they were that long prog song that sounded nothing like Rush, and more like Led Zepplin.

However, what I didn't expect was the lyrics to... enchant me the way they did. Again, I went in to "Welcome Home" cold the first time I heard it, and knew nothing about the band and the greater mythos. But there'd be a line that would catch my attention and make me wonder if it's more than just a regular "Well, then fuck you too" song.

Plus, the song is an epic journey undertaken by a sad, desperate man looking to make it out of the storm, but a-

You know what, I should just stop here.

UPCOMING SHOWS!
#MtGZzz

While all the big Magic stuff is going down in GP Vegas, some of the community members are doing a thing called MtGZZZ, which is basically a bunch of us saying "Hey, we're not at GP Vegas, let's do a bunch of Magic The Gathering stuff anyway." There's going to be DnD games, people streaming XMage and MTGO, and Discord stuff. Follow the Hashtag for more info!


Mini Iwai
I will be responsible for TWO events! My concert at 3 PM, and I will be part of the 3000 Brigade Event at 6 PM. I should have a table there, but in case that falls through, I'm going to be palling around with the boys and girls from 3K before the event.

Also my favorite tradition of getting drunk and watch AMV Hells in the game room after all my obligations are fulfilled.

C and I Sutdio Summer Series
More info to come, but this is an event series of various video game music acts, and it's going to be a fun time!

Status Quo Super Late Does Not Tap When Attacking

LET'S ADDRESS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

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-

No... 


No.

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.

And now he's "surprised by the scope of the job"... oh...

We can't ever let up. Not now.   

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





SOMETHING NOT LIFE AFFIRMING OR MOTIVATIONAL EITHER
Tiger Mask W is a really fun anime.  

NOT WRESTLING OR ANIME RELATED
Fine, here's me being a big ol cosplay nerd:

PODCAST RECPAS FOR 9/17/2016: The Epic Crossover Event

ECHO CHAMBER EPISODE 180
-The Simpsons and classic movies:

-My Dad is a HUGE Star Wars nut, so naturally he took us to the Special Editions in '97 and The Pahntom Menace in 1999. He was talking about it all the time, so I just assumed it was a big deal. Then again, I haven't seen Captain America: Civial War yet, so it is possible to miss out on an "event" movie.


-Possible feature to add to the side:
Who Are We Throwing Our Money At?
A collection of all the people we recommend supporting through Patreon, Kickstarter, Buying All Their Shit, etc.


ECHO CHAMBER EPISODE 181
-I think adding a "Hashtag" to things is the equivalent of adding Dad to it where it worsens and cheapens whatever the word is.
#Courage- WE ARE SELLING YOU WHAT WE BELIEVE IS A COURAGEOUS MOVE
Dad Courage- I'm going to try the DOUBLE Bacon Cheeseburger
#Jokes- I am ironicaly referring to what I just said as comedy
Dad Jokes- Hi ____, I'm Dad! See also, "I know you're good, but do you want any more food?" and "You can tune a piano but you tune a fish?"
#Bod- This Instagram picture has a body in it. Somewhere. Alive?
DadBod- Not fat enough to be fat, but fat enough to show that you stopped trying.

 

-Super Mario Run Trailer:


-It feels... desperate that the console market is working in iterations. The main rallying point of consoles is that everything works right out of the box, and the main thrust of this console generation is that they want to be the main focus of your living room. I'm not sure what these upgrades are supposed to accomplish other than "we're making them better". Look at the "thesis" of the past couple generations:

-WiiU/Xbone/PS4: We want to own your TV. You can stream your TV through us, you can browse the internet us, we want to OWN YOUR LIVING ROOM.
-PS3/360/Wii: Online mofos!
-PS2/Xbox/Gamecube: I think we figured out this 3D shit you guys!


-Everyone plays video games. Especially during the 80's. However, a lot of what changed our perspective of video games happened after the Crash of '83. Nintendo fixed this by selling video game as Toys rather than Electronics. Toy aisles back then had were separated by gender, they picked Boys. Still, even in the early days, video games were still popular with everyone.

However, as mentioned in the podcast, then shit got complicated. FOUR buttons? SHOULDER PADS? ANOTHER one?


Where games like Halo succeeded is that they removed the "feelbads" from the game: Recharging shields, less complicated firing weapons, etc. While the controls are still ridiculous to someone who hasn't played, the game itself is more accommodating.

-Japanese Yodeling:

I'D RATHER NOT EPISODE 28

First Google Result for "Anime Owen":


Though personally, I'm a fan of Powerman 5000's cover album with "Electric Avenue":


And yes, IndieGoGo.Space is an actual URL

This is BoBoBo BoBoBoBo:

It's about this dude who fights a tyrannical regime who wants to steal everyone's hair. BoBoBo, having a lot of hair, will NOT stand for this, so he roams the land employing his technique Hanage Shinken, or Fist Of The Nose Hair.

-The cosplay scene is verrrrry, shall we say, expansive? Like, there are cosplay models, cosplay porn, cosplay strippers, cosplay burlesque shows, and all of those exist in Florida because OF COURSE IT'S FLORIDA.

Hey Andy:

I want you to remember this in your DREAMS.

IN YOUR DREEEEEEAMS!!!! 

VOICE OF ALL- HOMESICK

I play Dovin Baan, the planeswalker from Kaladesh. He was a fun voice to do. I tried to go for a British accent with some Indian influence, and while it came out well for the most part, except for the times when it slips into Irish/Scottish because I roll my R's as part of the voice I chose.

Still, SUUUUPER hyped for Kaladesh.

Status Quo Sunday Is Very Late

This week's jam:


#Pokemon20
HEY, WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THE ORIGINAL POKEMON THEME SONG?
cuz fuck you that's why.

Jigglypuff was my favorite recurring Pokemon in the show. Looking back, my favorite episodes of the original Polemon anime weren't moments from the game, it was all the little inbetween episodes that fleshed out the world a little bit. Like the episode Jigglypuff first appeared in, and it featured a city that wasn't in the games, or the one where they visited that doctor who taught them about Pokemon evolution, where Slowpoke evolves into Slowbro. Or that episode where Bulbasaur was called to his Saurpeople and wanted to evolve but he didn't want to change his personality, or the one where Ash wanted Pikachu to evolve to beat Lt. Surge's Raichu but Pikachu was like "NO! I WANT TO DO IT FOR ALL THE PIKACHUS OUT THERE!" and then there's the one where-

ANYTHING ELSE?
I've got Omni Expo this weekend, so to celebrate, here's another recap video from Holiday Matsuri!


Nothing new for a little bit, mostly this week is going to be practice for OMNI Expo, I'm going to be streaming practice sometime this week.

Other than that, this weekend was pretty good, I found a copy of Buck Bumble in the wild, and managed to find this little guy:


There are a couple things in the future that might be worth talking about, but I'm waiting to hear more about it.

Status Quo Championships 2015

This week's jam:


Now, unlike most songs where I reconize the tune, but not the name of the song, this is one of those songs where I've seen the title, but never bothered to listen to the song until just recently, and as a song with jangly guitars, fast lyrics, and a sound straight from the 70's, I was naturally intregued. It was available for the Rock Band Network, then taken off.

Right, this is Sunday, right? Uh.... Damn, keep kayfabe, don't tell everyone how hype you are at 360 Backwards compatability, the new Star Fox game and the bazillion other games at E3....

HERO HYPE CON RECAP VIDEO!!!


Which dovetails nicely into my second point...


RHYTHM BASTARD T-SHIRTS ARE NOW ON SALE!
You don't have to worry about shipping, I want to see how the first couple orders pan out first.

Other than that, I moved all my stuff off my laptop to my desktop computer, I'm working on new material, and just generally cleaning house on certain things in the future.

On Sunday WHICH IS TODAY, two major events competed for my attention: Money In The Bank and the Nintendo World Championships.

MITB was underwhelming and when I found out Shaemus won the contract, I stopped giving a shit. Rollins vs. Ambrose will never not be golden, but, eh....

But the Nintendo World Championships? SUPER HYPE! This needs to be a thing at EVERY E3, especially now that speedrunning and Let's Plays are more of a thing.

I started watching about halfway through, when the second round began, and they were playing Metroid: Federation Force. One cool thing they did is that if you didn't place in a round, you went to a loser's bracket and played a game there. If you won that round, you were still in the loser's bracket, but you stayed in the game.

That was Super Metroid, where there first one to beat the end section got to stay in the game. Then Mario Kart 8 (top 3 finishers of a 3 track cup), and Balloon Fight of all things. Arin from the Game Grumps lost the Balloon Fight elimination round by a hair. Turns out he's pretty good at video games when he doesn't have to talk over them.

After that was Super Smash Bros. and the final round was Mario Maker, with ridiculous levels designed by Treehouse members. I think that, more than anything else, sold me on the WiiU. Between the Kazio insane levels, music making ones as seen in Little Big Planet, and, GUARANTEED a functioning computer system.

So my goal for this week, expect to see my MTG songs on YouTube, and a couple videos from me. This weekend is Treasure Coast Comic Con, so I'll be heading there to hand out a couple business cards.

Attack On Status Quo: Episode Sunday

This week's jam:


Omni Expo turned out a lot better than I was expecting, for someone who has only seen 6 episodes of Attack On Titan (one more since last year).

First off, a hearty hello to everyone who I met and a million thanks to everyone who came out to see my show on Saturday and Sunday! Sorry it was in the hot room with the less than optimal set up, but we made it work!
Some highlights:
-The concerts: EyeQ spits literal fire, and Ben Briggs knows how do run a DJ booth. Was also introduced to Boy Without Batteries, who introduced me to LSDJ, a program used to make music on Game Boys. Briggs and Boy Without Batteries hosted an electronic music production panel that I found very interesting. I've been considering going into

-Getting in a 4-player game of Boss Monster, and a bunch of games of Magic The Gathering. Boss Monster is a game where you want to AVOID opportunities to score for as long as possible. The object of the game is to build a dungeon where heroes come in to try and kill you, but you have to kill them first. Depending on the rooms in your dungeon, you atract different types of heroes. Therefore, it's usually smarter to avoid attracting heroes to your dungeon until you have a few rooms.

-More Gaijin Takiyaki. Candy wrapped in cake batter. MMM….

-Meeting up with TrueGeekRadio.

-Matt Mercer doing his Kirby voice from THERE WILL BE BRAWL. I just learned that he was/is the new voice of Kanji from Persona 4. If I would have known that, I would have asked him to do one of his quotes instead like :”IM GONNA RENOVATE YOUR ASS”

-Sleeping in my car. That was … fun. Remember kids, always book a hotel room in advance, ESPECIALLY if it’s memorial day weekend.

And that's pretty much it. My next show is at Hero Hype Con for Year 3. GET HYPED!

ALBUM/KICKSTARTER/MERCH-
Fuck you, I'm tired, and I've got 10 hour days this week. I will post something in the middle of the week to make up for no podcast though.

Echo Chamber Post Game Episode 121

DOWNLOAD THIS EPISODE IN IMAX OR IN 3D OR IN D-BOX

-I separated a mp3 of out Paul Blart discussion for animating purposes.

-Also not discussed on the Paul Blart discussion: Blartsonas. Like, I'd see people on Tumblr posting drawings of themselves with mustaches in mall cop uniforms- I mean, in their Mall Cop AU. Everyone would have their own shitty form of transportantion, like instead of a Segway, it would be a Rascal Scooter, or maybe a Razor Scooter, or even a ripstick.

You KNOW there's going to be one grimdark edgy motherfucker who's Blartsona's going to look like one of those also-ran emo bands from the mid-2000s, and try to chase people on one of these:


Malachite Black
AKA: Dark Shadow Lord
Age: 14
Transportation: Ripstick
Favorite Mall Stores: Hot Topic
Background: Dark Shadow Lord is an orphan who developed his magic shadow powers while he was in the orphange. All the rest of the kids made fun of him and didn't like him so he killed them all. Eventually a secret government agency (thanks, Obama) recruited him because he was the best at using his Dark Shadow Powers. Now he dispenses Mall Justice at his local mall where he brutally murders criminals with his magic shadow powers which he totally has.

-MY CABBAGES!


-LET'S PLAY RAZOR: FREESTYLE SCOOTER


-I REFUSE TO LOSE TO ANIME!


-Push The Baz for Smash.

Can we talk about The Baz for a minute? Cuz I want to talk about the Baz.

Originally based off a rejected Street Fighter Design from an episode of the Two Best Friends offshot series Fighterpedia, The Baz is the hypest fighter to ever grace a console. CAN YOU FEEL THE STORM? He'd be Pikachu mixed with Captain Falcon

In addition to being used as a create-a-character in numerous wrestling games, Zubaz has also been the go-to character for a lot of the games the group has Kickstarted. Pictured above is his appearance in Divekick, where he originally KOed his opponents with a trail of lightning after his kicks. Later, he was revamped so he used his whip to swing into his opponents.



The next game he appeared in was Shovel Knight, where he appeared as a wandering fighter that appears on the overworld map. He still kept the lighting powers and the swinging, and kept a similar look to his appearance in Divekick. He still has two more appearances lined up, again, based off projects the Best Friends Zaibatsu Kickstarted:



From the fighting game Skullgirls, upcoming DLC fighter Beowulf has Zubaz's palatte (#24).(pictured above, with Woolie and Matt from Two Best Friends Play)



Then he goes to 400 ft tall. anbd fights Kaiju, still keeping ther lighting powers.

In conclusion, Nintendo, CAN YOU FEEL THE STORM?


-GUITAR HERO GAMEPLAY:

I think if Rock Band 4 says, "Yeah, you can use this one too, we found ways to map it" then Harmonix won.
FUCK YOUR SKITTLES.

-"Super Monkey Murder His Balls"