What’s old is always new. Growing up I was able to climb into the recesses of my attic and find all kind of costume goodies that were amassed by my family over the years. The best part was that my dad used to be in an improv company and had the wierdest things. I somehow managed to find some cheesy costumes that were big hits. Most of it was unwearable because I was always too small, but I sure found something every year to alter and be totally unique. Most of the items in our family costume box are impossible to find anywhere else, and therefore timeless.

So why not make a history of it. Halloween is a huge part of our culture and who we are. After you’ve taken the pumpkins out the to trash, eaten all the seeds you can handle, and took down the last of the decorations start your own costume vault. There’s more to it than just putting a bunch of junk into a case though. Here are a few ways to make your costume vault a classic.

• As the night goes on, take lots of pictures. You can take these pictures and encase them in plastic protection. Once you’ve protected them, create a tag that can accompany the costume pieces. This will give anyone who will be using it in the future good ideas to start with when pulling the dusty costume out of the closets.
• Hang your costumes. Some boxes are made for hanging clothes. Make sure you have the right kind and protect your costumes from getting ratty. It’s very little effort for mass protective abilities.
• If you really wanna be organized, you can make a book of all your photos. Later on people can browse what you wore over the years, as well as anyone of your family members’ costumes. It’s a great way to prevent people from rummaging through everything recklessly next year.
• Here’s a clever one. You wouldn’t believe how many people get rid of old costumes at the end of the holiday. If you know any of these people, ask them if you can keep them for them.

The great thing about a costume vault is someone will always go back to it for the classic stuff. As time goes on, you’ll find costumes that may have been popular but will be hard to find in the future. Soon, your timeless collection will be well known.

Good luck and happy vaulting!

Hmm.. scary.

I’ve been bombarded all week by close ones about my costume choice. I unfortunately had to answer, “I don’t know” for most of the inquiries. As the days creeped on, I found myself juggling around tons of ideas that I would thereafter quickly shut down. I’m a bit of a creative snob, and I have to find the “best” way to do something or I won’t do it at all.

At any rate, take care this Holiday. I’ll be keeping at it today to bring any good Halloween info I can to the blog and give all the enthusiasts something worthwhile to read. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to leave an idea in the comments section. Keep your page open today and hit the periodic “refresh” for whatever we manage to jet your way. I’m going to blog it up and am just hoping that I can flood the pages with something worthwhile.

-collinevan

If Halloween costumes were like stocks, I’d buy into pirates and zombies. They always seem to deliver. But while I sit here and check my real world stocks I notice an article about costume safety. If you’re going to play a classic role this Halloween, you’re going to have to consult an eye doctor as to whether costume contacts are right for you. This comes via Seattle’s KOMOTV.

Here’s a tip for anyone who plans to add a little extra drama to that costume with a pair of cat-eye or colored contact lenses. Cosmetic contacts are fun, but you need to take them seriously.

According to the Federal Trade Commission you need a prescription to buy all contacts — even cosmetic ones. Businesses that sell them without requiring a prescription are violating the law.

So what’s the big deal? If contacts don’t fit right or are not used properly, they can cause a lot of problems — from pink eye to sores and scratches on your cornea, even blindness.

By the way, your eye care provider is required to give you a copy of your prescription, so you can shop around for your glasses or contacts. It’s federal law.

I thought that entirely appropriate to relay early on this morning. Personally, I can’t manage to put a single contact lens in without nearly losing an eye. I love my costumes, but not that much. Don’t say you weren’t ever warned though. Show your eyes you love them this Halloween.

Let it be written that Rob Zombie’s new Halloween movie is of less than satisfactory qualities. Wait, it’s already been written? Worse, it’s been hit by Rotten Tomatoes.

Critics didn’t favorably smile upon the horror remake. Will the freak flick join the leigions of bargain bin Halloween horrors? Probably. To be fair, critics are notorious for taking unyielding jabs at remake films in any way possible. But the outlook is more grim than a pre-teen in a Paris Hilton costume.

In an effort to be fair to the crowd, I hit up “Ain’t it Cool News” for a legit review. Not legit because these guys are in any way experts at what they do, but because they are likely the target audience for this type of entertainment. Word on the street, and I quote:

ROB ZOMBIE’S JOHN CARPENTER’S HALLOWEEN is creatively bankrupt from the start. It is a fairly awful, leaden film, regardless of whether it’s a remake or a sequel or an original. It’s got huge structural problems, and there are stretches of the film that play like self-parody by Zombie, a real problem considering he’s only three movies into his career. When you start falling into bad habits that turn even your most serious scenes funny this early in a filmography, you could end up making hollow echoes of your work, trapped and unhappy as an artist. I think Zombie’s already in danger of that, and there’s a fine line between having a style that is your signature and being straightjacketed into a style that is an empty pose and nothing more.

What has become apparent over the course of his three films is that Rob Zombie prefers his monsters to his people. He is what is commonly known as a “monster kid.” I’ve met many of this in this industry… guys who grew up totally crazy about the monsters. I’ll bet you Rob Zombie had a subscription to Forry Ackerman’s FAMOUS MONSTERS at some point. I’ll bet you he had all those Aurora monster model kits, lovingly detailed. I know a lot of guys who grew up the same way, and some of them (like Daniel Roebuck) even appear in Zombie’s HALLOWEEN. When he talks about horror, he says all the right things. I don’t think he’s just pretending to like the genre… I just think that Rob’s particular fetishes cloud his judgment as a storyteller, and in this case, it works against the film.c

I’m not terribly taken by the horror genre, but I feel inclined to see this one for the costumes. Since horror flicks boast some of the most creative and unique costumes, it’s a given that this could really be an innovative title. In the end it sounds like I may have to go with low expectations.

The first time you watch Katamari Damacy being played, you tend to be confused and a bit surprised. I have yet to see someone clip the invisible strings that attach one’s eyes to the screen during gameplay however. Open up a mixed bag of strange humor, unconventional game themes, and about 8 billion doses of Japanese culture and you’ll be on the right track. Have a mental image yet? Nope, you probably don’t. It’s really not what you think it is. I’ll resort to YouTube to show you more of what Katamari Damacy games are like…

So that’s it. You’re the Prince of the Cosmos. You’re armed with a sticky ball called a Katamari. It has the power to roll things up. Excuse me, roll everything up. Provided that you’ve grown big enough you just keep rolling and rolling. Dogs, cats, baskets, families, Weight Watchers clinics, Casino tables, you name it it’s gonna get rolled. Why do I bring this up? In my usual A.D.D. web browsing habits in order to find some good content, I came across these (ride the link to the fill set of photos).

These are hands down the best costumes from the game that I’ve ever seen. These particular cosplayers are dressed up as the Prince of the Cosmos and one of his faithful cousins. It’s too bad there’s no Katamari to go with it (oh, yeah that’s the big sticky ball that he pushes around to pick up the objects of the earth with, you follow). Anyway, I can’t quite explain it all, as there’s not much of an explanation. However I’ll dish up a feast of Katamari goodies for you to peer at so you can get a grip of what this strange Japanese phenomenon is.

More Katamari craziness…

The flamboyant and witty King doing some sort of pilates with his wife. Is it any wonder after seeing this picture that people are puzzled by this game? What’s worse are his one-liners. Masterpiece I tell you.

The Katamari in action is a sight to behold. This particular of the bunch is allegedly cleaning up the streets of Paris in chaotic fashion.

Katamari cosplay is not to go unnoticed. It’s not as popular as your typical Star Wars con guests, but it’s worth a look for sure. Once again, no Katamari to be found here…

Ahh. there he is. The prince in his true size. He’s a micro guy and his ball isn’t that big either, yet. In the game players usually begin by rolling up tiny household objects. By the end of each level you’re lucky if you can see your insect-sized protagonist faithfully pushing his Katamari over the entire earth.

In light of the fires that are destroying homes in Los Angeles and San Diego, we offer our most sincere condolences for those who will have no home to celebrate this Halloween. We hope that everyone will be able to work out their problems in regards to this awful tragedy and find somewhere to celebrate in the festivities to come.

[via Fox News]

Sometimes I sit and ponder the optimal setup for this blog, and how it would take over the interwebs with coolness. I imagine a huge community of people giving of their time and effort to build the comments and posts here. I imagine galas and events being held in honor of costumes, sponsored by MyDisguises. I imagine shaking the president’s hand and getting a classic photo taken while I accept my medals of peacekeeping.

One day when the blog really takes off, I see MyDisguises becoming a household name. Like Pokemon, Britney Spears, The Office, or Google. People’s wardrobes would be half normal clothes and half costumes. It would be totally socially acceptable. In fact there would be an awards show every year like the Academy Awards, but it would be for costumes. On the night of that show, families would invite their extended members and cook a meal bigger than Thanksgiving. It would consist of 8 courses, and it would take all day long.

I, of course, wouldn’t take any wage for keeping a site like this up. I would do it for free but would be showered with gifts by people in gratitude that there was such a place to gather online. They would offer up whatever they could to keep me going. Oprah would have me on her show because she was inspired by me, and also because she is reviewing the book I wrote using all the great content out of the blog. I would then open up a school for costume artists in Malawi, Slovakia, French Guyana, and somewhere in rural Kansas. Due to the prestige of the schools, each of these previously overlooked areas of the world would recieve so much attention that they would become modern cultural hubs. I would be awarded honorary positions on the governments of each respective location, as well as quad-citizenship.

I know I have work to do if I want to reach this point, but now at least I have a vision.

Today, October 19th, marks the first beta release of VastPark’s new virtual world. Not a full release though, people who signed up for it will get access to their 3D modeling systems used to create the in-world objects.

VastPark so far looks to be the only real competitor to Second Life in terms of similar features that have been upgraded. They’re also communicating to businesses and organizations from the get-go, so you can be sure that they hope to develop a robust user generated economy. We have yet to see much as to what the client will look like, as the browser has yet to be released. There’s also speculation as to whether VastPark will run even a bit smoother than Second Life. If it does, Linden Labs sure has a handful of work to do.

So far, the beta of the creation tool is available to those who signed up early. As such I downloaded my client today and will be tinkering with it. However if you truly need to scratch the virtual creation itch you won’t have to wait long, as they will issue invites once the signed up individuals have been served.

Hop in and let us know what you think of these tools? Goodbye prims and third party 3D software? Hello, VastPark

Rendering like nothing that’s been seen before.Virtual World can typically have a hard time offering lifelike imagery with real performance and open creation tools. Even Playstation’s Home has limits with creation.

A look inside of a house in VastPark.

(images via VastPark website)

Since this site has been up, my eyes have been open more and more each day to costumes of all sorts. As I lay here on the floor of the library where I’m typing this post, I just noticed something as I was checking my email. I got a notice for the new Alienware laptop coming out and figured out that these computers are in a sleek costume. Masked with shiny black armor and an ominous alien head on top, they take on a persona much different than your typical lappy.

So I thought, what better way to celebrate Halloween than to show some of the best computer costumes out there on the internet. More popularly known as “case mods” these are basically computers that have been injected into a much more attractive home. Price, expensive. Time investment, too much. Radness factor, meter breaking.

Anyone ever see Meet the Parents? Remember the huge wooden alter thing that catches on fire? Yeah well I can only see this thing going up in massive flames. If it was my mod, and it was on fire, I’d load up all the programs I could at one time to see the beast go down in aesthetic glory.

I thought this fit with the Halloween theme, mostly because this is absurdly creepy. I can only imagine the tutorial on how to make this one.. (step 1, kill beavers. Step 2, Cut beavers open…) Sorry animal rights :(.

Ahh, Bender. Everyone’s favorite foul-mouthed robot. Feed him a disc, see what he spits out. This is a mod I would keep in a basement where society couldn’t see it.

This mod will smack you in the face with awesomeness. How innovative. I’m sure it’s not running any killer apps, but how do you feel when you pull this out in front of your geek sheik entourage? Tetris anyone?

If’n it ain’t a tractor mod! Good for being tech-savvy -and- a farmboy all in one.

I swear I didn’t post this one just to bait Diggers. In fact, I’m likely to get flamed because this is ‘old’ news. What else happens on Digg but people getting flamed anyway? Either way this mod his hot.

This mod is not so hot, in more ways than one. Sure to keep lower temparatures as long as it’s burning. I can see a computer freak putting this over his/her babies crib as a mobile.

Cheap linux mod? Yes. College budget friendly, very yes.

Now that we see how computers are even dressed up for the festivities of Halloween, you surely have no excuse yourself to not dress up. Happy Halloween.

The Intertubes unplugged themselves for me today as I found a bevy of information on the apparent “new Captain America” and his shiny new threads. For those NOT in the know, Captain America was killed off back in March. Now, this undefined new version of Captain America is coming back to host some more comic geek soap opera-esque action in a January 2008 issue of the comic.

Not unlikely and hardly unimaginable is the return of Captain America. And so these things go like a “vinegar-in-your-open-fleshwound” episode of Days of Our Lives, the cap’n shall return to the living. As nerds incessantly cast their votes as to who is taking this role as the new Captain, all pregnant chads accounted for, the only things that are truly comprehensible are the fancy new suit designed by artist Alex Ross, the fact that it’s tight, and he has a wee gun in his hand.

 A gun?! Indeed! “In talking to Alex, I immediately hit it off with him,” says Brubaker. “We were referencing the same eras of Captain America and I immediately saw that his initial design was referencing the ’40s movie serial costume design. That was kinda like, ‘Oh, this is totally cool.’ [Laughs] Before we even had the first conference call, [Alex] had sent over his initial ideas as a coming-off point and so we kind of circled around those and gave input, but Alex that had most of the vision there. My comments were sort of like, ‘Can we give him a gun?’ [Laughs]” (via Marvel.com)

So what of this new evil-doer eradicating paragon? Well all we really know that he’s got a gat. According to these images, El Capitan will be bustin’ caps with a shiny new handgun. Political commentary? I won’t even go there.

So, before I pollute this post with my ideas as a moderate CA fan, I’ll just post the pics and let them do the talking. What do you think?

edit: Yeah, the Marvel site has a load of goodie information on the whole thing. Check it out and get the deets.

Last night I was trying to get my head into the cosplay thing more and more. The truth is I’m seeking a guest blogger with more experience and savoir-faire to be able to communicate on a deeper level with our cosplay fans.

The good news, I found one.

In light of this exciting news (at least for me), I’ll be reporting on a Cosplay Troupe in the coming weeks. We’ll be documenting and photographing (perhaps filming??) their experience. From idea conception, to creation, and then culminating in showing it off. It should basically be amazing.

As a sort of “reality show” format, we hope to let the cosplay stuff come out as a sort of “journal”. Our troupe will be documenting their work and generously giving us a look into the processes, stresses, and successes they find. Keep yourself glued to the site if you’re interested.

In the meantime, we invite anyone with some good Cosplay experience to offer ideas, suggestions, or experiences with us.

What does “A View From The Bottom mean”? It means today we’re going to see things from the Earth’s point of view.

With as much grace and aptitude armed at my side, I have the charge of writing to you in an environmental matter. Today, readers, is Blog Action Day. Blogs across the Internet and entire world are leveraging the common voice to speak about the earth. While some of us are still very niche, and only appreciated by a small audience, others have become famous in their own rights. Blogs as they stand today, are very much the new media.

So in so many forms I took a pen to paper to scribble out innovative approaches to the topic while mingling with the underlying theme of MyDisguises. Yeah, it’s tough. However, I’m going to veer from a predictable approach and just say a few direct things on the matter.

First I want to pay homage to the community of readers here at MyDisguises. We have all kinds that come in to stop and peruse our archives of content. The common thread that runs through our demographic is creativity. We are all individuals looking for a way to see life differently. Our medium is costumes of all sorts. Our medium is the skin we wear outside of ourselves in order to experience things from different perspectives. With that, we have fun and communicate.

Second, I want to give a charge to all who see these pages. Take part in noticing the importance of our environment and what it provides us. Return those gifts by respecting our planet.  Ask yourselves how the things we do can be improved in every aspect to preserve the world. Lets try, in a collective manner, to stop taking more than we’re giving from time to time. Instant gratification will not always accompany our efforts, but we will see change so long as we’re willing to perpetuate it with small acts.

If I am candid with you, I would say that I wish I had greater and more specific suggestions on how to be environmentally aware with our subject matter. I don’t have anything revolutionary to say. However, I did think of a few good points that could potentially provide ideas for readers of the site. Here’s our contribution to Blog Action Day and our ideas for a greener experience in enjoying costumes.

• This Halloween promote more natural treats that don’t produce great amounts of litter and trash. Our landfills are massive and recycling isn’t nearly as strong as it should be.
• When creating your own costumes, be sure to use environmentally safe products. Although hairsprays, dyes, makeups, and other chemically based accessories might achieve some important looks there could be more clever ways to achieve the right look.
• Used recycled items for your DIY projects. If you’re really hardcore, make a repository for such items that you can lend out to friends or family that want to join in similar projects.
• Use your costume to promote environmental awareness. You don’t have to be terribly evangelical about it. Just help spread the message that we can respect the Earth.
• This Halloween, don’t drive the kids around to Trick or Treat. Take them to a nice neighborhood that has houses close to one another. It’s more fun as well. Save on gas.

Answer the call that’s being set out across the blogosphere and live a bit more green this year.

As always, we call you out for great ideas and suggestions on how to promote green living for anyone involved in costumes. Leave your comments below.

Want to experience Blog Action Day?

World Changing
Green as a Thistle 
Healthy Halloween Treats
A few ideas for recycling old items for costumes