Of Junk and Fun - introducing Arvin Gupta and his Toys from Trash

The Pencil Spinner, also known as the Incredible Magic Hooey Stick, or, perhaps equally as familiar, the Gee Haw Whammydiddle, is, in itself, a wonderful thing, a thing of wonder, a toy to amaze.

And it's only one of I don't know how many very cool things you can probably figure out how to make yourself at the equally amazing Toys from Trash website. Toys from Trash. One more essential resource for anyone who takes junk and fun seriously. Like, for example, Arvin Gupta, teacher, physicist, maker of toys from trash.




thanks for the superb funscouting, Grow-a-Brain

Frisbee Bowling, at least

Frisbee Bowling, from what may actually be, as advertised, the "Ultimate Camp Resource. I quote:

Description

Use a few soda bottles, or plastic water bottles. You may want to put a little water in the bottom to weigh down the bottles. Lime them up as bowling pins, use the Frisbee to knock them down and score like regular bowling rules.

Requirements

Frisbee, water bottles

OK, so not the most complete instructions. You could probably use two frisbees so that you could play a frame and aim for a spare, as it were. And maybe some boundary markers to indicate where the gutters are. In fact, you could probably also include a few trash cans or something for the frisbee to bounce off of. It would add a certain reflectivity to the whole thing - a miniature golf-like element, which, of course, makes one wonder about the frisbee golf/water bottle connection. Meanwhile, back at bowling, perhaps if you could skip the frisbee off the ground before it hits the waterbottles, you could get an extra point or two or multiple thereof. Of course, the whole thing could, in a similar manner, become a cricket-like experience. I suppose you'd have to use a squash racquet as a bat, don't you know.

Sneaker Art, and plastic chairs, too

I'm thinking there's something inherently fun about the junk-art connection. I'm thinking that if you, in your virtual way, toured the Brian Jungen Gallery you'd come up with virtually the same conclusion. Nike art. How, well, artistic. And how, let's see, how
clever, how effective, how well-crafted, how unique, how ecologically sensitive, how commercially potent, how politically relevant, how, hmm, fun.

And perhaps even more spectacularly artistic and funny, his Plastic Chair Whale Skeleton.

So what I'm beginning to conclude is this: the junk-art connection is a big one, it connects this part of our brain with that part, this part of our culture with that, truth with beauty with profound silliness. Look for it. Nurture it. Enjoy it.


funscouting by neatorama.

Chess Boxing

Chess Boxing? Apparently, yes.

"The basic idea in chessboxing," explains the author of the op. cit. site, "is to combine the no.1 thinking sport and the no.1 fighting sport into a hybrid that demands the most of its competitors – both mentally and physically, yet which can be performed by easiest means. In a chessboxing fight two opponents play alternating rounds of chess and boxing. The fight goes over a maximum of 11 rounds, 6 rounds of chess and 5 rounds of boxing. The fight is either decided by checkmate or ko."

"The fight is either decided by checkmate or ko." One can only wonder.