illiara of CatParade!

Wow! It's been entirely TOO LONG since I updated. I'm going to officially kick this back into gear! To start, here is a brief photo update (to be followed by an actual post).

Street Fighter - Delta Cammy

Street Fighter - Delta Cammy

Street Fighter - Delta Cammy

Catgirl Samurai

Catgirl Samurai

Catgirl Samurai

Badass McAwesome

The rush of Comic Con has passed and Downtown San Diego can start working on dispersing the noxious funk of pungent fanboy left in its wake. TheGamerGirls.com and I went to SDCC this year to wreak havoc and horde fandom. Wednesday night I was to meet up with Heatherling and TheBatman after work; I finish my packing only to discover that my luggage (roughly the size of 8 children’s torsos) cannot possibly be strapped safely to the back of my motorcycle. Annisse was kind enough to bring my luggage with me in her car the following day so I grabbed Thursday’s costume (Delta Cammy) and headed down to San Diego at around midnight. As uneventful as the ride was, it was the most fun I have had on a stretch of freeway for a long time.   There was absolutely no traffic and I was able to get my bike up to 120mph for the first time.

Pikachu! <3

The following day we donned our street clothes and grabbed our badges; it would still be quite some time before Annisse would be arriving and we had a vendor’s hall to scour! Inside the vendor’s hall we found no shortage of action figures, trading cards, books, clothes, and general Con Swag. Not as many cosplayers as at Anime Expo, but the ones that we saw I was impressed with.  Poor Annisse ended up getting stuck behind an exploding truck of some sort and got held up in traffic for over 6 hours! It is then that I realize I am missing costume pieces that are likely in her car so I had to call and cancel meting up with G4 that day. Booooo.

Later that night Heatherling and I were to meet ShadowLadyChun-li at a party that G4 was throwing in collaboration with StrangeCo. Featuring The Wonder Women of America, who released their book of cosplayers this year.  Since we were in the book, we wanted to come and celebrate with Ruth and Russell (who put out the book), but it was so crowded there wasn’t any room to raise your glass to your lips let alone socialize.  It was also discovered that the bar, which we understood was an open bar, was charging $8+ for drinks so we left after the first round.

Wonder Women of America

Heatherling and I found ourselves hanging out with EuroBeatKing for a quick photoshoot of our Faye and Ed costumes around the Hyatt. After which we took a taxi to Annisse and DaBun’s hotel having failed at procuring any more liquor for the night. Eric and TheBatman are with LeavingHope drinking at a topless bar down the street during this whole time. Now let’s fast forward to 3am where we approach our slightly ajar hotel door and find a single Sukiyaki Western Django playing card sticking out of the key slot. Not knowing quite what to expect we push the door open and are showered with no less than 4 packs worth of cards. Blinking in the darkness we see Eric and TheBatman curled up together sleeping in the bed furthest from us. In unison they lurch forward and douse us with the Sukiyaki Western Django water pistols that had accompanied the playing cards. OF COURSE a full on battle ensues. At least 20 packs of cards are strewn about the room and are exploding in bursts against headboards and walls while the four of us attempt to mutilate our offenders and stay at least a little bit dry. In the end we came to a truce and called it a night.  What wonders does day 2 hold?! You’ll have to wait for the next blog to find out. :P

Sukiyaki Western Django BATTLE!

Street Fighter - Cammy White

Anime Expo 2008 was by far the most fun that I have had at a convention since 2003. I decided to go it alone that year figuring I would run into someone eventually, which was apparently the right decision. Fluffy was there working as Merch Manager and I was able to crash with him and hang out for a bit (although not as much as I would have liked, but oh wells... he was busy). I ended up running into some old friends from Sacramento that I hadn't seen in ages. I also had the chance to meet up with some new friends that I had previously only known online.

I entered the karaoke contest this year, but was *totally* unprepared. I ended up having no time to memorize lyrics so tried speed memorizing them and surprised myself by remembering more of Love Hina than Noir, but I digress. For the preliminary round I sang "Broken My Heart" from DDR dressed as Alice. For the semifinals I sang "Copellia No Hitsugi" from Noir dressed as Mirielle Bouquet. This song I ended up faking 1/2 the lyrics cause I went completely RETARDED on stage, but apparently it was enough to advance me to finals where I sang "Sakura Saku" from Love Hina dressed in an original design. I was shocked that I nailed all of these lyrics considering that I didn't know them much at all 24 hours prior. Aaaaaaaaaand (drum roll please) I placed 4th and took home about 5 DVDs, a CD, shirt, hat, and some Naruto figurines that I gave to the 1st well dressed Narutard that I saw. XD

Cowboy Bebop - Faye Valentine

LACC was probably the best venue for AX. I *know* that all of the Anaheim Nostalgia Junkies will be stomping their feet at this, but it's true. There was no need to travel to multiple buildings for different events as LACC is large enough to accommodate ALL AX activities. The after con entertainment around that area is fantastic seeing as it is Downtown LA not to mention the great selection of places to eat. Since the hotels were a bit of a walk they provided a shuttle service to the surrounding hotels all weekend. All in all I rate the LACC as a 9. My only gripe is the seeming unavailability of shooting locations. Ho hum. Maybe I didn't look hard enough. But OMFG *so* many good cosplayers this year. I was blown away by the overall quality of the cosplayers this year. Well done everyone!

The San Diego Comic Con is in a few days and I cannot wait to go! It will be a record breaking year for TGG attendees as well as the epic debut of season 2 of GGTV. This is my 1st year at Comic Con where I will be free to run amok and I have the best people to do it with. Each day will feature a different costume. My cosplay line up looks a bit like this:

• Thursday: Cammy White (Delta Red Version) - Street Fighter
• Friday: Faye Valentine - Cowboy Bebop
• Saturday: Cammy White (Alpha Version) - Street Fighter
• Sunday: Mirielle Bouquet - Noir

Thursday is going to be a pretty big day for me. From 3pm-7pm I will be with G4TV and starting at 9pm is a party with G4 and The Wonder Women of America, whose cosplay book is being released this year. My friend, Ivy, and I are in it so I can't wait to check it out! We got to invite one guest and I chose Heather, who will be making her cosplay debut as Kirika of Noir. Woo hoo!

My one major disappointment is not being able to finish my Tandem Twin catgirl in time, which means I will not be cosplaying with Annisse. T_T Oh well. Maybe next year. I also had to push back my Emma Frost, but next year it is happening for real!

ANYONE GOING TO COMIC CON FEEL FREE TO HIT ME UP SO WE CAN HANGOUT. :)

Wow... so.... a DOUBLE tragedy has occurred. First and foremost while cleaning my newest skirt design with my generally handy steamer, I melted the vinyl panels of the skirt. T_T It has this gnarly faded white patchwork on it now, which is totally lame in every regard. I *would* post pictures of this, but tragedy number *two* occurred when taking a picture of a prop for reference at work and my flash bulb EXPLODED! My camera is pretty much useless now. Oh wells, it was pretty cheap to begin with. -_-

Unfortunately, these pics are a little small and not the clearest shots of the skirt, but the photographer who shot it when I last posted has STILL not given me the pics from that shoot. XD Bah! There is a 2nd skirt that goes in this set which has yet to be shot and a 3rd soon to follow. :) The skirt has an asymmetrical front with pleated vinyl paneling and a gradient base with diagonal hook & eye closures.

Original Skirt Design

Original Skirt Design

Original Skirt Design

Original Skirt Design