Time to finish this months overdue trilogy of trouble. Why has it taken so long? Well friends, you see, I have zero time management skills and even less motivation!
To recap: this heinously outdated write-up concerns the Odlaw costume I revisited last New Year for a Where’s Wally? themed party.
Spats (or spatterdashes) are a type of footwear which is not unpopular in the steampunk scene, but otherwise went out of fashion in the early 20th century for reasons which are currently beyond me, I mean, they serve a practical purpose, y’know? Keeps the mud off your shoes. Not that I go outside frequently enough to get muddy shoes in the first place but I think we can all agree that it’s fun to accessorise regardless.
All us overdressed villains, that is!
Despite developing shingles on top of my regularly scheduled December meltdown, my barely functional ass sat itself down having decided it was as good a time as any to make a real actual attempt at learning to crochet properly despite all previous yarn-craft efforts being catastrophic failures.
The previous failure being crocheted directly into the next as some kind of fucked up hat-based Ouroboros.
Happy (slightly belated) New year.
Weirdly, upon arrival home on January 1st 2017 everything was still more or less the same as it had been prior to leaving on December 31st 2016. Aside from the cat vomit on the carpet that is, pretty sure that wasn’t there when we’d left. Not that I’m any stranger to cleaning cat vomit out of the carpet at 2am of course. That’s just something you gotta deal with when keeping felines inside your home, regardless of what time of the year it is. So…
Why did this seem like a good opening tangent?
On an overcast afternoon in January a group of about eight students, two assistants, two models, and one teacher took over a quiet local park for a costume photography workshop hosted by local friend and photographer Neil Creek.
Being that I’d managed to get Oberon’s trousers finished prior to the class it seemed like as good a time as any to field test them, albeit with a stronger goat flavouring.
| Photograph by Maria Bastin |
The goat was modelling alongside Asuna Yuuki of Sword Art Online (beautifully portrayed by the talented Ayuri Cosplay).
| Photograph by Maria Bastin | Sword Art Online – Asuna Yuuki by Ayuri Cosplay |
Fantasy costumes lent themselves well to the setting, and the two different styles gave the students plenty to work with.
The new year has hit and I can’t help but wonder… if it’s 2015… does that mean I have to get in the fucking robot now? Y’know, eternally being an emotionally challenged 14 year old and all? Or does it only count if you were actually born in 2001?
Is everybody sick of Evangelion references yet? Should I start on Back to the Future instead?
… No?
Okay.
On the second of November Tech Support and I headed into town for PAX Australia 2014.
Last year was the first time PAX opened their doors to an Aussie crowd, and they must’ve liked it down in Melbourne since they came back for round two.
It isn’t exactly a secret that I’ve been wanting to rework my Commander Keen costume after busting him out for PAX Aus 2013 for the first time since 2011- and as of the recent Melbourne Zombie Shuffle, this has clearly been a successful endeavour.
Hanged Keen in reference to Doom II – MAP32: Grosse.
The annual Melbourne Zombie Shuffle was on Saturday and, even with the current state of largely unfounded terrorism-based political paranoia putting a slight damper on the props situation, it was a marvellous day!
Left 4 Dead witch.
Have I mentioned that it’s October? No? Would you have noticed if I didn’t point it out just now? What’s that? You don’t need me to inform you of the functionality of the calendar year? Okay, whatever, just trying to share some joy.
Halloween joy, that is. All 31 days of it. Yep.
Okay, maybe not, too many Australians are spoil-sports about the whole skeleton-war thing for reasons I am yet to determine. Is it the fun aspect? Is Australia anti-fun?
But I digress.