Tassenmuseum Hendrikje (The Museum of Bags and Purses)

[image: a beaded bag in the process of being knit] — [image: a beaded bag in the process of being knit on four needles]

One of the museums on my list to visit in Amsterdam was the Museum of Bags and Purses. No, I’m not a bag fiend—that’s my friend TeapotGirl—but I do enjoy them. I also enjoy museums that dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to something niche like this. (Also it was included in the list of museums that had free admission with a Museumkaart.) It’s located in a beautiful canal house near Rembrandtplein.

The bag at the top of this post is a half-finished antique beaded bag. Apparently in order to make these, you first had to figure out the pattern and order in which all the beads needed to be in order to get a coherent design, then string all of them onto your cord (the spool you see at the top left), and then get to knitting. It seems amazingly complicated. I really liked being able to see the process.

I learned after I had gone through the museum that we weren’t supposed to take photos. My bad. Thankfully, these photos are terrible (SHAKY HANDS) and should in no way substitute for an actual visit, should you get the chance!

I really enjoyed the historical section of the museum. Once they got into the latter half of the 20th century the informative aspect of the museum sort of dried up. I guess they figure if you’re into this stuff, you already know? But I would say that the sections regarding the history and evolution of purses were definitely worthwhile.

I thought these chatelaines were pretty damn neat. I thought to myself “these look so cool, they should totally make a comeback,” but then I realized that these days they’d just look like oversized charm bracelets. Still, I think they could be integrated successfully into some sort of steampunk costume. And then I ran a search for “chatelaines” and discovered there are some antiques on eBay if you’ve got a few thousand bucks kicking around.

[image: a gem-encrusted diet coke can purse]

[image: peeking inside the diet coke purse]

But really, is it any wonder that this was my absolute favorite purse in the museum? 😀 (Click to embiggen, the thumbnails crop unflatteringly. Or check out the museum’s photo of it from their Facebook page, which is much better.)

The museum also offers high tea, which I would have loved to do, but I was visiting on my own, and doing the whole ceremony by myself seemed like it would be a little awkward. You should check out the page on their website—those little cakes are adorable! (They also had a less fancy tea service, but if I had done it, I would’ve gone whole hog.)

the best spam

I wish to also share something with you close friend, in terms of sensible insight on ways to manage shitty and also unfavorable people.

I get a ton of spam comments. I have to clear out bunches from my filter each day. But this, this is the pinnacle of spam. I almost want to let it through.

Please, share with me! Aren’t we close friends? Please! Tell me your sensible insights on ways to manage shitty and also unfavorable people. That seems like it could be good advice.

(I’ll write something better tomorrow.)

Rijks Studio

Journal des Dames et des Modes, Costumes Parisiens, 1913, No. 51 : Pour St. Moritz..., Anonymous, 1913 — Journal des Dames et des Modes, Costumes Parisiens, 1913, No. 51 : Pour St. Moritz…, Anonymous, 1913

(I haven’t been skiing since 1993, but obviously this is what I’ll be wearing on the slopes next time.)

The Rijksmuseum’s website has this neat feature where you can create an account and save really high-res images of their collection. Well, I say it’s neat, but I’ve spent a few hours this afternoon trying to recreate the gallery I made yesterday (and since there were 6500 images in the main tag I had been using—”fashion plate”—it’s taken a while). I think what happened is that I duplicated a few images going through the first time, and then when I tried delete one of the images, it deleted both? I’m not sure. It’s damn annoying, is what it is.

Anyway, it’s pretty much made redundant a lot of photos I took on my trip. But it’s for the better, since my Shaky Hands ™ did not take as clear images as theirs.

In addition to being able to save albums full of cool things, they also encourage you to use their images to make stuff. I doubt I’ll be doing that, but it’s a nice feature.

You can see my collections here! So far I’ve just got two, one for fabulous fashion, the other for works of art featuring saints and their attributes (because I am me, and that is the sort of thing I love). I’m still working on them, because as I mentioned earlier… 6500 images, and that’s before I get start searching for more saint stuff.

Garden Update: October 6, 2015

[image: new growth on my cherry tomato plant]

It’s October, shouldn’t my plants be winding down by now? Apparently not in California! To be fair, it’s still supposed to be in the 80s this week, I can understand why my plants are a little confused.

My cherry tomato plant has been putting out ridiculous new growth. There are still a few tomatoes from the original crop that are finally starting to ripen, but the plant itself has decided it’s time for more flowering and more fruit. I’m looking forward to the first round being over so I can cut the damn plant back a bunch. It really grew all over the place.

I’m also getting more flowers and nascent fruit on my bell pepper plant, which I thought had been eaten to death by bugs (it has very sad, chewed up leaves).

The chile pepper plant is well into its second round of fruit. I’ve been getting so many chile peppers I’ve just started chucking them into the freezer. When I get enough (I think they’ll be like 50 per ounce, they are so small) I’ll make hot sauce or some very, very fiery pepper jelly.

I think the Indigo Rose tomato plant is nearing its end, although I’ve seen some new growth on it, too. But no new flowers. YET.

Both eggplants are putting out a lot of flowers, as well as a decent number of fruits. They’re on the small side—maybe because there are so many?

Bugs attacked the basil, but I think I’ve course-corrected there. The thyme is still ridiculous. Is it odd that I like to run my fingers through it? It’s sort of like brushing a doll’s hair. I like to work out the tangles. It’s oddly soothing. And you smell like thyme afterward!

Really, the only major disappointment has been the kabocha squashes. They’ve been growing well, but I haven’t gotten any female flowers yet. Just male. So no squashes. I’ve been calling it a “kabocha sausage party,” which SHOULD be delicious, and yet it’s just depressing. I’m going to keep trying, though.

New for Now: The Origin of Fashion Magazines

When I was in Amsterdam, I invested in a Museumkaart, and therefore visited Rijksmuseum to my heart’s content (probably five or six times). One of the temporary exhibits I saw (which has since closed) was called “New for Now: The Origin of Fashion Magazines”. It was really, really cool to look at all the artwork from these early magazines.

This flipbook animation was the opening exhibit. I tried to keep as steady as possible, but good ol’ Shaky Hands Sarah strikes again. I found a few more videos on YouTube of the animation (here, here, and here.

Also, here is the weird promo the Rijksmuseum made for the exhibit.

New for Now – Christian Borstlap for Rijksmuseum from Rijksmuseum on Vimeo.

I’ll probably be posting some images over the month of some of the things I saw. It was a hoot and a half.

Self-Frosting Spice Cookies

I found this recipe while researching traditional Dutch and German cookies. These are called Anise Platzchen or Self-Frosting Anise Drops, and traditionally they’re made with anise (er, obviously). I found this spice variation along with a vanilla one on Gin’s Kitchen. I found the concept SO WEIRD that I had to try it. But while the recipe worked (which honestly I was really not expecting), I didn’t actually like the taste? But I brought them to a party today, and my friends seemed to enjoy them, so here is the recipe.

Self-Frosting Spice Cookies
recipe adapted from Gin’s Kitchen
3 large eggs
1 1/8 cup white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 3/4 cup AP flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt

Using a stand mixer (or electric hand mixer—trust me, you will not want to do this by hand), beat the eggs together until they have lightened in color. Slowly add the sugar. Once the sugar is in, beat the mixture on medium speed for 20 minutes.

While the mixer is running, whisk together the remaining dry ingredients.

Also do this while the mixer is running: line 5 baking sheets* with parchment paper (or prepare 5 pieces of parchment to go into baking sheets if you have fewer than 5 sheets) (I read a couple recipes that said you can’t use parchment for this, but I didn’t have any problem with sticking). If you don’t have parchment, prepare the pans with butter and flour or Baker’s Joy spray.

Once the 20 minutes is up, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet. Continue beating for another 3 minutes.

Use two teaspoons and scoop about a teaspoon of dough at a time. Use the other spoon to shove the dough off the first spoon onto the parchment. It’s very sticky. Try to get the dollops as circular as you can. Space them about 1.5 inches apart.

Let the cookies sit out overnight. Yes. Do that.

[image: before baking, how the self-frosting spice cookies look on the pan]

The next morning, heat your oven to 325. Bake each sheet for 10 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, and then move to a cooling rack. If your cookies stick, let them cool a bit more before removing them. I didn’t need a spatula, just a little twist and they released from the parchment. I recommend baking one sheet at a time, if you can. I couldn’t get both sheets to get to the same level of doneness when I baked two at once.

As the cookies bake, they will lift up from the bottom slightly, as shown in the top picture. Voila, self-frosting cookies!

* I fit 12 cookies onto a sheet, and the recipe provides dough for 60 cookies. If you can fit more than 12 cookies onto a sheet, good for you. Make your calculations for how many sheets you’ll need. 12:5, 15:4, 20:3 or whatever.

Reusable Shopping Bags

Where I live, we’ve been moved off plastic shopping bags onto reusables. I think this is pretty great, because I have cool bags.

The two large bags in the background I got at Comic-Con. Anchor Bay Entertainment has bucked the trend of SUPER GIANT BAG giveaways in favor of shopping bags that you can use all year. Which means you advertise for them all year. Which is a genius idea on their part. I’m not a fan of the giant bags, honestly. I know they’re a Comic-Con tradition, but they’re just too big and unwieldy. They’re impossible to use in a practical sense. So yes, reusable bags! The Spartacus/Walking Dead season 2 bag is from 2012, and the Black Sails/Walking Dead season 5 bag is from this year. They’ve changed the handle from fabric to… whatever the rest of the bag is made out of. Whatever it is, it’s more uncomfortable to hold than the fabric. But it probably holds up better? I have to assume there’s a reason they changed it.

The two bags in front are ones I keep in my purse, since they collapse into adorable cuteness. The bunny bag was a gift from my friend Jeff, who got it in Japan like ten years ago. I enjoy the fact that it’s pink and says “GREEN BAG.” The strawberry bag I picked up recently at a dollar store in Amsterdam. cute cute cute!

(Yeah, it’s kind of annoying not to have plastic bags around to line my bathroom trash cans anymore, but whatever, I’m over it.)

Cold Brew Iced Tea

[image: product photo of Lupicia's Handy Cooler (Half) in Yellow] — [image: product photo of Lupicia’s Handy Cooler (Half) in Yellow]

My friend TeapotGirl gave me Lupicia’s Handy Cooler as a gift last year. I have been using the hell out of it to make cold-brew iced tea. It’s great. I can drink so much of that stuff.

[image: tea being brewed in Lupicia’s Handy Cooler]

Here is the cooler in action. It’s got a fine-mesh insert that you put loose tea leaves in. You can also use bags without the mesh insert, if you prefer. Fill the cooler with cold water and place in the fridge overnight. Drink up, yum.

Making iced tea with cold water takes a bit longer, but the taste is really delicate and completely lacking in any bitterness.

I visit Lupicia’s physical stores a few times a year. Two of my favorite loose teas from them right now are La Belle Epoque and Peach. Both make excellent iced tea. For bagged tea, I have a particular fondness for Triple Leaf’s Ginger Tea, which is basically just a bag of dried ginger. It’s lovely on a hot day.

Fragonard

In a move that I imagine horrifies my mother, I have started dabbling in the world of fragrances. (Don’t worry Mom. I don’t wear them around you—I’m not that big a jerk as to aggravate your asthma). One of my friends recommended I sign up for Fragonard‘s mailing list, as they send out samples every so often. A large envelope arrived while I was on vacation (that’s another post, assuming I get around to it), containing three samples. I tried them out this week, and here are my conclusions.

Héliotrope Gingembre: this immediately pulled vanilla on me. I couldn’t really smell anything else. Sad, because I thought a ginger fragrance would be neat.

Jasmin Perle de Thé: this was nice! However, I already have green tea scents from L’Occitane and Elizabeth Arden, so I don’t think I need to invest in another.

Santal Cardamome: this was fascinating. I guess it’s their newest release, according to their website (and the fact that it doesn’t have an entry on Fragrantica yet). I loved the cardamom spice in it. I’m putting this one on my “hey, if I ever find myself in France, maybe I’ll think about picking up a bottle” list. (It’s not a very well-populated list.)

They can all be found in the Fragonard’s Garden page of eaux de perfum. I like the bottles. They’re pretty.

Hussy’s Too-Long Comic-Con 2015 Report

This was my ninth year attending Comic-Con. For the first time, I did not bring any cosplay. No hall cosplay (although I’ve mostly ended that for Comic-Con, it’s too uncomfortable and too personally unrewarding to strap myself into a costume, do full makeup and wig in order to stand in line and sit in dark rooms for 10+ hours) and no masquerade (although we’ll be back next year!). However, that is not to say I didn’t try to look cute.

[image: something] — [image: most of the outfit, sans tights and jacket, modeled on my dress dummy]

I put together a vaguely Batgirl-inspired outfit, consisting of my favorite Batjew t-shirt, a black quasi-biker jacket (it looks really cute unzipped), the pleated yellow skirt and purple tights from my Athena Cykes costume, and black Doc Martens with yellow laces. I wore it on Friday at the con, and although I wasn’t technically in costume, I still had a couple people ask for photos (I assume mostly because of the Batjew logo, everybody loves it). I doubt I’ll ever see any of them, though. Sifting through the Comic-Con tags on Flickr for something small and specific is asking for a migraine.

Wednesday night was preview night. Beforehand, Barbara Jo and I trekked to the nearest supermarket to pick up provisions and get dinner. One of the places we like to hit up every year is Operacaffe, an Italian restaurant across from the Balboa Theatre.

My favorite dish to get there is the Penne Speperina (sausage, mascarpone, and mint). It’s so good, and the mint is a perfect “oh wow, that’s interesting!” note. In past years, I have been disappointed by Operacaffe’s bread, but they’ve upgraded to a foccaccia which is so much better (I mean, still not fantastic, but leaps and bounds ahead of what it was). Barbara Jo accused me of flirting with the waiter by trying out my terrible Italian, and we were friendly with a couple dining next to us who worked as talent coordinators for the street advertising groups for various media companies for the convention week.

And then we went to preview night! Thankfully this year we got tickets. Last year, not so much (which SUCKED because we had to make the trek out to Hotel Circle to get our badges—thank heavens this year we could just pick them up at the con center). Here are some of the things I took note of on the exhibit hall floor. (I probably should have put them in a gallery, but I didn’t, so now you have to scroll. Enjoy.)

[image: nickelodeon's gorgeous statue of chief lin beifong from legend of korra] — [image: nickelodeon’s gorgeous statue of chief lin beifong from legend of korra]

[image: the statue and the print hella sold out]

[image: giant wall art of dc super hero girls, featuring poison ivy, bumblebee, batgirl, supergirl, wonder woman, and harley quinn—there was a guy standing in front of katana, so I couldn't get her] — [image: giant wall art of dc super hero girls, featuring poison ivy, bumblebee, batgirl, supergirl, wonder woman, and harley quinn—there was a guy standing in front of katana, so I couldn’t get her]

[image: why does wonder woman need like four-inch wedge heels] — [image: detail photo of the new wonder woman costume. why does she need like four-inch wedge heels. I mean I guess they’re better than spike heels but still.]

[image: sarah lance's canary costume from arrow] — [image: sarah lance’s canary costume from arrow]

[image: roy your costume is adorably impractical]

[image: costume display of star trek uniforms] — [image: costume display of star trek uniforms, focusing on the second generation ds9 uniforms]

[image: leg of the ds9 uniforms with the weird boot slit]

[image: three zippers on top of each other, that's gotta be comfortable] — [image: three zippers on top of each other on the center front of the ds9 uniform, that’s gotta be comfortable]

[image: replica of six's red dress from battlestar galactica] — [image: replica of six’s red dress from battlestar galactica, I tried to make this back in ’09 and… my construction concept was wrong and it didn’t turn out so well]

[image: six's red dress, side-view] — [image: six’s red dress, side-view]

Because Comic-Con has grown into such a behemoth, there are curious rules about line formation. After the exhibit hall, Barbara Jo went to go sit in the Thursday line for Hall H so she could get into the Doctor Who panel. It’s a whole big weird thing. (Also: it’s a whole big GROSS thing.)

Normally I would have been at her side—I LOVE DOCTOR WHO—but the way the panels were scheduled on Thursday was so frustrating. The Doctor Who panel was at 2:15pm in Hall H, and the Sherlock panel was at 3:45pm in Ballroom 20. These are two of the most notorious lines at SDCC, and it would have been impossible to attend both panels. My justification for choosing Sherlock over Doctor Who came down to one man: Rupert Graves. I’m a total fangirl (we’re called Gravesdiggers, in case you wondered). And while I really, really like Peter Capaldi, I’m sure he’ll be coming back to SDCC in future years. That seems less likely for Rupert. So I eschewed Doctor Who in favor of Sherlock.

Thursday dawned bright and early and everyone in my hotel room was out with the sun. I was the last to leave. The only thing on my docket for the day was Sherlock (I had to leave behind Gravity Falls as well, the shame), so I figured I’d get in line at a reasonable hour for Ballroom 20, probably miss the first two panels, but get in the room with plenty of time to be there for Sherlock. I needn’t have worried. I got in for the first panel. I was in that room a very, very long time that day.

The first panel of the day was a conversation with William Shatner about David Goodman’s new book, The Autobiography of James T. Kirk. Shatner read out selections of the book, and he and Goodman waxed philosophical about the character of Kirk and his influence today and in the fictional future. I felt like Shatner was trying occasionally to be as weird as Avery Brooks had been a few years ago in their The Captains panel, when he went off on jazz improv (the sound is seriously awful in this video, but Shat’s setup starts at 14:35 here and Brooks starts in at 18:05 here—seriously, you could have heard a pin drop in the room during that speech).

[image: halle berry and jeffrey dean morgan being terribly bored by their own show] — [image: halle berry and jeffrey dean morgan attempting to muster some excitement]

These are some very pretty people who clearly know they are on a dull show. After the Shatner panel came a 3.5 hour block of CBS shows. It was excruciating. Yes, thrill to the wonders of Extant, Zoo, Scorpion, Limitless, and Under the Dome. One thing that I think backfired on CBS is that by scheduling their stuff as one giant chunk, people could get bathroom passes and just jet off for three hours. If they had scheduled them as five forty-minute panels, it would have meant more people would have stayed in the room. During that time, I might have actually been able to make it into the Doctor Who panel, come to think of it. And then had fifteen minutes to hustle back to B20. Oh well, something to think about for next year. Anyway. These particular CBS shows: ugh. Why not bring Elementary? Have a Sherlock Holmes-y block! That would have been fun! And the only new show I’m even sort of looking forward to from them, Supergirl, was put with the DCTV stuff on Saturday night (which makes sense, but GOD I was bored).

[image: the best shot I got of rupert during the sherlock panel]

[image: view of the stage proper from where I was sitting at the sherlock panel]

[image: steven moffat, sue vertue, and rupert graves at the sherlock panel]

Finally! The Sherlock panel! After only seven or so hours of (combined) line-standing and seat-sitting! Was it worth it? Yes, but with hindsight being 20-20 and all that, I could have structured my day a bit better. It’s so hard to know at Comic-Con, and you don’t want to miss something you REALLY want to see, so you end up sacrificing unnecessary time occasionally in order to see That One Thing. Rupert was lovely, Sue was lovely, and Moffat was at his usual levels of Moffat-y-ness. My two favorite takeaways from the panel: Moffat saying that Sherlock and John were probably a bit resentful of Lestrade because he’s so handsome (TRUTH) and Graves describing the hug at the beginning of series 3 as Lestrade being kidnapped or hijacked by his emotions (at which point I was basically doing this). And sure yeah we got to see that tiny bit of the Victorian episode, but Lestrade wasn’t in it so WHATEVER, plus they put it on YouTube like the second the panel was over so who even cares about exclusivity anymore?

After Sherlock I met up with Barbara Jo and we headed off to go see Rifftrax Live: Sharknado 2. I hadn’t seen the first movie, but I was assured it really, really didn’t matter. The creator, a higher-up from Rifftrax, and “star” Ian Ziering were there in person to introduce the movie and answer questions before the show started. Ian Ziering was there additionally for Barbara Jo to bruise my arm by punching it excitedly when he walked past us in the theatre lobby. This was a pretty sparsely attended event, but we had a laugh.

Afterwards, it was back to the hotel—well, the hotel bar, anyway. We have been lucky enough for the past seven years to get booked into the Hilton Bayfront San Diego, which is THE BEST HOTEL FOR COMIC-CON. You’re at the right end of the convention center for all the lines, and it means that if you and your friends are pulling an all-nighter, shifts are easy to hand off so everyone can get some sleep. Also, it has the Fox Sports Grill. Barbara Jo and I LOVE the Fox Sports Grill. For the four days we at in San Diego, we will go there… probably six times. For a hotel bar/restaurant, it is reasonably priced, there are generally a couple free seats at the bar, and the bartenders during SDCC are the best. They totally get into the spirit of the con, dressing up as superheroes. Julie and Ben, we love you!

Friday was the day I dressed up in my Batgirl-ish outfit. This morning was dedicated to Cartoon Network shows: Regular Show, Adventure Time, and Steven Universe. (Also Uncle Grandpa, but ugh.) I made the fatal error of wearing eyeliner and mascara to a Rebecca Sugar panel. Seriously, that lady can make me cry. Whether it was singing a song with Olivia Olson (voice of Marceline on Adventure Time), talking about her brother (her inspiration for Steven), or that extended opening for the show, I was trying and failing to hold it together. I think I read that the opening will be available online soon? That might’ve just been a rumor, but man, I can’t wait to see it again. (Yeah, there’s phone footage up on YouTube [FOR SHAME] but I want to see it in pristine condition.)

I’d like to give a shoutout to whoever was on the video board for these panels, because they did possibly the best job I’ve seen. There was a kid in the front row who had great reaction shots, and they cut to him a bunch. Also, there was a fan questioner during the first hour who was the spitting image of the moderator, SNL’s Bobby Moynihan, and the cuts between him and the fan were really quite excellent. Bravo, whoever you were.

I’d also like to ding Cartoon Network for scheduling these panels in this fashion. Last year, the shows got their own time to themselves. This year, they were paired up: Uncle Grandpa and Regular Show, Adventure Time and Steven Universe. Now while this may have saved time overall, it was pretty annoying. The cast for Adventure Time, ALTHOUGH I LIKE THEM VERY MUCH, were way too boisterous to be sitting on a panel with the Steven Universe folks. They kept going for a laugh from the audience during the quieter moments (I’m thinking of Jeremy Shada during the Sugar-Olson duet). And I’m sure the AT people would have liked to have received more questions from the audience, but they were ALL for Rebecca Sugar—deservedly, in my opinion, that show is incredible and thought-provoking. But I think it would have served both shows better to split them up.

After those panels, I met up with my old high school buddy Kenny Byerly, world-famous writer for such shows as Robot and Monster, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero, and the upcoming Bordertown. He was here today for the Penn Zero panel, but before that we had some lunch and visited the Peanuts exhibit over in the PetCo parking lot. It was a giant inflated replica of Snoopy’s doghouse, which had the unfortunate tendency to make the photos taken inside it look like they were from some horror movie parody of Peanuts.

[image: creepy red-tinged peanuts poster]

Kenny had been hoping to get a hat for his daughter, but unfortunately they were only handing out posters that afternoon.

[image: me and kenny in front of the peanuts movie display] — [image: some gorgeous people in front of the peanuts exhibit]

Afterwards, we headed back inside the convention center to go to the Penn Zero panel (which was shared with Star Vs. The Forces of Evil, another very cute cartoon on Disney XD). And I met his agent, who I think believes I am stalking Noelle Stevenson due to my vast knowledge of her current career (I remember things I read on Tumblr!). It took me until just now that I recognized Tania Gunadi, the voice of Sashi on Penn Zero, from Enlisted (RIP). Thomas Middleditch I recognized from Silicon Valley, a show that hits just a little close to home for me to find funny. (It’s too real, man.)

After the DisneyXD panels, I had to hurry over to join Barbara Jo in line for Room 6A. We were planning on seeing the Ash Vs. Evil Dead panel later that night, and Barbara Jo was worried about how full the line was getting. I had a brief hope about us getting into the Vikings panel as well, but that was completely full up. (Vikings sort of lost me this season, so it had been struck off my MUST SEE panel list. Athelstan ;_;) We made it in for both Sense8 and Ash. The Sense8 panel was interesting because it was just J. Michael Straczynski talking for an hour, no actors or anything. I guess Netflix didn’t pony up the big bucks to bring the show to SDCC. But JMS being on his own was something that I think would benefit a lot of panels, actually. When the actors are there, you get a lot of stupid questions directed to them (I swear, at the Extant panel, someone essentially asked Halle Berry and Jeffrey Dean Morgan what it was like being hot. See also every single goddamn Supernatural panel I’ve had the misfortune to sit through.) However, with just the showrunner there, you get some pretty probing questions about the show and its themes or whatever (this is of course assuming the show is reasonably deep). Anyway, JMS was an excellent presenter, and both Barbara Jo and I are probably going to give it a shot.

[image: sam raimi, lucy lawless, and bruce campbell at the ash vs. evil dead panel]

Holy cow. When Lucy Lawless showed up in the trailer my heart had a little spasm, because one of my friends had tweeted a picture of her and Bruce Campbell at the con. I thought she was here for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or a Xena/BSG/Spartacus fandom panel or something. When she stepped out on stage, oh, my little girlish heart was doing cartwheels. I’m annoyed that this is going to be on Starz, because that means I have to find some way to watch Starz. Bruce Campbell was a little skeezy during the panel towards a female Ash cosplayer, but all in all it was very fun, and I am looking forward to the show. Afterwards Barbara Jo stuck around for the Sharknado 3 panel, but I was exhausted and ran away to the bar, where she later joined me.

(okay, this post is getting way too long, the text editor on WordPress has scrolled oddly and I can’t see what I’m writing anymore, I have to switch to the visual editor)

No masquerade on Saturday! Whatever shall I do with my time? Oh, I think I’ll waste the entire day again in Ballroom 20 and then go to some *gasp* actual comics panels! So much like Thursday, I didn’t really need to spend that much time in Ballroom 20. I sat through Once Upon a Time, TV Guide Fan Favorites, The Simpsons, the Seth MacFarlane Animation block, Grimm, and Outlander, in order to see the Hannibal panel. I will say that Yvette Nicole Brown was an excellent moderator of the Once Upon a Time panel, as well as incredibly charming during the TV Guide Fan Favorites panel. I enjoyed seeing Guillermo del Toro and his boundless enthusiasm for absolutely everything during the The Simpsons panel. But I fell asleep during the Seth MacFarlane panels, and honestly the highlights of the other panels was leaving for the loo. Because it was on one of these trips that I caught this cosplayer:

WHAT A FANTASTIC THE BRIG COSPLAYER. Oh man, seeing this guy made my day. I adore Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. One of my favorite classic Doctor Who characters, and this dude nailed it.

I only took one other cosplayer photo, and this guy was in line with me. He was a pretty excellent Arrow:

(and now my div align tags aren’t working anymore jeez)

And then it was time for the Hannibal Pannibal (as created Bryan Fuller deemed it)!

[image: martha de laurentiis, richard armitage, hugh dancy, and bryan fuller at the hannibal pannibal]

Here we see the panel showing off the flower crowns that Hannibal has become the fandom most associated with, for whatever reason (“to demonstrate the fertility of our fans’ imaginations,” as Fuller attempted to explain in response to Armitage and Dancy’s confusion.) My hope was that during the panel Fuller would announce that somehow he had managed to hide the news and that Hannibal had been rescued by some other network or streaming service! But no. It’s still dead. THANKS NBC. You had this weird, wonderful, unique show—and sure, also unquestionably allergic to ratings—and you were getting ridiculously beautiful cinematography and world-class actors for BASICALLY FREE ($185K per episode because Gaumont footed the big bills) and you CANCELED IT and honestly why am I expecting NBC to do anything that could actually raise it from being the laughingstock of the television world these days sorry I’m just bitter about the whole thing. But you know who’s really handsome? Richard Armitage! I bet that fact will be difficult to reconcile during the next arc of Hannibal.

After Hannibal, I went to the exhibit hall to make some purchases and get a couple books signed, talk to a couple folks, killing time before the comics panels I wanted to go to—Action Lab Comics and Magnetic Press.

Action Lab publishes Princeless, a wonderful book about a princess defying her destiny to be shut up in a tower and forced to marry the first prince who comes along and rescues her. She escapes on the back of a dragon (who is supposed to be the one keeping her terrorized in the tower), and along with the help of a half-dwarven blacksmith, she reinvents herself into a knight and sets out to rescue her sisters from their dull fates. It’s a really good book with a lot of humor and great art. It’s gotten reprinted a few times in nicer and nicer volumes (I have repurchased once, I may do it again).

Magnetic Press is a fairly new publisher (they began in 2013, I believe), but they put out really, really high quality books. Interesting formats, nice paper, gorgeous slipcases and extras. They have licensed a number of French comics that intrigue me. Many years ago, when I was dabbling in the less savory comics corners of the internet, I learned of Sky Doll, a fantasy/sci-fi epic with art that looked like a futuristic Walt Disney. It was gorgeous and I needed it and it was unavailable in the U.S. I downloaded some scanlations and rejoiced when Marvel brought over Sky Doll as part of its (now defunct) Soleil imprint. After they put out the first three volumes, they moved into side stories, non-canon but in the same universe, illustrated by a number of different artists. One of these artists was Bengal, and I fell hardcore for his art. I attempted to find anything I could that he had done, and to my dismay, there wasn’t much available in the States—one story in a collected volume (Flight) and that was it. Long story short, I found some scans, found some folks to translate for me, found Stuart Ng Books, and bought a LOT of comics I couldn’t actually read. And then last year I saw an announcement in Publisher’s Weekly that a new company, Magnetic Press, was translating and publishing Bengal’s works! There may have been plotzing involved, I cannot say.

All of that is to say that I was really excited for the Magnetic Press panel because of the French talent they had brought over for the convention. And then I went to the panel and it was sort of monopolized by a member of Blink-182 who had written a comic. :/

I had thought about dropping by Hall H at the end of the evening to catch the last half of the DC TV mega-panel, but about halfway through the Magnetic Press presentation I was attacked by my stomach, so I ditched that idea and went off to get food and beer.

So usually Sunday is Doctor Who day, but with the Thursday scheduling, that was no longer the case. I was afraid we had bought later-in-the-day plane tickets for no reason, but then noticed that Duff Goldman (the Ace of Cakes guy) was holding a panel about geek cakes. Really, what could be more perfect for Barbara Jo? (Only if they had asked her to be on the panel with him, I suppose.) There was a small problem locating the meeting room—a tiny little room in the bowels of the convention center that NO ONE knew how to find, I swear we had to ask about four different staffers. And it’s a good thing we arrived when we did, the organizers entirely underestimated the number of folks interested in cakery. The line was massive. The room held maybe 100, 115 people? They actually allowed us to violate fire code stuff and line the walls and back of the room for standing room. Barbara Jo and I got seats, thankfully.

That being said, I thought it could have been organized better. Basically what happened was Duff ran through a slideshow of his geek cakes, describing them and telling a few stories, and then took audience questions. I would have liked to have heard more about the particular in and outs of making certain pieces, or how to choose one particular sweet medium over another for making various pieces (fondant vs. gum paste vs. marzipan vs. modeling chocolate or whatever). I’m probably just being picky, though.

And then we did some more shopping and flew back. I’ll do another post eventually about what I bought and the free swag I obtained, but this is already too long and taken forever to write.