Lists are Good for the Soul

Johnny Depp at his repeated and fuzzy best.  Photo: RGB.

Himself:  Packed last night.  Up, brought me coffee, and was off to Burbank by five.  Very organized.  We watched the last of the Harry Potter films last night. Herself:  I miss him already.  Put together a five page, mostly photos, humourous summary for the Thursday Group.  Glad we are done watching HP. Reading:  Just finished the third Linda Castillo.  Very frightening stuff.  Not quite as bloody as the Box books tho. Balance:  Being organized myself.  I hope.

The house seems empty around me.  Perhaps it’s not only the emptiness but the neatness that bothers me.  I make it worse by picking up after myself this morning.  He would laugh at me.

The Great Geezer has gone up to Burbank for two days of training with a changed insurance system.   We got Grumpy back just in time for G to drive the Toyota north.  No new seatbelt to replace the fraying one on the driver’s side.  The cup holder and the steering wheel are replaced, but no repaired dent either.  I hit the trash cans with the passenger front fender just enough to put in a small dent.  It’s double walled so the paintless-dent-repair folks can’t fix it as G had hoped.  We will take it to a good body shop next week. 

The week afterwards, we can take the Toyota in for an identical fender repair.  WE no longer park quite so close to the trash cans.

Books today.  We have so many that there’s a sale on.  I need to stock the sale shelves…we can’t sell the books if they are in the back room.  Yes, I’m making a list.  List making keeps my brain on track.  I took a car load of stuff into the store for Dana last week and forgot her receipt.  Gotta get her one.  Get a print at by Bee framed for the stair wall.  Pick up a fat baggy dress to wear to the pool at the store called Great Curves.  Enjoy driving my truck.  Oh, that’s such a pleasure after driving the Toyota….ah yes, pick up heavy grey thread to mend the truck seat too. 

He’s only been gone hours, and I miss him.  Perhaps I should add him to my list.  Lists are good for the soul.

Oh, the Costuming

Well done Brave indeed.

Himself:   Leaving Wednesday not today.  He’s at work as his work laptop updates itself. Herself:  Monday: Talked with Bee, menus, grocery shopped, did all those Monday things leaving me little to do today.  Will work on a Comic Con themed piece for the Thursday group. Reading:   Read the first of the http://www.lindacastillo.com/>Linda Castillo Chief of Police Kate Burkholder mysteries.  Couldn’t stop reading until the book was done.    Balance:   Napping yesterday.

I swear I personally saw all 120,000 Comic Con visitors and photographed most of them.  According to my image count, I didn’t really do this but between the two of us we did come home with over a thousand photographs mostly of folks in costumes.

I’ve obviously been naive about this world of costumes. 

Although many Convention attendees use characters that have already been created, such as the princess from Brave, others follow a trend and the costume follows.  There were flocks of zombies flitting through the crowds with their white drapes and their dripping blood.  Around every corner you could find another massively muscled Batman or curl on the forehead Superman.  There were an easily spotted few students from Hogwarts with their capes flapping behind them, but the largest group of visitors were steampunk.

Often research lead to dramatic costumes and the creation of a persona is born from this.  I asked the officer in the picture below how he created his costume, and he said he had known what he wanted when he started.  He had been unable to find the exact costume he wanted, and after months of research he sewed this frock coat with striped pants and vest.  Though the Costume panels discussed researched, they mentioned Google but never mentioned brick and mortar libraries.

   Two visitors from a steampunk world.  A well researched regimental officer.

At the Steampunk Costume panel I attended, I was told that all steampunk women wore corsets.  In reality, the housekeeper may have, but her lower class minions would have worn a chemise under their layers of black and aprons. 

Once the costume is created, most steampunkers create a persona to live in it.  Many of the attendees seemed to favor the upper class and take on those mannerisms.  Although there were medals and pins for the average workman, I saw virtually no working class folks except for the Great Geezer.  I asked several folks who were knowledgeable about steampunk where the lower class women were….the maids or the cook.  There aren’t any, I was told. 

Perhaps there will be one in the future with the appropriate mannerisms to follow.

Swag Bags

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Third day Comic Con swag bag.  There were many different ones, and the goal was to fill them with freebies.

Himself:  Playing with his pictures, work, gym, renting a car, and packing for two days in LA. Herself:  Good leg not doing well.  Can’t read well with the new lenses, house a mess, need an essay for Thursday, nightmares all night, so I will just start at point A and work through the Alphabet till life is back in order. The Weekend in our City:  There was Comic Con, up the hill was Stand Down…a two day gathering to try and get homeless vets off the street, and there was Over The Line on Fiesta Island out in the middle of Mission Bay.  It’s a milder version of softball where there are three on a team, team names are not printable in the mainstream press, and the ball in one hand is balanced by a beer in the other hand.  I’m sure there were more things going on, but these three caught my attention. Reading:  Nothing at the moment.  Imagine. Balance:  Not.

Yes, we had a ball at Comic Con.  During the next few months, I will be posting one or two pictures from the Con that might amuse you.  Today, you can see the Swag Bag.  There were several issued this Con, and I struggled mightily to get one good picture of the top one to show you. 

Everyone got one.  In them came the book and the schedule…weighty things.  I didn’t bring my giant bag, but the second day we did go back for a schedule.  There were a couple of panels that I thought might be interesting to attend. 

I’m fascinated by the costuming.  Many of the costumes took years to build or months just to research.  The detail on many of them was astounding.  Though we did attend one panel on inking…where I the artist didn’t get enough meaty info to chew on, but the two on costume creating/building were fascinating.  We already had figured out on our own much of what they talked about, but it was still fascinating.

One thing I noted was that most Steampunkers wanted to be of the upper class.  G is settling into his role as a wrench with great panache, while I am considering creating a steampunk maid.

“How would you turn that costume into Steampunk?”  Asked one of the panel leaders. 

“Add a scifi themed pistol,” I replied.  “You have to defend yourself against the amorous footmen.”  We all laughed, but I think I can do something with this…balance a duster with a pistol?  We will see.

One last costume amused both G and I.  We stopped at a booth where G spotted one of those long sweeping cowboy style coats….this one in leather.  The sales person was wearing a short jacket made from swag bags.  I noted that it was faced and lined. 

“The company owner will make one to order, but you will have to provide three swag bags,” said the sales person.  We thought not, but it was sure fun to look at.

 

 

On the Street

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Yes, I got there.  Yes, I had an absolutely wonderful time as a member of the several thousand non ticket holders to the con just too watch costumes on costume day.  Yes, there were some really inventive worlds this year.  I just love Comic Con, and I wasn’t alone.