The Roller Derby, Austin Style (overseas investment properties)
No commentsBy Ki Gray
Ten women go whizzing past wearing wild fishnet hoses. Their colorful get-ups also include helmets and kneepads and flying scarves and the skates on which they are racing around the oval track.
Elbows fly, legs lock, bodies go careening and sliding along the masonite track. Occasionally two shapely lovelies go at each other, swinging hard and fast, falling to the ground, rolling and grappling as the beer-soaked, capacity crowd roars in approval. It’s Sunday afternoon at the roller derby bout; roller derby with a Texas twist.
Austin, the city that likes to keep itself weird, has given birth to yet another entertainment craze that has gone national. All-girl roller derby, loosely fashioned after the co-ed roller derby teams of yesteryear, took root here in 2001 with the founding of the TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls. A couple of years later, most of the teams in the league spun off to form a second league, Texas Rollergirls, due to a difference of opinion about how the original league was managing things. In addition, the Texas Rollergirls play on a flat track, rather than the traditional banked track that the Lonestar Rollergirls prefer.
Volunteerism and inclusion are two of the philosophical and practical pillars of the success of this Austin-born movement. The women risk bodily injury for the thrill of extreme sport and the glory of winning; they don’t get paid. Proceeds go to local charities and to the expense of running the league. Texas Rollergirls, in particular, are fiercely committed to their slogan, a league for the skaters, by the skaters.
Both leagues boast an independent, tough-girl spirit and are proud of the way their movement grew from their own sweat and muscle to grow within a few short years into a national phenomenon as all-girl roller derby leagues have sprouted up all over the country. Several documentary films and one reality-style national TV show have helped propel the popularity of this fast-paced, contact sport for women. The leagues in different cities have begun to hold inter-city and inter-state competitions and a national tournament as well.
The sport has been hugely successful in Austin as both local leagues constantly draw sell-out crowds. Enthusiasts swill ice-cold cans of Lone Star and local bands fill the arena with loud, raucous Austin rock and roll. Fans of the flat track version of the sport love to sit in the first two or three rows where the chances are likely that they’ll become part of the painful action when some blocker or jammer gets knocked off the track-there are no rails or barriers-and goes sailing into someone’s lap.
Rough and tumble roller girls with names like Raquel Welts, Misty Meaner and Lucille Brawl plaster and pummel each other all through the four 20-minute periods of the game. By day, they are moms, special ed teachers, maternity nurses and art school graduates. On the track though, they assume their alter egos and put on a show that one of them, Melissa Joulwan (Melicious), describes in her book, Rollergirl: Totally True Tales from the Track, as a “dazzling carnival on wheels”a sport of speed-skating and brutal body checks, played out against a backdrop of head banging rock. The spectacle drives fans into a hormone-and-beer induced frenzy.
AE channel produced a 13-episode television program in 2005 called Rollergirls that was about the TXRD league, their skating and scrapping escapades, and their life off the rink with boyfriends and bosses. The website for the show describes the sport as raucous bouts that combine fierce competition with jaw-dropping outfits and crowd-pleasing personalities.
The rollergirls impact has even had an effect on the local Austin real estate market. Texas Rollergirls marketing director Rebecca Guitierrez (RadioActive) said that we’ve had many folks move here because of the derby movement.
That’s because it’s not just about the thrill, the sex-appeal and the colorful, carnivalesque atmosphere of the sport. It’s the community-based, locally controlled, creative and free-wheeling spirit of fun and competition that sets Austin apart from so many other cities in the country, that has been attracting people to come and settle here for decades.
Escapeso Realty helps investors looking for Austin Texas real estate. They provide a graphical search of the Austin MLS along with a blog with updated trends and info on Austin real estate.
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Discover the Secret Steps to Success Part 2 of 4
By Dave Clocker
In part 1 of this article, I mentioned to you a mind-boggling blog I had the fortune to cross paths with. As I mentioned, it wasnt a particularly flashy blog, no interesting picture to grab your eyes and lead you in. Nevertheless, the message contained in it had a deep impact and it stayed with me. In the message, I learned some very valuable rules about achieving success in life.
The secrets hidden in Georges writing.
It’s about time! So you want to know the keys to success?. George accurately drove home the message about having balance in your life. He specifically used blogging as an example where he found himself getting caught up in the activity. For those who have blogged, it can be extremely time consuming. George stated that the activity of blogging had a drug-like control over him and he just kept going back for more. Anyways, George’s business began to decline until he awoke to the reality at hand. He questioned it, What’s going on? I would say, it’s more like, What’s not going on! As if he were awakening from a spell, he recognized that his real estate business was declining because he was spending too much time blogging.
What’s the big deal?
I already know that. Yes, you may know the importance of having balance in your life, but it may still be in your subconscious mind. Most individuals, has it happened to you where because you are immersed in a pressing life situation, you dont really have an accurate perspective of yourself from the outside? Your thoughts are not as clear. In order to live your life with balance, your need to section up the different parts of your life and know that each activity has its own space and time. So although blogging can be interesting and fun,you should not spend too much time in one activity at the risk of neglecting the other items in your life, like your family. It may be hazardous to your life if you let it.
Those just starting out in their career and even those who have worked for years can see the relevance of the takeaway concept.. Didn’t I tell you that at the beginning? This is more so for newbies as it can be used as a preventive measure for them to gauge before getting caught up and lost within the rainforest. There are only 24 hours in a day and we are what we do daily. At this point, you’ve impressed me if you have read this far. I am honored. Thank you.
You’ve read 1/2 of this 4 part series by now. I know there are those of you who at this point would want to back out and I completely know why you are doing so. When the going gets tough, it takes a lot of gall to weather through to the end. As I’ve stated at the preface, this is not an article for everyone. In writing this article, I have chosen to leave it this long for a purpose….a purpose that is concealed within this article.
Your forge ahead style is a great asset, and Ill take a brief break to cheer you on. (Not that you need it since you have already gone a long way and shown your inner drive, but here it goes). You’re doing great and almost near the end of this article! That’s it! Youve got that fire within you! Never ever give up!! Keep reading! C’mon! I believe in you! Don’t you quit on me now! Give me all you’ve got! I know you can do it! Never give up!!
You wont want to misspart 3 of this 4 part series where youll find out the one item in the ladder of success that many people have used everyday to produce lasting results.
There is an even better side to real estate than you may be aware of. Dave Clocker is a real estate investor who will teach you the Secrets That 99% Of The Population Will Never Know About How To Almost Magically Generate Wealth Thru Real Estate. He has taken these creative strategies and combined them into content-packed videos, exclusive reports, and teleseminars with experts. Check more out at http://www.RealEstateWayToWealth.com
Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 1:25 am and is filed under realestate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
