Epic fail: The only time I ever dressed up ... as a Jawa

-
For some reason, I am not into costume parties.

The only time I jones'd to dress up was as a pillbox-hatted Singapore Airlines stewardess complete with drinks tray at my local rave club* ... except I never found the uniform on eBay.

So I can't quite explain how my Lego-lovin' friend Steve Ransom talked me into attending a StarWars costume party. I should have known better - it was set for 1pm on a Sunday afternoon in a friend's loungeroom. What kind of crazy stuff ever happens at 1pm on a Sunday afternoon in any friend's loungeroom?

Can you believe I did this? 
So here I am, at a Star Wars party in Eugene, Oregon. Amazing what you can do with a pair of Planet Bike bike tail lights, a bit of electrical tape, a piece of dark mesh and a flasher's trenchcoat...

I arrive and the first sign that something is amiss is Steve is in non-costume. Wait, he brought his Hasbro light saber. I only made it halfway across the living room floor - my knees were killing me - before failing to raise so much as Darth Vader's plastic eyebrow among the assembled Star Wars collective. The room glanced at me blankly,  blinked a couple of times, then turned to fixate on the real thing playing on the TV.

A couple of kids stared at me in disgust. What is it with kids these days? 
Starr Shake shows how far I went to pull it off - on my knees.

Even more embarrassingly, I'd invited my friends George and Ann over - you know what it's like when you invite friends of friends of a friend. I am not surprised I have not heard from them since...

OK, the only reason I did this was to execute a particular technical idea: to use bike lights and electrical tape!
So why have I never been drawn to dressing up? I'm not sure whether to blame my anal left brain Oriental ethnicity or my extensive travels on a bike that have made me far more enamored of reality than any kind of fantasy. 
Here, I had this (admittedly left brain) vision for a Jawa, and I simply wanted to pull it off.

I report that no-one tried to chat me up on this occasion, but the host's garden gnome eyed me longingly on my way out the gate...

*Freak Night at John Henry's, Wednesdays, Eugene, OR run by the excellent DJ Shaun Mediaclast

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's not a Junket. It's a Job - The making of my "Best Job in the World" submission

-
Image
This is my submission to the Queensland Tourism Island Caretaker Job , along with the 30,000 other applicants (including Dean Martin's son, the Edmund Hilarys and Jacques Cousteaus of the world, and even an hilarious Osama impersonator). I use it now as part of my bio/resume, to demonstrate what I can do in 1 minute with a pocket digital camera, a guitar, a Mac, and an old tatty straw hat. My friend and multi-award-winning Art Director downunder, Sue Carey, challenged me to defend my self-styled title as a Multimediaclast - so this is for you, Sue! Judging from the staggering caliber of applicants, I'll be surprised if it floats (ha!) but oh, I do so love a 1-minute creative challenge. I can also I console myself that I've been doing this exact same job for the past 5 years as the Customer Evangelist and chief content creator for Bike Friday. The only difference is my butt is planted on a bike saddle, rather than a boogieboard. For tech trivia buffs, here's
Read more

Still rolling after all these years: the Kosta Boda snowball

-
Image
The Kosta Boda snowball: the classiest affordable gift of the 80's, born in 1973 FOR THE BENEFIT of those D ownunder: last month  was Thanksgiving, the day when 'mericans down tools and celebrate the "the blessing of the harvest and the preceding year," according to Wikipedia . It's more like the blessing of the buffet, and generally not a day to bear gifts except for oneself, what with stores now opening on the actual day of thanks...is nothing sacred?  As an advertising/marketing pundit I use retail therapy to keep abreast of product design and retailing strategies (ok that's my excuse). My destination? The  TJ Maxx outlet in Wilton, Connecticut, where I'm visiting for the holiday.  Today it was empty. One explanation:  TJ's  merchandise is always on sale, so there's no real reason to make a beeline for it on  Black Friday.  "You're the first customer to acknowledge that," said the bored attendant at the jewelry
Read more

SuperGerd! 90 Years Young and a Double Centurion (twice)

-
Image
In my " decade from across the dining room table " as a former Bike Friday customer evangelist, I met so many extraordinary cyclists and adventurers that made my modest job feel like the best job in the world. Newly-nonagenerian Gerd Rosenblatt, an acclaimed former UC Berkeley physics professor certainly hasn't let the passing decades get in the way of HIS  physics ( watch him tackle this hill at age 74.5 ). I had the pleasure of crossing the country with him on an 80-120 miles-a-day Route 66 trip with PACTOUR in 2006 . While I now grumble if the mileage creeps north of 50, he's just kept piling on his odometer. Below is his personal account of his most impressive feat to date: a double century (that's 200 miles folks) at the ripe young age of 90. Go Gerd!  JUMP TO:  5 QUICK QUESTIONS FOR GERD ROSENBLATT  Grand Tour Lowland Double Century Cycling Report – Gerd Rosenblatt – 90th Birthday Ride June 24, 2023 Background This is a report on the double century that I
Read more