Color Me Bad

A while back I brought up the idea of more posts about fashion in the world of derby. One or two of you were opposed to the idea, but most of you were interested in hearing more about it. To those of you who were opposed, I assure you that by writing this blog post, I am in no way trying to take away from the athleticism of the sport. Derby is a REAL sport, but let's face it, as far as sports players go, roller girls wear some of the best and most interesting uniforms out there!

I am in love with my new Ladies of Laceration uniform. My teammate Eve L. Taco aka Reverend Eve L. was placed in charge of figuring out and ordering our uniforms. Imagine trying to please 11 women, all having different shapes and sizes?? Well, she somehow made the impossible possible and we all were able to agree on a button down, white top. Taco came up with the idea of having our logo embroidered on the front

with our name and number printed on the back in red and black. She also thought up the fun idea of ripping the sleeves off. Our bottoms she decided would be left up to each individual skater, just as long as they chose something red. It just so happened that most of us had bought the same shinny red Derby Skinz for ourselves, which worked out well.

Photo by Christina Dunalewicz

When I first joined roller derby, I was all about wearing skirts. I loved the idea of a woman, playing a rough sport, while still looking feminine. Now however, I am a big fan of booty shorts aka lollies. Derby Skinz makes such cool designs and they fit really well. I find that it's so much easier to move when you have less fabric flying around. Just how some women marathon runners wear those little bottoms that could pass for underwear. I suppose they have the same concept in mind. Less fabric = swifter movement. Check out Paula Radcliffe's bottoms here:While I love my uniform and wouldn't change it, I felt that The Wicked Wheelers definitely had a presence on the track. Wearing one solid color was a great way to make it look like a sea or in relation to derby, a huge wall. Nothing was split up and though they were already a strong team, the uniformity of their all green dresses made them that way more so.

Photos by Christina Dunalewicz

As fans, what did you all think? Did you prefer one uniform over the other?
xo
Etta

Maybe Not $50

......but I did find a dollar on the sidewalk today. After what I wrote about in yesterday's post, I couldn't help but think, what a funny coincidence that was! And you know what a dollar can buy? One of these:

Yep, a can of Coca Cola costs only $1.00!! Huge smile on the face of Ms. Jams!!

What good things happened to you today? At your practice? Bout?

I thought it would be cool if everyone emailed me three good things that happen at your next practice or bout and I could list them all in a post. What do you all think about that? I think it would be interesting to see what you all had to say..........

xo
Etta

What Are You Thinking About?

I just got home from dinner with my niece Natalie and my sister Frann. They went to a yoga class together prior to us meeting up at the restaurant. Natalie was telling me about the yoga class and how the instructor told them that the average person has about 67,000 thoughts in a single day! 67,000!! Some of them are the same over and over, but still, that seems like a lot of thoughts, doesn't it?

What we think about is really up to us. Seems like such a simple statement, but really it's quite a mouthful. I'm a firm believer in that what we think about affects our lives and that our thoughts can enable us to have a good day, a better afternoon and a superb evening or quite the opposite. Of course, there are those times when life consumes us and our so called positive thoughts are stuck in the back of our brains behind a wall of doom, but we have to move past them eventually and keep on going.

I've had a lot of days lately where it seems as though life is not serving me up my favorite foods, but rather a plate of three-day old cold, leftovers. How do I get through this? I pretend my cold plate of eats are a hot burrito with chips and salsa on the side. At the end of those horrid days, I go back through them in my head, and I find as many things as I can that made me happy. It could be the smallest thing ever, such as, the Coca Cola I drank with my lunch (that really did make me happy one day), to a larger thing like, I found $50. The latter hasn't happened, but I'm hopeful.

I know that a lot of girls have had some battles (myself included) at practice, with themselves and with learning the skills of the game. Maybe you're new to the sport and you feel like you'll never pick up on anything you're learning or maybe you're a veteran who is injured and every time your skates hit the floor, you can still feel the pain from when you fell. Whatever the case, I think if you try and get at least one good thing out of practice or playing, you've got something you didn't have before. Maybe your teammate made you laugh hard. Maybe you your T-stops improved slightly from the week before, or maybe that practice can be looked at as time spent with people who make you happy. Whatever it is, take it with you and keep it.

A lot of my teammates know that I'm corny, and I'm ok with that because these little, silly things I do help me cope and I'm happy to share them in the hopes that they will help you too.

xoxo
Etta Cornball Jams

Face The Facts

Hey all - its Muscles Marinara dishing out some Derby Trivia for you. See how good your derby knowledge is without looking up the answers. I will post the answers in next months column.

Good luck and enjoy!
Muscles

1. The term "Roller Derby" started being used to describe our beloved sport in:

A: 1955
B: 1922
C: 1943
D: 1892

2. We play under WFTDA, but what does OSRD stand for?

A. Ole Safe Roller Derby
B. Opposite Skate Roller Derby
C. Old School Roller Derby
D. Oxford State Roller Derby

3. When the media promotes roller derby, they promote the sport the same way as this other sport:

A. Professional Football
B. NASCAR
C. Professional Hockey
D. Professional Wrestling

Red, White and Green!

Were you there? Did you see it all go down? Well if you weren't you sure missed out!

On July 11th, The Long Island Roller Rebels brought another night of fantastic derby action to Skate Safe as The Wicked Wheelers played The Ladies of Laceration. The Wheelers definitely came out strong in the first period, racking up the points and receiving next to no penalties. The Ladies did well, but one too many players spent some time in the box. In the second half however, it was quite the opposite! The Wheelers made their way to the box a few times too many, as The Ladies started scoring more and more points. Ultimately, The Ladies points didn't beat those of The Wheelers and the green team won the bout. Congratulations Wheelers!

It was so much fun to be out there playing and each team seemed to have their very own cheering sections in the audience. Former players came in their old uniforms supporting the new players as they continuously rang cow bells and screamed out our names as we whizzed by them.


Afterwards, we made our way over to Whoville for food and drinks and dancing.

The next day, sore and bruised, I traveled over to Otto's Sea Grill in Freeport to meet up with some of my girls and listen to some good ole' rockabilly. Our favorite band The Buzzards played a few sets outdoors. And as always, they sounded fantastic! The sun was shining, the food was good and I was surrounded by my adopted family, The Roller Rebels. What more could I ask for?

It was a great weekend and the good thing is, there are many, more to come!

Stay in touch for the latest news........

xo
Etta

Wicked on Their Wheels

I wanted to take a minute to say...........

Congratulations to The Wicked Wheelers on their victory over The Ladies of Laceration!!

Photos: Christina Dunalewicz

The Kind of Tickets You Like Getting

It's that time again! This Saturday, July 11th, at 7:00PM, Skate Safe America will open it's doors to a long awaited Roller Rebels' bout. For the first time in years, The Wicked Wheelers will take on The Ladies of Laceration. We've set up the event, ordered the beer and put the tickets on sale, but it's up to you to get your butts there! So order your tickets online now. Can't do it now? You can still buy them at the door, but be sure to get there early. Our last home bout was SOLD OUT and we wouldn't want you to miss out on any of the action.
With the teams' new uniforms; Wheelers in green, Ladies in red, think of this as an early Christmas laceration.....umm I mean celebration. Wear the colors of your favorite team to show your love and support. We can't wait to hear and see all of our fans cheering rink side and in the stands.

See you there........

xo
Etta

A Place Where Everyone Knows Your Name

Last weekend I experienced my first trip to The East Coast Derby Extravaganza. If you have never been to ECE, picture this: A weekend in a world of derby where a sports arena and the surrounding area are transformed into what I like to call The City of Derby aka Derbyville, the place where everyone knows each other's names, since it's literally on everyone's back! Team shirts and uniforms with names imprinted on the back are everywhere you turn, which makes for easy introductions. Derby men and women populate this city, where if you don't have skates on, you're the strange one.


The center of Derbyville (the arena) consists of three tracks. Those of you who have been to a Long Island Roller Rebels home bout, imagine Skate Safe with an extra rink. There are various "employees" in the city; Vendors, Skaters, Referees and NSOs. The tracks are surrounded by the vendors, selling what else but derby related merchandise. Everything from skates to clothing to stickers. More importantly though is what is happening ON the tracks, where the skaters, refs and NSOs do what they do best. Bouts are continuous all day and night and consist of both WFTDA ranked teams and teams made up of skaters from various leagues all over the world. While the WFTDA sanctioned bouts are intense, the competition bouts are full of fun and energy. Skaters of any level can sign up to be placed on a competitive team, which definitely keeps it interesting. In keeping up with the tradition of derby, the competition teams have clever names, such as, Rice vs. Beans, Villains vs. Superheros, Blondes vs. Brunettes and Movie Stars vs. Rock Stars.


Once you're done watching or playing or stocking your bags with merch, you can step outside of Derbyville townhall and lounge by the pool, eat and drink. So much action in this city!

On a more personal level.....I learned so much from watching the bouts and saw some of the most incredible players who made skating look as easy as pie. It was so interesting to check out the diverse styles and forms each individual had and to also see the different strategies they used.

Another great moment for me was meeting the other skater who's name was also inspired by the toughest singer around, Ms. Etta James. Yep, the beautiful Etta Maims who plays for The Boston Dirty Dames found me and introduced herself. I can remember back to when I finally chose my name, looking at her name on the master roster over and over wondering how she would feel about there being another Etta in derby. We spoke and not only was she was just fine with it, she was also a doll!And last, but definitely not least, it was so great to be away with my derby girls. My family, the Roller Rebels always show me a good time. Constant laughter and adventure, that's just the way we roll.Hope to see you all again next year!

xo
Etta