by Flack » Sun Mar 18, 2012 9:18 am
Went to Roller Derby last night for the first time. I'll probably work this into a longer (and more polished) blog post tomorrow morning, but here are my initial thoughts.
As a kid back in the 80s I used to watch Midsouth Wrestling on television (and occasionally in person, when they would blow into town). Before (or maybe after, I can't remember) wrestling on channel 34 was roller derby. I remember watching it a few times, although I wouldn't call myself a fan.
A few years back I heard that there was a women's roller derby league here in OKC. I've been meaning to go ever since I heard that, but hadn't made it until last night.
Tickets are $15 for adults and kids are free. I think the door cost covers rental of the Farmer's Market, which is a nicely suited venue for roller derby as it used to be a roller skating rink. Other than the ticket prices, I found everything else to be pretty reasonable. The kids each had a Coke for $2, Susan and I had mixed drinks for $3, and they were having a bake sale with home made desserts for a buck.
Roller derby is pretty complicated, or at least difficult to figure out for first time viewers. I still don't understand most of it. Two teams of women skate around in a circle. If someone goes around first they can score points. If someone from the other team skates around, they can ... do something else. I don't know. Chicks in tights skate around and push each other down and get fouls. I did not feel like my lack of comprehending the sport detracted from my enjoyment of the event.
So after half an hour or so of skating, we hit half time. There's no way to tell this story without sounding like a complete asshole, but I'll try. Basically, halftime was a fund raiser for cancer research, so they did a thing where they shaved people's heads and took donations in a hat. This doesn't sound bad except it lasted over an hour. It went on for-ev-er. They shaved at least 20 people's heads and there was simply nothing else to do other than sit there and wait. It wouldn't have been so bad if I had been there with a couple of guys and we could have chatted and drank beer, but I was there with my wife and two children who were bored out of their skulls. I mean, they were bored 10 minutes into it, and it lasted an hour. And they were asking people for a buck. Like I said, I am completely sympathetic to the cause, but I would be lying if said I didn't consider making a large cash donation in the name of moving this along and getting back to the roller derby.
Unfortunately that lasted SO long that by the time the girls came back out -- I'm guessing a 90 minute break, but I could be wrong -- that the kids had lost interest, and we left near the end of the third period.
Anyway, here are the pictures I shot last night.
http://robohara.com/photo/index.php?alb ... y_03172012Went to Roller Derby last night for the first time. I'll probably work this into a longer (and more polished) blog post tomorrow morning, but here are my initial thoughts.
As a kid back in the 80s I used to watch Midsouth Wrestling on television (and occasionally in person, when they would blow into town). Before (or maybe after, I can't remember) wrestling on channel 34 was roller derby. I remember watching it a few times, although I wouldn't call myself a fan.
A few years back I heard that there was a women's roller derby league here in OKC. I've been meaning to go ever since I heard that, but hadn't made it until last night.
Tickets are $15 for adults and kids are free. I think the door cost covers rental of the Farmer's Market, which is a nicely suited venue for roller derby as it used to be a roller skating rink. Other than the ticket prices, I found everything else to be pretty reasonable. The kids each had a Coke for $2, Susan and I had mixed drinks for $3, and they were having a bake sale with home made desserts for a buck.
Roller derby is pretty complicated, or at least difficult to figure out for first time viewers. I still don't understand most of it. Two teams of women skate around in a circle. If someone goes around first they can score points. If someone from the other team skates around, they can ... do something else. I don't know. Chicks in tights skate around and push each other down and get fouls. I did not feel like my lack of comprehending the sport detracted from my enjoyment of the event.
So after half an hour or so of skating, we hit half time. There's no way to tell this story without sounding like a complete asshole, but I'll try. Basically, halftime was a fund raiser for cancer research, so they did a thing where they shaved people's heads and took donations in a hat. This doesn't sound bad except it lasted over an hour. It went on for-ev-er. They shaved at least 20 people's heads and there was simply nothing else to do other than sit there and wait. It wouldn't have been so bad if I had been there with a couple of guys and we could have chatted and drank beer, but I was there with my wife and two children who were bored out of their skulls. I mean, they were bored 10 minutes into it, and it lasted an hour. And they were asking people for a buck. Like I said, I am completely sympathetic to the cause, but I would be lying if said I didn't consider making a large cash donation in the name of moving this along and getting back to the roller derby.
Unfortunately that lasted SO long that by the time the girls came back out -- I'm guessing a 90 minute break, but I could be wrong -- that the kids had lost interest, and we left near the end of the third period.
Anyway, here are the pictures I shot last night.
http://robohara.com/photo/index.php?album=Misc/Roller_Derby_03172012