50 for 50: 43 - Cosplay with Ali and Jonathan

It is super fitting that my 50 for 50 with Ali comes right after my 50 for 50 with Deb, because Ali was that law student who moved in to that condo below me and next-door to Deb, and was part of that same little circle of neighbors who were good friends for a number of years.

We shared good times and bad times and leaks and mold and incompetent management companies. And decorating for the holidays and our usual table at Yang Chow.  And pets and card games and Ali graduating law school and "Oh my God, Ashley bought a truck!" 

We shared each other's lives in the way that you do when you live so close that when you need to share your joy or your pain or your excitement, these folks are just a doorbell away.

And then we all moved away.

And the only thing Ali and I really share now is Marvel movies.  We've been going to Marvel movies together at Arclight Pasadena ever since we lived within walking distance of Arclight Pasadena.  (We even won a drawing for free "Captain America" crap when we saw the first "Captain America" -- she kept the cap and I kept the T-shirt and I fucking love that T-shirt.)  And neither one of us lives there any more and now Ali is "Ali and Jonathan" and we STILL meet up at Arclight Pasadena for the opening weekend of every Marvel movie.  And it's good that we still have this thing, because we had so many things before.  And it's even better that we have this thing with Jonathan, now, because it's good when things evolve.

(Also, Jonathan can fill me in on the comic universe, and doesn't get judgy about my ignorant questions -- like some comic nerds do.)

And before we saw ... musta been "Black Panther," we were grabbing some dinner and we talked about the 50 for 50, and they selected "Cosplay Somewhere."

And we thought LA Comic Con would be a good place to do this.

(Yes.  In the space of two years, I have gone from "no cons since the early 90s" to Comic Cons in three cities, plus D23.  I'm not entirely sure how this happened.)

A couple weeks ago, I asked if we were going to do a group costume.  Given the Marvel movie thing, I had assumed we'd do something in that direction.  (Besides, I have an Agent Carter costume in the closet.  I figured I could wear that, and Jonathan could be Cap, and Ali could be Black Widow.  And that would work, right?)  And Ali says she's doing "Punk Eleven" and Jonathan is doing Chief Hopper -- and all of a sudden I realize I am not going to get away with reusing Agent Carter but I'm gonna have to make myself a "Stranger Things" thing.  And I think that I really freakin' SHOULD, anyway, because if this 50 for 50 is intended to get the complete cosplay experience, maybe I ought to actually make something.

I consider a Barb (but where am I going to find a Trapper Keeper on such short notice?) or a Joyce... and when I'm thinking that Joyce really needs the alphabet wall, I start googling for pictures of the alphabet wall and --

-- I wish I could take credit for the idea, but someone had it before me, so thank you brilliant anonyous cosplayer who realized you could just DRESS UP AS THE DAMN WALL.  And once I discovered I could get a string of LED Christmas lights with a little pocket-sized battery pack, the whole thing ended up being within the very narrow range of Things I Could Do (or, more precisely, Should Be Able To Do), and when it was all said and done, this happened:

Yeah, you can't see the letters unless you're looking for them, and the Christmas lights don't show up great at this angle, either, but it worked well enough in person that people got it, and dug it, and we got many compliments on the group and I even got a handful on the dress itself.  (Some dude gave me a thumbs-up and called me Joyce.)

Here, this solo shot came out better:

My parents asked me why people actually cosplay.  I'm a little cautious getting too far into the psychology of this thing, because I'm still pretty new at it.  But I'll take a shot.  Setting aside the professionals who do this for, y'know, money and fame and stuff, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say people do it because it's fun. 

(That's why we did it, anyway.)

When we stopped for lunch (they have food trucks -- a great idea, but an insufficient number of trucks for the number of attendees), Jonathan observed that a bunch of the cosplay here involved people crossing gender lines, or being blind to race or ethnicity.  And while the three of us were definitely cosplaying within our gender and racial identity, I agree that part of the appeal of cosplay is the non-judgmental premise of it.  Which is to say, you don't "have" to cosplay your gender, race, age, body type, or disability status.  Cosplay whomever you want.  (Footnote:  Except blackface.  Don't use blackface.  Greenface OK.  Seriously, man, I saw a Shrek & Fiona.)  So, in addition to the "fun" part, cosplay just gives you an opportunity to be who you're not; or who you are deep down inside but nobody gets to see. 

And speaking from the experience of someone who has been to a surprising number (being as it is non-zero) of comic cons this year, I can now add that another thing cosplay does is identify you as a member of the Geek Community.  My Lyft driver dropped me about a block away from the convention center, and while I was walking over, I joined a bunch of other people walking over, and a few of them were in costume, too.  When I had walked to New York Comic Con, I followed the cosplayers in what I mentally called "the parade of the nerds" down to the convention center.  I joined the parade, but I wasn't in cosplay.  Today, I was.  In New York, I followed them, because they were my people and I knew they were going my way.  Here, my costume TOLD THEM that I was one of them.  Proud self-identification as a member of the clan.

Later in the afternoon, I split off from Ali and Jonathan (they went to some panels) and a couple people complimented me on the dress and a few asked for photos and I was flattered and smiled and said "of course," and they took the pictures and they said "thank you," and I said, "thank you," and that TOO was cool -- because I'm no supermodel and when has a stranger EVER wanted to take a picture of me?  And my favorite was when a father asked if he could take a picture of me with his two kids and I looked at them and was all, "Of course!" and it was kind of perfect so he offered to take one with my phone, too, which is why I have this now.

And I should probably note that I never Never NEVER let anyone else hold my phone.  Because it's my damn phone.  (And handing someone your phone while it's unlocked to take a picture risks that they're going to run off with your unlocked phone and THEN you're well and truly screwed, aren't you?)  But dude's kids were dressed up as Eleven and the Demogorgon and we are sharing this moment of both having put in time and money to go out in public dressed as characters from THE SAME DAMN SHOW and of course I'm going to trust him.

Cosplay is the secret handshake.  Except it isn't so secret.

50 for 50: 42 - New York with Deb

Deb used to be my neighbor.  My condo was above her family's, and over one, back on Euclid Street.  I can't recall when I actually first met her, although I have a vague recollection it had something to do with using a Blockbuster Video card to jimmy the door open.  (I kept a Blockbuster Video card long after Blockbuster Video just for that purpose.  Damn, those things were of the perfect size and flexibility.)  But I REALLY met Deb when the smoke alarm in the then-vacant unit next to hers and below mine WOULD NOT FUCKING STOP BEEPING.  It was a problem somewhat unique to our two units, and one night, when we couldn't take it any more, we called the police, who called the real estate agent who had the listing, and got SOMEONE to break in there and RIP THAT DAMN SMOKE DETECTOR OFF THE FUCKING WALL.  (Blockbuster card would not have worked; they'd set the deadbolt.)  We became friends; we ultimately became friends with the law student who eventually bought the unit with the offending detector, too.  We were a weird little bunch, demographically speaking -- I think I was closer in age to Deb and the law student was closer in age to Deb's daughter, but we all got along in various combinations.  Frequently over Chinese food at Yang Chow.  Sometimes watching "Pushing Daisies."  Often baking cookies.

(Ask her about the Unfortunate Apple Pie Incident.  Go on, ask her.)

She moved away.  Then I moved away.  Then she moved REALLY away.  Several states away.  We kept in touch with cheerful text messages, although the text messages which used to say "Neighbor!" now started with "Former Neighbor!"

We decided to meet in New York City.  This was a pretty cool idea because "Broadway" was on my list and "New York" was pretty much on hers.  Deb hadn't been in New York in (more or less) ever, so I was excited to use my vast knowledge (limited to a finite number of blocks in the theater district) to show her around the place.

We got in Tuesday night, and went to tea at a quaint little place called Alice's Tea Cup, which I'd always wanted to try.  (The tea selection looks like they've stolen a fraction of Chado's menu, but the sandwiches are thick and the scones obscenely large.)  Deb and I squealed over each other's new "looks" and got caught up and shoved way too much food in our faces.

For today, with one small, super annoying exception (I had to go pick up my badge for New York Comic Con because they sent it to my house too late), I pretty much left today to Deb.  It was hard because there was just SO MUCH she hadn't seen and wanted to see, but we ended up with ... well, we ended up with me putting, like, more than 18,000 steps on my step counter.

We started at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which is WAY more than a decommissioned aircraft carrier.  We started by touring the Growler, a Cold War era guided missile submarine.  It was super cool and I took a selfie in the torpedo room.

Then we went up to the flight deck of the Intrepid.

And then we walked over to the pavilion where they had parked Enterprise, because if you need a place to park your Space Shuttle, OF COURSE the deck of an aircraft carrier is the logical choice.

And once we'd finished with that, we had lunch and we talked about the Kavanaugh nomination and #metoo and racism and sexism and the right to identify however you damn well want and how to have legitimate, respectful dialogue with people on the other side and we solved all the world's problems so nothing to worry about there, you're welcome.

And THEN, we took a Lyft down to Lower Manhattan and did a walking tour that was one of those self-guided scavenger hunt thingies.  We got to see the Wall Street Bull and Fearless Girl; the Ground Zero site; City Hall; lots of parks; the Vietnam Memorial; Hamilton's grave at Trinity Church; anna bunch of public art.  It ended in Battery Park so Deb got to see the Statue of Liberty (albeit from a distance).  We named our team "Euclideans" (after our street), and we ended up scoring 9th out of something like 84 teams who've done this hunt.  Which was fine and good (except some construction prevented us from solving one of the clues, and I sent them an email because someone owes us 75 points and at least 10 minutes and no, I'm not competitive, SHUT UP).  And I'm glad Deb got to see some of the stuff she'd wanted to see, and I was glad I did too -- I'd always MEANT to catch up with Fearless Girl, but had never taken the time to go down there.

When we finished, we grabbed some Chinese food ("real Chinese food" having also been on her list) and saw "The Nap," which was a British farce played Way Too Slow.  (I was speculating that they'd intentionally slowed it down so American audiences would understand the Yorkshire accents, but slow farce is deadly.)  And that's pretty much enough time spent talking about that play.  We'll aim a bit higher tomorrow.

We came back to the hotel, enjoyed some leftovers from last night's tea for dessert, and crashed.

Bit of a day.