Tag: Star Trek

1 Day to Dragon*Con: A Melisandre Sneak Peek and More!

· Leave a comment ·

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!

20 Days to Dragon*Con: Band Profile, Pandora Celtica

· 4 Comments ·

Pandora Celtica describes itself as (okay, deep breath here),  “a dark faerie Celtic acappella band from the land of dreams and myth. The Queens and Kings of the Fae have ordered the creation of our band that we may be a beacon of magic and high art in the mundane realms, both for the mortals and for you, our fellow Bright Beings, who make your home here.”

Hoo boy.  Okie dokie then.

I think examples like Pandora Celtica are why con-goers and nerds in general can sort of be given the side eye–IT IS SO WEIRD.  I enjoy keeping a foot in many different worlds, and a lot of people don’t even know that I’m a nerd until I open my mouth and start dropping obscure Star Trek references, but some nerds (like the members of Pandora Celtica) seem fine with keeping themselves firmly in nerd-land.  Which is cool, really, but I think the world is vast and varied and so I like the experience all sorts of different things, and I find that if I call myself “only a nerd” then people might put me into a little box.  BOXES ARE LAME.  Maybe I am putting Pandora Celtica into a box, but with a description like that how can you not?  Also, at a certain point I believe that men just need to cut their hair.  Sorry (not sorry).

ALSO THE WEBSITE IS ALL IN COMIC SANS AND COMIC SANS IS A TERRIBLE FONT IT IS ALMOST AS BAD AS PAPYRUS.  Ungh, comic sans is just such a disaster.

I know, I haven’t even listened to their music yet.  Truth: that description has already biased me against the band. Aside from the over-earnest fae stuff, the acapella band is just…I can’t.   I stopped liking acapella after I left college (because every college has an acapella group, yeah?)–not a comment on talent, mind you, because there are many talented acapella groups.  Just, again, not my thing.   Like, I’m sure there’s some irony in all of this, it is just hard to see on the internets.  I mean, I hope there is some irony?  Please have some good, healthy, self-aware irony?  Who knows.  Here is their Dragon*Con profile if you are interested.

All right.  Let us listen to some music.  Sigh.

So Ren-Fest.

Oh-so Ren-Fest.

So, that’s them hosting ModernPagan.TV, which I think tells you all you need to know.

Yeah, this just isn’t for me guys.  This is sort of like the Marc Gunn post: I acknowledge what Pandora Celtica does, I respect that other people like it, we are all entitled to our own opinions, and this music just isn’t to my taste: my opinion is “NOPE.”

Talking points:

–“HAIL TO THEE BRIGHT BEINGS.”

—Fairy faerie acapella band.

–So Ren-Fest.  SO REN-FEST.

Two thumbs down.  Beware the sparkly fairy magic.

37 Days to Dragon*Con: Space Bonnet of Awesomeness (A Very Durham Night)

· Leave a comment ·

Dragon*Con might only be once a year, but I try to get my weird kicks in whenever I can.  Halloween‘s an obvious choice, but Durham–being its fun, funky self–provides plenty of opportunities to nerd out a bit.  This past weekend my college friend Nora was visiting, and I did my best to show her all the quirks that Durham had to offer.  Luckily the Scrap Exchange, our local non-profit creative re-use center that provides aisle after aisle of stuff that you can turn into crafty fun, was having its annual Scrap a Go-Go benefit at Motorco, and the theme was 60s science fiction and space.  The night promised food trucks, bands, a make and take station, and a silent auction.  Also, costumes were encouraged.  I’m a huge fan of Scrap Exchange (sort of a crafter’s dream, really), and also space, and also food trucks, so to Scrap a Go-Go we went!

None of us really had any costumes, so I just threw on some green eyemakeup and green lipstick and a Star Trek pin and loaned some Star Trek earrings to Nora.  We figured we’d make some space accessories once we got to Motorco.

The Scrap Exchange had set up a number of tables and barrels with tin foil, plastic lab equipments, cut up pool noodles, scissors, tape and many other weird, “spacey” things with which one could make a space accessory.  Nora made a space bonnet of awesomeness, Jon made these rocket shoulder things that at one point ended up on his head.  I just made a head band because I am bad at crafting things like this and also I had green lip stick, so I felt like I was representing.  We spent an inordinate amount of time crafting, because making things is awesome.

(more…)

43 Days to Dragon*Con: Levar Burton, Part II

· 3 Comments ·

In 2010, on 43 Days to Dragon*Con, I wrote this post about Levar Burton.

Last week, io9 posted an article about an interview they did with Levar Burton.  They talked about Star Trek and they talked about Reading Rainbow. but most importantly they talked about Burton’s greatest regret regarding aspects of Geordi La Forge‘s personality that were not explored:

“His sexuality.”

Yes, Burton was pretty bummed that Geordi never really got any.  I don’t blame you, dude!  I mean, even Wesley got some, with that weird shape-shifter lady AND with Ashley freakin’ Judd!  You know your mojo is gone when Wesley Crusher of the Magic Sweater bests you with the ladies.

Geordi La Forge
Don’t take it so hard, Geordi, we all know you’re packing.Geordi La Forge (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Speaking of Wesley Crusher, ladies’ man, I assume you have all read Wesley Crusher: Teenager Fuck Machine, right?  No?  You haven’t?!  Well, get on it, bitches.

Wesley Crusher
Wesley Crusher would like to go where no man has gone before. In bed. Wesley Crusher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)