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. 😀

Alrighty! My weekly update!

I meant to edit and post this short little video a couple weeks ago, but things got hectic, what with preparing for our trans-Atlantic flight…

I attended Sharon’s Ride.Run.Walk on April 19th, and one of the first things I see once we laid out our beach towel in the park (yeah, I wasn’t actually riding, running, or walking this year) was….

Well, you’ll have to watch the video to find out.

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…)

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

It’s quite possible that maybe I’m just cranky, or sensitive, or something else, but right now I’m getting a wee bit tired of people continually hammering me about my Batgirl cowl. Of all things! First it was “ehhh, she needs a cowl! Ehhh!” because I was either going without or using a domino mask. Then I modified a Catwoman mask to be a serviceable Batgirl cowl, because honestly folks, they don’t exist. I can’t just run out to a costume shop or Halloween box store and buy one, and you can’t buy them online. They’re either part of a packaged costume and all wrong, or else people make the domino paste on masks which isn’t the Batgirl I’m doing. So I’m making the most of the materials I have on a shoestring budget, and really? It’s still miles better than any other hobby costume you’re going to find.

See, what we’re doing here is just a hobby. We spend our own money, a lot of it, putting together these costumes and Catwoman and I are both nitpickers by nature. If you’re going to do it, do it right. We aren’t making much money, if any, on the boulevard, so we’re not even getting our investments back. There are no day jobs to speak of because we were both let go from our last jobs and we have the bad luck to live in California, part of the US’s crumbling economy and the state’s own huge mess (the worst in the country). We keep looking and trying, but there are no jobs right now. So really, we’re breaking our backs trying to get this off of the ground, do some business, make some money and have some fun. We could just be the lazy costume-in-a-bag characters that you see everywhere else, but that’s not us.

This is also why it irritates me when people drop little snarks about our costumes. It’s one thing to say, “I know that’s not quite accurate to the comic, but how can you really recreate that?” or “Oh yeah, getting a slave Leia costume custom made costs around $300, I don’t blame you for using your money to pay rent and buy some food,” or even “Nice work in progress! It can only get better.” Even, “If you’re interested, I know where to find/who to call for a more accurate ________.” We do get that, and thank you to the people who are kind enough to give us that feedback, or even better, tell us where/how to get even better pieces. That is greatly appreciated. But to just say, “That’s not right at all. I hate it,” or “Why don’t you get something better?” without offering anything constructive is not, in fact, constructive criticism. It’s just complaining to complain, and only asses do that. So if you come around, either to here, YouTube, Flickr, or anywhere else we may be just to grouse, kindly STFU. If you’re dumb enough to do it to my face, I’ll gladly give you the uncensored, full-length version of STFU because really, someone needs to tell you that. The world has too many nasty people who just say rude things because they can, and I’ve taken it upon myself to not have any of that in my little corner. Life’s too short to let yourself get knocked down by people who can only feel better by pulling others down.

the current cowl

Anyway . . . if you have such a big problem with that damned cowl of mine, why don’t you put in a donation towards a better one? Materials and my time as a seamstress cost money, and if you want me to do things for you, then you’re going to have to do something for me, too. Hell, if you want, donate enough and I’ll build whatever costume you want to see me in. You can even get a private set of pro pictures in return, for your eyes only, if you’re into that sort of thing. Just don’t whinge and be negative without any sort of options. It’s rude and your mother would be embarrassed.

How appropriate: Bob Dylan’s “Idiot Wind” just came on the iPod.