Photo by Kat DeemNew derby skaters, and new teams in a league, are both referred to as “fresh meat.” Pittsburgh has four such roller derby teams –
The Wrecking Dolls, the Hot Metal Hellions, the Bitch Doctors and the Slumber Party Slashers.
After recruiting, organizing and practicing for more than nine months, the fledgling Steel City Derby Demons League hosted its first exhibition on January 27 at Harmarville’s BladeRunners rink. My daughter’s team, the Jersey City Bridge & Pummel Girls, has practiced even longer but has yet to skate in an official bout.
I wanted to watch these local teams skate. Then I could experience this phenomenon called derby culture. I wanted to see for myself the degree of skill, camp, and risk that goes into an event. And I could at least imagine my Lady Vengeance out there among the pack.
A good front-end publicity campaign got the word out. (Or is the public really so hungry for roller derby entertainment?) In January local media – including Pittsburgh’s City Paper, the Post Gazette’s Weekend Magazine and the Valley News Dispatch – all ran feature stories on the new league and its scheduled exhibition.
Even so, when I tried to buy tickets online I was surprised to learn that the event was sold out.
SOLD OUT!
Not ready to push and shove my ticketless way into BladeRunners, even in roller derby spirit, I decided to wait until Steel City League’s next scheduled event on March 17.
“Two Full Days of Hard Hitting Derby Action!” promises the promo. “Twenty+ Leagues from East of the Mississippi!”
And here’s the kicker (for me, at least) – one of the scheduled fresh meat teams is the Jersey City Bridge and Pummel Girls.
The derby debut of Lady Vengeance will take place in Philly next month.
And Mama Vengeance plans to be in the stands. Look out Philly, here come the FORCES OF VENGEANCE!
5 comments:
Pittsburgh is a very heavy sports town. Especially considering the popularity of football (The Steelers) and hockey (The Penguins). I think I understand the reasons behind the popularity of Roller Derby. Its an exciting sport and its a change from the usual. I think for those reasons, that it has the potential to become extremely popular in Pittsburgh.
It almost seems like a city that is trying to evolve beyond its blue collar, industrial roots kinda needs to incorporate a sport like this to stay ahead of the curve. The steel mills, like the namessaked Steel Curtain, are probably never coming back, but that doesn't mean we have to weep for the loss.
Also, I love the fact that newer generations of girls are breaking all the rules where women's involvement in sports is concerned. We've had pioneers before, but this is different. It's racy and dangerous and new enough to be a step ahead of the usual values we automatically place on sports because, well, sportscasters tell us to and if you disagree with the others at the bar they might beat you up...
Oh, and to Kat Deem:
That is a fantastic photo.
Good points, Josh & Johanna.
In a future blog, I plan to consider the idea of sport vs entertainment. The best are, of course, both, but many people want to protect the term "sport."
Kat Deem is another creative daughter of mine. She is a talented photographer, who has kindly given me permission to publish her work. Pro bono. She did a creative shoot of the team, so I can logically (and proudly) link to her site. Thanks, Johanna.
Ha ha ha...I think you should post that post, but you must forgive me because you could easily insert the word "politics" for "sport" in your last post and have it all mean the same thing and make as much sense!
What's sadly funny is that probably less people care.
Hey, that's wonderful that your daughter's a photog! I have lots of photos on my regular blog, but so far I haven't figured out how to finagle this new template. Or, rather, I haven't really tried ; )
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