Trekkies everywhere are mourning the loss of the Star Trek Experience, the only live Star Trek attraction in the world. Today marks the end of its ten-year run at the Hilton in Las Vegas.
Over the weekend, thousands of Trekkies beamed into Las Vegas for a final encounter with the Borg and to drown their sorrows in strong Klingon drinks served at Quark’s Bar and Restaurant.
It doesn’t help that there’s as strong online rumor that the exhibit will become a theater for pop star Michael Jackson. Ouch, that’s harsh. Couldn’t they have just made Michael part of the attraction? Oh well.
Someone put together a touching tribute on YouTube:
Operations Manager Chad Boutte left a final transmission from the Enterprise bridge:
“Hailing frequencies open. We’d like to thank all the fans and friends of Star Trek, whose constant and amazing support we’ve enjoyed throughout our tenure at the Las Vegas Hilton. As we boldly go into the futures that await, know that we take your love of Star Trek: The Experience with us. We share the memories of time spent in the most unique place in the Galaxy, and we carry those memories into our futures with us.
Live long, and prosper. Hailing frequencies closed.”
Perhaps all is not lost, Star Trek fans. All of the props will be returned to Paramount, and with a new Trek movie debuting next summer, it’s likely the franchise will reboot into a future with many more Experiences to come.
This is an interesting music video for the song Carmensita. Musician Devendra Banhart and his girlfriend, actress Natalie Portman, have a great time dancing and singing in their Bollywood-style costumes.
It’s definitely a parody of low-budget Bollywood films, with over the top acting, dancing, tongue-in-cheek subtitles, and brilliant costumes.
Zombie Haiku? Why not? It’s actually quite popular these days. All you need to know is that a Haiku is made up of 3 lines. The first line has 5 syllables, the second line has 7, and the third line has 5.
I’m inspired to try it myself:
I want to eat you
bite into your tasty flesh
just doing my job
If you’re feeling deadly poetic today, why not post your own Zombie Haiku in the comments below?
You love superheroes, and you love fashion. But other people don’t share your appreciation and they laugh when you wear your Batman cape to the grocery store.
Apparently, those people haven’t been to the Superhero Fashion Exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art. Running through September 1st, The Superhero Fashion Exhibit aims to explore the symbolic and metaphoric associations between fashion and the superhero.
Some of the exhibits are for pure, fantastical enjoyment while others offer practical variations of super hero costumes in high performance sports or fashion wear. Hey, you can even buy a hot pink and green Batman-esque scarf at the gift shop, for $35.00, that’s classy enough to wear to work!
So let people laugh at your every day Batman attire…bet you won’t see their clothes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Going to Comic-Con? Marvel Comics will be teaming up with costume vendor Disguise to hold the first ever Superhero Costume Fashion Show at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego.
The Fashion Show begins in the Marvel Booth (Booth #2429) Friday at 2:00 and will be followed by a photo-op with the models.
This is no cosplay; these are seriously fierce costumes worn by incredible models, strutting their stuff down the catwalk, for the debut of the sexiest line of costumes ever created and inspired by Marvel super heroes.
Dressing up as a super heroine in the past would have meant spandex and tights. No more! Disguise has tossed this old and unflattering cartoonish concept and instead made fashionable, wearable and fun costumes that not only fit great but look fabulous. These costumes are inspired by some of the hottest and most iconic heroes to grace the pages of Marvel, and this will be your first chance to see them live as they make their Comic-Con debut!
This looks awesome! I’m pretty sad I won’t be going to Comic-Con this year.
For a special preview of the costumes, CLICK HERE.
Do you like superheroes and supervillains? Are you a fan of musicals? Then wait no longer.
Head on over to www.drhorrible.com to view Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog!
It’s the story of a low-rent supervillain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to.
This musical will be free to watch for one week only. After July 20th, 2008, the video will only be available for purchase on iTunes. A DVD packed full of fun extras will be released sometime in the near future.
For an additional back story of Capt. Hammer, be sure to check out his “Be Like Me!” Capt. Hammer online comic published by Dark Horse Comics.
Just when I was starting to despair that I wouldn’t find anything clever and unique to say about costumes, I stumbled upon Ennio Marchetto while doing some internet research. I was floored by this guy’s creative ingenuity when it comes to quick costume changes on stage.
Ennio Marchetto is world renowned and has performed in over 80 countries for more than a million people. His unique show has earned numerous awards and international critical acclaim.
He performs alone on stage, without any backstage help, changing character almost every minute, often in front of the audience. All his costumes, wigs and props are made out of paper and cardboard, flipping and folding to change from one character to another.
Marchetto and his costumes impersonate 350 characters including a wide variety of icons, from pop stars to opera singers, from works of art to mythological figures and each show is adapted to the particular country he’s performing in.
I could go on and on about this guy…but I’ve gotta go see some paper and scissors about a costume.
British photographer Stephen Schofield has published a gallery of ordinary Britons wearing American costumes. His goal is to explore the way American pop-culture affects citizens in the UK.
Schofield states:
My practice is concerned with exploring the fascination that the British public has with American popular culture and the sub-cultural world of fandom.
It seeks to offer a glimpse into seemingly ordinary lives of my subjects and allows the private to become public. The work hints at the depth of people’s fantasies and the methods they employ to adopt this culture as part of their own lifestyle as a means of escapism.
Very interesting! I can definitely see how costumes can be used as a form of “escapism” — but I don’t think it’s a bad thing. There’s nothing wrong with bringing a little imaginative excitement into our daily lives.
What if I told you this stunning costume gown is made out of paper?
Yeah, that’s what I thought too.
This and many other paper costumes are the work of Isabelle de Borchgrave, of Brussels. She is the designer of textiles, ceramics, porcelain and other products for the home.
Isabelle has expanded her talents into other fields, including interior design and a new line of party paper products now available at Target.
In 1994 Isabelle met a Canadian theatre dress designer. Together they created an astonishing collection of dresses in paper known as “Papiers a la Mode,” covering 300 years of fashion history.
First shown in France in 1998, this substantial collection has since traveled all over Europe, the United States and Japan and continues to be exhibited throughout the world.
You can actually commission Isabelle to make a party dress for you…but I don’t think you’ll like the price of the paper!
Here are some amazing costumes made from duct tape! And yes, we’ve blogged about duct tape costumes before.
These particular costumes are modeled after the characters Mal and Kaylee from the TV show Firefly. In one of the episodes, Mal and Kaylee go to a fancy shindig all dressed up. It’s remarkable that a costume made from duct tape could look so similar.
The costumes’ creator posts about his efforts on Fireflyfans.net.
I decided to enter the “Stuck at Prom” contest sponsored by the company that makes Duck Tape. In this contest, high school students from all over the country create prom outfits using duct tape. Ten finalists are selected from all of the entries, and online voting determines the winner. To demonstrate my devotion to Firefly, I created my duct tape ensemble inspired by Mal’s tux and Kaylee’s dress from Shindig. These outfits made it into the top ten.
I used over 20 rolls of duct tape, and had to overcome laws of physics (all those ruffles are heavy!) as well as wear the outfit in Phoenix summer temperatures exceeding 107 degrees.
Wow, great job! I hope you win.
You can see all of the Top Ten finalists at stuckatprom.com.
Well, either you love them, or you’ve never heard of them.
The self-proclaimed “fourth best band” from New Zealand, Flight of the Conchords are a musical comedy duo composed of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Their music is simply awesome, and they are extremely funny as well. So good, in fact, that last year HBO gave them their own show.
The 7th Annual Himalayan Performing Arts Festival will be held Saturday June 7th, 2008 at the Krishna Temple one mile south of Spanish Fork, Utah. The festival offers a mix of folk dance, classical Indian dance, drama, music and beautiful world costumes.
Rita Riggs was recently profiled in The Ann Arbor News. At age 19, Rita is a professional circus performer, clown, hula hoop dancer, sword swallower, ballerina… and BIG costume lover. She also performs regularly with the Tickled Fancy Burlesque troupe in Ann Arbor.
We’ve already blogged about the celebrities and paparazzi who attended the Celebrity Gala, so now let’s take a closer look at the Superhero exhibit itself.
“Through the years, the superhero has been used to embody—through metaphor—our social and political realities. At the same time, it has been used to represent concepts reflective of sexuality and corporeality through idealized, objectified, and hyperbolic visualizations of the human body.”
The Graphic Body The “S” emblem inscribed on Superman’s chest and cape functions as a simplified statement of his identity. Almost every superhero carries a similarly expressive bodily marking.
The Patriotic Body Superhero comics both reflect and respond to real-world social and political conflicts…which usually involves upholding American utopianism as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
The Virile Body While phallic symbolism is implicit in the representation of most superheroes, it is made explicit in the case of the Hulk. With his thick neck, bulging tendons, and throbbing veins, he suggests the turgidity of male arousal.
The Paradoxical Body Nowhere are these biases more blatant than in the representation of female superheroes. With unabashed and unapologetic obviousness, women are portrayed as objects of male desire and fantasy with absurdly exaggerated sexual characteristics.
The Armored Body Like Batman, Iron Man serves as an effective metaphor for paranoia, but also as a metaphor for the quickly disappearing distance between the body and technology.
I don’t think most people need further proof that geek culture is really sheik these days. However, for those of you who do, I’d take a look at any fashion magazine or blog today.
On Monday night, big named celebrities sardined packed themselves into the Met’s Costume Institute Gala to get a glimpse of the new designer exhibit to go up at the Institute. For those not in the NYC know, it’s called “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy”. That’s right, the world of high fashion has jumped on the Super Hero spaceship and is making a contribution. Who would have thought?
The attendance of Tinsel Town A-listers was high, and so was the paparazzi. Although none seemed to come in mask and cape, there were some “costume-esque” getups sported by a few celebs. Maybe some of them are superheroes in disguise? I have my suspicions. Check out the most extensive fashion coverage at PopSugar.
Our interest centers back on the actual exhibit, of which is likely to not be so fantastic without seeing it in person. We found this YouTube friendly exhibit, but if you want something more high quality check out this link.
This is probably the best fan-made costume I’ve ever seen! Custom molded and painted, this looks EXACTLY like the Iron Man suit in the movie. You can read more about the creation of this costume on the Replica Prop Forum.
All the armor parts are fanmade out of glassfiber with strong and sharp details, then carefully painted in rich red and gold colour. The midsection armor and neckseal is made from flexible plastic, painted in rich red colours. The gloves are made of foam rubber. The helmet comes with see through eye lenses. The lenses reflect light and does not allow anyone to see your eyes.
SIZE RANGE:
The armor is made to fit a person approx. size 6 -6.4 foot tall with from 32 - 38 inch waistline. Ideal size: 6.2 tall, 35 inch waistline, approx. 220 lbs.
More and more, this becomes. Art meshes with fashion, fashion partakes in fantasy, fantasy masks imagery, and masks hide monotony. The costume stands in as a qualifier of culture and life.
jing’s SUPERHYPERREAL world is full of people infused with visceral, unsentimental, in-your-face attitudes!
With shiny-eyed optimism and close interaction with everyday people,
jing combines his eye for subtle gestures and expressions with a tropical color palette and the classical formality of the tableau,
instilling the colorful character of his subjects in his images.
Utilizing a healthy dose of kitsch and humor to disarm viewers’ expectations,
jĭng explores the social instinct of people to form communities and identities,
and questions our tendency to define characters and cultural stereotypes.
jing’s appreciation of cultural references and authentic environments, coupled with strong conceptual direction,
help to create contemporary fictions, alternate realities and mythologies in our urban social narratives.
Peek in the gallery to get a closer look at jing’s depiction of culture through movement, apparel, and color as perceived by society. Head over to the main site for a closer look at the merging of art with costume by jing.
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