Yancy & Matthias fight over Ellowyne Wilde -- no ennui for that girl when the boys are around!
If you let them in, ball-jointed dolls creep into your consciousness. Like drugs, the collecting urge slowly takes over ... and you find yourself with a houseful of resin or vinyl dolls -- and they have a better wardrobe than you!! Worse, they look better in the most outrageous outfits than anyone -- with the exception of drag queens.
Maybe BJDs are more like vampires ... They put the bite on you (or your wallet) until, little by little, you become their thrall. (I may be mixing the vampire motifs here, but a true paranormal fan can follow the thread.) With the Internet opening the markets for clothes and wigs, you can have a closetful of doll shoes and outfits -- with the accessories to complement them -- before you know it.
So, what about Ellowyne Wilde? She's the vinyl girl in the middle -- sculpted by Robert Tonner, she's part of his BJD line (more or less). This doll line has expanded to include several versions of Ellowyne; her BFF Prudence Moody; her handyman/swain Rufus; and her arch-rival Amber. The outfits are beautifully detailed ... but the Tonner Company has written such an extensive back story for EW and the crew that all a fan can do is ... collect. I suppose you could create your own EW stories, but it would have to fit the "canon," to use fan-speak. By giving specific parameters of what Ellowyne thinks and feels, Tonner has limited collector input ... I might be wrong, but I don't see EW fans creating the bizarre fun that the BJD ladies do. We have all sorts of mini-dramas of who is "in love" with whom ... All in good fun, and none of it taken seriously. Plus, EW is all about her "ennui" -- with all those clothes, she ought to get more fun out of life! I was hoping the "evil Amber," her theatrical rival, might respark my interest in the line, but she looks too much like Ellowyne ... maybe if they do a "wigged out" Amber, I might get the doll ... or I might get a new friend for Colette. I did like the "Sushi for One" Ellowyne, with her black hair done in the Sailor Moon pigtails. That limited edition finally sold out; I think it took longer than the others because it didn't fit the standard EW look ... which is probably why I like it the best.
Back in the day (as my students say), fanzines had the nickname of "drug of choice" for many female fans; however, the Internet has ended most traditional fanzines. You might never have seen one -- a doushinji comes closest (if you're a manga/anime fan) with art and stories based on a TV or movie ... Fanfiction.net carries many stories; however, since there's seldom editing, the reader has to wade through a lot of muck before she (fan writers and readers are mostly female) stumbles upon a gem ... That sounds a lot like panning for gold, doesn't it? As one of the "Shady Ladies," I wrote and edited several fanzines based on Beauty & the Beast (ah, Vincent!), Night Court, The Real Ghostbusters, as well as Sailor Moon. You might find some of them on-line ... I know that Sheila Paulsen keeps her work available.
For many of my students, anime and manga eat up their cash ... although many of them haunt the free manga sites on the Internet. They're in for a major disappointment this fall because the Japanese publishers and American companies have forced several sites to shut down ... well, just because the material can be scanned, doesn't mean that the creators want readers to have free access ... As a writer myself, I sympathize; my only problem is that I'm not sure what series I'd like to purchase -- and unless I can visit panels during the cons (which I can't since I work behind a table), I'm reluctant to pay out $10 a manga ... So far, Joy and I found some winners; according to the panel at San Diego Comi-Con, two of our favorites made the "best" manga list: Cat Paradise, a horror series set at a private school; and Chi's Sweet Home, the slice-of-life story of a little lost kitten in his new home. Within reason, I pass along my manga to Sunset's library; however, the manga I'd like the library to own -- and the school and personal budget -- make it hard to expand the collection quickly ... The manga get checked out, but they don't always return ...
Today is Joy's birthday, so we shall eat Greek and go to Wal-Mart ...
Dance quote: “There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.”
- Vicki Baum
No comments:
Post a Comment