Sidewalk Superheroes

There are a lot of articles and videos out there this week on the Blvd crackdown. I don’t even know what to say about this except it makes me livid. What’s wrong with simply requiring a permit? But no, the LAPD decided to just go and arrest people for standing on Hollywood Blvd in costume.

I know there are some characters who are pushy. I know that. But the regulars are very polite. It seems to me that the tourists are the ones that are not playing by the rules though. I’ve kept in touch with some characters, after Batgirl and I quit the Blvd, and it seemed to me like people were just not tipping anymore. We didn’t make much. Plenty of people decided to pose for photos and then not give us anything. Nothing we could do about it, but it sure doesn’t feel good giving a service and not being appreciated. You tip your waiter, don’t you? People need a little lesson in tipping. We’re not in France. Well, I am, but YOU aren’t! What is wrong with America…?

So, sorry tourists, you won’t be getting a warm welcome to Hollywood from any of your favourite superheroes anymore, unless you complain a lot to somebody high up. Oh, funny thing is… no one is taking responsibility for this decision, either. Nobody knows where the order came from….

Comics Alliance

NBC Not Even Batman Gets a Pass

Dress up – Go to jail

As you know by now, neither Catwoman nor I have been to the boulevard in quite a while. The tips were sucking, it wasn’t worth the drama and harassment, and then other things came up. I’ve seen the boulevard and the characters come up a few time in the news since then, and it’s never good. Here’s the latest: one of the four guys playing Spiderman was arrested yesterday after hitting someone, and it turns out he was wanted on outstanding warrants. When you’re on the run from the law it’s usually a good idea to, you know, not do things that involve law enforcement coming to interview you. Just a suggestion.

Other than that, we’ll probably have some new pictures to share soon, but that’s about it. I’m busy with school and we’re both busy trying to escape the quagmire that is the failed state of California, so who knows where you’ll see us next?

Hello! Miss us much? Well, I hope you’re all fans of Audrey Hepburn, because that’s our new gig. After making a depressing amount of money on the boulevard as superheroes, we thought “It couldn’t be any worse” as Holly Golightly, and much more comfortable… so we donned our dark sunglasses and hit the street. Alas, we made about $2 in tips, once more, BUT we had our back-up plan. We sat down and negotiated with Café Audrey and got a little part-time gig going around to local hotels with pocket-sized menus, in costume, and earning a little extra money. It’s not enough to retire on, but at least we’ll be making friends with the concierges, and be able to wear sunglasses in the summertime. Better than nothing.

How do I look?

When I get the mean reds...

And a little bit of video…

I know I just said I’d probably never work the boulevard again, but here I am, asking if anyone I know is working tomorrow and Saturday. (Sunday it’s supposed to rain.) Catwoman’s always doing other things now and I need a work buddy to hang around because I hate being out alone (and for safety’s sake). Plus, I just need some cash. 😉 So if any of you that read this are going to be out, drop me a note! You can either leave a comment or email me through the site, either way I’ll get it.

P.S. Catwoman’s been in contact with that god-awful band that stiffed us last weekend, so I’ll let her write about all that’s been happening in that area. I’m also expecting to get a picture CD by the weekend, so I could maybe slip a few shots up here so you know what we’ve been up to.

Yesterday . . . *sigh* As far as I’m concerned, yesterday was my last day on Hollywood Boulevard. The day started out good enough: it was a cool Sunday afternoon with good crowds. There were a lot of people out, but everyone seemed in a good mood. Loads of characters, a lot of them new, but Catwoman and I were doing good business. $15 for the first hour, and that’s including a couple of stiffs. It looked to be a good day. If you read my last entry, then you’ll remember Storm Trooper’s Kiss feud with the old Kiss guy, and you’ll be as pleased as I was to see this:

rock n' roll all night

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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:

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Yesterday Catwoman and I had yet another photoshoot, and we should have our pictures shortly. I think they’ll be really good. 🙂 I only got to see a couple on the camera’s playback screen when we were trying to perfect some tricky shots (and now my shins hurt!), but they looked good so far and I’ll be picking up the picture disc in a day or two.

Today I’ll probably be hitting the boulevard by myself and working with Super Guy, so maybe I can get some interesting stories to put up here. Tomorrow we may have another photoshoot, so it’s been busy lately!

Anyway, today I also received word that one of my photographs from the early boulevard days has been chosen as the official Hollywood & Vine representation on Schmap!! It’s a downloadable guide to Los Angeles with lots of text information and snapshots of all the cool areas, and mine represents one of the most famous intersections. Heh heh, I feel so cool right now. Anyway, if you’d like to see it, here it is. If you’re surfing on an iPhone you get a special link here, and I even get a cool little blog widget if I’d like. Hooray! I’m a published photographer now! Of sorts. 🙂

represent!

You know, I was all set to launch a long diatribe on how hard times are, how living hand to mouth sucks so hard and how honest people who want to work can’t, but then I saw this and decided to leave it at that:

seriously

That perfectly sums up yesterday.

It was a Friday afternoon, and it had been sunny all day, though some threatening clouds were blowing in from the east:

there's gonna be a storm

Last Friday had been pretty good, so we had high hopes for yesterday. I mean, the weather was warming up, we were just coming out of a good, drenching rain, and people are going to be on Spring Break pretty soon. It would be good, right?

Eh, no. In the two hours we stuck around, we were only asked for three pictures. I stress “asked” because there were snipers galore, of course. The boulevard was crowded and everyone was armed with cameras, but everyone just wanted to stand there and snap away and expected us to just sit there like pieces of paper. One of us would say, “Please ask for a picture,” or “We pose for tips,” only to get laughed at. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that was the punchline to a joke I don’t know. I was starting to get so mad I actually wanted to hit someone. After one woman laughed at Catwoman for saying “We do pose for tips, you know,” the lady snapped her picture of us turning away, shooting dirty looks (yeah, great picture! Be sure to get it framed, you daft bint) and I yelled as she walked away, “I’m not a cardboard cut-out!” Then I muttered about being objectified and tried not to do something that would get me arrested, because the cops were out.

What’s worse, we had to stand around and watch all the beggars get business. Wonder Wig, now letting her hair down under her cat mask (even though no modern Catwoman wears her hair down, only the 60s Catwoman that no one but me seems to like) with her same hobbled together costume, was doing great.
“Maybe we shouldn’t try so hard,” Catwoman mused.
“Shit, maybe,” I said. “Apparently quality costumes and staying in character translates to ‘I don’t need money!'”
“Seriously.”
“Maybe I’ll just start coming out with store bought costumes and talk to myself. Look homeless and pathetic, then I’ll do good.”
No one was interested in us. Skintight PVC costumes, pretty faces, nice hair, and yet you go for the 40somethings in six year old outfits who look like they sleep in their costumes (like Homeless Jack). I really don’t get you people.

Super Guy was out when we appeared and said that Superman had been out earlier harassing him. Bat M was hovering about, out of costume, and I don’t know for sure, but I think he’s also trying to start shit. He’s old friends with Superman (they love smoking around all of Superman’s collectibles), but would egg Super Guy on to say something against Superman. The most he would say, though, is that he’s standing his ground and if Superman tries to get violent or gets someone else to do the dirty work, he’s going to fight back.
Some guy also came up to us when we were talking and dodging snipers and mentioned the rapper-character violence that had been on the news.
“Oh, that’s all Bat A’s fault,” Bat M said yet again.
“Swear to god, I’m going to hit you,” I said, and turned away. I already have enough enemies out there because I stumbled into something I knew nothing about (Davy, Sexy Cop, and all their friends), so I’d rather not make any more, but damn. I’m suddenly very tired of all this.

So yeah, crap all around. I’m still looking for a “real” job, but if you pay attention to the world around you, then you know it’s pretty much pissing up a rope at this point. But all I can do is try.

I also keep forgetting two pieces of news I got from a drunk Denim on our night out, so here they are:

1. The ringleader rapper and one other rapper went to jail for two days! They were already out again by the time we got the news, and now I’m afraid they’re madder than ever. Yesterday there was a whole slew of new rappers slinging their shit, and these guys are a lot more vocal. I predict a lot more problems, honestly. One guy wasn’t so bad, he just demanded I smile every time I walked past him, but another guy kept asking for Catwoman’s number and seemed really pushy, to the point that he’d start something at any moment. I’m kind of glad Bat A’s still away, because I know these new guys would give him problems and he’d ask the guys to leave the ladies alone. He doesn’t need more problems right now.
2. Elmo and Big Bird got served by Disney! Apparently they were served with papers a little while ago and can’t do their characters for at least a month, if Denim’s info is correct. I think Big Bird is out as Snoopy right now. But anyway, I guess Disney is doing something with Sesame Street, or is going to, and they didn’t want any SS characters out there during that time. I don’t know the details, I’m just sharing what I know.

And, for good measure, a video I made on the way home:

Funny, I just uploaded that video, and when I went to get the embed code, this video showed up on the sidebar:

It was made a year ago, way before us, but all the old familiar faces are there.

Last video, I swear: How Superheroes Spend Their Day Off

Well hey, it’s about time I showed up again. I’ve been busy trying to figure out how to pull of the Mystery Costume perfectly, so that means a lot of time researching on the Internet, looking up patterns and figuring out how to take from them and modify to make my own patterns (because I never got a degree in Fashion & Design, just took the courses), and shopping around for bulk PVC. I think I have a source.

Anyway, after the worst month ever, February, it feels good to be getting back into the swing of things. Last Thursday and Friday Catwoman and I went out to the boulevard to work, and a lot happened in the relatively short time we were there.
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Well, we’ve finally made it back out to the boulevard, now that the rain and Oscar-craziness is over. I still want to hear Batgirl’s version of this week’s adventures, but I figured since I just don’t write much, I’d say a little something.

I got word on Wednesday that Captain Jack Sparrow was back in town. so I bounced up and down a little, and then I told him we’d be there the next day. Not because he was there, we had already planned to be there. But we caught up with Jack a bit, admired his new hand-made hat (if you want a Jack Sparrow hat, let me know, I’ll hook you up. He can also get you some gold teeth to complete your look, if you’re serious about it).

That day, we EACH got a $20 tip froma generous tourist. Woohoo! It’s nice to be appreciated. And then later in the evening, the three of us went to enjoy drinks with the Zannel.com crowd. It was interesting to meet some of these people in person. We got some of the cookie guy’s cookies, and the Captain enjoyed a lot of rum.

Fast forward to Friday, Batgirl and I decided to try the evening shift. We met on the boulevard, but I arrived first. The first thing to catch my eye was – a really buff Superman! Immediately I knew this wasn’t Chris. So after walking up and down the boulevard to see if the Captain or Batgirl were around yet, I came back and introduced myself. Turns out he’s a really, really, super-nice guy. (Get it? Super?) We hung out with him, and earned a decent amount for the what, hour and a half we stayed? lol. It gets cold in PVC! And spandex. Superman left before us, but he’d been out for a while. Gosh. We need to think of a nickname for him now… Before he left, we did take some photos with him. He also got a group photo with us and the Jokers, and promised to email it at some point. I look forward to seeing him again. 😀