Dress-Up Time: Omaha Comic Con This Weekend!

I'm prepping for Omaha Comic Con (O-Con) happening this weekend. Last year's was my first official Con (don't ask me why it's taken this long for me to get to any kind of Con; wait until you hear about all the Ren Faires I've never been to...), and I'm going for a little dress up this year. That means it's costume building time.

And who, you might ask, is the character in question...?

Zazie Beetz as Domino in Deadpool 2
Source

Yup. Domino from Deadpool 2.

I needed a character I could pull off with minimal effort, and Domino seemed like a good fit...

I'm laughing at myself right now, because minimal effort doesn't exactly fit in my vocabulary when it comes to projects. I seem to have an "eyes are bigger than my capacity to make something" mentality when it comes to such ventures, and I always pay the price. Most of the time, it's worth it regardless of time and effort sunk in, but there are times I wonder...like now, as I have so many other things going, including painting two pieces for an art show that opens the following weekend. (If you want to know more about that, check out the Totems Art Show page on Facebook) So, yes, expect pics, but don't expect anything fancy. At this point, I'll be impressed if I can get it put together in time, hah.

This also means I'm a little lax on posting right now until these couple weeks are up. I should still be able to get some "Behind the Screen" posts up for the next couple of weeks, but my more in-depth posts have gone by the wayside for now.

I'll have more happening in August and into the Fall, so stay tuned, and stay shiny!

Quote:

"Lady Luck, take the wheel."

~Domino, Deadpool 2

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Title: Deadpool 2
Based on: Deadpool comics; Domino comics for character
Released: May 18, 2018
Genre: Superhero / Comic Book
Director: David Leitch
Writer: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Ryan Reynolds
Music: Tyler Bates
Actors/Actresses: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Brianna Hildebrand

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Groundhog Day: A Movie About Second Chances...and Third...and 432nd...

In older times, tribes, villages, and towns, followed the seasons using nature's cues as to when to perform certain duties. Observing when certain plants appeared, or herds of animals migrated into or out of the area were a clock different than the hands that meter out every second of our modern day. It worked rather well; those kinds of deadlines actually meant something - because knowing when to plant crops meant the difference between eating and dying - whereas today...well, a lot of times we're just counting down the seconds until...what, exactly? Until the next presentation? Or sale? Or disturbingly short vacation time? Do you ever wonder if we're doing it wrong? If we lost something in our fervor to move on from the past? After all, the rest of nature had been getting by with those same clocks for millennia.

Now, sure, these observations get a little bit iffy, and at some point in the past, perfectly logical reasoning can often become insane ritual. Through the co-opting of tradition by conquering religions and cultures (not to mention the times when the past simply got it wrong), time can whittle away any sense of the past's logic and beauty till it appears ridiculous and comical, a grotesquerie of what it once was.

...And that's how you get to the point where you use rodents to tell you when winter will end. That's right. It's Groundhog Day. But Groundhog day may be more magical than we think.

Winter Movies: A Course in Survival

Well...it's over. The holidays and the mad rush that accompanies the last three months of the year, have given up the ghost for another nine months. The sparkly lights come down, the tree heads to the curb or the closet. And the elation and stress of the new year ebbs into a post-holiday malaise. 

Now, come this time, you fall into one of two categories:

• You love winter and will happily wallow in the icy darkness for its remaining months
• You've been wishing it was spring since October

I know of at least two people who may not have made it this far because they hate, nay, revile, winter so much. Perhaps next year, I will do a list of "warming" movies to get those folks through winter, but this year, I'm focusing on the wallowers. So, if winter makes you think of bleak cabins in the mountains, AT-ATs destroying shield generators, and gothic noir...and that doesn't depress you, read on....

Thanksgiving: The Perfect Time ....to Sit on Your Ass [EDIT]

Ah, Thanksgiving. It's a time for feasting. Family. Parades...at least in every Thanksgiving movie you've ever seen.

...wait. What Thanksgiving movies? Are there any?

It is my not so humble opinion that there is, in fact, a dearth of Thanksgiving-themed movies. That is not necessarily a bad thing. It does make the concept of a Thanksgiving movie playlist, however, a little bit harder to pull off. I shall endeavor to achieve this goal.

Now, if you have been reading this blog since its inception at the beginning of October, then you probably read my post on October/Halloween movie-viewing. It was there that I actually began the "November" movie playlist with a number of ideas for the Day of the Dead, as well as a perfect Guy Fawkes Day suggestion of  V for Vendetta (again, humble). As such, I won't be reiterating those. The beginning of November, after all, doesn't really feel like the end of November, does it? Somewhere between Jack o'Lanterns and Turkeys, we shift inexorably into the "Holiday" season. Whatever stores had held out until the ghosts and goblins vacated are now in full swing with their rabid displays and "last-minute" sales pitches. Any semblance of normalcy will simply have to wait for another couple of months. So, it's sometimes hard to feel as though Thanksgiving even has its own identity as a holiday. It's almost more of an extension of the upcoming festivities, as the end of November railroads straight through the end of the year. And with the Ghost of Christmas Everything looming over our shoulder (even if one doesn't celebrate it), a bird with a death sentence can hardly be expected to pull focus, can it?

Another possible reason for the dearth of movies centered around this holiday is a decided lack of stakes. It's not a present-oriented holiday, like birthdays, or a candy-oriented holiday, like Easter; nor is it a particularly spiritual holiday (grace not withstanding). It is, in this day and age, a holiday centered around FOOD. There are several TV shows that have capitalized on this over the years, focusing on the homeless' lack thereof. Many times, it's an obvious bid on the part of the characters to look like good persons; most times, it almost always comes off a bit treacly. [How I Met Your Mother does a particularly obnoxious take on this, and I'm pretty sure that Growing Pains did about twelve episodes like this in the '80s.] In the end it doesn't feel like anything has changed, either in the characters, or in the viewer. The real issue of people struggling in life gets shunted aside in favor of momentary character development that doesn't stick. Christmas does this, too, though spiritual overtones are often shoehorned in to add some weight. So that might be part of the reason.

Oh, and let's not forget that whole indigenous culture appropriation and genocide. That could be part of it. Yeah.

Still, Thanksgiving is mostly a jump off holiday to get consumers going. The first round of holiday movies that will be in theaters through the end of the year are released. And let us not forget Black Friday, otherwise known as Satan's Asshole (no, wait, that's the DMV). So it's no wonder that Thanksgiving as a font of inspiration doesn't hit home for many. After all, by the time all is said and done, it's mostly just about the food and parades, isn't it? So bring on the food coma and hand me the remote. It's binge time....

Top Halloween Picks: A List For Just About Everyone [EDIT]

I've always sort of...shunned horror movies. Many of the plots carry the curse of formulaic contrivance. Rather than approaching things from a deeper psychological standpoint, too many focus on the two horror tropes I dislike most (Unnecessary Blood & Gore and the Jump Scare). On top of that, people are so stupid in these movies, that I find myself rooting for the monsters and serial killers. And what is up with the obsession with rape scenes? No, thank you. Worst of all, these movies still scare the bejesus out of me, no matter how crappy and unbelievable they are. And that means I suffer on multiple levels. [Je suis pas venue ici pour souffrir, ok?]

In fact, for the majority of my life, I could sum up my feelings about horror movies with this Eddie Murphy skit:

So I set out to do an alternative Halloween movie list, something for the non-horror movie fans like myself. But as I researched the movies I like, discuss, and would recommend at this time of year, I began to realize something: there are a lot of scary movies I do like. They may not be classified "horror," but they is most certainly an element of fear to them. More than that, I realized how connected to my fascination with darkness they are, and how my appreciation for them as an art form had grown since my younger years (you know, the ones where hiding under the covers with the tiny opening for air was still considered socially acceptable). The list kept getting larger, like some kind of blob monster. I had fallen down the ole rabbit hole, and this piece became one part sociological and historical treatise, one part incomplete "faves" list, one part anecdotal rambling...and one part referential metaphors.

...Which is pretty much how I talk, so... At any rate, I thought I'd warn you... like so many horror movies do right before everything goes terribly terribly wrong. Enjoy!

Fear: The Original Monster

Like for so many others, Halloween is my favorite holiday. That makes October my favorite month. Aside from All Hallows' Eve, October marks the true beginning of Autumn for the Northern Hemisphere. Leaves begin to turn in earnest. We go from the late summer heat of August & September to a crisp coolness and begin preparations for the long sleep of Winter. In short, the earth prepares for death.

For millennia, humans have celebrated the cycles of life on all sides of the planet. Autumn marks the final harvest and, while animals prepare for the long slumber of hibernation, plants enter their final stage of life. However, death is not the end. After the long sleep of winter, we have rebirth with the emergence of spring and a new breeding season. Early humans were aware of this and held rites to mark the various stages throughout the seasons. They celebrated and paid respects to the gods, ancestors, and plants and creatures that were a part of their very survival. Mostly, though, they told stories. These stories had everything: adventure, love, origins of the universe, heroes doing great deeds and making sacrifices, life and death....and fear.