My Saturday: BCC2011

Went with andy_wolverton to the Balitmore Comic Con yesterday. It's a little con, pretty much 100% comics fandom but a fun way to spend the day -- and a great place to test run a costume!

I actually wasn't planning on going as Fray because my hairspray estimated delivery date was for this coming Tuesday, but the USPS surprised me and got the box to my desk on Friday! So I came home and did a test spray one one spot of my hair just to see and it took pretty well. So I hastily (perhaps too hastily?) started slashing at my purple tank top to make it look more like Fray's outfit and put the finishing touches on my slayer scythe. When I woke up, I tied my hair back in a ponytail, threw a towel over my shoulders and held a washcloth over my face, then attempted to spray my hair black. Then I tried to stick the purple hair extensions in there and voila - Fray!

(It will be SO much easier to do when I've got faeriesfolly and maybedeadcat there to find the spots I missed (like the entire back of my head UNDER the ponytail...whoops!)

Considering this is my first costume that didn't just come out of a box, I was really happy with how it turned out and even happier with the response from people at the Con! I mean, people ACTUALLY ASKED TO TAKE PICTURES WITH ME! So crazy, I mean, WOW! The scythe got so many comments, even one from a guy at a booth who said he used to work for Palisades and helped with the official prop replica version. :-D

My favorite moment of the day was stumbling upon Laura Lee Gulledge, an artist from NYC who just published a graphic novel for young adults that I happened to read a few weeks before and LOVED! She was so nice! And she recognized my outfit and asked to take a picture with me!!! And, only a moment afterwards, a lady tapped me on the shoulder wearing her Sunnydale High t-shirt and asked to take a picture with me!!!!

(I went back to Laura Lee's booth and bought an original piece of art by her. This has me thinking that jackieocean needs to start going to Cons and setting up a table because her art is just as amazing and I think more people need to see it! Maybe we shoudl kidnap her for next year's Dragon*Con...)

I was very good and set a monetary limit on the day since I know I will be spending oodles of $$$ at Dragon*Con in a couple weeks. But I could not resist a Super Girl glass! And, of course, I went and fangirled at Jo Chen because I just ADORE her art style. I had her sign my Buffy hardcover season 1 collection, and I will probably take it with me to D*C and get Georges Jeanty to sign it as well.

So - things I need/have to tweak before Dragon*Con:
- small hoop earrings simontrueheart said he would let me borrow a pair
- purple/black lipstick
- purple nail polish
- modify my tank top so the shirt is higher up and the sides not so baggy and figure out a way to keep the hole I cut in the front from falling open and showing a bit more than I ever would want to!
- see if faeriesfolly would be willing to draw the hazmat tattoo on my arm that I just noticed Fray has!!!

movie thoughts: The Fox and the Hound (1981)

There is a difference between an old animated movie and an animated classic - I realized that last night while rewatching 'The Fox and the Hound'.

The movie just celebrated it's 30th Anniversary release, making it the same age as me, so I had fond memories of watching this as a child and listening to the book-on-cassette read-along.  I was actually very surprised by how much of the dialogue I remembered from listening to that recording over and over.  I was also surprised by how there really wasn't much else to that movie.

Watching something like 'Fox and the Hound' after enjoying a movie like 'Tangled' or even, dare I say it, 'Lion King' (one of Disney's most overrated, IMHO), you can see how far the studio has come in those 30 years.  It feels like more of a fable than a story, the characters are just skin and bones and you hardly get to know them in the 80 minute run time.  Also, I doubt anyone would make a movie targeted towards children today that featured scenes where the main character is shot at and where he is threatened with having his food sliced off with a trap. 

I'm happy I just rented this from the library and didn't buy it on blu-ray.  I doubt I will want to go back to it.  Like 'Black Cauldron', this is one of those movies I should have left behind and not rewatched because my childhood memories had filtered out it's flaws.  Tod and Copper are cute, the story does not hold up by today's standards.

originally posted to readwatchblog