Merle Dixon

My Favorite Cosplay Projects

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

For those who haven’t guessed yet, I’m a colossal nerd and I’m proud of that fact. I enjoy the art of costume-playing and creating my own costumes to pay homage to some of my favorite characters in popular culture. I love old school cosplay, insane attention to detail, re-imagined cosplay (like gender bending and race crossing characters), and the “controversial” sexy cosplay (which simply shows a more human side to the art, the people slut shaming the models are the real problem). I don’t read comics that often, so I have yet to head into the world of comic book cosplay. However, I have amassed the photos of some of my past projects to display here on WordPress for the world to see.

1. The Angry Video Game Nerd:

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One of the forerunners internet reviewing, and one of my biggest influences in the world Critiquing, the AVGN always managed to make me laugh even the saddest times of my teenage years. I love his reviews, and to show it I dressed up as him in Halloween in 2011 and 2012. The hardest part was finding the right type of glasses, which I found at a dollar store and punched out the lenses.

2. Merle Dixon of The Walking Dead

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***Season one and three spoiler warning*** Merle Dixon (played by Michael Rooker) is a foul-mouthed racist we meet in Season one of The Walking Dead who was handcuffed to the top of a roof by protagonist Rick Grimes because he was a danger to the rest of the group (he was attracting the attention of the all the zombies down below by shooting them with a snipe rifle). He had to cut off his hand to escape, and returned in season 3 with a badass prosthetic with a bayonet on it. Merle causes a lot of chaos to the story line alongside The Governor (the biggest bad guy in Walking Dead history), but eventually Merle redeems makes an effort to protect his brother Daryl and the rest of the group by confronting The Governor and his men with an army of walkers and a sniper rifle. Merle was killed by the Governor in that confrontation, but he’s still a fan favorite.

Of course I deplore anyone with racist tendencies, but in the name of great fiction, I think Merle’s just a massive badass character who has all the right traits to survive in a zombie apocalypse. I cosplayed as Merle and even met Michael Rooker and Scott Wilson last year at Rock and Shock 2013. Wilson and I had a fun conversation. Alas, Rooker’s people rushed me through seeing him though because he had a very long line. I did make a joke about wearing the prosthetic was a pain in the ass though to Michael and his crew members. Louisiana has Mardi Gras to celebrate, New Englad has Halloween and we take it very seriously. The  pics below depict my steps gathering the costume and making the bayonet prosthetic.

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3. The 9th Doctor

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The 9th Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) was the first Doctor introduced in the reboot of Doctor Who, and despite being around for only one season is still considered an underdog and fan favorite in the series. I often liken myself to different incarnations of The Doctor, with 9 being the most common that I can relate too. It was only natural that I would pick to be the 9th Doctor for Halloween this year. This was by far my easiest cosplay as I already had the proper sonic Screw Driver and most of the correct attire, the hardest part was getting a good sweater that fit the look. Alas, the lighting inside my house is awful, so my purple shirt comes out looking like it’s either blue or black. Next year I’ll save up my money and buy the authentic leather jacket, but what I have now means I don’t need to spend $150 on a jumper I’m maybe going to use three times a year. Feel free to comment below your thoughts as to whether or not that these cosplays are “Fantastic!”

Also feel free to recommend any cosplays for me in the future, I’ve wanted to go as Light Yagami from Death Note for a long time, so that might be my next one!

-Tatteybe

 

How I Relate Fictional Characters to Myself

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

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*I do not own this image, credit(s) unknown. Show spoilers ahead!*

This blog is meant to be a peek into the inner workings of my highly nerdy brain. As such, this blog is not for the faint of imagination: you have been warned!

Cutting to the chase, I’ve been through a lot of emotional struggles in my life, and being somewhat reclusive I didn’t always want to be around people. So in my reclusive times I had a tendency of watching epic television shows and anime to forget about said problems. I’m happy that I picked the entertainment mediums I had since these television shows taught me awesome morals when I was younger, and continue to still do so today.

For instance, the lesson of the manga Naruto taught me that hard work will always overcome natural genius (which I relate too with my bass playing). Breaking Bad taught me how easily money, pride, and power can corrupt a person. Doctor Who showed me how Regeneration is a brilliant metaphor for a personal rebirth.

Now why am I listing these things? Because I like to imagine myself as these characters depending on what mood I’m in. In times of great consideration of my past and personal life I liken how I feel to this scene of Walter and Skyler White:

For those who don’t watch Breaking Bad, Walt always justified his selfish and murderous actions of cooking meth and killing people by saying “I did this for my family!” Here, Walt is coming clean and in my eyes earned a tiny bit of redemption. This feeling of redemption and honesty is how I feel when I come clean about something selfish I’ve done (though obviously in a less dramatic overtone).

Another character I imagine myself as is the War Doctor from the 50th Doctor Who Anniversary Special:

The War Doctor was tasked with ending the Time War and saving the galaxy by having to destroy his home world. I love when the Doctor declares “No more” and “What I did, I did without choice” because I sometimes relate myself to him when I have to make very difficult decisions (genocide not being one them, ahem).

At other times I imagine myself as Merle Dixon from the Walking Dead, who did anything to protect his baby brother in the zombie apocalypse.

I’m not saying I’m a white supremacist or anything like that (whom Merle’s character was). I just adore how complex Merle’s character was which is why I enjoyed Cosplaying as Merle and meeting Merle’s actor Michael Rooker last October. I like to think of Merle as the more sarcastic part of my personality, and I still can’t get over just how much of a complete bad-ass he was.

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I could go on, but I think you’ve got the gist of what I’ve been blogging about. If anyone has any favorite fictional characters they relate themselves too, then feel free to share them in the comments section!

-Tatteybye

Take the Good With the Bad

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

I woke up this morning after having several strange dreams (I woke up at various points in the night), including one about my ex. I have had people in my life tell me “Hurry up and get over her!”, but it’s never easy. They say it takes half the time you were with your partner to get over them, and I was with her for four years. In no way do I intend to let things in my head drag on that long, but it’s never easy to move on when you have a tendency to live in the past and don’t let things go easily. But as my day progressed, things got exponentially better.

Being the social media junkie I am, I was on Facebook looking at Bootsy Collin’s (a famous and accomplished funk bassist) page early in the morning. He had a status about how it’s sad that news outlets keep covering so many negative stories. And well, I’ll let this photo show what happened next:

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I got acknowledged by one of my favorite bass players ever, with just one comment my mood changed completely. I picked up my bass, and continued my lessons in trying to master Tool’s song “Schism” (it’s a pretty tough song to play). I then played some basketball and left that day to run some errands to complete my Merle Dixon costume (from the Walking Dead).

Here’s a look at the costume and prosthetic so far:

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I just need to get in better shape and paint the prosthetic. It all should be pretty awesome when Halloween comes around.

Plus I should clean my room soon…

Also, I traded my acoustic bass for an Epiphone Goth Thunderbird, so here’s another picture for your viewing pleasure:

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So it goes to show that when life hands you lemons, and you hate lemonade, then throw the lemons away and wait for oranges instead. And if you don’t like either lemons or oranges, then you could just go find said fruits of life (depending upon your beliefs in fate). What I’ve taken away from today is that just because a day can start off awful, it can always get better; which is also far more proactive than saying “it could always be worse”.

-Tatteybye