I told you, "I DON'T LIKE STAR WARS!"

'SUP, NERDS?!

May is Star Wars month and I conveniently finished a new cosplay in time for the 4th. But why celebrate Star Wars when I'm not a superfan? Well, I just really love Kylo Ren. I present to you: Kylo Riz.

Although my blogs are not up-to-date with my first-time Star Wars reviews, I have seen them all with the exception of Solo since it is so fresh and I work waaaaay too much to visit a theatre right now! In fact, I was inspired by taking my friend to The Last Jedi for his birthday to create a Kylo Ren cosplay. I uttered to my friend once the credits rolled, "I'm going to marry Kylo Ren." We parted that evening and I haven't seen him since. Pretty sure I scared him away.

Purchased my corset at a local
adult store one of my besties works at.

Goodbye, Spring

A week later I was browsing the mall and saw a decent cross-guard light saber in the clearance bin. I had to buy it, immediately ordered the helmet and I fell into a downward spiral sewing this cosplay. Overall Kylo Ren wears a simple outfit. I based the robe off of McCall's M7422 and winged the rest of the costume.

As usual, I have little interest in making accurate cosplay and enjoy putting my own twist on things. I decided to make a femme Ren with a little bit of sex appeal. I would love to sew my own, but I purchased a black corset to wear beneath. Then I sewed a simple skirt with a quilted-look as his clothes are in The Last Jedi. I figured I could do a Force Awakens look with the robe and be able to shed a layer and still be the character in this hot, humid place I live in called Florida.

The bolero was a pain in the ass, but definitely the most technical and rewarding piece of the cosplay. I found a couple of patterns and made altercations to get a certain look and cut. After losing a week of my life to ironing and pleating, I made multiple mock ups with scrap fabric, wincing as I cut my hard pleating work, smacking it together to make the bolero.

The wig was purchased through Epic Cosplay in hectate. This is my first ever lace front wig and it was extremely comfortable. I didn't have to worry about readjusting anything the whole evening, even in the absence of wig tape or spirit gum. After wearing the wig for some 8 hours, there were only minor tangles.

May the 4th & meeting the community

The lovely Caity Jane. She's frickin awesome.

I created this cosplay with the intentions of debuting it at ACen 2018, but due to this wonderfully unexpected burst of motivation, I finished the cosplay with plenty of time to detail it for May the 4th. So what did I do? Go out to the bars and enter costume contests!!

I'm extremely glad that I went out because I managed to meet a ton of SWFL cosplayers, a community I haven't even delved into since moving to SWFL last summer. I don't really know why I haven't sought out cosplayers prior to this event, but I think it comes down to not creating anything new (until recently of course) and working... like all the time.

I met Seraphima Cosplay who hosted a fun event at Millennial Brewing Co. Super sweet people. Seraphima and friends spent a lot of time taking photos with patrons and their children. The weekend prior they dressed as the Avengers for the latest film premier. I love how invested they are in the community and making their cosplay events family-friendly.

The first minute I walked into Millennial Brewing, Caity Jayne Cosplay ambushed me exclaiming, "PLEASE TAKE PICTURES WITH ME NOW!!!!" I was a bit overwhelmed after hauling all my gear in, but dove straight into shooting some phenomenal photos of us dueling. She makes such a good Rey. Her eagerness to get to know more about me made me feel immediately included within the group.

I like to think we represent the new wave of Star Wars hotties really well.
11/10 waifu material in my book.
Photo Credit: Seraphima Cosplay

I also got to spend some time with another local, Okami Cosplay, who dressed as RTOJ Luke Skywalker. After the event, he and Caity Jayne inducted me into their cosplay family, an honor I gladly accepted! Hopefully I'll see a lot more of them this summer at events and other conventions. Unfortunately I missed out on Megacon, which was the weekend following ACen due to work conflict and spending so much at ACen as well. I know Megacon is Florida's largest convention and pretty much everyone I met attended!

le dramu d'cosplay

I ended the evening attending another costume contest at *redacted bar that doesn't deserve any publicity*, which left a sour taste in my mouth. I'm very well aware that Halloween and general costume contests for the public are not based on the merit of artist's work-- the artist being either you or you commissioning someone to make it. However, my blood is still boiling because what was supposed to be a costume contest was soiled by an asshole wearing a t-shirt.

I found my grand-pappy... in biker gear! :>

Due to mass popularity (or just having extremely obnoxious screeching friends) a woman entered a costume contest only wearing a Star Wars graphic tee and ended up winning first place. Although this wasn't a huge contest, everyone that otherwise entered were wearing stuff they created or custom ordered. I felt incredibly disrespected because--do I even need to explain myself?? How does someone win a costume contest not wearing a costume?

I'm never upset in any way if I ever enter a contest and not win because I sew for myself, just for fun. However, someone not even in costume winning is preposterous and disrespectful to even those that put the effort and money into to even buying a costume. I do feel vindicated because a bunch of people came up to me at the end of the contest much more upset than I, calling bullshit to the judges!

Upcoming Designs

Thank you for enduring my rant, but overall May the 4th was awesome. I've never had so much fun participating in a silly little holiday until now and I met so many good people that cosplay with the best intentions, despite having an icky experience at the end of the night.

Unfortunately my goal to was to create more than one costume in time for ACen, but I will be showcasing future cosplays once I finish them this summer. I've got three separate outfits in various states of being finished but at least I was able to assemble Kylo Riz. My next major project is going to be a completely original design and persona I'm developing for an event in early July... I cannot wait to showcase it, it's gonna be epic!

LATER, DWEEBS!

Loverly Liz

"N Captain, My Captain" by Malcolm Terzich

Kevin Keene is not exactly a household name these days. Actually, it’s rather niche and obscure. If you were to go to any random gaming convention and ask your average cosplayer who Captain N is, the odds of them giving a correct answer is between slim and not at all. So how does someone end up embarrassing himself in front of a live audience after deciding to embody a character hardly anyone knows?

To start out, I should probably explain who exactly is Captain N. Back in the day there was a widely popular gaming magazine called Nintendo Power that filled buyers in on upcoming products, gave tips and tricks and even had some fun entertainment content added in there.

One of those goofy things was an attempt by Randy Studdard to give Nintendo a new fictional spokesman known as Captain Nintendo. Shortly after launched a TV series (1989) by DIC Entertainment and a comic book run (1990) by Valiant Comics called Captain N: The Game Master. The premise involved a kid, Kevin Keene, who was sucked into Videoland to team up with your favorite Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) characters and his elite gaming skills to prevent the forces of Mother Brain from seizing control.

I wouldn’t even be born until just after the show’s run was over, but I grew up on the reruns and saw Kevin in my parent’s old Nintendo Powers. Despite missing the NES era, my parents had everything from the launch of both the system and the magazine. I probably ended up playing more from that generation than the ones that actually launched during my youth. Due to this, I grew quite fond of a character that none of my contemporaries even new.

Flash forward nearly two decades and I find myself at the ScrewAttack Gaming Convention. I hadn’t done any cosplay since high school, but I’ve become a regular attendee to SGC. Up to that point, I have never cosplayed at a convention. I made some costumes for some Halloweens and other personal events. I’ve worn Link many of times when I was young due to my vibrant blonde hair and small stature. Plus, the character is just downright awesome. Still, conventions seemed to be where cosplay was encouraged the most and for some reason, I just wasn’t participating.

And then I started. I wasn’t exactly in a rush to cosplay again. I tend to be methodical about whatever I do in life. My original plan was to make a few outfits before wearing any. I have never, and still never, planned anything professional, though I’m somewhat of a perfectionist and play just as hard as I work. I wanted a different costume for each day so I could change my clothes. I was going to make a new Link outfit (A Link to the Past), Cloud Strife (Advent Children) and Captain N. Then, like pretty much any plan I ever make, things changed.

Literally weeks after I started planning out costumes again, ScrewAttack put up a video called The Best Video Game Cartoon EVER! where Stuttering Craig basically told people to cosplay as Kevin Keene. Even my brother said, “F&@# your dumb plan, you’re Captain N -this- year.” At this point, I couldn’t exactly say no.

It was a fairly easy cosplay to make, yet I won’t lie… it hurt a bit inside to strip the NES Zapper and controller down for props regardless of being inoperable. It was almost sinful, but nothing else would cut it. I wanted that authentic feel. I’m still upset that on such short notice I couldn’t get myself a real letterman to put an N patch on, though the jacket I ended up with had more of a cartoon aesthetic anyhow.

We finally roll up into SGC and… like I thought, almost no one knew who I was. There were a couple, but they were either SA staff or my friends from the community. Several people actually thought I was a Pokemon Trainer. I’d sarcastically reply, “Yeah, I’m sort of a Master.” It was pretty exciting when Andre Meadows (Black Nerd Comedy) asked me for a photo. Usually, it is the other way around with people of any notoriety.

On the last day of the convention, I eventually ran into Craig. He had promised a hug to anyone cosplaying Captain N. Somehow instead I ended up as labor. As soon as I see him, he turns and asks, “Hey, could you lend a hand for a minute?” He needed help unloading boxes and stuff from his car for the game show he was running later that day. I’m never one to turn down helping someone when I can, so I rustled up my group and we hauled it all backstage. Little did I know that this wouldn’t be the extent of my participation with the said game show.

Later, as we stood in line, Craig and Bryan come walking up to me dressed to the nines in white suites. They asked a lot of questions about where I was from and what my favorite game was. It was at this point that I put two and two together: I’m gonna be on Stuttering Craigs Game Show of Awesomeness.

The entire experience was a mess from the moment I was called up on stage. First thing first, Craig was exhausted from running around all weekend so I don’t blame him, but I had to correct him on an important matter. It went something like:

Craig: “Kevin Belmont is one of my favorite characters”

Me: “You mean Kevin Keene.”

Craig: “Are you sure that his name?”

Me: “Well, it’s been a few days since I binged the show again in preparation.”


Next came the question. You know, like how in Let’s Make a Deal there is that easy bit first before the deal comes up. I thought it was an easy question up until I heard the audience boo my answer in unison. The question: What was the first game to feature the classic Konami Code?

In retrospect, I could see the confusion. The code is often referred to as the Contra Code and Contra was one of the multiple choice answers. Well, it was a good thing I was picked instead of most of that audience. Luckily for me, I was an avid viewer of G4TV and on one of the shows, likely Icons, they revealed the history of the Konami Code. The correct answer was Gradius. Everyone instantly grew silent when I was correct; it was like they questioned everything they knew.

Remember how I said earlier that I embarrassed myself in front of a live audience? Being the arrogant man I am, I, of course, took the challenge after correctly answering my question. To go with the question itself, I had to beat the first level of Contra with only three lives. Genuinely easy for any avid gamer, but I blew it after more than one second shot. I hadn’t touched the game in almost a decade by then and I’m always used to doing stupid things like “get to the stage boss without killing any of the minions.” I completely forgot to shoot most of the time in a game when there is never a reason to not be shooting.

In the end, I dropped the ball. I got a nice consolation prize pack out of it though: A couple t-shirts (one not even available anymore at the time) and some ScrewAttack DVD collections. I’ve worn the costume a few times since, but I haven’t really updated it or done any other cosplay since. I don’t even really go to conventions like I used to. But I’m glad I decided to be Kevin Keene for that day.

---

Malcolm Terzich is a writer, researcher, and adventurer who is passionate about science, history and literature. He is also the creator of Ex Dynamis Chaos, which wraps up neatly all those interests into a world a madness and those who tame it.

You can find him on FaceBook and on Twitter @immadametal.

"Isle of Dogs" & "The Cat Returns" DOUBLE FEATURE

'SUP, NERDS?!

I would be honestly less mad if they did
a remake of Best in Show starring Arnett.
Best in Show IS A MUST WATCH!

Long time no movie blog. Recently I watched Isle of Dogs and The Cat Returns in the theatre and a thought occurred to me: Pet movies suck, but neither of these do! So today we're delving into what makes both of these films stand above other animal movies.

I love animals, but not pet movies

As a child I watched plenty of animal movies... but none of them grew up with me except for anything Disney. Maybe if we consider fine specimens like Jaws or The Birds, I don't see much of an appeal for most animal movies above the age of 10.

It hurts to see actors I love such like Will Arnett performing in the upcoming children's movie, Show Dogs. From the trailers I've seen, it doesn't look too great. It is such a shame when awesome talent isn't used to fuel entertainment that can be enjoyed by both children and adults. He is most likely stuck in some sort of dumb Hollywood contract, but I honestly don't mean to disrespect any actors since crappy movies do pay the bills.

I would consider The Secret Life of Pets a good pet movie. It really impressed me despite being a Toy Story rip-off. All the animals had such colorful personalities that went beyond emulating stereotypes and there were realistic dynamics between the characters.

I can't believe how invested I was during The Secret Life of Pets...
and admittedly Minions too, but that's a story for another day.

Relatable human drama and conflict in animal movies distinguishes the good from the abysmal. The ridiculous storylines and characters as seen in Cats & Dogs (which I consider an incredibly bad movie) are nowhere close to mirroring the real relationships between humans and animals. When a movie is made to solely be a spectacle for children because LOOK! Animals!!, all soul is lost.

Isle of Dogs

Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs is certainly a treat. As most of you should know by now, I'm obsessed with animation and Anderson delivers a unique story told via stop-motion and scruffy pups. Isle of Dogs takes place in the not-so-distant future Japan where all dogs are sent to Trash Island due to a rise in threatening illnesses they carry.

Dogs are already precious to begin with... but the figures
in stop-motion was doggo eye candy every second of the film.

The film focuses on two major conflicts: the dogs helping Atari, a young boy who searches for his own pup, and the political tension of Megasaki City. I honestly found the politics much more interesting considering the primary antagonist, the mayor, is also Atari's uncle who sways favor into exiling the dogs rather than invest resources into curing them. There are layers of deception that later prevent a known cure to reach the public. A band of pro-dog high schoolers work to unearth the political corruption in Megasaki City, led by an American exchange student.

The Cat Returns

The Cat Returns sits in my top 5 favorite Studio Ghibli movies, so it was a thrill for me to see it on the big screen. The story revolves around a high school girl named Haru who saves a cat's life. Unbeknownst to her, the cat is actually a prince... of the Cat Kingdom!

As a thanks for saving his son, the king of the Cat Kingdom offers Prince Lune's hand to Haru and she is swept into their world with her chubby escort, Muta, followed by a living cat-statue, Baron Humbert von Gikkingen. Haru slowly transforms into a cat while she is inaugurated into this strange world. Of course she returns to the human world by the end of the film, but Haru's personal growth and the Baron's charm take center stage above all other characters and themes.

Human Appeal

Aside from connecting with the political events that take place in Megasaki City, there is human appeal in the dog world. In most animal movies, there is a strong sense of love and companionship between the pet and the owner, but it's usually forced and feels artificial for the sake of making the themes and story apparent to children. 

Isle of Dogs displays the love between man and dog in Atari's quest to find his furry companion, Spots. The gradual role reversal between Chief (a stray) and Spots is the greatest demonstration of character growth in Isle of Dogs. Chief's slow progression into liking and defending the boy melted my heart while unveiling the mystery of Spots. Spots deciding to become a stray and fend for other dogs was bittersweet. He denounces his role as a guardian to his master and hands over the title to Chief, who never anticipated being a pet. Spot's rationale and struggle to make this decision etched his personality, making this scene incredibly powerful.

In The Cat Returns, the Cat Kingdom mimics human society. However, this story could have been told a multitude of ways without the aid of cats-- but they make this new world feel foreign as the film relies on the adventure to develop Haru. I don't want to portray the film as lazy or bad for using a cat-themed template, but I think the familiarity of cats and the wonder about what our pets do while we're not around makes the movie feel magical.

Haru saving Prince Lune.

By Haru's act to save a cat at the beginning, it establishes her kindness towards animals, however she is lost as a person. She doesn't know what she wants and feels so average that she doesn't stand out in any way. The human aspect of the film delves into Haru's growing confidence with Baron pushing her to just believe in herself. I would say that The Cat Returns is more of a coming of age movie about Haru gaining a sense of self than being about animals.

CONCLUSIONARY STATEMENTS

Alright, I'm sure I skimmed over a bazillion animal and pet movies... but to reiterate my original point: they stink (at least most of them do). But the ones that stand out are unique in the fact that they can capture the hearts of adults too. Not all animal movies are meant for children nor are they all meant for adults. The ones that can meet in the middle are honestly the best.

Are there any animal or pet movies you particularly love? Would you consider them for a certain age group or do they appeal to large number of people?

LATER, DWEEBS!

Loverly Liz