A Song of Ice and Fire: Halloween Costume Recap
Blame Nanowrimo for the lack of posting this week. After clocking in 2,000 words of fiction everyday, it is difficult to get inspired for a blog entry, I will admit. So I’m bout to be super lazy and just throw some pics at you. Get ready!
Here are the awesomely epic Game of Thrones inspired costumes we happened across this weekend.
The spouse and I dressed as Brienne of Tarth and Samwell Tarly. If you look closely you might even spot that I added freckles to my face to really flesh out the Brienne look. No one was willing to admit I have a horse face. Bless their hearts. 😉
Brienne of Tarth and Samwell Tarly
Our buddy Addie came dressed as Melisandre, complete with sexy red contacts and a hand sewn cape. Also, the coolest Jon Snow necklace of all times. She promised to make me one. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t totally stoked.
Brienne of Tarth and Melisandre
We hit up our friends party the next night and just happened to bump into another Game of Thrones nerd couple with themed costumes. The dude was dressed as an Other and she was Melisandre. Quite a popular choice! I only wish we could have found a Daenerys or Jaime Lannister to complete the group. Hats off to everyone on their costumes though. The lady of the couple really went all out – she even created the banner of Stannis Baratheon. Happy Day!
An Other, Melisandre and Samwell Tarly
You can check out the making of the Brienne costume on these posts:
Really enjoyed putting these costumes together and nerding out with people who actually knew what they represented! Being surrounded by fellow nerds this weekend inspired me to start reading Book 3 again, and I’m like 25% of the way through. No spoilers here – but so far I’m glad I stuck with it so far. George R. R. Martin is one sick bastard, that’s all I have to say.
Thor Costume and Going Digital
Need someone to talk me down from this ledge. REALLY wanting to purchase a female Thor costume. Buycostumes.com dropped a lovely 25% off coupon in my inbox this morning and I’ve been agonizing over the decision ever since.
The Thor movie is one of my favorites, and I am tempted to start-up a subscription for X-Men and Thor comics. Just get back into comic books again period.
Therefore I need some input on a few things:
1. Should I purchase this costume, helmet and hammer?
Or no? I have until the end of this business day before the coupon expires, and then it probably wouldn’t be worth it. What would be worth it? Stumbling around drunk in a wicked cool Norse god helmet.
A Lady Loki outfit is also quite tantalizing. But they don’t have anything pre-fabricated. And can you imagine those horns around drunk people? Dangerous, dangerous stuff. Even in a regular comic book convention, I would be afraid of knocking people over all the time.
2. Should I subscribe to superhero comic books again? I love my local comic book shop, but I’m just not getting out there often enough to empty my box properly. Then it expires and I feel guilty and never open a box at that shop again. To save all the embarrassment and heart-ache, why not just subscribe to the monthly shipping services? It’s around $30 bucks a title for the year. The whole year! I drop that much each time I enter the comic book store.
Brienne of Tarth Costume: Part Three
Some of the final pieces of the Brienne of Tarth costume came in the mail on Wednesday. I was exuberant until I opened the package and realized that at least one of the items was not going to work.
At first I had hope for the floppy chest armor…if I just cut it in the right places, that might decrease the weird stomach bulge happening because of the poorly designed tying system.
This chest armor has nipples. This is what happens when you don't heed the warning reviews on the costume website. :"
By Wednesday evening I’d abandoned the idea of the armor working and was back to bouncing around all the internet sites hoping against hope that I could find a cheap alternative that would arrive in time.
Then, the DH and I recalled some armor at Party City which had actually looked decent. Unfortunately, it’s a bronze color. Not to worry though – just had to bust out the spray paint and go to town.
THE CHEST ARMOR
Here is the chest piece BEFORE:
This is Sparta!
Here is the chest piece AFTER:
THIS is Brienne of Tarth!
I applied the spray paint with a cloth method from this video tutorial. I didn’t use a black matte base, because the armor already had a lot of black mixed with the bronze. And I used more of a dabbing motion than any kind of sweeping. The whole process took about 30 minutes or so.
THE ARMOR SKIRT
Was also mildly disappointing because it only ended up being a “half-skirt” which is fine, because the cape will be covering up my backside anyway. But really – they couldn’t design a silver armor skirt that just, you know – wrapped around the entire body? Coulda used velcro and overlapping. *smh*
But it fits with the rest of the costume pieces so well:
Game of Thrones Costumes: Brienne of Tarth
After a drunken conversation about Game of Thrones with one of my oldest friends – she announced her intention to dress as a relatively obscure GoT character. Of course Dan and I took up the gauntlet that she’d thrown down – and we all three agreed to dress as characters for Halloween. She is going as Melisandre, Dan as Qhorin Halfhand and I’m attempting Brienne of Tarth. So of course I’ve been spending most of the last few days looking up ways to make my costume as authentic as possible.
BRIENNE OF TARTH
Base Outfit:
This was the first one that caught my eye, but the cut of the top is too low and the fabric on the sleeves doesn’t even remotely resemble mail. Blah.
Joan of Arc Costume
This one fits the bill much better, except for the startling lack of a skirt or any kind of armor on the bottom half of the body. Its one of the few pieces to actually boast chest armor designed for lady boobs. HAS to be paired with something else.
Silver Glamazon Costume
I will probably have to purchase this Men’s Templar Costume to poach the shoulder armor and the fabric chain mail shirt with hoods. Not sure yet how I’m going to make it attach to the chest piece or what kind of leggings I’ll need – probably go for brown with black boots…some silver knee pads perhaps?
Men's Crusader Costume
Captain America Costume for the Ladies: Phase One
Yep – that’s my big surprise. I’m working on a kick-ass cosplay costume for a female version of Captain America. But not just any old costume, a World War II/Steampunk-esque version of Cap. It’s coming together bit by bit at the moment.
Here’s a REALLY TERRIBLE pencil sketch of the outfit. I am obviously not an artist, but am highly visual and in order for my brain to approve any purchases for this outfit, I needed to see it in one picture, rather than all the separate pieces. Here’s what the final costume should resemble when everything comes together:
You get the idea
The inspiration comes from production stills of the currently filming Captain America movie and the Bryan Hitch Ultimate Avengers comic book version:
Early WWII movie version costume
Ultimate Avengers WWII Costume
There were at least three different pre-made versions of Captain America costumes for women and two of them were sleeveless. Since I don’t sew clothing well enough to make my own, the base of the costume is going to be pre-purchased and I’ll have to craft together all the accessories.
Anyways – a lady with a 3/4 sleeve tattoo doesn’t fit with the classic 1950s theme, so the one I ended up selecting is not as conventionally sexy. But it fits the look better. Already purchased this from buycostumes.com – this website is awesome because they allow users to post reviews and photos of themselves wearing the items. You can always judge a costume better when an average sized person is wearing it in crappy lighting and using a cellphone camera to take a picture. That’s REAL advertising.
The classic female costume
Already know I’m going to do away with that shitty silver winged mask. Yegh.
Spreading the Link Love 03/23/2011
BEING HUMAN: WEREWOLF BATTLE BLUNDER
As a fan of the genre shows featuring vampires and werewolves, I’ve been watching the US version of Being Human on SyFy since it debuted in January and am relatively glad that I’ve stuck with it thus far. It’s been fairly uneven,
Josh, Aidan, Sally from Being Human
with some plot twists happening at rapid fire pace. This seems to be a recent television trend since the serial series Lost gained popularity. They run through story-lines in an effort to keep people hooked, when really it starts to grate on the watcher to have characters introduced and killed off within two episodes.
BH recently introduced a plot-line involving werewolves fighting in a steel cage death-match, ran through it within one episode and did not show the actual fight. So when the BH webpage posted this review and asked for responses today, I wasn’t surprised that other people were disappointed.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SHOW THUS FAR: The cast is all very attractive and watchable – especially Sam Witwer who carries the bulk of the drama and intensity. Meaghan Rath and Sam Huntington are equally charming, even though their characters clearly get the B and sometimes C stories in any given episode. The acting was a bit spottier towards the first half of the season, but they’ve warmed up to their roles and I now thoroughly enjoy their characters. Though I’m not exceptionally in love with the vampire Aidan getting the majority of the screen time. I’ve also been loving at least one song featured in every episode and am very happy with the playlist function on the SyFy website.
LOWLIGHTS OF THE SHOW THUS FAR: So much emo! It treads the rather shallow waters of emosity, but manages to imbue enough comedic material to keep it from being excessively weepy. Unfortunately, weeping rarely occurs on my end (and believe me, when a show is that good, I can shed a few at least once every few episodes). There is nothing soul grabbing about what’s going on with the characters aside from Aidan (Sally and Josh do get at least one or two dramas an episode) so that’s what causes the emotional intensity to drag. There is an underlying examination of how “monsters” mingle with humans and what commonalities and differences there are between people, vampires, werewolves and ghosts. So while it is easing nicely into the first season, it still has freshman hurdles to jump over. The emo 20-something vibe being just one of those hurdles.
*********************************************************************************************
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: BLOOD & CHROME FAN MADE TRAILER
I’ve already mentioned the elation this promising new series has inspired for someone who is pretty in love with the world and characters created around BSG. This delightful fan-made trailer was posted today, and it’s definitely made me ravenous for the ACTUAL Blood & Chrome series premiere.
ALSO: There will be a panel discussion with former BSG costumer at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle THIS Saturday, March 26th at 2pm. You can purchase tickets and get more information here. Unfortunately there is no way for me to attend. *tears* but peeps in the area who are truly fanatical should check it out.
*******************************************************************************************
STUMPTOWN PDX SIGNING EVENT: SPECIAL $5 PRINT
Bridge City Comics released the special made print image for the Stumptown Comics hardcover book release and Matthew Southworth and Greg Rucka will be signing them for $5 at the store on Friday, March 25th. You know we will be there. And if you love comics and Portland, you’ll probably be there too. Especially when you see the print:
Emerald City Comic Con 2011: The Costumes
Everyone knows the best part of a fan convention is the opportunity to cosplay your favorite franchise in the safe company of fellow nerds who will love you for it. Even a crappy costume gets love at a comic con. And for those not crazy enough to dress up, there is always the opportunity to snap a photo with those who are.
As promised, here are some of the best costumes from March 4th-March 6th. Included a few of the costumes from the Masquerade which have already been seen, but these pics are better. My apologies for so much…me…in this slideshow. 😛
SADLY, this is the last ECCC related blog entry until 2012. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be anymore content on this here blog!
NEXT WEEK: Battle: Los Angeles Review, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena Recap and The Hunger Games Link-Bombs + My Attempt at Casting.
LATER THIS MONTH: Sucker Punch Review, Book Club Recap, Bridge City Comics Signing Recap
AND MORE: I’ll also be meeting with a friend here in the PDX area who is interested in collaboration. Excited about mixing things up a bit and seeing what kind of response we get. I’ll post more details soon!
Halloween 2010: Preparation
Halloween, while my favorite holiday of the year, is also kind of emotionally turbulent. Firstly, there is deciding on the costume. That’s half the battle. It becomes incredibly difficult to center on one when I have a strong desire to dress up in costume every day. In another life I was probably an actor of some sort…or a drag queen.
Which is why I have three tubs full of costume gear. Some years, it’s about accumulation. Building towards a better future costume. I’ve done a bit of that – collecting items for next year’s theme of a famous historical figure. I bought goggles, so figure that one out.
At the Star Wars vs Star Trek ride in June 2010, it became apparent that Dan and I are way over-stocked on Star Wars costuming and are severely lacking in the Star Trek department. Feeling equally, nerdily attached to both – my mission for this Halloween season has been to procure the needed items to deck us out as if we were on board the Star Ship Enterprise.
The tough choice is always between going for authenticity or buying cheap materials and then being able to accessorize. Since I don’t have the needed sewing skills – this year it’s going to be about pulling out the right accessories, cause the bulk of the costume itself is a plain red dress. Which will most likely need to be tailored.
It looks something like this:
Needed the arm length to cover up the tattoo. Cause nothing says "Star Trek" like a half sleeve. 😛
I’ve already got some fantastic Star Trek shaped boots which I inherited from my Grandma (I love that we’re the same shoe size) and was able to purchase tights and booty shorts off the internets. I’m not exceptionally tall, but as I don’t often dress in short skirts, I get paranoid about dress length and drinking. The chances for accidentally flashing friends and family increases exponentially.
The perfect boots - pegged these for Star Trek costuming the moment I set eyes on them
Also purchased a phaser from the same website listed above for about $5.
Comic Con 2010: Day Three
Day 3 was another early rise – and it was COSTUME DAY! We donned our BSG gear and headed out around 8am fully prepared to snag the Trolley. We lucked into a shuttle ride over and plopped ourselves down in the Hall H line for the Green Lantern, Harry Potter and Sucker Punch panel.
BSG in line for Hall H
The line was pretty comparable at that point (at least, we thought) to where we were at on Thursday, but we ended up in the last five rows of the auditorium despite our early rising and pre-planning. The WB swag for this panel was incredible – a reasonably sized tote bag, a “Wanted” HP shirt, a limited edition Green Lantern comic book and a Sucker Punch bracelet.
The Green Lantern panel itself was pretty exciting. Ryan Reynolds is a bright and terribly funny dude, and the clips they showed had some pretty wicked cool CGI. They will feature a lot of the Lantern Corps characters (none of which I know, but the audience seemed pretty excited) and even had the scribe Geoff Johns on the panel confirming that the movie will be bad-ass. They skirted the issue of a Justice League film in the future…but clearly this film is a jumping off point for that.
Ryan Reynolds had a delightful exchange with a young questioner who asked him how it felt to recite the Green Lantern oath (which he promptly did to the delight of the audience) and signed a free comic book for the boy, who was wearing a green lantern ring. Then Reynolds handed off his own ring to one lucky con-goer.
Look closely at his hands - you can see the ring!
The Harry Potter panel was next – and Tom Felton aka Draco Malfoy arrived to show us the clip, which was an extended trailer rather than a chunk of the film itself (which many of us were hoping for). It all looks very stunning, but honestly the 3D didn’t add much to my experience, so I don’t think I’ll be plunking down an extra $3 in November. It was a little under-whelming and half of the Hall bolted out the door (including Smalls, on her way to a Vampire Diaries signing) immediately after.
Tom Felton looking dashing, tan and decidedly un-angsty
Which leaves us with Sucker Punch. I’d seen a single image from it – featuring four scantily clad dangerous looking womens and some leering male ringleader, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this one. Clearly there is fighting and action as the title would seem to indicate, and the presence of Jenna Malone brings an element of respectability to the affair…though I am on the fence about Zack Snyder as a director. The premise is intriguing – a woman confined to an insane asylum creates a fantasy world along with three other ladies who can share in these adventures which centered around killing Nazi zombies, slaying dragons and fighting robots. So – count me in. Even if it lacks substance, the visuals alone were quite stunning.
A great shot of the panel for Sucker Punch
I was annoyed though by our proximity to the entrance doors, the constant stream of chatting and rustling during the panel made it hard to hear and concentrate on the women. Snyder kept referring to them as “the girls” as if they were one unit, and the majority of the audience questions were “did you know you’re a woman?” Ugh. It was frustrating.
We sacrificed our long wait for Hall H seats after that and dashed over to the Hilton for The Guild panel. We happened to arrive there just at the same time as Ryan Reynolds, so Dan was able to shake his hand and compliment his work as an actor. It was definitely a very cool moment.
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively entering the Hilton
Just a little over-shadowed by our complete inability to make it into the panel we wanted. We waited for an hour and then gave up once the announcement was made. But we got to hang out by the Bay, stare at a Dole boat and catch a glimpse of some crabs…so it wasn’t entirely wasted time.
This hand touched Ryan Reynolds.
Since we didn’t have anything else on the docket aside from potentially seeing Scott Pilgrim vs. The World in the evening, we wandered back towards the Convention Center and noticed that the Hall H line was nearly empty, so we decided to camp out and try to make it back in for the Marvel Panel.
Dan
tinyheroes
Tiny Heroes 