Sidewalk Superheroes

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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If it sounds like we’re everywhere lately, well . . . it’s because we are. For your enjoyment, a quick roundup of the latest superhero news, from blanket coverage of the violence on Hollywood Boulevard across the state to Batgirl and Catwoman splashing the pages of LA Weekly:

Channels 2 (CBS) and 9 (KCAL) on the violence. (They’re owned by the same parent company, hence the cheap coverage.)
ABC channel 7 on the tensions.
Channels 11 (FOX) and 13 (UPN/KCOP) chime in as well. Again, apparently owned by the same company.
MSNBC also jumps in for some Internet love.
And even the SF Gate gets involved with an article and a quick picture blurb.

Lest you think it’s all depressing, here’s us being charming social butterflies at Twiistup, courtesy of LA Weekly:

caught in the act!

I also know we’ll be featured on LAist, but they have yet to post their writeup and photos. Keep an eye out, though. I also have a funny picture of Demon Guy on the front page of the LA Times’ California section, but I’m too lazy to upload it from my camera, resize, then upload it here. Give me a break, it’s 2 AM!

Edit: Here we are on the Synched Up Show (at the 1:44 mark, as our good friend George from Zannel was quick to point out):

And here’s Demon Guy in the LA Times:

will he melt?

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 sometimes feel that the one small square block of Hollywood is a 24-hour crazy zone. Even when we’re around every day, we still miss things and don’t know the whole story. It’s a little irritating, as if your favourite soap opera ran sixteen times a day and you can just never keep up. But it’s life, so I can’t even TiVo it. Hah, like I even have TiVo. Anyway, I’ll try to remember everything that’s happened today, but I always end up forgetting something. Before I get going, though, here’s some gratuitous eye candy for ya:

sweets for the sweet

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Firstly, I’d like to say hello to all the people who have Googled “people in Padmé costumes having sex.” Welcome. Also, I’m sorry to disappoint, but there is no costumed sex going on here, either in my Padmé costume or in anyone else’s. Well, at least as far as I know and am concerned.

Moving right along . . . Bat A and I had a good long phone conversation last night, and while it was a great talk, I’m only going to share the backstory bits. The rest is private and will stay that way, ’cause you don’t really need to know it. So there. And here, finally, is the history of the boulevard, and how the violence started.

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Well, I’m afraid I’ll have to start out with the sad news. Bat A wrote me this morning through MySpace and said that he’s leaving for who knows how long. He’d mentioned before that he would have to go back to the motherland for a bit, but it sounds like the visit was extended and pushed forward, because things are just getting too ugly down here. It was a very sweet letter, especially considering the fact that he’s found this blog (hello, dear!), and it made me sad in a very bittersweet way. While I thought he was just being cranky or maybe avoiding me, being silly and egocentric, he’s apparently been going through a lot behind the scenes, so I’d just like to say that all the cranky bits I’d written in the past are moot and he will always and forever be my Batman. I’m sorry we won’t be able to work together, but I’m so happy we had the time on the boulevard that we did, that I met him, and that we’ll hopefully keep in touch while he gets a much needed break. I’ll miss him terribly.
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I really have to be more careful when typing. When I was uploading new pictures to Flickr just now, twice I typed in this blog’s address as hhherpes.wordpress.com. Um. That must be Paris Hilton’s blog. Just a warning to those of you who think that one letter can’t make that big a difference.

So today was another busy day, though time seemed to move slower today. I did better financially for nearly the same amount of time, but we had more down time and more people trying to stiff us today. Vader lost his temper again and refused to pose for a photo until people had paid up, because too many people would say, “Okay, I know how it works” impatiently before the photos, then pretend to not know English or think one dollar would suffice for four people. Right. Be careful, if you’re thinking of stiffing any masked character, folks. They have mouths and they talk some mean shit, and you can’t even hear because of the masks — but everyone else can. Also, some of us will follow at a discreet distance and warn other characters that you’re a deadbeat so you don’t scam anyone else. Okay, I do that when I can. So don’t think you’re clever and you’ve found a new way to scam people, we know it all. Most of the time we just let you get away with it while calling you retarded or an asshat, just so you know. You’re not smart, but we’ll let you keep thinking you are.
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And today it’s a New Pornographers reference. Don’t worry, the music references will always be relevant to the conversation. Just consider it a free guide to great bands, in addition to the usual entertainment. 🙂

So, today. Today was clear and bright, and the winds that pushed the last storm away from us had finally died down, and it’s supposed to get to the mid-60s now, so I doped up on Sudafed — it’s expired, but it seems to still be okay — and headed out. I didn’t much feel like going, more out of laziness than anything, though my family had been a little worried since they heard about Freddie’s beatdown, but I’m glad I did. It was packed, so much so that I couldn’t really get pictures of anything because the crowds obscured everything. Everything, that is, but this:

tickets to Vader's gun show

Sorry, I’m listening to Pulp right now, and my music tends to influence my writings. Anyway, I’m supposed to be working right now, but I made the mistake of letting my toddler nephew stick his dirty fingers in my mouth Christmas Eve, and I’ve been fighting off some sort of illness ever since. While I took some Emergen-C yesterday morning when I got up to cook the turkey I didn’t eat (I’m a veggiesaurus), it’s still lingering and standing on a very windy street corner all day wouldn’t be the brightest thing I’ve ever done. So here I am, hanging new Audrey Hepburn posters, wearing new coats, and listening to new iPods. 🙂
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