Josh Shear

ITHACA, N.Y. — The Ithaca League of Women Rollers will take on their sisterly arch-rivals from Syracuse, Assault City Roller Derby, to end their 2010 season on Saturday October 9 at Cass Park Rink. The doubleheader will feature the Ithaca BlueStockings, who will take on Syracuse’s “B” team, and will continue as the SufferJets—recently voted Ithaca’s #1 local sports team by readers of the Ithaca Times—take on the seasoned Assault City skaters.

The Ithaca League of Women Rollers and Syracuse’s Assault City Roller Derby share derby roots: they began learning the sport together in September 2007 before they split into their respective teams in February 2008, just prior to both leagues’ premiere friends-and-family bout in March 2008. The teams continue to meet on the track annually, although after two seasons of tight matches, Syracuse remains hungry for a win over Ithaca.

This year’s match-up promises to be especially exciting, as the SufferJets’ former first-string power blocker, Brutal Vroom (also known as Hollow Bones, Amber Waves of Pain, and Amber Chaos), returns to Cass Park wearing Assault City colors as she takes on her former Sisters of Suffrage. Brutal Vroom moved to Syracuse early in the 2010 season. She reports, “I have never been so nervous before a bout. I hope I don’t give the wrong person a whip.

Cass Park will open its doors on Saturday, October 9, at 5:00 pm, and the first whistle will blow at 5:30. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Friendship Donation food rescue and gleaning program. Please bring a nonperishable food donation to the door. Donations of $10 for adults and $5 for kids under 12 keep our derby dames rolling.

An after-party will be held at Stella’s, 403 College Ave., featuring ILWR DJs Bob and Luke.

Approximate Program Times:
5:00 Doors open at Cass Park Rink
5:30 Whistle Blows—Period 1 BlueStockings vs. Assault City B Team
6:10 End of First period—short half time
6:20 Period 1 SufferJets vs. Assault City A Team
7:00 Period 2 BlueStockings vs. Assault City B Team
7:35 Period 2 SufferJets cs. Assault City A Team

Steve Powers for Love Letter to Syracuse

So it's not on the scale of what's happening in France (watch that video below), but we went to the press conference Monday for the launch of Love Letter to Syracuse.

It was your run-of-the-mill event. People who had something to do with funding (Bill Magnarelli) and planning (Maarten Jacobs) spoke quickly to avoid the rain, while the artist (Steve Powers) tried not to speak much.

But these bridges are beautiful. They are going to draw eyes at the end of the Connective Corridor and the geographic beginning of the Near West Side. It's an area most people just drive through, and this will give people reason to pause in a place they may have never paused before.

via Josh Spear

One of the amazing people Twitter brought me in contact with is Mel, who skates as MellFire for CNY Roller Derby. In addition to just being an all-around fun human, Mel does some awesome stuff. Like donating eggs. She blogged her experience, and it was made into a film (umm, above, in case you missed it).

Mel, you are truly awesome. Just sayin'.

I kinda like this tune and really dig this animation. I need to do a little more exploring. It helps with the whole perspective thing. [buy mp3]

Assault City Roller Derby hosted its final home bout of the 2010 season on Saturday, falling 161-57 to the Tri-City Roller Girls of Waterloo, Ontario. Which is in Canada, by the way.

• What I love about roller derby »
• Roller derby in the context of a derby girl's life »

This to love about this bout:

Canadian national spirit. I've often taken the "grateful, not proud" stance on being an American. We have some great freedoms here, but (and forgive the brief foray into politics) we do some pretty crappy things to our own people and to the world. And we all stand respectfully and take our hats off when our national anthem is sung before sporting events, but Canadians actually sing along. Loudly. [Maybe it's because their anthem wasn't written by a prisoner to the tune of a drinking song popular among the people imprisoning him, but still.]

Announcers. DeafGeoff (aka Funk Roll Brother) and Jason (aka Rebel Without a Pulse) called the bout. Geoff is a radio guy and Jason is an actor. They are both also part of the Quadfathers, a men's roller derby team out of Utica. And they're friends. So the personalities are great, the banter was hysterical, they know derby and can explain it, and just all-around they enhanced the experience.

Solidarity and Bad-Assitude. About three minutes into the bout, Assault City's Deb Crush leveled Lippy Wrongstocking. Deb makes her living in the penalty box (though this was a clean hit) and is known for, er, not being gentle. When someone gets hurt, everybody (both teams and the refs) immediately takes a knee – it's the best way to ensure there's no further damage and it shows some solidarity – but any time the EMTs have to make their way out, it's scary. After about five minutes (which is a long time to be down), Lippy managed to skate off, and Deb made a bee-line for the Tri-City bench to check in on her. And while Lippy didn't skate again in the first half, she was right back at it in the second half, making up for lost time.

Wedding! Ref Otto A. Linement and Assault City skater Krispy Kremya renewed their vows at halftime (that's the photo up there at the top of the post). And about time, since apparently the first time they ran off and got married, then had a lot of phone calls to make and splainin' to do.

No more derby in B'ville this season, but Assault City skates in Utica on Sept. 19 and in a double header at Utica on Oct. 9. We'll also have some skaters at the October meeting of the 40 Below Civic Engagement Task Force.

A press release from Crazy Diamond at Assault City Roller Derby.

***

Syracuse, NY – Assault City Roller Derby is pleased to announce its first-ever international bout at the Greater Baldwinsville (Lysander) Ice Arena in Baldwinsville, NY, on Saturday, August 21st. Assault City will take on the Tri-City Roller Girls of Ontario, Canada. Doors open at 6 PM and the bout starts at 7 PM. There will be refreshments, music, halftime entertainment and loads of excitement. This is also ACRD’s last home bout of the 2010 season.

Presale general admission tickets are $10 each while a limited number of front line tickets are $20 each. Reduced price children’s tickets are also available. Tickets can be purchased online or at Black Mamba Skate Park in Shoppingtown Mall. Tickets will also be available at the door the day of the event for $12 for general admission and $22 for front line.

ACRD is an all-women’s flat track roller derby league consisting of working mothers, professionals, wives, and students, ranging in age from 21 to 45. Their goal is to help local communities and promote women’s empowerment. Since its inception in late 2007, Assault City has competed on the road in Vermont, New Jersey, and Ohio as well as throughout Upstate New York. For additional information, please visit www.AssaultCityRollerDerby.com.

I had a chance last week to meet with Neil Brody Miller to talk about his new project, Farmshed CNY.

Farmshed is an iPhone app (I'm hoping there's an Android app in the future) that lets you see nearby farms, farmers markets and locally-owned restaurants. The download times are getting faster (it's a fairly large database), and Neil clued me in on a few upcoming changes, including organizing everything by distance (it's currently alphabetical) and further organizing what farms do (meat? veggies? organic?).

Neil met me at Strong Hearts, and we chatted a bit about our backgrounds. He's an old (70s-era) punk with an entrepreneurial mentality, great ideas, and a love for all the stuff that's going on here. He particularly mentioned Syracuse First and the guy who introduced us, Marty Butts of Small Potatoes.

Watch for more coming on Farmshed. If you're the iPhone sort, download the app (it's free). Here's a miniaturized version of the brochure:

Update, 7 a.m.: We learned this morning that the white board resignation was, indeed, a hoax. But because the viral campaign has some actual discussion value, I'm going to leave this post as I wrote it.

You may have seen the series of photos yesterday of "Jenny" quitting her job via white board and email. If not, take some time to scroll through the whole thing.

We might find this an attempt at Internet celebrity. I'm running on the assumption it's not (see note above: it is). I'm also running on the assumption that she'll be out there looking for jobs, and that she's recognizable and Google-able. So. If her resume came across your desk, would you hire her? Some things stand out to me on both sides of the argument.

Pro: Creativity. That's the obvious one. Not only is it a creative resignation, she put some time into it, which bodes well in a project-focused environment.

Con: Self-awareness. My guess is, without knowing the office situation, anybody who's worked with Spencer for several years and has seen his assistants come and go, probably knows there was a pattern of chauvinism, and may have warned her subtly. Either way, she made it two years before she knew where she really stood in her boss's eyes.

Pro: Willingness to learn from the bottom up. Jenny wanted to be a broker, so she came on as a broker's assistant to learn the business. She wasn't so arrogant in her job search to try to start higher than her abilities, and she apparently determined the path she would need to take to get where she wanted to be.

Con: Willingness to let the behavior cycle without her. Rather than go to HR with a harassment claim, Jenny called Spencer out in such a way that she probably can't file a claim now. Which means that anyone who hasn't seen her resignation or who doesn't connect it to her company, or who doesn't necessarily believe a clearly disgruntled employee, will sign on as Spencer's next assistant, and the cycle of chauvinism will continue. Her boss was doing something potentially illegal that will likely affect other people in the future – if she had gone through the proper reporting procedure, she would help others who might work for Spencer. There's a selfishness there I'm not crazy about as a potential employer.

Pro: Strong use of available tools. Spencer put monitoring software on the network. Jenny used it in a way not prescribed by her boss. Two thumbs up.

Con: The wardrobe change. I get that it's the throwing off of the business casual and the throwing on of the casual – the change from from the worker to the customer. Very artsy. But there's something about Jenny shucking the glasses and coming out from behind the white board on the first shot that screams to me, "I'm gonna do the talk show circuit for this!" Not crazy about the move.

I'm glad Jenny got out of a bad situation. I'm also glad that she recognized there were no bridges she needed to worry about burning, so it didn't matter how she did it. Whether or not I'd want her on my team in a work environment would strongly depend on what business I was in and what dynamics I hoped for within my team.

It's hot out. Drink some water. Cool off. Watch. Relax.