Thrills and Spills at Dead Girl Roller Derby

In this episode, the Nerd clan spent a great evening watching the Dead Girl Derby "Love Hurts" competition at Hale Arena in Kansas City. Now in its fourth season, this is the second league for Kansas City. The Roller Warriors moved from the concrete of Hale Arena to a wood floor at Municipal Auditorium. We like the speed and chaos of concrete and being able to sit within a few feet of the ring. Besides, Hannah's best friend has a step-mom skating under the moniker "Venus Envy" for the Deadly Sirens.

Semi-controlled chaos. The girl with the star on her helmet is a Jammer. The striped helmet indicates the Pivot. The rest of the players are blockers. The goal is for a designated Jammer to get up front and start scoring some points.

Lead Jammer Heaven. This Jammer is pacing ahead of the pack. When she catches up later, the chaos begins again as lapping leads to more points.

This is a flat concrete track with plenty of speed and potential for gravitational harm. We love the seats right by the track!  You might notice from the angle I shot from that we were within ten feet of the outside line. It also happens to be the spot where someone taking a bad line or getting pushed out will coming skidding or flying. Claire and I were hit by and out-of-control skater within five minutes and had a few near misses through the evening. This is so unlike the last time I went to a Nascar race and watched cars from a quarter mile away. They just go around, and around and around... meh.

Being able to feel the breeze and get little shots of adrenaline makes for great entertainment!

Blocking in action. Some players take up a lot of space.

Yep, that's a legal block. Dead Girl Derby isn't for sissies! That's Dir-T-Diana in the red helmet.

Lots going on in this image. You can see the Shotgun Sheilas in black forming a defensive wall while the Jammer gets a push towards an open hole on the inside.

Getting a little tight out there!

This happens a lot.

Coming around the outside...it's an unusual player that can take up that much space at speed.

The action is fast with at least four refs watching. The Lead Jammer is indicated by pointing with the other arm up.

Breaking out at the start of a jam.

Unfortunately, accidents happen. Spills are common, but teams focus on bringing up players and teaching them to fall on the pads. It appears this girl blew out her knee. Like in soccer and skiing, ACL injuries can and do happen.

While the Dead Girl Derby is arranged in teams, the players all practice together and participate in "Zombie" or "Throwback" bouts where they are assigned to random sides. While playing teams, they fight to win, but it is one big family. The sportsmanship is one of the main reasons we enjoy derby so much.

Another spill.

Someone is about to get a little taste of the defense.

The Jammer on the inside is in kind of a tight spot.

Number 19 in this shot is the Lead Jammer. She just used a sign to declare the Jam complete. Everything then resets at the start line.

Victory!

Again, one happy (and bruised) family!

For the curious, I shot the evening with a Sony NEX-6 and 55-210mm lens on manual mode at 125th second and F6.3. This is a slow lens, but decent performance at ISO 3600 makes a big difference. I turned off face recognition as it was over-riding manual settings and adjusting the exposure, badly. Sony's optical stabilization works very well.

With a deep depth-of-field, it is hard to isolate individuals. Just for fun, I shot in the "Toy Camera" mode and like the results.

P.S. I've hit a record for the number of hits on a single post on the same day. Thanks for visiting! Dead Girl Derby is new to us so I did a quick search and tagged on some links for your viewing pleasure:

The Kansas City derby scene is thriving as seen at http://kcderbydigest.com/ 

Google images turned up an injury recuperation post. Derby is a sport and these are tough athletes:
http://www.cookingonskates.com/2011/12/healing-journey.html

Copyright Notice: These image and words are my intellectual property and are not to used, distributed or repurposed without my express permission. Yeah, such a drag. I shoot for fun, but my stories are mine. Feel free to link here or share on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or the social mixer of your choosing and share the love.

The Terror of the Violin Master Class

Seventeen years and many thousands of hours of practice and the bow hold can still be improved upon.

So, you want to be a professional violinist?  You have many years of learning ahead and perhaps you will never actually be done.  Welcome to the terror that is the violin master class!

Our oldest daughter is a violinist in her high school chamber orchestra and in the Olathe Youth Symphony.  Her private instructor plays with the Kansas City Symphony in the new and fabulous Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.  Your sincerely non-musical blogger has happily been immersed in a world of music.  As a matter of fact, Hannah is practicing in the living room as I write this.

The Kansas City Symphony is working hard to engage the public.  The master class is a unique way for a large audience to watch accomplished, rising musicians be critiqued by even more accomplished professionals.  Our professional for the day is none other than Vadim Gluzman.

Vadim Gluzman telling Michael Stern and the audience about the history of his bow.  It was used for the debut of one of the pieces played in class, conducted in the mid-1800s.

The story of how Vadim Gluzman came to spend extra time in Kansas City goes back to an early supporter and mentor, Issac Stern. The Kansas City Symphony is blessed to have his son, Michael Stern, as its conductor.  In addition to watching the master at work, we enjoyed hearing a lively discussion between Mr. Gluzman and Mr. Stern about how their musical lives have evolved.

As for the master class, I might have exaggerated slightly about the terror.  Mr. Gluzman was gracious and professional.  Hannah said that the session looked like one of her lessons.  Except for the part about being on a stage... in front of an audience... with one of the best violinists in the world.

No pressure, right?

It works like this:  the young violinist plays and the master follows with a critique on everything from rhythm to technique to presentation.  Many of his tips were related to making the violin sing smoothly as would a vocal artist.

One of the pleasures for the audience was getting to hear the master play an instrument with pedigree:  the 1690 'ex-Leopold' Stradavari.  Words cannot adequately describe the sound this partnership has achieved.

Note the chin rest mark of the violinist or violist.  In theory, this is partially dead tissue from extended blood flow impairment.

 As mentioned in the first caption, the bow hold is something that can always be improved upon.  I think this made Hannah feel better about her bow trials and tribulations.  It is kind of funny that he is tapping an elbow with a bow that is worth as much as a house.

At any level, teaching is about the relationship formed between the teacher and the student.  This particular student has been playing for 17 years.  At this level, four-plus hours of practice a day would not be unusual.  It takes a very strong ego to accept coaching in front of a crowd. 

The master class was followed by a question and answer period.  Hannah has been been playing since fifth grade and started to develop the permanent violinists' "hickey" where the chin rest hits back in seventh grade.  One of the dads in the audience had a daughter that was just starting out and inquired about the spot so prominent among the performers onstage.  He left with a better idea of how much commitment and hours of practice are ahead.

Also during the question and answer period, a member of the audience presented a piece of music retrieved from the National Archives.  The piece was by the composer of one of the student performances.  It was in the composer's hand and otherwise unknown.  Mr. Gulzman and Mr. Stern studied it; the latter commented "This isn't music!  It's torture!".  The former promised to give it a chance.

For an interview from a local TV station, visit http://kcstage.blogspot.com/2012/10/vadim-gluzman-interview-on-fox-4.html

As always, thanks for reading!  In case you are curious, these photos were taken with a Sony NEX-3 outfitted with an adapted Olympus PEN-F 100mm f3.5 lens (circa early 1960s).  Shots are handheld, manual focus, shutter priority with manual exposure adjustment by the brightness histogram.  My Canon 60D is too conspicuous and the shutter is too loud for this kind of session.

We Obviously Need More Fountain Pens

After viewing a Master Class at the Kauffman Center, MEK, the nerdlings and I dropped by the Pen Place at Crown Center in downtown Kansas City.  Yeah, that was probably a mistake.  But we came for ink and we left with ink.  Except for the Retro 51 glow-in-the-dark robot roller pen I picked up.  I'm a sucker for robots.

Anyway, here are some examples of the temptations of Pen Place.

How about an entire wall of ink?

I have also been known to get into total guy mode.  These Porsche pens are overstated, but I'm still in like with them.

As with watches, selling nice pens is all about the presentation.

Enter if you dare.  Pen Place is waiting for you.

Here is the new Retro 1951 pen.  It isn't a fountain pen, but it is heavy and rolls well.  It glows in the dark and is probably radioactive.  Did I already mention that I am a sucker for robots?  The notes are from a talk at TEDxKC 2012 and are the subject of recently released book on the subject of the half life of facts.  I recommend the talk and the book is getting solid reviews.

Triumph NORM-6 of 1938

My slate workbench is currently occupied by a high school Honors Biology insect project.  The floor will have to make do.

Correction:  I double checked as noted below and determined this machine dates from 1938.

I swoon over chromed paper table logos.

The enamel and brass on this badge show this machine's 74-years of service and storage more than other portions.

The texture on the top section is a giveaway that this portion is plastic.  However, as you look at the other photos, you'll notice how well this color matches the painted metal lower section.

The chrome is thick and beautiful and the edges on the controls are nicely smoothed and polished.

Could any of the German speaking readers comment on the shop key tag?  Notice the Spanish tilde key - kind of funny in line with the German shift lock and margin release.

Correction:  I had been going off memory on the date of production.  According to the Typewriter Serial Number Database, this machine was made in 1938, a year after the Hindenburg explosion.  The Graf Zeppelin II was still out and about, but the era of the zeppelin was essentially over as the U.S. would not supply Germany with helium.

Thanks for reading this typecast!  This typewriter is a joy to write on, but takes a little practice and a subtle hand given the hard platen.  It is snappy and light to the touch on par with a well tuned Torpedo 18.

UPDATE:  To read more about the history of Triumph typewriters and similar models, visit:
http://www.machinesoflovinggrace.com/others.htm
 http://sommeregger.blogspot.com/2009/03/triumph-durabel-typewriter.html

It is interesting to note that the Triumph Durabel on Shordzi's blog resembles my NORM-6 more than the NORM-6 shown on Machines of Loving Grace.  Much gets lost in the history of relatively obscure machines.  It does not deserve obscurity as it is a wonderful machine.

If you are curious about the cards I typed on, visit the first entry on the topic at http://vintagetechobsessions.blogspot.com/2011/11/analog-record-keeping-and-kansas-city.html