Prop making

I've been doing a lot of prop making for my cosplaying.  I have a total of 5 props that I have made, only one with the help of my dad.  The rest I've actually made on my own.  I'm going to outline my most recent one here in this post.  What is it you ask?  Why, it's Captain America's shield.  I made it rather cheaply, to be honest.  I used foam board and acrylic paint that only cost 37 cents a bottle.  That kind of thing.  I've got pictures of the whole process.  

This is what I used to outline the shield.  They are inexpensive wire wreath frames and some foam circles that I got at Michael's.  I think they added up to about $20 total.  And the foam board was $8 because I had to get the one that was actually a display board.  I did it this way because I tried to make my own compass with string and a pencil and it failed miserably.  

Drawing the star in the middle was kind of hard and required a little bit of mathing.  Well, it wasn't that hard but it did require mathing and my brain is only good at money math, not this kind of math.  But I got it figured out. 

I meant to take a picture with just the white paint but didn't get around to it.  I used the white paint for three reasons.  One, as you can see, the paint is a different shade of white from the poster board.  Two, I thought it would look weird if only part of the board was painted.  And three, I needed to cover up some pencil lines.  

Here you have the shield with the first coat of the red paint. 

This is the shield completely painted and ready to cut out.  I had to put SEVERAL coats of the red and had to do a lot of touching up with the paint because I kept going over lines and things like that.  

Then I had to cut the shield out.  This was a bitch, I will tell you.  Cutting foam board with a pocket knife is a real pain in the ass.  Cutting it with anything is a pain in the ass.  After I cut it out, I sanded the edges down the best that I could and then painted them red as well.  

Then I covered the shield with a clear lacquer to help protect it.  As I said, the acrylic paint I used was pretty cheap and it could flake off very easily.  And it also got very dirty very easily.  So I coated it with lacquer and don't really have to worry about that anymore.  

Finally I put the elastic straps on the back.  This one was trial and error on how to attach them.  I tried craft glue and staples and the first time it seemed to go okay, but then I found out I didn't put enough glue because the staples popped right out and the elastic came off.  The second time, though, I put more glue and more staples and they stayed just fine when I gave the glue ample amount of time to dry.  

I have also made a blaster and lightsaber for my Jedi costume, a martini to go along with my Howard Stark costume, and a goblet to go along with my Lady Christina costume.  Getting all of this to Dragon Con is going to be interesting for sure.  

Technology

So I have this trend that's been going on in my life that was broken by the existence of MP3s.  I bought my first CD before I had anything to play it on.  Bought my first DVD before I had anything to play it on.  Bought my first blu-ray before I had anything to play it on.  But my first MP3 was on my computer and therefore, was playable as soon as I got it.  Ah the joys of technology.

Robert Downey Jr and other celebrity husbands

Celebrity Husband/Wife: (n)  A person with which you have a fictional/fantasized marital relationship.

So that's what I mean by celebrity husbands.  Not men who are famous and happen to be married, but men who I have crushed over hard core for a very long time.

My very first celebrity husband was Richard Dean Anderson.  I mean, seriously, who wouldn't crush over MacGyver?  He was awesome.  And a total brain.  Action her.  And that hair.  Oh the hair.  That just made my life, really.  I was totally in love with him when I was like 8 years old.

My next celebrity husband will be a little bit of a shock because he's not really considered the hottest of the hot.  That would be Dwight Schultz.  I used to watch A-Team all the time and Murdock was my man.  I even wanted some black converse high tops just like his.  I liked them crazy, apparently.  He was on the adorable side of things, though.  

I think my next celebrity husband was Tom Selleck.  Magnum P.I. was one of my favorite shows and seeing him running around in those short shorts just made my heart all a flutter.  And this was back when I was supposed to think boys were yucky.  I never really went through that stage that I can recall.  And all of these various celebrity husbands are totally putting a date stamp right on my forehead.  lol.   Though I think I was more in love with Magnum's Ferrari than I was with him.  

Through the years my celebrity husbands changed.  As different people came into the acting world, began to get noticed, that kind of thing.  Though I think that my longest running celebrity marriage was a poly-amorous one.  This was my fake marriage to both Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.  From the time I was about 10 until the time I was about 24, I was addicted and obsessed with Star Wars.  So, of course, I had to be in love with the two main characters of the movies, right?  And who wouldn't be?  They were good looking men.  It's almost impossible to find a picture of just Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford without Carrie Fisher being in it too.  

Now my celebrity husband tastes have taken a turn for the more comic book direction.  I actually have another poly-amorous fake marriage going on with Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, and Sebastian Stan. 

While my love for RDJ began back in the early 90's, I've been unable to officially call him a celebrity husband until recently.  2008 to be exact.  Iron Man just made me fall completely head over heels in love with him all over again.  And I know what you're thinking.  Captain America made me in love with Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan, right?  Well, you would be wrong on that account.  

What made me fall in love with Chris Evans was actually the movie What's Your Number?.  I only kind of liked him after Captain America.  Colin Shea really made me lose it for him.  He was so adorable and sweet, while being a total man whore.  It was impossible not to fall in love with him.  And let's not forget that he spends about 80% of the movie naked.  That was a major bonus right there.  

I fell in love with Sebastian Stan while he was on Once Upon A Time.  His character of Jefferson/Mad Hatter was awesome.  That is what brought my attention to him as an actor.  I remember watching it and thinking that he looked familiar and then looking him up and being like "OMG! That's the guy that played Bucky!" and my daughter was also amazed.  

Now, what does having a celebrity husband entail, you might ask?  Well, for me, that means tracking down and watching every single movie, TV show, and even commercial that they've been in that I can actually get my hands on and watching all of it.  Even the really bad ones.  And there have been some majorly bad ones.  Especially in Robert's career, though I offer him no offense in that statement.  I think the worst of the movies I watched for RDJ was one called In Dreams.  It was just bad.  And he had long, stringy red hair, which he really can't pull off.  It was one of those times I wish I could get my time back.  

I think for Chris Evans, the worst of his projects that I watched (so far) was Loss of a Teardrop Diamond.  Now, let me explain why I think this.  This movie is not bad.  The acting is good and the sets are great and the whole cast is just amazing.  With a glowing review like that, why do I call it the worst of Evans' movies (so far?).  Well, it's Tennessee Williams.  And while he is noted as one of the greatest play writes, I just think he is long winded and boring and slow.  But that's my personal opinion.  

The worst of the Sebastian Stan movies that I have seen would have to be Gone.  I did not like that movie at all.  It was completely unrealistic and Amanda Seyfreid wasn't that great.  Sebastian was the best actor in the movie and his acting wasn't even at its best in that one.  Just over all, not good.  The movie of his that surprised me, though, was The Covenant.  I went into this movie thinking it was going to be bad based on the premise.  And while I was partly true, and some of the acting really was horrible, over all it was a good movie.  Especially Sebastian.  He is surprisingly good at being evil.  It was great.  

So now you have a general idea of what it means to have a celebrity husband.  I have to say, though, that I've even had a celebrity wife at one point.  Her name is Natalie Dormer and she's awesome.  I would totally go gay for her.  And I would motorboat Kat Dennings if she was okay with it.  But that's beside the point.  

I really need to get back into this

Alright, so I am so going to get more active with this blog.  I know I've said that a few times but this time I really mean it.  I am going to do a lot of blogging and some of it will have to do with the wonders that is the new cosplay group that I am a part of.  What is this group you ask?  Well, it's DFW Cosplay Gallifrey.

I cosplay as the 10th Doctor and also as Lady Christina de Souza from Planet of the Dead.

Thank you to William Lamoreaux for that photo shoot.  He's pretty cool.

The whole group is pretty awesome and I really enjoy hanging out with them.  Once a month we get together and we watch Doctor Who episodes together.  There's all kinds of cool stuff going down with this group and I will keep giving you a heads up as it happens.


Another awesome thing that is going on is All Con Dallas.   I actually have six different cosplays that I will be doing for this convention.  One is Howard Stark, one is 10th Doctor, one is Lady Christina, one is Angela Montenegro from Bones, then I have a USO girl from Captain America: The First Avenger, and then I also have a Jedi OC that I have made props for.  I also made a golden goblet for Lady Christina to have stolen and I made a fake martini for Howard to carry around.  I'm getting pretty good at props in general.  Some of which are with my dad's help but it never hurts to get help, right?

Now, do you want to know the coolest thing about All Con?  I AM PRESENTING A PANEL!  That's right, I actually have content going on at All Con.   So if you are at All Con and you have time on Friday at 10am come to the Pecan Room and we can talk about the Minor Characters of Marvel.

That's all I have for now.  Will be updating more soon.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

Spoilers ahead.  Just so you know.


Yes, I went to see this movie.  Anybody who knows me knows that I would go see any movie with Jeremy Renner in it, regardless of how ridiculous that movie might be.  This one turned out to be a little bit different.

You think you know the story of Hansel and Gretel.  But this movie changes the way you view that story.  Hansel and Gretel grow up to hunt down dark witches, like the one that nearly killed them when they were children.  Their father took them out into the woods and left them there, we found out later it was for their own protection.  Especially Gretel's, but I'll get to that.

Hansel and Gretel grow up and hunt witches for a living.  They seek revenge on those that would harm children.  And they're very good at it.  I was a little disappointed with the blatant PSA in the movie.  Poor Hansel was inflicted with a disease that requires him to take an injection every few hours or he dies.  This is because of the witch that capture them as children.  What I got out of it?   They made him diabetic because he ate too much candy as a child.  Yes, the candy was forced down his throat, but still.  Like I said, blatant PSA.

There's a lot of gore in the movie.  You can't get away from it.  And I will say that it's better than I thought it was going to be going in.  Now, as much as I love Jeremy Renner, there are moments when his lines aren't delivered in the best manner possible, in my opinion.  Though he does say "Don't eat the fucking candy" with the right amount of conviction and "You've gotta be fucking kidding me."  Most of the movie, he's pretty brilliant.  He gets thrown around a lot, and there is a scene with him shirtless.  There's also a bit with him appearing to be naked in chest deep water.  You know I was okay with that bit.  There's also a scene where he's drunk and sleeping on the floor.  Gretel has the bed.  She wakes him up because she has a dream about their mother.  Hansel says "We don't talk about that.  Go to sleep."  And then rolls over and curls up under the bed.  It's pretty hilarious.  

In the movie there is a troll named Edward.  Edward saves Gretel from an asshole, self important sheriff and his band of ruffians.  Why would he do such a thing, Gretel asks.  Edward's answer?  Trolls serve witches.  But he saved Gretel and then took off.  That's weird, right?  Now, this is the part I was getting to before.

We find out that the reason that Hansel and Gretel were taken out into the forest by their father was to protect Gretel from the dark witches that needed the heart of a grand white witch to complete a spell that would make them immune to fire.  So Hansel and Gretel are the twin children of a farmer and a grand white witch.  Shocker, right?  So this is when they find out that there are such thing as good witches in the world.  Their mother placed a spell on them that makes them immune to the magic of the dark witches.  And they run into a white witch that helps Hansel when he and Gretel get separated.  She finds him hanging upside down from a tree.  Also hilarious.

Over all, I'd say it's a decent movie.  I wouldn't call it a great movie.  It's not bad and I wouldn't mind seeing it again.  Especially since there's really only gore and language involved in the R rating.  Though my daughter doesn't want to see it in 3D because she doesn't want to see blood and guts flying at her, and I'm okay with that.

And yes, I know that I ranted about there not being a midnight viewing available in 2D but I got there tonight to change my ticket so I could see it at 10pm and there was a 2D available.  So it's still readily available, just not in advance.  But I know there will come a time when 2D is a thing of the past.

As a lover of weapons of various shapes and sizes I have to say that the different guns and other weapons in this movie were pretty kick ass.  There's even a folding shot gun.  It's pretty amazing.  And hard to describe. Anyway.

If you like gore with a little bit of corny, oh who am I kidding a lot of corny thrown in, go see the movie.  If you like Jeremy Renner or Gemma Arterton or Famke Jansen, go see the movie.  If you want to sit back and let your brain shut down for 90 or so minutes, go see the movie.  That's all I can say.

Also, I was made feel extremely old by the fact that Jurassic Park will be released in 3D in celebration of the 20th anniversary.  HOW HAS IT BEEN 20 YEARS ALREADY??!?!?!?!?  And that is all.
 

@thinkgeek and the scarceness of 2D

I've been brought to a horrible reality a little sooner than I expected.  But I will get to that.

First of all, I would like to once again thank thinkgeek.com for coming out with the 2D glasses that convert 3D movies into 2D.  This is helpful for me because 3D movies cause a panic attack when I try to watch them.  And having a mother and daughter that can both watch 3D means that I can take them to the 3D movie and not get a headache from being unable to wear the 3D glasses.  Now I just take my 2D glasses and I can enjoy the movie right along with them.

Why am I bringing this up?  Because of Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters.  I have wanted to see this movie ever since I found out about it.  I am a HUGE Jeremy Renner fan as anyone who reads this blog would know.  So I want to watch this movie.   And I wanted to attend a midnight viewing.  The thing is, there isn't a 2D midnight viewing.  The only midnight show is IMAX 3D.  Which I can't watch.  And there's no $6 show on Saturday either.  Earliest 2D showing is at 110pm which is an $8 ticket.

So this is how it starts.  2D is going to become less and less available until I'm paying for a 3D ticket that I can't watch.   Eventually, movies are going to be coming out exclusively in 3D all because the market for 2D is so small.  It's ridiculous and stupid and I really wish that Hollywood would understand that there is still a market for 2D releases.  But they don't care.  All they care about is making money.  That's it.  It's really irritating.

Happy Birthday to Jeremy Renner who does not look 42 years old.