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David Suen (middle), of the Mission District, emerges from the Telephone Booth at the Superhero Street Fair as his alter-ego, Super Say Wha? thanks to the creative expertise of Madame Eggplant (right) and Golden Rod (left).

September 2009

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Superhero Street Fair!

By Greg Thomas

Caped crusaders materialized en masse behind a Dogpatch warehouse this summer, to defend their neighborhood and express their truest and most super selves.  Roughly 3,000 costumed characters found their way to the water’s edge at the most southern stretch of Indiana Street, where, under the blazing sun and blasting beats, they shed their alter egos and got loose.

Proceeds from Where Ordinary People Do Extraordinary Things – $10 admission for costumed people, $20 for those in “Clark Kent” attire – were donated to Hunters Point Family, San Francisco Food Bank, Bayview Opera House, Box Shop, India Basin Neighborhood Association, and artist Peter Hudson.  “Each of them has truly made our community a better place,” stated the fair’s press release.  “We wanted to recognize [these organizations] for their superhero-like qualities that inspire us and, we hope, you too, in order to bring out the superhero in each of us,” said fair co-producer Laird Archer.

“Anyone who dresses up gets an ‘A’ in my book,” said Rick Pickett, a tower of a man clad in brown head-to-toe spandex.   Sporting a pink, fabric heart symbol sewed to his chest, Pickett identified as one of about a half-dozen “Love Bandits” roaming from stage to stage in one-piece neon-colored suits. Standing beside him, one of his arch nemeses, Luke Johnson, expounded on the merits of superherodom.  “There’s a certain power in anonymity and total celebrity,” Johnson said from behind a pair of dark sunglasses. “I have to hide my identity. It’s part of what makes me super.”

The street fair took place on the Mayan Day Out of Time.  “According to the ancient Mayan Thirteen Moon Calendar, the extra “Day Out of Time” added at the end of the 13 Moon cycle is an occasion to cancel debts, to pardon and forgive, and to celebrate life through art and culture,” the press release stated. “It is on this day that we refocus on our actions and ways to improve our community.”

The fair marked the first public event held at the Islais Creek Promenade.  The promenade extends roughly 100 yards along the bay near 3rd Street and Cesar Chavez, and is a magnet for skateboarders. Their kick-flips and aerials added to the festive environment, which included collections of comic-influenced works by graphic artists and video artists.

Uninitiated, un-costumed event could find their alter ego at Madame Eggplant’s, a.k.a. Davia DePaolis of Bernal Heights, Telephone Booth, a throwback to a pre-cell phone era when the booths served superheroes as on-the-go sidewalk changing rooms. Ordinary Jack and Jane Doe’s entered and, voila!; eye-masked, belted, caped and transformed into their super alter egos.

“I’m here to take care of the super people who forgot their costumes,” DePaolis said. “Sometimes, superheroes can be super forgetful!”

For fair info; superherosf.com.

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