![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mniIdeas for Yule holidays? Come to me in February...
Valentine holidays? March...
Halloween costume ideas? Came to me yesterday.... on November, 2nd.
Anyway, shortly after this year's Blogging Against Disablism Day, I mentioned to my aide one of the pieces I'd read, about the dangers of being in a wheelchair when the ambulatory ignore your existance. And her response was that it probably isn't due to active discrimination, but just that people are socially trained to only notice things that are at eye-level, and if you're in a wheelchair, you're far below that. So what do you expect?
...Oh, great. It's not active hatred, just bog common thoughtlessness, and the blanket assumption that I'm not even there. That makes me feel so much better.
However, that did plant the idea in my head that if I want to create a Halloween (or sci-fi-con) costume with real impact, I should think about adding height, so I don't get buried in a crowd. That, combined with my binging on classic Sesame Street clips, has gotten me thinking of somthing along the lines of a rod puppet idea: Mount a head and torso to the back of my chair, with one articulated arm that I could control with my left hand, while I drive my motor chair with my right (maybe even attatch the right-hand rod to my wrist, so as I control my chair, the hand moves subtly.... and [now that I think of this] since it's up closer to eye level, this may give people warning of what direction I'm moving in). Combine that with that "Skeleton Song" that got stuck in my head, and... how's this idea?
Make a hooded poncho to drape over myself and my chair, that's made to look like dirt and grass*, and for the rod-puppet, get an articulated skeleton, so it looks like it's rising up out of the grave, waist high; optional: put all different sized skulls, and other model bones, around the outside of the chair, so the whole thing looks like a bone pile.
Huh? Huh? Lots of people dress like a skeleton... I could dress up like the whole damn grave yard...
Speaking of costumes, there was special "Horror Host" showing of The House on Haunted Hill (1959) on my PBS station, Halloween night. After it was over, they showed this mini documentary on all the officially-sponsered, "family friendly," Halloween celebrations in the area. The first one they covered was at my main local library branch, if you want to see what the inside of my library looks like (the interviews they're conducting are in the adult fiction secton; the other side of that railing they're next to is a long curvy ramp... fun to motor my chair down).
*I do this with a rain poncho, to protect my chair's electronics from the rain. But for this, I'd make it out of cloth -- brown Jersey knit, turned "wrong side out" might have the slightly knobbly texture of dirt, especially if I paint it -- plus side, it could help keep me warm in late-October chill...
Valentine holidays? March...
Halloween costume ideas? Came to me yesterday.... on November, 2nd.
Anyway, shortly after this year's Blogging Against Disablism Day, I mentioned to my aide one of the pieces I'd read, about the dangers of being in a wheelchair when the ambulatory ignore your existance. And her response was that it probably isn't due to active discrimination, but just that people are socially trained to only notice things that are at eye-level, and if you're in a wheelchair, you're far below that. So what do you expect?
...Oh, great. It's not active hatred, just bog common thoughtlessness, and the blanket assumption that I'm not even there. That makes me feel so much better.
However, that did plant the idea in my head that if I want to create a Halloween (or sci-fi-con) costume with real impact, I should think about adding height, so I don't get buried in a crowd. That, combined with my binging on classic Sesame Street clips, has gotten me thinking of somthing along the lines of a rod puppet idea: Mount a head and torso to the back of my chair, with one articulated arm that I could control with my left hand, while I drive my motor chair with my right (maybe even attatch the right-hand rod to my wrist, so as I control my chair, the hand moves subtly.... and [now that I think of this] since it's up closer to eye level, this may give people warning of what direction I'm moving in). Combine that with that "Skeleton Song" that got stuck in my head, and... how's this idea?
Make a hooded poncho to drape over myself and my chair, that's made to look like dirt and grass*, and for the rod-puppet, get an articulated skeleton, so it looks like it's rising up out of the grave, waist high; optional: put all different sized skulls, and other model bones, around the outside of the chair, so the whole thing looks like a bone pile.
Huh? Huh? Lots of people dress like a skeleton... I could dress up like the whole damn grave yard...
Speaking of costumes, there was special "Horror Host" showing of The House on Haunted Hill (1959) on my PBS station, Halloween night. After it was over, they showed this mini documentary on all the officially-sponsered, "family friendly," Halloween celebrations in the area. The first one they covered was at my main local library branch, if you want to see what the inside of my library looks like (the interviews they're conducting are in the adult fiction secton; the other side of that railing they're next to is a long curvy ramp... fun to motor my chair down).
*I do this with a rain poncho, to protect my chair's electronics from the rain. But for this, I'd make it out of cloth -- brown Jersey knit, turned "wrong side out" might have the slightly knobbly texture of dirt, especially if I paint it -- plus side, it could help keep me warm in late-October chill...
