The muslin/canvas/pretty sure it’s not duckcloth didn’t come out as distressed from the tea-dying as I’d hoped. Just got a wee bit darker. I don’t like wearing light colours, ickickick, so all this khaki and brown is kind of an obstacle for me…I went to Goodwill to find a bottom. And something to wear. Ha! Since the jacket is brown, and the top is brown, and the boots are brown (UGH) the pants have GOT to be something else. My eyebrows turquoise. Sumpin’.

Sewing the bustier top didn’t go as well as I’d hoped…it’s boring.

Going for topstitching in dark green – maybe purple.

Here’s the coat and belt I’m working with (camera phone pics, je suis layzee), just FYI:

I took a rest from the top to work on the top-top: hair

Bobby-pinning handmade dreads into a layered black wig – not sewing them in. Need this wig for other things. Put a dread with blue ribbon woven innit, and a burgundy dread, up first to continue the anti-browns effort.

Dreads are really easy to make (SO much easier than the real thing).

(Not sure about the light saber. Don’t want to be a Jedi, but would help the hoi polloi “get it.”)

Get you some hurr from the beauty sto:

Put yo urrun on steam, get that hair all wet and kinky (the hair in the packages…) and nap it up. Long-ass extensions are folded in half, keep that loop up top to pin/rope it into your hair. Or sew it onto your clothes. Etc.

These are my favourite boots from a long time ago…if they only made me six feet tall.

Oh, I did get some white cotton drawstring bloomers, to spray paint Endor cammo. Tomorrow (day off!) will try two more thrift stores and then get on that.  Still mulling over what to do with mask. Besides take the rest of the rhinestones off.

I’d love to see this ring in person, is the front there…engraved? Or some sort of screening?

Three wolf COAT

Atlanta Value Village FTW

Columbia Goodwill runner-up

A shark, with legs coming out of its mouth. A kid’s costume, and the tail drags behind him? Where do your arms go? Through the fins? It makes a little more sense now that I found the original:

I also got a shark…light saber.

I don’t care for “bacon explosion.”

Bacon, like fish, is best in it’s purest form. Or in vodka. Not the fish. Just the bacon. Mmm…sake….

(fish –> purest form —> sashimi = sake)

There’s no Endor to what I could do!

God, that was awful.

Thanks to this site, I have a direction to go with pants: Endor cammo.

I was thinking a BDU/cargo/jodphur concoction, so depending on what Goodwill yields (I actually did have a pair of white jodphurs that I finally gave away because I’d yet to wear them but if I’d kept them as I wanted to I’d have them now and they’d be perfect – that (hanging on to something because one day I’ll need it) explains 90% of my household goods) things are merrily rolling along.

More Etsy awesome

is

Ha! So after I tagged “cutest infestation ever” I went back to her store and found

F’ing mindreader

I’m thinking of some sort of garter…something…for my rebel scum pants. Using a backpack is a great idea

Also, those boots = want.

I went back to the main store page to see what else they might, and ha! It’s the same store as the Roachpirator. I like the store name “Dress Your Wounds.”

If I was going to get just one gun, I”m not sure I could decide which of these awesome wooden ray guns to go with.

TDW of TD

(The Daily What of the day)

This is awesome. Just awesome. I already wanted to live in Iceland, they keep giving me reasons to.

“I guess the men of Iceland will just have to get used to the idea that women are not for sale.”

Ha!

The word “epic” was invented for this poster. And jellyfish! And….I just bought it.

Me and him have zombies and unicorns in common. Me and Gaga have steak in common.

Steak tartare is good.

I recently yelled at a kid for being ignorant. What? Well, he was all angry about WBC coming here – because he was “gay and atheist.” I was trying to tell him how to fight them a little more intelligently (later telling the boyf, “If I am at a party talking about the New Covenant, TAKE ME HOME.”) but he didn’t want to hear it. He just wanted to be “gay and atheist”  and “angry.” Show up and holler at ’em. Because people who disagree with each other get SO much accomplished with they have a sign-off.

Me, I say DO SOMETHING. Jackass. – not you, gentle reader, just the many, many kids I’ve known over the years who’s idea of fighting “the man” was to hang out in an anarchist bookstore all day, spanging in a  FREE MUMIA t-shirt and pass out drunk on a couch after an Assmen show. Yeah, THAT’ll show them.

Anyways. This kid, give him a cookie. Made of checks written to these charities.

I especially enjoy the thank you cards, sent to Rev. Phelps. Beautiful. Protest with action, not t-shirts.

Ewoks! A post about how I learned to stop worrying and love the Rebel Alliance.

More than I already did.

There’s a fundraiser coming up for Aaron and Grant’s campaign. It has a costume theme of “retro future.”

I’m not thrilled about the theme (“Telling me to come up with “a costume” is like asking Carl Sagan to tell you “one important thing” about the universe.”), but excited by a) the challenge of thinking of something b) getting to dress up in town.

I knew one thing: I wanted to stay as far away from steampunk as possible. I want the bad-assery a la Thunderdome, but without the khaki/desert. I want ooo-la-la imaginative sleek futuristic, but nothing too…”cyber.”

I began as I always do: raiding my stuff. I knew I wanted to use my Frankenstein boots, and maybe velvet  tie-dye jacket. Preferably my lovely, wonderful, amazing belt from Blue Moon Katherine – I can’t recommend one enough. I also have my respirator…so the general idea is heading towards post-apocolyptic. I want a functional get-up, not just something wacky.

There is, of course, a plethora of awesome stuff on Etsy – not even looking at “steampunk.”

This mask is great.

We got an old respirator in perfect working order and tossed those pesky lung saving filters in the trash.* So you too can breathe in the polluted rot ridden oxygen that will soon coat the planet.

I started on the respirator last night…it was bedazzled and painted with hot pink stripes for Burning Ma – wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Back to ideaifying.  I have a t-shirt with Leia and her blaster on the front, captioned “ANTI-IMPERIALIST.” Brain turns towards a sort of rebel scum pirate – but not too Firefly. I was a Tatooine village woman (twice, once at midnight, once the following evening) for the premiere of PM…fringe Star Wars something might be awesome. I could do a Stromtrooper-inspired get-up.

So, I start amassing potential things to use in a pile. I get the jacket on the mannequin, and Shibari insists I must wear it. With the utility belt. But not the t-shirt. Hmmm…I have this horrid Madonna white lace bustier…and this canvas…I will tea stain the canvas and sew it all raggedly over the bustier…what about the boots? Must be tall (I go from 5’4 to 6′). Want to hide the goth. Yay room of fabric randomness.

Boots are go. I’m debating the fur. I don’t want to offend any Ewoks.

I also root for shit to fancy up the respirator with. Don’t want to brass out, want to keep it simple, but distinctive, and well, cool-looking!

I accidentally get the wrong grommet, and some super glue later, I have begun

Story-wise, I’m leaning towards pirate. I was going to make some freezer paper stencils…

The Renegade Squadron was a Rebel Alliance military unit of underworlders, assembled by Han Solo and commanded by Col Serra. The unit consisted of underworlders recruited by Serra from around the galaxy. Assigned to advanced black operations, very few actually knew of the existence of the squadron, and their actions which actually kept the Alliance alive.

So, that’ll be my patch. I also somehow want to align myself with Endor, because I think Ewoks are awesome. A few Ewokese phrases scattered in my conversations will help.

Will help amuse me. Nobody else will have a clue what I’m doing. But that’s OK. That’s usually how my costumes go. Portnoy’s mother was a blast.

Dharus’ patch is a little animey, but bad girl turned good for the Alliance would be fun.

…what was I talking about? Oh, right, rebel scum smuggler hoo-ha. I still have to decide on pants. 

But this is going to be fun.

SCIENCE! Opera?

I’m flipping through channels and good ol’ PBS has a man, dressed like an ol’ timey scientist, singing. I’m intrigued. “PBS is showing Dr. Horrible?

And it’s an opera, now?”

But then there were…puppets? Dolls? Clowns? Nekkid ladies?

It was a glorious mish-mash of classical opera and the most burner-esque production I’ve ever seen…carnivale-y steampunk garish…awesome.

The Associated Press’ Ronald Blum wrote: “Sher’s dark new staging, which reflects the opera through a prism of Kafka and Fellini, will not be to everyone’s liking.

“There are Venetian courtesans prancing about in nothing more than high heels, panties, pasties and jewelry. They look like Vegas showgirls. Drunken bar revelers pretend they are dancing dwarfs who appear to be wearing Jewish prayer shawls.

“Throw in some clowns in white face with large red noses, various women in corsets and powdered wigs, and a few skeleton heads donning Carnival masks. At times the famous barcarole resembled the orgy from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Eyes Wide Shut.’ “

I texted my friend, “science puppet opera on pbs!!” while I tried to think of the title – the one about the doll! Starts with a C! But it wasn’t Coppelia.

That’s a ballet, for one thing. It’s “The Tales of Hoffman,”  by Jacques Offenbach.

Wildly popular for his politically satirical and sexually “risque” operettas (imagine SNL set to music), Offenbach had developed an inferiority complex towards the great 19th Century Grand Opera composers such as Meyerbeer, Verdi, Wagner and Gounod, who were all the rage in Paris.

“Tales” is about the poet Hoffmann, who lets his unsuccessful love affairs get in the way of his work. His muse, who later appears as his friend Nicklausse, tries to keep him true to his art but in vain. (click for the full plot)

I think my jaw might have actually dropped, when Kathleen Kim (above) sang “The Doll Song.”

I found footage of Rachele Gilmore.

Unfortunately I had to go to bed (and the PBS/airing version doesn’t include the scandalous final scene), but apparently it all ends nice and bloody and tragic, Poetry takes Hoffman back from all his failed loves FOREVAH!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnt

Spring has sprung…

And young lovers are penning wistful notes of yearning and unrequited…

…ketchup. Oh, Spencer, she really wants you! On her! Ketchup?

Me, on the first day of S.C. spring, I spent it holed up in an antique mall.

Pony tail!

In addition to the GORgeous amounts of clown stained glass art found around the place, there’s one whole wall, just deeVOTEd to clowns.

If only all my beer drinking really did help crippled children. I’ll even wear a fez!

I would like to put this high up in a corner of the house, and install a motion light (so that when people walk by it will STARE AT THEM).

That globe is an actual globe, the picture didn’t capture the dimension. There wasn’t a price tag on it, and I’m glad, because I would have bought it. And given it to Colab.

One booth was nothing but shelf after shelf of retro, vintage and antique beer and likker bottles, glasses, advertisings and such.

I think I have a new Etsy store:

DOYOUSEEWHATTHEYDIDTHERE? What a pretty dress! Oops, no, ass! No, dress! No, ass!

This is my music corner:

It needs help.  You can see Moz, up there in the right, embarrassed to be seen…also, fried catfish is awesome

Esp. with my homemade chipotle ketchup or wasabi mayonnaise.

Last, but not least:

Linksy dink

I never had Shrinky-Dinks. My mom made me play with real toys, like books and sewing machines.

I want to Chatroulette so hard.

In college I subsisted on Kraft white mac’n’cheese in my Rival pot with misc. vegetables.

RE: I saw Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball tour. People were like, “What was it like?”

Amazing, I tell them, really beautiful. The pop songs were flashy song and dance, but in-between was so much a-r-t. Though I don’t care for the word “defend,” I do try to offer explanations for my recent conversion to little monsterdom.

I’ll be immersed in WWII porn for the rest of the day.