How Low Can You Go???

Apparently pretty low!
As some of you know, last night I went to a roller derby match. It is part of a new movement of woman's roller derby- it's making a comeback. It sure isn't the roller derby we watched as kids on Saturday afternoons. You know, L.A. Thunderbirds with the famous blocker, Heavenly Cow! The new team is the Derby Dolls (which is actually several teams in L.A.). They just moved to a new facility with a banked oval track in a large warehouse downtown near MacArthur Park on Temple.
It was quite a happening! I would say the current scene is strongly influenced by the rockabilly/Betty Page movements. Short skirts, fishnets, tattoos but the hard hitting is still the same and possibly harder. One skater was even wearing a snood (I know April knows what a snood is). These girls are tough and the crowd was crazy. I'd say about 400-500 strong and from all walks! But when the national anthem played (yes, they have a flag flying) the crowd stood, hand over heart, facing the flag and sang along.
The acquaintance who organized the outing is a nice Jewish girl with a Harvard MBA who loves it and is on their Board of Directors. See? You just can't judge a book by it's cover! You Tube has some video clips but be forewarned... the skirts are short, the girls are often irreverent. I was absolutely fascinated by the whole scene and plan to do another anthropological field trip sometime soon.