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 Uh... Sunday?

Sorry for missing last week. It was a combination of not getting enough sleep (I'm writing this ona day I woke up at 1 PM) and having too much to write. Self care! Who knew?

SUPERCON RECAP!

A VERY good weekend! I played two kick ass shows, sold some merch, and met some awesome people!

I spent a lot of time at my booth, because they were kind enough to give me one, so I didn't do a lot of wandering around, save for a couple panels my friends were running.

A couple highlights:
-Florida Supercon Championship Wrestling
Man, was this a treat! Much better than the show at Ultracon, since the crowd was way more hype for it, and the costumes themselves looked a lot better. 


Also, the abundance of pro wrestling guests, like Teddy Long, Leva Bates, and Stud Magnum gave the event a lot more of a push.

-My Two Shows
Well, duh. Obviously. Saturday was right before the Cosplay Competition and drew a really good crowd, and Sunday, while smaller, still had a lot of great energy. Kudos to the sound crew, and apologies to whoever had to clean up.

-

JAM OF THE WEEK: "Tie Your Mother Down" by Queen


This song I heard on the Guitar Hero Live main setlist, as part of the "Classic Rock" band's campaign. GHL's campaign is a solid experience, and the classic rock tracks feel like a nice endcap to all the modern rock. Seriously, that level has the only songs made before 2001.

It's a Queen song, so obviously it rules, but a lot of people forget that Queen made this kind of bluesy rock music as well. Not doubting their big piano heavy ballads like "Somebody To Love" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", it's that those are so good, it's like finding a feature in a game you love to pieces and going "SHIT, I CAN DO THIS THE WHOLE TIME?"

MOMOCON!
 

I'M PLAYING THERE!

This is my first out of state con, and I'm super psyched. Curretnly, I'm slated for Friday afternoon, but I'll more details on this next week, as I'm still trying to plan a lot of stuff out.

Going to Atlanta is a HUGE opportunity for me, but it's also a big expense. If you want to help out, please consider getting something from my Bandcamp!

COMPILATION ALBUM









Speaking of Bandcamp, I'm considering putting together an album of all my fandom related songs. While Status Quo Radio was inspired by TF2, and I sell it as such, it's not as immediately recognizable as all the other songs I usually play live.

The closest thing I've seen to this is what Mega Ran called a "Road Mix". It's a great concept, since it's all the songs people know, without having the pressure of a PROPER ALBUM or the legacy of a GREATEST HITS.

On this, I'll probably have a couple of my Magic The Gathering songs, the more obviously referential songs off Status Quo Radio, and some of the others you hear at every RB show. I plan on having it ready for MomoCon, and I'll post some more details on that next update.

I am going to be releasing a newsletter that all this stuff in greater detail, so sign up, and you'll be able to give me some input!

Status Quo Sunday Heads Striaght To The Top

SUPERCON RETRO THIS WEEKEND! 


NOW ON FACEBOOK!
Miami Airport and Convention Center
Saturday, April 15th- 7:15 PM
MACC 2
Sunday, April 16th- 5:30 PM
MACC 1

I'm going to be at BOOTH# 1029 selling merch and hanging out!

JAM OF THE WEEK: "To The Top" by Twin Shadow

Just put on some headphones, and let yourself fall into this song. I first heard it on Tales From The Borderlands Ep. 4 this weekend, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. The series has always had excellent taste in music, and while this may not fit the wild-west futurey setting of Borderlands, it really packed a punch when it was used. Episode 4 begins with your crew going into space, and the song is so good at bringing forth this sense of awe and makes you determined to get to the climax of this adventure.

Which is then subsided half an hour later by the most ridiculous sequence in a video game I've played.

Jeff: isn't it the Baba O' Reilly chords?

Shut up.

STATUS QUO STREAM: Tales From The Borderlands Ep. 4


The series continues to deliver, and revitalize the old "Teltale Genre Game". It manages to strike a balance between making me care about the decisions I'm making and keeping a light enough tone that I'm not wrecked by them as I was with Fables and The Walking Dead.

STATUS QUO SUN-DAYMANIA

ADDED TO THE SIDEBAR: SUPERCON RETRO
Miami Airport and Convention Center
Saturday, April 15th- 7:15 PM
MACC 2
Sunday, April 16th- 5:30 PM
MACC 1

JAM OF THE WEEK: "The Yooka-Laylee Rap"


...

...

I really liked the DK Rap OK? Plus I'm hype for this game.

WRESTLEMANIA THREE WORD REVIEWS

Andre The Giant Battle Royal:
Mojo? Really? Mmm....

Crusierweight Title:
King Neville reigns

Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owen:
Friendship is over

Dean Ambrose vs. Baron Corbin:
Oh, that happened

AJ Styles vs. Shane McMahon:
God smites Man

Raw Womens Championship:
Good, slow build

Raw Tag Team Champs:
DIVISION IS BROKEN

Mixed Tag Match (John Cena/Nikki Bella vs. The Miz/Maryse)
What'd you expect?

Non-Sanctioned Match- Seth Rollins vs. Triple H
Save Crossfit Jesus

Smackdown Womens Championship:
Entrances Were Longer

WWE Championship Match:
It's a trip

Universal Championship
SUPLEX SOPHMORE SLUMP

Roman Reigns vs. The Undertaker
Thanks, I guess.

Status Quo Sunday Gets All Magical Up In This

FLORIDA SUPERCON RETRO EVENT IS NOW ON FACEBOOK!

You can find all my info here! 

Submit requests, let friends know about it, do it up! Apparently I have a booth?

Saturday, April 15th- 7:15 PM
MACC 2

Sunday, April 16th- 5:30 PM
MACC 1

What is SUPERCON RETRO? It’s a throwback event to relive the vibe of FLORIDA SUPERCON before it got so big. We’re returning to our old building, the MACC (Miami Airport Convention Center), with a 3-Day RETRO event, and we’ll handpick guests from TV & Movies, Anime, Cartoons, Comics, and Cosplay who we know are super fun to hang out with.

THIS WEEK'S JAM: "Magic" by Mystery Skulls

Mystery Skulls's Forever was such a good album, it's like aural sex. Or at least, the kind of sex on a nice bed with clean silk sheets and surrounded by candles. The production was crisp, the instrumentation was lush and the singing sensual.

"Magic" happens to be one of those tracks that best exemplifies this. Nile Rodgers lays down a neat rhythm guitar and Brandy provides backup vocals. While her role is minimal, she is used a hell of a lot better than Janelle Monae in .fun's "We Are Young". Brandy adds that little something that takes me back to the house/R&B songs that were big in the 90's. It's a throwback jam.

I used this animatic music video because I thought the official one was kinda lame. This one obviously took some inspiration from the animated "Ghost" music video, but that's not a mark against it at all. It's rough and janky, but it manages to tell a more powerful story then "metal people fuck and make a galaxy" like the original.

GP ORLANDO RECAP

Went 4-4 after a HELL of a fight back. Ended up going with an RG Energy Deck, the only good card I pulled was an Ajani, Unyielding. It was a relief to not have to sort everything out and just show up and play. REALLY convienient!
Round 1, lost to a stupid misplay. Round 2, lost to a beatdown deck.

Rounds 3-6, I was on a hot streak, pulling out all the stops, and BARELY scraping by in some matches.

Round 7, I didn't get paired up because the system thought I dropped out. However, I was able to get a match where I was paired up against a NUTS deck.
Round 8. same deal.

Got some cards signed, realized that not even Eric Deschamps knows what's going on Ral Zarek's outfit, made a shitton of money selling off cards, and I got some new toys for my Modern Deck.

Status Quo Sunday Kicks It Old School

SUPERCON RETRO!

I'm playing not one but TWO shows that weekend!

Saturday, April 15th- 7:15 PM
MACC 2

Sunday, April 16th- 5:30 PM
MACC 1

More details to come! I just had a conversation with the production crew, and they seem like they're 100% on point, so I'm looking forward to that!

THIS WEEK'S JAM: "Scenario" by A Tribe Called Quest


"Why this song?" you ask. Well, ever since Harmonix showed off their recently announced game DropMix, I became intrigued with some of the lesser known songs on the setlist.



I like the song, it's one of those raps from back in the day where 7 people had verses that went on forever, but can we talk about the music video here?

No, can we? Because this takes me back to something I'm even more familiar with: Multimedia CD-ROMs.  Oh, all the CD Encyclopedias and barebones video editing programs I dicked around with in school! Looking back from 2017, there's nothing crazy going on here, but there's lots of little neat cues that bring it above "thing a 10-year-old can replicate now"

WHATCHA PLAYIN?
All right, here we go:

Not A Hero- A side scrolling shooter I got from Chrono.GG. I only paid 5 bux for it, which is my limit for something like this. While you might feel like it's a runner and gunner, it's more of a cover shooter, where it's best to slide from cover to cover, taking shots when you have the opportunity.

You play assassins who have been tasked with cleaning up crime in the city so that Bunnylord can be elected Mayor. Bunnylord is the purple guy in the middle there.

The humor both works and doesn't work for me? Bunnylord will say things like "Shooting bad guys in the face is totes awesome sauce" which is the kind of shit that belongs in a D-Tier Deadpool comic, but I never found myself hating it too much. Primarily because I imagine Bunnylord saying it straight faced in his alien, warbled language, and I'm down for that.

Not particularly interesting otherwise, wait for a sale.

Sentinels Of The Multiverse- Another game I got for 5 bucks, but this one is the digital version of the tabletop game of the same name, like Star Realms. It's barebones, relying on online multiplayer (which I haven't tried) and the weekly "one shots" that give you a different challenge to work through. There's also a lot of microtransactions for DLC with expansions for new heroes and new scenarios.

It can get pretty costly, but when you consider how expensive the base game is, at roughly $50 for all the expansions in a more accesible form is nothing to sneeze at.