Yesterday was my first day out on the boulevard in a while, and my first time out sans Catwoman since Christmas. I had planned on toughing it out and staying for quite a bit, until business died or my nose turned blue from the cold, whichever came first. But my sister needed help with the kids and I wanted to see my brother-in-law for his birthday, so what follows is just what happened in two short hours:


I did a quick drive by first, to make sure people I trusted were out. Super Guy was there, as I’d expected, but I also saw Vader and Storm Trooper! I can’t remember the last time I’d seen them, it seemed so long ago. So I parked, changed in the car, and headed on up. I have to say, facing the blatant, rude stares of slack-jawed tourists and cynical locals waiting for the elevator and the ride up seems more intimidating when you’re the only dressed up dork around. I’m working on not caring what the masses think of me (especially because the masses are almost always dead wrong about everything), but I also don’t like feeling cornered.

Anyway, I survived the ride up 4 floors and made my way into a pretty, sunny Friday afternoon. I never made it up to the Chinese Theatre to see who else was around, I just got stuck on hanging out with Vader, Storm Trooper and occassionally Super Guy. Super’s girlfriend has started doing Batgirl as well (the skirted version that Bat Beggar does), so for obvious reasons we don’t really hover close to each other. Though many morons passing by think I’m Catwoman with or without the mask, so whatever. It’s not my fault they’re stupid and can’t manage to see the yellow boots, yellow and black cape and oh, the BIG YELLOW BAT on my chest.

Business was starting to drop off a bit by the time I finally made it out, as the tourists usually go to lunch between 1 and 3 in the afternoon, but it still wasn’t bad. Some people even liked having Batgirl with Storm Trooper and/or Vader, and hey, I’m happy to oblige. I even had one lady insist on a picture of just the two of us, I guess she was a really big Batgirl fan. Aww! That hardly ever happens. She gets skipped over even more than Robin. I’m actually getting a little tired of Batgirl always being thrown to the curb and forgotten (it deflates the ego, even though I’m not really her). And she was at least useful! She drove a freaking motorcycle when women didn’t really do that sort of thing! And she was a librarian by day, which is double the cool. That’s a highly specialized, well-paying job. But enough geeking out.

Since we hadn’t seen each other in so long, there was a lot of catching up to do with Vader and Storm Trooper. ST went first and had some good gossip about himself and the guy who does Gene Simmons out on the boulevard, the one we just call Kiss. When he’s not working and doing the trooper thing, ST is also in a Kiss tribute band and he plays Gene Simmons. He’s worked with the real Gene before and has the most authentic accessories possible, so of course he doesn’t really like boulevard Kiss. They’ve traded barbs in the past, apparently, but the other week ST had some friends in town and he took them down to the boulevard. He said Kiss started talking shit about his band, and they got in a huge verbal fight right there on the street that nearly came to blows. After that Kiss tried to take out a restraining order on Storm Trooper (!!!) and they had to go to court and everything. I’m glad he didn’t mind the fact that I was giggling hysterically throughout all this, because it’s just all too absurd. The petition was thrown out, but ST didn’t want to end it there. The next time he went to the boulevard, he came out in his Gene Simmons gear. The gauntlet had been thrown. Old Kiss gave up and went home, and the next day he came out as the Flash, something no one had ever seen him in. Storm Trooper was pleased with himself and the fact that he’d “broken” Kiss. He’s actually going out again today as Gene, if anyone’s in the neighborhood and curious to see him in his gear.

ST also told me that Elmo and Big Bird’s cease and desist is actually permanent, not one month as Denim had told us. Elmo’s been coming out as a hobbled together Tigger since then, and when I was leaving H&H later on, I finally figured out why the Sesame Street characters got their papers. You’ll just have to watch the video to find out why. 🙂

After a while I talked to Vader, and he’s just been working a lot with his own business. Even in a recession people need house repairs done, so besides flooring he can also do pretty much any sort of handyman work, which keeps him going strong. I told him about being electrocuted by the garbage disposal recently (not fun), and he laughed. Not in a mean way, but in a “yeah, that doesn’t phase me” way. Then he started his shit talking, which I missed so much! They’re both hilarious on their running commentary, but Vader especially kills me. Most of the time in the video when I’m laughing, it’s because of the things he says. He also talked about a new girl, some chick that does Lara Croft and hangs around Super Guy’s girlfriend (gotta think of a name for her) and Tinkerbell. I don’t know who she’s friends with or if she just came out on her own and made friends, but we’ve never really talked. If she’s with Tink and her friends, then that means she doesn’t like me. Tink is with Team Sexy Cop, and they’re all Batgirl haters (because of things I didn’t know about, and they all hated without even saying a word to me or trying to be, you know, adults about the situation, so fuck ’em. High school’s over, guys), so I doubt I’ll be talking to her anytime soon. Anyway, Lara asked to borrow Vader’s white Leia outfit and work with them, but all she did was talk on her phone and go off for smokes the whole day (and why would you smoke wearing someone else’s clothes? That’s not nice), then complained that she didn’t make any money. He said she wasn’t any good, and she’s asking to borrow his slave Leia costume now but he won’t let her because he wants quality people around him. I guess that makes me feel a little better, knowing they let me work with them. 🙂

Dollhouse Guy also made a few appearances throughout the day, being his usual weird self. He was in a good mood and harmless, so I got some laughs from him and some good video. There’s also a new character out! Yet another store bought, no thought costume (or a crack character, as Vader calls the store boughts), so he/she may not last long. Since the video is kind of grainy — when will they make a decent digital zoom? — I’ll just tell you that it’s Stewie Griffin with a creepy window in his forehead, and his arse hanging out of his overalls. It’s weird. Balloon Princess also stopped by to chat with Vader and Trooper, and she’s a bag of crazy. I was right there, half hearing most of the conversation, and I really don’t know what she was talking about. From Vader I head that she’s saving up money to go to a balloon sculpting academy in Europe, but I honestly don’t know if he was joking, she was joking, or if someone somewhere is more than a little crazy. She talks a lot, I do know that, and she doesn’t always make sense. I wanted to get her on video, too, but I don’t know how she would react to being filmed. You can never really tell with the people out there.

Hmm, trying to see if I’ve forgotten anything . . . like I said, I wasn’t out for very long at all, but the crowds were pretty good and while there were a ton of characters out, everyone at least seemed to be in a good mood. Jerri Blank stopped by to say hi and talk with Vader and ST about some video she’d made with them, right after Trooper was starting to complain about how crazy she was again. I didn’t really get to talk to her besides saying hi and asking how she’d been, but she said that during weekdays the boulevard was still slow. Eh. :/ Well, at least we have a lot of other options opening up to us now.

Speaking of options, the Mystery Costume is finally starting to come together! I’ve ordered nearly all the rough materials and even some boots last night, and once everything gets here I’ll just have to do some hacking, loads of sewing, and buy some notions to finish it off. I’m aiming to have it done and ready to debut before April begins. I think Batgirl needs a break, anyway. Maybe if she goes MIA for a bit, people will begin to miss her, maybe even appreciate her.

And finally, the much talked about video: