Words of the past : Reflections of the present

I bumped into this old interview article back in 2007 where a multimedia reporter for Inquirer.net, Ms. Erika Tapella, asked me for an online interview regarding the topic of Philippine Cosplay.  This particular segment that I cropped made me pause a bit because it somewhat reflected what I believed cosplay is then and what I hope would become in the next coming years.

I cannot say much about my first wish.  Years after the interview I realized that it doesn't really matter, since you cant please everybody, and there will always someone completely biased regarding cosplayers: and with good reason, since it takes just a few to stereotype the whole.  And of course, there will always be people who simply like to give the community a good prodding just for the pleasure of seeing it squirm.  Welcome to the internet, so they say.

As for my second wish mentioned, I think its safe to say it's still happening, at least on the surface.  Four years later I often think if we are walking in the right direction, at least when it comes to international recognition as a community, not just individual achievements. 

What do you think?

Reviving Past Cosplays

Whenever I look back on my past 11 years of cosplay, the thought of reviving some of my past cosplay costumes came to mind.  I was thinking that I should try applying what I know now on costumes that were back in the day, the best effort I could give with whatever budget and material limitations given to me on that particular point in time.

Listed here are my top five costumes I would like to repeat again, this time with better materials and techniques.

La Salle Comic Con: Thoughts and Review

Last Wednesday, La Salle Taft had its first convention about the popular media called comics, and not surprisingly the event was called the La Salle Comic Con. 

The first time I heard of this con was last year early December, as I received a formal invitation coming from a Miss Risse Flores asking if I were available to come over as judge for the cosplay contest.  Frankly at that time I have never heard of La Salle starting any form of convention, as the buzz never really got around the cosplay community until that time.  So at first I was very cautious about it: the idea of a possibility of getting involved in a out-of-blue event calling itself a convention and adding cosplayers as a means to sell tickets without caring for them, or inviting sponsors but selling things short is something I would try to avoid any association with, especially since I'm known to be involved with Cosplay.ph.

Death of Libraries

I wonder if any one of you still remember how books smelled?

Stupid question maybe, but with the advent of the Internet, research has become easier and literally at your fingertips.  But being a fan of a niche variant called Japanese Pop-culture (also spelled as m-a-n-g-a), its also understandable how hard it is to find a library catering to these needs.

I used to believe that online libraries were there to compensate for whatever the actual real life library lacks.  I remember going to a library (there used to be a Japanese section in the National Library, a tiny nook somewhere there. It's gone now) where I would check out copies of magazines of a language I never really quite understood but would only check out the pictures, which includes some fashion mags at that time.  Also when I was studying in San Beda, at one time they had two copies of 1990's issues of New Type (they too disappeared for some strange reason).

Why parents forbid you to cosplay

Almost a week ago, I got a reply from one of my old blog entries in DeviantArt which talks about the choices in cosplay.  To fully understand this, I refer you a link to that old 2008 blog entry reprinted here (may still be considered useful by today's standards).  In her reply she mentioned if I have anything good to say about cosplay so that she may show it to her parents to convince them to let her cosplay, as she has been forbidden to do so.

Now this is a pretty tricky situation. First is that I have no idea of what had happened that led to that situation.  Based on her profile, she's probably in upper grade school or high school depending on what region she is in, and a huge chance she is dependent on her parents for practically quite everything a 15 year old would need.  So I wrote her a reply that ended up looking like a blog entry in itself.

Renting Costumes: Personal list of Tips, Tricks and Nightmares

Part of being a cosplayer, you get a wee bit too passionate and end up looking at your drawer or garage piling up with your past costume creations and wonder if you can make something out of it.  Unlike commissions where you would have to build a costume from ground up according to the desires and tastes of your client, renting costumes seems a whole lot easier since its already available, and renting takes on a day or so with cash normally done on hand with no hassle of bank transfers, online transactions, credit card purchases or checks.

But renting costumes can be tricky business.  Often I would lend or rent costumes to those whom I know personally.  If you plan to rent a costume to people, here is my personal list of things i'd do before, during and after renting a costume.  I classified it into 2 categories: Casual Renting and Professional Renting.  Casual means renting/lending without the hassle of legal obligations.  Price isnt even the issue with Casual since it meant very little consequence on your part.  Professional Renting is when everything needs to be done to make sure your costume investment maintains its street value for years.