It was the next to the last day of the 2003 fall seminar
at Esalen. We decided
to devote the afternoon to exploring Junkyard Sports. Marah happened
to have a digital video camera, and not only knew how to use it, but
also how to make our whole session into a DVD. Among other group marvels,
we managed to capture two relatively prime examples of Junkyard madness.
Sock Basketless Ball
Click to play (432k mpeg movie) (free Apple Quicktime required
to view).
Our first experiment: see if we could come up with some way to
play basketball, even though we had neither basket nor ball. We
did have a bunch of clean socks (standard equipment). We made the
biggest sock ball we could. Since sockballs are known for their
lack of bouncability, we dribbled in the air, as it were, bouncing
the ball in our hands without ever actually catching it. We eventually
decided to have a human basket. Someone who held their arms out
in front, holding hands, hooplike. To add to the general mayhem,
we made it the rule that the basket could move. Evidence of this
remarkably funlike experience will be apparent upon clickage.
Team Sockball Chairback Croquet
Click to play (960k mpeg movie)
Next, we sought inspiration from whatever found objects we could,
um, find. There were these Back Jack floor chairs (legless chairlike
things that support your back when your sitting on the floor), and,
of course, our vast collection of socks. After remarkably little
deliberation, we arrived at a game of simultaneous team sockball
chairback croquet, as illustrated below:
We're Number ?
Click to play (292k mpeg movie)
Last, a moment of spontaneity which may have been the veritable
apotheosis of our journey into Junkyardhood - a new sense, and definition,
of victory:
at Esalen
