Status Quo Sunday In The Center East

If it's in the middle, it's not in the West.  

FIRST UP I'M PLAYING OTAKUFEST!

No time YET, but it feels good to be back in Miami playing a convention that will likely have a proper stage setup. Winji did right by me last year.

THURSDAY 

 I was lucky enough to secure a room with artist friend HELLBREAKFAST, his wife and a fellow artist, and then I was in the hotel by Thursday evening. I couldn’t really do much, since they closed the vaccination check line early, but I got to bum around the con for a bit, play some Commander, and saw some really excellent fursuits. 

FRIDAY 

HOO BOY WHAT A LINE TO GET IN. First, I had to go through the vaccination line (just got my second booster and flu shot a couple weeks before) that took almost an hour, then ANOTHER two hours on the proper registration line. 

At the very least I was able to start “Glory Hounds”, the latest VN from the same studio who did “Echo” and “Adastra”. "Glory Hounds" has you playing as Alex de Rooij, a down on his luck dalmatian whose life is saved by the vigilante Dawn Hound, who later takes Alex on as his sidekick. While this year's State Of The Bastard describe Echo as a "Renpy-ass Renpy Game", Glory Hounds is a lot more stark and stylish in its presentation with more animations and crisper lines in the sprites and BG. It's meant to be episodic in nature, focusing on individual "issues" and has NO choices, but I enjoyed going through Issue 1.

Also met up with Teddy Wynton, one of the best musicians in the fandom and some of his friends for some Pho at a nearby restaurant, Mian in the Rivers Casino, which was the best and most reasonably priced food all weekend.

Rick Fox had his “Cut Content” panel, and it was good to catch up with him again, as he is also spreading to other conventions and working hard on his comic project. 

There were two themes at this con: Heroes, which lent itself to a fun little metagame where there were trading cards you can pick up at various con locations

and amogus. 

I am not going to any convention that doesn’t have a pop up shrine. 

SATURDAY 

Apparently there were protestors outside the con. 

Pug Face girl and Incel Boy are seen here protesting the event, but there were HUNDREDS of people their age inside having fun and they chose to hold signs because they're lives are worthless. They are beings of no consequence. 

Most of my day was getting in games of Commander, but I also managed to catch a show by I’ve Made Too Much Pasta, a fursuiter band very reminiscent of The Violent Femmes. 

The lead singer also goes by Scurrow Squirrel and streams regularly on Twitch!  I did want to see more live non-DJ music this weekend, but the best I could manage is an impromptu show Pepper Coyote, infamous filk furry play out by the food trucks. 

The weird thing was that I then went inside to the game room, where someone was playing “Even Flow” on Guitar Hero 3 and Eddie Vedder’s voice suddenly went up a full octave and oh shit, it’s pepper. 

SUNDAY/WRAP UP 

Sunday and Monday were pretty uneventful. I did end up purchasing a bunch of commissions throughout the weekend, and did buy some books from the artist alley, because support writers, dang it. I got exactly what I wanted out of this convention: got to see a lot of people I followed on the (soon to be unusable) Twitter in person, like a PAX East for my Furry Bullshit. 

I also learned two things about artists:
1. A LOT of them are BIPOC, showing how diverse this fandom can be, and how NECESSARY they are to the fandom as a whole, since, as I've said before: 

Furries Are Nerds Who Have Siezed The Means Of Production

2. Saying, "Oh, I recognize your stuff now!" is a phrase that apparently induces more fear than it meant to. Especially in the realms of bara. 

Anyway, on to something less gay:

JAM OF THE WEEK: "Born To Be Alive" by Patrick Hernandez

Disco!

This was always one of those one-hit wonders of the disco era that always seemed to be on in the background and in the rotation, but never stood out since there wasn't any 

Until Kelly Turnbull introduced me to Shoresy, a spinoff of the show Letterkenny, that wrapped up its first season with a massive hockey fight set to this song.  

"The hockey brawl in the lockers is a better example of visual storytelling than any overprocessed and underbudgeted CG fight of avengers putting the boots to a bunch of putties, on that note."

And it fucking RIPS. The intro guitar hook reveals its origins as a hard rock song, and it's constant motion from there on out.

Status Quo Sunday Spooks

 HEY ALL, RB HERE

I've been though it the past couple months: day job rough, losing main twitter account, depression at the state of the world, etc. But basically I still managed to do SOME things, and all my weird furry art shit was my brain keeping productive when I couldn't find the motivation to pick up a guitar. 

MEXICAN RADIO ON PATREON

 

This song I covered at Megaplex 2022, and I figured since I had to do the backing track from scratch, might as well finish and make the whole version. It's a tricky mix of the original Wall Of Voodoo and the cover by Authority Zero, taking the delivery of the former and the punk feel of the latter. 

 I'M DOING INSTAGRAM AND TIKTOK MORE 

 Ever since I got booted off Twitter, and my phone got good by accident, I decided to use my TikTok account more, and my proxy, Instagram and Youtube.

Mostly it's been smaller things, like game recommendations and tiny skits, but keeping up can be a bit exhausting, whenever I get the urge, I might need to run a couple backups whenever I'm in the mood. 

I WAS ON THE TASTE OF DRAGONS PODCAST!

My friends from the 3000 Brigade have a podcast called "Taste Of Dragons" where they cover gaming news, and talk about a weekly topic, and this week I was that weekly topic! (alongside the Resident Evil and Silent Hill news) It was great seeing these guys again, and I got to do the "Dragon Of The Week", a figure in gaming they feature, and I chose Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. MY NOTES WILL BE IN THE PATREON AHAHAHAH!

MY TWITTER ALTERNATIVES

Elon Musk is probably going to make Twitter unusable, either by racist bullshit or by getting rid of the people who do the work.

I have a Linktree that shows you everywhere I am.

Cohost - This feels more like Tumblr than anything, but it's where a lot of professional people are on, and you can "pin" a post with all your relevant tags on it. 

Mastodon - So this one is also kinda eh since it seems like people are also joining this enmasse, but it's more decentralized and it's easy to feel like you picked the "wrong" server when all you want to do is fire off quick shit again. And no threads.

I've appealed to Twitter, but my account will likely be reanalyzed after the elections.

JAM OF THE WEEK: "Busy Sim" From The Sims 2 Composed By Mark Mothersbaugh

 

Yup! I could have covered Devo, but I might as well look at a full composition by Mothersbaugh. 

It's a slow build and if you change around a bit of the instrumentation, it works as a Devo song. Now, this is one of the Build Mode songs, and while Sims 2 didn't eat up as much of my time as The Sims, or the Gamecube Version, the soundtrack never got to "heavy" preferring to have most of its compositions sound like they could be played on your grandma's old piano, and/or from a 1950's instructional video about the Home Of The Future.

 Either way it makes for very good working music

 

Status QuOwO Sunday

 BACK FROM MEGAPLEX Y'ALL!!!

 

 

Last weekend, I went to Megaplex, Florida's one and only furry convention, and it was a BLAST! 

FRIDAY
 Since I'm still new to my current job, I'm scant on PTO, so I had to work longer days Monday thru Thursday, then leave Friday morning.

Check-in didn't take long when I got there (maybe about 11:30 AM?) but parking at the Caribe Royale is a gamble where the  BEST you can hope for is to break even. Every was set up in enough time for me to go audition for Furry Jeopardy. Got the perfect score on the quiz, and made it to the MAIN SHOW!

 The biggest project I had to worry about was of course, Megaplex Megafest. I noticed they put me in Main Events, as well as three smaller artists (going solely by Twitter numbers) all afternoon, and Cassidy The Civet, a pop singer who's actually been on Canada's Got Talent (fuck you Howie Mandell) on Saturday.

I've been down this road before, and it would have sucked for each of us to beg for people to show up. So, I thought why not just present us all as a unified front? We're all going on one right after the other, so this is our opportunity to make our own festival!

Oooh! Maybe me and the others doing shows at @MegaplexCon should get something like this! https://t.co/vQtBHDcJd3

— Rhythm Bastard - Megaplex Recovery Mode (@RhythmBastard) June 28, 2022

The moment I struck gold.

Plus the line up we had was diverse:
Jane Drolf: Metal
Me: Punk
Atlas Coyote: Singer/Songwriter
ZandZ: Filk
Cassidy: Pop

It didn't take a whole lot to organize everyone and they were down from the word GO. I also suggested Zack Loup of Psychopomp to do the poster art, since I love his work, but never got to commission him yet. 

I kind of envisioned it like a Warped Tour parking lot, with people coming and going, with plenty to do, but the logistics weren't possible and mine and Jane's shows were age-gated. 

Everyone had a good show, especially considering it was the first live performance for Jane and Atlas. "Run Over Ronnie" continues to go over big, and my covers of "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "Mexican Radio" went so well, I can add them to my repitoire. 

At the end of ZandZ's show on Friday, everyone got up for a rendition of "Don't You (Forget About Me)", a nice little cap to everything! 

And it felt GOOD to elevate other people! It felt GOOD to be part of something bigger and it felt GOOD to not have to feel like we were in competition!

even though I won. I'm the best at everything.

SATURDAY

Well... uh... Still had fun.

I did INCREDIBLE on merch this weekend! I'm almost out of Swoletariat T-shirts, and the new CDs, Hardcore Nerdcore Punk Rock did incredible!

It's like everything I've learned over the past 10+ years of doing cons has finally come to fruition!

SUNDAY

Started the morning at the Fitness Furries panel where I began the day with a nice sweat! Cassisy had her concert the day before, and over the weekend everyone's been signing the poster. We donated it to the charity auction where it netted over almost $400 for the C.A.R.E. Foundation!

I got home in PLENTY of time to unwind, and overall, a kick ass weekend! 

JAM OF THE WEEK: "Song For A Beer"

Z n' Z use this as the "summary" song, where they also include lyrics from other songs, and they had us come on stage and sing a little bit from ours. It's a fun little acoustic jam that gets stuck in your head SO bad.

Status Quo Coverage

Hey did you know I have an album out now HARDCORE NERDCORE PUNK ROCK?

In the lead up I was interviewed by a couple places, and let me show you them!

6/21/2022
Dogpatch Press
Rhythm Bastard and His Music: Support Your Local Swole Punk Rock Furry!

This was done over text with DogPatch Press, furry online periodical of record. They've done good interviews and features before, especially when it comes to the fandom within larger societal issues, such as queer pride and "furry panic" in schools.

Patch was very easy to talk to and VERY complimentary with my whole ouvre, so it was really fun to do!

ALSO I JUST REMEMBERED DP ALSO INTERVIEWED JELLO BIAFRA!

*flex*

6/30/2022
Ongaku Overdrive
Nerd Music Meltdown #98: Rhythm BastardMania

This one was good to update some stuff I had in the previous podcast, 3 years ago. Most of the conversation was focused on making sure everything WORKS when you have a convention setting. It was just nice talking with Kent who knows the scene and knows my career where we can focus on putting myself in front of people and making me look good. 

Either way, both interviews had me indulging in my furry side, so with

JAM OF THE WEEK: "Cool Patrol" by Ninja Sex Party

Ninja Sex Party's been hitting different since Game Grumps Dan a much wider audience and a bigger budget, but they manage to make the song SOLID first and foremost. The verse are the setups, the choruses are the punchline and they evolve as the song continues, and the Cool Break is just... so cool.Very reminiscent of 70's pop-funk, which makes sense considering the music video takes place in a roller rink.

The Status Quo Is Bullshit, Travel More

DUMPING GROUND FOR SAD NEWS ARTICLES
Shit, this was where I'd put links to all the news coverage of people protesting pride parades, that one where that far right militia got caught, anything that idiot Ron DeSantis has done, and drag events interrupted everywhere because neanderthals are more concerned with the children they both live vicariously through AND treat as property are going to be "traumatized" when we all know damn well that their WASP Mom and Dad are showing up to every school board meeting to bitch about "CTR" or whatever they heard from Newsmax or some shit.

Anyway my fellow queers, get a gun.

N.B. I didn't release this last week, since I was waiting on getting back from AFO, but reading the Roe V. Wade shit, castrate any and all Pro-Forced Birth Man, knock up their daughters, mothers and wives, and then set them on fire at the 4th of July party and say it was a Fireworks Accident.

PRE-ORDER HARDCORE NERDCORE PUNK ROCK!
COMING OUT JULY 1st!

The link will let you preorder it on my Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music pages! I'll also put out a pre-order page for CDs when I have a better idea of when those come in.

1. Future Endeavor
2. Status Quo Radio
3. Pass The Class
4. Cliffhanger
5. Radio Days Pt. 1
6. Thrash Panda
7. Force Of Nature
8. Space Tambourine
9. Hunting Bigger Game
10. Imminent Doom
11. Fire In The Hole
12. High Noon
13. Fuck Terfs (But Don't Have Sex With Them)
14. Hell Yeah
15. Take The Oath
16. Bastard's Reunion
17. Imminent Doom (AKI Version)
18. Fire In The Hole (AKI Version)

FWA RECAP

My show was at 8:30 PM in one of the panel rooms, which wasn't NECESSARILY the worst thing, but uh...

i wasn't sure i'd have a mic until 20 minutes before the show

and i didn't have a mic stand

So, I had to have one of my friends hold the mic while I played, and it WORKED. It gave the show more of a punk rock feel, and people even VOLUNTEERED to hold it! Still not ideal, but it just goes to show that my strength as a performer is to be able to improvise with what I've got, and NEVER give up. I put on a DAMN GOOD show regardless!

I just hope next year everything's sorted out, and I can get me some MAIN STAGE time!

Also I met up with a couple artists I've only contacted with through Twitter!

OTHER PANELS I WENT TO!
STEM Meetup- Now, this is a type of panel I don't normally see at other cons I usually play at, and it was nice to have something that's more or less for ADULTS. Not an 18+ up panel, but just a panel that doesn't make me feel like an old man. Met a lot of cool people there, and did get to learn from others who are in varying specializations and points in their careers

Cassidy The Civet's Concert- She's been doing a lot of cons, and I finally managed to catch one of her shows. She has great voice, but her set was mostly did Eurovision covers, so I couldn't quite get a good idea of her sound.

Survifur: FWA- Yes, it's a dumb pun, but it was an interesting competition, even if the stakes aren't a million dollar cash prize. It was also run by Cassidy the Civet!

Cut Content Panel- This one was run by one of HELLBREAKFAST's Friends and it was about cut content and the like in retro games. It covered a lot of ground in mostly NES-era games, but I can see how someone can get LOST datamining these older titles and how it helps us all better understand how they're put together. They're hard to make, even back then.

Anyway, 10/10 would go again if I had a mic stand. Between this and MAGFest, I'm starting to shy away from the smaller anime cons in my area and am trying to aim higher, or at least more specific. The crowd there are more passionate, and are more eager to share and create, rather than consume. It's cynical at my age, but I found a con that I 100% vibe with.

Furry cons are Ren Faires mixed with Pride Parades. That was my go to shorthand anytime any one asked what was going on, so take that nugget of wisdom with you! 

 ANIME FESTIVAL ORLANDO RECAP!

 This one I was 1000% better prepared for, since I... could bring stuff. I also debuted "Run Over Ronnie", and given that my show was on the same day a bunch of old crackers decided they were the coochie boss, the crowd was 100000% behind it.

It's a live staple alongside Fuck Terfs!

Also I had a merch set up, and even though it was out of the way, A LOT of people came through and picked up a shirt!

NEW MERCH: FUCK TERFS SHIRT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Given section 1, you all deserve something for Pride month going into Wrath month.

Honestly it was about time, and I FINALLY decided to it. I do have a copy of this shirt myself, and have worn it to the gym several times. 

RPG PALS CLUB ON ITCH.IO

This is the PUBLIC release of the RPG Pals Club Visual Novel I've been working on! Currently it's in Godot, but eventually I might transport it over to something where I have a little more freedom to do whatever.

Right now this is the first 3 "Acts" of Episode 1. Each episode will have 5 "Acts", and I'm writing the fifth one right now. When? I dunno. 

JAM OF THE WEEK: "Stop, Drop, Roll" by Can't Stop Won't Stop

So "The Bad Guys", the Furry Movie Of The Moment, came out on DVD on 6/21. 

They fucking knew.

Regardless, the movie itself was an enjoyable watch. The plot, although predictable, was charming enough so that I was along for the ride, the animation style was slick, and the voice acting was done, not by big name celebrities, but character actors!

What kicked off the movie, was this big car chase set to this song, "Stop Drop Roll" by Can't Stop Won't Stop. It's not an easily recognizable pop song, it's funky and the action syncs up to the beats well. Even in small moments like a sharp turn, or when the crew buckles their seatbelts.

Funk is one of those genres I've never sought out, but I always enjoyed when it's on, because musically it's so interesting. Layers on layers on layers, AND there's rapping. Nothing concrete thematically, more like "Scenario" by Tribe Called Quest where it's rappers flexing. Again, nothing terrible impressive, and it all flows the same, but fuck it, I still had fun.