Since it is taking me awhile to get my recap for Saturday at Dragon*Con up (look, I was at CenterFest from 6:30am-7:30pm tonight, so bear with me), I figured I’d at least post a few pictures of my new and improved Melisandre! This was taken by Lionel Lum, and I think it is pretty fantastic:
That’s me in the front! You can see some more photos from that shoot by clicking here.
I promise I’ll get back to my Dragon*Con recaps soon! Thanks for your patience!
1 DAY GUYS. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?! Time for a miscellaneous post of miscellany.
1) The Melisandre dress is ALMOST DONE. The neckline just needs to be hand-stitched, but I was able to get a shot of it almost completed today. It is SO BEAUTIFUL , I cannot WAIT to show it off at Con, and I cannot wait to put it on with the wig and the necklace and the belt. Seriously, so beautiful.
Yeah look at those sleeves, amazing right?!
2) If you want to be my Friend via the Dragon*Con app (and I love friends!!!) just let me know, and I’ll PM you a Friend Code, and we’ll all be friends, and it will be great. You can also follow me on Twitter, @Dilettantista, if you are social media-ish like that.
3) And now a series of video clips that make me happy. Many of these were included in the 2010 Dragon*Con Countdown but I don’t care, these re classics for a reason. And yes, many of these have a Star Trek tinge, so what?
Unngh isn’t it a bummer that Patrick Stewart isn’t coming? Whatevs, I’ll just reread how I talked to him at Dragon*Con 2009.
4) Last night I had a dream that I was eating lunch at Dragon*Con and Stan Lee sat with me, and he had a little fat dachshund mix named Alex with him, and in the corner someone was doing a Captain American — Melisandre multi-fandom costume, and it was all very perplexing and amazing and clearly my brain is very one track right now.
5) And then I just turned on The Today Show (like I usually do) and the ADORABLE two-face kitty was on, clearly it is a sign!!!
All right, back to work for me guys! I have costumes to finish and packing to do and so many preparations to make! And I’m also looking forward to making tons of new memories! Cheeeeeesy right?!
All right everyone, hang in there, one more dawn, one more day, one day more!
So I am leaving for Dragon*Con crazy-early Thursday morning and only just now managed to do my test-run for Melisandre hair, makeup, and costume. This is partly because the contacts didn’t arrive until last Friday (just in time!) and then I went to Charlotte for the weekend and then I picked up my costume in Raleigh on Sunday from Nancy (really just in time!) so this is the first time I’ve had all the parts together.
Red eyes y’all! Look at my red contacts! They are incredible in bright light and since I will be wearing this costume during the Dragon*Con parade I really think the effect is going to be fantastic.
The follow pictures are all just wig and makeup–some things need to be left as a surprise after all!
A large reason why things have been quiet blog-wise is because I am not attending Dragon Con this year (yes, they have lost the asterisk, read more about that here if you are interested). I know, I know, this is the worst. This decision is a combination of finances and schedule. The finances issue is part lack thereof, part my trying to get a reasonable amount of savings in order for both general emergency purposes and Honeymoon 2014. The schedule has to due with the Jewish High Holidays being crazy early this year, September 4-6 for Rosh Hashanah, September 13-14 for Yom Kippur, and also my not being able to take off work for Dragon Con *and* the High Holidays in the weeks before CenterFest. The combination of all these things has led me to make the responsible adult decision (boo) to not go to Dragon Con.
Naturally I am bummed out by this, and I’ve been even more bummed out recently since Comic Con just happened in San Diego, and since my Facebook feed is aflutter with Dragon Con costume-preparation statuses, and since I just got the Dragon Con 2013 progress report. I mean, I know in the end that this is the correct decision–my wallet and my sanity will thank me–but the past 4 summers I have looked forward to Dragon Con, and it just feels off to not have that this summer.
To compensate I’m going to endeavor to check out some smaller, local conventions this fall–namely the Escapist Expo and NC Comic Con. NC Comic Con is having a film festival at the Carolina Theatre (my favorite) and they are showing awesome movies, like The Crow, so of course I am there. Hoping these two local cons, and also Halloween, can help me get my costume uber-nerd fix.
In the meantime, here are some photos I have been meaning to post. I have Carolina Theatre connections through work, and in March I got an invite to the early-premiere of the first episode of this season of Game of Thrones. HBO came in, rented out the theater, provided swag, and had a little photo booth. Of course I pulled out my Melisandre costume, because when else am I going to wear it? Made for some fabulous photos at the Iron Throne green screen photo booth:
The last photo is of Nancy and me–Nancy made the dress, it was fun to hang out with her in a non-sewing studio setting!
Oh, and in case you were wondering, we set a wedding date (yay!)–June 22nd, 2014, in Sarasota, Florida. So, you know, I do have something for which to plan!
I know, I know, you’re mad, right? No apologies–I’ve been busy, and last weekend was my first weekend at home in something like five weeks, and I just wanted to sit on the couch and watch football, so I did, and it was fantastic. And now I’m finally going to get to wrapping up the 2012 Dragon*Con recaps, starting with a Game of Thrones photoshoot in which I participated on Sunday.
Sunday morning I woke up, dressed in Melisandre (check out this post where I give GIANT THANKS to the lovely and talented women who made this costume a reality), and traipsed over to the Hilton lobby to meet up with some other fantastic Game of Thrones costumers. Look at all those colorful people! This was a bunch of us assembled at the Hilton around noon to get the shoot started.
Oh wait, you want a close-up?
I am angry because you can sort of see my real hair from this angle, blergh.
Check out this girl’s amazing Quaithe costume:
Priestesses of Asshai!
I know you can’t tell, but all the nametags on this guy had variations of “MY NAME IS REEK” or “RHYMES WITH MEEK” and other things referring to Reek and A Dance with Dragons…so I won’t keep going because, spoilers!
And then we wandered outside the Hilton and I ran into the lovely Mary, who was quite fetchingly dressed as Morgana! Loved her costume.
So I somehow got pulled into a smaller Game of Thrones photoshoot with a professional(?) photographer (I think they’d lost their Melisandre and they needed another one), and that shoot sidetracked the Marriott for a bit:
Ghost came too.
Then we went outside to The Cigarette Courtyard where the photographer made me ruin my dress (not really, but in my head I was all: “BUT THIS IS AN ALAIA.”)
The Dilettantista 