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I'm very sore after Saturday's game.

In a good way, for the most part.

No real bruising, no broken bones, no torn ligaments. Just an insane amount of soreness in my upper arms/shoulders from SLAMMING THE LIVING BEJEEZUS out of skaters at the game.

Unfortunately for Fight Crew, Timothy the mouse wasn't in full effect telling us that we could fly. So we lost. Mainly in the last five minutes of the game. Frustrating. I thought that I myself skated well, but I'll have to wait until I see the video of the game to make sure.

Speaking of video, check out the rad game intro from the LADD RaD(Research and Development)group from Saturday's game. To say they keep outdoing themselves doesn't begin to cover it:



Next, finishing up the latest round of freelance and figuring out how I'm going to get through the skating schedule for the next two and a half months. I'm on four teams. FOUR FUCKING TEAMS. That's just STOOPID.

What It Takes...

I've been thinking a great deal about what it takes mentally to win at roller derby.

One would think it doesn't take much, but I'm finding more and more that this game is ALLLL mental, with just a smidge of talent.

Much like Dumbo.

As a diversion, I'll talk about Dumbo for a moment. It's one of the very few Disney movies that I can stomach. Compared to other Disney films of the general era, it was done on the cheap, which appeals to my Warner Bros. sensibilities.

My parents got me the Dumbo storybook LP when I was but a small child, and I would listen to the LP over and over and over again. Pink Elephants on Parade was of course my favorite part. The other fave section was Dumbo with the crows. Pure genius.





And that's where roller derby comes in. I haven't found the magic feather that will make me fly. And I shouldn't need one, but I do.

Looking at game footage from this season shows me that my team has what it takes to win. But we let the little things get to us, and that's when we lose the magic feather. I don't know how to grab Timothy the mouse in time to reassure me that yes, you can fly! YOU CAN FLY! YOU CAN FLY!!!!!!

But we'll try again and see what happens. Hopefully we won't wait until we're jumping out of the prop burning building to find out that our flying abilities are just fine, thank you very much.

This Saturday

Promo for this Saturday's game:



There's still some VIP tickets left, as well as a smattering of general admission. The next time I skate banked won't be until the end of JUNE.

A Quick Note...

I'm in the middle of yet more freelance. Which is good.

Saturday I was the team manager for ACDG, and got this special note from the refs before the game even started:




















Yep, I'm so bad, I get ejected out of games that I'm not even skating in, for leagues that I'm not a member of!

GO, ME!

7 Year Bitch

It's official, I won't be working on any more talking Great Dane stuff anytime soon.

There's been a regime change, and the idio--I mean, very talented folks put in charge of ALL creative endeavors at the studio wouldn't hire me on a dare. I don't really know for sure why they don't like me, all I know is that they don't.

Grrrrr.

Kinda weird...I've worked on talking Great Dane stuff of one sort or another for seven years. It became as dependable as the sun rising in the east for me. But I started to figure out in January that it was really dark outside; the sun had ceased to rise for me on that particular franchise. It makes me sad for a variety of reasons. I didn't particular love the franchise, but I loved working with the crew. And I love the studio. Yeah, it's masochistic, but it's true. I'm gonna miss it.

Anyway, this post via Cartoon Brew cracked me up. Enjoy while I mope.

Quote of the Day

From Baltimore's Charm City league, this great observation from Cindy Lop-her:

I guess it just goes to show that people are watching you, even when you feel far away from being watched, and at any given point in time you can be someone else’s role model. Shit, if that isn’t a reason to live your life with integrity, I don’t know what is.

It's in a derby context, and you can read the whole blog entry here, but it sure as shit should apply to everyone, no?

Before and After

This week I've been on-call to go downtown for potential jury selection. Monday and Tuesday I got off free, but Wednesday morning will find me sleepily wandering around on Temple St. looking for the right courthouse to report in at 7:45am.

7:45am.

That's just inhuman for a night owl like me.

At least I don't have work this week, and I can't imagine that any attorney would be stupid enough to put me on a jury, so it's worth losing a little sleep over. Hell, I haven't been sleeping well anyway.

I has another game coming up! I designed a poster for it:





















Art Department co-head Ryder Hard said, That's OK, but this is better:




















I have to agree! I like how she took my pseudo-new wave attempt and made it look old school east LA boxing poster-esque.

My team FINALLY got new uniforms, too. We look purty(well, most of us. At a recent photo shoot showing off our new threads, I look like a transvestite. SRSLY)! I think we'll do well in this next game.

So mark yer calendars: Saturday, March 28! See me skate!!!!!

Moar fun stuff: I'm on the flat track Ri-Ettes all-star team!! We'll be skating in the Big One tournament in mid-May, which features California leagues Angel City, BAD Girls, Sac City, Sacred City, and...LA!! We're uber stoked about this, because as far as I know it's the first time a banked track league has been invited to skate in a flat track tournament!

I'm also an alternate again for the banked track Ri-Ettes this year. Why the discrepancy between the flat track and banked track versions of the roster? Not all the Ri-Ettes wanted to skate flat. Win for me! And frankly, I find B teams to be more fun anyway. Though I do hope to go to this year's Battle on the Bank tournament in Austin this June in any capacity possible.

Welp, I gotta go get ready for my early rising tomorrow, as well as getting together something resembling a lesson plan for this weekend's Blood & Thunder camp in San Diego that I'm supposed to be coaching at. Lourdy!

You Need This...

Yeah, you really do, 'cos Hurricane Ken says so. Check it out and bid on it here.

Bait and Switch

Here's a rough drawing I did while in the latest round of Freelance Hell:





















Probably won't end up using it for anything, but oh well. She has a nice butt.

Lately I've been pondering the direction of the new wave of roller derby. Especially since I don't want to start to contemplate the fuckedness that is my choice of day career. I'm skeered to death on that front.

Anyway...

On one of the rad sites I frequent, there's been a lot of discussion about mainstreaming the sport in various ways.

Which is ironic, since one of the greatest appeals of the new wave of derby(hell, just derby in general)is that it's not a mainstream sport. OK, I'm SO NOT SAD that the penalty wheel isn't used by most leagues...in fact, I'm SO DAMN GLAD that my league never did it. It takes away from the pacing of the game, and ironically, it generally doesn't make the players look good.

It's interesting to see more and more leagues go from a very loose interpretation of the concept of a team uniform to seeing everyone not only in the same uniform, but just having numbers on the backs of their volleyball jerseys, without the names to go with it. This drove me nuts while watching the WFTDA Nationals over the interwebs, since me and many other people who tuned in don't know all of the players from all of the leagues skating. The sport isn't there yet, people. I'd like to be able to see both name and number so that I can identify and identify with the skaters.

Which brings me to my grandest of sadness: the decision by a small but growing amount of skaters to stop using "skate names".

I love my skate name. And even though everyone says that my skate name is really just little ol' me, I need the separation of Tara Armov from the rest of my brain. Tara's even more angry than I am, and I've had to admit to myself that by nature I'm an angry person. I have to be angry about something to function. Tara is a way to channel that rage into something somewhat constructive. And I think a lot of derby players need that separation, too.

Why?

Here's my theory...let's look at the average coverage of new wave derby. It's mostly comprised of, "calm, meek librarian by day, wild rollergirl by night". The ol' madonna/whore syndrome. Society still has issues about its wimmins being loud, brutal, and able to take care of their own business.

I think the skate names offer a "safe place" to let out the agression women otherwise aren't "allowed" to have. Well, the entire sport of new wave derby offers that, too. But the skate names add something...oh...I dunno...fun about it all. So does the not-quite-uniform uniforms.

And here's a secret about fun...one generally willing to work harder if they're having fun doing it, whether it's derby, day job, or whatever. TAKE NOTE OF THAT, all you companies out there that expect more work for less pay from your employees. You'd better at least make it fun, dammit.

Ahem...

Women can really tap into the fun aspects of this whole thing, and then can end up applying themselves to the sport when they get hooked on having their butts firm enough to set drinks on and endurance that'll compete with most men.

It's really a bait-and-switch. People hear about this derby stuff. They find out the skaters are women. And that the women have skate names that are usually puns and can be rather risque and wear non-typical uniforms. So these people come to games with a Playboy-influenced idea in their heads about what "roller derby" is like. Then the game starts, and by gawd, it's a REAL FUCKING GAME. These women are actually hitting the living bejeezus out of each other. And they're competing. With NO pillow-fights. And they're having FUN while doing it. OMFG. WHO KNEW?!?!?!?! Everyone's minds are BLOWN. Their minds have been tweaked just a tad...for the better.

And if it's a league that's able to add some production value with lights, good announcers, and a great venue...it's an EVENT. And people come away with a good impression of derby, and a good impression of the skaters, with a twist in its non-comformity of the usual sports on ESPN.

I think the current new wave derby is like early punk. It's shaking up perceptions of what playing a sport should be like. So to see those within derby wanting to go "mainstream", I think that takes away the very aspect of what makes derby the wonderful-horrible beast that it is. I never would've gotten involved in the sport if it were "mainstream".

Not that the sport would've suffered if my wondrous presence was absent, but it does make me wonder how many other amazing skaters wouldn't have gotten into it if everything about the sport was "mainstream"?

Well, all this thinking is making me tired, which isn't good since I have to go to practice and then drive to Bakersfield to do some announcing. Two things I wouldn't be doing if I wasn't involved in derby the way it is now. Wow, interesting to contemplate.

Yeah, I'm busy...

I'm in the homestretch on the current freelance.

In the meantime, lookit these:

Love Random Pix? Here's yet moar!

My hand is sore from drawing so much. As I scan away, here's some more stoopid stuff to look at: