50 Days of Dragon Con Day 7

Costumes

Costuming is a huge part of con.  While I do not often participate, I see it and appreciate it.  You have the folks that are HUGE cosplayers and those who are more hobbyists.  I love all of the costumes.  So many of them are inventive.  There are the standard costumes you see at every con and then there are those who take it to a whole other level.  I love the kids that obviously made their own costumes and the adults that have spent the entire year making one that is super intricate.  Every costume should be appreciated and held in a form of reverence. 

Some of the most interesting costumes are not necessarily those that are of costume characters we know and are screen accurate.  Those are amazing, do not get me wrong. The amount of talent it takes to make those is absolutely staggering.  CONGRATS to those that have that kind of talent.  The costumes I like better are the takes on something, mashups or gender bending.  I love to see a female Captain Kirk or a male Princess Leia.  No matter of the skill level.  There is so much talent that goes into both, I like the ingenuity and creativity that goes in to the ones that are not screen accurate.

To those who costume, you are all amazing, beautiful, and talented.  I congratulate you on all of your hard work.  More importantly, I applaud the very obese men and women who have the inner strength to wear spandex and face the grouchy naysayers head on.  YOU ARE MY HEROES!

Reality vs Reality TV

Kevin Smith and the Secret Stash team

I read this blog today and it made me think. Here it is: Nerd Trader   Please, check it out when you are done here.I am a reality TV junkie.  From Survivor to Tableop to Project Runway and everything in between, I love it.  I have some limitations.  I can not get behind what my mom calls trash TV which includes Honey Boo Boo, Teen Mom or The Real Houswives (shhh I love New Jersey-that is our secret). If it is a new show I will watch it and see.   There are too many shows to name these days but I can honestly say I have tried most if not all for at least one episode.  There are plenty that I turned off during the first episode.  What happened to Real World anyway?  They were strangers living in a house.  They all had jobs or had to get jobs.  Now is is all about hooking up...I miss the old Real World....remember Real World Road Rules Challenge?  That was cool too. (sorry went of on a tangent).

I love the standard do a project and compete with the other contestants.  Think Project Runway, Top Chef and half of what is on the Food Network these days.  Your product is judged and if it sucks the worst, you are kicked off of the show.  To me this is a great formula.  Then you have the style of Big Brother The Bachelor and Survivor where the cast themselves chose the person who is going home.  With all of these I am sure the producers are in the ears of those doing the kicking off, trying to push their own agendas or what they think will make for better TV.  But, other than that, there seems to be a bit of honesty in the process of kicking people off, either way it is done.  The production comes across in the background if at all.  Perhaps that is why I love them all (not this season of Big Brother though, it SUCKS so bad I quit watching a month ago). Dude, Big Brother is sooooo bad this season it leaves the horror of last season in the dust.  At least I tuned in last year to see what racist homophobic rant any one of the cast were going to dive into.  This season Allison Grodner has a very obvious crush on Frankie Grande and has rigged several phases of the show to benefit Frankie.  This is not what the game is about.  There have been questionable production interventions in the past but this is so blatant is is obnoxious and ruins the heart of the game. (sorry another tangent).

There are some shows that play to my core interests, Heroes of Cosplay, Face/Off, Toy Hunter and Comic Book Men to name a few.  I have problems with Toy Hunter and Comic Book Men.  These shows are predicated on buying and selling of goods.  While I like the casts and LOVE Kevin Smith, I do not like the whole premise of buying and selling.  Unlike the folks in Pawn Stars, American Pickers and Storage Wars, I really like the entire cast of both shows. Jordan, and The Secret Stash crew are all nice and do not come across as total greedy asshats like so many of the others. That combined with the fact that they are all so brilliant in their vast knowledge makes these shows easy to watch.  I just have problems seeing these as reality at all.  Seriously, I don't.  I mean really, how many brilliant scores can you truly have with the cameras rolling?  Not that many unless they are staged.  I get it I do, you are making a TV show and have to make it interesting.  I am not going to say a whole lot about them because they are relatively new and maybe I am just bitchy.  I hope both continue to run for several more seasons.  The casts of both are entertaining so you should check them out and see what you think. (and Kevin Smith is Hot--Jordan is not too bad either)

Jordan Hembrough