Sidewalk Superheroes

Since Zannel was nice enough to gift me a Flip camera to capture superhero life firsthand, I thought I should put it to good use. Otherwise, they might want it back! Unfortunately, I got it just in time for the Oscars to throw all of us off Hollywood Boulevard, but thankfully something else has come up: photoshoots.

While I can’t really film or snap while I’m being snapped, I’ve tried to videotape the in betweens, befores and afters as much as possible to show everyone what it’s really like. Being a superhero isn’t glamorous, as you’ve seen, and now you can see firsthand that being a model isn’t so glamorous either. It does have its moments, though, as you can see from these clips from Wednesday’s Long Beach shoot and Friday’s Los Angeles shoot:

P.S. I posted this video on Zannel before I uploaded it to YouTube, and Zannel does have some added goodies that aren’t on this site. I don’t like to just copy and paste from place to place, and they allow mobile updates, so I send pix messages and texts from the scene that you can’t see here. Just an idea, if you’re really addicted to the superhero life.

Wow. I don’t know if it was just a lucky day, or the planets aligned, or if the rest of the world stalks us, but yesterday was crazy busy and totally made up for the past two weeks’ worth of rain, illness, and crap in general. It was our first time working in, what, a week? And while we didn’t work too long on the boulevard, we had a spokesmodel gig last night as well and there’s just so much to talk about! There’s also loads of pictures, too, and a quick video I took with my new Flip camera:

courtesy of Zannel

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My mum woke me at 7:43 this morning with a phone call. (I told you I wasn’t a morning person.) She said that one of her co-workers in the office was watching channel 5, KTLA, and their morning show had just done a segment on the Hollywood Boulevard characters! I turned on the TV, but the damn digital box is still acting up (oh yeah, so much better when it’s digital — pah!), so I missed it. Apparently, the news crew had been on the street interviewing some characters, she didn’t say which ones, and they had been talking about the violence on the street and the tension between the characters and the rappers. !!! It’s about damn time! She also pointed out that someone specifically mentioned Batgirl and Wonder Woman. Oh?

I admit, I was a lazy bum and went back to bed. Where I had very strange dreams. I guess that’s what comes of reading Thunderball in bed. Anyway, I’m up for good and while I have a lot to do today (including catching Fanboys, heh), I did want to see what else I could find about this. I was hoping for a video clip, but it doesn’t seem that the Morning News section updates their website’s news stories as often as they should. I did a news search on Google for “Hollywood characters,” though, and this article came up. So it was the LA Times that finally woke everyone up. I’m supposed to be getting the Times everyday, but Monday through Wednesday seems to always be missing (stay classy, asshat neighbors!), so I don’t know exactly where in the print edition this story would be. But the URL says ‘print edition,’ so loads of people are going to know what the rappers are doing both online and in the rest of the world. I say good. It’s about damn time. And I’m sure the Times reporter even talked to the guy in charge of calling in his dogs to do the attacks! He’s always there, and he usually gets interviewed for things, and I’m sure he’d deny it until his teeth fell out. (Ew, I just remembered, that was my weird dream this morning. I was watching in the mirror as my teeth turned brown and decayed into nothing. Hideous.) So stupid. But because he technically doesn’t throw the punches or get the kicks in, he’s innocent — in his own eyes. I say he’s guilty as hell, because if it wasn’t for him and his “nephews,” none of this would have happened.

Bat A is quoted in the article, which makes me wonder if he was the one who finally got through to the press. I know he’s been adamant about getting attention drawn to this so someone somewhere would stop it, so I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s just sad that one of the female characters interviewed said that she was targeted for calling for help after an especially vicious beating. Seriously, assholes? You’re going to beat up a smaller woman for calling an ambulance? This is why we don’t have good Samaritans anymore! If they’re really that petty and stupid, then they deserve all the prison time they will certainly get, and a good daily ass-raping besides.

P.S. In the Times’s picture, it’s Cheetah Girl (that’s my favourite costume of hers), a Tinkerbell I’ve never seen before, and Bat M. I can tell because he’s always talking.

Later: I haven’t been home all day, but I’ve finally found the video for KTLA’s morning segment:

The LA Times article is also in the Top 10 Most Viewed Articles! Channel 4, NBC’s 5 o’clock news, just did a segment as well. It looks like all the major networks will be talking about this all day today, which is good! Channel 4 actually showed the ringleader, the rapper who calls up the thugs to do the beatings. They actually have a few videos up, including the YouTube clip that started it all, so click here to see it all. They interview Captain Spiderman, Superman, and channel 5 interviews Homeless Jack. Ick. That poor woman. In the background of channel 4’s videos you can see Dollhouse Guy, Dutch Marilyn, and Charlie Chaplin. Now you can see who we hobnob with!

I swear, LA hates me. It only seems to rain on the weekends now, in the slow season, when all my bills are due, my bank account’s overdrawn, and when the only time worth working is on the weekends. Don’t worry LA, I hate you too. Tell your friends. I have been looking for other work on Craigslist, but the pickings are slim, to say the least, and most of the jobs are unpaid intern positions. Right, exactly what I need.

Meh. Anyway, I guess because I haven’t been around this weekend, standing around in the rain like an idiot, Old Boyfriend decided to give me a call yesterday. I was over at my sister’s and my nephew was having a rare cuddly day (he’s usually ridiculously hyperactive), so I wasn’t going to dump him off my lap just to answer my phone. When I did check, I saw that it was OB, leaving his usual message:

“Hi [Batgirl], this is [Old Boyfriend]. Uh, call me back when you get this message. [818] 266-6786. Again, it’s [Old Boyfriend], and my number is [818] 266-6786. Talk to you later.”

Oh, you thought I made a mistake when I posted the number? Nay nay, my friends! I promised that if he kept calling, I would post it all over the Internet and encourage people to harass him so he’d know what it felt like. So have at it. I guess the next time I see him — and really, I never do; I guess he can only lurk and hide and pop out at the most inopportune times like a true stalker — I’ll have to spell it out. I’m not interested, never have been, never will be, and if he calls again he will regret it. I’m sure my dad’s still itching to tear OB a new one, and now that you have his number, you have my permission to call him late at night or early in the morning, do the whole heavy breathing bit, and just make him uncomfortable and miserable in general.

I wouldn’t have this problem if Verizon weren’t such a dick and would let me block numbers. I finally found the block/unblock menu and put his number in, but “no response received” kept coming up. WTF?

It’s 12:03 AM, so I’m technically writing about yesterday. But I’m a night owl, and I don’t consider the next day to have started until the sun’s coming up, so I’m going to be referring to the events of February 2nd as “today.” Just so we’re clear, because I am weird. In case you hadn’t noticed that a woman blogging as Batgirl and Padmé Amidala working on Hollywood Boulevard was less than normal.

Anyway, Wonder Cat and I decided sort of at the last minute on Sunday evening to work the next morning. I was actually hoping that I could have worked sometime on Sunday, though I knew it was going to suck because everyone would be watching the StuporBowl (TM me), but I don’t go out there alone, so there’s that. We get to Hollywood & Highland at around 10:30, and as we’re crossing Hollywood Boulevard on Highland, we notice that half the street is closed. Something’s going on, we just don’t know what.
“Ooh, maybe it’ll help us,” Wonder Cat hopes.
“We need it!”
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It’s still slooooooow going on the boulevard, and don’t let anyone tell you differently. We went to the Joker’s birthday party last night, and while I only had one weak mojito, I hate rum and I’m still burping it up. It’s disgusting. I blame it for my mind being stupid today, even though I did have quite a lot of Jack Daniel’s last night. At least seven shots? Quite a lot. And rum cake. Anyway, you already know that after I drink I’m stupid for a day, and my memory’s not so great, so I’ll try to remember any good bits that may have happened.

I don’t think I worked Friday. Did I? My dad had surgery for his cancer on Wednesday so I spent a couple of days hanging out with him, which sort of threw me off time-wise. We spent a lot of time watching movies on cable and talked about going to China, I remember that. Oh wait, we did work Friday. Today’s Sunday. Sorry. To make up for the swiss cheese memory, here’s the best picture ever:

the DC universe

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Glasses make people look smarter.

A glimpse of what is to come…

Just what the world needs....

Yesterday and today, Old Boyfriend has called at 9 AM and again at 11. Doesn’t he have a job? Something else to do besides harass young ladies who are old/young enough to be his granddaughter? Maybe I’m just sick of American men (okay, I am), but what is it with these losers that keep popping up? Why is it that our men refuse to grow up and get decent jobs and support themselves and be, well, men? I do believe in trying to fulfill your dreams and keeping the magic and youth alive, but there also comes a point where you have to start being an adult and balancing your life with taking care of yourself, paying your bills, and just growing and being an adult in general. The guys I’ve met just can’t seem to get this.

Anyway, I was still in bed at 9, so I didn’t get the phone, but I knew it was him. No one else calls me on Sunday mornings because I’m either asleep or doing other things that don’t warrant interruption. Just now I was on the computer doing stuff and the phone rang again, and by simply looking at the clock I knew who it was. I was beginning to think that if I still didn’t answer, he was going to start calling every hour. So I picked up the phone and stepped into the kitchen (because I was blasting Abba in the other room — oh shut up), pressed the talk button and just growled, “You need to stop calling me.” And hung up. No room for argument. It’s my phone, my life he’s interrupting and disrupting, so I have every right to just say those few words and hang up. Thankfully, he didn’t call back, but I would have just ignored it anyway.

This throws a wrench into my plans, though. It’s not raining, and the clouds actually appear to be breaking up for what might be a lovely but cold Sunday afternoon. A little break before the rain comes back tomorrow. I was going to go in and work a bit by myself, but because he just keeps calling, I can’t. I know he’s calling because I haven’t been out for over a week, because the incessant calls started after last weekend, my last time out there. I don’t know if he works Sunday, I actually have no idea what his schedule is, so I don’t know what days are safe. Yes, I could just sneak out and hang around some of the guys I know, but I also need to be making a certain amount of money to be worth my while, and there’s still the walk back to the car alone. He’s accosted me before during that short solo walk, so even that’s too much of a risk. So . . . *sigh* I guess I’ll just have to wait until next weekend, when Catwoman’s available for carpooling and the weather’s a bit better.

Dammit.

I don’t like to be serious very often, especially on here, because life is just too short and too strange to take everything seriously. But there are some things worth putting on a straight face for, and this is one of them.

Ladies, stalkers are not cute. They’re not charming, they’re not endearing, they’re never your soulmate or even a good date. They’re not what TV and most Lifetime movies make them out to be: adorable, slightly geeky guys who are just too shy to woo you straight up. In real life, they’re always socially retarded creeps who have never had a date, let alone any sort of sexual contact with a woman, and think that by following you everywhere, calling every day, eavesdropping on your conversations and just assuming they’re the perfect man for you, that they are in fact “nice guy”s and just misunderstood. They usually have hygiene problems, social problems, and mental problems, and once you’ve had to stop being nice and tell them no firmly, they turn against you in nearly violent ways. It’s a nightmare. If you can, just cut them off the second they first approach you, and save yourself a lot of headaches. America’s stalker laws, especially involving cyberstalking, are woefully inadequate and at least 15 years behind the times, and won’t protect you. (Trust me on this: I’ve had to contact law enforcement about this, and it’s a tangle of state jurisdictions and IP servers’ whimsy.)

I’m giving you this warning and telling you to just not deal with these freakazoids in the first place because I’ve been there too often and I’m tired of it. I try to be nice to everyone, even the weird ones, and it always bites me in the ass. You can always tell the ones who get too attached, so just calmly disentangle yourself from any and all contact with them and consider yourself lucky.

Old Boyfriend has called every day now, and while I never answer because I don’t want to do that crap over the phone, I’ve had it. I have never given him any encouragement, never given him any reason to even start to think that yeah, I’d like a relationship with a guy at least ten years older than my father, and even now, most guys start thinking, “Okay, I’ve called four days in a row and she’s never answered or called me back. That must mean something.” As in, she’s not interested. But now I’m going to have to watch my back and not be alone the next time I do work, because the creeps always have a way of hiding until you’re alone or cornered and then getting belligerent when you tell them that they’re freaking you out and being too pushy.

And then there’s the added awkwardness of still being around each other because he works there and I work around there. Yes, I can just stay away from the Chinese Theatre for a bit, but there’s no invisible tether tying him to that spot. He can follow me around and yell insults all day if he wants, and as long as he stays on the public half of the sidewalk, I can’t really do much. If he does it on the clock and a supervisor catches him, sure, he could get reprimanded, but having some chick in a Batgirl costume complaining about an unbalanced guy isn’t exactly the best built-in defense. All of the drivers like us and most have talked to me and like me, but that may not have enough sway. And do I really have to get a guy fired to have some safety and peace? He’s done this to other female characters, but that doesn’t make me feel any better

See what a headache this becomes if you try to be nice and not hurt feelings? All it takes is one clueless fucktard to ruin it for everyone.

1/24/09 – And ladies, any guy you don’t know who calls you before 9 AM on a Saturday morning is not your friend and is also an inconsiderate jackass. Unless someone you know is on fire and he took it upon himself to call you, cut that mofo off at the knees. I just found out that my service provider, Verizon, doesn’t let you block numbers, which is beyond stupid. I’d love to just turn my phone off for a bit and shoot him straight to voicemail, but my sister is having a baby any time now and I’ll be damned if I’m going to miss that call because of this jackass. If it keeps raining and I can’t go in at all this weekend, then the next time he calls, I’m just going to yell “Quit calling me!” and hang up. I still don’t want an ugly confrontation over the phone, but seriously, this is unacceptable. If I have to take the sleazy way and tell him off over the phone (which, seriously, is a cop out, almost on par with dumping someone in an email, or through MySpace. Don’t do it if you want to have any class whatsoever), I will, but creeps like that tend to have the message stick a little better when they see your angry face and some of your good friends standing discreetly in the background, cracking their knuckles. You get me?

I miss the boulevard. The weather hasn’t been that great this week… chilly and/or rainy, so we won’t be back on the street until next week, I’m afraid. Which stinks because I kinda went on a shopping spree yesterday. :-/ I’m a girl, what can I say. There’s a reason I don’t go out to the mall. One thing leads to another. You don’t want to hear about my shopping trip. Needless to say, I spent more than I should have and rationalized it in the way that girls can… “I got it all for basically the price of this ONE dress at it’s retail price, I’m definitely going to wear it, I need to look my best on auditions and when I go out… etc…. etc….” What’s wrong with me?! Anyway, here are a few pictures to hold you over until we have more news. 😀

Batgirl, Superman, and Michael Jackson....

Hey, what's going on back there?

I’m sorry, I really couldn’t decide which photo I liked better! hehehehe… Batgirl, the look on your face…..

Aww... they were such a great couple...

Good times, right, Batgirl? Good times… 😛 I don’t remember if I posted this one here or not, but here it is (again). Hehe. This was our first meeting with Gollum. Oddly enough we had just been talking about how cool it would be if someone did Gollum on the boulevard the day before. Aren’t we a handsome couple?

My precious!