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.
Though they mainly come through YouTube and rude people born without brain filters who just walk up to strangers and say any random, stupid thing that comes into their head, this is for all the complainers. The people who want professional, HD filming from two hobbyists, who want archive quality costumes on our shoestring budget, who want professional pictures and scratching of their fetish itches without offering anything in return, this is for you:
oh god
You could have it so much worse, so be grateful we’re sharing our high quality, sexy selves with you. For free.
(The picture above was taken from Holy Taco’s “The Worst Homemade Star Wars Costumes” list, which is definitely worth looking at. Go. Look. We’ll still be here.) And thank you to the few who have offered your help, expertise, constructive advice and have actually helped us along the way. It’s greatly appreciated, and maybe some of your class will rub off on the ruder people.
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.
Can you tell how slow it was yesterday? It was so slow, I actually got the video together on the same day. Yesterday was weird. Nobody wanted to pay for a picture. We even had a whole tour group pass by and completely ignore us saying “We do pose for tips!” and just hold their cameras up and take photos of us as they walked by. It’s like we were statues, or maybe we were invisible and they just wanted a picture of the Hooters restaurant across the street. No acknowledgment at all that we were living, breathing, human beings. What’s with people?
It’s strange. I know we haven’t been out in a while, but we were out twice this week, and once last week, and there have been several characters we just have not seen since coming back. Bat M showed up out of costume today (with a noticeable Batman-mask-tan-line) to chat us up. I saw the older Marilyn leaving as I arrived in my car, counting her cash. We haven’t seen Sexy Cop or Tinkerbell in a long while. It’s mostly the guys out there, except for the girl in a mask that we’ve never talked to. The other day we DID meet a new Harley Quin. She seemed nice, but she was hanging out with King Kong and he’s not really speaking to us anymore for some odd reason.
You’re probably going to think we’re all super-wimps, but it gets cold out there! And fast! Most of the characters were following the sun as it sped across the sidewalk until we were all in one area in front of the Chinese theatre. None of our costumes seem to be very insulating. I even had 3 layers under mine (thin! You couldn’t really tell), plus ski socks, and sometimes glove liners too. I hope it warms up soon.
Ooh, someone’s been making improvements around here! Okay, it was me. If you hadn’t noticed yet, or you’re reading off a feed and don’t drop in regularly, I’ve just added two new pages to the top bar.
24 Hour Party People should be pretty self-explanatory. Catwoman and I are officially offering our services as costumed entertainers to anyone who wants them. Go to the page itself for more details and contact information, but please note, we like to keep it PG. So no, we don’t strip or let you paw us. It has to be said.
Custom Costumes is all about, duh, custom costumes. Mainly, how you can get your hands on one of your own. If working here has taught me anything, it’s that the old adage, “If want something done right, you have to do it yourself” is so very true. We’ve gone through all the headaches and sweat and tears to get our costumes together, and now that we’ve done all the nasty work, you can reap the benefits! If you covet any of our costumes, consider putting in a request for your very own. As a bonus, it’s handmade by a superhero. Just please know that with any custom-built, high quality costume, it’s not cheap. You definitely get what you pay for, though.
Okay, just wanted to let everyone know about these additions, and hopefully they’ll help someone out. Enjoy!
This just came on my iPod, no joke. God, I’ve been waiting for an excuse to post this!
For the past hour or so I’ve been scouring Flickr for pictures for my next costume. It’s not going to be Zatanna Zatara, like I’ve mused upon, or even slave Leia, or even Hawkgirl like Baby Jack (the Jack Sparrow that looks about 12 years old) suggested. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned what it was on here, though I have told a few people on the boulevard about it. I sort of pushed it aside, but after showing my sister a trailer for a certain upcoming big film, it’s on the front burner again. The release date is a lot closer than I expected, and I need to get cracking! It’s also got a bit too much PVC to really be a summer costume, even though it is pretty skimpy.
Anyway, while I don’t have a movie to watch, bootleg or otherwise yet (still too early), no screengrabs either, I do have some high quality promotional stills and shots to sketch off of, and I think I can do this. I think I have all the details drawn out, with little scribbles next to them that I’ll hopefully be able to decipher in a month. What’s more, I could sew it all up myself if I had to. And I probably will . . . as long as I can find yellow PVC lying around. Think it’ll work?
Catwoman and I were debating going to work today, but it’s been raining off and on, and just an ugly, stay at home sort of day in general. Which is good, I needed some time to finish up things. I cleaned both my yellow and white boots, re-blacked the bat logo, and further took in my Batgirl costume so she looks even better. And curvier. 🙂 Plus, I had the time to put on some Nouvelle Vague and draw for a few hours, which hasn’t happened in years. I’d say it’s a pretty good day, even if I didn’t make any money off of it.
Ugh, Old Boyfriend just called again. And he didn’t leave a message, thankfully. Maybe he’s getting a clue. I just hate having That Conversation over the phone, you know?
P.S. If you’d like to know what this new Mystery Costume is going to be before the unveiling, speak up! I can’t read your minds . . . yet.
. . . said the Caterpillar to Alice. Anyway, I’m uploading video to YouTube for Catwoman and uploading some pictures to Flickr (have I really already uploaded 75M this month?), and Numb3rs is on in the background. It opens with a tour group boarding a bus in front of the Chinese Theatre with a Marilyn Monroe impersonator in the background (I missed it, so I don’t know if it was one of our girls, or some paid extra), and they somehow manage to drive west and past the Kodak Theatre. The Kodak is just east of the Chinese Theatre, so the bus either circumnavigated the globe in about a minute, or they circled the block for no reason. Honestly, the writers live here, it’s one of the most famous city blocks in the world, and they can’t get it right? Maybe I just complain too much. Plus, they called it the Bodak Theatre, so someone was too cheap to get permission to use Kodak’s name. Huh.
Anyway, here’s some snaps of me improving Batgirl 2.0 and making her rock.
black and blue
I took off the bat logo from crap Batgirl 1.0’s costume, and the trim was blue. It would have looked funny, and Batgirl is black and yellow — unless we’re talking Yvonne Craig’s marvelous purple Batgirl, which is what 1.0 was supposed to be — so I took a Sharpie to the trim. It worked surprisingly well; it didn’t bleed onto the yellow, really, and the colour held pretty well. It still looks a bit blue-black in sunlight, but another going over should take care of that.
ready for her close-up
cape town
The cape that came with 1.0 was okay, black and yellow cheap satin, but it was sewn together in the stupidest way possible. There was a slit in the back with a useless tie back there, since they were lazy and just sewed the cape to the costume, and the black and yellow were just basted together with a sloppy overlock stitch. So I took it apart, sewed up the slits in back, sewed the two colours together properly:
moody bat
and sewed the tie on properly so it looks like a real cape:
the feeling is mutual
I also took in my catsuit a lot to make it good and snug, but I forgot to take pictures of that. I do have pictures from today’s work, though I’m not in them because I was snapping them, but it’s getting late and I need to shower. Tomorrow’s another long day!
Hello, there. Well, I’ve been quite busy lately, and finally have something to show for it. We have a brand new domain for the blog, and eventually instead of having it forward to WordPress, the blog will actually be ON the website. Just need to figure out how to do it. But anyway… welcome to www.SidewalkSuperheroes.com ! Also, I started a YouTube channel specifically for our videos, at http://www.YouTube.com/SidewalkSuperheroes. That way, if you subscribe to the video updates, you won’t end up getting my random audition videos or anything like that. Just Superheroes. Batgirl just re-uploaded the first video to that account, plus a new one! I know I’m a little behind with the videos, but I wanted to do it right, and not rush. Plus I have been encountering a bunch of computer/internet problems. So yes, this is the video of last Wednesday… enjoy. 😀
In other news, as you might have read, we are already planning our warm-weather costumes. I didn’t think we’d have to worry about it so soon but the temperature has been in the 80’s and black vinyl is NOT the most comfortable thing to be standing outside in! So I’ve decided that I’m going to be Wonder Woman. I had a short conversation with Superman about what I should be, and he pointed out that there weren’t many Wonder Women out, and that I would probably do well. So the costume is being put together, photos to follow soon… I know I still need to post my Catwoman photos, but I’m still waiting for them to be retouched. They look awesome as they are, but my friend John is amazing with Photoshop and does all sorts of cool things with the colours…. it’ll be worth the wait.
A short description of the most popular (or most complained about) characters: Bat A - our Batman of choice, he also does Robin in a pinch. Bat M - has it in for Bat A, and loves to complain about A's tactics, especially when it comes to stealing away his women. Bat T - a man of mystery. We've just never worked with him. He seems to be a lone wolf. Davy - a Davy Jones to go with yet another Jack Sparrow, the one we know the least out of all of them. He's responsible for karaoke nights, along with MJ. Denim Jack - Our Jack Sparrow of choice. He's a nice guy and will gladly offer said denim to keep a lady warm. Dollhouse Guy - Pretty well known on the Walk, he's the guy who walks around with a giant pink dollhouse on his head. Nucking futs. Homeless Jack - the most unsavory of all the Jack Sparrows. Burn your clothes if you ever touch him. MJ - the resident Michael Jackson, can bust a groove and sing equally well. Storm Trooper - always works with Vader, equally funny. Superman - there's only room for one Superman at H&H. Yes, he's the same one from Confessions of A Superhero. The Captain - Captain America in platform shoes. His one joke is to meow at Catwoman, then giggle hysterically. Every single time. Vader - duh, Darth Vader. Rarely seen outside of the black suit, hilariously funny.
Wonder Wig - The newest addition to the Walk, and already trying to be Queen Bee. Joy.
