Ladies Rock Camp Austin

Tonight was the homecoming game of the high school where I work, and it happened to be against the school where Lennon works.  So fostering rivalry, we spent most of our Friday night watching Texas high school football and a Grambling/Prairie View A&M style half-time show.

 
Most awesome drum major ever.  Although the kids at my current school are quite impressive as well.  I know if my Chicago-suburb-Jr-High band had been asked to move like that, disastrous things would have followed.

Afterward, being fiscally conservative and taking Lennon's ulcer into consideration, we went out for coffee.  Flightpath is a favorite, and now I like it even more knowing it was an important site in the birth of Austin Roller Derby.  After sitting down, I looked up and my eye was immediatley caught by a poster pasted in the community corner.  Can you guess which one....??

Ladies Rock Camp!  I've been checking out information about Girls Rock Camp for a while because I'm interested in contracting them in the future as a vendor for my after school program.  Their website makes me both wistful and bitter that there wasn't anything like that for me when I was in high school in Arkansas.  So the tag line on the poster at Flightpath spoke to me directly: "Wish you had Girls Rock Camp when you were young?"  Um, yes! 

So I jumped over to their website, and the camp is on the calendar for next weekend, Oct 23rd-25th.  I'm free!  Sadly for the poor among us (but good news for the new non-profit), the camp is not free.  It's $350 for attendance, but they offer a payment installment plan.  In the description of the program it is written in large capitol letters: NO MUSICAL EXPERIENCE NECESSARY.  Awesome.  I fit the bill.  Unless my clarinet and choir days from Jr. High count... probably not. 

While I am super excited about the possibility of attending, (I haven't registered yet), I get concerned when the voice in my head tells me I am taking on too many things.  Being brand new at my job, I am constantly swamped, if only from doing everything without really knowing how.  Being bored has also never been an issue with me, as I have too many hobbies, too many interests, too many books I want to read, and too many blogs that I do read. 

One of these blogs is Zen Habits, a site that discusses living simply and with purpose for maximum serenity and fulfillment both with what one has and what one can accomplish.  Today, their post was entitled: Coding Simplicity: How to Avoid Feature Creep In Your Life.  Basically, this was a metaphor using technology that works initially, then gets so over packed with features and functions, that it no longer performs well.  The obvious translation: if one doesn't streamline their endeavors, they become the dreaded jack of all trades but master of none.

My own interest list could span scrolls: reading, The New York Times, my blog reader, writing, acrylic paints, oil pastels, Catch hrase tournaments, baking, music, travel, writing, decorating, cook books, slam poetry, dusty poetry, fruit flavored craft beer, loose tea... and I rarely commit to exploring any one thing for more than a couple days, when it is then shelved and returned to a month or more later. 

So, while my wanting to attend Rock Camp may add to my bloat, I don't foresee many demands on my time coming from it.  Although hopefully I'll meet some ladies that I'll want to remain friends with.  It also prompts me to think about how I should try streamlining my time since I've been overly tired recently.

My priority hobby list:

1) Read a few pages from a book every day

2) Follow my blog reader + post comments

3) Make dinner at least three times a week

4) Bread baking on weekends

5) Create a blog post at least five times a week.

6) Yoga twice a week

7) Get mentally prepared for NaNoWrMo

8) Learn how to use the digital camera I will hopefully buy soon, and then take it everywhere

9) Journal art

That's not too bad, and if I consider it organic, then I can whittle and modify the list to make sure I'm channeling my focus on to projects and interests I genuinley want to see flourish.  This may mean I need to vacuum less obsessively. 

Otherwise, I'd hate to go the way of the PC.... (even though I love my PinkVaio).

Speaking of keeping hobbies to a manageable level.... oh, snap!

Texas Rollerderby Calvello Cup Championship

Last night was the Texas Rollerderby Lonestar Rollergirls (yes, that's a mouthful) end-of-season Calvello Cup Championship bout. I'd always been curious about Rollerderby, as there are lots of stereotypes about it floating around, as well as allusions to it that sparked my interest - starting with Sam's mom on Clarissa Explains it All to my favorite cake receptionist, Mary Alice, joining a team in Baltimore on Ace of Cakes.

In Austin, I first saw tickets for sale from girls in short skirts on skates down on South Congress during a First Thursday event. That night I only picked up a flier about TXRD, but later learned that I work with the manager of the TXRD team the Hellcats, Jonny Stranger. Prior to that discovery, he was known only as the film instructor that comes in to my after-school program to teach kids about movie making in conjunction with the Austin Film Society.

He's now become my ten-dollar-ticket man, since he sold me tickets to the first bout I went to, the Hellcats vs. the Rhinestone Cowgirls, with the Hellcats kicking the "rhiny's hineys," (read amongst the clever fan signs at the bout, amongst which was also "Who doesn't like Pussy?").

I like Jonny, in addition, because he once told students, during a stop-motion-animation class, that the human eye always assesses a scene and asks two questions: "Is it safe?" and "Is it beautiful?" A quote that now runs through my head often.

Since Jonny is my connection to the roller derby, Lennon and I attended the bout sporting all the pink we could find. And FYI, that hat is 100% his, and not borrowed from my belongings.

The Hellcats dress in pink jumpsuits that look like sexed-up car mechanic jumpers. Bloomers, fishnets, and helmet adornments are all the skater's preference. When they rolled onto the banked track, they brought in black roses and laid them on top of the opponent's helmets.

The Hellcats were up against the undefeated Cherry Bombs, a neon-green-sporting team that entered the stadium wheelding chain saws, guns, hockey sticks, and baseball bats. I was intimidated from twenty rows up.

The physical danger associated with Roller Derby is very real. At the last bout I attended, I was unsure how much of the fighting was legit, since many of the girls seemed to be laughing and very friendly off the track. Jonny told me that usually tempers will flare between two individual skaters, and others who jump in do it good humoredly and in an attempt to break up real scuffles. There were DEFINITELY real scuffles this time around. At least two instances with one skater throwing down another and beating her, and then a critical member of the Cherry Bombs - "Cherry Chainsaw" - twisted her ankle on a fall (I, and everyone else in the stadium, saw her foot go around), and broke it (like, compound fracture broke it). She started screaming and the entire stadium stopped what they were doing as ambulances had to be rushed in, morphine drip started on sight, and the track dismantled so she could be carried out on a gurney. Ouch.

After watching our first bout a few weeks ago, Lennon and I rented Hell On Wheels, the documentary about the origins of Texas Rollerderby, and there were several shots of broken bones, one showing a girl's foot hanging off of her leg, and later described as "held on by her skin and her tights." A collection went around the stadium for Cherry Chainsaw as she was being tended to, and $4,000 was raised on the spot.

Lennon's sister Laura came to visit us yesterday, so we took her to the bout as well. Some brother-sister fighting commenced in the stands.

Now that the movie Whip It is out, I suspect the popularity of Rollerderby will explode. One of the characters in the movie, Razor, is based on Jonny Stranger, long hair and all. So Jonny issued a formal challenge to the actor, Andrew Wilson (also a Texan), to a TXRD style two-lap no-rules dual around the banked track. I didn't think Andrew had accepted the challenge until the end of half-time, when Jonny rolled out on quad skates with a jammer helmet on and sporting leather shorts. Andrew cheated a little... he had on rollerblades.

Evidence that I need a much better camera aside, here's Jonny and Andrew lined up waiting for the whistle signal to start the dual.

On the far side of the track, you can see Jonny and Andrew wrestling here to prevent the other from getting ahead. This happened several times during their two laps around... and Jonny still won :) Go Austin!

In the documentary I learned the origins of "spank alley," which has evolved to be a row of front-row seats for lottery winning ticket holders, and then later is the line-up of everyone with a birthday in the house so they can receive spanks from all the roller girls. I think some people without birthdays snuck up there to get a spanking.

My co-worker Elizabeth also bought tickets from Jonny, and saved us seats in the stands, also known as the "thunderdome" in derby-speak.

The final score - Hellcats 44, Cherry Bombs 37. One of the announcers is Wesley Page, and the other announcer joked that he is Ellen Page's brother (the star of Whip It). I'm curious to know if that is true or was just a quip.

Although I feel bad for the Cherry Bomb's loss after the injury of one of their star players, I'm still glad the team who's colors I was sporting won. I can't wait for January and the next season to roll around! (haha - I'm taking cue from the incessant puns of the announcers).

Until then, I just have to satiate myself by getting over to the Alamo Drafthouse to watch the movie.