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

[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.