Savoring Austin's Culture

Jennifer and I actually got to go out twice last week! On Monday Jfer dropped Magda off at Elizabeth's and picked me up to go to the final AOL season performance. This was Mozart's Don Giovanni, which I had actually seen twice already. But it was a blast, none the less. The singers had both good voices, but also they fit the character dramatically -- Don Giovanni was a very believable rake. And after Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk it was kind of nice to get one of the classics.

We ended up the week on a completely different note, attending a Texas Rollergirls roller derby bout -- with Magda in tow. We learned about it because Tim's band, The Bad Rackets was playing there, and I'm not likely to see them at their usual venues -- downtown bars at late, late hours.

The Roller Derby turned out to be a lot of fun. We initially had no idea what exactly the purpose was, and the scoring seemed a little random. It reminded me of the first time I watched Amercian Football -- in some hotel in New York where I was stuck due to a delay and missed connection during my first trip into the US -- and it just seemed like a bunch of guys piling on top of each other for no reason. But eventually we borrowed someone's program which explained the rules and it all began to make sense.

The main event was the Honky Tonk Heartbreakers against Rat City Derby Liberation Front from Seattle, and our girls beat them handily. The bouts are pretty fast paced and, as you'd expect, there is the often hard blocking and a skater on top of the spectators. But despite the fact that medics had to help a couple of the girls, it never semmed wanton. Mostly it was just very impressive and exciting skating. And lots and lots of loud noise. And beer got mentioned a lot, too.

So I'd go again -- it would be a cool thing to take out of town guests to. But next time I need to remember that at any place where Tim's band is playing, the standard attire requires at the very least some of your clothing to be black. Metal spikes, Mohawks, tatoos and piercings are, of course, prefered.