So the last few days have been an interesting mish-mash of culture. Sunday myself and the better half hit up the Thornebrook Village Art Festival. There were one or two items that caught my eye and she got a pair of orange and blue earrings out of the deal. For the most part, what I saw, didn’t appeal to me.

Sunday evening on the hand was an entirely different sort of culture! As part of some sort of business thing, we went over to Skate Station to watch the Gainesville Roller Rebels. In case you are wondering what the Roller Rebels are, or more importantly do, well they are a Women’s Roller Derby team. Now my brief experience with Roller Derby has been confined to the resurgence of the sport in the early 90′s that was televised and pitted teams against each other in a dramatic, WWE-esque atmoshphere. I was pleasantly surprised to find out this was “real” Roller Derby and not staged.

Despite being real, the women certainly played up outlandish personalities and costumes. I’d also like to note that as a former full contact fighter, I was scared of half these women. The crowd was not quite what I was expecting…sure there were your Rednecks with jean shorts, cut off T’s, and mullets…but there were a ton of hipster kids there. This became clear when I discovered that most of the team are Lesbians and have a connection with the Common Grounds which tends to have lots of Indie music here in Gainesville.

That being said, despite being one of about 10 people there dressed as a professional and sporting a full set of teeth, I had a GREAT time. The home team got crushed but as a former college athlete and athletic person in general, I have a TON of respect for the obvious amount of time these women spend practicing. Despite not being brutally physical…as in no elbows to the head…ladies did go crashing down here and there with no padding (except natural) on their rears or thighs. I guarantee these ladies feel it after practices and games!

While it is rude, one of my friends in attendance made the comment that the announcer was the most feminine person there…and the announcer was a dude. Quite frankly, the announcer did a fantastic job and was a large part of the fun atmosphere!
The next event is in November and I can’t wait to get a group to go again. It really was a fun way to spend a couple of hours and once again I have a great amount of respect for the work that the players put into a sport where they know they aren’t going to make millions and it is for the love!