Someone finally gets the Cherry City Derby Girls.
Not the hangdogs in the audience — I’m pretty sure it’s clear why people would want to go watch a bunch of scantily clad, tough-as-nails, sexy, hell-on-wheels women of all ages race around a track and body slam their opponents.
No, I’m talking about someone who gets why they do it. It’s writer Jay Shenai, whose story “Skate Club,” which asks whether Salem is ready for a women’s roller derby team, is getting some local buzz around Twitter and on the Salem Monthly website.
It’s just the lead story in a monthly issue which shrugs off the usual early September back-to-school stories in favor of some yarns that aren’t being told elsewhere.
Some highlights:
The last day of school at the Oregon School for the Blind. As I write this, about 20 students, former boarders at the school, are being mainstreamed back into classrooms in their own communities around the state. For most of them, who have developmental and learning disabilities in addition to being blind or partially sighted, that means the special ed room.
Behind the scenes at Word of Mouth. Anyone who has been there knows these scenes of Steve “Forearms of Steel” Mucha and his wife Becky racing around the restaurant.
A rundown of new French restaurants in Salem. I still don’t get Napoleon’s. I still don’t get the French Unicorn. If someone can explain to me the fascination with the seemingly innocuous but truly insipid remnants of French culture popping up here in town (and I’m not talking about the food — thank you La Capitale!), please do. If I see another Tour D’Eiffel I think I’m going to take off my beret and vomit in it.
An announcement about Storytime for Grownups at the Salem Public Library. I’m requesting Nicholson Baker’s Fermata. Any suggestions on who should do the voice work?
A profile of the marionette maker who recently took up residence in the Reed Opera House. I’ve said it once before but it bears repeating: Puppets are going to be HUGE. As in, major comeback for marionettes. Now is the time for all good men to reread Heinrich von Kleist’s “The Puppet Theater” and bone up on this art form.
Pick your copy up today. Assuming publisher A.P. Walther has already biked them around town to your favorite caffeine hotspot.
