Tag san francisco

PRIMETIME GAME SHOW NOW CASTING

( From Craigslist.org ) -DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS ALWAYS GIVING TO OTHERS, BUT REALLY NEEDS TO BE HELPED IN RETURN?
-Do you know someone who gave EVERYTHING to their community and then lost their HOUSE, COMMUNITY CENTER, RESTAURANT, etc, LOST EVERYTHING from circumstances out of their control and now needs help getting back on their feet?
-Do you know someone who HELPS EVERYONE THEY CAN and now needs help with their own MEDICAL BILLS/AID?
-We are looking for someone who is a leader in the community, someone who always volunteers, someone who has helped numerous people’s lives change and now is down on their luck and needs their life to change!
-Someone who has giving everything they have to others to help them succeed and NOW is in need of help themselves.
YOU CAN WIN A LIFE CHANGING SUM OF MONEY FOR SOMEONE WHO DESERVES IT!!
Do you have a friend or a loved one who is a HERO who needs someone to be THEIR hero? Someone in need of a substantial sum of money to turn their life around? Do you want to surprise this person by winning them the cash they need to help make their problems disappear?
IT IS CRUCIAL THAT YOUR APPLICATION MUST BE KEPT SECRET FROM THE PERSON YOU ARE PLAYING FOR. IF NOT YOU WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY INELIGIBLE.
If you would like to apply for this brand new trivia game show please email [email protected] with:
-Your full name.
-Your phone number.
-Your current city and state.
-Who you feel deserves this and why?
-Deserving person’s current city and state.
-A photo of yourself and the deserving person.
Please include a short paragraph telling us why you think this person is a HERO and why you would want to play for them.
Please include links to news stories or any newspaper/magazine articles showcasing their good deeds if available.
We appreciate your time and look forward to meeting some amazing individuals!
Submitted by Nadra Enzi aka Capt Black hoping you’ll shed light on someone whose “super” ought to be nationally recognized and rewarded. (504) 214-3082
 

Originally posted: http://www.goldengatexpress.org/2011/05/11/superheroes-swoop-in-to-fight-crime/
By [X]press Staff
The sights and sounds of a riot filled the streets on a chilly night in Oakland when suddenly, strange figures emerged from an alley. Covered in glass and grime and with only their eyes visible, they glowed in the mad light of the city.
In the middle stood a man clad in a Kevlar vest, combat boots, and a mask covering the lower half of his face, with Taser knuckles glowing on his right fist.
“Who are you?” someone shouted.
The voice behind the mask looked at them and calmly replied, “We are real-life superheroes.”
This is not a story from the pages of a comic book, but one of real people all over the country who dress up and fight for their community. These self-described superheroes have found a variety of different ways to help their neighborhoods, from organizing blood drives to feeding the homeless. They use their costumes as a way to draw attention to the cause.
Peter Tangen, a Hollywood photographer and the de facto spokesman as well as expert on Real Life Superheroes, calls the people who participate in the movement “a perfect cross section of America.”
Like many denizens of the comic book pages, Motor Mouth, 30, of Oakland, who declined to give his “civilian” name, started out as just an average citizen. Then “fan boy” read a comic that changed his life.
That comic was “Kick-Ass” by Mark Millar, which tells the story of a boy who chooses to dress up and fight crime in his neighborhood. Motor Mouth was instantly attracted to the “poor man’s Batman” aspect of the comic and intrigued by the notion of people in the real world using superhero identities to better their community.
Motor Mouth then did what any comic book lover would do and turned to the Internet. There he found the world of RLSH and knew that he wanted to be a part of it.
The idea of concealed identities and community crusaders is not a new idea, but activity often spikes when the country in times of upheaval, and according to the RLSH website, there are currently several thousand such activists in the country.
The presence of superheroes, real or fictional, is something that Tangen sees as a reflection of the national mood.
“It can be seen even as far back as World War II,” Tangen said. “People need a hero. There is a need to see someone who stands for something right and good. The world around them is losing some of their priorities.”
Motor Mouth attributes his desire to help his community to childhood experiences.
Born to medical worker parents, the need to help others was ingrained in him from a very early age. In his youth, he would often stop school bullies from intimidating other students.
“I think too many people in this world nowadays allow for too much gray area,” Motor Mouth said. “When the reality is, bad is bad and good is good.”
Tangen agreed with that statement.
“Apathy exists, but these people are people who reject that idea,” Tangen said.
Motor Mouth, along with members of a larger group called “The Pacific Protectorate” often take it upon themselves to go on missions in some of the city’s worst neighborhoods at night to facilitate activities ranging from calling police to report drug deals, to breaking up bar fights, or as was the case in January 2009, participate in inhibiting the madness that was the Oakland riots.
Over the course of that night, Motor Mouth and his team stopped teenagers from using a battering ram on a building (with the help of Motor Mouth’s non-lethal Taser knuckles) and saved a woman from an exploding building.
When asked if he was afraid at any point during this night, Motor Mouth laughed.
“In order to be a real life superhero you have to take the fear that may be inside of you and manifest it into something that’s useful,” Motor Mouth said.
Officer Holly Joshi of the Oakland Police Department said these groups have been useful to the community and said that she appreciates their efforts.
“They’re on the right track,” Joshi said. “Citizens have a responsibility to protect their community, it’s not just a police issue.”

Originally posted: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_weekend/20110401/ts_yblog_weekend/real-life-superheroes-really
By Jim Brasher
What are you doing this weekend? Going to brunch? Mowing the lawn? Fighting crime? Hmm…which one of these things is not like the other?
Welcome to the confusing, often contradictory world of self-described Real Life Superheroes. (That’s R.L.S.H for short). It’s a loosely affiliated community of people who develop their own superhero persona, put on costume and try to prevent crime in their neighborhood. And all without super speed, invisibility or wings.
So are they vigilantes or volunteers? Commendable or ridiculous? Is what they’re doing even legal? I decided to find out. Check out the video above for my night on patrol with “Motor Mouth.” But first, a little more about the cast of characters, starting with…

THE MASKED MAN:
I’ll admit, I had a few misgivings about meeting a masked stranger decked out in Kevlar and leather in a dark garage. But as you can see in the video, those fears dissipated the moment Motor Mouth started talking. (Turns out, he never really stops talking.) He’s intense, driven, but also has a great sense of humor about the path he’s chosen.
“You have to be a little eccentric,” he said, “there’s no question about it. You gotta be eccentric and you gotta have a little bravado about yourself.”
We went on patrol in downtown San Jose, California with Motor Mouth, Anthem and Mutinous Angel. A typical night on patrol involves lots of walking and plenty of curious stares. But for Motor, his costume is a symbol, a visual reminder that someone in the night is paying attention.
“We’re just like that average man in his mid-forties or fifties going ahead and patrolling his neighborhood in a neighborhood watch group, except we do it with a little bit more flair,” he says. And, he insists, they’re out there as a deterrent only.
“We don’t want to get in the way of the police,” he says, “we try to work with them to the best of our abilities, because we do not see ourselves as vigilantes, not in the slightest.”
(A vigilante is someone who effects justice according to their own understand of right and wrong; someone who punishes an alleged criminal suspect outside the legal system. And that, as you may have guessed, is illegal.)
So Motor Mouth espouses a ‘deterrence-only’ philosphy. But the first rule of the R.L.S.H community is that there are no rules in the R.L.S.H community. (No formal ones anyway.) And not everyone subscribes to the same theories about what it means to prevent crime. So to get a wider view, we spoke to…
THE DIRECTOR:
Director Michael Barnett and producer Theodore James spent a year on the road, following close to forty Real Life Superheroes all over the country for an upcoming documentary called… Superheroes. They were kind enough to share some of their footage with us, and we met Barnett at Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood for an in-depth conversation about his experience.
“There’s not one thing the RLSH community focuses on,” he says, “they really do focus on everything, every aspect of the community, and how to make it better. And the thing that drives all of them, is people who do not care; that’s their mission, change the people who do not care to caring people.”
You can watch more of our interview with Barnett here. And stay tuned to this page for breaking news about when and where you can see the film.
THE LAW & THE GOOD NEIGHBORS:
We also spoke to Cindy Brandon, executive director of San Francisco SAFE (Safety Awareness For Everyone). SF SAFE is unique, a non-profit organization that works in partnership with with the police to provide neighborhood watch program to the residents and businesses of San Francisco.
She stressed the importance of alerting the police to any suspicious activity. “If you see a crime in progress,” she says, “your first reaction should be to call 911.” Getting involved in trying to stop a crime is a risky proposition.
“If they do intervene they’re putting their own life in jeopardy. While I think each person can make that determination themselves when they witness something happening, we tell people not to get involved, but to go into a safe place and call the police right away.”
Actual law enforcement officials stress the same message. According to Lieutenant Andra Brown of the San Diego Police Department, real life superheroes, “don’t have the backup that we have, and trying to take a situation into their own hands could perhaps get out of hand for them, and it could actually create more work for the police officers.”
“Now we perhaps have another victim we have to deal with, we have someone who maybe has been represented to be part of law enforcement, or an authority if you will, and that can confuse other people out on the street. So yeah, there’s a lot of situations where they could impede what’s going on, or what a police officer needs to take care of.”
THE ARTIST:
Like many members of the real life superhero community, Motor Mouth got his inspiration from the pages of a comic book. So we commissioned artist and performer Kevin McShane to create two original comic book panels for our piece, based on footage from our piece.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Motor Mouth, Mr. Extreme, Mutinous Angel, Thanatos, Dark Guardian, Master Legend, Life, Crimson Fist, Zimmer, Saph, Ghost, Asylum, Red Voltage, Zetaman. Their reasons for putting on a costume are as colorful and varied as their names. While I learned pretty quickly that it’s next to impossible to generalize about the Real Life Superhero Community, many share a common nemesis: apathy.
According to Motor Mouth, fighting apathy means “trying to awaken the minds of the public to the little bit of more they can do in society, to make the world a better place.”
They certainly had an impact of director Michael Barnett. “In the end, I found something pretty profound. I found people with often times very little resources doing really, sort of small but beautiful things to make their communities better.”
What do you think? Watch the video and let me know.
Video: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_weekend/20110401/ts_yblog_weekend/real-life-superheroes-really
Video featuring Michael Barnett: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_weekend/20110401/ts_yblog_weekend/we-interview-michael-barnett

Originally Posted: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Real-Life-Superheroes-Patrol-the-Streets-of-San-Francisco-118882514.html?rr=td
By Mathew Luschek
Justin Juul over at the Bold Italic spent a night hanging out on the streets of San Francisco, with some Real Life Super Heroes.

No really. The Real Life Super Hero movement started in 2008, shortly after the “Kick-Ass” comic book was released. The organization is a collection of everyday citizens who don super hero costumes, and roam their city looking for crime.
Believe it or not there are over 250 of these brave folks worldwide. There’s Axle Grinder Man in London, Nyx, a female hero in New York, and here in San Francisco Motor Mouth and his crew which includes Nightbug and Justified.
As you browse the Real Life Super Hero page, you can check out the costumes some of these cats have constructed. Some are rather impressive, like the one Death’s Head Moth wears as he patrols an unnamed city in Virginia.
And these people are serious about what they do. Motor Mouth has been threatened and beat up doing his part to rid the streets of crime. In Juul’s article, he describes walking the streets of the Tenderloin in the middle of the night, approaching crackheads and running into the police (who don’t care for the masked method of crime-fighting.)
“Our relationship with the police department is tenuous at best,” Motor Mouth said.

While you’re thinking what I’m thinking, “These guys are gonna get killed,” they do take some precautions. Motor Mouth, for instance carries a pocketknife, mace and a pair of Blast Knuckles which are like brass knuckles but with a 950,000 volt taser built in.
Maybe they’re just over-zealous comic book fans, but they do seem to do some good. So if you see a group of caped crusaders walking the streets, don’t heckle them, because they just might save your life one day.
Juul’s full article at the Bold Italic
The Real Life Super Hero website

Jill Smolowe and Howard Breuer with reporting by Kathy Ehrich Dowd

Slower than an speeding Bullet, they patrol city streets, hoping to lend a hand, inspire compassion and even thwart crime
She finds her work as an accountant “a boring 9-to-5 job.” But many an evening after Irene Thomas, 21, returns to her cramped 400-sq.-ft attic apartment in a town in Bergen County, N.J., she slips into a black catsuit, accessories with a red belt, red gloves and boots, and sometimes also dons a mask. When she emerges in her Honda Accord on the Manhattan side of the Lincoln Tunnel, she is Nyx, her namesake a Greek goddess of the night. While she might patrol the streets looking for anything out of the ordinary, her immediate mission is distributing food and clothes to the homeless. And she has another goal: to call attention to her actions so that “other people notice and are maybe motivated to help too.”
She is not alone. From New York City to Seattle, scores of costumed crusaders have joined the superhero movement. While their aims aren’t always unified- some cater to the needy while others are bent on thwarting crime- most of them share a desire to stomp out citizen apathy by modeling “superhero” virtues. “I just feel like I’m walking no air after I’ve helped 30 people,” says Chaim “Life” Lazaros, 26, a production manager by day, who wears a mask and fedora (a la Green Hornet) when he takes to New York’s streets at night. The superheroes, who range from dishwashers to Fortune 500 execs, cut across political, religious and age lines and are often comic book geeks, says Tea Krulos, who blogs about the phenomenon. “They don’t want to admit it, [but] it’s fun to dress up.”
Not everyone is impressed by their derring-do. On a recent night in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, a teenage homeless girl only smirked when Motor Mouth, a ninja like fixture of the San Francisco Bay Area’s streets, handed her a bag of food. Unfazed, Motor Mouth (who refuses to give his real name) says he doesn’t mind “a million people snickering behind my back as long as there is the possibility to help.”
The costumed do-gooders, who pack nothing more lethal than first-aid kits and benign intentions, get high marks from the police. “Any time a citizen gets involved- great,” says Det. Renee Witt of the Seattle police department. Others, like Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones, 22, have crated a stir by being brazen crime fighters. In recent months Phoenix Jones claims he has interrupted knife fights, helps catch drug dealers and has been stabbed. Certainly he’s sparked discussion among his peers about boundaries. “If we see the police are already there, our philosophy is the matter has been addressed,” says Seattle’s White Baron. Most self-styled superheroes are well aware they can’t fly or outrun speeding bullets. “If you life this kind of life,” says Motor Mouth, 30, “you can’t take yourself entirely seriously.”

Dark Guardian By Day: Martial-arts instructor, 26 Superhero Duty: Chases drug dealers City: New York His efforts to clean Manhattan’s Washing Square Park of drug deales do not always impress local police	Nyx By Day: Accountant, 21 Superhero Target: The homeless City: New York She’s given up on chasing drug dealers “Its just really fun to jump into a costume and help people,” she says.
DC Guardian By Day: Government worker, mid-40s Superhero Virtue: Patriotism City: Washington, D.C. Active in charity work, this Air Force vet also hands out American flags and talks tourist about the U.S. Constitution.	Motor Mouth By Day: Special-education teacher, 30 Superhero Goal: Thwarting crime City: San Francisco Bay Area He says his attempts to “be at the right place at the right time” have included stopping a man from beating his wife.
Life By Day: Production manager, 26 Superhero Inspiration: His parents City: New York “Even something little like a razor blade” for a clean shave before a job interview, he says, “is a big deal” to the homeless	Phantom Zero By Day: Computer technician, 34 Superhero Style: Teamwork City: New York Nyx’s street partner (and live-in boyfriend), he delivers clothes to women’s shelters and feeds feeds people.

Smolowe, Jill, Howard Breuer, and Kathy E. Dowd. “Superheroes Among Us.” People Magazine 75.11 (2011): 92-94. Print.

Originally posted: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/real-life-superheroes-patrol-our-city-streets

By Mark Berman Opposing Views

The next time you need help, you may get it from a real life superhero. A group of people calling themselves, oddly enough, the Real Life Superhero Project takes to the streets of U.S. cities, helping out the needy.
People magazine reports that members want to reduce citizen apathy by exhibiting “superhero” virtues and encourage others to do the same.
The group’s Web site writes:
So who are these modern day heroes? They are our neighbors, our friends, our family members. They are artists, musicians, athletes, and yes, politicians. Their actions serve as reminders that as most giving today has become reactive—digital and removed, temporarily soothing our guilt and feelings of helplessness—we have blinded ourselves to simple principles and practice of compassion and goodwill.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, 21-year-old Irene Thomas is one of them. By day she is a self-described “boring accountant” in New Jersey. At night she is “Nyx,” patrolling the streets of New York City wearing a black catsuit and mask with a red belt, gloves and boots.
She gives food and clothes to the homeless, and hopes “other people notice and are maybe motivated to help too.”
New York production manager Chaim Lazaros’s alter-ego is “Life,” wearing a black hat, mask and waistcoat.
‘I just feel like I’m walking on air after I’ve helped 30 people,’ he told People.
The ninja-like “Motor Mouth” calls San Francisco home. He generally gets a positive response, but one teenage homeless girl smirked when he handed her a bag of food.
“(I don’t mind) if a million people snickering behind my back as long as there is the possibility to help,” he said. He added, “if you live this kind of life, you can’t take yourself entirely seriously.”

Originally posted: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1364664/The-superheroes-patrol-streets-help-needy.html
By Mark Duell
Irene Thomas is part of the Real Life Superhero Project organisation
They aim to bring help, compassion and crime prevention to the streets
By day Irene Thomas says she is a ‘boring’ accountant who lives in a cramped New Jersey flat.
By night she puts on a black catsuit and mask with a red belt, gloves and boots, gets into her Honda Accord car and comes out the other side of the Lincoln Tunnel in Manhattan as ‘Nyx’.
The 21-year-old is just one member of the Real Life Superhero Project, a group of humans who aim to bring a helping hand to people everywhere and thwart crime on city streets.

‘Nyx’: Irene Thomas, 21, of New Jersey, is far from a ‘boring’ accountant when she puts on a black catsuit and mask with a red belt, gloves and boots to become a New York superhero

Mission: The Real Life Superhero Project aims to bring a helping hand to people everywhere and thwart crime

Most superheroes in the project want to cut down citizen apathy by modelling ‘superhero’ virtues and encourage others to do the same, reported People magazine.
Nyx, who shares her name with the Greek goddess of night, gives food and clothes to the homeless of New York. She hopes ‘other people notice and are maybe motivated to help too’.
She said on the Real Life Superheroes website: ‘Like the night, I cannot be proven or disproven to certain degrees – and also much like the night, when morning comes, there will be no trace of me.’
Production manager Chaim Lazaros, 26, dons a black hat, mask and waistcoat to become ‘Life’ when he patrols the New York streets by night.
‘I just feel like I’m walking on air after I’ve helped 30 people,’ he told People magazine.

‘Motor Mouth’: The ninja-like San Francisco superhero, who is known only as a 30-year-old teacher and will not reveal his identity, told People magazine: ‘If you live this kind of life, you can’t take yourself entirely seriously’

Many homeless and vulnerable people are pleased to receive the superheroes’ help, but the reaction is not always positive.
One teenage homeless girl in San Francisco smirked when ninja-like ‘Motor Mouth’ handed her a bag of food, but this did not worry him.
‘(I don’t mind) a million people snickering behind my back as long as there is the possibility to help,’ he said.

Other stars: Samaritan joins New York superheroes Dark Guardian and Phantom Zero on the streets

‘If you live this kind of life, you can’t take yourself entirely seriously,’ he added.
Motor Mouth won’t reveal his true identity but said he is a 30-year-old teacher.
Many of those involved in the project are believed to be comic-book geeks.
Other New York superheroes include martial arts instructor Dark Guardian, 22, 34-year-old computer technician Phantom Zero, and Samaritan, who lives and works in the city.

Phoenix Jones: The 22-year-old from Seattle is one of America’s most famous ‘superheroes’ and claims to have broken up knife fights, caught drug dealers and been stabbed in the line of duty

One of America’s most famous ‘superheroes’ is Seattle-based Phoenix Jones, 22, who claims to have broken up knife fights, caught drug dealers and been stabbed.
He is part of a group called the Rain City Superhero Movement, which tries to keep the streets safe and has received the backing of the Seattle police department.

From Motor Mouth:
For those of you in California, Arizona, & Nevada, I have a surprise for you…
I’m holding an RLSH Workshop, BBQ, & patrol on Saturday, the 28th of August.
– Mega-Rad is going over information gathering techniques.
– Med-X is going over medical first responder training.
– Kingsnake is going over teaching body rolls and anti-gun defenses.
– Motor-Mouth (oh, that’s ME!) is going over public relations & dealings with the police.
A BBQ will coincide with this and later in the evening, everyone present will uniform up and hit the streets of San Francisco for a handout then a patrol.
Anyone that wants particulars (as in the address it’s gonna be at) can just hit me up privately on here.
Also, if you’re coming from out of town, no worries for a hotel/motel room. I can’t promise you a bed but I can offer couch or floor space for sure.
Hope to see some of you beyond my local team there!
– MM
Get in touch with Motor Mouth
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001241867072&ref=ts
Myspace – http://www.myspace.com/motor_mouth_sf
 

By Captain Black
If you think crusading out in the open against corruption is all sweetness and light, have I got a rhetorical bucket of cold water for you!
It invites any number of attempts to discredit; dismiss and/or disconnect you ( from the economy where you live ). I caution all would-be crusaders to think hard about weathering the storm when home sweet home ceases being so.
We can be full of the strength of our convictions. Our eyes firmy fixed on the prize. Neither good intention stops the opposition from slandering and even starving those labeled rabble rousers. America recognizes freedom of speech but also punishes speakers running afoul of someone’s status quo.
There is a crying need for people o speak truth to power.
Actual real life super villains often don’t have gimmicks like costumes or code names to warn the public. Lurking behind respectable masks like chamber of commerce; community leader or the titles doctor; officer; mayor; father; mother, etc. is a rogues gallery to make fiction’s top worst green with envy. Once you cross the line and become a known dissident get ready for the hatin’ to begin.
I eat hatred like candy.
Negative feedback means my job is being done and done well. The trick is possessing an invulnarable identity, i.e a sense of self no amount of criticism nor dirty tricks can penetrate. Anything less and even the most idealistic will cave in. There’s an ugly side to activism that most folks see when viewing old black and white footage of civil rights marchers being beaten by police and mobs.
Lesser known abuse impacting activists are rumor campaigns and pressure to end employment; deny new jobs; clients and even due process when law enforcement is part of the insidious act.
America and Earth desperately need many, many more crusaders. It’s only fair to be up front about crusading’s downsides as well.
NADRA ENZI AKA CAPT. BLACK is a super rights activist promoting wellness; crime prevention and self-development. http://www.captblack.info

Originally posted: http://www.aolnews.com/article/superheroes-need-super-support-groups/19544385
By David Moye
July 8) — Being a superhero used to be a specialized field. You either had to be the victim of a bizarre accident, like being bit by a radioactive spider, or suffer a tragic incident, i.e. being the sole survivor, blasted into outer space, from a distant planet as it was being destroyed.
But now things are different. Despite the contention of films like “The Incredibles” that some people are born super compared with the rest of us, being a superhero is a more egalitarian prospect than ever.
Yes, whereas folks used to dress up like Superman or Thor on Halloween, these days, people want to be superheroes all year long. Also, rather than piggybacking on some comic book hero, folks would rather become their own superheroes, with powers of their own choosing.

Superhero groups are popping up in cities like San Francisco; Portland, Ore.; and New York City, which is the headquarters of Superheroes Anonymous (SA), a support group of caped crusaders who run around the city doing small acts of good, like dispensing toiletries to the homeless while dressed in superhero costumes.
SA is modeled after 12-step groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, but rather than meet to help one another recover from being super, this offbeat organization tries to inspire people to become their own superheroes.
The organization has been around four years, and co-founder Ben Goldman — whose superhero identity is “Camera Man,” a documentarian to all the organization’s good works — says self-empowerment is the key to understanding the group’s mission.
“People become superheroes because they want to engage a certain degree of control in making the world a better place,” Goldman said.
Goldman’s group has been around four years and now has chapters in Portland and New Bedford, Mass.
In addition, two event organizers in San Francisco have created an annual festival designed to honor “heroes” who are doing things in their communities and to inspire people to become the heroes they’ve always been inside.
The second annual Superhero Street Fair takes place Saturday in the Bayview neighborhood and will have a few hundred folks dressed up as superheroes.
According to FlashNews, regular Joes and Janes are encouraged to wear their very own made-up superhero outfits and show off their unique superpowers, which organizer Joegh Bullock says could include singing, dancing, painting or even kissing, if that’s their forte.
Bullock says that by embracing their own special powers and looking deep inside themselves, people will realize how super they really are and “hopefully feel those powers in them throughout the year.”
He and his fellow organizer came up with the idea awhile back when they realized they wanted an event where everyone would wear the same type of costume.
“We wanted something where you wouldn’t have one person be a clown and another be a fairy,” Bullock said. “We also wanted to take the superpowers out of ‘Hollywood’ and make them things ordinary people can do.”
Bullock expects as many as 3,000 people will attend, and many of those will be coming out of the superhero closet for the first time. For those people, he offers this advice: Believe in your power. A costume isn’t just a costume, it’s an attitude.”
As Bullock sees it, everyone has an alter ego that should be embraced.
“Superman had his secret identity, but we all have a superpower we can call on at anytime. For instance, I call myself ‘Tape Man.’ It came up recently when I was putting up posters for the event at the same time other people were posting things around town. I had strips of tape all over my body and people were grabbing it off me.”
One woman who is embracing her super side Saturday is professional costume designer Sarah Boll.
Last year, she wore a magenta wig and purple bodysuit and revealed herself as Ultra Violet, whose “super sparkling powers can dazzle any enemy away.”
This year, Boll is transitioning into a “punk robot” hero but admits she is still working on the powers (“But I do like color,” she adds).
It’s fun for her, but Boll also is inspired to use her costume to help the community. She also believes that dressing up as a hero helps her connect with her inner hero.
“I do feel more like myself when I’m in costume,” she said. “Plus, it’s great whenever people embrace what they’re enthusiastic about and share it.”
Compared with Superheroes Anonymous, the Superhero Street Fair emphasizes fun and whimsy. However, Bullock sees the homemade hero trend as a very powerful one.
“People want something to believe in and empower themselves,” he said. “I know I want to live this way all the time.”

The group has maybe 30 to 40 members, and each one agrees to adopt a 12-point code that includes the following steps:

• Choosing to be better people and becoming a force of good.
• Discovering the source of one’s inner superhero.
• Opening one’s eyes to the environment without shying away from injustice and despair.
• Giving the inner superhero a name.

Because the laws of physics prevent a person from having heat-ray vision like Superman or the ability to run around Earth in a second like the Flash, SA members have to define superpowers more loosely than their comic-book counterparts.
“We believe that you should take something you love to do and transform that into an identity,” Goldman said. “For instance, I love to make documentaries, so I am the group’s historian. That comes in handy when you have a hero like Dark Guardian, who approaches drug dealers in parks and gets them to leave.”
Superheroes Anonymous – Dark Guardian confronts a drug dealer from Ben Goldman on Vimeo.
As far as the costumes are concerned, Goldman says there are two schools of thought.

“Batman created his costume to invoke fear, whereas Superman assumed his in order to be a symbol,” Goldman said. “That’s what we aspire to. It’s one thing to hand out toiletries to the homeless, but when you’re doing it wearing a costume, people are more likely to stop and ask what you’re doing and maybe get involved themselves.”
Comic books like “The Dark Knight” and “Watchmen” suggest that the negative side of being a superhero is the vigilante aspect, and that is something Goldman stresses is not allowed in his group,
“We don’t endorse vigilantism,” he said. “We don’t live in Gotham City where there is a bank robbery every weekend or supervillains trying to destroy the city. We leave those matters in the hands of the police. There are enough things to do such as dropping off toys at Children’s Hospital.”
Goldman’s group has been around four years and now has chapters in Portland and New Bedford, Mass.
In addition, two event organizers in San Francisco have created an annual festival designed to honor “heroes” who are doing things in their communities and to inspire people to become the heroes they’ve always been inside.
The second annual Superhero Street Fair takes place Saturday in the Bayview neighborhood and will have a few hundred folks dressed up as superheroes.
According to FlashNews, regular Joes and Janes are encouraged to wear their very own made-up superhero outfits and show off their unique superpowers, which organizer Joegh Bullock says could include singing, dancing, painting or even kissing, if that’s their forte.
Bullock says that by embracing their own special powers and looking deep inside themselves, people will realize how super they really are and “hopefully feel those powers in them throughout the year.”
He and his fellow organizer came up with the idea awhile back when they realized they wanted an event where everyone would wear the same type of costume.
“We wanted something where you wouldn’t have one person be a clown and another be a fairy,” Bullock said. “We also wanted to take the superpowers out of ‘Hollywood’ and make them things ordinary people can do.”
Bullock expects as many as 3,000 people will attend, and many of those will be coming out of the superhero closet for the first time. For those people, he offers this advice: Believe in your power. A costume isn’t just a costume, it’s an attitude.”
As Bullock sees it, everyone has an alter ego that should be embraced.
“Superman had his secret identity, but we all have a superpower we can call on at anytime. For instance, I call myself ‘Tape Man.’ It came up recently when I was putting up posters for the event at the same time other people were posting things around town. I had strips of tape all over my body and people were grabbing it off me.”
One woman who is embracing her super side Saturday is professional costume designer Sarah Boll.
Last year, she wore a magenta wig and purple bodysuit and revealed herself as Ultra Violet, whose “super sparkling powers can dazzle any enemy away.”
This year, Boll is transitioning into a “punk robot” hero but admits she is still working on the powers (“But I do like color,” she adds).
It’s fun for her, but Boll also is inspired to use her costume to help the community. She also believes that dressing up as a hero helps her connect with her inner hero.
“I do feel more like myself when I’m in costume,” she said. “Plus, it’s great whenever people embrace what they’re enthusiastic about and share it.”
Compared with Superheroes Anonymous, the Superhero Street Fair emphasizes fun and whimsy. However, Bullock sees the homemade hero trend as a very powerful one.
“People want something to believe in and empower themselves,” he said. “I know I want to live this way all the time.”
Filed under: Weird News, Entertainment, Crime