Draconian Costume Mark II Video
Category: Art and Photography

This is a video compilation I did of the new version of the Draconian costume. This was photographed and fimed at Dragoncon in 2007 & 2008.

The music is an excerpt from the 2nd and 3rd movements of "Tank" from my band Trouble Clef.

Like the horse costume video, this one looks and sounds a lot better if you click on the "watch in high quality" link below the video (if it appears).

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Horse costume video

Still experimenting with the video medium. This one features the Horse and Cowgirl costumes that Gracie and I made.

Yeah I know it starts with the same graphic style as the car one. The editor wizard I was using puts it in there. I hope to learn more about the program for the Dragoncon video in a week or so.

Anyway, this was filmed and photographed at our favorite stomping ground, The Fleet Reserve 290 in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Some from Halloween 2004 and in a benefit show in May of 05. The other guys from Trouble Clef can be seen in it as well. I recommend clicking on the "watch in high quality" option below the video window to be able to view the darker scenes (they get garbled badly and facial expressions are lost in normal view)

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Race Car Costume Video

Disasters in Costuming presents:

Tr's worst costume idea ever.

Finally trying out some video editing software and my ill-fated Halloween 2006 costume is my first project.

In retrospect, I think I was on the right track. I just couldn't find first gear LoL.

Oh well, as my friend Zoro G said, "ya get way more repeatable anecdotes outta the ones that go belly up than the ones which don't give you any trouble"

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Dragoncon 2008

       There is a lot to be said about dressing for comfort when attending a 72 hour party in several multi level hotels. I had taken this into account last year in the reconstruction of my Draconian alter ego. I had found out in Dc2007 that you can never prepare enough. This gave me huge butterflies for the past month or so. I was really dreading this experience and was just wishing to get the weekend over with. I was also considering this to be the last year as the draconian and skipping next year's con altogether to work on my more ambitious costume.

       I met a person named Larry on myspace recently, who lives close by. He helped me overcome those pre-con jitters.

      This Dragoncon was quite a bit different than last year for us, as Larry and his wife, Carrie, shared the weekend with us. Larry is fantastic with leather work and showed off some awesome armor that he made.

We stayed in The Marriott Marquis (center of everything) but the hotels also had football fans due to an Alabama game in the area. There was an average half hour wait to get on an elevator (with my wings anyway) so I usually took the stairs. Going down the twelve flights was no problem. Going up started to suck at about the eighth flight.

I participated in the Costuming Contest Friday night (yes I made a new loin cloth so there were no wardrobe malfunctions this year). I also thought far enough ahead to bring a water bottle and some G2.

Saturday started off with me getting into costume at 7:30am. I usually mix the metallic powder with an oil based compound around my eyes but I forgot and used the alcohol based mixing compound instead. So I was blind for a bit.

 I ended up in the parade with my Dragonlance group (which had eight people signed up but somehow shrunk to three by the time we met). We worked out an attack formation against each other that we performed several times throughout the parade and had a lot of fun.

We did get a little video this time. I'll be posting it on youboob in the next couple of weeks.

Anyway, the discomfort from the costume was overbearing at times, especially as the day went on. I didn't get the skin spasms from the body paint like last year. Just irritation. The foam padding in the costume was wearing thin in places and I was getting gouged a lot by the jagged joints in the arms and legs.

I attended a Q&A from Micky Dolenze of the Monkees (and voice of Arthur from The Tick). I was in full costume, though, which was a bit awkward feeling. But it wasn't something I could just pull off like a pair of pajamas.

Gracie attended some Panels from TAPS (Ghost Hunters). The reason we have cable TV is because of TAPS so it really made her weekend when we got to meet Grant and Dave. We actually had a nice talk with Grant and his wife. I'm very glad for Gracie as she really needed that pick-me-up. She's paying for the weekend physically and it's good that she had some good times to sort of counter that.

After the Q&A, let's just say that I tried to rest in the hotel room. I could only think "What are you doing to yourself! This is just as bad as I had feared." Gawd it was awful!

I went back down and relaxed on the near empty pool deck for a while and after meeting up with Gracie, Carrie and Larry, we decided to all go out together and make a night of it. They brought a bottle of rum and I had a couple drinks (just enough where I could loosen up and not feel as much pain [that's my story and I'm sticking with it]). What I didn't account for was the fact that all I had to eat all day was 1 ½ sausage biscuits from McDonalds earlier. So the drinks had a strange and immediate effect on me.

  The first casualties were my eyeballs as I inadvertently painted them gold. I didn't intentionally run the brush in them (I had done that previously with silver paint and it grossed Gracie out).

The next casualty was Gracie, who had the embarrassment of having our new friends think her husband was a lush. It didn't help that I immediately developed a rather proper and snobbish British accent which for the life of me I couldn't shake off. We ran into an Irish gent who said my accent was good and he told me what region I was from (and also said I would be called a "Northern Faerie" :0

We preceded on and I had a fantastic time. The pain was no longer a part of the equation even though one of my wings snapped and my right hand broke in half.

We met a lot of nice people and saw some fantastic costumes. One was my flickr friend Alan Jordan and his cute little girls.

I found out I had earlier shared an elevator with Nathan Fillion (Firefly and Serenity) when he ran up and yelled "I saw you in the elevator!" and snapped a picture.  

I must offer a very special thanks to Larry for sort of babysitting me and making sure I didn't hurt myself. Evidently there is a funny story about me trying to find a bathroom…

Gracie had bought a Strawberry Daiquiri and I tried to steal it (From what I hear) and when she tried to take the straw from my mouth, I bit her hard enough to leave a mark. She had to pry the dragon jaws open to free her hand. She ended up getting me a bottle of water and a Pixi Straw

..

Grant and his wife found us and we took some more pictures. Gracie kept asking me if I was ready to go back to the room but I was having too much fun. Making another round, we ran into another TAPS member Dave Tango and exchanged oohs and aahhs. Then I remember going up into a nice lounge loft where we saw Patrick Burns from "Haunting Evidence" again. I somehow talked him into starting a séance with his friends at their little round floor table.

So by Sunday morning, I realized the Draconian (physically and cosmetically) wasn't in any condition to go at it again. We decided to check out a day early and recoup. My calve muscles were so sore that I could barely walk for two days. It is now Wednesday and I still haven't fully recovered.

The Draconian will appear again. It just may be a while.

We are all discussing making new costumes and going as a group next year. Yes I said next year. An experience like last weekend is something I didn't think could happen. I was a little kid again :)

More photos in my Dragoncon 2008 album in myspace pics. And many more on my flickr sight  http://www.flickr.com/hyperjet

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Dragoncon

I shall start off by writing a special message to those of you who persuaded me to experience Dragoncon as a Draconian. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!!??? 

No, seriously. I want to convey my sincerest thanks to those who encouraged me to rebuild and upgrade the costume. The project took nine months (sound familiar?) and totally consumed my life. But damn, it worked! Well most of it.

 I did have an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction while waiting to be prejudged for the Friday Night Costuming contest (in front of some very uppity and proper International Costumers guild veterans and actors). I won't go into that any further.

Ok, my loin cloth snapped. I kid you not. It didn't fall thanks to my Draconian quickness. Special thanks to the lady with the electrical tape. Also a special thanks for those who went out of their way to give me water and find straws so I didn't pass out.

I did get to experience my first parade on Saturday. They put me near the front with a small group of people who fell through the pigeon holes of categories. I backed off a bit and did my own thing with the wing spreading and such. I couldn't back up too far because Eric Estrada was right behind me on a Harley (don't think I wasn't watching my back). I later thanked him for not running me over. Anyway, my wife wasn't feeling well so she and Josh sat down while watching the parade and missed me entirely. They were worried about me and headed back to the hotel looking for me. We were separated for about two or three hours....

Luckily I found some good people on flickr.com who let me use their photographs. These can be found in my myspace pics. I also include pics that my wife took and some various con photos.

Had a beautiful view of Atlanta from the 25th floor of the Hilton. Gave me time to stand and reflect at the night sky. And to try out my new telescope toward the adjacent hotel wings (kidding).

photo courtesy of Les Howard

We did go to the area where the screen stars were. Met Mark Singer (the Beast Master) who is very cool. He gave me a wonderful compliment. Also Michael Winslow who's nice as well us funny. Actually he's pretty crazy but I'm one to talk aren't I? :D Josh got to meet a talketive pro wrestler from the 80's named Virgil. Gracie loves "Dead Like Me" so we had to meet Ellen Muth. She went to a Q and A Ellen was holding earlier when we were separated. Gracie got a phone call during this show that her husband was found and she promply got up to leave. Ellen got worried and asked if it was something she said.

We didn't stay in there too long. Most of the celebrities seem to demand $20 just to take a picture with them or to have them sign something. That goes against my principles. 

Anyway, I wish I could have taken more pics but we had to leave early. Gracie had fallen ill (she's better now) and the metallic bodypaint had imbedded itself into my skin and hurt like hell. I plan on working on some kind of barrior to keep that from happening next year.

So yeah. Glad I went. Made some new friends. Had a great time. Going again. Will spend more time there next time! See you there!

Tr

Update: 

 New photo page added

As always, there's more pics at my Flickr sight

8:41 AM - 10 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Dragoncon or bust

..> ..> ..>

The word "obsession" has never been a word that I would have associated with myself. Sure I like, I love but never obsessed. Not until January, when I endeavored upon rebuilding the old Draconian costume for this year's Dragoncon. A project that served its purpose and entered retirement. And now resurrected. There has never been a one thing that has taken all of my free time until this thing. Thankfully, it is now fully built and just needs to be finished (sanding, painting, gilding, etc. YiKeS!) Here's a pic from a contour test I did using a temporary metallic coating.

Hope to have pics of the finished work in a couple of weeks

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Spring update

Music

Well Spring is finally here and it's still f - freezing! So I'm still waiting for warmer weather to continue the Apology None project. Have some great stuff in the works so be sure to visit the A.N. myspace for updates

Draconian

Still working on my Draconian body parts for this year's Dragoncon. Got the hotel reservations but still nervous as heck about the whole thing. Here is a clay mockup of one of the hands. I think my love of mid-century architecture is starting to show through my work. Got yelled at by the wife today because I cut a hand off one of the arms with a circular saw without administering anesthesia first.

TheTrampoline

Since we live on a hill, the new trampoline promises many lively moments. I've only fallen off once, though!

Talladega

Last Tuesday, I was finishing some camera installs on some police cars in Talladega, when the sky turned dark and the tornado siren sounded; followed by a verbal warning of a tornado in the area. So I rushed into the van and took off toward the storm. My timing was pretty good. As I hit the highway, I ended up in the middle a nice hail core and was hammered pretty well. No windows broken which surprised me. Took some pictures of the impending storm and included one here of the hail core after it passed.

Roadside Architecture

Bought a 7.1 mpx Digital Elph and am still trying to figure out the features. Contributing several pics of roadside architecture to agilitynut. Check out the sight if you like unique American architecture and odd roadside attractions.

Flickr

Opened up a new Flickr sight to show off some of the pics I've taken over the years. Feel free to stop by and by all means, let me know if you have a Flickr profile as well.

my pics

Update: My work

Always adding some intersting finds on Flickr

The Pros

Mccord Communications

Happy Easter!

Take care and be safe,

Tr

10:51 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Draconian videos
Category: Parties and Nightlife

Here's a couple of small video clips of one of my costumes taken a few years back.

The first..one was taken in '99 at Universal Studios, Fl. and was the first time I had ever put the entire costume together. The second video was mostly taken at the Jacksonville Landing.

I'll do a better video in the future and try to show some of the other cool costumes we saw. Just cutting my teeth into this whole video editing/uploading thing and my editing program is out of date [Insert..more interesting..excuse here"_______________________________________"].

2:37 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Halloween

When everybody asked what I was going to be this year and my reply was "a racecar", I recieved looks of puzzlement followed by the predictable chuckle. Yes it was unusual but the big one I've been working on for a while isn't finished so I needed to do something "Quick". All in all I really topped myself in my annual quest to make a costume more cumbersome and uncomfortable than the last.

It was important that my son was involved. He was to be an 'evil' driver but we only had access to a moto x helmet which didn't work with his mask.  We did manage to take some pictures (all be it they are at night and a little dark) before I had a couple of blowouts and some other issues. Since there's no Maaco in town, I had to decide to trick or treat with my son as something I could throw together quickly or go as 'Boring Dad'.

Josh told me to just wear the front part of the car and go as "Car Face" which is what I ended up doing. That went over well. Gracie went as a vampire (a perty one) and worked in the Walgreens pharmacy all day dressed up (the only one in the store to do so).

There's a community in town we went to called Glenwood Terrace which is closed off to traffic and becomes a Halloween haven.  Grace ended up getting off at 7pm so that's when we set out but nowadays I guess kids do this thing pretty early as everyone was out of candy.

  Still hard to get used to being away from the fests and parties/contests. Will have to travel to Atlanta next time to get my party fix.

  Hopefully my costume (what ever it will be) will be fully functioning next year so we can can set out at 2pm and go trick or treating.

T

Pics

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Life in rural Alabama and other assorted pine nuggets

Alabama

Still trying to adapt with living in the heart of Dixie. Much to my excitement, a new Best Buy opened up in Oxford. Much to my dissapointment, it wasn't much bigger than the electronics department at Walmart. I guess it will go nice with the miniature Circuit City in town. I guess the big city had its advantages after all.......

   A local law enforcement agency bought around ten new four-door F-350's to take place of their old Crown Vic. squadcars. They did this for a stronger resale value. I tried to convince them to invest in the new Dodge Chargers like some of the surrounding towns but they declined because of their low ground clearence and the way some of them are driven (two of the trucks were wrecked last weekend). So much for resale value.....

  Speaking of squadcars, I'm still trying to consider whether or not to turn the Galaxie into one. It waxes up pretty nice so I might leave it as is. Haven't driven it much since I refuse to pay the state's $80 annual alternative fuel penalty (shame on me for using a cleaner burning fuel). I did take Josh to his school dance in it at his request. I swear the thing rides like a sailboat. Just a little bigger.

Corporations

Shouldn't the individual who climbs to the top of the corporate ladder have to change all of the light bulbs? Just something to ponder.

all for now

Tim the enchantor

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