ROLLERBALLS: Archive

3 tags

Mar 31st

7 notes

3 tags

Check out DARSTROSITY's Derby Predictions at... →

Mar 30th

Mar 26th

5 notes

3 tags

Watch

ROLLERBALLS ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!

Mar 25th

2 tags

Issue 11 is done!!

Now, next month is ROLLERBALLS One Year Anniversary. It starts on April 7th. April is month were the real DERBY SEASON begins, Leo Seltzer’s Bithday and the day roller derby was revived in Texas and the start of a new Zine. After one year we had no sponsors, endorsements, and money given to us. We (I) did this for the love of derby, NO PARTY FOULS!!

Mar 24th

5 tags

Mar 23rd

2 notes

3 tags

ROLLERBALLS BACK ISSUES

Click on the picture to take you to the issue.

Mar 22nd

3 notes

3 tags

Mar 22nd

2 notes

5 tags

Mar 21st

2 notes

3 tags

Mar 20th

1 note

3 tags

“NEXT ISSUE….NEW TAGLINE. Sorry derby folk. After Parties All Aight is...”

– DARSTROSITY

Mar 19th

5 tags

Mar 19th

1 note

3 tags

Watch

Mar 18th

34 notes

3 tags

Mar 17th

8 notes

5 tags

roller q derby a - Bloody Elle - Part 3

DARSTROSITY: derby wives? got any?
BLODDY ELLE: oh god, yes. i am a polygamist. i got lots of love though, so it's fine. my first derby wife was kel diabla from Memphis. i then later adopted tenacious b, who also skates for Memphis. After that, i came across sailor scary from rollergirls of southern Indiana.
D: in one word...whats the best thing to do before going into roller derby?
BE: i would have to say music.  as you probably noticed, the outfit is very big on the singing paceline.  we like the slow r'n'b jamz.  i like to listen to music while skating anyway, period. mostly because i like to dance on my skates.
D: whats the best thing to do at a after party?
BE: DANCE PARTY.  the outfit knows how to throw down at a dance party.  that's probably why we are agile on our skates. we like to juke on the dance floor. footwork, footwork! hahaha.
D: any words of wisdom to the derby folk out their?
BE: don't take yourself too seriously. have fun with what you do. work hard, skate your ass off, but in the end, we don't get paid for all this, so have fun with it. when you retire from derby and look back on it 20 years later, you're not going to remember all the pushups you do (even though you gotta do a ton of them, no matter how much you hate them. and trust me, i hate them more than life itself.) you're gonna remember that time that you and your teammates stood out in the parking lot of your hotel after a game and danced in the rain. (oh memphis roller derby, i love you.)  derby is a fine balance of working hard and playing hard. i think that remembering to play hard too should be part of it. don't forget to have fun! 
D: LAST QUESTION...OUTFIT...
BE: outfit, outfit do tha damn thang.
D: i thought you was going to say WHAT?
BE: hahahah...WHAT?!

Mar 16th

1 note

5 tags

Mar 15th

1 note

5 tags

Lafayette Brawlin Dolls Documentary HELP!

So a long ago, I (DARSTROSITY) went to West Lafayette, Indiana to film and hype their team the Lafayette Brawlin Dolls. Too bad the end of the trip lead to a flat tire and a dead computer. So today I get a message from Crystal Ann Prescott that the team is filming a documentary. Being a documentarian myself, I love to help someone. Which I’m doing today. So her and the team created a...

Mar 14th

5 tags

roller q derby a - Bloody Elle - Part 2

DARSTROSITY: you play with a ranked team in the MID BESTERNS how was the competion during the season?
BLODDY ELLE: it was intense. we played a lot of really great teams this season. i am our interleague coordinator for the outfit and i worked with our coaching committee on putting together a season that would be challenging and give us a lot of opportunities to really hone our game before the tournament. we had a goal to get into regional playoffs and we did everything we could to prove that we deserved a seeding high enough to get in and then once we accomplished that, we played as much as we could to get ready for it. we played a combination of games that would ready us for what we were going to encounter during the tourney. we played tough teams and we booked hangover scrimmages and sunday bouts so we had days where we were playing back to back to get our bodies ready for playing 3 days in a row.
D: explain the outfit moustages
BE: so our first encounter with the infamous facepaint this season was when we went to nebraska. we had just come off a loss at brew ha ha against arch rival. we were all feeling bummed out because we had put so much pressure on ourselves to win that game, trying to live up to being ranked with DNN for the first time. we decided that we were not going to let that game define us and we were going to mentally reset and have fun with derby again.
 we had been all stressed out.  so we decided that we would do something lighthearted and paint our faces.  it stuck.  it's funny because painting your face is kind of very awesome and almost therapeutic. it is a good destresser.
 kills the nerves before going out there. you spend so much time at a venue before the game and your nerves can really get the best of you if you let it. the face paint gives us something to bond over and it's fun.
D: so, last season the outfit made this tagline "no big deal" how did that started?
BE: well, it started off with one of our skaters, the uma bomber singing that. it just turned into a thing because we were all about the mental reset this year. when we had a bad jam, it was "no big deal". reset mentally, go into the next jam afresh. it really helped because no matter how crappy you thought that a jam was, you'd start to feel bad and someone would just look at you and start singing "no big deal, no big deal" and you can't help but smile.  so the best part of it is that we were talking prior to regionals about how we needed to get a regionals tattoo. i was in the car with some of my teammates as well as my bench coach tine bomb, who happens to be a great tattoo artist and someone said "why don't we get 'no big deal' tattoos?!"
 so we now have 30+ outfit guys and gals with "no big deal" tattooed on them in various places. i got mine on my forearm. it's a nice reminder at times that no matter what happens, it's no big deal. (even applies to outside of derby.
D: best game you ever played?
BE: I must say our second game against arch rival at regionals this year has to take top place in that. whew!! That was an exhilarating game for me. we really wanted that win and we just came in there focused, poised, and ready to go.  also, our game against brew took a close second. that game was *so* much fun. i have a little crush on brew city after playing them in that game.  our Detroit game in april really was a turning point for our team too. staying so close to them in that game really kind of set the tone for the rest of the season. plus i love the Detroit gals. they're some stellar people and a lot of fun.
D: whats better playing private games or public games and why?
BE: well, there's nothing like the cheering of the outfit home game crowd, but private games allow you to focus very intently on your game. the outfit is a very do-it-yourself operation, so we have a lot of work to do before we play. we're setting the track up, working the b team bout before our game, etc. so there is no real time to relax. with a public away bout, you got to deal with the opposing team's crowd. if you don't ever think that's not intimidating, go play naptown sometime. whew. talk about a harsh crowd for a traveling team! hahah. private bouts allow you to just play roller derby in its purest form. it's less pressure, but you don't have that cheering there behind you. it's two entirely different things.
 PART THREE ON FRIDAY

Mar 14th

4 tags

Mar 13th

15 notes

5 tags

roller q derby a - Bloody Elle - Part 1

DARSTROSITY: What's your derby name?
BLODDY ELLE: bloody elle
D: how did you get that name?
BE: back in 2005, i was looking around the internet and found that austin had started a roller derby league. i thought that was probably the coolest thing ever in the world, but i had not the time to start a derby league. however, i was obsessed enough with the idea to dress up like a roller derby zombie that halloween. i picked the name bloody elle and skated around looking like a derby girl, sans pads and helmet (i didn't know any better then). several months later, someone else started a league in memphis and i joined up! elle was a nickname of mine previous to derby, and so i used that and a favorite british expression of mine to come up with the name.
D: how long you been skating/derby?
BE: i started in june of 2006, so over 5 years now.
D: so before the outfit you played where?
BE: i skated for memphis roller derby until i moved to chicago in december of 2009. i joined windy city for 6 months when i first moved here to chicago, and it just didn't feel right. i went to one practice with the outfit in july of 2010 and was sold on them. it just felt like i was in the right place.
D: from playing with mephis, what did you learn from them?
BE: i learned how to bout, how to be on a team of tough women with a lot of different opinions, how to do business, how to
 have fun playing a sport again. i never really played a team sport before playing derby and was more into hanging out with guy friends than women. derby was just entirely different than what i was used to, and it made me learn how to interact with all sorts of people that i normally wouldn't probably meet.
D: playing with the outfit, what you learn the most?
BE: i learned how much damn fun roller derby can be. i also learned how intense and much work derby can be. derby has consumed my life since i started, but the outfit has taken the commitment to another level with me. i learned a lot more about teamwork from the outfit too. i had been more of a solo style player previous to the outfit, but they kind of broke me from the bad habits and instilled in me a trust for my teammates.
 PART TWO ON WEDNESDAY