Roller derby!
Dec. 6th, 2009 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
And Savage Aural Hotbed!
Yesterday was how Saturdays were meant to be spent, except for going to the eye doctor in the morning accompanied by a low grade migraine. As it turned out, the changes in vision I thought I was having were imaginary so that was good news. Picked up new spare pair of glasses on sale, then went off to go get my hair cut.
A couple of hours of errands, kitty loves and fiction reading later, mr_bad_example stopped by to pick me up and we headed for downtown to meet Jana (who was teaching at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts) at Hell's Kitchen (restaurant, not neighborhood in NY). We had all conveniently forgotten that it was, yippee, the Holidazzle Parade. Think tacky, corporate-sponsored floats with many little lights and hordes of folks running around with cold, hyper small children. It runs a few nights a week for a month between Thanksgiving and Xmas and ensures that most restaurants downtown are packed before, during and after. Good for downtown, not so great for anyone who wants to be at an unrelated event in the vicinity.
So dinner came from one of the sidewalk carts while walking back to the Convention Center to catch the Northstar Roller Girls in action. Neither Jana nor I had made it to a game before so we decided it was time to satisfy our curiosity. Would they all look (and behave) like Raquel Welsh in Kansas City Bomber? Not that that wouldn't have its charms, mind you, but we weren't really expecting it. The event as a whole was both more and less interesting than we imagined. The most noticeable aspect of the roller derby phenom is how excited people get about it. We stopped off at one of the ticket booths and asked the woman (who appeared to be in her sixties and had a little glass beauty mark affixed to her cheek) if she was selling the derby tix and her response was a very disappointed, "No! But that would be so cool. You need to head over to Section D."
Tickets were eventually acquired and we went off to our dinner mishap. When we got back, there was a sizable line to get in. The crowd was an interesting mix of hipsters, families with teenage girls, women of various ages in groups, dating couples and sundry other folk, all quite excited about the event. Once inside, there were sundry booths for the various sponsors (Peace Coffee, VitaMN, etc.), merchandise, and to our pleased surprise, Savage Aural Hotbed, revving up to be the halftime show. Hotbed is a percussive group that also plays with fire and various kinds of industrial equipment, much of it found objects; in short, fun. And there were lots of women in fishnets and costumes on roller skates so all good so far.
We got into our bleacher seats and 20 minutes of unbelievably awful sound system, inept Kiss impersonations, air guitar and the discovery that we were sitting in front of one of the retired players, blessed with a voice like Fran Drescher's, and with volume to boot, we got started on the first jam. Mostly, we learned that we knew zip about roller derby. The former player behind us was helpfully providing an ongoing voiceover commentary for her companions though, and that made it possible for us to get somewhat caught up by the end of the first period. This was good, since what we could hear from the announcers was something along the lines of, "Mumble! Mumble-argle...Crasher! Argle...zzzz."
By the second period, things had picked up. We understood the scoring system better and the teams were much more equally matched. There was some good skating and some exciting spills. The enthusiasm level made a bit more sense. Savage Aural Hotbed came on shortly thereafter and played a great set and the next two periods were quite good. The lack of teamwork that we saw in the first period seemed to be getting resolved and there were some really thrilling moments. We were still mystified about when and why some calls got made but were reasonably impressed with the teams as athletes (which can be taken at face value, seeing as we personally struggle with coach potatohood). They certainly gave it their all, as the various team members wearing casts on the sidelines could attest. Next time, I think we'll try the Minnesota Roller Girls for the sake of comparison.
Yesterday was how Saturdays were meant to be spent, except for going to the eye doctor in the morning accompanied by a low grade migraine. As it turned out, the changes in vision I thought I was having were imaginary so that was good news. Picked up new spare pair of glasses on sale, then went off to go get my hair cut.
A couple of hours of errands, kitty loves and fiction reading later, mr_bad_example stopped by to pick me up and we headed for downtown to meet Jana (who was teaching at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts) at Hell's Kitchen (restaurant, not neighborhood in NY). We had all conveniently forgotten that it was, yippee, the Holidazzle Parade. Think tacky, corporate-sponsored floats with many little lights and hordes of folks running around with cold, hyper small children. It runs a few nights a week for a month between Thanksgiving and Xmas and ensures that most restaurants downtown are packed before, during and after. Good for downtown, not so great for anyone who wants to be at an unrelated event in the vicinity.
So dinner came from one of the sidewalk carts while walking back to the Convention Center to catch the Northstar Roller Girls in action. Neither Jana nor I had made it to a game before so we decided it was time to satisfy our curiosity. Would they all look (and behave) like Raquel Welsh in Kansas City Bomber? Not that that wouldn't have its charms, mind you, but we weren't really expecting it. The event as a whole was both more and less interesting than we imagined. The most noticeable aspect of the roller derby phenom is how excited people get about it. We stopped off at one of the ticket booths and asked the woman (who appeared to be in her sixties and had a little glass beauty mark affixed to her cheek) if she was selling the derby tix and her response was a very disappointed, "No! But that would be so cool. You need to head over to Section D."
Tickets were eventually acquired and we went off to our dinner mishap. When we got back, there was a sizable line to get in. The crowd was an interesting mix of hipsters, families with teenage girls, women of various ages in groups, dating couples and sundry other folk, all quite excited about the event. Once inside, there were sundry booths for the various sponsors (Peace Coffee, VitaMN, etc.), merchandise, and to our pleased surprise, Savage Aural Hotbed, revving up to be the halftime show. Hotbed is a percussive group that also plays with fire and various kinds of industrial equipment, much of it found objects; in short, fun. And there were lots of women in fishnets and costumes on roller skates so all good so far.
We got into our bleacher seats and 20 minutes of unbelievably awful sound system, inept Kiss impersonations, air guitar and the discovery that we were sitting in front of one of the retired players, blessed with a voice like Fran Drescher's, and with volume to boot, we got started on the first jam. Mostly, we learned that we knew zip about roller derby. The former player behind us was helpfully providing an ongoing voiceover commentary for her companions though, and that made it possible for us to get somewhat caught up by the end of the first period. This was good, since what we could hear from the announcers was something along the lines of, "Mumble! Mumble-argle...Crasher! Argle...zzzz."
By the second period, things had picked up. We understood the scoring system better and the teams were much more equally matched. There was some good skating and some exciting spills. The enthusiasm level made a bit more sense. Savage Aural Hotbed came on shortly thereafter and played a great set and the next two periods were quite good. The lack of teamwork that we saw in the first period seemed to be getting resolved and there were some really thrilling moments. We were still mystified about when and why some calls got made but were reasonably impressed with the teams as athletes (which can be taken at face value, seeing as we personally struggle with coach potatohood). They certainly gave it their all, as the various team members wearing casts on the sidelines could attest. Next time, I think we'll try the Minnesota Roller Girls for the sake of comparison.