Herion's Bow

Transformation

2011-04-25T20:05:00.013-04:00

I know, I know ... I have to finish taking pics (and video ... yes, I finally got a videocam!) of my HALO armor, I felt like doing something a little different and perhaps, a little easier than slipping into all of those layers and armor.

A realistic face mask.

I'm sure that you've heard of the guy - Conrad Zdzierak - who was convicted of robbing several banks in Ohio wearing a "Hollywood Quality" African-American mask. The mask was so good, that some guy's mother actually identified her son as the bank robber!

So I decided to get a hyper-realistic mask from Composite Effects. As I've said before, Wes Branton is an absolute pleasure to work with and we quickly came to a design based on his newly-released "Mac" mask. Tanned complexion. Chestnut hair. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to look like, so I sent him some pics. I wanted a high and tight like this:

With a thin, razor cut beard like this:

After I received it, I put it on and showed a couple of my LEO buddies. Needless to say, they were impressed. It was a total and complete transformation into a rather ominous bad-ass. I also added some accouterments to reinforce that somewhat sinister image:

septum crescent
Galco jackass rig (from Ebay - where else?)
solid plastic "practice" Glock 19 (sprayed with black Plastikote vinyl dye)

And it does look amazing. Thanks to Wes and his crew (particularly to Marissa for the incredible hairing job!), I have an amazing stone-cold alter ego to use.

HALO - foundations

2010-09-27T12:10:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'd be documenting the process of getting into the HALO armor, and the first step is the foundation layers.

The Body

Looking at the now-famous Master Sergeant picture, you need to have some type of skin-tight black layer that serves to cover you up and provide some contrast to the armor. The choices that we have are:

0.45mm or thinner latex catsuit
"Classic Suit" from Slickitup*
* This site may have content inappropriate to minors. Please view responsibly.
lycra one-piece dive suit
UnderArmour HeatGear compression shirt and leggings

Latex: HOT!

In terms of actual "look" - the latex catsuit would most be the best. It would also be the warmest, most expensive, and the worst looking if it did not fit exactly right. Not to mention the most difficult to get into and out of. A good latex catsuit would run at least $300 USD and would take at least 6 weeks to fabricate. Also, there are really no decent manufacturers in the States. The best ones are in either the UK or in Germany.

If you decide to pursue this alternative, some of the most reliable and accommodating vendors are:

Skin Tight Rubber (www.skintightrubber.com) - UK

Blackstyle (www.blackstyle.de) - Germany

Libidex (www.libidex.com) - UK

Get something between 0.45mm and 0.55mm. Anything thinner would not hold up.

It's "Slick", but ...

The SlickItUp "Classic" suit is extremely well cut and is made out of a coated lycra material that can either resemble leather or latex. Again, these are a bit on the pricey side (approximately $175) and they are really sold to be worn by themselves. Perhaps it's too well made to hide under the armor. I don't know how well the coating would stand up beneath the other base layers and rubbing against the rougher interior of the suit.

Back to Basics

The dive suit is designed to be worn in the water or underneath a wetsuit. It's meant to take a bit of a beating and is "breathable". UnderArmour HeatGear is very similar - well made, skin-tight ("compression fit") and is made to wick perspiration from your skin.

So I decided on purchasing a dive suit. The one I got was from PleasureSports. It's called a NeoSport by Henderson and was about $34. The big selling point for me was the fact that one of the options was to have a black suit with blue stripes, which would be a perfect accent for my suit. There are other ones out there with different colored stripes (or plain black) if you want to complement your armor color.

The Face

Again, we have a similar lineup of materials to choose from:

anatomical latex mask
anatomical lycra/spandex mask or dive hood
tactical balaclava

While we wouldn't have the same fitment issues with the latex mask as with a latex catsuit, the issue of heat buildup would still be there. I can tell you that the armor suit is a bit on the warm side, so unless you are going to be wearing this in cold weather, I'd pass on this option. Prices range from about $35-$60. One place that looked very promising was Eurocatsuits in the Czech Republic. The neck can be extended as much as needed.

I had an amazingly HARD time finding a spandex hood or even a dive hood. Everything was made of neoprene (the wetsuit material) and the few I came across had a very short neck. Or no eyes.

The important thing with the hood is to provide a seamless black transition from the body to the head. The HALO helmet does give some space between the armored shoulders and the head, so you don't want to have any skin peeking out.

That left the last option - the balaclava - and that was extremely easy to get. These are the type of hoods you see worn by SWAT or military personnel on a raid. Just do a search for "balaclava" in Google and you'll be presented with a wide range of ones to choose from. I got a UnderArmour HeatGear hood for $24.

Below is a pic with the balaclava and dive suit.

Bulking Up - MX Armor

Shawn also recommended that I use some MX armor to "bulk up" a bit beneath the HALO armor. As it happens, I have a Thor Impact Rig Special Edition. This item has poly-urethane shoulder caps with ram air vents, side-mounted zippers around the chest plate, molded foam panels, tension straps and elbow and forearm guards. It also comes with a removable kidney belt (which I did remove). Price is about $140. What's really great about this armor is its red accents on the shoulders. When I slip the HALO armor on, you see these two strips of blood red polycarbonate at the upper arm joint, which looks very, very intimidating - just the type of thing you'd expect from a super-soldier who takes every advantage he can of his enemy. Another nice feature of this suit is that the material on the shoulders of the Impact Rig act like the fuzzy side of velcro - the anchor strips for the upper arm pieces adhere very well to the Rig without any further work on my part!

What's also great about this MX armor is that it feels so good. It's snug without being tight, the shoulder, elbow and forearm protectors are well shaped and comfortable, and you look like a superhero just putting this on!

How's It Hanging? The Belt

In order to get the butt, hip and codpiece armor onto the suit, there is a velcro belt that you place the pieces onto. Be forewarned, however - this piece of material does not have the holding power to keep the thigh armor up and in place. The thigh armor has loops at the top that you slide the belt through; the armor is held in place just like a pair of fishing waders. Necessity is the mother of invention, so I grabbed a 1.5" black leather belt I got from American Eagle Outfitters and cinched it on. The belt has to go above your natural waistline, so make sure you have one that you can buckle very tightly. This isn't just holding up your pants!!

The velcro belt looks perfect going right over this.

Boots and Boot Covers

I had originally planned to use a pair of reef boots with the outfit, but when I received the boot covers from Shawn, I saw that I would have to wear either shoes or boots with laces. His covers have a metal "tongue" that slides into the lace-up area. This holds them down very tightly. A pair of black sneakers works best - for three reasons:

One, you have the thigh and lower leg armor on, it's a little difficult to sit and put on boots,
Two, you can't put the boots on earlier since you couldn't get the lower leg armor on over them, and
Three, the lower leg armor is so snug, you can't get boots under them!

Mars Attacks!!

2010-08-02T08:43:00.013-04:00

"Being a galactic overlord isn't the easiest of jobs. There's rebellions to quell, planets to crush beneath my heel and hell, even stars to make go super-nova.

The worst thing is - you've got to be 'on' constantly. Can't afford any slip-ups with the cutthroats and brigands I call my crew. That also includes looking my best all the time.

My beard was getting a little long and unruly so when my fleet entered the Sol system, I decided to give you humans a break. Even though I was feeling particularly cranky.

If I could find someone who could make my goatee look presentable, I'd allow your little blue-and-green planet a chance to join the Empire on their own, instead of enslaving the population as I was planning to do.

I may be ruthless and despotic, but I do keep my word. It's a point of honor with me. Just ask the inhabitants of Canopus IV ... oh, wait. You can't. I told them I'd blow up their planet if they didn't bow to my will. And they didn't.

But, hey - that proves my point, right? RIGHT?

I tracked down this Terran named "Russ Sharek" and I was mightily impressed by the fact that he didn't faint dead away when I teleported into his studio. I told him what I wanted and the stakes that were involved.

He got to work right away - and I *am* one happy conqueror. Beautiful, simple, elegant and quickly and skillfully done.

You've got Russ Sharek here to thank for your continued existence. And you'd better be nice to him ... OR ELSE."

Praxis
Commander and Overlord
Galactic Third Fleet
S'karian Empire

For the longest time, I've always wanted a really good looking, evil alien mask along the lines of Ming the Merciless from the old (and new) Flash Gordon productions. But I never found anything that quite fit the bill.

Then, I came across some of the custom creations from Wes Branton at Composite Effects, a special-effects studio out of Baton Rouge. What struck a chord with me was his creation of a blue genie reminiscent of the djinn from Aladdin:

So I explained what I wanted to Wes and he was more than happy to oblige. Like Andrea and Russ, it's a great feeling to find someone who's not only extremely talented and creative, but amazingly down-to-earth, with a killer sense of humor, and has a VERY firm grasp on customer service.

Wes and I can discuss a project and our back-and-forth produces an amazing result.

When I got the mask, I noticed that the beard was a little longer than I had wanted it - Russ, of course, being the completely twisted individual I know and love - came up with the idea of an "alien beard ornament" to keep the goatee in shape. So, I promised him a product shot. And a testimonial to go with it.

So, I can add Wes Branton to the short list of "amazingly capable artists" and more kudos to Russ for making a galactic despot a happy camper.

HALO - the saga begins

2010-07-18T18:24:00.017-04:00

Well, it's been a while.

Other things have been taking up a bit of my time, but that hadn't stopped me from pondering my next project.

And yes, that means getting another costume done. I still seem to be on my video game kick. First it was Chris Redfield from Resident Evil 5; now it's the Master Chief (or a Spartan II supersoldier) from the HALO series of games on the Microsoft xBox.

I came across several videos on YouTube with guys in HALO armor (though the proper term is 'Mjolnir Armor' ) - some of it was just plain sad and laughable, others were some damn impressive pieces that folks were wearing. I did try to contact one company - Nightmare Armor Studios - but the place went out of business. Several places offered do-it-yourself kits, but I don't have the time and inclination (or wide open spaces) to take on a project like that. Some of the places that offered full sets had a one-size-fits all policy (which from experience, never works) or were way to expensive.

For some historical background:

MJOLNIR battle armor is a fictional suit of battle armor in the HALO series of video games and novels used by the Spartan II super soldiers, most notably by the series's protagonist Master Chief.

This powerful armor has recharging energy shields, and a head link for AIs' (Artificial Intelligence).

In the 26th century, soldiers have used performance enhancing equipment for hundreds of years, and the MJOLNIR battle armor represents the current pinnacle of military technology. The armor was envisioned by Dr. Catherine Halsey, who realized that no normal human could wear the armor without literally shattering every bone in his body through a horrifyingly violent and uncontrollable chain reaction of muscle spasms; The armor endowed its wearer with a very powerful amplification of physical strength, to the point that a human without surgical augmentations and a lifetime of grueling physical training would be crushed by his own amplified strength. However, the Spartan II Project super soldiers are capable of using the armor with devastating expertise.

The suit of armor stayed in the "nice to have" category until I came across one of the best looking suits made by a Canadian FX company - FilmProps Inc. Shawn (the owner) had posted a few videos on YouTube and I was completely blown away by how professional the suits looked. Video link is here.

(I haven't had exactly great luck with Canadian vendors - long-time readers will remember my so-so Boromir clasps from Wareham Forge and my rusty scabbard from Darksword Armory)

So I contacted Shawn and we started to talk about the suit. He would make it to my measurements and I could have it in any color I wanted. The suit itself is made of a two-part polyurethane resin used for rotocasting. The material is poured in layers and cured in silicone molds to create thick, durable armor. It would include LEDs in the helmet as well as in the weapon. (weapon? Of course, I got a weapon!)

So I sent off a custom measurement chart to Shawn and let the project begin. I decided to get a medium-dark metallic blue with battle damage.

I must say, third time is the charm - Shawn was a pleasure to work with; he always responded to emails, always kept me up to date with the suit's progress and was good enough to pose in the armor for me before he boxed it up and shipped it. As it turned out, Shawn and I were approximately the same size, so this was an added bonus!

Here are some of the work-in-progress pics that he sent me.

I'll be posting more pics as well as the adventures I had getting into the suit the first time.

Housekeeping

2010-03-22T10:00:00.002-04:00

Due to the recent spate of comments that have nothing to do with the blog itself - from buying plasma TVs to colon-cleansing in more languages than you can shake a stick at ... I'm turning on comment moderation for the blog.

What does this mean?

This means that when someone posts a comment, I get a notification, and I can choose to "publish" it on the blog or throw it away. I can't edit the comment itself, only decide whether or not it should go into the circular file.

Apologies in advance.

Resident Evil 5 - Outtakes

2009-10-05T21:26:00.011-04:00

I had gone the lycra route with the shirt, but after I received it, I wasn't that happy with it. I always screw myself when I think I'm saving money - I should learn by now.

With that said, I tried the shirt on again and did a little bit of original interpretation of the Chris Redfield character with it.

Looking at it once more, it really isn't too bad ... what do you think?

Resident Evil 5 - Chris Redfield

2009-09-23T18:52:00.010-04:00

I walk past a Gamestop store every day to and from work. One day, they had a picture of this incredibly striking character for the Resident Evil 5 game. After a bit of research, I found out that the person I was seeing was Chris Redfield.

The game begins as Chris Redfield is deployed to Kijuju, Africa, to join Sheva Alomar and apprehend Ricardo Irving, who is attempting to sell a bio-organic weapon on the black market. Along the way, they witness a local being fed a parasite, which quickly takes control of his body, turning him into a Majini. From here on, almost all Kijuju locals seen by Chris and Sheva have been turned into Majini. While moving to the location of Irving's deal, Chris and Sheva find Alpha team dead, except Captain DeChant, who gives them a hard drive containing data about Irving before he dies.

As the duo progress, a friendly helicopter is downed, and all nearby BSAA units are ordered to go to the crash site. At the crash site, the duo is ambushed by Majini on motorcycles, but are then saved by Delta team. Among Delta team is Josh Stone, who gives Chris data from a hard drive that contains a picture of Jill Valentine, his old partner, who was presumed dead after a confrontation with Albert Wesker. Chris and Sheva continue, and eventually confront Irving. During this confrontation, a hooded figure arrives to aid Irving's escape. Irving leaves behind files which indicate that an oil field in the Marshlands, which was used to test out bio-organic weapons, is the deal location. The duo report this to headquarters, then attempts to regroup with Delta team. Upon arriving at the rendezvous point, they find that Delta team has also been defeated by a bio-organic weapon, but Sheva can't find Josh among them. After defeating the bio-weapon, Sheva suggests reporting back to HQ, being the two sole survivors, but Chris expresses an interest in finding out if Jill is still alive. They continue on to the Marshlands, eventually finding Josh alive, and when he asks what happened to the rest of Delta team, Sheva tells him, "We're the only three left". They pursue Irving on a boat, but he escapes again and the oil field is blown up while the two escape with Josh on a speedboat. The trio locate and catch up to Irving's boat, and Chris and Sheva board it. Irving confronts the duo, and then injects himself with a virus, which causes him to mutate into a gigantic beast. Chris and Sheva defeat the mutated Irving, who is detached from the gigantic beast body, and upon death, he tells Chris that he will find answers to his questions in a nearby cave.
The outfit itself was interesting - white, black and OD green shirt, carpenter-type jeans, black gloves, hiking boots, a harness of some sort and some other accouterments. Plus an automatic pistol and a tactical earpiece/microphone.

Sounded easy, right? I thought the only difficulty I'd have was the shirt. And you know how I love a challenge ...

I was wrong.

The Easy Pieces

I already had the hiking boots and I also had a pair of Hatch Specialist gloves. All I needed to do with them was to slice off the fingers. I found a perfect earpiece/microphone from a dollar store. The item was wired to fit into a phone, so again, out with a pair of scissors to finish it off. I also had a military web belt and a drop-leg holster from a previous costume.

Chris also appeared to have a cellphone on his belt. I found a great beat-up Nextel phone and a holder for it on eBay. Total price, including shipping - $7.50. Officer Redfield also appeared to have some round thingie on his belt loop. A carabiner compass took care of that. Ebay again, $3.00.

So far so good!

Chris also appeared to have some magazine pouches on his belt. Those I didn't have, and trying to legally get any type of firearms equipment in New York City is harder than finding hen's teeth. A number of my friends are police officers, so I crossed by fingers and called up one of my buddies.

"Hey Steve, do you have any spare Glock magazines?"

A pause. "What do you want magazines for? You don't have a gun ..."

I explained what I needed them for and he laughed. "I'm pretty sure we have a couple of damaged ones we were going to throw out. Those good enough?"

"Perfect! They only have to look good in a mag holder!"

"You need one of those too?"

You don't ask, you don't get. "I'm looking for something that I can tuck into a pair of pants or on a belt."

"We've got some old paddle ones we don't use any more. I'll bring that over with the mags."

The pants that the character was wearing looked to be carpenter jeans. "OK," I thought, "those should be easy." Well, yes and no. It was easy to find carpenter jeans. It was not easy to find carpenter jeans in a 28" waist. {28" waist? Yep. Well ... I fill a 28" slim jean fits quite well ... All those extra ab exercises - reverse crunches, side planks, regular crunches, etc. are paying off handsomely -- including (unfortunately) to my tailor!} Plus carpenter jeans are loose fit jeans - the character had snug ones. So, off I went to American Eagle outfitters. I bought two pair of jeans on sale. I brought them to a dry cleaner/tailor I know and showed him the pictures.

"Can you add some extra material to reinforce the knee area and make a pocket?"

"End of the week okay?"

"Woo-hoo!"

The First (sort-of) Snag

The shirt patches posed somewhat of a problem. One patch each was being sold as part of a "Collector's Edition" of the Game for the Xbox-360. I did have some very high-resolution art for the patches and brought them to some local embroidery stores to get an estimate. They were quite cheap -- if I wanted to buy a hundred of them.

Nope.

Ebay, as usual, came to the rescue. About a week after the game was released, the patches starting appearing on the auction sites. I did need to spend a little more than I had expected for the patches (one I got for $10, the other for $12), but still, the progress on this outfit was coming along quite well!

The Shirt

Now that the patches were had, off to the shirt. I thought of getting some UnderArmour compression shirts and having Andrea sew the black and white pieces onto an OD green base shirt, but -- she doesn't work in lycra. Then the lightbulb went off - David.

David of the "300" Spartan leather Speedo fame.

I gave him a call and explained what I wanted - not a problem!! As with all of David's work, the leather shirt is a work of art. The added bonus here was his comments as he was measuring me - "You've really developed nice big shoulders and a very trim waist!" We've also added a slight bit of padding around the shoulders and on the sleeves; ONE - it smoothes the leather out a bit and TWO - it makes getting in and out of the shirt a LOT easier. The sides of the shirt have the four-way stretch mesh and a hidden zipper.

A hidden zipper?

Well, when we were going through the fittings, in order to get the shirt as snug as possible, there was no way to get it off once it was pinned on! David had to cut it off me! These are the little bows to reality that doing a costume like this takes.

The Second Snag - The Harness

I would have thought that this would have been an easy item to find, but all the searches for "tactical vest" or "military vest" or "SWAT" or "MOLLE" didn't find me what I was looking for. I even came across a pair of military suspenders that were close, but no cigar.

Then I found something from K2 Scuba that was exactly what I was looking for. Perfect down to the connectors on the front. In speaking with both the owner Tevis and his incredibly talented sales rep Summer, I found out that the harness needed a backplate to go with it. After all, it is supposed to support an air tank! Nevertheless, a little bow to reality was in order. I was also pleasantly surprised when Summer and I were discussing what size harness I would need. After giving her the measurements, her response of "You're so buff!" was quite an ego-booster.

The "Big Knife"

Chris also appears to have a large Bowie or other type of knife on the harness on his shoulder. Looking at regular sites on the Internet, it came as a surprise that large knives aren't that popular. Swords are, but unless you're willing to spend a couple of hundred dollars (which I wasn't) there was none to be had. From some other screen captures of the game, it appeared that the "big knife" looked like some type of machete. But regular machetes are pretty big suckers, too - too big to wear on the harness.

So ... back to Ebay.
I found a "small machete" - about 16" long - which was perfect for the costume. Cost: about $40.

DOH!! and Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Now the hard part ... how to attach the scabbard to the harness/backpack? I thought ... magnets! Great idea! I got completely caught up with that idea and found some neodymium magnetic badge holders through a Google search. They were two-piece items -- one piece had adhesive on one side of a small metal plate, and the other piece had a metal plate with magnets. I figured I could attach the adhesive side on the leather scabbard.
After I placed the order, I smacked my head ... the backplate was aluminum! Summer and Tevis told me since it was for the costume, why go with steel? The aluminum plate is much lighter. True. But it's also non-magnetic.

Enter Sumo Glue. With this polyurethane glue, I was able to glue the plates holding the magnets to the aluminum backplate. The plain metal plates attached to the leather scabbard with the adhesive tape on them.

So ... what do you think?

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

2009-07-31T21:44:00.012-04:00

An avid reader of the blog recently sent me a sample pic of Jake Gyllenhaal as the title character of the soon-to-be released movie, "The Prince of Persia".

This is a interesting challenge!

A cursory glance at the outfit indicates that this would probably involve:

Andrea - for the pants and the sash
Russ - for the necklace, bracelet and possible accoutrements on the belts and vambraces - His response? "Hell, yes!"
David - for the belts
Reg - for the boot toppers, boot straps and vambraces with hand covers

I'm intrigued by the detailing on the vambraces and belts. They look quite detailed and abstract.

Sort of reminds me of the Trojan armor worn by Eric Bana in Troy.

I can also see Russ going full-tilt on the necklaces. This is the type of thing that looks extremely simple, but closer examination would uncover amazing details.

This is SPARTA!!

2009-07-06T19:29:00.006-04:00

I had a confluence of circumstances that created the "perfect storm" for doing the "300" shoot today ...

Day after the holiday
Nosy neighbors on both sides were either at work or not at home
Beautiful weather

So I set up the camera, and donned the armor, clasp and sandals from Joe, cape from Andrea, pendant from Russ and speedo and scabbard from David. After taking the shots, I think I probably should have done some more pushups and side planks before I started shooting, but nevertheless, I think they turned out well.

Renaissance Man

2009-06-08T16:13:00.012-04:00

I have always subscribed to the fact that Russ Sharek - artisan and jeweler extraordinaire - was a man of many talents. From Green Lantern rings to "300" Mede-killer medallions to Feanorian cufflinks, there wasn't a thing I could throw at him that he couldn't do. And with an exactitude bordering on the transcendent.

What I didn't know was that his artistic repertoire was not limited to physical reality.

Russ was recently an exhibitor at the D Art Slam and showcased some of his digital illustration works.

WOW.

The images are evocative, alluring and done with the same beautiful, artistic, refined and yes, rebellious energy that Russ brings to his other works of creation.

Bravo Russ.

BRAVO.

The link to his portfolio is at http://www.dare2dream.com/illustration

To move back in forth in the portfolio, use the navigation section to the right on his portfolio screen to move forwards and backwards in the collection. Russ will be offering the illustrations in limited-edition giclee prints as well as photographic reproductions.

The Shield of Boromir

2009-03-21T14:27:00.014-04:00

Good things come to those who wait ... and JJ came through with flying colors on the Boromir shield. As I mentioned before, we decided to use dish sleds since they were the almost perfect shape for the shield.

From the Weapons and Warfare book:

Like his sword, the shield that Boromir carried was of a singular design, so it would have been easily recognizable to his men when in combat. It's circular shape and simple design were reminiscent of a buckler, although it would have been too large to be worn on the arm when fighting two-handed. The wood frame had been dyed black and in its center was a large steel boss that was riveted to the back of the shield; fixed into the boss was a handle made of horn that was edged with bronze rings. Around the edge were engraved the wings and seven stars of Gondor's noble heritage. When not using it, Boromir would have carried the shield over his shoulder by using the finely tooled leather guige that was riveted to the boss and to the steel rim that ran around the edge of the shield, again secured by a number of rivets.

It was a solid piece of work that could have been wielded quickly and effectively; the curved, circular shield had no points that an enemy could catch on, so their blows would slide across and past the shield. When this happened, the attacker's forward momentum would unbalance him, allowing Boromir to bring his sword down upon his outthrust and exposed arm and neck. Whereas if the blow was light enough, the upraised shield would arrest the swing of the blow and Boromir could thrust his sword under his foe's shield and into his belly.

As always, JJ's attention to detail is amazing.The paint on the sled had to be chemically stripped as well as heated and chipped off. The center of the sled was cut out to make room for the boss:

The next piece of the shield was the brass ornamentation around the boss itself.

Next, the shield was covered in leather and the handle was fastened in the back. Now - how's this for detail? JJ called me up and mentioned that according to the book, the handle was made of horn. He actually had a piece of horn, but just wanted to make sure that I didn't mind if it was not exactly even. "Of course not!" I said. "Go for it!"

Finally, the steel edging of the shield was attached and a beautifully braided strap was attached to sling it over my shoulder.

Here's a closeup of the shield boss and ornamentation:

And here's the finished shield! Front and back.

Window on the West - Finale

2009-03-04T22:02:00.044-05:00

I am the way into the city of woe.

I am the way to a foresaken people.

I am the way into eternal sorrow.

Sacred justice moved my Architect.

I was raised here by Divine Omnipotence
Primordial Love and Ultimate Intellect.

Only those elements Time cannot wear
were made before Me.

And beyond Time I stand.

ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE

(Dante - The Inferno)

As I was scanning through my blog, I noticed that all of a sudden, I had 23 comments on a particular posting. Now, while I'd LOVE to get this response on a regular basis, this did stick out like a sore thumb. It turned out that this was my "I've been cheated by Greg Podgorny" post.

Greg allegedly committed suicide on February 9th of this year. Here's the obituary.

I'm sure he's in Hell, and for me, it's only a question of whether he is in the Wood of Suicides of the Seventh Circle or lower down in the Eighth Circle in the Bolgia reserved for Thieves.

As an intellectual exercise, I talked to an Episcopal Bishop I've known for years and posited this question to him. He agreed with me that since he was ripping people off for a far longer time, he should be going further down the Infernal drainpipe - hence, to Circle Eight.

Now for those of you who have never read The Inferno - shame on you! Here is a much abridged description of the hotspots (pun intended) mentioned above:

Circle Seven - Middle Ring - The Wood of Suicides

This ring houses the violent.

In this ring are the suicides, who are transformed into gnarled thorny bushes and trees. They are torn at by the Harpies. Unique among the dead, the suicides will not be bodily resurrected after the Final Judgment, having given their bodies away through suicide. Instead they will maintain their bushy form, with their own corpses hanging from the limbs. Dante breaks a twig off one of the bushes and hears the tale of Pier delle Vigne, who committed suicide after falling out of favor with Emperor Frederick II.

Circle Eight - Bolgia Seven - Thieves

This Circle and the one below it (Number Nine - the really, really bad one housing Lucifer himself in the frozen lake of Cocytus) punish sins that involve conscious fraud or treachery. The circles can be reached only by descending a vast cliff, which Dante and Virgil do on the back of Geryon, a winged monster represented by Dante as having the face of an honest man and a serpentine body that ends in a scorpion-like stinger.

Thieves, guarded by the centaur (as Dante describes him) Cacus, are pursued and bitten by snakes and lizards. The snake bites make them undergo various transformations, with some resurrected after being turned to ashes, some mutating into new creatures, and still others exchanging natures with the reptiles, becoming lizards themselves that chase the other thieves in turn. Just as the thieves stole other people's substance in life, and because thievery is reptilian in its secrecy, the thieves' substance is eaten away by reptiles and their bodies are constantly stolen by other thieves.

Now, after Greg vanished off the face of the earth, and some decent soul told me he was back in North Carolina, I sent a letter to daddy George, the doctor. I was extremely nice. I indicated that I was a friend of Greg's, I knew he had moved back from California, wanted to know if he was okay and would he please give the letter to Greg. I never even asked about the $2000+ commission. I even included a SASE. I never received an answer.

I'm going to address some of the comments that were left on the original post:

I am a fiend of Greg's here in California and the one thing that I can tell you is that Greg got in over his head and never intended on stealing any money. I know that as a person he was smart, funny, helpful and would do anything for a friend. Obviously being known as a "thief" tore at him more than anyone of us will ever know. I am sorry that you weren't delivered what he promised but please forgive him and say a prayer for his family. Thank you.

Okay ... if he didn't want to be known as a 'thief', then why did he NEVER contact any of the people that commissioned work from him and explain his situation? I only got a phone number by accident after the move since it was on the UPS label of the partial commission he completed.

I feel bad for you folks, but you should be ashamed of yourself for posting his brother's contact information and website on here. What if your relative did something bad and someone posted YOUR personal information on a website and you received a flock of people trying to hold you accountable for something that another person did?

Three thoughts here:

One - Brother George's information is public knowledge.

Two - I'm sure that a "flock" of people did contact brother George and he never responded to any of them. Greg and lawyer brother George shared an answering service. Wouldn't it have been the intelligent thing to do to grab Greg by the ear and say something to the effect, "I have YOUR customers calling ME because you ran out on them ... here are their numbers. Get on the phone and explain yourself!"

By the way, this factoid is from brother George's website: "George Podgorny, Jr., has been representing catastrophically injured clients since 1991. His cases have ranged from medical malpractice, pharmacy malpractice and motor vehicle accidents, to inadequate security and unfair and deceptive trade practice cases." Unfair and deceptive trade practice cases?? As the Church Lady would say ... "How Conveeeenient."

Three - I'm sure Mussolini's relatives felt the same way ...

Greg was a wonderful human being. He was kind, gentle, generous and full of imagination and light. When he left LA he left behind a 5,000 sq. ft. warehouse and was only able to take what he could fit into a trailer behind his truck. He used authentic antique anvils and tools to make his art. If you've ever moved, then you know what a mess it is. Try packing up a 5000 sq. ft warehouse in five days. How could he possibly deliver your goods when he had no where to even put on a blow torch?

You might of lost money, and it sounds as though you've got plenty to burn if you're spending it on discretionary items such as these. We lost a great friend and an artist; a true gift to humanity.

And now we have another "misstatement" ... when I spoke to Greg post-move, it was not a 5-day move and a trailer, but a Simon Legree-esque eviction that the landlord forced him in ONE day and what only he could fit in his truck. "Antique anvils" - interesting. I wonder if he used those on the set of armor that someone paid $10,500 for and never received...

I was also told by Greg DIRECTLY that since he was back at ECU and doing classes there, would I mind if my Faramir sword would be a class project he would demonstrate various techniques with. So much for not having a place to use a blowtorch.

And as far as these "discretionary items" - Greg wouldn't have had a business if myself and other folks who had "money to burn" didn't seek him out (and paid in full and in advance) for commissions which were never completed.

I find it absolutely mind-boggling that once someone has died, only the "good and wonderful" things are discussed about them. No longer being among the living is not an excuse for the sordid, wrong, dishonest, vicious, inconsiderate things you did in the past.

Sainthood is not automatically conferred upon you when you breathe your last breath.

That was YOU when you were alive and being dead doesn't change who were. Good OR bad.

I had a miserable experience with Greg. As many others did. I lost money. So did they.

However, I was fortunate enough to be able to get around the theft and still accomplish what I wanted. I don't know if others cheated by him were so lucky. I truly hope they were. They were the victims here. Not Greg Podgorny.

Stupid Web Tricks

2009-02-25T22:45:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine told me about these "word clouds" - go to http://www.wordle.net to create your own:

Bling: Impossible

2009-01-13T23:02:00.022-05:00

This doesn't occur to me often. Sometimes I buy something just because I want it. Price doesn't matter. The last time this happened was when I passed by a store on Lexington Avenue and I saw a tie in the window. It was a hand-painted pastel stripe over a silk damask background. And that was over 15 years ago. When I got my Amex statement at the end of the month, my jaw dropped open. But damn, it was worth it.

This time it was cufflinks. And this time, I had them commissioned. Maybe it's been a delayed reaction to 9/11, but for a while, I've been thinking about the way timbers or metal beams fall when a building is razed. It appears to be chaotic, but I think there is some underlying organization to the fall and placement of the debris field itself.

Of course, there's no one else I'd trust with such an undertaking other than Russ. This definitely falls into the skill category of:

We decided early on this was another one of those projects that would need his 3D fabrication technology, so we started work with some conceptual designs in CAD.

The first ones looked mightily impressive. However, the images I saw on the screen were not exactly what I had pictured in my head. They were more regular - still chaotic, but everything with nice sharp corners and edges. I asked him if he could do a version somewhat more jumbled, which of course he obligingly did.

When I saw what I thought I wanted, I was disappointed. Leave to Russ to know me better than myself - his original design with the sharp edges appealed more to me. I gave him the go-ahead to start. We also discussed changing the stone from amethyst to a deep green topaz - the type of stone that everybody assumes what an emerald should look like.

Fast-forward four months later ...

I hold the objects of my obsession in my hands and they are jaw-droppingly amazing. I can't believe that they are real. I wasn't kidding when I said "Bling:Impossible" - these beauties are the result of a set of five artisans - jewelers, fabricators, CAD draftsmen and laser welding experts - coming together to produce something that is reminiscent of some of M.C. Escher's perspective art combined with the beauty and delicacy of European crown jewels (think of some of the Faberge masterpieces brought forward in time and with clean modern lines).

When Russ made the Mede-Killer pendant for my '300' outfit, I jokingly said he needed a new nom de guerre - the Choodler - since he was "chewing over some ideas and doodling." The name brought with it overtones of super-villainy combined with madly demented industriousness.

Another nickname is more than well-deserved in this case - because of the sheer volume of art, craft, magick and incredible workmanship put into these pieces. I think this passage from The Silmarillion suits him quite well:

For Feanor, being come to his full might, was filled with a new thought ... then he began a long and secret labour, and he summoned all his lore, and his power, and his subtle skill; and in the end of all he made the Silmarils...
As three great jewels they were in form ... Like the crystal of diamonds it appeared yet was more strong than adamant ... that crystal was ... the house of it's inner fire, that is within it and yet in all parts of it, and is its life ... the Silmarils of their own radiance shone like the stars of Varda; ... they rejoiced in light and received it and gave it back in hues more marvelous than before.

We also had decided that given the scope of this endeavor, we needed to do some "rock star" type of shots to showcase the cufflinks and the amazing detail put into them. Many thanks to Don West for modeling and Randy "Captain Smashy" Hearne for doing the photoshoot.

I'd like to speak more on the process and setup for these links, but I will let the master expound upon it on his site.

In closing, I can only think of one word to sum up this incredible, Feanorian work of art:

OMFG

Preparing for Glory ... Part IV: The Aspis

2008-12-28T19:33:00.009-05:00

The what?

The aspis is actually the correct term for the shield carried by Leonidas and his soldiers, not a hoplon.

As I had mentioned, I had asked JJ to do the shield after I had originally commissioned the Spartan armor. Due to the fact that the vambraces needed a bit of back-and-forth alterations, the present weather was not conducive for me to take shots in nothing but a bit of metal, leather and a thin red cloak. I will just have to wait until spring when it's a bit warmer to take the outside shots.

I got a call from JJ sometime in mid-December telling me that the shield was nearly done. When it was done, he sent final shots before boxing it up and sending it to me. Again, JJ outdid himself in terms of the quality and sheer detail he puts into his work.

The front:

and the back:

I got the aspis on December 24th - what a wonderful Christmas present! It feels incredibly good and balanced in the hand - just like one of his swords.

JJ based the suspension closely on the movie shields, both from studying both the "behind the scenes" featurettes and also the Leonidas action figure. In the movie they used what appeared to be a canvas half-tube riveted to the back of the shield for the arm; the action figure uses what appears to be vinyl. He used stout leather for the half-tube and welded brackets to the inside of the shield, then bolted the half-tube to the brackets (avoiding having rivet heads showing on the front side of the shield). The bolts are covered by pieces of suede to make them look less obtrusive/old-fashioned, not modern. The handle appeared to be of metal (a rigid handle and not a strap) so he made one of steel that he welded to the inside of the shield.

And a movie factoid:

There's a part early in the '300' film that you might recall where young Leonidas is sitting with his father and they're looking at a spartan shield; the father knocks on the shield with his fist, and it makes a deep ringing metallic noise. During the commentary, one of the guys asks the director if that was a real shield because it made that noise, and the director says something like, "Oh, no the shield is plastic, we had to add the sound in post production." Well, MY shield really makes that cool sound without added sound effects, because it's metal.

Bring on those Persians!!!

Untucked

2008-12-26T08:09:00.012-05:00

Old habits die hard.

I've finally decided to do something that would have a number of my former elementary and high school teachers spinning in their graves at a rate that could power the country for a few decades.

I'm going to wear my shirt untucked (at least on some casual occasions).

Yep - it's amazing what baggage gets picked up during eight long years of catholic elementary school and four years of catholic high school.

They would be APPALLED. Absolutely horrified. The fabric of the cosmos is being torn asunder as I write this entry.

It all began in second grade with Sister Jane (more like BDSM Mistress Jane - now looking back) in getting us little ones ready for first Holy Communion. The primary order barked at us was "Keep those fannies off the seat!", followed closely by "Tuck in that shirt!" (we also had to perform standing, sitting and kneeling based on the number of 'clicks' the evil woman demanded of us with her Holy Hand Clicker of Antioch).

The "Tuck!" command was not aimed at me - but the commandment insinuated itself deep into my subconscious - "Thou shalt never wear thy shirt outside of thy pants!"

Along with a number of changes this 2008, I decided to try the forbidden fruit ... during a friend's holiday party, I wore a white shirt and jeans with a hoodie and by God, it felt marvelous! The fact that those shirttails were peeking out beneath the hoodie not only looked great, but felt great too!

Decadent. Wickedly sinful. Depraved. I can see Mephistopheles rubbing his hands together in glee.

I wonder if this is what Eve felt when she took that first bite ...

So this adds yet another notch on the belt of iniquitous things I've done this year.

Poor Sister Jane. I've succumbed to temptation at last.

And my fanny is firmly on the seat when I kneel.

Geek Break IV: Symbolic Math to the Rescue ...

2008-10-23T14:50:00.005-04:00

For those of you that have been following the blog, I wanted to dispel any possible notions that after becoming adept at swordwork and archery, AND slimming down, AND being mistaken for a male model AND reveling in the rather chilly Spartan costume (pics to come!), that my IQ has somehow dropped into the two digit range and is more in line with my waist measurements.

Consider:

which makes me think of a discourse involving Rene Descartes. Exasperated, he shouted at the offending oaf:

"X-squared + Y-squared equals one ... therefore, God exists. Refute That!"

'Nuff said.

The Anla'shok

2008-09-02T22:26:00.023-04:00

It's done!

The last piece of the puzzle - a stylized belt buckle - was completed by Russ and was promptly shipped to Andrea for attachment to the belt/baldric.

Then I got it. Along with the rest of the outfit. Andrea performed her magic once more and I cannot believe how beautiful and comfortable the outfit is. Well, yes I can. After all, it is Andrea's work!

As to the details of the outfit:

The shirt - Andrea made a black twill body with the checked chevron lower sleeves and a brown/tan cowl. We were also able to find a dark brown, shimmery type of ribbon that edges the chevrons.

The tunic - an oatmeal-colored tunic with brown/tan striped inserts at the throat that highlight the cowl and serve as a base for the baldric. Again, we used the shimmery brown ribbon as highlights on this piece

The baldric/belt - one of the most incredible pieces of work Andrea has done to date. Dark brown material with the shimmery ribbon highlights, plus all the extra work she had done with attaching the belt buckle from Russ. I had asked him for something that incorporated some Minbari-ish sweeping curves with some Vorlon-ish organic elements. He did a beautiful job!

Here's a funny story - my buddy Tom and I are always talking that in modern society, it is extremely difficult to be decadent. Frivolous, self-indulgent or gauche, maybe, but not decadent. The ancient Romans had that perfected to an artform that we seem to have lost. Perhaps the last whiff of decadence was the Weimar Republic in the early twentieth century. My ring of Barahir was not considered decadent - that was an "investment". However, when he saw the custom sterling silver buckle (now remember, this buckle is about 5" square - it's HUGE!) with the mitsuro sculptured nebula and carved White Stars - and the price I paid for it - his eyes widened and he grinned. "You've done it - you've hit the low end of decadent." Woo-hoo!

The pants - are my leather swordmaster pants from Reg at Ravenswood Leather. I used these in my Aragorn costume. I liked the juxtaposition of lace-up leather pants in a twenty-third century Ranger, and to follow J. Michael Straczynski's homage to Lord of the Rings.

I love Russ' comment - "I have to say it. I really respect a man who can pull off leather pants."

The boots - my Han Solo boots from Caboots. These are wonderfully comfortable and go with so many periods and costumes.

The robe - again, going with canon, this is a long flowing robe with a black yoke and the patterned panels around the sides. It was a real pain to find the triangular fasteners, but we did! It turned out that combining two fasteners together was perfect! There was also a bit of "origami"-type folding work to get the back yoke properly placed.

And so, I have another wonderful outfit thanks to my material and metallic muses - Andrea and Russ!

Thanks guys!

Addendum:

I happened to go to a small con earlier this month as my Minbari Ranger. I received quite a number of compliments on the outfit. The best thing was, I had this one guy that kept staring at me from across the room. He finally came over and said, "I can't believe how f***ing incredible the badge and the belt look. That is what they should have been if we had had a bigger budget."

It was Dark Hoffman - one of the property masters who actually worked on the Babylon 5 series!!!

Wow! How's that for life imitating (and vastly outdoing) art!!!!

Smoke and Mirrors

2008-08-01T10:00:00.008-04:00

Pre-Flight Checklist - Spartan

Leather Speedo
Cloak, Shoulder Harness and Brooch
Bronze Greaves
Bronze Vambraces
Bronze Helmet
Bronze Aspis Shield
Spear
Falcata Sword
Sandals
Battle Totem to make a Persian soil his loincloth
Muscular Definition (enough for me!)
Mediterranean tan

I asked JJ for the aspis shield later in the costuming process, so I didn't expect to get it with the rest of the stuff. It took us a while to find shield blanks in the right size and shape for an accurate recreation. I'm a patient guy. The upside is I'm also getting a Boromir shield at the same time! Woo-hoo!

But the tan ... Ahhhh. Now that presents a problem. You see, I am light-complexioned and tend to burn, rather than tan. SPF15 is my friend. Not nordic pale, nor fish-belly white (thank God!), but if I take off my shirt, you can see the considerable difference between my face and hands and the rest of me. (Does this, then, make me a type of redneck?) The color in my face, hands and lower arms is a pale gold.

My friend Mike is just the opposite. He's got a light olive complexion, but if he spends one lousy hour in the sun, he's got a killer tan that lasts for weeks. Damn him.

There's no way I'd go to a tanning salon - I have no intention of developing melanoma. Also, I don't want to prematurely age my skin, either.

And over-the-counter aerosol or rub-on tans are also something I wouldn't consider. I don't want to look like a variegated carrot with nicotine-colored palms. After all, if I spent this amount of time and effort to look like a Spartan, I'm not going to ruin it by getting a cheap tan.

That leaves me with a professional airbrush tan. I pass by this one place - the Spa Meridian - every day to work, so I decided to do some Googling and see if there was any reviews for them. It turns out they are basically a glorified nail salon that tries to do everything and winds up doing nothing well.

Some other information that I came across while looking for a reputable place was something called "sculpted airbrushing" - this involves using some slightly different tones to "accentuate the positive" - one guy on Yahoo! indicated that the place he used added the illusion of a slightly flatter stomach and hints of a six-pack. Nice ... Just what I'm looking for...

My Google search led me to Sundara Sunless Tanning. This is all that they do and they are listed as a 5-star establishment from New York Magazine. Sundara (which means "beautiful" in Sanskrit) does a customized color match to your skin - with me, I'd most-likely need a more golden color, rather than reddish-brown. I'd also be looking for something a bit more subtle than the picture to the left - I'd probably take the day off for the paint job and if I came in the next day with a savage tan, everyone would know something was afoot. I need to go in to Sundara for a consultation - I do have some questions that I'd like answered:

Given my proclivity to eye infections, how is the spray applied to around the eyes?
What about the normal face and neck shaving? Isn't this going to take the tan off quickly? Do they offer a take-home touch up for guys?
Do I need to exfoliate all over first, or is that something that Sundara offers as part of the prep?

Addendum:
I've updated the checklist to include the aspis shield which I received on December 24!!

Arrrrrrr!!!

2008-07-19T09:00:00.004-04:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am also the proud owner of a basket-hilt rapier. This serves dual duty for my pirate and generic swordsman outfits. As usual, my regular partners in crime were involved:

Reg - for the sword frog and the leather pirate vest
Andrea - for a splendid ruffled piratical shirt in sapphire blue linen
Joey - for the bucket boots

A few new "special guest appearances" were also involved. These included an ebay seller for the rapier itself, and Centerstagecostumes.com for the sash in black satin with gold trim.

I've found now that I've reached a "critical mass" of costume articles, what I can do with them is really quite amazing. I have some Highlander/Swordsman-type shirts both from Reg and from Snowbirds Creations which when paired with a pair of long gauntlets, or archer's vambraces, can be used anywhere. The great thing is that everything I have is comfortable. I don't have a problem wearing anything for an extended period of time.

I think of all the costumes I've put together so far, this was the easiest; of course, I have the constant struggle with Reg and due dates, but after my Greg Podgorny fiasco, I've come to realize that late (and no prepayment) is better than never - even if I have to nag the guy. Andrea - well, what can I say about her that I haven't already? She is an absolute joy to work with. Joey and Priscilla of Caboots - great folks. These were a set of their "standard" boots which are more comfortable than sneakers.

After this was put together, I was able to add a few little "twists" to the costume. I purchased a mask from Greyland Films - a very famous (in the Czech Republic) film production company known for their realistic latex foam creations - and a Jack Sparrow wig/bandanna combination from eBay. The mask was supposed to be an American Indian, but works extremely well as a pirate. I went to two "Pirates of the Caribbean" parties and the masked and unmasked versions were both very well received.

... less high perhaps ...

2008-06-27T09:28:00.001-04:00

Faramir. Brother to Boromir, son to Denethor and Finduilas, steward to Aragorn, Faramir rarely seems to stand just as himself. His character, too perfect in the book and perhaps too imperfect in the movie, is notoriously hard to grasp. Even his looks have been put into question: dark haired, grey eyed and beardless in the book, he is anything but in the movies.

I think, perhaps, that is one of the reasons why he appeals to me (and Andrea) so much. Even given the lifespan of a man of Westernesse, I doubt that you could truly ever understand every facet of this younger son of Gondor.

Here are some shots of Andrea's incredible HOH and Coronation outfits. Of course, JJ's armor doubles for both brothers ...

From the Houses of Healing (cotton velvet, silk dupioni, double gold stitching down the arms)

At Aragorn's coronation (silk velvet, silk dupioni, double gold embroidery with hand-sewn sequins and ruby glass beads at each intersection on the sleeves)

Telcontari

2008-06-26T12:11:00.000-04:00

In one of the comments I had in an earlier post, I was asked how my Strider outfit(s) came out. Thanks to my wonder workers (Andrea, Joey and Reg) the answer was (and still is) AMAZING.

I had a chance a few weeks back to put on the outfits and take pictures. I find it a bit of a surprise every time I put one of these costumes on just how comfortable it is - from the boots to the duster and cape. To some extent, I can attribute that to my being in good physical shape - however, I would never look this good if it wasn't for the folks that have been working with me for several years.

I tried to take as many of the Aragorn "timepoints" as I could. There are definitely times when it is difficult holding the camera remote and the sword!

At Bree:

At the River Anduin, just past the Argonath:

Leaving Lothrien:

Near the Falls of Rauros / Amon Hen:

The Fields of Rohan / The Paths of the Dead:

Helm's Deep:

You Can Never Go Back ...

2008-06-20T22:59:00.001-04:00

Owning a commissioned sword is addictive -- you just can't get ONE.

There is a magnificent difference in the handling of JJ's Ranger sword and the other swords that I got through the Internet. It's not that they are bad - in fact the Boromir sword, the Spartan falcata, even the rapier (yes, I have a basket-hilt rapier too - the pirate outfit was so easy, it literally made itself - but I'll put a posting together for that!) feel solid in the hand, but JJ's sword just seems to be an extension of my arm. The Aragorn sword - from United Cutlery - looks great, but feels unwieldy and ill-balanced. That's what you get when you use stainless steel and a rat-tailed tang - great to hang on a wall, not so great to wield. And no real edge.

That's why I had him do a Faramir sword.

I already have a Faramir sword ... Reg sent it to me and did a nice job of leather dyeing the pommel and scabbard a leaf green color. But it still had that indefinable "cheap" quality that just sets my teeth on edge. So when I contacted JJ, I told him I wanted a "quality" Faramir sword good enough for a Steward's son. JJ - being a true Tolkien geek like myself - approached the commission with relish and we discussed some of the finer points of the blade and pommel. For example, the pommel has brass inlays and the intertwined ravens are beautifully executed. The sword itself is complete, and he's now working on the scabbard and suspension harness. I should have everything by mid-July.

And here are some shots of the finished sword (less the scabbard) - in the second picture, you can see the beautifully detailed intertwined ravens and the brass accents on the pommel.

And below is the completed sword with scabbard! The leather is a dark, weathered green, but it's not showing up as such in JJ's photo ...

I've been PODGORNY'ed !!!

2008-06-03T13:24:00.002-04:00

As I was going through the comments on the blog (and many thanks to the folks who are leaving comments!) , I came across a rather interesting one. Some kind and generous soul has located the current whereabouts of Gregory Podgorny.

It seems that I am not alone in being hornswaggled by the infamous Greg Podorny. For a sampling of stories that would make your hair curl, check out this myspace link. It seems Greg has graduated to the level of grand theft - he apparently absconded with over $10,000 on another commission. I believe that I can count myself lucky that I "only" lost $2000, plus a $400 commissioned sword.

Several people have tried contacting his brother George (the lawyer) or his daddy George (the doctor) - all attempts have been met with a rather stony silence. Myself included. Greg currently shares an answering service with George (which one, I'm not sure). I left a message and (surprise, surprise!) received no response.

The common response I've heard is "You should get a lawyer." While I would like to get my money back, I am not a fan of throwing good money after bad. I was fortunate to have JJ being able to do the swordwork far better than the piece I received from Eyal, but I don't have unlimited funds. And I would rather spend my hard-earned cash on something material.

What I'm hoping for is twofold: one - I can get a comprehensive listing of all the people defrauded (and dollars lost) and two - some no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners lawyer in the Winston-Salem area would love to spearhead a class-action suit.

Sooner or Later ...

2008-05-04T15:45:00.000-04:00

I had to hit a snag on something. However, this is more of a "good" snag than anything else. It definitely does not rise to the level of a "Greg Podgorny".

Andrea was busily finishing up the Minbari ranger outfit when she got to the belt/baldric buckle. We thought we could dress something up using a leather buckle and some Angelus silver paint, but she wasn't happy with the results.

Given the way we both feel about how a costume should look, we agreed that we'd have to find an alternative for the buckle. More like a real metal buckle. But this thing is going to be BIG. About 5.5 by 4.5 inches big. And it would have to match the "feel" of the rest of the outfit.

Enter my hero, savior, and all-around partner-in-crime, Russ Sharek of the Minbari Ranger badge fame. Russ will do the buckle and will send it down to Andrea for it's final fitting. I wanted something that will complement the badge and we've discussed using his renowned "Mitsuro" technique to create an organic-type buckle for the outfit.

For those not in the know, here's a description of the process, directly from the Master's website:

Mitsuro is a 1300-year-old Japanese sculpture technique which was almost lost to history. Originally used in Nara era Japan in the construction of Daibatsu, the Great Buddha, Mitsuro is a veritable fusion of alchemy and artistry. In 2002 artistan-jeweler Russ Sharek of The Morpheus Company revived this ancient technique.

Western lost-wax sculpture methods involve either carving pieces from a larger block or building up a design in successive layers of wax, clay, or other material. By contrast, the Mitsuro technique is a dynamic, organic process.

Small pieces of the material are warmed in the hands to body temperature, and then the entire mass can be stretched, pulled, twisted and formed in a highly kinetic manner. By careful folding and twisting, natural line patterns called hikime are formed in the Mitsuro, further adding to the organic look the technique produces.

Mitsuro is a demanding technique, which requires great focus and an incredibly delicate touch. The slightest over-handling can ruin the delicate textures created or even work the wax to the point where it becomes unusable.

Mitsuro's working properties are affected by many variables. Humidity, temperature and even the body chemistry and fingerprints of the artist cause every piece to have its own signature hikime patterns. These details are so delicate that they can not be duplicated with any kind of molding process; making each piece of Mitsuro completely unique.

So, the outfit will take a little longer to finish, but I'll be 100% satisfied with the completed work of art.

What would I do without these two??

Preparing for Glory ... Part III: The Greaves

2008-05-04T15:13:00.001-04:00

Well, JJ has been busy with many things, my stuff included. I don't know if he's working on my sandals and shield yet, but I've emailed him and wait with bated breath for an answer. I have several folks - Andrea and Russ among them - waiting to see what I look like in the full outfit (or lack thereof). I'm really looking forward to it too.

I got WIP (work in progress) photos of my greaves and they indeed look spectacular. I know they will be comfortable since this is the same expert that did my LOTR greaves. JJ is going to put straps on the greaves rather than the lacing in the movie version. From his experience and mine, straps on steel on your arms and/or legs are a LOT more comfortable than lacing.

"Steel, not bronze?" I hear you say? Well, bronze is harder to work with according to JJ and also doesn't last as well. We decided to chemically and heat treat the steel to give it that burnished look and it's also is a good deal lighter to wear. Excellent reasons for using modern materials!!

To Live and Die in Starlight ....

2008-03-16T11:44:00.001-04:00

Russ has finished the badge for the Minbari Ranger uniform! I have sworn a blood oath to him that he will see his creation prominently displayed on the outfit once Andrea completes it. After I fondle it for a while in my grubby little hands, I'm going to send it down to her to make sure the outfits have enough tensile strength to hold the item. According to Russ, this thing is HEAVY. Ready? Here's the completed, one-of-a-kind insignia.

From this:

To this:

This work of art - "wearable art" is the correct term - just makes me more itchy to have uniform sooner rather than later. But - as with every project - patience is a virtue.

We also used a completely new process to design and develop this badge - but, I want to let Russ explain it on his website. Now Russ - being the sick and twisted individual that I know and love - titled his post "Frickin' Laser Beams."

I (being equally sick and twisted) could NOT let that slide. So - hat's off to Russ and his EVIL fabrication technology!

Mirror, mirror ...

2008-02-25T08:58:00.001-05:00

In a fit of pique - I was told, "You shouldn't own a house. You don't want to take care of it. Look at these plumbers and garbagemen - they have beautiful homes and everything has to be perfect in them! For you, if it's good enough, that's fine. The only things that have to be perfect with you are your computers and your clothes!"

This tirade was the result neglecting to repair an area on the inside of a closet door next to the lower hinge. The rant continued with my reluctance to repair edges of floor moldings that had 2mm gouges and my refusal to sand down and refinish a portion of an archway that had a 10mm paint drip.

Of course, I had some good reasons:

Major items and items in full view take precedence
I can find a better use of my time than crawling on the floor and looking for minutiae to repair
There is a major discontinuity between the person looking at items to fix and the person who has to fix them. I am a ardent supporter of Microsoft's tenet of "eating your own dog food" -- if it bothers you so much, then you fix it.

All of the above drove the rantor into further paroxyms of fury and more and more examples of my carelessness and "cutting corners" going back to the year of the flood.

I ignored it.

Which is a feat in itself since as of a few years ago, I would have engaged the rantor and kept the argument going for several days. The verbal assaults would escalate and would eventually culminate in a week-long vinegar act by the rantor who would claim, "It's not a vinegar act ... I don't feel well. Fighting with you always makes me sick."

Then why in God's name did you pick a fight in the first place?

The rantor did have a valid point, however. Over the last two years, my confidence levels have soared in parallel with the visible results of my workouts and over the last year, my attitude has changed completely with my changes in wardrobe. I've gone from shlubby and/or "conservative" colors and styles to more vibrant and casual ones.

Think from L.L. Bean to Express for Men and American Eagle Outfitters.

Or loose shirts and pleat-front pants to tapered shirts and slim-cut pants and graphic t's, hoodies and low-rise jeans.

And yes, I have become somewhat vain. When I was younger, I had absolutely no reason to be - or at least I didn't think so. Just like the Grand Covenant - "as above, so below" - my outside mirrored my inside and I was withdrawn, shy and completely unaware of actually how good I could (or did) look. When I was getting my haircut last week, my stylist of fifteen-plus years mentioned that I'm getting so much deep golden red highlights in my hair that it starting to look "spun copper."

I guess I'm making up for lost time. And damn, I'm enjoying every minute of it! If this is some type of mid-life crisis, I should have had it twenty years ago!

Addendum

I go into American Eagle Outfitters yesterday since they were having a sale. I pick up a pair of low rise jeans (the ab work is definitely having an effect!) and just for the hell of it, I pick up a muscle shirt and try it on. It looked great and I even surprised myself. Even in hot weather, I would have never even thought of putting on a sleeveless shirt.

I went out of the dressing room to see how the jeans and shirt would look (tucked/untucked) and someone comes up to me and asks about an item they are looking for.

Guy #1: "Excuse me, where are the board shorts?"

Me: "I don't know. I don't work here."

Guy #1: "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you did. You look just like that guy on the poster over there."

I look in the direction he's pointing and there is my almost-doppleganger on the wall. Lighter and longer hair and wearing sunglasses but the facial features and the physique were identical!

And, it continued this morning ... I get on the bus and I'm pondering the various meetings I have today when I get a tap on the arm.

Guy #2: "Excuse me, where do you get your hair cut?"

I tell him. It's a local place about a half mile from my house.

Guy #2: "Thanks! They do a really good job. You look like you should be in a magazine."

Preparing For Glory ... Part II: The Vambraces

2008-02-05T10:56:00.001-05:00

Two down. Two to go! JJ's queue has been quite full as of late, and my poor armorer is working his fingers to the bone to get all of his commissions back on a reasonable time track, my Spartan, Faramir and shield commissions included.

The good news, though, is that I got an email from JJ that he's finished the vambraces. And I must say, they look as authentic as the helmet. JJ suggested that we use buckles and straps instead of lacing. JJ has had some experience in this area, and he had a severe case of chafing when he used laces. Of course, Gerard Butler and the other Spartans had armor made of resin; mine is bronzed mild steel - there's a whole world of difference between the two materials. I'm used to wearing real metal maille and plate over many hours and JJ said the buckle/strap combination would be more comfortable.

So, for this commission I'm only waiting for the greaves and sandals. With JJ, it's always better to let him work at his own pace. I get beautiful work that has a lot of thought, skill and exactitude built into it.

I've Made History!!!

2008-01-31T20:17:00.001-05:00

Russ Sharek (of Morpheus Designs) is one incredible guy. Not only is he a jeweler/artisan par excellence, he also comes up with the most astute and sidesplitting observations.

We were discussing the final designs on the Minbari Ranger badge (as described in the previous post) as well as how my "300" armor was coming along when he brought this to my attention:

Him: "Do you have your armorer on speed dial?"

Me: "Yes. Why? I have you and Andrea on speed dial also."

Him: You realize you've made history, right?

Me: "Huh?"

Him: "At the time people had personal armorers they didn't have cell phones. You're buying exactingly detailed, wearable battle armor. And you call up your armorer for it."

The more I thought about it, the more I chuckled. He was right - I have made history ...

Denn'Bok for Fun and Profit

2008-01-30T16:00:00.001-05:00

It HAS been a while since the costuming bug bit me. After all, I'm still waiting to finish off my Spartan "300" outfit (which, by the way, is coming along nicely albeit slower than I'd like) but the bright side is that this is giving me more time to work on my abs, chest and arms. Damn, I'm sounding vain, aren't I?

I went into Express Men to pick up a couple of shirts. The store was relatively quiet so this time, I had sales associates help me out. Normally, I pick out my own stuff and I have people ask me what looks good on them. Obviously, my reputation has proceeded me as an excellent customer and someone who is "not stuck up". It's second nature for me to return items folded or on hangers back where I found them and in the same state as I took them.

This doesn't seem to be "normal" for customers.

I picked up a deep emerald green solid, a deep sapphire blue solid and a pale blue shirt with a white stripe. The solid shirts are more vivid than I usually buy, but they worked! The two salesmen (plus two ladies that were dressing their boyfriends) were really amazed at how great I looked! I just had my hair cut on Saturday, so it is shorter and a bit lighter (you see a lot of gold and copper highlights).

The two ladies asked me, "Are you a model?" I demurred, and one of the gals said, "Well, you look and move like one!"

*Ahem* (pats self on the back)

I had just finished watching the new direct-to-DVD movie, "Babylon 5: The Lost Tales" which was a welcome return to the B5 universe. As I was watching this, I was thinking, "You know, the Minbari Rangers are so cool."

As any long-time readers can guess, a phone call to Andrea was forthcoming.

Then a call to Russ for the Ranger shield.

For those of you who haven't followed Babylon 5, this was a five-year space opera that borrowed heavily on themes from Lord of the Rings. The Rangers here (as well as in the LOTR universe) were basically "Special Forces" that provided intelligence, reconnaissance and covert operations. Since Faramir and Aragorn are two of my favorite characters (and represent the southern and northern Rangers), this seems to be a logical extension of my appreciation of this type of character.

The Anla'Shok (Rangers) were organized by the Minbari for the purposes of providing a dedicated fighting force specifically for the prophesied second Shadow War that the cultural hero Valen warned would occur in the future.

Their motto:

We are Rangers.
We walk in the dark places no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass.
We live for the One, we die for the One.

Which brings visions of Gandalf and the Balrog in Khazad-Dum.

The badge of their office is their black and grey robes that include a large pin that has a large turquoise crystal in the center, which is surrounded by a human and a Minbari at either side with the crystal symbolizing the Future or Isil'Zha. This is a recent style, however. The original badge used had a pair of Minbari hands holding the gem, but the two heads design was chosen to symbolize the unity of the two races. According to the book To Dream in the City of Sorrows, which is considered canon, the crystal is partly created by the blood of human and Minbari, and is highly prized by its bearer. If you are a B5 fan, then you should definitely collect books that detail the history and activities of the Rangers.

Andrea is doing her costume research, and I know that the end result will be mind-blowing. However, Russ and I were discussing a slightly different design for the badge - something far more ... Minbari ...

Their preferred weapon in close quarters is the Minbari Fighting Pike known as the Denn'Bok. It is quite compact and easy to carry, but can open up to be a formidable weapon. The weapon is not dependent on an energy source, unlike the PPG pistols carried by Earthforce personnel. It takes a great deal of training and skill to use the weapon in an effective and in a relatively safe manner. Most weapons are quite old - the pike Marcus Cole carried was at least 700 years old. As the weapon is handed down from generation to generation, production of new pikes is rather limited. Because of the effort to keep the fighting pikes from falling into the wrong hands, they can fetch a considerable price on the black market.

The Denn'Bok also reminds me of the quarterstaff -- another weapon I've always wanted to learn to use. I may have to check out the local SCA chapters and see if I can find any instructors.

"Geek" vs. "Nerd"

2008-01-02T12:11:00.001-05:00

On several occasions, I have used the term "geek" regarding myself and I have had several people tell me that I should not be so belittling.

Au contraire ... I see it more as a badge of honor, rather than a derogatory term.

A nerd - on the other hand - is something that I consider an insult and would seriously consider splitting aforesaid insultor from crown to crotch!

Below are the definitions (courtesy of Wikipedia) of the two very distinct species:

GEEK

A person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media.
A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance.
A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest. This definition is very broad but because many of these interests have mainstream endorsement and acceptance, the inclusion of some genres as "geeky" is heavily debated. Persons have been labelled as or chosen to identify as mathematics geeks, engineering geeks, sci-fi geeks, computer geeks, various science geeks, movie and film geeks (cinephile), comic book geeks, theatre geeks, history geeks, gamer geeks, music geeks, art geeks, philosophy geeks, and literature/rp geeks.
In a 2007 interview on The Colbert Report, Richard Clarke said the difference between nerds and geeks is "geeks get it done".

NERD

Nerd is a term that refers to a person who passionately pursues intellectual activities or esoteric knowledge rather than engaging in more social activities, such as organized sports. Therefore, a nerd is often excluded from physical activity and considered a loner by peers.
Nerds typically appear either to lack confidence or to be indifferent or oblivious to the negative perceptions held of them by others, with the result that they become frequent objects of scorn, ridicule, bullying, and social isolation. They show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology.
Nerds are often portrayed as either obese or incredibly thin. They are also stereotyped to playing role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, MMORPGs, and other things relating to fantasy and science fiction. They are also stereotyped for being obsessed with Star Trek, Star Wars, and other sci fi shows or movies.
Many traits associated with the nerd stereotype—an unusual penchant for accumulating highly specialized or technical knowledge, impaired social ability, and/or occasionally poor motor coordination—are characteristics of Asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder.

Clears up the confusion, doesn't it?

I recently related the geek/nerd comparison to a good friend of mine who is an avid reader of this blog:

A GEEK fences with a forged high-carbon spring steel blade with a live edge commissioned from an armorer.

A Nerd tries to fence with a plastic lightsaber, if he doesn't trip over his feet first.

A GEEK shoots a 72" wooden longbow with at least a 40lb draw weight, using arrows with hand-forged iron bodkin tips and fletched with feathers.

A Nerd shoots rubber-suction cup thingies from a toy gun, if he can avoid pointing it at himself and/or can locate the trigger.

It's all in the details ...

2007-12-21T19:37:00.000-05:00

"… And that was what Aragorn had done. He had left the City like a thief in the night - only two people had seen him go - Boromir and Faramir of the Citadel. He had kissed them farewell, and, to his never-ending shock, Faramir, Faramir the shy, reserved, silent little boy kissed him on the cheek, and said softly, “I’ll miss you!”

He had never been able to forget that, nor Boromir's childish salute. That young man in Harad - he knew it was Faramir. Only once had he gotten cleanly away from the homestead, had he looked at the pendant. A swan for Dol Amroth, and a Tree for the Citadel, and his heart had frozen.

For there were only two children in all of Middle-Earth with that lineage - one was safely home, and the other thought dead."

-- From "I Vow to Thee, My Country"

Some LOTR fan fiction is incredible - other stuff you have to wonder how the author was able to string two sentences together. The quote above is from the former category. I had found this story on WarOfTheRing.Net and I was amazed at this AU ("alternate universe") story of Faramir, Boromir, Denethor and Aragorn. In this story, Denethor is not the unmitigated bastard he is in the movie adaptations nor in the Tolkien books.

I was fascinated by the description of the medallion. This was the type of thing that would really top off (in my estimation) my Faramir outfit, even if I was the only one who knew I was wearing it.

FYI - I wrote this post in April - the same time I received the medallions. Since I asked Russ to make two of them - one for me and one as a Christmas gift - I had to wait until December to actually post this so I wouldn't give the surprise away. How's that for patience?

I gave Russ a call. This man is AMAZING. He absolutely thrives on challenges. For those of you finding this blog for the first time, Russ Sharek made me a Kyle Rayner version of a Green Lantern Ring.

I found the images I wanted to use on the medallion and told him I needed the thing to look old. Really old. Third Age of Middle-Earth old.

I got the medallions today. I was speechless. I mean it. Seeing the designs as an illustration was one thing, seeing them in the actual medallion was another. Looking at it, feeling it, holding it, wearing it - I could actually imagine this was one of the only two medallions ever made as such in Middle Earth. The patina of age and the less than absolutely perfect-ness only solidified the suspension of disbelief when I put it on.

And wearing it every day under my regular shirt is a pleasure in itself. The leather cording has darkened a bit which only adds to the authenticity of the piece.

A very telling incident happened during June. I was wearing the medallion under my shirt (as usual) and it happened to slip out while I was over at a friend's house checking out his new gargantuan plasma TV. We were watching Return of the King on DVD (yes, my friend and his wife are Tolkien geeks also - and what better way to "break in" the set???) and I was treated to a rush of indrawn breath from my friend's wife and a "Holy crap!" from him. (This was also on top of the comments made regarding Halfdan's Ring of Barahir) They couldn't believe how incredibly made and how amazingly authentic the medallion was. Russ deserves heaps upon heaps of kudos for making this idea a reality.

What do you think?

Even more to the point, how do you think the person who is getting the Christmas gift is going to respond?

It really is better to give than receive!!!

Lonely Echoes ...

2007-11-20T19:43:00.001-05:00

Hey folks,

I know that you're reading the blog and I'm more than happy to continue documenting all the adventures I'm having ...

How about a little feedback?

You don't have to leave your name, but please start leaving comments!

Mae Govannen!

Herion

Preparing For Glory .... Part I: The Helmet

2007-11-15T15:39:00.002-05:00

I got an email from JJ last night - my helmet is DONE!

I didn't get the Leonidas helmet since I'm not of royal blood ... (ducal, but not royal). Then again, I don't think the ancient Spartans had as big a noble hierarchy - king, queen, prince, princess and everyone else.

Being the masochist I am, I had told JJ to hold all the Spartiate items until he was done (helmet, greaves, sandals, and bracers) and then send them in one fell swoop. Depending on when the items are actually done and shipped, the pictures I could take are going to have to be indoor shots - it's gotten a bit too cold for outside shots. The shield itself is on another time track - along with the Boromir shield. I just wish I could give JJ the credit he deserves for making this stuff - he is a true artisan!!

Here are the shots - AMAZING!

Ethan Hawke? Me?

2007-11-09T10:02:00.006-05:00

I did it. The cat's finally out of the bag. You're going to see my face. By some fortuitous turn of events, I was off this Halloween from work and also had plans to attend a rather expensive party that night and another on Saturday. I decided to go as Boromir in my full LOTR regalia. I didn't know if there was going to be any photographers present and I decided "What the hell. Let me take some pictures beforehand."

I must say, they were amazing. I think what really nailed it was the wig and facial hair. I'm not the tow-headed Sean Bean, but nevertheless, there was no doubt that I was the Captain of the White Tower. It blended in perfectly. I've posted a few on a Yahoo group and brought some into work. As I had said in my last entry, I've been getting compliments all of a sudden. I seem to be in a classic psychological feedback loop - the more compliments I get, the umm ... "friskier" I feel and act, wich encourages more compliments, and so on. The responses to these pictures were definitely more emphatic:

"Damn, is that YOU?"
"You look so HOT in that outfit?"
"I love a sexy man in armor!"
"Do you know how f***ing sexy you are?"

I had one person tell me, "You look just like Ethan Hawke!" - that was a new one. I never thought of myself as movie-star handsome, but obviously I do bear a more than passing resemblance to the actor.

Here is a side-by-side:

and here are some shots of the two costumes:

Out of the Carbonite!!!

2007-08-25T17:57:00.001-04:00

After a somewhat slow period as far as my personal projects go, everything seems to be popping!!

The good news!

There's only one more commission that JJ is working on before he gets to all of my stuff - Ranger sword, Faramir sword, Spartan armor and shields.
Russ completed the Spartan "Mede-killer" pendant which I now have in my hands - it's definitely unsettling, to say the least. Just something a bloodthirsty Greek warrior would wear!

David finished remaking the Spartan falcata scabbard. Instead of the cheap, Chinese leather (that probably had excessive lead in it too!) I have a beautiful antiqued brown leather covering for the close-combat weapon! Also, he put on a nicely primitive bronze clutch buckle instead of the stainless steel buckle with varnish that came with the original scabbard.

I received the Spartan spear from Strongblade - very nice! Well put together, well balanced and frighteningly authentic at over 7 feet long. The spear is composed of two halves that screw together - a steel/iron leaf-shaped main blade and a sharp bronze butt spike:

So Why CARBONITE?

You may be wondering about the title of the post - I promised Andrea that I would take pictures of the entire Han Solo outfit once I got all the pieces together. And I have been jokingly referred to as the "Headless Horseman of the blogosphere" in some quarters - mainly because pictures of myself stop at the neck. I'm finally showing a bit more of myself and above the neck, too!

Just recently (and by multiple people, yet!), I've been told that I'm a very handsome, extremely sexy-looking man and that I have beautiful azure eyes - "just like the waters off the Cote D'Azur." Damn ... flattery will get you everywhere ... I guess my Cappie powers are on the rise again - I'm getting more copper-red strands in my hair (versus white or grey) and in the right light, my eyes do appear to have a blue-purple hue instead of the normal deep blue-green ...

Seriously, though -- I'm just very picky about displaying my likeness online in these days of Facebook and MySpace abuse by employers. So, after setting up the tripod and camera today, here's a sample of the photo session. Everything felt GREAT! Andrea performs her magic again!

Bollywood Redux !

2007-07-23T14:04:00.002-04:00

I've got to hand it to Rakesh Roshan - these movies keep getting better and better. As I mentioned before, Krrish (the follow up to Koi Mil Gaya) is a big-budget action adventure romance. This mega-production has pieces from:

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
House of Flying Daggers
Tomorrow Never Dies
The Forbin Project
Dr. No
Batman
Superman 3
On The Town
The Devil's Advocate
Titan AE

What we have here is a superb mix of James Bond, Batman, and Superman with (of course) a love story and a really evil, evil villain. The best thing about these movies is that they accomplish holding the audience's attention without having to resort to blood, gore, sex scenes or full-frontal (or full-backal) nudity - you actually enjoy the movie for itself. Okay, sometimes the musical production numbers can get a little overdone, but they produce the same feeling of awe and amazement as the old 1930's extravaganzas with the rotating stages, lighted stairs and hundreds of dancers hoofing away to a Big Band beat. It's just fun!

Do yourself a favor - watch the two of these over a long weekend - you won't be disappointed!

Hurray for Bollywood!

2007-07-09T13:09:00.001-04:00

I've always enjoyed watching foreign films and reading subtitles has never been a hassle for me (although I really prefer the yellow ones to the white). I've seen French, German, Danish, Japanese, Spanish (a lot of Almodovar) and Portuguese. Never Hindi. Until this weekend.

I had read on a couple of boards how great Rakesh Roshan was as a director, so I took out two of his movies - Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish - both starring his son Hrithik Roshan.

These movies put to shame the most lavish Hollywood movies of the Golden Age - these are spectaculars in the true sense of the word. We have action, adventure, drama, romance, danger, singing, dancing and whatnot which - like the Energizer Bunny - keeps going and going and going. The only gripe I have is I believe that the female singing is dubbed - every Bollywood actress cannot sound like Yma Sumac and have that screechy, unearthly, near-ultrasonic voice that can puncture eardrums and cause horses to shift uneasily in their stalls.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then these Roshan epics are indeed a homage to no less than 11 (count'em - 11!) Hollywood movies. Not to give the plot away, but in Koi Mil Gaya, you can easily identify pieces from:

Charly
Forrest Gump
Singin' in the Rain
Saturday Night Fever
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
House of Flying Daggers
Flubber
Top Gun
E.T.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Sound of Music

The surprising thing is - it's amazingly enjoyable! And there is definitely no dearth of extremely handsome actors and glamorous actresses in these movies. What's also endearing is the fact that all of them are distinctive in their own right - again, far more reminiscent of the "stars" of Hollywood's Golden Age in their heyday (just think James Mason, Barbara Stanwyk, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Richard Widmark, Dana Andrews and William Holden) than the the current spate of bleached, botoxed and homogenous actors/actresses we have today. Below are pictures of the two stars of Koi Mil Gaya - Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta:

The next movie to watch is Krrish - another Roshan/Roshan production. This is supposedly the Hindi equivalent of Batman/Superman/James Bond combined. I can't wait!!!

Geek Break III - Wonders of the Electronic Age

2007-07-06T12:59:00.001-04:00

Okay, it's summer, my Spartiate and LOTR items are being worked on and it's a slow news month.

I saw a guy wearing this on a t-shirt as I was walking through Penn Station today:

There's no place
like
127.0.0.1

Get it?

Geek Break II - Music of the Spheres

2007-06-27T10:21:00.001-04:00

Ahh ... summer reading ... something easy on the eyes at the beach ... For me, it's Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos.

Hey, some people consider Jackie Collins light reading!!

I read (actually re-read) the two books and something was annoying me about some of the concepts. Greene uses characters in his books like George, Gracie, etc. to make a point and to inject some humor into the narrative. I decided to send the author an email:

Dear Dr. Greene:

I read your book, The Elegant Universe, and I enjoyed it very much. However, there was one gravity item that you had covered in string theory which has been on my mind and has been like an itch you cannot reach.

I am writing to you in the hopes that you can satisfy my curiosity. I'd like to illustrate with an analogy:

George, in addition to being a well-seasoned space traveler, also has perfect pitch and superlative hearing. His hobby while not jetting about the cosmos is to listen to and identify every powered garden tool by its sound. By looking at schematics and specifics about the engine, he claims he can identify any make and model lawnmower by sound alone.

Milton, his best friend, scoffs at George's boasts."Okay smarty, I'll bet you a steak dinner that you can't pick out lawnmowers!" George, seeing an easy way to a fine meal, agrees. He asks George for the schematics and engine diagrams of the equipment in question.

Milton (who happens to be the groundskeeper at the local football stadium) brings George to the playing field and blindfolds him. He motions to one of his assistants to start one of the machines and motions him to move it past George.

"That's a Briggs and Stratton Model X15", George declares. Milton is dumbstruck. George correctly identified the lawnmower. "Want to try again?" George taunts.

Milton agrees.

Milton motions to another one of his assistants who starts another machine and runs it past our star traveler.

"Hmmm. That's a Lawnboy Model AR3," is George's smug reply. Again, Milton is incredulous. How is he doing this? "I can just taste that steak now", George says. Milton is turning red as a beet. "One more time, okay?" he asks.

"Okay." Says George.

Milton now motions for both of his assistants to run the mowers past George.

"Milton, are you trying to trick me?", George laughs. "You just ran the X15 and the AR3 by me again and you added a Honda Weed-Whacker Model 33 to the mix."

"Aha!" says Milton. "You owe me dinner! Take off your blindfold!"

Now it is George's turn to be surprised. With both lawnmowers turned on, the harmonics sound just like the Honda. "Boy, do I have egg on my face. I never thought of that!"

Sorry to be a bit long-winded, but can you see where I'm coming from?

While string theory defines the specific vibrational pattern of gravity, we don't appear to find or feel gravity except in the presence of mass vibratory patterns. Could gravity's specific vibrational pattern be the result of interference or harmonics amongst the matter-based vibrations? Could gravity be an embedded quality of the universe, rather than a property unto itself?

If we use the lawnmower example again, the effects of gravity (or the sound of the weed-whacker) would be smaller (quieter) over long distances since the harmonics themselves interact less forcefully.

My issue is that strings not only vibrate, but in order to recognize the vibration is occurring (and to observe the specific properties that that vibration produces), they must affect their surroundings - namely the 11-dimensional space in which they are embedded. The vibration could have components in the lower 4-dimensional space, the higher 7-dimensional space, or some combination of both. Mass vibrations could produce a harmonic in the upper dimensional space which manifests itself as gravity in the lower dimensional space.

The gravitational feeling experienced during acceleration, then, could also be explained by the matter vibrational pattern being distorted and perhaps this "doppler howl" produces a similar harmonic. The same way that 2+2 and 3+1 yield identical results, so too could gravity and acceleration be explained by different harmonic interactions that yield a similar "tone".

Are there any Calabi-Yau shapes which explain the physical properties of the universe but only define the gravity vibrational pattern in the upper 7 dimensions?

Thank you for reading this, and I hope to hear from you soon.

What I'm finding absolutely hilarious at this point is that here I am, Ithilien Ranger, Gondorian Prince, descendant of Numenorean Sea-Kings, sword and bow wielder, discussing trans-dimensional geometry with a theoretical physicist ...

Dateline: 480 BC (BCE for the politically correct ...)

2007-06-15T09:14:00.001-04:00

I just got an email from Andrea - my cloak is complete! It looks incredible with the brooch pin from JJ and the harness from David - I should be receiving it early next week.

I've got the following items all done:

cloak
cloak brooch
shoulder harness
speedo
sandals
falcata sword (arrived on July 2!)

and I'm waiting for:

the helmet
vambraces
greaves
aspis shield
spear
the "Mede killer" medallion from Russ

JJ did the brooch pin earlier since it was a small job he could slide into his queue without any big interruptions - my commissions will be starting in July - woo-hoo!

Spartan shield
Boromir shield
Faramir sword and scabbard
Ithilien Ranger sword and scabbard
Spartan armor

Once I get some stuff taken care of next week, I'm ready to put together my packet of correspondence regarding Kathy Pillsbury to the LAPD.

I'm going to give her a call - "Hi - just to let you know ... Since you've refused to refund my deposit after a 10-month wait, I'm filing a complaint with the LAPD. Buh-bye."

This is going to be one incredibly satisfying phonecall for me!

Fantasy Cast - The Downfall of Númenor

2007-06-11T15:00:00.000-04:00

Working Title: Númenor: Downfall
Director: Peter Jackson (who else?)

Cast (so far):

Sauron	Hrithik Roshan
Elros	Eric Etabari
Amandil	Clive Owen
Elendil The Tall	Gerard Butler
Isildur	Eric Bana
Anarion	Christian Bale
Tar-Palantir	Thomas Jane
Ar-Pharazon	Daniel Craig
Miriel	Lena Headey
Gil-Galad	Alec Newman/ Dougray Scott

I wasn't 100% certain about Alec Newman as Gil-Galad, since he might be considered too rough-looking, (or too short - at 5'9") given the fact that he's supposed to be a Noldorin elf. A good friend suggested Dougray Scott, which after taking a good, hard look - I agreed wholeheartedly. If you take a look at him in Ever After, he does possess a bit of an ethereal quality to his features.

Ralph Fiennes has also been suggested for Sauron and Hermione Norris for Miriel opposite Daniel Craig.

Here's a link to the cast photos, courtesy of Picasa.

The First Age - and why it won't get a screenplay...

2007-06-10T17:00:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading The Children of Húrin - the new book from Christopher Tolkien. This tome is an elaboration of one of the tales contained in the Silmarillion. Túrin, next to Beren and Earendil, is perhaps one of the most developed and three-dimensional figures Tolkien created in the First Age. While incredibly heroic and dramatic, the whole of the First Age is so tragic and heart-breaking that it makes Russian melodramas look like Broadway musicals.

For starters, Morgoth is the Tolkien equivalent of Lucifer - a prideful, fallen Demiurge. Sauron is his sidekick. (And for those of you that thought Sauron was the original bad guy - hang your head in shame!!!!) In short - Húrin is captured by Morgoth and refuses to aid him in destroying the elves. Enraged, Morgoth curses Húrin and his line. Túrin (his son) grows up among the elves, but Morgoth's doom follows him and he eventually betrays everyone he loves, murders his best friend by mistake and unwittingly marries his sister (who eventually kills herself and their child). Túrin then falls on his sword and dies.

It's a classically tragic tale of doom and hubris. Great reading, but definitely a major downer for theater-goers.

The Silmarillion is basically the King James version of the Bible for Middle Earth. The Silmarillion comprises five parts:

Ainulindalë ("The Music of the Ainur") – the creation of Eä, the world
Valaquenta ("Account of the Valar") – a description of the Valar and Maiar, the supernatural powers in Eä
Quenta Silmarillion ("The History of the Silmarils") - the history of the events before and during the First Age, which forms the bulk of the collection - the creation and theft of the Feanorian gems and subsequent sorrows of the elves from the crime - homicide, fraticide, regicide, kinslaying, betrayal - you name it, it happens ...
Akallabêth ("The Downfall of Númenor") – the history of the Downfall of Númenor/Atalante and its people (Men), which takes place in the Second Age
Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age – a brief account of the circumstances which led to and were presented in The Lord of the Rings

The elves, being immortal, have a lot of time on their hands for a lot of suffering - and they do it in spades. And being immortal, it's heart-wrenching to see how many die of sorrow. By the time you get to the Fifth book, "Of the Rings of Power", you understand the reasoning why the three Elven rings were forged - to heal and preserve. After many thousands upon thousands of years, these folks are looking for a breather!

I think the best bet for another movie would be the Downfall of Númenor - from an action point of view - murder, betrayal, fighting, sea-battles, disasters, etc and from a romance point of view - we can definitely find some romantic back stories (a la Pearl Harbor) and arrival in Middle Earth. We've got the three great Sea-Kings of Old - Elendil, Isildur and Anarion - for starters. We have Sauron being drowned and his spirit returning to his old evil digs - Mordor - in Middle-Earth. This could be great! Maybe even a follow-on mini-series!!

I'm going to put together a fantasy cast for this epic - of course, I'm going to solicit as much help as I can get!!

How Apropos ...

2007-06-05T13:15:00.001-04:00

Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
Julius Caesar - Act I Scene 2

I don't know about you, but I seem to be finding more and more that the nastiest, most inconsiderable people I meet on a regular basis are either a) grossly overweight or b) use one of those motorized scooters.

I'm beginning to believe that in these cases, causality has been turned on its ear - these people are afflicted because of how nasty they are, not they are nasty because of their affliction.

Here's an example: I was walking down the street and in front of me are two morbidly obese girls in hip huggers. Each one was easily 350 pounds. Both of them have tattoos right above their butts. This is the stuff of night terrors. Since they took up the width of the sidewalk, someone said, "Excuse me" and tried to pass. The girls screamed at the poor tourist, who fled across the street.

First off, if you're often mistaken for "Bimba, whale of the Nile", do not wear hip-huggers (in fact whoever manufactured hip huggers in that size should be taken out and shot). Contact Omar the tent-maker for something much looser and a lot less revealing. I do not need to see something that looks like a lifesize black seagull or a Fell Beast flapping on your lower back and upper butt. If I want to lose my lunch, I will stick several fingers down my throat. Secondly, my health insurance premiums are paying for treatment of your diabetes, COPD, asthma, high-blood pressure and other weight-related diseases, along with all the meds you need to take. If the purpose of your midday waddle is, "I know that candy store is around here..." then you'd be better served by a gastric bypass, or having your mammoth jaws wired shut. Lastly, if you know that you are that wide, don't block the sidewalk - and if you act like you were brought up in a barn, then you should put yourself there and strap on a feedbag.

Okay - rant over.

I happened to check James Lileks' site today and lo and behold, there was something that brought a smile to my lips and a good, deep, cleansing laugh:

Nice call, Supe – don’t use your special powers to pry apart the booth ever so gently so Lana can ease her stout patoot out the door; don’t use your special lube-beams to grease her up so she can extract herself with dignity. No, pick her up and fly her around town with her ass hanging out.

Why would he care if Lana knew he had become FAT as well? Wouldn’t this actually be a comfort? Obviously some sort of evil enfattening ray has been trained on Smallville, and everyone looks like they just spent a fortnight at Chili’s restaurant drinking from the deep-fryer grease trap.

Superboy’s costume, being Super, easily absorbed the added demands; Lana, however, should have split that dress wide open, providing all the subscribers with the I-see-London-I-see-France moment they wanted. How many redhead fetishes Lana left in her wake, we'll never know, but she gets short shrift in the great debates over fictional women. Everyone's always going on about Betty or Veronica; the Lois-vs.-Lana issue never comes up.

Ahhhhh - just what I needed to get my perspective back - Thanks James!!!!

On Target

2007-06-04T13:09:00.000-04:00

Practice really does make perfect.

I find I really enjoy using the longbow I got for my Faramir outfit. It's got a 40 lb draw weight, and I find I'm fairly accurate to about 30-40 yards. When I go out to a practice range, I definitely get second (and third) looks - it's not every day that you see an ornate leather quiver over one's shoulder and a 72" wood bow - normally it's a fiberglass bow or compound bow with a hip quiver.

I wanted to see how far I could go with this concept. I normally use an archery glove when I'm shooting, but on one weekend, I wore my pair of archer's bracers from Eeldrytch Armorie. The pair I have looks exactly like this, except there are no finger coverings. These are made of a very soft leather and provide an amazing amount of support.

I did get some double- and triple-takes which generally satisfied my quirky sense of humor. The surprising thing was that I had a couple of guys (Gerry and Sal - two guys I met that shoot recurve bows) that were really interested in the bracers and wanted to know more about them. "Want to try them on?" I asked. I bought a pair, but they can be ordered separately. Gerry is left-handed and Sal is right-handed, so I took them off and laced one bracer on each of them. They really enjoyed the way it wrapped around the arm and remarked at how much more cushioned the wrist felt. I think I made some sales without even trying! I did warn them that Eeldrytch is notoriously bad on email followup - they need to get dates and make phone calls to keep these folks on track.

So far, so good. Next thing I tried was boots. I have a pair of boots that Reg made for me. These were a combination of East German police boots, tooled leather buckets on top and some simple bootstraps across the top of the foot and under the heel. As I've said previously, when you have a good pair of boots, they are more comfortable than sneakers and these are really, really, good! I've worn these for 8-10 hours straight and my feet are never tired.

So there I am - dark green polo shirt, black jeans, black bucket boots, vambraces, quiver and a pair of Black Ice Gargoyle 85s. Not too many glances until I'm walking off of the field - then I get noticed! The quiver and vambraces attract the most notice, followed by the bow (I sling the bow over the other shoulder) which draws people's eyes down to the boots. The partially silvered hitman black glasses don't hurt either!!

I don't know what I'll try next - the leather pants? The thigh dagger? Perhaps with a bit of practice at home, I'll do the full Ithilien Ranger or Faramir costume!

(By the way, Gerry and Sal ordered pairs of vambraces - Sal has a black-on-black set and Gerry wears a cognac/palomino pair - I think I've started a trend ...)

It would be so much easier if I could wear this stuff to work!

Horsing Around

2007-05-29T12:45:00.001-04:00

One of the things that I still want to do is to learn to ride a horse.

It's also one of the things that scare the living crap out of me.

It's not that I'm afraid of horses. Far from it. There's usually several Mounted officers outside of Madison Square Garden, and the horses are used to being patted and talked to by strangers. In my neighborhood, too, we sometimes have Mounted officers patrolling, and I am definitely not spooked by their size. When you look at horses (and some dogs) in the eye, you can actually see someone looking back at you (forget about cats!).

What scares me is falling off and badly hurting myself. I guess as one gets older, the consequences of doing something stupid become more apparent and that instills a certain sense of caution that isn't there at a younger, more innocent age.

One concern is damaging my teeth. I would not want to go through another root canal, or possible reattachment, or a possible dental implant. Along the same lines, I worry about eye damage during a fall. As Andrea can attest, I've been through enough eye infections, corneal ulcers, chalazions and whatnot to do a remote consult on someone else, determine meds and dosing schedule and have it 100% verified by a "real" ophthalmologist.

Oddly enough, breaking an arm or leg (or rib) doesn't seem to be as plausible or probable to me. As I've mentioned before, I have very dense bones and they don't break easily. When I was nine or ten, I was sitting on my bicycle looking down into my neighbors back yard from my back yard. (The houses in my area are terraced, so "ground level" in my yard is actually about 20-30 feet above the neighbor's "ground level"). There was no fence, I lost my footing, and down the slope I went - I wound up flying off my bike, having it land on top of me and having the wind knocked out of me. Thinking back, it was terrifying to not be able to breathe for about 10 seconds. Many, many, many years later, when I had to take a chest x-ray, the technician remarked that I had a very faint mark on one rib, probably from a slight crack. He asked me if I had ever had an accident - at that point I was well aware what it was from but was too embarrassed to admit it.

No, what really upsets me is thinking about Christopher Reeve. Spinal or cervical injuries from a horseback incident is the thing that is always holding me back. Depending on how you look at it, I was fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to actually meet him after his accident during a black-tie charity dinner at Windows on the World. It's one thing to read about his being strapped into his wheelchair and having his respirator pump air in and out for him and another thing to actually see and hear it. It really made a lasting impression - and this has always stopped me from even trying horseback riding. And yet, when I watch the rodeo, I see these people getting thrown from bulls and walking away from it.

I know it's an unreasonable fear. I also know that I'm not going to be in an equestrian competition like he was. I also know I'm not going to be in a rodeo. As with any fear, I guess I'm going to have to desensitize myself little by little. Maybe start with a pony. Then move up to a swayback. Then an regular older horse. Then a normal, placid horse. Eventually, I would like to be able to do this:

Worse than the DMV ...

2007-05-22T11:23:00.000-04:00

Just waiting for everything to get done can be a painful experience. If you've ever heard the term, "it's like watching paint dry" you know exactly how I'm feeling at this point.

Andrea has everything she needs (from me) to get started on both the Han Solo and Spartiate costumes. It's only a matter of moving up into the starting line of the queue. JJ needs to send her some pin back measurements for the cloak brooch. This will determine how and where the cloak will be fastened. There's no rush, and I know my patience will be richly rewarded when I get the pieces.

Andrea just sent me some "in progress" pictures of the cloak with the shoulder harness I sent down to her. I have to say, it looks simple, elegant and impressive. JJ should have the pin for the cloak done this month. If you've noticed, there were two different styles of the the shoulder harness on the Spartans in the movie - the "over the shoulder" version worn by Leonidas, and the "cross chest" version worn by everyone else. I had David do the "over the shoulders" version.

I'm also moving (slowly) up in JJ's commission queue for the Ithilien sword, the Spartiate armor and the sandals. I've also decided to have him do the Spartiate shield, the Boromir shield and a Faramir sword. He expects everything will be done this year.

The spear is on pre-order from strongblade.com.

The falcata sword is expected now expected "sometime" in June. The swords are coming in from Hong Kong and haven't quite made it into the distribution channels yet.

I've started doing some additional ab exercises. Slowly. I do these in conjunction with some protective lower back exercises. I've pulled my lower back out a couple of times, and it's not pleasant. I'm going for a trim middle with some definition, not a ripped, granite-hard 6-pack. The only way that is going to happen is with liposuction and abdominal etching. And it's not.

Aarrgghhh!

Turning the corner in hyperspace ....

2007-05-15T12:14:00.001-04:00

As an update to the original post, here's some late breaking news...

The Pants Belt

I received the belt from Zemsky's and this is THE belt from the costume. For about $12, this was one of the easiest and least expensive costume parts to date.

The Blaster Belt

I also received Matt's blaster belt. Beautifully dyed, great leather, nicely milled parts, no sharp edges and so comfortable! The blaster itself fits like a glove in the holster! I'm nearly over kicking myself for not going to Matt in the first place.

And speaking of gloves, I also picked up a pair of chestnut-colored Damascus D302s from Amazon! Yes, Amazon! I had seen on one of the costume sites that Han also wore a pair of short leather gloves. Here's the link.

The Shirt, Pants and Jacket

Andrea had made me an additional shirt, tunic and cloak for the second Ranger outfit; this time in varying shades of brown. She was also sweet enough to add some theatrical-quality mudstains to the bottom of the cloak using a concoction of acrylic paint and other secret ingredients. I put the entire costume on last night and it's so comfortable!

I'm near the top of the queue now for the Han Solo items. We're going for the Empire Strikes Back outfit of light black jacket, white shirt and brown pants with gold bloodstripes, as opposed to the Star Wars version of black vest, white shirt and blue pants with red bloodstripes.

I came across some interesting "history" on the Corellian bloodstripes:

Bloodstripes were a Corellian award represented by a 3cm-wide broken stripe of piping that was sewn along the outer seams of a pair of trousers. There were two levels of bloodstripes that could be awarded, each distinguished by its color. The Second-level bloodstripe was gold and, although rarely given out, was the more common of the two awards. The First-level bloodstripe was red, and was usually awarded posthumously because of the exceptionally heroic and often fatal deeds required to earn it. Most bloodstripes were earned for courage under fire, and the recipient was often recognized for simply being a human in the right place at the right time, enduring unusual hardships. The wearer was by no means a superhero. Han Solo was one of the few examples of a living Corellian who earned First-level bloodstripes. He earned his Second-level bloodstripes for rescuing Chewbacca, but he never revealed the deed for which he was awarded the First-level bloodstripes. He preferred to wear the yellow stripes, so as not to receive inquiries on them.
During the exploration era on Corellia, several bands of pirates were known to attack sailing ships carrying precious cargo from exotic countries. Many sailors perished by the swords of these pirates who would board cargo ships by the hundreds. Over time, the pirates made it a habit to clean their swords on the sides of their trousers to boast the number of men they had killed. The longer the row of red stripes on a pirate's pant leg, the more dangerous and experienced he was. Years later,it became a custom to sew in these "blood stripes" to help classify the rank of each pirate.
In more modern times, as Corellia became inter-galactically known for it's history of swashbucklers, these "blood stripes" were carried on as a tradition in the Navy. During the dark times, when the Empire took charge over Corellia, ranks were removed from the standard military uniform and were only used at Naval Academies. Over time, a new generation of pirates emerged, attacking Imperial supply ships of all sorts. Following in the tradition of their predecessors, they donned the classic "blood stripes" on their trousers.

I'm so glad I decided to cut my losses with Kathy Pillsbury and have Andrea do the outfit. By the way, I'm planning on having an attorney friend of mine produce a "demand letter" to get my deposit back and I will be filing a police report with the LAPD.

Dining in HELL - the second course

2007-05-09T21:20:00.002-04:00

As an update to the original post, here's some new and additional news:

Leatherwear

David completed the "speedo" and damn, it's comfortable. When I went for the second fitting, everything was absolutely perfect. David suggested that I wear it the rest of the day (under my suit - get your mind out of the gutter!) to make sure. He did forget about the shoulder harness ("Oh... so that's why I drew the figure-8 there...") but I'll be getting that in a short time - he was working on some leather coats for a new Steven Seagal movie and had some pretty tight deadlines for delivery.

David gave me a call today and the harness was finished! The leather is the same stuff he used on the Seagal coat - dark brown with a hint of scarlet to it. I went down and tried it on - again, a few adjustments here and there, a couple of hole punches and it was complete. I'm following his advice again and wearing it (under my shirt) for the day - I don't anticipate any problems since this really soft leather and fitted to me. Although I have very good posture (8 years in parochial elementary school with nuns and 4 years Catholic high school with brothers will beat that into you), the harness is also having a nice side-effect of pulling my shoulders back a bit and squaring them off more. I just have to be careful moving around work today and hearing the leather creak a bit!

Armor and Sandals

No real new news from JJ ... He was able to find some dished steel shield blanks, so I bit the bullet and decided to go for the shield also - in for penny, in for a pound! I've learned from rather painful and nasty experience if I scrimp on something, I always wind up paying more for it (in more ways than one) in the long run. I put out a query to one of the costume groups on Yahoo! and got the name of a Greek sandalmaker, but he never returned any emails and I'm not in the mood to call Greece and follow up.

I came across a Greek re-enactors group here in NYC - thegreekwarriors.com. These people take their reenactments seriously. They build their own shields from scratch! They are more of the historical Spartan/Greek Hoplite soldiers rather than the Frank Miller versions. I contacted Peter - their designated Spartiate officer - and a got a great lead on sandals. I got them today and they are extremely comfortable. I'll see which version looks better with the outfit - these or JJ's. The only issue I had with the sandals was that the foot bed was a lighter color than the straps - and again, my good ole' standby - Fiebing Leather Dye (chocolate brown) came to the rescue. Swabbed everything down with a coat of the dye and let it dry overnight - perfect!

By the way, did you know that the proper term for the Spartan shield is not a hoplon (as the Greek foot soldiers were called Hoplites) but an aspis?

Spear

There are a lot of crappy looking knockoffs going around right now. I did find a place that has a beauty though. Strongblade.com. Not an official replica, but a beauty all the same. This has a battle-used look to it that will fit right in with JJ's shield and it also separates into two pieces for easy storage!

Falcata

The date has been moved again, so it should ship by end of May or early June. The falcatas are coming in from Hong Kong and they are not in the country yet. Like I said, I may have David re-do the scabbard so it looks better with the speedo.

Cloak

Andrea's queue is semi-full right now, but my Han Solo outfit will be ready soon and I'll be sending the shoulder harness down to her this weekend. JJ will send the cloak pin directly to her when he finishes it.

"Wolf's Tooth" Medallion

I'm not doing a wolf's tooth, but Russ and I are working on a cast bronze item. The design is in the "scribble on a napkin" phase right now, but I can promise you this - it will be striking, original and somewhat disturbing. Just what you need to freak out a Mede or Persian at close quarters !!! Russ was doodling some ideas during a thunderstorm and managed to creep himself out a bit - which is EXACTLY the response I'm aiming for!

Now, I can't draw worth a tinker's dam, but I can put together some superb photoshop collages. This is something along the lines that we're looking to do:

Sic vis pacem parabellum

2007-04-22T19:25:00.001-04:00

Although Corey Sosner does make the best-fitting muscle suits and Wolverine claws, that's not his true calling. He's an actor, and a damn fine one at that.

Corey recently completed a short film called "Punisher, First Round" in which he starred, directed and produced. It's a great film, with all the action quality a hero movie must have. It was the first time that you can see the real Punisher on screen. (I had the chance to view this DVD after watching the Tom Jane version, and I can definitely say they miscast THAT movie. Big time.) Corey delivers a gritty realism to the Punisher and truly portrays the depth and breadth of a character driven by revenge and possessing the skills to execute his plans perfectly. At the same time, he brings an excellent sense of dry humor and comic timing to the Frank Castle character in his exchanges with Wolverine. The casting of the short was extremely well done and the dialogue between the Punisher and Wolverine was classic.

Knowing Corey before I saw the movie, I was amazed at how easily and believably he could slip into the Frank Castle/Punisher role. This is his genre and he is unparalleled. One of the things I always notice about someone is the eyes. As I've mentioned, I have dark green eyes. Most of the time. When I get angry, they bleed to gray. And I've been told I look completely different when I'm angry (and no, I don't put on 250 pounds of muscle and turn green - if I did, I wouldn't have needed the muscle suit, would I?). Corey's eyes do the same thing. They are a lighter green than mine, but his gaze goes absolutely flat, almost reptilian, and his eyes get extremely dark.

I believe one of the best indicators of a superb actor is his ability to willingly suspend disbelief in his audience of the "secondary world" of his performance. Corey can do this ... and in spades.

Order the DVD from www.coreysosner.com - you won't be disappointed!

Tonight, we dine in HELL !! -- Cipriani's ??

2007-04-16T15:30:00.001-04:00

This one feels different. I don't know exactly why, but it does. I'm feeling anxious for some odd reason.

Normally, when I start down a costume development path, there's a lot more research I need to do, a lot more vendors to contact, a lot more effort.

This time, the items just fell into place - Am I getting this good, or is some type of synchronicity afoot?

Andrea is doing the cloak - fabric will be a heavy wool and color will be a scarlet red.
JJ is doing the brooch, vambraces, greaves, sandals and helmet. I'm now in the queue and the armor should be done in the 3rd or 4th quarter of this year.
I purchased the falcata sword from MonstersInMotion.com. It should ship on May 18th.
David is doing the leather Speedo and shoulder harness. The harness will be sent down to Andrea for fitting the cloak.

David? Who's David?

When I got my Faramir pants, Reg cut them too long. Rather than send them back and wait another few months for him to return them, I figured that I could bring them to some leather garment repair place and just get them cut and hemmed. Nope.

I went to about four places and each one wanted to charge about $100 to trim and hem. There was no way I was going to spend that money (plus NYC sales tax!!), so I kept looking. I tried using superpages.com and looked up "leather clothing". In addition to the places I found in the paper yellow pages, I came across some other leather clothing places. Leather fetish clothing places.

Well, well, well ...

Two of the places I called, The Leather Man and Rubio Leather, just didn't sit right with me. They weren't nasty. Something was just off-putting about them. The best analogy I can give is when you walk into a hair salon/barber shop and just get a bad vibe. It's best to get out of there. And FAST. Then I called David Menkes Custom Leather Wear. David sounded like a really nice guy and I explained what I needed. "Sure, no problem. Would you like to set up an appointment now, or do you need to check your calendar?"

I set up an appointment and went down to 19th Street the next day. I was expecting an actual store, but David works out of a HUGE third-floor apartment with an outside garden. I was really impressed. And David is one of the nicest, most creative people I've met so far - in fact, I was thinking to myself, "I've found the leather equivalent of Andrea!" His work area was neat as a pin, he had a wall of leathers on rolls and a rack of completed and in-process items on the side. As it turned out, David was also a very big LOTR fan, although he felt that Peter Jackson didn't do the books justice. He also picked up right away the Faramir pants were Faramir pants. Damn, he is good! A couple of snips and a run through the sewing machine and we were done. And the price was extremely reasonable - about one-fifth of what was being asked for in the other establishments. I was looking at some of the items he was making, how clean the cuts were and how straight the hems were sewn on everything. No mess anywhere.

When I was planning my vendors for this venture, I immediately thought of David. He's a perfectionist. After all, if you're getting this type of leather clothing, you had better go to an expert. I gave David a call and explained to him what I was looking for, plus I sent him a PDF of some shots of Gerard Butler and Michael Fassbender in costume (or lack thereof). He had already seen the movie. Twice.

A little bit about David - he's a well-built guy with tattoos, a closely cropped beard, bright blue eyes, a septum piercing, and an absolutely wicked sense of humor. He had chuckled when I first told him what I was looking for.

"What are you doing about the CHEST? I hope you've been working out!"

"Of course I have - I'm not going to get confused with David Wenham, but I'm in good shape. Do you think I'd be asking for a leather Speedo if I couldn't carry it off?"

"You should SEE some of the people that come in here!"

We had a good laugh on that one. I've already seen him for the initial measurement session and I've picked out the leather I'd like to use. David, like Andrea, works pretty quickly, so Andrea should have the shoulder harness to fit the cloak in a short time. And, by the way, he was quite pleased with the results of my chest and abs workouts.

Looking at the pictures of the falcata sword I've ordered, I may also ask David to re-do the sword belt and scabbard. He'll have the actual pieces as a pattern and I know he'll have fun making THAT! After all, if I'm wearing a custom leather speedo, I don't want to put on a cheap leather/pleather ill-fitting belt.

I realized that this was the first costume that didn't involve several layers of fabric and/or leather between me and everyone else. This was basically just me. And a cloak. Even with the workouts and staying slim, it hit me that I still had a bit of nasty body-image memory to overcome. Well, I said to myself, you're not the little fat kid any more ... Spartan.

And I don't feel as anxious now ...

... In Blackest Night ...

2007-04-09T13:06:00.001-04:00

My Green Lantern mask arrived!

Corey and his sculptor did a great job on the mask. I actually got two!

The first one is made of of urethane foam with a theatrical mesh back. This one is as light as air and feels like an actual part of your face. It's a bit wrinkled when it's not on, but as soon as it warms up on your face, it puffs up and is really smooth! I use spirit gum and spirit gum remover for this one. This moves as your facial expressions move. It's great!

The other is made of theatrical latex. A little thicker, almost, but not quite, as comfortable. ProsAid and regular prosthetic adhesive remover on this one.

By the way, did you know the "proper" way to attach a latex appliance?

Put a light coat on the back of the appliance. Let dry for about two minutes
Put a similar light coat of the adhesive on your face. Let dry for about a minute
Starting at the top edge, "roll" the appliance downwards, patting and stretching gently into place as you go.

Window on the West

2007-04-05T11:21:00.001-04:00

The Private Investigator Story!

Bear with me folks - this entry ties together a lot of loose strings from other entries. Particularly the "Weapons and Warfare" entry.

I had decided to also go for an Ithilien Ranger costume, and at that point in time my two principal vendors were Andrea and Reg.

My motivation was some really great pictures on the alleycatscratch.com site of the Ranger's parade in Wellington, plus an extremely detailed breakdown of each costume piece.

Andrea, of course, had no problem with the shirt, the neck cover/mask and the tabard. They were done in about 3 weeks.

Reg, would be doing the underbracers, bracers, tunic, cuirass and gorget. Knowing Reg's inability to get stuff done on time, I made sure I gave him eight months advance notice.

"Reg, do you swear to God you're going to get this stuff done on time, this time? Am I going to have to keep calling you because you'd forget your head if it wasn't attached?"

We set the date of October 1 to have all the pieces in my hands. Not shipped. Not almost ready. Delivered.

The other thing I needed for the outfit was an Ithilien Ranger sword. Why I didn't think of JJ at this point, still escapes me, but I went ahead and contacted Eyal Azerad at Darksword Armory in Quebec for the commission. We discussed the project and Eyal put me in his queue; the expected delivery date was 6 months. So everything would be coming due at the same time. Nice. I also decided at that time, that as a birthday gift, I'd give Andrea my Faramir sword and have Eyal make another one up for me.

With two HUGE exceptions (Garry, Andrea's husband and Corey Sosner) I've been universally disappointed with every single item I've gotten from a Canadian vendor. They're sloppy.

I give Reg a call on September 1 - just to see if we're on track.

"Oh yeah! I've got all the leather cut and I'll have them out to you before I go to the Texas Faire."

"Oh, how long is the faire?"

"About 2-3 months."

DAMN. Here we go again. Deep breath. Relax. Unclench my hands. Look around for someone to beat the living s**t out of.

"When are you going?"

"End of the month."

"So you promise me you'll get the stuff out, RIGHT? You're not going to miss your deadline again?"

"I promise! I promise!"

Well, you can guess exactly what happened. Not only did Reg not get the stuff out by the end of the month, he was off gallivanting in Texas. The term "volcanic fury" does not even begin to describe my feelings at that moment. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. I figured that I needed to find another vendor. Luckily, I hadn't given Reg a deposit. (Unluckily, if I had, I wouldn't have been so eager to find someone else).

Introducing ....

With some help, I found Greg Podgorny of Podgorny Designs and I give him a call. He's an MFA and had done a full set of Gimli armor, does plate armor and forges swords. We exchange emails and he responded promptly. He picked up his phone. He returned voicemails. I get a written contract that states he will be done by end of January 2007. The only thing I'm not too thrilled about at this point is the fact that he wants to be paid 100% up front. (This should have set off warning bells, but I was too pissed off at Reg to listen to that little voice.)

I send Greg a bank check ... we still talk to each other on the phone and email. Even better. I even get progress photos!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ...

Eyal has emailed me and has backed out of the Ithilien Ranger sword. Damn. Damn. Damn. He can't get the casting on the pommel to his satisfaction. He sends me the new Faramir sword. It's beautiful - except for three items:

All the leather is black, instead of green. We had specifically agreed to faded green leather in all the email correspondence
There's no etched ravens on the pommel - according to him, the material he used is too hard to etch.
The scabbard doesn't fit properly and it is not the "Faramir" scabbard. The metal aglet is also slightly rusted.

Since I'm on a roll with Greg, I ask him if he can do another scabbard and do the Ithilien sword. Again - not a problem, except the 100% up-front thing. I agree. I send him the Faramir sword from Eyal for the etching and the replacement scabbard.

As the deadline looms closer ...

I give Greg a call on January 10. He's actually finished everything and is just waiting for some nice weather to "age" the leather. He's all set to ship on January 16. By the end of the week, I don't get the items and I call ... I get his voicemail, but I figure Greg's off-site - he often does movie work and is not in the office/forge for a few days.

Two weeks ... three weeks. Nothing. Zip. Nada.

I call his neighbor (he's next to a woodworking place) - he hasn't seen him. I send registered mail. Nothing.

!@#@#@@#$%$&^$##^$$%*!!!!

So now I'm out over $2000, I still don't have my Ithilien Ranger sword PLUS I no longer have a Faramir sword.

Well, back to the drawing board ...

So I give Reg a call. I had told him previously that because he couldn't meet the deadline I had to use someone else. Of course, both he and Larkin were extremely apologetic when I blew them off. So my excuse was I wanted a second Ithilien ranger outfit. He actually got it done and the stuff was, as usual, visually stunning - just very, very late. And nearly free since Reg felt so bad about disappointing me in the first place. The only problem was the boot toppers - they were this bright palomino gold color - a nice color, if you like your eyes to bleed. Another pair, this time in a darker brown was completed and was being shipped out on April 5. These are in a weathered milk-chocolate brown and look perfect with the outfit.

This was also around the same time as I was having such a hassle with that witch Kathy Pillsbury with the Han Solo costume. At this point, I was so damn angry I decided I'd hire a private investigator to track Greg down and either get my money back, or get my costume and swords (or have his kneecaps broken, depending on who I'd hire).

So I look for private investigators in the Los Angeles area (Greg was in Pacoima, which is a suburb of Los Angeles) and shell out $275 for a "basic locate". I was hoping to get either a cell phone number, residence address or something to speak with Greg and rip him a new one. Greg is definitely one tough person to locate, because as of this writing, the PI still can't find him and I'm getting a refund.

... Then back from the dead ...

All of a sudden, I get a package from Greg - now this is the end of February 2007. He's 30 days late on his written contract, so he's technically in breach. I can sue the jerk if I want to. In the box is my Ithilien Ranger outfit and it fits great. This one is deliberately scratched and worn - which is the way I wanted it - so I really do wind up with two usable Ranger outfits. And - wonders of wonders - there's another 818 phone number. I call it and I actually speak to the idiot.

And I hear a tale of woe. I really don't give a rat's ass at this point, but hearing how bad he sounded and what actually happened, I did feel a little sorry for the guy.

Now, Greg's old place of business in Pacoima was zoned for industrial use only. Given the rents in that area, Greg decided to also reside there. And conveniently forgot to tell his landlord. His neighbor - his supposed friend who ran the woodworking store - wanted to expand his business and so he decided to tell the landlord about Greg's living arrangements. The landlord got angry and gave Greg five days to vacate the premises. He packed what he could in his pickup truck, gave as much equipment he could to friends and still left a lot of stuff there when the L.A. County sheriffs came to padlock the place. Greg drove cross-country and is living with/near his parents in North Carolina and is fixing up his grandfather's apartment that hadn't been lived in for about 15 years. One of his friends gave him a cell phone - which was the number on the package label - and this same friend had mailed out the Ithilien Ranger package. The Eyal/Faramir sword was still with either this friend or another in California and he/she would send that out to him when he was ready to make the scabbard. The swordwork was supposed to be finished by March 30, 2007.

Greg was going to be doing some lectures/classes at the college he graduated from and swore up and down that he would forge the sword and make the scabbard for the classes. I could call him any time on the new number.

... And out for the count ...

So, I talked to Greg twice on the new number, and after that - I'm just getting his voicemail - just like the last time. Then the message switched to "This number is temporarily out of service". Now someone else has the number with a different message. I don't even have a mailing address. So I'm out the money I gave him for doing the Ithilien sword and I'm out the money I spent with Eyal on making another Faramir sword. About $1800 in total.

And the almost-happy ending ...

Reg has another Faramir sword, which he is going to send me - when - is the big question since he's off to a faire in Escondido in two weeks.

JJ is doing the Ithilien sword (for about $900)

At least I'm getting my stuff done by reputable vendors. I just had to blow a large chunk of change to do it.

Pep talk

2007-04-01T22:27:00.007-04:00

I mentioned to Andrea that I was half heartedly thinking of a Spartiate outfit from the movie "300" but dismissed it since I lack the washboard abs that most (if not all) of the Spartans were sporting.

God bless her, this was her response:

Dude, you are in Spartan enough shape after all that training! I'm just crossing my fingers that everyone who orders one of these has a body to go with it, or at least be mostly in shape. Mostly is all I ask for.

After all, if my job description included strutting around half naked like this guy or I had abs like him, I wouldn't have even given it a second thought:

As a child, I was somewhat heavy. No, make that fat. I was humiliated when I had to go to the department store and have to go to the "husky" rack. I recently came across a picture of myself at 8 years old when I went to the rodeo at Madison Square Garden. I weighed more then than I do now. I had heard all of the common and uncommon excuses - from "That's just baby fat" to "You've got heavy bones" (I actually have extremely dense bones, but that's beside the point and no, I'm not part-Kryptonian!)

The high point in my (then young) life was the first time I could fit into "regular" clothes. That was sophomore year in high school.

And I make damn sure that I stay that way. I wear 30" waist Levi 501s and have for the past 20+ years.

I also keep one old pair of Levis. If I try them on and they're tight, I cut down on my intake and increase my workouts until they feel comfortable again.

There's been a lot of controversy going on about low-fat vs. low-carb diets. I do my own low-fat and low processed carb diet.

Anything that has hydrogenated, coconut or palm oil I skip.

Any stuff with a lot of sugar (store bought cake, cookies, etc.) I skip.

Delicatessen meats or salads I skip.

The "Mediterranean" diet staple of olive oil actually raises my bad LDL and lowers my good HDL, so I skip that too. Go figure.

Lots of fresh fruit, fresh or frozen veggies, grains, cereals (Honey Nut Cheerios and Vanilla Almond Special K for the most part, plus Kashi Go-Lean) and I'm set!

This sort of eliminates the "fun" foods like pizza, chinese or ribs from regular consumption, but then again, they shouldn't be regular consumption. I can treat these as "very special occasion" items and not feel deprived. And I limit the amount even when I do splurge.

I've decided to go ahead with the Spartiate outfit. The definite pieces are the cloak, brooch, leather speedo (hehehehe), greaves, vambraces, sandals and xiphos+scabbard. I also learned my lesson from before - Andrea is doing the cloak and JJ the armor. I'll describe the whole process in another post.

Now, I'm just deciding on which optional pieces I really want. Helmet? Shield? Spear?

And find time to do more abdominal exercises.

Maybe if I start taking Ambien, I can get in some sleep-crunches ...

UPDATE:

After a considerably long time, I am finally sporting a fairly nice-looking six-pack. The rifts and valleys are coming along, due to being extremely faithful to versions of the '300 workout' as posted on YouTube. I'm also down to a 29" waist.

While most of my contemporaries are expanding around the waistline, I'm shrinking!

The Dark Side of the Force

2007-03-24T16:14:00.000-04:00

Although I can pat myself on the back for being creative, resourceful and patient, there are definitely times when it would be NICE to call one person up and have everything taken care of.

Sort of like a personal shopping assistant for costume design.

This is NOT the private investigator story I talked about previously, but it is during the same time period when I was quite disillusioned with Reg and was experimenting with other vendors.

The story does have a happy ending, although I've come through the process with some bittersweet learnings.

I had always enjoyed Star Wars more than Star Trek. Part of it was that in the Trek universe, you get presented with a problem and everything is tickedy boo in 60 minutes. Star Wars was always a little darker, a little more unsure, a little more, well, nefarious. At least that was the case for Eps 4-6. Of the new prequels, I fell asleep during Ep1, kept looking at my watch in Ep2 and felt a sense of relief when the Ep3 credits rolled by.

Han Solo was my favorite character in the sagas and I figured that it shouldn't be too hard to get a Han Solo outfit. (Famous last words, as you'll see...) I sat down and watched "The Empire Strikes Back" and I figured out what I had and what I would need for an appropriate outfit...

blaster

blaster belt and holster

blaster belt accessories

white shirt

brown pants with gold bloodstripe

dark gray or light black jacket

pants belt with two rows of perforations

boots (which I had already from Joey)

The Blaster

I searched for the blaster on ebay, and I was not going to spend over $700 for a genuine broomhandle Mauser with all of the pieces machined onto it. Nor was I going to get one of the old toy plastic jobs. Yes, I could vinyl-dye it, but I was looking for a "ready to wear" (or "ready to blast") item at this point. I eventually found a beautiful replica available from Brian's Toys. Nicely balanced and looked great in the hand. About $220.

The Blaster Belt Accessories

Searching through Google had gotten me some promising leads on the other items. One of these was the blaster belt accessories from Corellian Exports. Vincent and Junie Sanchez are a pleasure to work with. I got some resin pieces from them and had the most fun time putting together my droid caller, and finishing it with Testor hobby paints. Testor makes these incredible "metal flake" aerosol paints. Spray it on, wait a while and rub vigorously. You get a near perfect metalized finish!!

Vincent had a link on this page to a person who did blaster belts. Did I contact this person? No. Stupid. Stupid. STUPID! I wanted someone who could make the belt and the costume. Did I contact Andrea? No again. At this point I should have put my head between a door and its frame and slammed repeatedly until I knocked some sense into myself.

The Asteroid Field

I came across Kathy Pillsbury on ebay (id of katarra8) who, according to her "About Me" bio:

I have been making costumes for friends and customers since 1977 [since Star Wars!] but I have been making costumes for 35+ years. I have been a member of the SCA [medieval costumes], a civil war re-enactor [Victorian age costumes & corsetry], and I enjoy Regency dancing [& costumes!] I attended my first science fiction convention in 1977 and have never stopped going! I have won numerous awards at the conventions for my reproductions of costumes from various shows and also for the workmanship and attention to detail. I am an experienced pattern-maker with an eye to details!

This was great! Very high positive feedbacks (+2000) I emailed her and she said she could do everything except the blaster. I asked about a sample of the leather. I got it. This was late August of 2006. I sent her a deposit and I was told I would have my outfit in about 6 weeks.

Except it didn't take 6 weeks. When I called her after 6 weeks, I was promised "the next week". Then it was "the Monday after Thanksgiving". Then she stopped returning emails and vmails. After the first 6 weeks went by, I was kicking myself every day for not going to Andrea.

Whenever I finally did manage to call and reach Kathy, it was the same, old, tired excuse - "I'm so busy right now, I'm trying to get everyone's pieces out!" - Yes, and the dog ate your patterns, too.

It turned out that Corey also knew of Kathy professionally, and when I told him of the travails with this outfit, he launched into a stream of invective that was as colorful as it was refreshing. Corey can cuss a blue streak and while it didn't do anything to ameliorate the situation, I did feel better. Corey knew someone who ordered a substantial amount of items from her, and promised to reach out to this person to try and get her off her butt.

And I'm planning on suing the witch.

JJ forged a complete set of plate armor in six months - and that was because he had other works in progress. Corey finished the muscle suit in four weeks. Andrea - well, Andrea works like the dickens and at times I blink and the stuff is done and in the mail. There's no excuse for a fabric costume to take this long.

The Endor Moon
I'm out my deposit, but I've learned my lesson. Things are getting back on track:

The Shirt, Pants and Jacket

Are all being done by Andrea. I'm not in a rush for the items, so we're shooting for completion as a birthday gift to myself. I have to get her a little bijou or something since I feel that I cheated on her... (I got her a book off her Amazon wish list ...)

The Pants Belt
Vincent was nice enough to point me in the right direction to get a belt. The original was a Dickies belt and I ordered one through the Zemsky's online catalog.

The Blaster Belt
I contacted Matt Poitras of MP Productions (the original person on Vincent's site listed for blaster belts) and I'll be getting this in 3-4 weeks.

Blue Velvet - Part Deux !!

2007-03-17T21:30:00.001-04:00

The Coronation Outfit

I kind of knew what to expect for the coronation shirt, but I was amazed when I finally got it in hand. Again, we used the same materials as the HOH shirt, but Andrea had couched gold cord around the collar and sleeve openings (the jury is out on whether or not Faramir's movie costume had silver or gold couching. We decided to go with the gold couching on the tunic) and had hand-sewed a gold sequin and a ruby glass bead at every intersection. Wow! The tunic itself was made of silk velvet (as opposed to the cotton velvet of the HOH outfit) and had the most incredible 3D embroidery and beadwork. I know she was looking high and low to get trim as close to the original as possible, and looking at the results, I think she did a stupendous job!

AMAZING, ISN'T IT????

But what about the mantle???

This was a tricky bit of work (and this was done before the Phantom cloak, mind you) since the lining of the mantle was silk and it would literally slide off the armor. After considering sewing in pockets to place magnets in, we came up with sewing in a couple of d-rings and then attaching them via the leather laces on the pauldron connectors. This would require some very accurate placement of the mantle over the armor and marking the spots for the d-rings. I couldn't send the armor down to Virginia, but Andrea could send the unfinished mantle to me! There was quite a bit of gyration and double-stick tape involved, but I eventually marked off the appropriate spots and sent the cloak back to be completed. As with the couching on the sleeves, there was no consensus as to what the embroidery on the mantle was - gold and silver, or just silver. We decided for a "mithril looking" silver floral trim to complete the look. (For the curious, that's a wetsuit hanger...)

Blue Velvet

2007-03-17T21:00:00.001-04:00

"What next?"

I asked myself that question a number of times. It was Andrea who suggested my next course of (costume) action.

"Since you have the armor already, what about Faramir's coronation outfit?"

Hmmmm....

For some reason, the other Aragorn outfits (the Black Gate and the coronation regalia) never really clicked with me the same way the original Ranger outfit did. I guess I have a soft spot for the slightly disheveled and grimy ...

Hmmmm....

I decided to do two outfits - the Houses of Healing outfit and the coronation outfit. Mainly because they were quite similar, atlthough the coronation outfit was a bit fancier. Doing the Faramir outfits was also going to give Andrea a chance to try some different techniques on the embroidery and sewing machines - mainly sewing with two needles at once!

We discussed the fabrics for this venture - silk dupioni for the sleeves, cotton velvet and silk velvet for the tunics and silk velvet for the mantle. As for the other details, I knew Andrea would produce something spectacular. And she did. Twice.

Again, the Alleycatscratch costume site was one of the best resources for researching the outfits. That, and the Extended Edition DVDs ...

The Houses of Healing Outfit

For this creation, Andrea used a sapphire blue dupioni silk for the sleeves and a lighter blue silk for the body - since the body portion is basically hidden by the tunic. The sleeves were double-stitched with gold thread and the cotton velvet tunic had some delicate gold embroidery around the mandarin collar. I used my plain black Boromir boots and got a embossed leather belt from Chip at Leatherlore.

Again, I can't quite believe the detail and the craftsmanship that I got from Andrea. Everything was perfect and comfortable. I wore this to a "office" Halloween party this year - the general rule was that if you had meetings or had to leave the floor, the outfit had to come OFF. Luckily for me, the tunic was long enough that I could just pull my pants legs over the boots when I had appointments.

The Wizard's Pupil

2007-03-11T16:12:00.002-04:00

"Here was one with an air of high nobility such as Aragorn at times revealed, less high perhaps, yet also less incalculable and remote: one of the Kings of Men born into a later time, but touched with the wisdom and sadness of the Elder Race. Pippin knew now why Beregond spoke his name with love. He was a captain that men would follow, even under the shadow of black wings."

With Aragorn and Boromir costumes out of the way, I decided to turn my attention to a Faramir Ithilien outfit. Thanks to Gryphonsmith's excellent website, I had a plethora of material to work with.

Again, my heart sank with the thought of handing the leatherwork pieces of the costume over to Reg, but at this point I didn't have anyone else who could do leather. I would also be starting nearly from scratch at this point, since I couldn't reuse any of the items from the other costumes, with the exception of the green cloak.

So I screwed my courage to the wall and started lining up my vendors:

Andrea - shirt and tunic
Reg - cuirass with quilted sleeves, pants, bracers and belt and sword
Toughgloves - gloves
Caboots - boots

I still wasn't sure from whom I was going to get the quiver; I had ordered an extra belt buckle and aglet from Doug Strong (just in case!).

Shirt and Tunic

Two of the easiest pieces first. One call to Andrea and we were all set. We decided on a cotton osnaburg fabric for the shirt and a sturdy cotton twill for the tunic. If you visit Andrea's LOTR portfolio, you'll see the pieces in their glory!

Gloves

Again, an easy call. Or rather web order. Toughgloves had the same tight deerskin gloves that I used for Aragorn and Boromir, but in a neutral color. I knew I could Fiebing dye the gloves to the right color.

Boots

Again, an easy purchase. I gave a call to Joey Sanchez and we discussed the boot design. Since I was sort of a "trendsetter" for Joey, he was more than happy to take on the project. The boots took about 10 weeks to build and felt great when I put them on, but they were this nasty, butter-brickle color. Rather than wait another 10 weeks for corrected pair, I Fiebing dyed them along with the gloves. I'd say they turned out rather well...

Leathers

I finally gave Reg a call and explained what I wanted. I also found out at that time that Larkin was expecting, so I thought, "Oh, crap ... it's gonna be a few years for this to get done..." At that point, Reg was also expanding into some related areas, like swords. And quivers. And arrows. He was particularly excited about the quiver. "I can make a really beautiful one! Just like the one he was wearing!!" I relented. Reg promised to have everything completed in 4 months.

He was almost on time - this time. It did take four months for the pants, quiver and arrows and sword. The quiver and arrows were beautiful. And he was right - the quiver and arrows did look just like the ones Faramir was using. The pants were made of this incredibly soft leather (I know it wasn't lambskin or deer, but I don't know what he used) and fit perfectly. The sword was nicely detailed and well-balanced. However, it did have a black pommel and black pleather scabbard. (I'll talk more about the Faramir sword in another post.)

It took another three months for the cuirass, bracers and belt. Reg was trying to convince me to leave the tree design a natural color, rather than silver. No. No. NO. Absolutely NOT. That's when I found out about Angelus Leather Paint from a theatrical supply store. I bought a bottle of silver and shipped it to Reg.

It took another month after that to get everything correct on the cuirass, bracers and belt.

The cuirass needed some leather behind the side lacing, which wasn't too bad an alteration. The belt and bracers, though, were an eye-blinding bright green. I very gently explained to him that the leather was a bit on the "vivid" side, and I was looking for a more muted, mossy green. Reg re-dyed the leather and I was happy with the deep muddy green that eventually was returned to me.

So ... another great-fitting and -feeling costume was done, albeit taking longer than I wanted.

What next?

Captain of the White Tower

2007-03-08T09:24:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, as my Aragorn costume was getting finished, I also started on my FOTR Boromir costume.

I really believe that I have as much fun researching how to duplicate the outfit as wearing it.

In some ways, this outfit was easier to recreate than the Aragorn one - mainly because it was mostly fabric and mainly because Andrea is such a pleasure to work with.

The main pieces of the outfit that I already had or could easily get were:

black leather pants (from the Aragorn outfit)
plain black riding boots (could get from Caboots)
vambraces and underbracers (from the Aragorn outfit)
black gloves (from Toughgloves)

The pieces I needed to get were:

wool, leather and maille undershirt
scarlet tunic with gold embroidery
blue leather surcoat with three silver clasps
belt with silver buckle
sword
horn
burned velvet cloak with silver lacers

For those of you who also wish to embark on this type of quest, I can't recommend the LOTR Weapons and Warfare book enough. This tome has really everything you could possibly ask for. Out of the seven items, only two (the surcoat and the belt) I knew would be seriously delayed because of Reg, but the other items I had discussed with Andrea (the undershirt, tunic and cloak) and I could rest assured that they would be done on time and be done perfectly. The other items (clasps, sword and horn) I discussed in another entry.

The undershirt was done first. Mainly because the materials needed for the project were readily available. Again, Andrea's attention to detail was amazing. The undershirt is made of boiled wool, leather and aluminum chain maille. The undersleeves beneath the chainmaille are quilted, and Andrea also embroidered stars onto the material since the W&W book indicated that was the design. The chain maille sleeves were made by Michael at Grove Maille - just before he shipped out to Iraq.

As this was getting done, I had been scouring sari stores in NYC looking for the right material. I eventually found some sari material on ebay, but wasn't happy with it once I got it. Then I found Rajesh Nahar at chennaibazaar.com. Rajesh was great working with, and I believe I found another LOTR fan when I explained what I was using the material for. The scarlet satin material was beautiful, and the embroidery was better than I had hoped for. I had the material shipped directly to Andrea. Andrea added the black velvet collar and also found some decorative beading that exactly matched the pictures of Boromir. She was also determined to find the exact buttons for the tunic. You can go here for a view of the tunic.

The burned velvet cloak has an exquisitely soft black satin lining and Andrea was able to dye the velvet to the same shade as the tunic. The fur trimming is rabbit - as opposed to opossum in the original outfit. I felt that that was something I could live with...

The most annoying thing with this outfit was the WAITING. To have so much done and have to wait for all the little pieces to come together was maddening. The clasps. The lacers.

But I'm patient.

Eventually, the clasps and lacers came from Doug - and they were amazing! Eventually, Reg got the clasps placed onto the surcoat and the buckle onto the belt.

(Reg had been telling me the surcoat was "almost done" for about 2-3 months. As I was looking at the web photo albums on his site, I see the completed surcoat prominently displayed at an event he was selling his wares at. Sheesh. I guess he knew what I would say if he asked to show it off after all the delays.)

Like my Aragorn costume, the Boromir outfit was extremely comfortable. I spent the better part of eight hours in the outfit and felt great! I was most surprised at the wool undershirt - it was like wearing a cashmere sweater - soft and very breathable. It's now a bit snug across the chest and the sleeves are now a little short, but since I'm wearing the bracers anyway, it gives me a bit more freedom of movement. The leather gloves are tight ... as they should be ... so I can manage keys, cellphone buttons, whatever. Although it was a bit odd to see the Captain of the White Tower, with his cloak draped back over his shoulders, with his horn and sword -- on a cellphone. It's a little like the (in)famous Brad Pitt/Troy candid shot. The cloak is the same way - warm, but not stiflingly so.

The Mane Thing ...

2007-03-06T12:33:00.003-05:00

Three very important items to be aware of if you don't have long enough hair and are using a wig:

- Don't skimp
- Choose a reasonable color
- Trim it!

Don't Skimp

Don't get the cheapie nylon ones - these look just like what they are - costume. And they're also hot and uncomfortable. Make sure you get a man's wig - they have an additional piece to cover the sideburns. You also want to get a monofilament wig with a skin top. My recommendation is the "Jordan" from International Wig. This goes for about $50.

Choose A Reasonable Color
Unless you are planning on shaving your head, don't go too much lighter or darker than your natural hair color, regardless of "who" you're currently dressed as. You WILL look stupid and everyone will laugh at you. I have golden brown hair, and fortunately for me, the "Jordan" has something almost exactly my color. (In fact, this particular wig has a very wide selection of colors.) This makes it much easier for me to hide the edges of the wig with my own hair. And, people will love to run their fingers through your "hair". At one event, one poor soul must have been convinced by his GF to dress up as Legolas. Now, this guy had a 9 o'clock shadow (think of a 5 o'clock shadow starting 8 hours earlier) and a cheap blond wig. Great outfit, though. And coming from me, that's a very substantial compliment! (His GF, on the other hand, was large enough to have her own event horizon. If I were to keep this metaphor in LOTR terms, when she sat around Lothlorien, she sat AROUND Lothlorien...) His dark sideburns were sticking out of the sides of the wig and he was terribly self-conscious. I spent a lot of time with Danny that night because I really felt for him - he perked up when we started talking since he didn't feel the total idiot. I explained what I did and he was rather surprised - "That's not your real hair?" and I can almost guarantee a dark brown wig was ordered and in the mail the next day.

Trim It
Lastly, faces are different shapes and sizes. Once you get the wig, go to your stylist/barber/etc and have them trim around the face and cut it to the proper length. If not, you will be brushing it out of your face every five minutes AND it will look fake! I use my wig for Aragorn, Boromir, Faramir and my generic Ithilien Ranger. It also works quite well for my generic pirate outfit! When you have something that blends in with your own hair, people don't really notice the subtle color differences. They just assume you have naturally long hair. The "Jordan" came to the middle of my back out of the box. If you're going the Rohirrim route, or possibly an Ithilien Ranger, you may not need to shorten it, but you will always need the trim around the face.

Mind Games

2007-03-01T19:27:00.002-05:00

It's quite fun to mess with people's heads.

I don't mean "Gaslighting" - not by any means - but it's satisifes my rather odd sense of humor to see someone do a double- or triple-take when they see something and can't quite believe what they are seeing.

For instance, take the One Ring. Undoubtedly, you've seen the various incarnations of this - from the $2 version that came with a bookmark, to the Noble Collection edition, which looks much better, but for almost $400, doesn't really look like the movie version.

Most of the versions I had seen were links from other LOTR sites, and all of them were disappointing in one way or another - so I tried "one ring" replica in Google.

BAM!

The very first link was exactly what I was looking for! Jens Hansen - Contemporary Gold & Silversmith of New Zealand was the jeweler who was commissioned to make the One Ring in all its guises for the movies and (drum roll, please) was offering replicas of the Movie Ring for sale. The business is now run by Jens' son Halfdan, who explained that these versions
don't have the Black Speech writing on them - just a plain gold band. Just a plain massively evil, fell-beast ruling, world-dominating gold band.

The first time I wore this, no one really noticed it; however, by the second day, I was getting stares. By the third day, I was getting multiple conversations like this:

"Umm ... you didn't get married, did you?"

"No."

"When I saw that on your finger, I thought it was, umm..."

"Was what?"

"You know, it looks sorta like a wedding band ..."

At that point I would pull the ring off my finger and drop it in their hand. Their responses were nearly identical:

"HOLY CRAP! It's the One Ring! Where did you get it?"

Which was exactly the response I was looking for. Hehehehe.

The only exception was my first boss - when he saw it, right off the bat he said, "Wow, that's a beautiful One Ring. Can I see it?"

Then again, Alex and I have spent a lot of time discussing M-Theory, so I'm not exactly surprised ...

After watching LOTR, I re-read the trilogy (and the Silmarillion) and I really wanted the type of ring that was described in the books as being given by Finrod to Barahir, but not a replica of the rings that were floating around on the internet (and which I have and wear with my costume!). I wanted something that I could wear every day.

So I called Halfdan.

We talked about the design, the materials (white gold, gold, Biron emeralds) and I left the rest to him. This is what I got:

(You can't quite make it out in the photo above, but there are golden blades of grass sweeping around the sides of the serpents and beneath the main jewel.) I get the same level of disbelief with this "canon" ring -- at first, the thought is that it is a claddagh ring, but a closer look usually brings a widening of eyes and another exclamation of amazement. I had one friend that didn't realize the snakes had emerald eyes until last week when the sun hit the ring and the eyes sparkled!

I'm having fun!

In Brightest Day ...

2007-02-26T10:51:00.000-05:00

My Green Lantern outfit is (99 44/100%) complete!

On February 22nd, I went to get my muscle suit and Kyle Rayner/Green Lantern outfit.

Green Lantern was always my favorite superhero.

Now, I'm sure all little boys had a Batman Halloween costume at some time or another, and somewhere along the line, a Superman cape.

The original Silver-Age GL, Hal Jordan, was a very human human who became heir to one of the most powerful artifacts in the universe - so powerful in fact that at one point he cold-clocked Superman and laid him flat out on the ground! (Now, I bet that's something you didn't know!)

The GL oath when powering the ring:

In brightest day, in blackest night,
no evil shall escape my sight!
Let those who worship evil's might,
beware my power... Green Lantern's light!

is quite reminiscent of the medieval oath of fealty:

I {name}, do become your liege man of life and limb and of earthly worship.
And faith and truth I will bear unto you,
to live and to die, against all manner of folk.
So help me God.

Even though I've put on a good deal of muscle from the sword and bow work, I never really got the definition that I'd always wanted. Hence the muscle suit. Hey, if it was good enough for Spiderman and the latest Superman, it was good enough for me!

Corey Sosner of Action Actors makes the most comfortable urethane and spandex muscle suits you could ever ask for. A lot of his commissions come from Batman and Punisher and Wolverine costumes - so this was sort of a new experience for him. The process of building the suit took the better part of the day - it involves trimming and fitting the foam pieces, glueing them to the spandex body suit and basically letting the pieces "cook" onto the fabric.

Once that was complete, I tried on the outer costume - this included a pair of Shift motocross boots (red and white accents covered with Plasti-kote Vinyl Color) and with a white stripe (using Krylon Fusion) down the front. We took some minor liberties with the design of the costume and all of the symbols were silk-screened on the outfit. The picture above had something that looked like a dog-collar - which was not something I nor he was enamored with.

WOW!

It didn't feel like I was wearing any body suit - that's how comfortable it was - and Corey was also quite impressed with the finished product - "Dude, you look like you're completely juiced!"

What's a Green Lantern without a ring, though? Being the perfectionist that I am, the cheapie plastic or tin versions were out of the question.

Google.

The search led me to Russ Sharek of The Morpheus Company. At some time in the past, someone had asked Russ about a Green Lantern ring, and he has made several different versions over the years. Russ had mentioned it on his site and that's how I found him. We discussed what I wanted and Russ made some excellent recommendations - which I attribute to his feng-shui-ness. Again, the ring was quite close to the comic-book version, but with a twist - a black onyx center.

The only piece left is the mask -- Corey took a cast of my face and I'm waiting to have the piece molded. That was an experience in itself. First, you get your hair slicked back with some vaseline and put on a shower cap. Then you grease up your entire face and have this thick goo slathered on. Wait 15-20 minutes. (This is not for the faint of heart or claustrophobic!! And this was a half-mask - a full head molding is even more involved!) Then peel off slowly, so you don't lose your eyelashes or eyebrows.

UPDATE:

Corey gave me a call today - I had had an option of two different shapes of masks. His sculptor did a side-by-side so I could choose - I picked the more angular version on the left. I'll be getting the mask in about two weeks.

Geek Break ...

2007-02-21T22:00:00.000-05:00

I saw this on a t-shirt - email me and tell me how long it takes to sink in:

There are only
10 types of people in the world;
Those who understand binary,
and those who don't.

I'll post results!!

The Duchy of Corwyn

2007-02-19T11:18:00.001-05:00

Before LOTR, I had found Kathryn Kurtz's Dernyi series and like Tolkien, Kurtz was able to successfully create a fully developed "secondary world" which was a pleasure to delve into whenever a new book was released.

One of the main characters throughout most of the series (excepting some of the prequel work) was that of Alaric Anthony Morgan, Duke of Corwyn. Dernyi are sorcerers and have at their command powers unimaginable by the humans of the time - which is approximately the middle Middle Ages. The majority of the people of Gywnnedd hold the Deryni to be Evil and are held in at best, suspicion and at worst, revilement. The exceptions, though are the royal family of Gywnnedd and some of the more liberal clergy. An added twist to this long-running series is that Morgan develops the rarest of Deryni talents - the ability to Heal - a talent thought to have vanished in a great anti-Dernyi backlash in the not-too-distant past.

As Andrea was doing my Aragorn shirts, I sent her this two little snippets of costume information:

Severely plain black silk tunic, sleek and close to the body and wrists; over that a sumptuous black velvet doublet trimmed in jet, high and close around his neck and with wide sleeves slashed to the elbow to show off the silk of the tunic beneath; silk hosen disappearing into short black boots of the softest leather.

The emerald Gryphon, its wings dripping gold and jewels, rearing up its head and claws in a rampant pose--segreant, when applied to gryphons--gleamed darkly, with an almost sinister aura from its background of shining black. Around the edge, a golden bordure--the double tressure floury counterflory of the old Morgan arms--gave homage to his paternal heritage.

I said, "Do you think you could do something in emerald and black?" I could almost see her rubbing her hands in glee. (Scroll down about 3/4 of the page ...)

So off we went to design Duke Alaric's costume.

We decided to do a high-necked emerald silk tunic with some golden vine tracery and use black satin and black silk velvet for the doublet. The arms of the doublet would be slashed open, as per the description, and emerald dupioni silk would be used as the lining.

I've always done a lot of walking and I have nicely muscled legs, so I have to admit that I'd probably look good in hosen, but I just couldn't bring myself to wear them. Andrea would look for some fabric for breeches that would go with the outfit and meanwhile I could wear the leather pants from Reg.

The cloak Andrea created was truly a work of art. This is what is called a fingertip cloak since when it is worn, it basically just reaches to the fingertips (get it?). Soft, black wool and emerald green silk (same as the tunic). Now, the only item left to complete the cloak was finding the gryphon.

After some searching, I came across a great picture which Garry could scan, trace and bitmap to their embroidery machine:

We decided to put two facing gryphons on the back of the cloak to fill out the design a bit more. Andrea also suggested some lion-head connectors for the chain fastener, since conceivably (what a great imagination she has!!) the cloak could have been a gift from the King, whose device was a lion rampant.

I went to a costume party wearing the Duke Alaric outfit with the Reg's leather pants and a pair of bucket boots from Joey at Caboots. A lot of the costumes there looked cheap (and they were) and you could tell people were not exactly having a good time wearing them. Again, everything that I was wearing was so comfortable, I had a great time. Which always proves - "You get what you pay for."

A few months later, Andrea finally came across some black-on-black patterned material that she *knew* would go with the costume - so now I have a nice change of pace whenever I wear the outfit - I can go for the more courtly or more sinister look (which I think is a hell of a lot more fun!)

Finishing Touches

2007-02-18T15:37:00.001-05:00

Compared to the rest of the work developing the costumes, the few small items left were easy:

Gloves
The ring of Barahir
The Evenstar necklace
The Horn of Boromir

I skipped the Elven leaf brooch, because it was such a pain in the neck (literally!), but I may get it sooner or later.

The gloves I purchased through Toughgloves. I got what were called "Bull Rider Gloves". These were sold singly, so for the Aragorn costume, I got a single right, for Boromir a pair, and Faramir a pair. Toughgloves didn't have the right color for the Faramir set, so I got a lighter color and - you guessed it - Fiebing leather dyed it! It looks like they replaced the Bull Rider Gloves with item number G200 - Deerskin Leather Gloves.

The Barahir ring and the Evenstar necklace I got off of eBay. These look really good with the outfit. The Evenstar pendant is very light and the ring looks a bit rougher, considering that it was made over 5000 Middle Earth years ago! I just needed a stronger sterling silver chain and I picked that up at a jewelry store.

The Horn of Boromir was a one-of-a-kind eBay find. All it needed was a little bit of gold paint and some detailed painting with silver enamel. I hand-braided the strap and I was done!

Forging On ...

2007-02-18T13:22:00.001-05:00

This is (or was) a momentous occasion in my costume quest - I finished my FOTR Aragorn/Strider outfit. And not only that, I had the option of the Bree timepoint (green cloak) or Lothlorien timepoint (gray cloak, plus hunting knife). Plus sword. Plus quiver. Plus bow. I was well and truly stoked.

(I also need to credit the AlleyCatScratch site AGAIN for some wonderful wig links and how to create some incredibly realistic beard stubble using crepe wool.)

I had the occasion to go to a couple of parties for the holidays and also showed up at my friend's doorstep in costume for a LOTR Extended Edition marathon. Needless to say, after folks picked their jaws up from the floor, I was quite the center of attention.

Best of all, everything I had on was comfortable. Not tight. Not hot. Better than jeans and a sweatshirt. Perfect.

One thing that DID cross my mind, while watching the Helm's Deep battle in TTT was ... what would chain maille feel like?

I think that Google and eBay are my best friends (next to Andrea and Garry, of course)

I found a great auction for a maille shirt on eBay and purchased it. Picking it up at the post office, this thing was heavy. However, once I put it on, it didn't feel as bad - still heavier than I thought, but I could get accustomed to it. And I did.

How? Simple. Wear the thing constantly until it didn't feel like I was wearing it. The biggest (and easiest) piece of advice I can give is to wear a belt. This prevents the total weight of the maille from resting on your shoulders. Since it was getting a bit cooler, I wore it under my sweatshirt on the weekends and when I got home from work at night. When I went food shopping. When going to the cleaners. On the eliptical. I had started working out more strenuously anyway for the sword work, but this really seemed to supercharge the exercise regimen. It's wonderful to actually see the results of your workout in the mirror. After about 10 weeks of wearing the maille shirt, it felt more like a thin bulky sweater. When I tried it on with the burgundy shirt and other accouterments, it felt great. (I also noticed that the shirts, coats and tunics were noticeably snugger around the shoulders and chest, and the pants were looser in the waist)

Which also got me thinking - what about Boromir and Gondorian plate armor? From the Weapons and Warfare book, I figured out I'd be wearing a maille shirt, plus a cuirass, pauldrons, vambraces and greaves. Plus a surcoat and a cloak. I didn't think the weight would be too onerous and Andrea could absolutely, positively do the fabric items (which she did).

Now where was I going to get armor?

I'm going to diverge a little here from my usual naming of the place and person. At the time I found the maker, there were some rather dogged minions from NewLine and the actual Tolkien estate that were quite interested in people who were doing replica work and not paying out licensing fees and/or royalties to them. As part of the commission, I agreed to not reveal who did the work - just a "very good friend" whom I will call JJ (and not his initials either!). I would still love to credit him with the stupendous work, but a promise is a promise.

JJ was as responsive as Andrea and just as much a pleasure to work with. I always got my emails and voicemails returned - this commission took the better part of a year since he had a large queue of work in front of him. JJ made a maille and suede undertunic that was composed of maille sleeves and a maille skirt. This wasn't as heavy as I had imagined, since the suede body and suede undersleeves actually supported the maille. I actually had to wear the undertunic to soften up the suede rather than get used to the maille. (After a while, I had to send it back to JJ since it got a bit too snug around the chest and -- I swear to God -- my arms grew about 1.5" longer. He altered the suede body and added some additional rows of maille on the sleeves.)

What really was shocking was the weight of the armor. It was ... LIGHT. JJ used 18ga steel for the items and thanks to his meticulous measurements all throughout the process ("Hi, it's JJ. Could you do me a favor and just double-check this measurement for me?") the armor literally slid on. Once buckled up, there was a little loss of movement, around the arms, but nothing to speak of. The armor DOES get a bit warm in the summer, so I usually wear it in the spring, fall and winter.

If you look at the picture above, everything that Boromir is wearing I have. Thanks to JJ and (again) Andrea.

Here are some pictures of the armor:

Ironica

2007-02-17T16:00:00.001-05:00

No, I'm not writing about Beethoven's Symphony #3. Or Susan Lucci.

My humor has sometimes been described as

black
twisted or
very, very, VERY dry

This is a shameless plug for a truly hilarious site that I came across - lileks.com.

James Lileks has put together some of most enjoyable juxtapositions of old advertising and new captioning that I've ever seen. You can look at one his commentaries and chuckle for the rest of the day (you'd be amazed how fast you get a seat on a bus or subway if you're grinning and laughing to yourself!)

Here's an example from his site:

We cannot see what happens in the lower part of the painting, but one might surmise that she has grasped the broom handle, so to speak, and suggested it might be a good idea to "store it in the closet." The husband certainly has the dopey look of a man who finds himself suddenly, and unexpectedly, broom-handled.

The other theory is more disturbing, and suggests that murder follows this happy domestic scene. Not today; perhaps not tomorrow. But some day, and some day soon. Look at this guy: he's hammered. Three sheets & a mattress pad to the wind. She put up with him for years, but now she has a new man, and this fellow has given her a new outlook on life. Yes - she can love again. Yes - she can live again. But only if she breaks free from the sodden bastard to whom she pledged eternal troth. So she has stopped complaining about his drinking. In fact, she's had a complete change of heart - why, she likes him better when he's drinking. Here's your Tanqueray, dear - I've decided to keep a backup supply in the closet. If you ever run out, there's an extra bottle here.

He does not realize that she has purchased a brand of cleaning fluid, quite toxic, that's packaged to look identical to Tanqueray. One day soon he will stagger to the closet, looking to slake his damnable thirst, and he will drink from the bottle of cleaning fluid. They'll find him on the floor, bottle in hand. A suicide. No one would suspect, and even if they did, what of it? He drank it. They can't prove she did it, because she didn't do anything.

She considers the flawless logic of her plan. And she smiles. Soon.

Soon.

Blood Vapors, Liver Wraiths and Hell Broths ...

2007-02-16T09:15:00.002-05:00

It has got to be the fumes.

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, the clasps and other metal items were quite difficult to come by. I went through three (count 'em - THREE!) artisans before I could find myself a decent set of Boromir clasps, Boromir cloak lacers and belt buckles and aglets.

The design of the clasps and the lacers was very accurately portrayed on the LOTR section of the Alleycatscratch costume research site. The first hard part was finding someone that would do them. I would find metalworkers or jewelers, but they didn't seem interested in only creating a single set.

The first place I contacted and got a response was the Wareham Forge in Canada. The owner (Daryl) and I discussed what I wanted, the materials to use, and I gave him the links to the sites where the designs were located and gave him a deposit.

Then he vanished for a couple of months. No email, no return phone calls. Arrrggghhhh!

When I finally got in touch with him, he was finishing up the pieces and was ready to send them out. When I received them, they were nice, but they just looked, well, ROUGH. They didn't have the elegance of the pictures and the clasping mechanism just looked primitive. We had originally agreed upon silver and gold for the metalwork. It turned out to be german silver and brass.

Hello eBay!

I seem to be quite fortunate in that what I find lacking for a costume, others think are superlative. The clasps and lacers sold for only a few dollars less than I paid for them.

While Googling for "Boromir cloak lacers" - an entry in a Council of Elrond web forum led me to the next artisan I found. It turned out she was married to an officer at an Air Force Base in Alaska. We corresponded back and forth a couple of times and I asked her if she could do the lacers and clasps since she already had done some very similar work. She was also taking some college classes in metallurgy and design, but unfortunately, she didn't get the workshop time to actually do the project. Oh well -- no harm, no foul.

Finally, I contacted Doug Strong (of Talbots Fine Accessories). Doug had done a white brass custom belt buckle on one of the Blades By Brown custom leather offerings. Doug was sometimes difficult to reach and didn't always respond quickly/at all to email/voicemail, but overall, he was excellent to work with. Even with him coming down with pneumonia, he let me know what was going on and I eventually got the lacers, clasps and everything I wanted. Here's the surcoat clasps:

What is it with people that work with leather or forge metal? I understand that this is a more "creative" choice of profession and lifestyle, but don't these people understand that without customers, they can't afford to BE creative? If these folks don't develop some common sense for running a business and maintaining a customer focus, they are going to wind up like this:

Or maybe this article explains it all.

It has GOT to be the fumes.

A Real Pain in the Foot

2007-02-15T13:12:00.000-05:00

A lot of people (myself included) bemoan the fact that while there's more and more "stuff" out there to purchase, the quality just isn't "like it used to be."

My grandmother had a chicken-yellow General Electric stove. This monstrosity had such a heavy, baked porcelain finish on the top that nothing short of a nuclear blast could put a scratch, let alone a chip on it. In the 40 years that she used it, a single small burner had to be replaced.

Wall paint doesn't last as long and doesn't cover as well. No one plasters any more - it's all drywall.

I found the same preponderance of cheap footwear when I was looking for my Aragorn, Boromir, Faramir and pirate boots.

Now, the good thing about being a perfectionist is that when you finish, you have something to be truly proud of. The bad thing is, it usually takes much longer to get what you want. Sometimes, it's taken so damn long you aren't even sure you want it anymore ... but I'm stubborn.

A lot of the footwear from the various "Ren" sites falls into one of three categories - (1) cheaply made, (2) poorly designed or (3) all of the above. All expensive. Can you imagine a zipper on a Middle Earth boot? I don't think so -- they remind me of those idiotic half-boots that went the way of leisure suits.

I found Caboots (pronounced like "ka-boom") using "pirate boots" as my Google search item. Joey and Priscilla Sanchez are the owners and have family-owned custom cowboy boot business.

At this time I was also finishing off a pirate costume and I ordered a pair of custom pirate boots from the company. Joey asked for several measurements and the process began. When I got them about 4 weeks later, I was really pleased with the way they felt and fit.

(By the way, if you're looking for some classic pirate wear, go to to Center Stage Costumes. I got a really great looking pirate sash there - black satin and gold fringe. Check out their hats on Page 3 of their site!)

Seriously - when you have a really good custom shoe or boot made, it feels better than wearing sneakers! This is what Joey produces. Snug, great ankle support and a massage on your lower leg that indeed puts a spring in your step.

When I needed the pair of Aragorn boots made, my first thought was to ask Joey. I sent him a bunch of pictures and asked if he could make up a pair. Yup. Since this was really a made-to-order pair, it did take a while longer - maybe 8 weeks - and when I first received them, the top lacing was on the side of the boot as opposed to the back. I gave Joey a call and he said to send them back - no problem. A week later, I had a pair of Aragorn boots to be proud of! (Joey later told me once he put the pictures up on his site, he sold about 100 more pair.)

The Boromir boots were easy - Joey had a pair of plain black "Han Solo" boots that worked perfectly (and fit perfectly too!)

So when I wanted a Faramir pair, Joey was more than happy to oblige. The color was a little lighter than I had wanted, but - Fiebing leather dye rides to the rescue! - it not only darkened the leather to the right shade, it also gave just right amount of "weathering" to them.

And speaking of Gerard Butler ....

2007-02-15T11:57:00.000-05:00

On March 9, "300" is being released. This is an adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel about King Leonidas and the Battle of Thermopylae. It dramatizes the story of 300 Spartans defending Greece from the invasion of Persians led by King Xerxes.

David Wenham is also starring in the movie.

Check out the movie's site here.

Meanwhile, back at the Opera Populaire ....

2007-02-14T22:32:00.002-05:00

I had seen the original Broadway version of Phantom of the Opera with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman and I wanted to see how the movie version compared.

Quite well. Quite well indeed.

Gerard Butler made a wonderful Erik despite the critic's reviews that his disfigurement looked more like a bad case of sunburn. I found that I enjoyed both his and Emmy Rossum's voices far better than the originals.

Ahhh, but Gerard's costume ... damn, that was a good looking piece of work.

Time to call Andrea again.

This time, like the Boromir surcoat, I did some of the more estoteric materials purchasing. Andrea (as usual) had the skill, cunning and expertise to put the stuff together.

From this picture, and watching the movie in slow-motion, we figured out I'd need the following:

Tuxedo with tails and peaked satin lapels
Period-appropriate white linen shirt
Black silk cravat
Period-appropriate waistcoat in a silk brocade fabric
Black cloak with white silk lining and high collar
Police search gloves
Mask (of course!)

The Tuxedo

I was able to pick up the tuxedo online for a great price. I did need to have the sleeves lengthened a bit and Andrea mentioned that the back of the collar would need to have some black silk velvet on it. So after a quick trip to the tailor, off it went off to Virginia. Andrea was also going to need the jacket to make sure the waistcoat was cut properly.

The Gloves

Seeing what Gerard was doing with gloves on, I knew these weren't your run-of-the-mill unlined leather dress gloves. They reminded me of the gloves that Ponch wore on CHiPs, so I asked a good friend of mine (a police officer) what he thought. Definitely search gloves, he said and offered to get me a pair. The ones I wound up with were called Damascus D302's - I could do anything in them! Type. Pick up change. Take out my MetroCard. They really felt like I didn't have a pair on.

(I always had problems with gloves - the fingers were always too long. After Frank got me this pair, I found that police gloves - whatever the style - tend to have stubbier fingers. Now if I need any type of glove, I order them from Quartermaster. They have great prices, my hands stay warm, and I don't have to take off my gloves when I need to do stuff!)

The Shirt, The Cravat and the Cloak

Andrea was doing the work on the cravat and shirt and cloak, but she was having some problems finding the right material for the waistcoat. Working in NYC near the Fashion District does have some benefits - so off exploring I went!

This was a bit harder than I expected. A lot of the shops (and there were literally hundreds of them) sold wholesale only, so my quest was to find a shop that 1) had the material and 2) sold retail.

The Waistcoat

On Day 2 of the Great Waistcoat Fabric Quest, I found N.Y. Elegant Fabrics on 40th Street. This store was HUGE!!! I asked one of the salespeople about brocaded fabric and was directed to an area of the store that was literally the size of a small auditorium. After about 40 minutes of going through bins, bales, bolts and whatnot, I was about to give up. But wait! At the very bottom of two piles, I came across two fabrics that were incredible!

The first fabric had the exact same design as the vest in the picture, but was a creamier brown. The other fabric was a vivid match to the vest in the picture but in a solid shot silk of bronze, copper and black. I really couldn't decide which one I wanted. For the price, I got three yards of both. Andrea decided to do two waistcoats since she couldn't decide which one she liked better either!

The Mask

Ebay had a number of masks, but again, a lot of them looked cheap and went on with elastic. Yecch. Googling found me XtremeDesignFX. These folks specialize in Batman-type latex costumes and prosthetic appliances. Lo and behold, there was a perfect Phantom mask! So I ordered it with some adhesive and remover.

Done! Of course, now it was up to Andrea to work her magic. I told her that there was absolutely no rush on this outfit and I was secure in the knowledge that when it was completed, I'd have no complaints.

Construction

Andrea's attention to detail is AMAZING and the fact that she has a theater background is incalcuable. Buttons for example. The linen shirt she was making for the costume has real mother-of-pearl buttons. Since they didn't have plastic buttons in the 1870's, the shirt doesn't get them! The cloak was also a work of love, as well as art. In the scenes where Gerard is wearing a cloak, the entire front of his outfit is showing. But how is it fastened? Andrea figured it out! The cloak collar strings go DOWN the front of the tuxedo, BEHIND the lapels, AROUND the armpits and TIE in back. Even Garry couldn't figure out how she did it until he saw it! Ingenious!

Another success for me and Twin Roses!

Weapons and Warfare

2007-02-13T09:05:00.000-05:00

Swords

Surprisingly (or not) this was one of the easiest facets of the various outfits that I've put together. United Cutlery (UC) actually made decent Strider swords and Elven Hunting knives, as well as some relatively well made scabbards. These I was able to get through any Google search for "Strider sword" or something to that effect. The UC sword, though is made of stainless steel which is a bit too brittle for real combat and has what is called a "rat-tailed tang" which isn't suitable for battle ready swords.

Strider's belt I got through Blades By Brown - they only appear to have the Anduril belt on their website now, but perhaps it can be specially ordered.

Boromir's sword was a bit harder to find, since UC did not make the decision (or had a production line ready) for this for some time. Where I got the sword, I honestly don't remember, but it was called a "Marauder Sword" and was exactly the same as the movie Boromir sword, even down to the dark bluish-black leather wrapping and scabbard. This is also made of stainless steel, but has a full tang.

Faramir's sword was actually the most difficult to get, mainly because there didn't seem to be the buzz and demand as the other ones. Faramir's sword appears to be the love-child of Strider's hand-and-a-half bastard sword and Boromir's single-hand sword. Amazingly, Reg started carrying swords and had a few of these available - and shipped out on a surprisingly timely manner. Stainless steel and full tang here. There may be a variation on this theme for the sword, but this is tied into the Ithilien Ranger sword story below.

The Ithilien Ranger sword is indeed a niche product. I'll be discussing that in a later post. That involves another artisan and a private investigator!!

Bows

Bows, too turned out to be relatively easy to get - and gorgeous ones at that! My search lead to bowstick.com. Justin Steinmetz (the owner) makes some incredible "fantasy" bows. I use that term loosely since all his bows are fully functional. I ordered a limited edition Strider's bow and a "captain of the army" bow. Accurate estimates as to time, great materials and quick delivery. Answers emails and answers the phone!

Justin also has arrows for sale with some wicked looking medieval tips. I actually got some darker "Strider" arrows from Reg (again, these took a long time, but worth the wait) and some lighter "Faramir" arrows (which didn't take as long).

Rumor has it that the British "finger" (a backwards-pointing "V for Victory" sign) originated with the Welsh longbowmen during the Hundred Years War - taunting their French adversaries after a successful volley of arrows into enemy troops. If a bowman was captured, however, the enemy would often amputate these first two fingers for revenge. If you'd like to read more about longbows, check out the wikipedia entry. Fascinating stuff.

Strider's quiver I got off of ebay and used a highly diluted mixture of Fiebing's leather dye to age it a bit more than it was aged already. The Faramir/Ithilien ranger quiver was done by Reg. The linen quiver bag for Aragorn's quiver was made by Andrea and also Fiebing dye aged.