Jack Rabid

I’ve reached the point in my unemployment where I’m considering going to a ren faire in Louisiana for a weekend come November because fuck it, maybe it’s time to lay down the groundwork for my dream retirement plan of playing the hurdy gurdy in motley.

This one is a bit more niche for my Terror girlies. 🤣

This one literally always gets me. “He smoked all the drugs to save us” is a forever part of my vocabulary.

Screenshot of a group chat entitled “Scrooge- Fuckers, Inc.” that has a theme of blue constellations and the chat bubbles are magenta on the right and navy on the left. Right side bubble at the top reads: “If I didn’t have cats I would cancel my flight back home and just stay in Europe, this is ridiculous.” First reply from “Stellar”: “I’m so sorry. Oh my god.” Second reply from “Zella”: “Oh my god. Sorry Jack.” Third reply from “Kelsey”: “Busty dragon.” Beneath is a link to a post from a group entitled “Artists against generative AI” which shows a screenshot of Palo’s busty dragon post with the caption “this tho fr. I’m tired of their bullshit “gotchas””

I just need you to know, I was recently laid off from my day job, and this busty dragoness was instrumental in providing me with much needed laugh in the immediate aftermath when a friend was so blinded by boobs he ran to share it before catching up with the group chat

Genuinely before testosterone cured my chronic anemia (weird unintended side effect 🤣), my nose would get freezing cold from the AC in my office, and one day I said out loud to myself “okay, I bet nose warmers exist and I bet they look ridiculous.” And I looked them up. And… yup. 😆

The Elrond costume mentioned in the post on a mannequin. It is comprised of a rust colored silk robe with gold toned brocade lining revealed on the turned back sleeves. Underneath is a beige silk tunic with a high collar, a buttoned yoke with silver embroidered details, and tied with a red silk sash. Behind the mannequin is an apartment wall and various furnishing, to the right of the mannequin a small calico cat is walking by.

A man dressed as Elrond as he is depicted in the Lord of the Rings films in a rust colored silk velvet robe/houppelande, with the cuffs of the sleeves turned up to show the golden toned brocade and cream cotton lining, a beige toned silk tunic, and a cranberry red sash. He has long brown hair that has decorative braided details, pointed ears, and a silver circlet. He is taking a selfie in a mirror in front of a closed hotel room door.

It’s not finished, but I got it finished enough to wear on stage to present Hall awards and that’s pretty impressive for getting my fabric 7 days ago.
I still need to hem the robe correctly and do some tacks to make things sit right, and I want to bind the seams inside the tunic. So to be continued!

The sleeve pattern of a houppelande laid out on the silk velvet it is to be cut from on the brown tile floor of a slightly cluttered apartment. At the end of the yardage there is a fluff silver tabby cat lounging.

The front body pattern of a houppelande laid out on the rust silk velvet it’s going to be cut from, laid on a brown tile floor

A close up showing the interior lapels of the houppelande, which is a shawl collar. There is rust silk velvet sewn down to a pale yellow cotton lining that has a green, brown, and yellow printed repeating pattern of small plants

Now that I’m home and have taken a 4 hour nap, here are a few more construction photos for Elrond!
I got too busy to document progress well, but this shows the pattern I drafted. It’s a houppelande, so basically it’s a triangle from the armpits down, but I am proud of figuring out the HUGE sleeves.

A man with brown hair and pointy ears cosplaying as Elrond as he appears in the film Fellowship of the Ring, with a rust colored silk velvet houppelande with the large sleeves turned back to reveal the gold brocade lining over a champagne high collared silk tunic tied with a cranberry sash, taking a selfie in the mirror of a hotel room.

Same cosplayer in the same episode but instead of a mirror selfie it’s a waist up selfie.

*blacks out and when I awaken I have a fully made Elrond cosplay*

dracula

francis ford coppola's best movie is bram stoker's dracula. sorry, film dorks. he's drac, stacked and jacked. there are zero wolves than turn into rats in the godfather part II.

Cropped detail of a continuity photo taken for the wardrobe department of The Lord of the Rings depicting a slender man that is ostensibly Hugo Weaving from the side wearing his Elrond tunic, belt, and robe. The cropping is from beneath the chin the to waist, focused mainly his right shoulder and arm, on which a detailed design can be seen burned into the rust colored velvet of the robe.

Case in point, one of the main details I’ll be omitting is the burnouts on the sleeves and back of the robe. I have the type of velvet required to do them eventually (silk backing with rayon pile, thanks Sy Fabrics lol), but I can’t get the fiber etch anywhere that would deliver in time. So later.

I should say, “finished” as in “wearable omitting details no one besides me will care about”. I’m a judge, not a competitor, so while I prefer to wear costumes which showcase that my talents qualify me to judge, I’m not going to sweat things that simply physically cannot happen before San Japan.

An embroidery frame with a leaf vein pattern drawn onto grey silk fabric as guidelines for embroidery, which has just been started in the photo.

The embroidery of silver thread onto grey silk fabric in a leaf vein pattern but more completed.

A long haired silver tabby Siberian Forest cat being incredibly helpful in the patterning process by laying across the fabric in a very unbothered manner.

Silver embroidery on grey silk fabric in a red embroidery hoop.

I just spent a full day couching down silver thread onto the yoke of the tunic, which is far and away was always going to be the most time consuming part of making this outfit, so now that it’s finished I think by some miracle I am actually going to finish Elrond before San Japan.

A man with glasses and shoulder length dark hair taking a selfie in a mirror. He is wearing a maroon and gold doublet with bright aqua blue sleeves that have small white ruffles at the cuffs. On the shoulder there are rolls that are blue with black leather stripes, and the upper half of the sleeve has a panting detail using strips of navy blue ribbon with hot pink piping.

Since I needed to finish this up before SJ too:
My Witcher 3 Dandelion doublet has been sitting in my UFO pile since *LAST* San Japan and I finally got the sleeves on this mofo, and I am happy to report that even after looking at it for over a year, the color scheme is still just as obnoxious.

Also hilarious detail:
I discovered that the beads on the little ear locks are essential to keeping the square knots tidy, as they need the weight pulling down to keep them from distorting (explains why when I would tie them in my hair as kid it would never work lmfao)
Mine are fishing weights. 🤣🤣

The back of a heavily braided brown wig on a wig block.

The back of a heavily braided brown wig on a wig block from further away

The front of a long brown wig on a wig block, with twill tape pinned along the lace. It has two small braids separated in the ear sections. There is a circlet on the wig block across the “forehead”

Not perfect but it’ll do. Also this wig is impossible to photograph on the wig block lol
Ps, the circlet is kinda helter skelter, but only because I didn’t really pin it on well or precisely, I just wanted confirmation it would work. Still working on the charms for the back of the hair.

Elrond’s hair, as seen from the back. It is an elaborate variety of braids including basket weaving at the top, French braids on the side, all culminating in a long fishtail braid in the center.

Me: Haha okay so now that I’ve plucked, dyed, hair dried and flat ironed this 24 inch long wig, let’s take a look at what he’s got going on in the back of his head, I’m sure it’s a braid.
The Internet: His hair appears to be baskewoven, my liege.
Me: His hair appears to be basketwoven. 😭

Hugo Weaving as Lord Elrond Half-elven as he is depicted in the film the Fellowship of the Ring, a man with blue eye and long dark hair styled mostly pulled back, but with two small locks pulled in front of his pointy elf ears. He has a silver circlet on his head. He is wearing a pale puce tunic that is decorated with silver couched embroidery, and a russet velvet robe layered over. He is show from the waist up, in 3/4 profile, frowning slightly as he looks off into the middle distance.

A long brown wig on a wig block showing someone off camera pulling a chunk of the hairline away from the rest of the head in order to adjust the hairline to more resemble male pattern baldness.

Alright, starting the Elrond build thread in earnest.
Today, for the first time ever, I’m adding male pattern baldness to a wig. 🤣

graphic of a gold star written "has never even opened ChatGPT"

We will see if I succeed. A lot of this hinges on how quickly the fabric arrives. If it doesn’t get here quickly, I’ll still make the costume, it’ll just be relegated to ren faire use.

Me: *Becomes suddenly unemployed when my job is “restructured” out of existence*
Also me: Cool I guess now is the time to make an Elrond cosplay in less than 2 weeks.

The Gals™️

I went to go see 300 with friends as a young teen (yes I snuck in) and when Queen Gorgo stabbed the asshole senator Theron my friend Michele stood up and shouted “FUCK YES” while pumping her fist and everyone around us started whooping and cheering.

a cartoon of a wizard standing in front of a black monster that says " browse to bur muda " Alt: Animated gif of Merlin the Wizard from the Disney animated film the Sword in the Stone— an old man with blue robes, a blue pointed hat, round spectacles, and a very long white beard— standing against a background of wizard clutter including books, a brown armchair, and a black suit of armor as he shouts “BLOW ME TO BERMUDA!!!” (Misspelled as “Burmuda” in the gif caption). Sparks and smoke billow from beneath his robes as he stands with his arms stiffly at his sides and is blown through the roof of his study, leaving naught but a stream of sparkles in his wake.

Sorry this thread really got away from me but you must understand…
I’m at “BLOW ME TO BERMUDA” levels of frustration like… 24/7

They want an excuse to be lazy, be cruel, and never have to feel guilty. They don’t care that these are people. They don’t care that serving them is cheaper and kinder. And that’s why I’m exhausted and mad all the time.

Because the easiest way to do that is shoving the “offending” people in a concrete box out of their line of sight and pretending they don’t exist, and not having to confront that you might not be as good as you smugly think you are when you refuse to give $1 to a dirty dude who mutters and smells

There is no motive behind this EO other than naked, gleeful cruelty, and insidious door to victimize and torture other populations, and people not wanting to confront their own discomfort and mortification that homelessness existing is THEIR failure too.

That’s the worst part: It IS so easy, and it IS solvable, like literally the solution is “put people in housing, give them money, give them services, stop being so weird about drugs, & stop being such a fucking Calvinist and admit people don’t need to do shit to deserve human rights” and that’s it.

Even my clients that are deepest in the throes of addiction and serious mental illness, w/ trauma you cannot even begin to imagine that makes them do “crazy” things, I can always see the logic in their actions when I view it from the lens of their basic needs being unmet. It’s not that fucking hard

I don’t have illusions about my line of work. Some of my clients are difficult people, some of them are cruel, some of them have hurt people in horrible ways. But being cruel to people who are already in unimaginable pain and stripping them of their rights does fuck all but make it worse.

These are fucking people. They’re human beings. They deserve human rights because they’re HUMAN. They have free will. Sometimes people use their free will to do drugs. Get the fuck over it. Sometimes people talk to themselves. Loudly. Why the fuck does that mean they don’t deserve human rights?