Crash and burn

[randy_byers]

Well, the social whirl has continued post-Worldcon with the arrival of the TAFF delegate, Steve Green. Friday was a small private party/BBQ that was very pleasant. Saturday I joined Steve and his tenders (Ulrika and Hal O'Brien), along with Luke McGuff and Dave O'Neill, for some roller derby at an arena in Kent. The Rat City Roller Girls were playing the Windy City All Stars. There was a warm-up match of local teams before that, then a match for little girls (or "brats," in the vernacular). The basic problem I had was that I didn't understand the point system, so it was difficult to follow the dramatics. There still seems to be a heavy element of exploitation/burlesque in this sport (à la professional wrestling), but there were a lot of young women in the crowd, so it clearly isn't aimed solely at pervy old men. One thing I noticed is that all the teams were almost completely white, except maybe for the little girl teams.

We had to leave the main match at halftime to go to a party for Steve at Jerry and Suzle's that had gotten underway without us. Fairly small, but a great group of folks. Andy Hooper claimed that I have a limp dick because I'm interested in Eastercon politics. Ha! That isn't why I have a limp dick! In other news, it sounds as though Victor is considering going to the Corflu in Winchester next year.

On Sunday I joined Steve and his tenders, along with Jerry, Suzle, John D. Berry, and Marilyn Holt, at the Big Time for a few pints and the usual bollocks. Steve has some interesting ideas about how to publish his TAFF report, but I guess I better keep mum about that for now.

Hal and Ulrika (mostly Hal) took some great photos from various of these events. We often joke about how many fan fund winners live in Seattle, but this is the first time that I know of that most of us have been captured in one photo. (Missing is another DUFF-winner, Janice Murray.)

The upshot of all this, on top of the Worldcon, is that I went to bed at 8pm last night, read for a little bit, and zonked out until the alarm went off at 6am. Man, did that feel good! Best sleep in ages. I feel so much better today than I have in days. The toe I stubbed on a brick on Sunday is feeling fine today, too, so it probably isn't broken after all. Huzzah!

Steve headed to the Bay Area yesterday. Treat him well down there!

Comments

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

Great pics; kudos to Hal. My fave is the last one, with all the glasses in the foreground -- great portrait of you and Steve and Jerry, worth framing.

So what did Steve think of the roller derby? Are there events like that in Britain? (Sports ignoramus that I am.)

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Apparently there is roller derby in the UK, but Steve had never seen it before. He seemed to enjoy the spectacle, but then again, he is a pervy old man.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I think it's more what happens if you let geeky 14 year olds design their own sport :)

Wish I'd found it as a teenager :) I'd have been happy to be a groupy.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Ron. (As it happens, I took the one of the three with the beer glasses in the foreground.)

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

Thanks for clarifying; great pic, as I said -- iconographic. Framed prints might make nice prezzies for the subjects, the human ones anyway. A pint!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I somehow read your first sentence as being about the "TAFF degenerate" which would probably fit some past winners better than it does Steve.

If I had realized you weren't picking up the rules as we went along on the roller derby I would have given you my surmises. As it turns out, I figured out most of it as the evening progressed, mostly by listening to the color announcers. It does definitely make it more exciting once you know what you're seeing. In particular, knowing that the two players with stars on their helmets (the jammers) are the only ones who can score points, and they score points by lapping the opposing pack, made a lot of things fall into place for me. It also helped to figure out that the accumulated points did not seem to hit the board until the referees vetted them after each jam.

Interestingly, I didn't find the thing especially exploitative. You have to be a pretty progressive-thinking male to dig on the rather wide range of body types and fairly un-revealing uniforms the women wear. Unless you think women's basketball is exploitative, I'd give roller derby a pass. I think the Wikipedia assessment of the enterprise as having a strong third wave feminist streak is probably right. Certainly the punk-esthetic and indie DIY aspects are there.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the further perspective. There were a couple of things that sent up warning flags for me ("drinks with the girls after the match!" and an ad on the scoreboard that flirted with the idea of topless derby girls), but I did get a feeling of grrl power too.

I also figured out that thing about the jammers, but how points were allotted for specific actions/plays (e.g., what qualifies as a "grand slam") remained a mystery. Dave quipped that they were probably making that part up, and I kept expecting someone to announce that we had just seen a royal fizzbin.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I'm not positive, but I got the sense that the grand slam was the moniker for the third scoring pass in the same jam. You may have noticed that lapping the pack four times was fairly rare in a given bout.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

A definite possibility. The wiki page says you get a point for every player (on the other team?) that you pass when you are the lead jammer. It doesn't mention grand slams.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

No, but this page does.

A grand slam is when the jammer from one team laps all the skaters on the opposing team, including the opposing jammer -- lapping everyone is worth an extra point.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Interesting, thanks! I had the impression that a grand slam was worth considerably more than one extra point, but probably that's because with so many people having been lapped, the point total is going to be large even without the extra one. Presumably when there's more than one lapping in the jam, there's always a grand slam involved.

[catabolism.livejournal.com]

I hope it wasn't the prospect of going to Winchester that made Victor look so miserable in the fan-fund winners picture! By the way, are you going to be there? I'm so out of the loop I don't know who's going (apart from me and Doug)

I liked the picture with the beer glasses too! It shows you were taking proper care of Steve!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not sure why Victor was playing Eeyore in that picture. Perhaps he was feeling his gafiation. Don't think I'll be making it to Corflu Cobalt, unfortunately. I believe Jerry and Suzle are hoping to go.

As for Steve, I think we did okay by him, although it's true I only got him one pint at roller derby.

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

Membership list here: http://www.corflu.org/memberlist.html

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Over 80 members already! (Including supporting.)