oatmeal

[dragonlady7]

I am eating oatmeal. Mm. Oatmeal.
I have a terrible headache. And last night I managed to fall pretty hard a bunch of times (I'm sort of glad I went to practice, honest) while attempting to skate as the jammer, so I am feeling fairly fragile today.
We pretty much bouted all practice, which was awesome, and I think I started understanding how it's supposed to work, and it wound up being a lot of fun, but I sort of got run into a lot.

Someone showed up with a video camera last night. Does anyone mind if I tape this, she asked, and two girls said yes, we mind. We don't want the videos shown to the public.
One girl didn't explain but the other said she is worried that she might get in trouble with her boss for doing roller derby. That makes me a little worried, as we're expecting 700 spectators at our first bout and what is she going to do then?
All of this is highly upsetting, as Artvoice has been saying they want to host videos of our bouts on their website. So, um...

I don't mean to be snarky, I'm just sort of baffled. I should shut up, because the girls didn't really get a chance to explain themselves, and I'm not saying I completely disagree with them on principle (i'm not wild about being caught on film, and video only compounds the awful), but I'm upset at the thought that we won't be able to video our own bouts. Why? What are we going to do? This very Sunday we're all getting together to watch video a girl took at a bout in Cleveland, and a DVD Sweets bought of another bout. It seems that it's fairly standard practice for bouts to be caught on video. And it's tremendously instructive, let alone entertaining, to watch such videos. But more importantly, having videos of our bouts available online would be a tremendous way to increase our popularity and connection with fans, especially out of town fans. It could be a great way to attract sponsors. And it would just be awesome-- especially as Artvoice would be happy to host them, which means we don't have to worry about the size; they'd also produce them, which is an entirely different issue, but think about it-- every one of our bouts presented as if on TV. How great would that be?

But not if it's going to upset some of our members. It won't work then, and what should be an exciting bit of publicity will wind up being a divisive issue. That takes a lot of the fun out of it. I wish I understood.


I am feeling sort of sorely bereft without Andreas here now. It was awesome to have him here, although I probably should have done more exciting things with him. Now I should clean the house, as I've no more excuse not to. I did do one big load of dishes and I'm doing yet more laundry (how do I have so much laundry, of late? I don't know, but it's kind of crazy), but I am just so tired and fragile and sore and headachey today, you'd never know that I'd just had a mini-vacation. Roller derby will apparently do that to you. Roller derby in combination with a sudden, drastic change of weather, from 65 and sunny to 35 and gusting with pissy ice-rain. Eurgh!


The team captains and co-captains are picking teams for roller derby tonight, I forgot to mention. Tonight.

Comments

[that-redhead.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on the whole video thing. She had to have known that she was going to be in the public somehow doing this. *shrug* It's not really my business stepping in and saying something to her, but seriously, if she's that afraid about losing her job over this, she probably shouldn't be doing it. Maybe she's better off reffing or helping with more technical aspects of the bouts.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Of course, it's a decision only she can make. I would understand her position better if I could see anything really threatening in roller derby, but then, I don't know what her workplace is like. I can understand her general reluctance to have the two mix, however.

But it's a spectator sport, and there will be spectators; from that to there being videos online is a fairly small leap, in my perception. So I think she'll probably have to come to some kind of decision about it.

rootsnradicals mentioned an objection to being video'd as well, but she did not elaborate, and I am concerned, as she is a very sensible person and so must have a good reason, but I don't know what it is. Perhaps she simply objected to being video'd for general consumption this early in our learning process, which is a valid point-- any video taken last night would have looked, to an outside observer, like a lot of girls who didn't know what they were doing flailing around, hurting themselves and others, and having far too much fun. Which, as an illustration of how the process of learning to do roller derby goes, is quite a good one; but if you're interested in presenting a professional and intimidating front to the world, is perhaps not the way to go.


Well, whatever the issue, S.S. is going to have to do some serious thinking about her public persona. I mean, before the first bout, the event we're hosting is going to be a Coming Out, which indicates being presented to the scene-- which would imply public recognition. And while it's not any of our places to tell her what she needs to do, it's also going to wind up not being her place to tell us what the rest of us have to do-- and I mean that respectfully, of course. But there will be media attention and she can't just tell them not to look at her.

I just can't imagine anyone's boss not saying "Cool!", which is probably why I'm being such an unsympathetic bitch about this. Which is why I'm not saying anything in public per se, because I don't actually like being an unsympathetic bitch.

[that-redhead.livejournal.com]

S.S. definitely does have a lot of thinking to do. She's a great girl, and I love skating with her. However, like you said, she's going to have a very hard time avoiding the public eye. Somehow, somewhere, during this derby experience, I'm sure there's going to be at least one person who recognizes S.S. through the media, or at one of our bouts.

When people do tape our bouts (which I'm for once we actually start bouting for the public), there's no way for people to know that S.S. wishes to remain anonymous, and there's no real way of editing her out of the derby footage. It's not fair to the rest of the team to not broadcast our bouts because one person has an objection. I don't think she should get kicked out because of this, but as I said, maybe she should take a behind the scenes roll during the bouts, and just skate with us during practices.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know what those gals are thinking.

Here in NYC, the rollergirls are minor celebrities. If she was hoping for anonimity, joining a roller derby league was not the way to go.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

There's just so much interest in it that it's inevitable that people are going to, well, pay attention.
She also voiced objections to having her contact information put into a database, and that I can also see-- other girls objected as well, simply because such things, even when "private", are sometimes compromised, and one girl in particular had been phone-stalked and harassed and was just completely freaked out (sensibly, but completely) at the thought of having all her contact info put into one central place, even for the purposes of assembling a phone tree for emergencies and the like.

But it seems to me that if her coworkers manage to recognize her under all her derby gear, then there's not much that can be done about that. We all skate under assumed names. That's all we can do. She's a cop-- it's not unreasonable to assume that there will be police at some of these events, even just as attendees.

Oh well. As I said to Red, above, it's going to have to be up to her, and only she can decide what she has to do-- but she also can't expect to decide what we have to do.
I'm still concerned over the other girl who objected, because she is a sensible person and a friend (and may well read this, so I hope it doesn't come across as bitchy) and also didn't say why she objected. I'm hoping her objection was just that we don't look that good yet-- because, well, we don't, although some of the snippets I've seen of other derby leagues have made it plain that lots of new leagues don't look that good but skate anyway-- and not a general objection to having video of us appear anywhere on the Internet. Because it seems to me that it's sort of inevitable that there will be demand for it-- not only from people like my folks who'll want to see me skate but maybe can't come all this way, but also demand from within-- I want there to be video of us on the Internet so I can show it to people!
So I don't know whether this will end up being an issue, and it worries me that it looks like it might be. Of all the things I expected to have to quarrel over, this wasn't one of them.

[rootsnradicals.livejournal.com]

Sorry it took me so long to respond!

You are quite correct in man of your assumptions as to why I didn't want our practice videotaped last night. On one hand, I have severe issues with "YouTube", etal. They have legal wording that says they "own" whatever is placed on their sites - I don't want anyone owning any part of our team! This came up last night a little, and I think it will be addressed by placing our videos on our own website. Secondly, last night was a closed practice, and should be closed to the public - both at the rink and on video. I have very little difficulty (other than having to look at my fat ass) with people taping our bouts, or other public events - especially if they're going to use some good editing techiniques in post-production. I agree: we should be more than ready for "public access" when we actually do come out. I will be ready for that. Thirdly, the only reason we were asked last night if there were any objections was because I spoke to the girl with the camera - she was just going to tape away without asking. I felt this was improper (so part of my objection was simply on principle).

Small objections, but I don't like feeling made to do something without thinking about it quite a bit. Sorry if I made people think I was weird...

As for SS, I don't know what she's going to do. Wear a mask, maybe? I kinda understand her need for anonymity, but c'mon! Derby girls are highly photographed, and publicity is inevitable. She's a lot of fun and a great skater, so I hope a compromise is made!

Thanks for looking for positives in my seemingly odd response last night. I appreciate the vote of confidence, and the comment that I'm "sensible". I like to think so, but sometimes I come across as anything but! You definitely did not come across as bitchy - concerned and a bit perplexed only.

As for your skating - most of your difficulty as jammer was me! I either didn't help you through the pack, and actually pushed you down (accidentally!) once. The white team was TOUGH last night, but we did really well! I felt, for the first time, that I was really getting the hang of things.

I can not wait to find out who's on my team with me, and who I'll be bouting against! This is more exciting than Christmas!!!!!

[(Anonymous)]

When is the first public bout?!?!?

KW

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

February 10th!! 7 pm, Saturday night, and it's an expo bout with the theme of "Slugs N Kisses", for Valentine's Day. All ages, but alcohol will be served, I believe. (Not to derby girls, however.)

[(Anonymous)]

Where? Rainbow or Depew?

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Rainbow Rink!