EEEEEEEEEEEE NEIL GAIMAIN IS COMING TO NEW YORK COMIC CON!!!!

This makes my choice to make a Delirium costume even more perfect.

And wow, what a perfect opportunity to squee about the current state of my wig! My success with the Maeve wig gave me great confidence, and I’m taking another leap in wig making ambition!

As Delirium looks different every time she appears in the Sandman series, I’m not worried about perfectly recreating a specific look, so long as I get the general vibe right. My main inspiration is this image. I loved the idea of having one side very short and one side long and curly! My short side will be longer than hers, as I have no desire to buzz my head, but it’s the same general idea. Mine will be short, scruffy, and dyed in a rainbow of colors on one side, then long, curly, and a blend of bright red and dark cherry red with sporadic yellow accents on the other side. The fiber for the extensions hasn’t arrived yet (it should have arrived yesterday, boo. Maybe today?), but I won’t be able to actually sew the wefts I make into the wig until I finish the dye job anyway. The dye job will take several more sessions to complete, as I can only dye small amounts at a time to avoid the colors mixing and looking muddy and gross.

Anyway, pictures! Here’s how it looked on me the day before yesterday, but did a LOT last night, and here’s where we are now: side, front, and 3/4 view. The color is getting a bit too chunky for my taste towards the back–I prefer the more feathery look of the bangs. Fortunately, it’ll be a really easy fix to add in some steaks of color to break them up. I looooooooooove this dye recipe!

I’m still working out what I want to do for the costume itself. The big, shapeless coat is a must, but I want the costume beneath it to be solid on its own, in case I get too hot at the con. Tattered fishnets are a must, but my Molly costume brought home that once I start the tear, I have no idea how to keep them from falling apart completely. With Molly, what started out as artistically ripped fishnets that morning ended the day as an unwearable, shredded mess. I’m sure there’s something obvious I’m missing. Can anyone provide insight?

As far as shoes are concerned, I’m considering a few alternatives:
1) Nasty old boots,
2) Ridiculous sparkly gold shoes I saw in a thrift store that were actually in my size and I can’t believe I didn’t get them,
3) A nasty old boot on one foot and a sparkly gold shoe on the other provided the height difference wasn’t noticable, or
4) Galoshes.

Think I could be comfortable walking around a con in galoshes all day? Or would my feet get sweaty and gross? I haven’t worn galoshes since I was ikkle and wee. Anyway, I’m currently leaning towards #3. I’ll have to go back to that thrift store and see if those ridiculous gold shoes are still there. I might also have to revisit that awesome $5 shoe place where I got my Maeve shoes. I’m amazed at how well those things have held up!

And that’s all I have to say about that. Except…

Fans of Sandman series should probably put down their drinks at this point, as not to end up with a keyboard full of Dr. Pepper. Ganked from moony’s LJ.

In totally unrelated news, signups for the Dresden Files ficathon close Monday. Don’t forget!

Saturday morning and afternoon were spent in consternation, as I spent the day at work. I was the only Character person in attendance, so people kept piling stuff on me, and Maya and Motionbuilder were especially buggy, and there was angst. At one point, I suggested we get an office watermelon, so whenever we wanted to stab the software we could stab it, and then cut off a piece to eat because watermelon is delicious and full of nutrients. The combination of stabbing + deliciousness + nutrition should soothe any stray frustration in a constructive manner. Silly coworkers didn’t think I was serious!

Anyway, the day’s woes were more than compensated for by my FANTASTIC evening! Em of the NYC Browncoats wrangled a group of us to see the new Vampire Cowboys show, Fight Girl Battle World. They’re a delightfully geeky group that creates original productions with comic book stylings and an emphasis on stage combat. I’d heard great things about two of their previous shows, Men of Steel and Living Dead in Denmark, but this would be the first I’d actually get to attend. I joined up with Kristin, Josie, Gypsy, Em, and the gang, and together we all laughed until we cried. I can’t remember the last occasion I’ve laughed so hard for such a sustained length of time!

The next morning, I went to Kristin’s place, stopping by Whole Foods on the way. I made us omelettes with spinach, feta, sauteed onion, and tomato, which were OUT OF THIS WORLD DELICIOUS, then we sat down to watch (and heckle) the Star Wars prequel trilogy. We nerded out, nitpicking all the inconsistencies and hooting over all the painful dialogue.

Episode I was every bit as awful as I remembered. Actually, it was more awful, as my psyche had somehow managed to bury the memory of the “Are you an angel?” conversation. Though Jar Jar is far more tolerable when you imagine he’s being roleplayed by some nerd’s kid sister.

Episode II, on the other hand, was far better. The action to dialogue ratio far surpassed that of its predecessor, and George Lucas knows how to do action! Heck, if you just cut out Anakin’s creepy stalker act and leashed his occasional whiny emo tangents, it would be a pretty neat little movie! Kristin and I were very pleasantly surprised. We also decided Padme’s attraction to him is the result of a Jedi mind trick, as Anakin is four years old.

Between II and III, we went out for a walk, off in search of food. Eventually we settled on (shock) Whole Foods, where Kristin got taco and I got lentil soup and an abundance of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. We feel Episode III was considerably improved by the addition of alcohol, and we regretted not thinking of it during Episode I.

Episode III was somewhat bipolar. There was plenty of awful Lucas dialogue, but it was mixed in with dialogue that was surprisingly solid. We would occasionally look at each other in surprise and marvel, “Hey. That line was actually good.” (This may have been the alcohol talking. Or maybe after seeing the first two, we just had really, really low standards.) Of course, ten seconds later we’d be back to chortling over Anakin’s teflon-slicked fall to the Dark Side, groaning at lines like “Anakin, you’re breaking my heart!”, and debating over whether slashing Obi-Wan and Anakin is more or less creepy than Anakin/Padme. Conclusion: It’s kind of creepy, but NOTHING even comes CLOSE to the creepiness of Anakin/Padme.

So! Awesome, awesome weekend. If only there were actually two days of it. :D

Here, have a Han Solo in Carbonite Desk!

Happy Leap Day, my lovelies!

Last night, I went with Kait and Steven to see The Farnsworth Invention, Aaron Sorkin’s play about the invention of television. It was excellent–far better than the trailer on their website or the scathing review from the New York Times would lead one to believe.

Unfortunately, Hank Azaria was replaced by an understudy for our show, but the replacement gave a very solid performance. His costar, Jimmi Simpson, give a heartrending portrayal of a man struggling to keep pace with his own genius, and his transition from buoyant spirit and imagination slowly giving way to frustration, exhaustion, feelings of betrayal, and finally utter despair were felt palpably throughout the theatre. The moment at which I finally recognized where I’d seen him before–playing one of the MacPoyles on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia–only made me respect him as an actor even more.

I’m so glad I got to see it before it closed March 2nd! Kait wins super-love for suggesting we go.

The linkspam continues:

Battlestar Galactica: The Story So Far. I love my show with the silly name! April 4th, people!

McSpaced is go. Fortunately, it’s on Fox, so if it displays even a fraction of a glimmer of Spaced‘s brilliance it’ll probably get canceled in a day.

Google gives free voice mail to San Francisco’s homeless

Obama releases open letter to LGBT folks

Campaign Logos

Stephen Colbert Misses Starbucks

Pregnant woman uses train toilet, baby slips out

…Are Edgar Wright and Diablo Cody a couple? Or is Best Week Ever joking? I only ask because their babies would be AWESOME.

Political Linkspam!

Si se puede — a really beautiful video for Obama in Spanish

Viva Obama — a really hilarious Mariachi song for Obama in Spanish

And an excellent blog article: The Obama Doctrine

SNL Weekend Update: Huckabee’s Graceful Exit

SNL: Tina Fey On The Most Important Women’s News Issue. Awesome, but it would be more appreciated I didn’t of want to slap Hillary in the face right now. What are you DOING, Hillary? What happened to the woman we saw giving that wonderful final statement at the Texas debates? Remember how well that went over, and how all the pundits were asking why she didn’t show that side of her personality more often? Sure, it was almost word-for-word taken from Edwards’ concession speech, but I was willing to forgive. Who is this bitter, mocking creature you’re turning into? I understand you may be frustrated, but your snarky tirades are not presidential. Sheesh.

And finally, another Fry and Laurie video for people that don’t care about American politics (though it would actually make a delightful satire of the second Bush doctrine had it not been written in 1992): The Ass-Kickers Song.

We at Cult of Lincoln felt that the first episode of Fire At My Workplace was so successful we decided to bring it back for Round Two!

First, we noticed the smell of smoke. Then, we noticed the five firetrucks outside (the other two were in the other direction). Then we noticed the steady stream of smoke emanating from the the sewer grate nearest our building and a flickering red glow coming from below, with occasional mini-explosions therein. A fireman removed the sewer grate… and the fire TRIPLED in intensity! In the red-orange glow, we could discern actual flames! Hey, maybe we shouldn’t be breathing this stuff in. After about fifteen minutes of us gawking, they turned on the hose. Then after about ten minutes of that, the fire still wasn’t completely out, and they changed the direction of the hose.

And then I went back to work. Not sure what’s happening now. But it’s probably awesome.

A massive linkspam for you!

X-Files 2 teaser from WonderCon!

Photos That Look Photoshopped But Aren’t

Hilarious Science Fair Experiments

Robot does interpretive dance of your dreams

Fifteen Reasons Mister Rogers Was The Best Neighbor Ever

An awesome stop-motion animation for Shakespeare fans: Next! How many plays can you identify?

Best Fandomsecret Ever (thanks, Puck!)

PassiveAgressiveNotes.com

Coraline teaser! The same as the one we saw before, except this one wasn’t filmed by a handheld camera in a 3D theatre.

Silly and awesome: Record Sleeve and Money Portraits

Windows 98 Jam — a piece of music made using only default sounds from Windows 98.

Sarah Silverman : Matt Damon :: Jimmy Kimmel : Ben Affleck

Metaquotes: Using fandom to explain Democratic presidential candidates

And in other news…

Puck: …oh, gods.
Puck: There are gonna be movies for Monopoly, Candyland, Battleship, and Ouija.
Me: …those were jokes, hon.
Puck: you’re sure?
Me: …whuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut
Puck: Actually, if they do Candyland like a cartoon movie for kids, it might not be that bad. The other ones scare me.
Me: Yes. Though Monopoly, if done in a completely serious, reinvent-the-wheel-taking-the-basic-concept could be potentially interesting. In a “Codex Alera was based on Pokemon” kind of way.
Puck: Well, it worked for POTC.
Puck: ….and failed miserably for Haunted Mansion.
Puck: So there you go.
Me: Yup. And The Country Bears.
Puck: *fingers in ears* LA LA LA THAT DOESN’T EXIST
Me: I can imagine an evil, Machiavellian Monopoly man cackling with glee as he puts people though a sinister game that will make them filthy rich or render them absolutely destitute and possibly imprisoned.
Me: Like a TV game show with TEETH.
Puck: Oujia might work as a cheesy horror flick.
Puck: Otherwise it’ll be ninety minutes back and forth of “You’re moving it!” “No, I’m not!” “Stop moving it!” “I’m not!”
Me: XD
Me: …Jumanji was lots of fun!
Puck: Yes!
Puck: Yes it was!
Puck: Also Clue!
Me: Yes!
Me: Good point
Puck: But Jumanji had Robin Williams. And Clue had Tim Curry.
Me: Yes. And PotC had Johnny Depp.
Me: Wilford Brimley for Monopoly Man, Y/Y?
Puck: But Haunted Mansion had Eddie Murphy AND Wallace Shawn and still was made of fail.
Puck: And Y
Me: I like my Monopoly idea. It’s like “The Most Dangerous Game,” except with finance.
Puck: So of course Hollywood will make it fail.
Me: Of course. XD