Ladyboys and Girls

A few weeks ago, I attended a roller derby bout in Richmond between a team from their league, the awesomely named Poe's Punishers, and the DC All-Star Team.

It was fun seeing a bout that was not on home turf. But what was even better was their half-time show. Can you guess what Richmond roller derby games have that DC games don't?



That's right.



Drag queen cheerleaders. Dancing to Lady GaGa's "Bad Romance". As my friend Aimee put it, "Every time a drag queen dances to Lady GaGa, a fairy is born."

I don't get it. Why doesn't DC have drag queen cheerleaders? We have plenty of drag queens. Can they not get all dolled up and show some hometown spirit? Seriously. We need to fix this. Seriously.

The half-time show also had girls with hula hoops. Also an improvement on DC roller derby's half-time shows.



Sorry DC roller derby, you fail at half-time shows. We need some drag queens and hot chicks dancing with hula hoops!



OK, DC roller derby doesn't entirely fail though, since they did win the bout by a huge margin. Go DC Rollergirls! Just get some drag queens and I'll love you forever!

Is Arthur Ashe Creepy?

I visited some friends in Richmond this past weekend.  One of them lives on Monument Avenue.  Monument Avenue is aptly named because... there are quite a few monuments on it.  Most of these are famous Confederates.  You know us Virginians, ever so proud of our Confederate past.




Stonewall Jackson, for instance.





Jefferson Davis also.





Some oceanographer dude named Maury?


However, no monument on this street captures my interest quite like the one build for Arthur Ashe, a famous tennis player and Richmond native.





Joh had warned me about the slight creepiness of this statue. Here you see Arthur Ashe, with some books in one hand and tennis racket in the other, standing before a small group of children who are reaching out to touch him. He looks like he's either going to throw the books at the children or beat them with the tennis racket. There's something malicious about the expression on his face.





I'm sure the real Arthur Ashe wasn't really a child-beating creepster. I'm sure he was a very lovely man. He also died before the debut of this sculpture, so I won't put him at fault. I'm all for honoring hometown heroes and whatnot, but ... isn't this just a really creepy statue?