Flyering: Are we Pornographic?

Jesus! No! We're not pornographic. For the love of all that is decent. It's a goddamned sport. It's no more pornographic than women's basketball or soccer. Sure we ham up our femininity more. But that's all.


This girl last night at the Sleepy Time Guerrilla Museum show, who was standing with 4 man-folk around her in a semi-circle, looked at me like I was wearing pasties at church when I gently, even somewhat meekly, asked the group; "Would any of you guys be interested in seeing all women's roller derby in Oakland at the end of the Month?" "Um, no. Thanks. [smirk]" said the girl, clearly speaking for all six people present. "These guys (as if I was asking only the men-folk) are sensitive guys."

God. The hundreds of retorts I came back with--all too late. Followed by hundreds of just plain questions I now hold for her and her sensitive male entourage. The top on my list, of course, being: What is it that lead her to believe that her "sensitive" friends would not be interested in "roller derby". Yeah, I put the quotes on both of those words for a reason, ok. What does she mean by sensitive? And what does she think all women's roller derby entails?

Perhaps I am reading too much into this. Perhaps she's just a bitch. Perhaps her therapist's been out of town in Bermuda for a couple of weeks. Perhaps she thinks it's too violent for sensitive hipsters.

But my real point is: Was it something I said?
(or was it the pasties?)

New Skates, New Season, and Tucson

Ok. I have like 15 things to post. But it's been a while. We'll go semi chronologically.

1. Rockabetty Bruisers--changed their name to Long Island Roller Derby (I think I got that right). The real point here is: I skated with them over the holidays and they were awesome. Really nice. A very very young league and they really have their shit together. I know they think they don't. But they really do. I added two new drills to my book and hopefully left them with one. If you live in LI. Go check them out.

2. The 2006 B.A.D. Girls season. The scheduled dates are: Game I: Jan 28th. Game II: March 4th. Game III: April 1st. The last two are still semi-tentative. But you at least get the idea. I am really excited about this season. We learned a lot from our exhibition bout last fall and now are are ready to really rock. (and roll).

3. I got new skates. They're awesome. My brother gave me 3 bills toward them so I pitched in an extra 250 (ew. that's a a lot). But!
1. Riedell 695 boot
2. Snyder Advantage plates
3. Bones Reds bearings
4. Hyper-Shaman wheels

All of which I have skated on exactly once so far. But so far I can say: Extremely responsive. A big difference in rotational weight that I can actually notice. Very comfortable and stable boot. I am super-psyched. I hope I stay that way.

4. Tucson Dust Devil Tournament. Yep. We're going. So help us. Day 1: mini-bouts to determine your seeding for the single elimination tournament. Of course, you could get eliminated before the single elimination tournament even begins by sucking at the mini bouts. Only 4 of 6 teams in each pool of mini-bouts even advance to day 2. It's totally terrifying. We still don't know what the final set of rules will be. We don't know how any of these leagues play. Big problems could ensue, for instance, if we play a team that plays dirty. We play a super clean game with body checks and no use of the arms. And certainly no elbows, no tripping, no intentionally falling in front of another player. It's just going to be a complete crap shoot-- all these all-star teams, most of which have never played against another league, just like ours, coming together under one roof to figure out who's the best of the nation. It's going to be interesting. Stay tuned.