Odds and Ends: Year of the Rabbit Edition

First off, My man HebeGB threw down some heat to cap off 2010 on Dirtbox Radio. You can grab the recording from the Dirtbox Radio archives or directly here.


Secondly, last I battled Legoman, the impending arrival of his blushing bride and some distractions arising from his distribution gig may have taken his eye off the ball. Leave it to Killa to make the most of the situation. We played only three matches: Dudley vs. DeeJay, Makoto vs. Dhalsim, and Cody vs. Honda. I won all three.

Step ya game up, Lego.

I feel like I can maintain optimal spacing in the Honda match better than before. Fake rock and roundhouse Ruffian keeps him guessing, and I've started to take more control on the ground from midscreen, readying Bingo to punish his Focus attacks, or using Crack Kick > EX Criminal to stuff most of his other advances.


Thirdly, Phoenix and Mike Haggar were revealed today for MvC3. Looks like the Lupinko list I inscribed here is dead on. If they're going to throw a curveball, it better be soon. I think the only surprises will be the DLC down the road. The Dark Phoenix mechanic, seen at about 0:50 in the clip, seems really cool. And, as I stated before, I would've taken Alex or Cody over Haggar.




Finally, as expected, I've picked up Caitlyn, the new sniper champ in League of Legends. (Not Legal Legends, ffs. Due to my poor pronunciation a couple of cohorts assumed I was playing a multiplayer online courtroom drama, to which I objected.) Took me a little while to wrap my head around the build. At this point, she is strong, but requires a high degree of discretion. I'm running armor penetration quints and marks, and mana regen per level seals and glyphs. Masteries are 9/0/21 for cooldown reduction and movement speed. Ghost and Cleanse as summoner skills for escapes.

I start her with Doran's Blade and one health potion. From there I buy the new CDR boots, then Brutalizer, then Phage. I then ditch the Doran's to make Black Cleaver, then upgrade Brutalizer to Ghostblade and Phage to Frozen Mallet. This set inflicts a lot of damage on enemy champs she can outrange, as every hit lowers their movement speed and armor. While this doesn't always set up a kill, it does disincline enemy champs from trying to take her on directly.



The concept artwork is by Eduardo Gonzales, who also did the Miss Fortune concept design I liked so much.

There's No Business Like

Although it is rare for me to peer out from my dreary doldrom, when people drone on and on about their work, it makes me a bit cheerier, as my line of work, at the very least, is not boring.

This first shot is comedian Aziz Ansari over at the Warner Theatre. Pretty early on in the show he had an outspoken gentleman espousing the superiority of the white race. Mr. Ansari promptly told the man to sit the fuck down. And so he did.

I very rarely take in shows, and even more rarely do I see them in other venues, but the promoter was kind enough to afford me suite seats, and I jumped at the chance. I had, of course, hoped to use the comedy show as a non-threatening date setting, but unfortunately this young lady was a little too tired for a 7:30 PM show. (...) I can take a hint. Her loss, it was hyster.


Here is a shot from a high profile gig here at my house. In the lift is a rigger (known only as 'The Crab') focusing some lights over the main video screen. The spinning flag graphics became mesmerizing after the first day or two. Our favorite game was to see how quickly you could find Mozambique while it was still in motion. (And if anyone asks, yes, the outriggers were in.)


And I actually used a slice of the long weekend to do some outside work over at the Vicodin Center. A lot of Pink Floyd fans with whom I spoke thought they'd never get the chance to see The Wall live. I suppose it's a shame I have no appreciation for it, though. In all fairness, it really was an awesome show.



Yes, that would be the eponymous wall. It had to be completely built first so that the array of projectors could be focused, and then taken down, and then completely rebuilt during the first act, until only one block was missing, through which you could still see Mr. Waters singing.

CONFIRMED: Guile's Theme Goes with Pumpkin Latte [Guile's Theme Goes with Everything - Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Latte]

Yep, tested it this morning. Guile's Theme, in this case the Combat and Service (Guile Stage) track from Overclocked Remix's Blood on the Asphault compilation, absolutely does go with pumpkin latte, in this case a Dunkin Donuts large, hot pumpkin latte.

I think I kept the track on repeat until I finished the bev. I suppose I should have had the 'Combat and Service HD (Guile Stage: Heavy Damage)' track queued up for the last couple of sips...

Further evidence that Guile's Theme does indeed go with everything.

We Gon' Find You [Autotune the News VS Antoine Dodson]

One Timer

Hey! They're playing One More Time at the USA vs Canada gold medal game. Fucking love that song!!

Audiology [OMG Your Ears!]

A common complaint about Killa Blog is the lack of auditory stimulation, so in your travels around the internet today, be sure to swing by:

Gootecks.com. They've converted Justin Wong's Q&A into a podcast. It's an hour and six minutes of relaxed banter, answering tons of SFIV and fighting scene questions, and making me feel a little bit better about my own struggles with Rufus' short, Fierce link.

Dirtbox Radio, a more rhythmic arena, delivers another HeBeGB live set in the Dirtbox Archives. Haven't had enough commute time to listen to the whole hour and a half, but it sounds pretty flippin' tight. You can download it from Dirtbox here.

Team Teamwork for their Vinyl Fantasy 7, an album's worth of hot lyrical tracks mashed with the classic themes of Final Fantasy VII. Just caught this on Kotaku this morning, so I haven't delved in too deeply, but it seems forrealistic. Jay-Z's Lucifer crossed with the Mako Reactor BGM? Fuck yes.

Could this be the framework for a future Killa Blog Podcast?




... God, I hope not.

What's Hot [Thermostatic Capitulation]

That song Arsonist.

Ghost Ride [Miley Cyrus Tour Bus Crash]

You can get the details from a reputable news source, but, essentially, one tour bus transporting part of the Miley Cyrus concert crew went off the road and flipped, killing the driver. The reports I've looked at have indicated that neither speed nor weather were factors. The investigation is ongoing, but my first reaction is that the accident was likely due to fatigue.

The concert business is rife with long hours. Very often times a tightly routed tour schedule will entail an 8:00 PM concert concluding at 11:00 PM, strike and load-out until 2:00 AM, and then travel immediately to the next stop on the tour for an 8:00 AM load-in. Depending on the clout of and demand for the act, and, of course, demographic and logistical factors, a tour schedule may vary widely from this, but two to three days like this followed by one day off is pretty normal. Touring production pays per diems to and for lodging for every crew member for every day of the tour, so more time between stops increases cost without generating any additional revenue.

At my venue, exhaustion is a constant concern. While a number of us enjoy a Monster energy drink before a load-out, if I pick one up for my Union Steward, he usually will save it for his ride home, a 90 mile commute from Northwest DC to Winchester, Virginia. In cases of back-to-back shows (or recently back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back shows) the practical option is to stay at the venue, if for no other reason, just to accomodate more sleep hours.

I received a call about a week ago from an associate from a local performing arts high school. He was inquiring as to policies in place here, at my professional venue, in regard to scheduling events and time off for working personnel. His organization's management was in the process of reviewing their own policies after a colleague died in a single car crash on his way home during an extremely busy period at their own venue. Unfortunately, the answers I had for him boiled down to money. Stagehands want to make as much money as possible (this is a business after all) and this is often accomplished by working long and odd hours subject to lucrative overtime rates and penalties, as well as working on consecutive gigs, especially compensating for slow periods when there is little work. On my side of things as a house guy, my ability to schedule staff is limited by the size of my team. With six people, and only three of whom are intimately familiar with the operational details of an event, there is little flexibility to allow for mandatory rest periods. Though, in all honesty, my own driving while fatigued is mostly due to greed, or an unwillingness to compromise.

Back when I was still a young Killa, I had the unfortunate chance of waking up with an airbag hitting me in the face. I was not seriously harmed, and neither were the occupants of the vehicle I struck, but it was an alarming experience.

Currently, I tend to become drowsy very easily behind the wheel. I pay special attention to make sure I have coffee or an energy drink with me if this may be the case, both to stimulate my nervous system, but also to have the action of imbibing break up the monotony of highway driving. Is a steady stream of caffeine a real solution? No. But is the business going to suddenly change, cutting profits in the interest of better rested, safer travel? Very unlikely.

I don't have any real point to make here, I'm just talking about it. Between aggressive driving, drunk driving, texting while driving, and straight up bad driving, adding tired driving to the mix makes me wonder how anyone ever gets anywhere...

Conchords Tracks on the Way to Rock Band?

Via Kotaku

Check the Emmy red carpet video where Bret spills teh beans.

Personally, I would hope for 'Rhymenocerous vs. HipHoppopotamus', 'Boom', and... 'If That's What You're Into'. How about you?

Pop Songs Rewritten for Fighting Game Relevance

In Miley Cyrus' single The Climb, in my own mind, I would hear the line

"Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose"

as

"Hitting dives like I'm Kindevu"

whenever I've been having a run of good fortune with Rufus in SFIV. His dives (aka Vulture Kicks) are a key component of his game, and the pinnacle of mastery is definitely Japan's Kindevu, the top ranked Rufus in the world, and the only fatty that has given Daigo's Ryu a run for his yen.

This alone really didn't merit a post, until I started hearing Gaga's Love Game reimagined to be about Blazblue's Ragna and his Distortion Drive Blood Kain.

"Doin' the Blood Kain."

VGL; KIL MIA

To: Killa
From: Big Sis Prinny
Sent: Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 5:35 PM
Subject: Video Games Live

The VGL show was pretty good. They changed the program up only a little bit from last time. They did away with the music from Advent Rising and instead included the music to Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, which was cool. One of the highlights was, before the show they had a Guitar Hero contest. Then in the second half of the show, they brought the winner up on stage. They told him if he could score 200,000 points on "Sweet Emotion" on hard mode, he'd win a sweet AlienWare laptop. He insisted that they put it on expert mode, so they put his shit on expert. Tommy Tallarico goes, "Dude, are you sure? It's for the laptop" but the kid insisted. He then proceeded to get a 609 note streak---unlocking an XBL achievement in the process, which was hysterical---and went on to score 300k points (the previous high score for that song on the console was 257k), only missing 5 notes in the whole song. It was crazy. Also, there was a costume contest with a bunch of small kids dressed as Link, a Guile, a Naked Snake, and a chick dressed as the Scout from Team Fortress 2. Ultimately, a guy dressed as Pac-Man took the prize. There was also a Yuna and an Auron, but they weren't as impressive. I looked for Guile after the show because I wanted to get a picture, but I couldn't find him. It was a pretty full house, some seats under the roof were empty but the whole lawn was full of people.

Odds and Ends: Mah Mah Maahhh Edition

MÚSICA

Finally heard Gaga's acoustic Poker Face. Undoubtedly pretty cool. By the way, what a freaky bitch.

Also, re: The Fray's "You Found Me", there has been some discussion about the best part of the song. Some of you out there seem to favor the energetic:

And I've been calling for years and years and years and years
And you never left me no messages

When in actuality, the best part of the song is the last line. No, not because it's over. The segments "Why'd you have to wait" and "You found me" are consistently separated by "Where were you? Where were you? Just a little late..." At the conclusion, the song's primary concern is stated in a much more concise manner:

Why'd you have to wait to find me, to find me?

COMBATIENTE DE LA CALLE CUATRO

In SFIV news, in a ranked match, I won a Zangief mirror match against a player that was ranked at over 4000 (over 4000?!) Battle Points. This gives me confidence that my superior Red Cyclone can continue to climb upwards. Btw, I'm ~2585 BP and 2000 GP(G2) at last check.

Also got in a good set of Player Matches against Whatyasay, an Akuma (and occassionally Guile) player with whom I have a friendly rivalry. Facing his Gouki is definitely helping out my get-in game. Found some uses for jump-in Forward Kick, especially coming in over a projectile at distance. I've also seen the necessity of using normals to zone; this is essential against worthwhile Abels, as nothing short of a well timed EX Banishing Flat can beat a well placed Wheel Kick besides, oh yeah!, standing jab spam.

On the non-competitive, completist side of things, I only have two more Normal Trials to complete before I clear out the lot of them and start picking through the much more difficult Hard Trials. Haven't been able to combo Fuerte's Fierce Punch with his Gordita Sobat. Gotta look that up...