Costuming

Costume design is a beautiful but precise art.  One needs to understand the setting, time frame, and even the personality of the character that one is creating the clothing for.  Although many laymen can look at an outfit and think "that belongs in the 1970s" it's much more nuanced than that.

Let's look at Jean-Pierre Dorléac, an award-winning costume designer who worked on many films and TV shows.  His work is seen on Battlestar Galactica (1978), Buck Rogers (1979), Automan (1983), Airwolf (1984), and Quantum Leap (1989) among others.

Here are two examples.

To provide the look of the computer-generated hologram of Automan (Chuck Wagner), the costume was a unitard with adhesive panels of highly reflective material.  A device called a beam splitter was attached to the camera to bounce the costume's reflection back into the camera lens, making it appear to glow.  The blue starfield effect was added in post-production.

Each episode of Quantum Leap was set in a different time period, anywhere from mid-1950s to mid-1990s. All the costumes had to be commensurate with the setting.  However the character of the observer Al (Dean Stockwell) was the exception. Even though he existed in the "present" of 1999, he had little regard for fashion and tended to have extremely outlandish combinations of clothing.

More often than not, the stars of the show get most of the accolades.  Let's not forget the many people who work behind the scenes to make the stars look good, from costume designers to makeup artists.

The Pretense of Justice

The blog I intended to write today was superseded by a news report that inflamed my sensibilities.

More stories of so-called "honour killings" are coming out of the Middle East.  Yes, I'm a biased Westerner, but still...

A couple in Pakistan who married for love were lured to her parents' home, tied up and had their throats slit because the man was from a "less important" tribe.  Should that be considered honourable?

Another recently-married young woman was lured home on the pretense of preparing for a "proper" wedding ceremony.  The family swore on the Koran, their most holy book, that she wouldn't be harmed. But they had her shot anyway and even forgave the killer while the husband was forced into hiding.  What does that say about their "honour"?

Women in India, Pakistan, and other countries in the region are in constant danger from rape while the authorities can or will do nothing.

And who can forget the case from a few years ago here in Canada where four women of the same family were drowned in a canal because the father didn't approve of the girls' preference for a Western lifestyle?

And they call us barbarians.

The concept of honour varies from country to country.  In places like China and Japan it often translates into a rock-solid work ethic, to the extreme that if a person fails at their job they might commit suicide.  To a Christian, an honourable life might include attending church, communicating with God, and treating others fairly.

However I just can't see anything honourable about a belief system that encourages the violation and killing of women for the "crime" of merely speaking to someone outside of the family, or (gasp) marrying the person of their choice.  Even the Old Testament advocates death for not being a virgin upon marriage or being a victim of rape.

But we've evolved beyond that.

Right?

Sometimes I wonder.

Photo Friday: Cosplay

Part of being a geek is going out to conventions and having fun dressing up as a character.  I've attended many conventions over the years and for most of them I wore a costume of some sort.

My fiancé and I went to SakuraCon in Seattle in 2001, as Princess Serenity and Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon.  No, that's not my real hair.

We went to SakuraCon again in 2004 and I dressed as Misty from Pokemon.

I've been to several other conventions dressed as the Fourth Doctor from Doctor Who.

I haven't decided what I'm going to be for this year's ComicCon in September.  (Last year I went as Indiana Jones.)  It'll depend on my mood and the weather. It's unpleasant wearing a heavy costume in hot temperatures.

Thursday Treat: Lemon Refrigerator Cookies

These are an example of "refrigerator" or "icebox" cookies, where the dough is kept in a cold environment until it's ready to bake.  The dough can also be frozen for a time before baking.

Southern Lemon Refrigerator Cookies

To make this you will need:

Two large mixing bowls and spoon
Electric mixer
Waxed paper
Baking sheet

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Dash of salt
3/4 cup white sugar
3/8 cup (3 ounces) butter at room temperature
1 egg
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel

Stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In a separate bowl, beat together 1/2 cup of the sugar with the butter until light and fluffy.
Beat in the egg, lemon juice, and lemon peel.
Gradually blend in the flour mixture.
Form the dough into two rolls about 2 inches wide and 7 inches long.
Wrap the rolls in waxed paper and refrigerate until firm, about an hour.

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Unwrap the cookie dough and cut into slices about 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle slices lightly with remaining sugar and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes until lightly browned around the edges. Cool the cookies on a rack and store in an airtight container.

Makes about 2 to 3 dozen cookies.

The Duck Brush

Most people know what re-gifting is.  When you receive a gift from someone and you don't like it, or you don't want it, you thank the gifter very nicely.  And then you wait a while and give the item to someone else, preferably someone unrelated to the person who gave it to you so that they don't find out.

One year my mother received a Christmas gift from someone; to this day nobody in the family remembers who sent it.  It was a beautifully carved wooden clothes brush that resembled a male mallard duck.  Mom thought it was rather tacky and couldn't see herself using it, but as courtesy dictated she wrote a polite thank-you note to the sender and hid the brush on a shelf in her closet.

The following Christmas, my father received the duck in his stocking.  After he made a disparaging comment about it, we all had a good laugh.  This began a funny tradition that lasted several years.  Each Christmas someone in the family would receive this duck brush, say something silly about it, and then put it away until the next year when it was passed along to another victim.

One year the brush disappeared.  A thorough search of the house turned up nothing.  For a while it was thought that Mom had parceled it up and sent it to my brother, but he denied having seen it.  We never saw the brush again.  We could only hope that whoever got it made a funny tradition out of it also.