StevoTrip2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Exploring the LA Cultural Scene
After arriving in the US, I stayed from Wednesday evening to Monday morning with Margaret (a friend from my UCI days) and her boyfriend Chris in L.A.. Despite my longstanding disdain for L.A. as a city generally, it was a great few days thanks largely to the hospitality of Chris and Margaret.

After I spent Thursday largely just recuperating after the flight in (Margaret had to work so I didn't have a car and couldn't really get anywhere anyway), we went to Venice Beach on Friday. Because it was a weekday there wasn't that much going on: but afterwards we went and visited Chris at his work, which was much more interesting. He's an assistant director on American Dad, so it was very cool for an animation nerd like myself to get a look around the studios where they make both American Dad and Family Guy (although I was slightly embarassed that I had seen basically nothing of either show). Seeing an actual working animation studio was an exciting first for me. On the Saturday afternoon we went to a barbecue with a lot of Chris' colleagues; this time there were ex-Disney people and at least one person who'll be working on the revived Futurama. It was a tough task not to overnerd.

On Saturday night we really digged into LA culture when we went to roller derby. This was something I had assumed had died out many years ago, but no, it turns out there is a grassroots roller derby revivial going on. For those who have the image of roller derby as basically just organised brutality, the flyer they gave out at the track noted - somewhat defensively I thought - that:
This is a REAL SPORT and there ARE rules.
Fancy that. Wikipedia explains roughly how it works:
While traditionally a sport for both women and men, roller derby has developed a predominantly female circuit during its current revival...
Two teams of five skaters, wearing protective gear such as helmets, mouth guards, and pads, take up positions alongside each other in a pack formation. Each team consists of either four blockers and one jammer, or, rarely, three blockers, and two jammers...
A signal is given and the jam commences... Initially leading the pack are special blockers known as pivots, who set the pace and give the other blockers direction in order to strategize and keep the pack relatively tight. Blockers who stray too far from the pack may not be allowed to engage opposing players.
Blockers (including pivots) start skating at the referee's first signal. A second signal is given to launch the jammers, who must catch up to the rear of the pack. Jammers navigate through or around the pack, then lap around the track until reaching back of the pack again. The first jammer to get through the pack legally (for example, without cutting the track, going out of bounds, or acquiring any penalties) is dubbed lead jammer and may call off the jam at any time.
Scoring commences when the jammers lap around the back of the pack and go through for a second time. One point is scored for each member of the opposing team passed by an inbound jammer (passing is determined by the skaters' hips). Blockers try to stop the opposing jammer from passing them, while defending their own jammer, whom they can assist by pushing or pulling (whipping) in an attempt to advance them through the pack. The jam concludes after a fixed period of time, usually 2 minutes, or when the lead jammer calls off the jam. Until then, both jammers are free to lap the pack again and again....
Physical contact between players is frequent and sometimes violent. Body blocking is allowed, and elbowing is allowed in some leagues, but participants are not allowed to trip or intentionally punch other players. Violence may leave the track and may include striking opponents with available objects...

Well, it didn't leave the track in the derby we saw, but it constantly threatened to. The track had padded barriers around the edge, but there was a gap underneath it, and the crowd stood right behind that, so there seemed to me a fair possibility that players could get knocked off from the track and into the crowd. Certainly it's the only sport I've ever been to where every member of the crowd had to sign a (dubious) legal disclaimer in order to enter the track.

Here, for the record, is one fairly typical "jam." This might appear very dark on some monitors - if you turn up the brightness enough you will be able to see something.



I can't shake this image in my head of people in ancient Rome at the Colosseum reading little flyers saying "Gladiatorial Combat is a REAL SPORT and there ARE rules."

Posted by Stephen Rowley @ 3:56 AM

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