Sidewalk Superheroes

From what, April? I realized that this footage kind of got neglected, so here it is! Just a few minutes of behind-the-scenes action at one of our last joint photoshoots. Now we’re supermodels, modeling independently, and you’ll have to pay us a lot if you want to shoot with us. 😀

Or Europe, anyway. Whichever.

So, as you have no doubt learned from Catwoman, we ran off to Europe for a bit. Mainly Paris — technically it’s research for a screenplay — with a quick jaunt to Berlin for Audrey Hepburn business. While it sounded like work it was all fun, I’ll be honest with you. My time in Paris was nothing but amazing memories — until I tried to leave, but that’s a different story. Anyway, I hobbled together a video diary of sorts, if you’re interested in that sort of thing. If you didn’t already know, I’ve started a vlog (hate that word) about fumbling through life when you lose your job in a recession and not being able to find another called Simple Twist of Fate. Actually, it’s just about my life after I lost my job, etc, because I feel a bit Holly Golightly as described by Paul Varjak right now: “She’s a girl who can’t help anyone, not even herself.” But maybe by sharing my experiences I can help other people in similar situations. If not, then it’s always good for a laugh, right? 🙂

So there’s that. You may start at the very beginning, which is just a dull sort of walkthrough on where my life was when I started this at the beginning of April, or just skip around my videos, or watch part One (of many) on the trip and see if you like it:

Still on the fence? I’ll give you some teasers: I climbed the Eiffel Tower, met JARVIS COCKER (and more), was a tourist attraction on the Seine, and was a total guy magnet. There’s more, but you’ll just have to see for yourself what else I could cram into two short weeks.

jeune fille

So . . . this trip changed my life. Of course! Isn’t that why we travel and wander foreign lands, to expand our minds and change our world view? Or, as Mark Twain put it: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.” But after living there for two weeks, mastering the Metro on my own with très peu French and a pocket map of the city and having Jarvis, who’s lived in France for six years, ask me how to say things in French when I’d lived there a week, I think I know what I’m going to do next. Batgirl is going back to school! I’m going for a degree in French this time (at this point, struggling the rest of my life to school in psychology just seems a waste, as much as I loved it back in the day), so I can live in Paris with a job and a legal reason to stay, and so I can maybe teach Jarvis some decent French. Seriously, it’s bad. Watch Episode 4 Part 4 if you don’t believe me. Oh, and if you’re a fan of the man or Pulp please check out all my videos, I put up quite a lot of him. I had a good two days with him.

Jarvis & me

There’s some pictures up on my Flickr account as well, though they’re pretty much just the Jarvis ones since people were clamoring for them. I’m still going through all of my other pictures and fixing them up (it was almost constantly overcast, which means adjusting the light for nearly all the outdoor pictures), and there’s also probably 4 GB worth of pictures to sort through. I am a documenting machine! But I’ll drop a note when I am done posting all of the other pictures so you can see what I saw, and also when I post the last video of my trip. I’ve put off doing it because it’s just one more reminder that I’m not in Paris anymore. 🙁 I know it’s only temporary, but I still hate seeing good times end. It’s why I didn’t want to unpack for a week and why I was dragging my feet sorting through the pictures.

Okay, that’s all for now. Are we caught up now? 🙂

Oh, forgot something! When I got back we wrapped filming a bizarre short film (preview here), so I finally got a haircut. Yay! Nothing drastic, I just wanted a bit more style — and to look like Anna Karina.

new hair!

Well, the boulevard, and the pier, have been quite depressing lately. Unless we go out there and have a really good day soon, this might not last much longer. We barely break even on lunch and gas (and we’re not eating much, I swear! $2.25 pizza!). I don’t know how the other girls out there do it.

I’m almost willing to bet people snipe and decline to tip because they still think someone hires us to be out there. Which really makes no sense. I’ve never thought that. I mean, how would that be possible… have you SEEN some of those costumes? They’re about ready to fall apart. If I was going to hire characters, I’d make sure they weren’t embarrassing me or my business by going out like that. Plus, why would I hire 4 Marilyn Monroes? 3 Jack Sparrows? Doesn’t make any sense.

I love to dress up, and meet other people who love to dress up, and be able to walk around in public in costume… but not when I have bills to pay, credit cards to pay off… traveling to fund… I’ve got to be getting paid for my time. Batgirl too. We aren’t going out there just for the heck of it.

Honestly, I’m just not sure what the next step is. We’ve offered ourselves as models to photographers now, and perhaps that will bring in a little something. We’ve got some amazing costumes in our possession. I’d love to make use of them, and get my money back (seems like my costumes always cost way more than I think they will). I’m supposed to be signing with a new agent soon, but that seems to be taking some time, as well. I’ve had some good auditions, so we’ll see if they lead anywhere.

I AM happy though, because right now I have some free time to sew, and I’ve been wanting to do that for a while. Get creative, sew some new dresses… I want to totally revamp my wardrobe. I’ve been working on that for a while! I sat out by the pool today, and that was relaxing. I need to do that more often, because I worry too much, and work too much on the computer to keep the money coming in.

I’m debating whether or not I want to order a new catsuit. Mine has some issues, and the new one wouldn’t cost that much, but still… I’m wondering how much use it’ll get and if it’ll pay itself back. If money wasn’t an issue, yes, I’d get it. I love costumes and I strive for perfection. We shall see… Back to work now.

I’m up way too early. I shot a student film last weekend and had to get up super early for that, 2 days in a row. But that was OK, filming didn’t take very long. Then on Tuesday I had a couple lines in a low-budget film called iCrime and was on set til midnight. “On set” though, was a backyard poolside party. Luckily they had heat lamps! I don’t know what we would have done without them! But I already had the sniffles at that point and allergy medicine wasn’t working, so…. on my way to feeling miserable. The next day I could barely get out of bed. I spent most of the day sleeping, and didn’t even get online. 24 hours without the internet!! Crazy. But I survived. But now after all that sleep, my internal timer is a bit off! Blah… so here I am.

Monday at the pier was interesting. I was very nervous, since as far as I know, no other costumed characters have been at the pier. Everyone seemed nice, and it was very relaxed there. We didn’t really speak to any of the vendors, except briefly to one on the way out. It was a little windy that day, which scared me, because I thought my little umbrellas and the empty water bottle (where is there a water fountain on the pier?!) were going to roll right over the edge and into the ocean. I think we need some kind of chain for our tip bucket as well. My bike chain is too springy and wants to keep the bucket right up against the railing. That bucket… pretty funny all the effort that went into making that thing. Do you think there’s much of a market for tip buckets? Because I think we could design a killer tip bucket. lol.

I’m sorry it’s been a bit quiet around here lately. We haven’t really been out doing superhero stuff for a while, which is why the world is such a mess. All day Saturday was spent retouching photos for me, Sunday was family time, and yesterday Catwoman and I finally reunited for something we hope will be really worthwhile. If you follow us on Zannel (or read the tiny print on my widget to the right, or follow me on Twitter), then you know that we applied for street performer permits last week. This is what happened yesterday:

We really didn’t stay long at all, slightly less than an hour on the Pier. It wasn’t too bad, though because it was a weekday afternoon and ridiculously windy there weren’t a whole lot of people out. Still, better than the boulevard! There have been some days where we’ve stayed out for 4 hours and only made about $7 each, so we consider this an improvement. Also, no competition from other characters, the police are on our side in Santa Monica, and most importantly, no drama! Everyone just keeps to themselves. It was a little bit lonely and we did miss the few good characters we like (you know who you are), but seriously, there’s just been so much crap we somehow got dragged into the middle of that it was time to get out.

Today another piece of the Mystery Costume came as I was heading out to do some errands. Yay! Here’s the two major pieces that I have so far, I’m just waiting on one more, which is en route:

I wear a lot of yellow and black

After piece #3 comes, it’s a lot of cutting and sewing, and then it should be all set. Then you can finally see what I’ve been blabbing about all this time and hopefully be as excited as me! 🙂

Well, I’m not sure when Catwoman and I will work again. We’ve been pretty busy doing separate things lately and we haven’t been too good at synching up. If it’s any consolation I’ll be working with a really great local photographer soon who really wants to do a Batgirl shoot, so if worst comes to worst you’ll just have to look at some pictures of Batgirl hanging around LA.

For a second, I thought Luke Skywalker had mailed me my boots:

c/o Hoth

P.S. I know the creature’s name is spelled “tauntaun.” Humor me.

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

(more…)

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!

Just a quick note this morning, because I can’t remember if we’ve given you the links to our Zannel profiles or not. I just want to let you know that if you follow us through Zannel, you’ll get more updates (we take pictures with our phones and post them throughout the day) from us. The blog is hooked up to Zannel as well, so whenever there is a new entry, it will pop up in our updates. Go check us out:

http://www.zannel.com/Megami
http://www.zannel.com/Sidewalksuperheroes