I was reading about the new roller derby movie Whip It! in the Times this morning on the 8:16, and was thinking about how roller derby went from being a cool fringe story in the media (crazy gals with nutty nicknames doing wacky things on the edge of town!) to something of a cliche (yet another story about the crazy gals with nutty nicknames) in a very short period of time. Roller derby had, in modern parlance, jumped the shark. Which is hard to do in skates–good thing the death-defying sistahs wear helmets.
I was also thinking about bereft my affection pool was for Drew Barrymore, the director of Whip It! For reasons I can’t quite put my finger on (Fever Pitch! Words and Music!), Droopy Drew has emerged as one of my least favorite Hollywood people.
I was walking down Park Ave. South after the train pulled into Grand Central, thinking thoughts such as these. Suddenly a cab pulled up at the light at 30th Street. Who gets out of the cab but…no, not Will Ferrell…four roller derby chicks–in full uniform (satin jackets, ugly ’70s tube socks pulled over tights). Their jackets said Gotham Girls Roller Derby. They entered 425 Park Ave South.
What were they doing in full uniform at 9:15 on a Friday morning? Were they arriving home after an all-night, no-holds-barred roller derby bacchanal? Or were they filming some silly bit for The Today Show–just to make sure people realize there are crazy gals named Anais Ninja, Bitch Cassidy and Ani DiSpanco rolling around out there?