On Saturday night, I walked into the Austin Convention Center to see a flat roller derby track for the first time. It wasn’t long before groups of uniformed, geared-up women appeared on roller skates to take center stage.
My senses were bombarded by the Texas Rollergirls experience. A fan on the sidelines waved a checkered flag and yelled, “Faster, faster, kill! Kill! Kill!” and the audience took up the cheer. The announcers excitedly described the action of Luce Bandit, Flash Gorgeous, Vicious Van Gogo and Scrape Myrtle while making sure attendees knew there were three bars conveniently located in the venue.
Meanwhile, I was trying so hard to understand how flat track derby was played [Read more…]
Flat track roller derby was invented in Austin, so you better believe that the Texas Rollergirls are experts. You know who else is an expert? Austinot 
I grew up on the straight-laced side of Texas, where getting my ears pierced for a second time was stretching the boundaries just a bit. So should it be all that surprising that when I first heard about Rollergirls, they scared me? I was living up in Seattle at the time, and all the tattoos and brawniness, fishnet and shoving was intimidating.