Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Girlfight
Sunday night my friend took me to the rollerderby. I wasn't really sure what to expect, since my exposure to the sport was really limited to a vague recollection of having seen clips of people in lime green short shorts tearing at each other's feathered hair while going around in circles, but I couldn't really think of any better way to spend The Lord's Day, so I decided to give it a go. As it turns out, the rollerderby is totally awesome and you should definitely go right away, although chances are there isn't one going on on a Tuesday night at 8 PM.
First of all, the girls all make up awesome nicknames for themselves, like "Beth Amphetamine" (being me, I immediately thought of Beth from the Real World Road Rules Challenges) and "Celia Coffin." I tried to think of what my nickname would be if I were in the rollerderby, but I just kept coming up with things like "Mr. Mild Annoyance" and "Please Don't Hurt Me," so perhaps I'm not butch enough.
Second, there's an element of costumery involved. Lots of the girls were wearing amusingly severe makeup (think Katherine Harris on skates) and, since it was a regional battle, our team had outfits with the stars and waves from the Chicago flag on them, which teaches children about history as well as gratuitous nudity.
But the main attraction has to be the violence! The whole point of the sport is to try to keep people from skating past you, and there's all kinds of falling, skidding, and even punching involved. There had to have been at least six injuries while I was there. They have a paramedic on their staff! That's what we need at my office.
So yeah. The rollerderby is fun, in case you haven't gathered.
Sunday night my friend took me to the rollerderby. I wasn't really sure what to expect, since my exposure to the sport was really limited to a vague recollection of having seen clips of people in lime green short shorts tearing at each other's feathered hair while going around in circles, but I couldn't really think of any better way to spend The Lord's Day, so I decided to give it a go. As it turns out, the rollerderby is totally awesome and you should definitely go right away, although chances are there isn't one going on on a Tuesday night at 8 PM.
First of all, the girls all make up awesome nicknames for themselves, like "Beth Amphetamine" (being me, I immediately thought of Beth from the Real World Road Rules Challenges) and "Celia Coffin." I tried to think of what my nickname would be if I were in the rollerderby, but I just kept coming up with things like "Mr. Mild Annoyance" and "Please Don't Hurt Me," so perhaps I'm not butch enough.
Second, there's an element of costumery involved. Lots of the girls were wearing amusingly severe makeup (think Katherine Harris on skates) and, since it was a regional battle, our team had outfits with the stars and waves from the Chicago flag on them, which teaches children about history as well as gratuitous nudity.
But the main attraction has to be the violence! The whole point of the sport is to try to keep people from skating past you, and there's all kinds of falling, skidding, and even punching involved. There had to have been at least six injuries while I was there. They have a paramedic on their staff! That's what we need at my office.
So yeah. The rollerderby is fun, in case you haven't gathered.
