A Bit of GOOD News
Derby Season starts September 22nd! I am so friggin excited! I got to a few scrimmages over the summer, but it will be great to be back in the stands cheering! The first bout of the season is the Boston Massacre vs. Virginia’s Dominion Derby Girls! Before that, The Derby Dames hosted a showing of Linda Blair’s “Roller Boogie” at Coolidge Corner. I wish I could have gone, but I know that before the first sequin sparkled, I would be snoring! That is because I have such a messed up sleep pattern and not because I don’t like the movie! We watched it over the summer and thought it was fun. I know Linda Blair didn’t do those hugely spectacular moves herself, but she could skate pretty well (crossovers!!). It cracks me up that Mark Goodman is the bad guy because he is such a neat guy in real life! Roller Boogie is one of those films I have to eventually order.
It seems like roller skating is showing up all over TV and in magazines. There is that pretty neat McDonald’s commercial with those kids performing funky feats in a futuristic roller rink. And the episode of LA Ink where Kat von D opened up her new shop showed waitresses on skates. A portion of the show was dedicated to the girls skating around a rink while trying to hold serving trays. (They also profiled an old school skater recently getting a tattoo!) AND In a recent issue of SELF Magazine, the picture accompanying an article on CSI actress Emily Procter shows her tying up skates. She apparently likes to skate around the set during her down time.
With all this newer interest in roller skating, wouldn’t it be cool if roller rinks made a comeback? Instead of having to drive all over the state to get to a rink, it would be nice to travel a city or so over. At my brother Brian’s party a couple of months ago, a cop pal of his reminded me that the skating rink we grew up going to in Medford was called “The Ballarou”! I’m not sure if that is how it is spelled, but it’s how it sounds! The red interior, the disco-y furniture, the bad pizza-it was so much fun! I guess we all stopped going at some point. I don’t even remember what year it closed down. But now in its place is a Staples!
I’ve finally started skating again and found that crossovers come more naturally to me now. They are far from graceful, but at least my brain is talking to my left leg. Now I have to try and remember the trick to skating backwards.