I'd like to see a commercial spoof with him in it where he goes from a 'thopter to a sandworm to walking across the dunes perfectly still above the waist yet somehow is doing it without any discernible rhythm at all.
And of course, the ubiquitious Dune cat.
But enough joking around, time to get serious here! Prescience is no joking matter.
Actually, I am hoping my hardcore nerd herd is serious about this year's cosplay for Convergence, and that we stay seriously motivated through the next 6 months.
While we started off well enough last year, not enough momentum was kept, and whatever the reasons or excuses, our steampunk crafting group fell apart. The only one who really got anywhere was my roomate, the post-apocalyptic car salesman. We also failed to get our asses in gear for the Zombie pub crawl, which bitterly disappointed my friend the self-proclaimed Game Whore.
Something good has come out of that disappointment, however, and I'm hoping more will come still. When we made the pact not to half-ass or drop costumes before Halloween, and then we stuck with it, a seed of true hope was planted.
Our Dune cosplay dream was born again.
A few years ago we batted around the idea after seeing all the cool costumes and turning green with envy, talking about it in an excited but absent-minded way that barely went farther than that.
But the rush of Halloween and completion of hard thought, designed, and sweated for costumes provided more impetus, and although we agreed to postpone any actual dedicated crafting time until after the holiday madness was over, it wasn't long after the old year rolled over that we got together to brainstorm ideas and hammer out our approach.
Our session wandered all over the place and many ideas were thrown out there. In the way of these things, we dreamed ambitiously of total success, enough to justify applying for one of the theme rooms of our own to decorate and what we would put in it.
(One of the funniest ideas of the night involved the use of a wire cage with panty hose stretched over it to represent a shield.)
We tackled the big problems like homemade stillsuits and how to approach construction, but the little details were a lot of fun to think about as well. Things like blue sclera contacts for our eyes, maker hooks and ropes, Gurney's baliset, crysknives, the Water of Life (I even found this recipe online which will make a potent beverage hopefully worthy of the name), a miniature sandworm to bring along with us (that we might try to set up so that we can "drown" it and have it vomit forth the Water of Life for the curious & brave at Con to try), even making a scaled-down version of a Navigator's spice tank for someone to wheel around in for a bit for the masquerade or picture opportunities.
I can't say for sure how fired up the others were after our little gathering (one, at least, was already backsliding and making excuses for failing to get work done on the costume, before we've even seriously started!) but I know I have one lit under me and I've got Arrakis on the brain.
And I called dibs on Chani!
11 comments:
No being a Dune freak I am lost in the details but having seen the pics youve put up before (and Cal) I can see how cool these costumes are. I really hope you succeed with your venture and get the backsliders coming forward.
Huh? Somehow you have managed to speak a language I don't comprehend. Reading Tempo's comment, makes me realize this must be Dunespeak... however, I still don't understand.
Would I have to be a Fremen or could I be one of the Atreides inner circle. Damn, Chani, you could do that right. I recommend the desert outfit when her and Paul went out to the sands. There is a guy that does great custom figures, he did some great Dune stuff that I always thought had the right kind of military feel to the Atreides uniforms.
http://www.sillof.com/C-Dune_atr.htm
Dune? Is that the planet where water is so precious that everyone has to conserve their piss? Thank God I'm an Earthling!
Tempo--Thanks for the encouragement! I hope the costumes end up being cool, both attitude- and temperature-wise!
Ms.A--This is a common thing, as my mom will attest to. She just nods and waits for the nerd-speak to end and English to resume :)
Cal--You read our minds! We want to do a stillsuit for everyone, but if time permits we'd also like to do other outfits, like the Atreides military uniform so we could do costume double-time and be both Fremen as well as characters like Duke Leto, Paul, Jessica, Irulan, etc. Curiously, no one's going to be Duncan Idaho (A serious miss!) so if you want it, he's yours! (We could even put a realistic-looking bloody hole in your forehead to showcase how he died!)
That site is seriously cool, I think he got the uniforms spot on. I wonder if he'd mind us using his figures as insipration...?
Gorilla--Welcome! You're indeed right, Dune is the desert planet where water is the most precious commodity, next to the spice melange. The true testing ground for god's faithful!
I think it would be cool to see action figures become the actual cosplay characters. The customizer guy has a great sense of design - almost steampunk. I like the colors he uses for the Adreides. You should make a flag too to do some 'last stand on Arakis' photos.
OMIGOD you're totally right! How can we have a troop of Fremen without the green and black flag of Muad'Dib waving behind us?!?
Thank you for saving us from a serious ommission!
You would have thought of it. Are you having any Fremen? If so you need to do the read handprints on their stillsuits.
Oh yes, some Feydakin will be in the mix!
Pax is at the end of August and I think I'd like to attempt a stillsuit costume. So far I've got a 1 piece lycra suit, and was thinking about using that as the base. Could I email you some questions about how you are doing your stillsuits?
garrett.horvath@gmail.com
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