The Making Of The Costume: Doctor Octopus

For the past 3 years, I have put a lot of time and effort to make a kick-ass costume for halloween. Here's a quick recap of my costumes of the past:

Halloween 2002 - The Incredible Hulk


Haloween 2003 - Egon from the Ghostbuster




Haloween 2004 - Optimus Prime




This year, I decided to design a costume that was a little more challenging. And chalenging it was! I decided to dress up as Doctor Octopus (for those who live under a rock he's the villain from Spider Man 2 the movie - as well as all the spiderman comics). Every year, people ask me how I make my costumes. This time I decided to show you:

The materials I started with were a trnch coat I bought at village de valeur, a 16 foot plastic vaccuum tube I bought at reno depot, some cardboard boxes, metal rods and, of course, duct tape.


To attach the arms to a carboard base, I made 4 connectors out of cardboard and duct tape.


I then cut slits in the cardboard base, pushed through the ends of each connector and then taped the whole thing really well. I then attached the base to a girdle my dad used to use for his sore back, which was perfect for it had it's own flexible straps which didn't make my shoulders sore. This is the finished base:


I made four identical hands by just cutting slits in cardboard and folding it.


I cut the plastic tubing into 4 equal lengths and put them through each connector. I also attache de ametal rod to each arm to keep the curved shape, thus preventing them from just flopping around. Then I wrapped each earm in duct tape for that silver effect.


The arms were WAY to long and needed to be cut.


Before adding on the hands, I cut slits in the trench coat and rand the arms through.


I used coat hangers to keep the arms up to avoid them from snapping off the base...


...as well as keeping them close to each other.


Last, I added the hands and wrapped them up in tape to look cool!


The Final Thing!:

In the Navy

I havn't been able to update my blog in a while for I have been busy working! I've only worked at Old Navy for 5 days now but have done so many things. On my first shift, which started at 6am, I spent 2 hours crushing boxes. After my destructiveness I was put on the floor to greet customers. On my second day I got my own name tag. By my third day I was already being trained on the cash. I'd have to say the coolest thing about the job is we get walkie talkie head sets. It makes us feel like cops:

Manager - "There's a man in Men's looking for jeans!"
Me - "Okay! I'm on it!"
Manager - "What's your 20???"
Me - "I'm in Women's!"
Manager - "There's no time! I'm sending Costa!"

All in all, it's a not a bad job. I work between 25 and 30 hours a week. We get two 15 mnute breaks and one 1 hour break for every 8 hour shift we do. The other staff seem like cool people and a few of the chicks are even hotties (and 17...). It's really close to my house (15 minute bus ride) and I finish at 3pm! Maybe I should skip the idea of going back to school and make this job a career!

Ode to Mama

Just a quick rant to say that I have the coolest mother in the world. I just came home from a crazy weekend downtown (will put up a post about it later on this week) since I didnt' come home last night, and I find in my bathroom a note saying "Josh - put your clock back an hour". How THOUGHTFUL is that? You rock Mom!

Get A Haircut and Get A Real Job

After sitting at home on my ass for almost 6 weeks now (except when I'd veture downtown for Improv workshop) I've decided to go out there and find a job. I was hoping to find something fun and exciting. I went looking around the mall near my house and after a few days found somethign for me. I decided to join the Navy. No, not that navy, Old Navy the clothing store. I originally was being concidered for working in their back, sorting clothes but the after having an interview with the general manager, she told me my "skills would be wasted" and I'd be useful on the floor serving customers as well. I start sometime next week. Should be fun.

Older and Wiser or Older and Dumber?

On tuesday I had, probably, the worst Improv experience I've ever had (except that one time I performed and only realized halfway through that I was naked...). We played this game called the Alphabet game where you have two performers and they take turns saying a line, with the letter of each line following the alphabet. Well, apperently I no longer KNOW the alphabet. I skipped a letter, twice... I got laughs though, but not for being funny but for being STUPID.

I most likely just need more practice from not performing for about a year but I just don't want people to start saying "Oh no! Josh is performing again..." and by people I mean other performers (haha). In any case, I think I'm going to sit on the side lines for the next few shoes before I build up my game again!

On the other hand, yesturday was Yom Kippur. This year I didnt' find it that bad. I stopped eating and it felt like the time passed really fast. Every year it feels like my dad drags me to synogogue to pray but this year he was sick the first night and I went myself without being forced. That really made me feel like I've grown up as a person.

Here's some of the music I've ben listening to this week:

The New Pornographer - Twin Cinema - Newest disc from the Canadian supergroup. Great independant happy rock. Highly recommend it.

Thievery Corporation - The Cosmic Game - I've heard a few of their stuff before but this albumis amazing! For great chillout beats with a rastafarian undertone, check out this album. Apperently one of their best. Includes a song with the Flaming Lips.
U.N.K.L.E. - Never Never Land - I've actually had this for a long time but never really listened to it. It's from the late 90's I believe but really cool. It's a dark electronic disc with heavy rock stuff. Hard to explain but if you want your mind to float away and get lost, this is the disc for you.

Smack Dab in the Middle of the Jewish Holidays

For someone who isn't going to school or working, I've been keeping really busy.
Monday I did my brother a favor and went over to his house to help clean his windows. It took me all day but I did a pretty damn good job!

Monday night marked the beginning of Rosh Hashannah, so I rushed home in time to get ready for dinner. My parents and I were invited to my mom's best friend's daughter's house for dinner. I got to see friends of the family that I hadn't seen in a while and the food was SO GOOD!

Tuesday, the first day of the holiday, was spent all morning in synogogue. I then walked back to my house with my brother (since we're not supposed to drive on the high holidays) for a huge lunch my mom made. My uncle and my brother's wife was over as well so it was a nice little family get together. After lunch, I walked with my brother to Centennial Park in D.D.O for Tashlich which is the tradition of throwing your sins away for the new year and it's represented by throwing actual pieces of bread into a body of water. So I'm now sin free!

I walked over to my brother's since it was close by to the lake we were at and ended up getting invited over to his in-laws for dinner. More food! Aren't the holidays great?

Since I was so exhausted from eating and resting all day, I slept in on Wednesday and showed up to synogogue late, but was still there praying for at least a couple of hours. After synogogue had lunch again at home and this time my cousin and her husband and little daughter came over. They moved onto my street while i was away in OZ so it was really convinient for them.

At night I finally got to hang out with a really old friend of mine, Mike Tritt. First time I'd sieen him since I came back. We actually had a great talk about education and where we're headed with our schooling. He brought out a lot of important points when deciding what you'd like to do for the rest of your life. I really think I'm going to love Graphic Design, I just need to find a school.

That being said, thursday was a very productive day. I went downtown to meet with someone from The International Academy of Technology and Design. They are a trade school that offers a 12 month graphic design program plus a 2 month internship. Sounds really good except it's 17000$. I also got a call from Hertzing and found out info about their program which is 10000$. Anyone want to help support a young Jew trying to live his dream of becoming a (the best) Graphic Designer ever? Please e-mail your money to the Budman Fund. Haha. I may need to start standing on the street with a sign begging for money. On the bright side I've found some other schools to look into. Plus I finally got my hands on Photoshop and Illustrator and started messing around with the programs. Anyone got simple logos or posters they need done?

Thursday night ended at my brother's house. HIm, his wife and I watched the Family Guy's new DVD about Stewie. HILARIOUS! If you like that cartoon you will LOVE this movie. Well as a whole, the story isn't that exciting but there are just so many random jokes that just make up for it.

Today, since the weather is CRAP, I spent in my room playing with Illustrator and reading simple tutorials. My mom also helped me bake some cookies for a pot luck I"m going to tomorrow. I was supposed to go out but plans got cancelled so I ended up staying home and playing much needed guitar for over an hour. Afterwards I watched Sahara. What a CRAPPY movie. It's fun and has lots of action but the plot is all over the place and there are so many ridiculous unrealistic situations that occur. For example, Steve Zahn is in a gun fight with someone at the desert while Mathew Mconneway is getting beaten up by a really big bad guy nearby. Steve runs out of bullets and his most logical plan to attack the guy shooting at him is to RUN STRAIGHT FOR HIM! He doesn't get shot and then the guy gets distracted and out of nowhee Steve appears, punches him and get his gun. That's hollywood for ya!

Since I've been home I've been picking up new music (or music new to me). This week I've aquired the new Our Lady Peace album and it's actually not that bad. I really enjoy their new single Where Are You. The rest of the album is OK but if you're an OLP fan you'll most likely like this album. I also picked up the new Audioslave disc, Out of Exile. Now that rocks! It's a great follow up to their first one. Since I had Chris Cornell in my head, I also got Soundgardens greatest hits. I forgot how many good songs they had. I also have on my computer Athlete adn Metric. I havn't really listened to Metric ut I got it for th epurpose of seeing them live which never happened so I never bothered listening that much to it but they pretty good. Athlete, I first heard, when I was in Australia. They for the whole pop-rock british scene. Not too bad. Wires is a great song by them. Finally I have the best of Placebo. There's a bvand I hadn;t heard from in a while! Someone I met in OZ had it and I listened to it and couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Highly recommend it.

What a WEEKEND!

Wow, this has been the first full fledged weekend i've had since I"ve been back in Montreal. Also, today marks exactly ONE year since I left to Australia. I left on Oct. 3rd but it was this same sunday. Brings back memories...

Things kicked off on Friday at 4pm, which was the start of the 2nd annual Chemistry undergraduate/Graduate Pub Crawl. The whole thing cost 15$. This included a wicked T-shirt:





Now you may be wondering why the print on the front is upside down. I wondered the same until I put it on. The text was actually the club crawl itinerary and while wearing it, to find out our next stop, all I had to do was look down. Genius!

Speaking of stops, we traversed most of downtown, starting with Gerts at McGill, followed by a "Mystery" stop which was ACTUALLY a mystery since the organizers never came up wiht a place for that time slot, so we all headed over to Foufoun Electriques. Afterwards was one of my favorite bars, St. Sulpice. This was followed by the Lodge but I had left with my friend Dave to see another friend, Sam, at Bar Des Pins. Once I was done there, I headed over to our final spot, Cafe Campus. Unfortunately they were being retarded and we had to wait an hour to get inso it was back to the Lodge, which in fact was okay with me since I wasn't there earlier. Once there, I danced the night away. The whole experience was fantastic since I got to see a lot fo familiar faces in the grad students and met a lot of new (and some hot) undergraduates. By 2am, I headed over to Melanie and Aya's place, where they let KINDLY let me crash on their couch. For picks on the crawl, click here

Saturday morning I woke up feeling suprisingly great. The couch I slept on was REALLY comfotable and I had no hang over (In Australia, I'd wake up still drunk, so I'm starting to believe the alcohol there IS stronger - crazy Aussies). I had a big day ahead of me, starting with improv. It felt SO GREAT being at a workshop again with all my friends that truley make me laugh. There were even a few new faces which made me happy to see new people interested in laughing and having a great time playing games and just acting silly. This weeks workshop was led by Brian and all the games had to do with description and context in a scene. After improv was our weekly lunch run to the food court underneath Paramount Cinemas where I had a delicious huge portion of shanghai noodles. I waited a whole year to have those again!

After lunch I played a game of ultimate frisbee with some of the improv people. Another thing I hadn't done since I left. I wanted to play while I was in Australia and even found a place where they had a pickup game every week but it was too hard to fit in my work schedule.

At dinner time I met up with my dad and ate at a really good italian restaurant called Da Giovanis. Their specialty is spaghetti. I was so full form my lunch that all I had was a salad. We had to rush our food for at 8pm we tickets for It's a Kind of Magic! - a Queen cover band show. I wasn't really into going but ended up going and once the lights went off and the music started I got right into it. It was actualy AWESOME! They pretended to be the actual band. The guy as Freddie Mercury looked, dressed and acted like the real one. The guy as Brian May wore this crazy 70's looking outfit like the one the real one wears in the Bohemian Rhapsody video. The drummer wore this crazy wig and sun glasses. The only guy who looked like he wanted to shoot himself because he had to play the same songs over and over for the past year was the bassist but it didn't really take away from teh show. They played all of Queens hits like Fat Bottomed Girls, Radio Ga Ga, Killer Queen, One Vision, Save Me, We Are The Champions, We Will Rock You, Bicycle Race, etc. For their encore, the singer says 'Tell you what! Since we love you guys SO much we're going to play ANYTHING you ask to RIGHT NOW'. Everyone starts screaming and then he says 'Ok, here' Bohemian Rhapsody'. It was GIVEN they were going to PLAY thgat song and since they didn't already, I dont understand why he even asked for a sugestion, haha. At the end, they came out for a bow and the singer had a crown and giant cape like the real Freddie Mercury would do and announced their real names. Turns out they were all AUSTRALIAN! It was fun hanging out with my dad; don't get to do that often.

Today, I got woken up to my brother Lorne standing in my room. He was there asking me to go apple picking with him. Next thing I know, I 'm in his car heading down past St. Eustach to all the apple orchards. We went picking for over an hour. The weather was great today. We picked a whole box full of apples. On the way home, we even stopped for ice cream. Then I we made a stop at Reno Depot where my brother needed something for his house. It was the perfect opportunity to buy the supplies I needed for my halloween costume (yes I already thought up a costume).

The weekend was great but tonight I did absolutely nothing! I really need to get my act together and find a job or something. Well thankfully this week is Rosh Hashannah so it buys me a few more days, haha.