Showing posts with label Watchman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Watchman. Show all posts

Monday, August 23, 2010

Heroes in the Night Referenced on Mental_Floss


Here is Milwaukee's Watchman posing with a statue of Arthur Fonzarelli, commonly called the "Bronze Fonz" and...hey, I took this picture!

Mental_Floss
is a magazine "where knowledge junkies get their fix" and one of their bloggers, Miss Cellania (sounds like an RLSH name to me) has been fixin' to write a series on RLSH, taking a geographical approach. Her blog is titled Miss Cellania's Files, and her first entry was a look at "Real Life Superheroes of the South" on Aug. 17 which rounded up Master Legend, Danger Woman, Superhero, Hardwire, Daddy Man (?!), Enigma, Viper, Amazonia, DC's Guardian, Knight Vigil, and The Crimson Fist. Links within the post lead to Hero Profiles I wrote on Superhero, Amazonia, and Viper.

Moving along, Miss Cellania followed up two days later with "Real Life Superheroes of the Midwest" and included in the round up are Shadow Hare (who disappeared last year after intense media snark and it's after effects) Geist, Razorhawk, Foxfire (who disappeared after claiming to be fighting supernatural forces in the deserts of Utah), Mr. Silent and Dr. Discord (who simply disappeared), Captain Jackson and the Queen of Hearts (who you would have thought disappeared by now but haven't) and The Watchman.

The blog links to my profile on Watchman- (#1, way back in November!) as well as a post reprinting an article on him I wrote for the Riverwest Currents.

Miss Cellania ends the blog by saying "Coming soon: more real world superheroes of the US and around the world."

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Tangen/ Krulos Crossover Special


Tangen, left, and Krulos in Riverwest

RLSH have now long known Peter Tangen as "that guy who is making us look awesome with his incredibly well produced movie posters" and Tea Krulos as "that suspicious character who is scrutinizing us." And so it's inevitable that our paths have crossed several times.

When I first heard about Peter's LA shoot for his Real Life Superhero Project I said "He did what?!" and was amazed then, as I still am today, by the scope of his project.

Peter Tangen is a real life superhero visionary.

Besides the project itself, Peter has used the project to get a lot of positive press for real life superheroes in general, as well as participating in RLSH projects other than his own.

That is what led him to Milwaukee. Peter has signed on to help with a documentary being produced in LA and has been hard at work helping with the film. The documentary crew has been touring the country and when they heard Peter would be shooting a job on location in Detroit, and then heading to Peter's home state of Minnesota, they all said, "hey wait, doesn't that suspicious character Tea Krulos live somewhere in between? Isn't he working on some sort of RLSH book?"

And so you see, I got the news that Peter Tangen was coming to Milwaukee to film me for possible use in the film and to meet our local RLSH.
"Now that is pretty sweet." I thought. And it was.
The interviewing went well, the only issue we were frustrated with was background noise. Peter (and I) both wanted me to be interviewed in my office, which made sense since my office is set up as a RLSH headquarters, as you can see from this photograph revealing it for the first time.
Photobucket
Towards the top:framed pictures of RLSH at Superheroes Anonymous 3, Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman (my patron saint for this book project),and Thomas Jefferson as well as the clocks of justice. Middle: A Calendar(one of my most important tools), bulletin board, and a US map pinpointing RLSH I've interviewed (although it badly needs to be updated). Bottom: Framed articles I've written on RLSH, messy desk, messy shelves. Far right: Another bulletin board with press I've gotten for the book so far. Far left: dart board.

Although the background was a good visual, the noise level was not. You see, my neighborhood is very noisy on a hot Sunday afternoon- kids yelling and jumping in kiddie pools, dogs, lawnmowers, car vacuums, babies, engine revving, sirens, etc. So we struggled frequently with outbursts of noise interrupting. Also, I live without air conditioning so my office got to be pretty stuffy.

Still, we kept at it and got it done. After that we had a long discussion at my kitchen table with Watchman and Blackbird. I'd like to point out that this kitchen table has so far hosted RLSH meet ups with not only a local photographer, but RLSH seekers from Paris and Los Angeles now! Not too shabby for a small upper flat in Riverwest.

We had a great conversation with Peter about his project and developements of where it might go in the future, as well as some stories from his photo shoots for the Spiderman movies and Batman Begins, and Watchman and Blackbird got to share their stories with him. Peter then hit the road, trying to get a couple hours start on his trip to Minnesota, where he was going to visit family as well as Geist and Razorhawk.

It was a great meeting and I am glad to support Peter in any way I can.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Longboard Update


I finally got a few extra bucks and so I was able to pimp my ride the way I wanted it.

On the front end of the board I attached two small but powerful LED flashlights. The initial problem was that they were rattling loudly within the brackets, but this was solved by stuffing foam between the flashlights and the brackets. The lights came in handy when I joined Watchman and Blackbird for a patrol during a streetlight blackout (Which I wrote about HERE.)

Moving down the board I painted a design just for fun. I used light blue spray paint with a couple of diamond shaped stencils and hand painted the dark blue with acrylic.

I bolted down a small am/fm radio so I can listen to the oldies station (or 91.7FM- the college radio station) while I'm cruising around town. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to hear the radio, but it turns out the volume is pretty adequate.

Next to the radio you'll notice I pasted a pin up of my favorite green skinned superheroine, the Sensational She Hulk. I guess she's there to keep me company on lengthy commutes.

Last, at the very end of the board I attached a blinking red light designed for bicycles. This is also for cruising on dark streets- I'd rather motorists saw me and I also have a blinking red light that I can attach to my back pocket or belt.

There is only one more thing I'd like to get for the board and that's a new set of wheels.

All of the supplies I used totalled up to be about 15-20 bucks. Poor men know how to find a good deal.