Yes, it is nearly Halloween...which has had me thinking about some Halloweeny things, some of which lead to some quite peculiar other things.

ANYWAY. Werewolves. So there are a shitton of vampire movies out there from creepy keep-you-awake vampires like in Nosferatu to sort of lame teenage-awkward vampires as in Twilight and pretty much every other kind of vampire in between. Now there are also a shitton of werewolf movies, but they are MOSTLY the same old crap. I mean, there aren't too many werewolf movies that were blockbusting sort of films. And the werewolves...ALWAYS...look retarded. Most of them run in the "lanky guy in an ape suit" crowd or at best they are upright-walking CGI beasties that look like Bigfoot with a wolf..ish...head. Now, the Harry Potter movies had an opportunity to make a cool-looking werewolf. Personally I was hoping for something that got back to the ye-aulde impression of a werewolf...which is a human...who turns into a really big wolf. Like a wolf-looking wolf...just big. I mean...the Harry Potter films would have only had to do one. Just give us an awesome Remus Lupin. BUT no. Giant Chihuahua-ape thing. Bravo.

SO if any of YOU have also been waiting and waiting for COOL-lookin' werewolves in a film, THE WAIT IS OVER! There are big-ass, awesome-looking wolf werewolves in a movie! Aaaand it is New Moon. Yeah. New Moon...the latest installment of the Twilight series. There HAD to be a downside to this, right? I actually did see the first Twilight movie a while back, courtesy of rifftrax, which made it barely tolerable to me. I even went in with an open mind. But I thought the acting was pretty bad, the story was pretty boring and emotionally confusing...and the vampire crouch-y hissing scene absolutely killed any tension they were trying to achieve with unintended hilarity. BE THAT AS IT MAY, those werewolves in New Moon look so awesome! Has anyone else seen the trailer? So I think I shall see it. Not in theaters...that shit's too expensive, but the first source for it, I'll try and get it, be that rifftrax or no.

I know a lot of people who probably won't see the movie on principle and I likely would have agreed with them, but lately, it seems a bit futile to have "anti-culture" principles. The cultural "system" is here and nothing we do within it is going to "buck the system" like every single generation for AGES has thought. What counterculture, after all, has NOT been assimilated into popular culture? There is NO "counterculture" that is not represented in the global market place. You can buy hippie beads, peace signs and green bumper stickers; you can buy punk pins, Doc Martens and spikes; you can buy goth attire and anime merchandise and skater gear, and druggie shirts. "The system" really isn't threatened by a whole hell of a lot and certainly nothing in the world of fashion, music or art. That's right. Your politically charged art is not going to change the world. Sorry. You will get lots of people who already agree with you to agree more, but there is a nice, safe little niche for dissenting artistic endeavors already carved out and dealt with in society. It is socially acceptable to make angry art and sing gloomy songs and so people can ignore them.Delinquency and political unrest are all encompassed and given their place as well.

Really there aren't even subcultures! In music for example - there are people who make music and people who buy it and allll the variance is in preference. That's almost uplifting, in a way. All that stress and effort to fit yourself into definable terms and come to find out that the world isn't nearly as compartmentalized as we thought. So I'm not aberrant insofar as I never associated with a subculture or particularly limited myself based upon some presupposed self-image - that's just how things work. You are mainstream. I am mainstream. That stream is just really damn wide.

I think it's good to just accept that you are within the social norm. My bet is that no one reading this has been kicked out of society. Everyone feels strange, but when we try to reward ourselves for our strangeness, then we get to the point where any adherence to what we perceive as "normal" or any agreement with the majority becomes something to ridicule and if we see this in ourselves it becomes a guilty pleasure. A guilty pleasure? I'm sorry, but no pleasure ought to be guilty (Sex feels good! So does peeing in the shower! LAWL!). That is fucked up and neurotic, to use the (loose) terminology of Freud.

So you know what? Whatever. I choose not to be bitchy about things I'm afraid people will think I like. But I think that it takes a conscious effort for a person to wake up and NOT be. Most people just are ultra defensive about who they are perceived to be...this is why people will jump at the opportunity to either put something down "on principle", talk about themselves a lot and as if they were in a confessional, or divide themselves into aspects that they wear to impress or alienate various groups and people.

That being said, I'm not going to come out as a closet Twilight fan. Sorry if you were anticipating such juiciness! I don't like the series, but I will eventually sit through what I perceive to be mindless sparkly vampire fluff to see kick ass werewolves. But if someone out there totally loves the series and is awaiting New Moon with ravenous desire...you go SEE that sparkly vampire movie and don't let crusty cynics dampen your fervor.


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So that was a tangent from Hell. BACK TO HALLOWEEN PLANS, LAWL.

Today I attempted to finish my dress for my costume (1920's gun moll), buuuut ran into some glitches in the form of s~y~n~t~h~e~t~i~c fabric. I don't even know what the hell this shit is, but it WILL NOT CREASE. I was just going to WHIP UP the pleated skirt portion today and probably be done with it, but no. This craptastic fabric had other plans. So when I tried to iron the pleats in for sewing, I bent the stuff a little AT BEST. So I iiiinched the heat up a little and turned the steam on to max...and melted it. It...MELTED. I was hella pissed off. SO I get to go up to Joann's tomorrow and get some cheap cotton or something that I can FINALLY finish this dress with.

This has been...a trial from start to finish. First I wanted to BUY the dress, but do you think that ANYONE sells a drop-waisted dress these days? Of course not. So I relented and thought FINE...I'll make one. I even found the perfect fabric to match my hat, I made a patter piece that worked out really well...and then I discovered that I didn't have enough fabric all on one piece to make the back of the dress in one piece. NO WORRIES, I thought, I'll just make two halves and sew them together. Then I cut out one of the two halves BACKWARDS.....TWICE. So I had NO MORE ROOM on my perfect fabric. So I freaked out, stormed, fumed, complained to my mom...then made a back yoke out of one of the botched back pieces. So now the back of the dress consists of three pieces - two rectangles and the yolk. It actually looks really good and I even made French seams and EVERYTHANG (French seams are a good alternative for those of us without a serger to "bind" the edges of seam allowances. You sew the pieces together with wrong sides together, then trim the allowance REALLY close to your stitches and flip the garment so that right sides are now together, then sew the seam again, so that the raw edges are encased within your seam). SO...the top of the dress looks beautiful if I say so myself. The BOTTOM...is still in the works, but hopefully I'll have some luck getting fabric tomorrow. I just thank God I'm not having to try and find anything with a pattern on it - just plain navy blue. That should be easy. Which is good because....I fucking hate shopping!

CASE IN POINT. I was looking for pants this week. PANTS...because I need new PANTS. I was willing to splurge a little because I wanted some that would last me. So I was going to go to Target and get some fucking BLUE JEANS. BLUE.....JEANS. So I get there and FIRST of all, I hate how they have their clothes organized...which is not at all...and second? Do you think I can find any that fit and that are within my price range? Nnnno. So fuck you, Target! You are DEAD TO ME! So I moved on...to the MALL. Which is horrifying. No luck at Sears...I KNOW better than to look at Nordstrom...so I end up in Forever 21 and while I am pleasantly surprised at the prices, I am disappointed to find that BLUE JEANS...cost more than NOVELTY JEANS. If I wanted a pair of fricken blue-dyed canvas pants, they wanted about $30 out of me...which was about $10 more than I wanted to pay per pair. But by then, I'd dragged my ass all over God's green earth to GET PANTS, so I was going to walk out of there WITH PANTS.

So I ended up getting novelty jeans. Which were about $20 a pair...which is A LOT for me buying pants, but I was desperate. So now I have these weird...blotchy black and gray things and some red plaid jeans. I like the red plaid...and actually the blotchy things are growing on me...mostly because they are LONG ENOUGH, OMG. But yeah. Holy crap, it was a HUGE HASSLE and I am now reminded why I haven't done that in about....nine years. Yup..first purchase of new pants...in probably nine years. The last ones I bought new were in high school, when I thought I'd try and be trendy and get some flares..which I ended up not liking. XD I really hoe that doesn't happen with these, but so far so good...and no allowing floppy fabric around my ankles! \o/

Okay...I think I've dumped enough borderline interesting shit on everyone for today. If you've read this far...Jesus, go outside and get some fresh air now or something.