Whip It, a review.

Last October when I filed into the Coralridge Mall movie theater with my fellow derby girls to check out Whip It, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, I didn't feel too strongly about it one way or another. I think we all had to like it because our rouge sport was getting a bit of coverage on the big screen, but I instantly realized this movie was more about growing up an "alternative" teenager instead of roller derby.

I just finished the book by Shauna Cross by which the movie was based off of, and it definitely cemented the fact that it was about the struggles of growing up Bliss Cavendar and how roller derby helped her along the way. I can definitely relate to her teenage struggle against her parents, the mainstream and yearning for freedom.. but for me this is about 8 years too late. Although, I can't even fathom throwing roller derby into the dramatic mix of my high school years.

I was an athlete in high school, but became very discouraged by petty attitudes from teammates and the overall structure and control the school had over it. By senior year I had dropped softball and basketball, things I had played all my life. A need to return to this active part of my life I lost, and my competitive spirit is what brought me to roller derby in the first place. It's an open, welcoming organization that gives everyone a hand in the athletic and organizational aspects which ultimately lead to its success. But like Bliss, people who aren't normally drawn to being an athlete can find their niche in the derby world. It is a much larger thing than just playing a sport.

I was a poster girl as was Bliss Cavendar.

Cross did a good job of exploring the different conflicts that often plague a 16 year old girl's life. Fighting with parents. Lying to parents. Hating your parents. Having a break through with your parents, and finally understanding your parents. Crushes on boys. Dating boys. Boys breaking your heart. Getting over the boy.  Explosive, heartbreaking fights with your best friends, bitchy girl nemesis, awful high school jobs, and struggling to find yourself. For Bliss, or Babe Ruthless, derby helped her discover confidence, an accepting group of friends and what is really important in life.

Cross did a good job of telling a story I could relate to nostalgically, but what I really wanted was more roller derby. But, I guess I already made a movie about that...


-L4D

and remember. NEVER date a boy in a band.

Ups, Downs and All Arounds.

No two bouts are alike. While there are basic rules and regulations that everyone (should) follow, little things can change from bout to bout, but have big affects. When we played the Des Moines Derby Dames back on April 3rd, it was in Iowa City, on our turf, and the Dames' very first bout; we had swept them 192 to 81.
On May 22nd, we traveled to Des Moines to play them again. We also brought a very different team to play them. Ophelia Fracture, GLADi8HER, Shelby Flyin, and Zom B Blockr had opted out of this bout for travel, family, or half marathons, and Hitzy was out due to a knee injury (which she just had surgery on! yay fixed knee), and came as a co-bench coach with Tynamite. This put in more of our fresh meat or skaters who had skated less bouts. A very different line up.

For the Dames I didn't notice to much difference besides EM-80 being out, and of course Show Stopper suffering and recovering from a knee injury in the time between the these two bouts. There may have been a few others, but faces get lost in the action when you're out there skating in a whirlwind of action.

Another big difference was the floor. At home we have polished cement, which on a good day has the right amount of grip and smoothness. As a jammer I like it because my sugars (wheels) give me enough power to sprint around, but the floor has enough give to let me skid, slide, stop and dart.

The floor at the 7 flags venue was a little different than I remembered (from attending a concert way back when) and may not have been as smooth as ours but could have been comparable, if you nix the sprite mixture it was coated with. With that it did remind me of the stickyness of a wood floor but with the added joy of layering gunk on your wheels. Again, as a jammer, it did add force to your strides and gave a bit more stability on your feet, but it made plow stops hard and hockey stops impossible.

The Ref lineup was also very fresh, and the layout of things like the penalty box were different, but when it comes down to it, all these variables are meaningless. If you have a team that can work well together with an understanding of good offense and defense skills you can overcome any of these changes.

Right away I noticed the Dames were definitely not as timid as the first time we played them. They were engaging more often and accurately and were working well together while Stella was still doing her awe-inspiring, anger-enducing jamming. So the first half they showed us that we were definitely going to have to work for our win, and it wasn't going to be a sweep like last time. To me this is perfect. I want to be challenged and forced to jam harder, block more decisively and work better as a team. I could definitely see changes in other people, like Triple D. Zaster whose jamming skills just skyrocketed during this bout.

At half time, after some score flip-flopping, we finally pulled ahead 83-53. I think mentally, we finally pulled ourselves together and were working better as a team. We were doing good at staying out of the box but I think we were exhausting jammers quickly. At some point, Bat R Up was finally re-introduced as a jammer. I hadn't seen that since last October during Monster's Brawl, but as the announcer said, "RELEASE THE KRAKEN!"


At one point, when I was heading to the box, I turned around to see Furyis Jorge laying on the track in a fetal position. Then she yelped like the time she sprained her glute and I knew it wasn't good. She had taken a bad fall and broke her fibula. My heart sank as she got taken away, but the bout must go on. I think all our spirits dropped a bit as we lost a bit of our lead, but then it came to a (sudden) end at 151 to 122.

I was exhausted, and have some pretty nasty bruises after this bout, but it was exhilarating and it's great to play a quickly developing team. Without strong competition around we would have nothing to do. There are nearly ten teams in Iowa now..and teams that are already established can constantly change. This sport is on a volunteer basis only, no one is getting paid to do this, so it's through our own skill, determination and ambition that we push ourselves to get bigger, better, stronger.

It's kind of a big deal.

Deadwards -the original- out.

(Thanks Laura Foster for the great pictures.)

Eat, Sleep, Live Derby.

(note: sorry to change the format of my blog, but it was really bothering me that the text was very confined so you could never fully see pictures or video. hope this works better!)

So, my screening is in like four days and... I'm still not done. I'm making good progress, I think it would have been done a week ago if I didn't have other obligations like classes... sleeping... eating.. taking showers. I knew editing would take lots of time, but I did not anticipate exactly how much time that would be. Perhaps I'm just trying to put in more than I should ..but there's so much to derby it's hard to leave stuff out. The past few days I was feeling rather iffy about the direction of some stuff but I think tonight I smoothed it out. Now I just need to tie it all together.. and as soon as I got home 20 minutes ago I wrote out exactly how it should go.. I wish I could go back now but I have to open so I should probably get some sleep and then just bust it out tomorrow. I'll HAVE to bust it out tomorrow. That's cutting it super close.

 (these awesome pictures were taken by Ofer Sivan for Yale Cohn's story on us for the Little Village. Check out the article!)

Oh yeah, and we have a bout on Saturday. I have had no time at all to think about it. I barely even have a boutfit together! ..but seriously. I feel like I'm going to do poorly because I haven't been able to completely focus at practice, and haven't gotten a lot of sleep.. at least I've been staring at derby footage for the past month so I've subconsciously been analyzing stuff.. hopefully it kicks into gear come Saturday...

And then I can relax! oh wait.. no. I still have three classes to pass! All three projects for each have been shoved to the side so I can finish this video. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to bust those out..but it'll happen and I'm sure they'll be shitty but at this point, I just wanna graduate and then pass out for a week. (which won't really happen either)


ok, sorry. A bit of a bitch fest. I'm just trying to unload my mind so I can go to sleep!

At practice the other night we had a team meeting and it was a conversation that I think made us all realize that ..we are kinda a big deal now. The things we talked about made us sound all professional and like we're moving into a very bright future. It's funny how much coordination and structure we have to apply to everything (and everyone) now that we've grown so much. In the beginning we were all on the same level and all just trying to figure it out. I just go to practice now and don't think twice about it. That first month I was terrified and had no clue that it would become 80% of my life. I never even intended on becoming a jammer..  It seems like we all just fell into place and just so naturally became this awesome beast.

Oh, and we also re-instated derby wives. :) The fresh meat who fell into my grasp was Trauma Queen. She plainly stated to me at practice one night that she wants to skate like me. ... This is a very bizarre thing to hear, and I'm probably an awful teacher but it's exciting to see people so eager.

Hope to see you friday AND saturday.
-L4D

Rants. Raves. And a few other things.

Ok, decided I'm not liking the video blogging so much because it basically turns into me whining about something. I will perhaps do more of that in the future, but in a different way (video bloggin.. not whining).

A week ago, some of us OCCRG girls traveled to the Quad Cities to watch them play the Paper Valley Flying Squirrels (PVRG). As an avid reader may recall, the Squirrels beat us (pretty well), and we beat QC (..decently) therefore, I think everyone expected QCR to take a beating from the Squirrels (which they had already received once when they visited PVRG a month or so ago.) But that was quite the contrary..

I had arrived a little late, about a quarter into the bout, and glanced at the score board which was only like, 35 to 16 (or something like that). It wasn't until someone pointed out that PVRG was losing that I realized what I had walked in on. (I think I was also very distracted by the guy who made a giant Pink Taco hat. Hilarious) I could already tell this was going to be an awesome bout, because it had been such a low scoring match so far, and QCR was holding their lead.

A quick scan of each team, I noticed PVRG were down a couple blockers from when they played us, and up a few that I remembered from our visit to them last December. QCR's lineups still confuses me because of their recent wave of new skaters to their roster which they seem to be keeping locked in. Since they've been keeping such a regular roster this season they have been working really well with each other, thus the amazing walls and blocking I was seeing that night. QCR was hitting right off the line, and often throughout jams. Pink Taco seemed to be blocking more than jamming, which was quite the switch off, and Lady Gotcha and Nancy Screw were jamming up a storm.

I could SEE the anxiety in the PVRG team. Their jammers seemed be scrambling for every point, often employing the 'hit it and quit it' method. (Hitting the pack, getting their four points and calling it off.) This made me laugh a little, because since I've been working so closely with the footage of our bout vs them, I noticed how almost bored their jammers had looked.. probably because they slid through our pack with ease. (since half of it was in the penalty box at any given time..)

By half time the score was a mere 51-35, QCR in the lead.

It was also at this time that 'parkles was kidnapped and was not seen until the next day. Trust no one.

The second half was quite the nail biter. You could tell the tension was getting to each team because there was some ...shall we say, catty attitudes between the teams. There is often taunting in roller derby, but sometimes you can't tell if someone will go overboard with it and take action on their frustration. It was kept to a minimum and the derby action continued. Soon it was tied at 60 with twenty minutes left in the bout. Hit it and quit it was working for PVRG in gaining some points, but QCR was not letting up. The score stayed tight for another 10 minutes and then QCR pulled into a ten point lead, 74-64.

With 3 minutes left it was a close bout at 105-94. At this point I wasn't completely sure QCR had won it. Even though there was so little time, and QCR still had a ten point lead, single jam's can decide the fate of a game. A jammer could be called to the box leaving no scoring possibilities, or good strategy can fit two jams into this time. It's also not impossible for 10-20 points in a single jam. Never underestimate roller derby.

With the crowd on their feet, and emotions flowing, QCR sealed it at 105-94. (Sorry, I feel like I should have had a more exciting description of the last jam, but I put off writing up this bout coverage, and obviously I got more into the bout at the end because my notes became lacking.)

It was nice to see a bout that I could just relax and watch...but still take part in after party festivities. Hanging out with the Quad City girls (and boys) is always a good time... Despite the awful acoustic guy they always have at the bar afterwards.. Don't they realize derby girls just want to dance??

The past few weeks with editing has been tough, exhausting, and frustrating.. but I'm getting good progress and i'm getting super excited for the screening.. which will be May 7th. (the night before our home bout.. teehee). There is actually hype growing over it, mostly from derby girls heh, but people who won't be able to make it have requested that they still want to see it.. which has me toying with the idea of a screening tour, visiting different derby leagues, showing the movie and hanging out. I'll be graduated soon and don't really know what my future holds, but that sounds like something I definitely want to do..

Another thing that has been keeping me busy is orchestrating the next home bout which is being sponsored by the Avoid the Stork campaign. Kelly, a girl I work with at the coffee shop works for them, so in talking to her we decided they need to sponsor a bout for us. and ta-da! "Rather Get Knocked Down than Knocked Up" will be May 8th. I'm super excited, and they have been amazing to work with. It should be a fantastic bout.

-L4Deadkins

derbyderbyderby!

Oh hiiiii 1:00 am..we meet again. And I'm still in the lab. The next few weeks will be media lab all day every day that I'm not working, in class or sleeping. ...but at least it's about DERBY!

Here's more of me.. sweaty, smelly me.



-smellsies

The horrors of editing...

So, filming is all fun and games.. but the meat of this project is EDITING. That's when you realize filming should have been less fun and you should have been more meticulous, and thoughtful about what you were filming...




-L4D

Tenderized Meat

Going through footage for my BFA project, I become more and more impressed with the group of girls I skate with. Our numbers are growing so large we will have to break into multiple teams under the league name of OCCRG, according to WFTDA standards, our ultimate goal. (There can only be 20 players to a team.)

I'm impressed with the teams in the area in general, and the progression of roller derby as a sport. My quick assessment of it in Iowa, is that there are eight teams beginning in the past four years: MIR April 2006, QCR 2006, MRN multiple incarnations since.. ?, SCRD Feb 2008, CRRG Feb 2008, OCCRG Oct 2008, D3 June 2009, and the Eastern Iowa Outlaws are just forming their team this year.


I feel like within the context of these teams, the timeline of events and each enjoying their own variations of success, we have progressed so rapidly and reached this level of athleticism and organization within a year and half... it's impressive. I attend practices with faces I don't know now, when I used to know the faces..and sweat of each of my teammates intimately. We've gone from filling a rec center gym, to scrambling for seats in the Marriott Convention Center. It's exciting, scary and amazing all at the same time. I'll be graduating soon with no real direction professionally, but it feels good to have this thing in my life that I am so proud of, so sure of, so happy to be a part of.

With that said, we played the Des Moines Derby Dames last weekend in their debut on the flat track. I was a bit wary of them bouting so soon, but I have to say, I'm quite impressed. I can tell they're a determined, eager team that will be a strong and intimidating competition in no time.

Also debuting last weekend were Old Yeller and Chemical Spill from our team, playing their first bout. Our fresh meat have been working hard on the track and off the track. I feel confident walking into the convention center on bout day because we have a strong organizational support staff of non-bouters holding down the fort.

Like I've said before, there's much more to roller derby than just the action, it takes way more people to put on a successful bout. Announcers, sound mixers, multiple people for stats inside the track and outside the track, scorers, multiple refs, merch ladies, people controlling the door, bout mistresses, security, EMTs, the staff at the Marriott, extra hands to set up, bout coverage, half time entertainment, .... all volunteer.

Not to mention, none of this would be possible without our fans. Our success can only progress with an audience who is as eager about the sport as we are. So please encourage anyone and everyone who has never seen a bout before to come check it out.. or even join. We love your support already this season.


-Deadykins

pssst. next bout, May 8th vs Cedar Rapids Roller Girls..