The escapades of "real-life superheroes"

These guys obviously didn't take the hint from The Dark Knight that non-celebrity vigilantes just get in the way. Calling themselves "real-life superheroes" or "reals," they patrol the streets to various levels of success fighting crime and looking like a bitchin' Devo luchadore, if this photo from Rolling Stone is at all reliable. Armed legally with their fists, a "pepper spray cannon" or stun gun (so they don't break any laws), these people are "superheroes" in the same sense that friendly biker gangs are - they patrol when they can, trying to help people and break up small scuffles and minor evildoing along the way. The big stuff still goes to the police, though it's arguable that a visible "superhero" presence in a community could have an effect on crime; even for cowardly, superstitious evildoers, the image of the renegade superhero is pretty well imprinted upon our minds.

Rolling Stone elaborates on their rationale:

Although Master Legend was one of the first to call himself a Real Life Superhero, in recent years a growing network of similarly homespun caped crusaders has emerged across the country. Some were inspired by 9/11. If malevolent individuals can threaten the world, the argument goes, why can't other individuals step up to save it? "What is Osama bin Laden if not a supervillain, off in his cave, scheming to destroy us?" asks Green Scorpion, a masked avenger in Arizona.

It's beyond stupid to point out that these people don't have superpowers, intelligent cars or subterranean secret lairs, but civil liberties groups should appreciate the effect they have on society and our good men and women in law enforcement by testing the limits of a citizen's ability to enforce the law on their own. If they cooperate with the police as normal citizens and don't break any weapons laws, it's fair to say they'll have a discouraging effect on street crime. And they get to wear cool costumes while they're at it.

But these guys run into problems not faced by superfolk with more interesting origin stories:

Artemis of San Diego reported on his blog that he had heard a woman screaming outside his home but by the time he had dressed up in his costume the police were already there. Kevlex, 47, who runs the Superhero Registry, says he patrols more in winter than summer in Arizona, when his Kevlar and Spandex kit itches. But the deadliest kryptonite against a superhero is boredom.

“I was out every night, 8pm until 2am, hanging about all the bad corners and nothing happened, nada, zip,” recalled Mr Invisible. “It was raining: even the drug dealers were at home. And often cops are just too good at their jobs."

(Rolling Stone and TimesOnline through BoingBoing - you may also enjoy this article on the Black Monday Society, a similar Utah group)

The Changing Music Model - Codified

BoingBoing is such a handy receptable of copyfight news that it should come as no surprise that I tend to pull from it quite often. Today they've put up a fantastic, heartwarming address from Ian Rogers about the changing music industry, which codifies the way things are changing quite nicely (and reprints all of his slides to boot!):


The gist of this is a shift to a more intimate commercial model - one which offers far more freedom for artists and consumers, as well as offering a space for smaller-scale musicians to eke out a modest living without needing a record label or even complete albums to get started. Naturally, the record companies, who are rapidly finding themselves less and less useful as music becomes more and more consumer-driven, are trying to impose artificial boundaries and ridiculous business models in place to continue to consolidate their power. It's a house of cards that has already fallen, and they don't even know it.

All this as the actual value of music begins to decrease. People are listening to more and more music and have a greater ability to find out what they like and don't like before making a purchase, meaning that an individual album is no longer the investment that it used to be and people have the chance to pay much closer to the actual worth they see in a record. It's the same reason movie theaters offer "overpriced" popcorn and candy. Some people really do enjoy the film enough that a $3.75 Coke isn't that much of an investment. It allows the theater to fill in the cracks while keeping tickets relatively affordable. If movie theaters began searching movie patrons for outside food and drink they'd see an immediate decline in attendance.

The best part of this is that this shift is inevitable. For the first time artists have the freedom to make most of their income from shirt sales or concerts or digital donations or any other number of products they can offer. Fugazi has been doing it successfully for years, only now we have an entire worldwide technology platform dedicated to communication, sharing. Record labels still have their uses, but they're no longer as relevant to the market as they used to be, and no amount of consumer-diddling will alter the fact that things have changed forever, and changed for the better. There's no reason to get frustrated at the RIAA, DRM, labels or music moguls. It's over, their days are numbered. Creative expression and people will win out in the end. The alternative is trillions and trillions of dollars of lawsuits to fight inevitability, like trying to build a dam by pouring jello mix in the Colorado River.

Those are my words. Now read Ian's. And read this while you're at it.

"Alice"

An amazing, bewitching remix of (mostly) audio from Disney's adaptation of 'Alice in Wonderland'. The masterful work done on this track reminds me of some of Burial's better work, or even of The Avalanches, who know a thing or two about cohesive sampling.

The guy's got this and two other full-quality tracks on his MySpace up for download, and all three tracks are going straight to my iPod. Watch and download these before YouTube and MySpace forget Fair Use and take 'em down. . .



(via BoingBoing and LastFM)

Muto - A Trip Worth Taking

The following is recommended by Penny Arcade's Tycho, who sez: "Don't ask what: just click, and be enriched." I'll say a little more: this moving mural is a marvel. Blurby alliterations aside, it never loses your attention for a second and sustains itself for far longer than you'd expect. The fantastic sound effects and neat tricks employed throughout the project hold your attention. This is a fantastic, surreal work - the sort of thing that Gahan Wilson might do, and everybody should see it. So - watch Muto, and be enlightened.

Bonus points if you can figure out the location from the video (it's not too difficult).

Refacing Government Tender - Dollar Art

Our money is more than legal tender. These presidential portraits have been a part of the popular culture for so long that that they've become a part of the culture in their own right. Bill graffiti has been around for some time, but I have never quite seen it as ornate and outright hilarious as from flickr's own Joe D!. (The exclamation point is part of his name and not an outpouring of excitement on my part, much as I love this link.)

Joe's posted 75 images of bill defacements - often minimalist, occasionally blurry and obscure but always uproarious. Check out his gallery for the complete series.

Refacing Government Tender (flickr via Boingboing)

Spontaneous Food Court Musical

Improv Everywhere is no stranger to wonderful, life-affirming public comedy. These are the guys that did the Grand Central Station Freeze, one of the coolest pranks-bordering-on-performance-art that we've been blessed with in recent times.

With the performance shown in this new clip, they may have stumbled into the Best Thing Ever. Am I going too far with this? Suffice it to say that you have to watch this. You can thank me later. Or not.

If your filter blocks the higher-resolution Revver embedding, you can try the YouTube link. If you can't access YouTube then I don't know what to tell you.