I had never been to New York Comic Con. I had really never been to any con before. Strange considering my awesome step mother works for Reed Pop, who puts the NY and LA cons on. This year she worked the convention handling some of the talent in the autograph areas, mostly helping to control the near pandemonium for the star of Arrow.
This year #NYCC was being held on the weekend of my birthday. And in true Lyons fashion we made it a family affair! I didn't know we were even going until about two weeks prior to the event, when my step momma presented us with 2 three day passes and said my Dad and baby sister Rosamarie were coming too!
I quickly contacted my bestie Aimee in Queens, who kindly let us crash with her and her boyfriend Evan! Then spent the 10 days prior to the show trying to create a plus size friendly costume using without spending more than $20. I decided to be The Phoenix, Jean Greys super hero / super villain of the Xmen. Of course with my own twist!
I made a mask crusted with green and gold glitter. I turned my old black combat boots into metallic gold glittery boots, I made a matching glitter Phoenix emblem for my chest out of clay. Also sculpted one out of clay for my waistband. (It unfortunately got sacrificed to the con Gods. Broke off when I got smushed between a bunch of other cosplayers in the crowd!) I couldn't find long gold gloves, so I bought a cheap pair in white and dyed them using a few Sharpies and rubbing alcohol. A green shirt that I loved worked as my costume base. Being plus sized and not being one to show too much skin, I felt this was both effective and pretty. So lastly I added a gold undershirt, leggings and I was done!
So here are some of the photos from our religious Comic Con experience. My kid sister is the dotted face pop art, my Dad is in many of these shots as well as my boyfriend and biz partner Matthew aka Dick Dangers. This will have to be a part one of two , as some are cellphone shots, others on a little point and shoot cam. Enjoy and feel free to comment!
While in NYC to see Showgirls the Musical my friends and I stopped for a late dinner at JapaDog the home of the Japanese Hot Dog. Located on St. Mark Street in the East Village, JapaDog offers up some interesting variations on the American favorite.Matt and I ordered up some dogs and an order of fries.
Kind of a funny story here. We waited in a short line to place our order. When we got up to the counter, an adorable young Indian girl took our order and yelled it back to the Japanese cooks IN JAPANESE. There were some Asian college kids in line behind us. They heard her Japanese and were impressed. "Hey that Indian girl spoke better Japanese then you, and you're Asian!" one guy laughs. I stifled my laugh. His friend spoke my mind "Uh dude, she is Asian. She's from India." It took a while for his buddy to put it together.
Meanwhile, in Foodland Matt and I placed our order. I got the Croquette - a Japanese croquette (fried mashed potatoes) with Arabiki sausage and cooked cabbage. I also got the Love Meat (I couldn't resist the name!) which is a hot dog topped with their meat sauce and cheese. Also ordered a side of black pepper fries but got the butter and shoyu fries. The mistake was ok, because I had already inhaled a 1/4 of the bag before I realized it wasn't what I asked for. I had no idea buttered fries would be so delicious!
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| JAPADOG! |
As for the dogs, The Croquette was delicious! The little croquettes have a little BBQ sauce on them. They are like these delicious tangy little potato pancakes! The sausage and cabbage was just perfect. The cabbage is prepared similar to sour kraut. I will be spending weeks trying to make some kind of similar crazy hot dog concoction at home. LOVED IT!
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| The Croquette |
As for the Love Meat, it was a little disappointing. I think I was expecting something in the vein of a Japanese chili dog. That's not what this was. It was sweet. Too sweet for my taste. The meat sauce threw me off. I ate about half and gave it to Matt to finish. He, on the other hand, enjoyed the Love Meat! In fact, I would even say he loved the Love Meat. (Hahahahahahaha.)
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| The Lovemeat |
Now the Yakisoba Dog I did not try. It is Arabiki sausage with Yakisoba noodles and roasted red peppers. It looks very interesting. Matthew gave it rave reviews and said now he wants to make every hot dog with Yakisoba noodles on it.This is something I may need to get creative with at home! Better start stocking up on Yakisoba!
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| The Yakisoba Dog |
Japanese hot dogs are A-maze! But we also had some seriously yummy cake! Matt's birthday was this past Monday. For a couple of years now I have been getting cakes from my super sweet friend and Jillian Lyons Designs model Sara Kenny of You've Been Cupcaked. This year Matt could not decide what he wanted to order from her. She emailed me a 14 page list of flavors - I shit you not, 14 PAGES! Every time he landed on something he wanted to try, he would panic and change his mind. He kept saying 'it's so much pressure!' Ultimately he decided on 1 dozen of 2 different flavors: Raspberry Lime and Orange Cream Fizzy, but with a zombie theme...
Sara came up with an idea to do the cakes as she naturally does to keep the integrity of the flavor. She wanted to be able to do the zombie theme for Matt and since she is uber talented and a dear friend, she whips up a zombie mini cake for us on the cheaps. I heart her! Here are those delectable cupcakes. I go to her for every event in my life requiring me to get cake she is the BEST!
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| Top: Orange Cream Fizzy Bottom: Raspberry Lime |
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| Smooth rich and creamy. |
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| Tart and sweet in all the right ways. |
And here is the super scary zombie cake! Oh no it's coming right for us!!! This delicious monster of a mini cake has butter cream frosting and an Oreo cookie crumb topping. Inside was the moistest, richest chocolate cake and white icing filling. It tasted like an Oreo cookie cake! It was the best chocolate cake I have ever had. I am scrambling to think of an event I can order this cake for and still get to eat the majority of it...
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| Bwains! Bwains!!! |
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| Gore. |
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| Oh NOOOO! He's coming to get meeeeee! |
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| Matt is fearful. Does eating the zombie make him a zombie? |
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| He succumbs to the sugar pulsating through his veins. |
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| Alas Matt becomes what he fears - ZOMBIE! KILL IT! KILL IT! |
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Jillian Lyons is the quirky girl you all know and love as well as a small business entity. Show her some love! Visit Jillian Lyons Designs.
I am coming to the slow realization that I may actually be a walking stereotype of a big gay man. (For those of you who read and don't know me, I am a woman with a sense of humor, not a man in sexual crisis.) I say this because I have seen exactly two plays this past year. The first being End of the Rainbow, sort of a cheeky dramedy about the last days of Judy Garland. The second being what I just witnessed - Showgirls the Musical. And it's exactly what the title offers, the campy script of Showgirls with added campier song and dance numbers.
The Kraine Theater
85 E 4th St New York, NY 10003
(212) 460-0982
BUY TICKETS! (super limited engagement folks!)
I will tell you from the get go, this was a perfect night.
I got to see this with one of my best friends, Aimee and her boyfriend Evan and my boyfriend Matt. It was a packed house with mostly gay men (surprise). I had worn a very bright green top and my boyfriend is part Native American and a pretty big dude. We stuck out quite a bit! I had a moment of concern for my boyfriend, as he looked very uncomfortable. But once the house lights were down, we were all one. A united front of camp loving fanatics who did not stop laughing for a minute!
If you have never seen the movie Showgirls, you may want to see it before reading my review. I have mentioned it in previous posts. It is one of my all time favorite movies! It's not good by any means. It's awesomely bad! To touch on it briefly, it was a big budget movie starring Saved by the Bell's Elizabeth Berkley directed by Paul Verhoven and written by Joe Ezsterhas. Paul Verhoven at the time was known best for big action flicks like Total Recall. This was intended to be his lavish MGM All About Eve-esque showbiz drama infused with sex.
The acting is a train wreck, the characters are insane, most insane being it's main character - one Nomi Malone, who is a horrible temper tantrum whirlwind. Acting like a bitch to everyone she meets and yet everyone constantly wants to help her. But most of all it's a story about women written by men who think women talk mainly about nails, tits and occasionally fajitas. And always yearn to bang each other. Let me repeat - starring ELIZABETH BERKLEY. It is one of the worst movies ever made and won a record breaking number of Razzies.
The acting is a train wreck, the characters are insane, most insane being it's main character - one Nomi Malone, who is a horrible temper tantrum whirlwind. Acting like a bitch to everyone she meets and yet everyone constantly wants to help her. But most of all it's a story about women written by men who think women talk mainly about nails, tits and occasionally fajitas. And always yearn to bang each other. Let me repeat - starring ELIZABETH BERKLEY. It is one of the worst movies ever made and won a record breaking number of Razzies.
Now the beauty of this stage show was that it was the most stripped down musical I'd ever seen. There was a guitar and bass player sitting in folding chairs to the left of the stage. That was the ENTIRE music section (who as it turns out, were also the show's writers!). No sets, and hardly any scenery. Maybe $200 worth of gold lame fabric and cheap wigs for wardrobe. It was perfect.
The story followed the Showgirls movie script fairly faithfully and making sure to ham up the lines for extra laughs. Done in a very similar way to the even campier stage play of Valley of the Dolls back in the mid 90's. But taking it a step farther by creating full on musical numbers from it's cast of eight. They took a few liberties here and there. Making the films' characters of Gay the female choreographer, and the snarky gay assistants' character into one glam male character named GAY was a touch of genius. Renaming Kyle MacLachlan's character "KyleMacLachlan" is another.
The songs were tongue in cheek tunes that sang like what fans commentate while watching my beloved Showgirls. Songs like 'Don't Lick That Pole Girl!' sung everything I personally ever wanted to say to Nomi Malone. Or Aimee's favorite about rape revenge, kicking ass and being a 'Whorior' - that's a whore warrior! My favorite, the 'Boat Show' song, which cut the cast yelling "boat show" with cuts of Nomi almost being tricked into hooking herself to a Japanese business man while interspersing the Styx song 'Mr. Roboto' and an actual singing boat. Like seriously, what's NOT to love!
But a lot of the credit is handed to the show's star, Ms. April Kidwell, who looked exactly like Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls right down to the tits! Not only that, but she never missed a beat. She took the over the top Nomi and with her put the screw in screwball. Lucille Ball stripping her way into Goddess at the Stardust! I also have to say this chick was brave! Showgirls is a pretty undressed flick with an NC-17 rating. The musical promises you singing, dancing and tits right on the showbill - and they freaking delivered. April is topless in the first five minutes and is in a g-string dancing at the Cheetah in no time flat. Hilariously, I might add.
Now I can go on and continue to talk about the hilarious use of characters like Molly who was mostly referred to as Black Seamstress. Or Crystal Connors who was beefed up into an even more outrageous coked out star. Or how the cat fighting Goddess dancer cast of characters were changed to the more fitting names of Mittens and Labia. But really there is only one thing left to discuss...
The. Pool. Scene. (Or Nomi's Water Seizure.)
If you don't know what I am talking about you stop it right now! Just stop it. I will not have that in my house! NO! The pool scene is one of the funniest over the top sex scenes in film HISTORY I tell you! I am giving you a chance to have a full on campy audience experience with that right now by watching it here:
So take that, and imagine it with a song about 'Underwater Sex' and a pool made of blue sequence fabric. Yeah. I know. I laughed non-stop.
It was AMAZEBALLS.
The songs were tongue in cheek tunes that sang like what fans commentate while watching my beloved Showgirls. Songs like 'Don't Lick That Pole Girl!' sung everything I personally ever wanted to say to Nomi Malone. Or Aimee's favorite about rape revenge, kicking ass and being a 'Whorior' - that's a whore warrior! My favorite, the 'Boat Show' song, which cut the cast yelling "boat show" with cuts of Nomi almost being tricked into hooking herself to a Japanese business man while interspersing the Styx song 'Mr. Roboto' and an actual singing boat. Like seriously, what's NOT to love!
But a lot of the credit is handed to the show's star, Ms. April Kidwell, who looked exactly like Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls right down to the tits! Not only that, but she never missed a beat. She took the over the top Nomi and with her put the screw in screwball. Lucille Ball stripping her way into Goddess at the Stardust! I also have to say this chick was brave! Showgirls is a pretty undressed flick with an NC-17 rating. The musical promises you singing, dancing and tits right on the showbill - and they freaking delivered. April is topless in the first five minutes and is in a g-string dancing at the Cheetah in no time flat. Hilariously, I might add.
Now I can go on and continue to talk about the hilarious use of characters like Molly who was mostly referred to as Black Seamstress. Or Crystal Connors who was beefed up into an even more outrageous coked out star. Or how the cat fighting Goddess dancer cast of characters were changed to the more fitting names of Mittens and Labia. But really there is only one thing left to discuss...
The. Pool. Scene. (Or Nomi's Water Seizure.)
If you don't know what I am talking about you stop it right now! Just stop it. I will not have that in my house! NO! The pool scene is one of the funniest over the top sex scenes in film HISTORY I tell you! I am giving you a chance to have a full on campy audience experience with that right now by watching it here:
So take that, and imagine it with a song about 'Underwater Sex' and a pool made of blue sequence fabric. Yeah. I know. I laughed non-stop.
It was AMAZEBALLS.
The Kraine Theater
85 E 4th St New York, NY 10003
BUY TICKETS! (super limited engagement folks!)
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