As I continue conceptualizing the future of
Junkyard Sports, and all that is implied thereby, I find myself harkening back to the roots thereof. Today's back-harkening takes me to the game of Kick the Can, as so evocatively rendered by the
virtual version herein illustrated.
One simply cannot play Kick the Can without a can. Though any can can be used, the canny player selects a large, easily kickable can, such as a coffee can. Since an empty coffee can is far more kickable, the game, in its small but vivid manner, encourages recycling. Thus, it can only be classified as junk-based. Which fixes it firmly as an indubitable precursor to the concept and spirit of Junkyard Sports.
Kick the Can, as a few minutes of virtual play will so vividly remind you, is an immensely gratifying game for anyone who likes to play with paranoia. It's no imagined thing: as long as you are IT, everyone is in deed against you. And though you have the Power to Immobilize, there's always that one player whom you haven't yet caught, who kicks the very foundations out from under your hard-won accomplishments, and frees the frozen.
Kick the Can is worthy of much contemplation, and not just for its junkiness. It captures a reality that we are destined to live over and over again in our short lives, whether we're trying to get everything ready for a meeting or the whole family into the car.
You can download the
complete rules from the pre-eminent source of all things junkyard sport-like,
Streetplay.com, or read the rules of this and some the related variations
here, courtesy of
Games Kids Play.
Craftster is an open discussion board where members exchange ideas on how to use junk to create craftly wonders like:
Starburst candy wrapper bracelets,
Sock Bunnies, and
solid perfume cases out of birth control dispensers. Even if you don't like making things, you gotta love Craftster. We're not talking Martha Stewart here. We're talking about a community of people who are having fun sharing ideas and insights about transforming trash into treasure. Take a look, for yet another example, at the discussion about
transforming old CDs, AOL CDs, and CD cases. Here are just a few of the ideas generated by the virtual Craftster community: mobiles, 3D stars, drawer pulls, coasters, paint testers, fish sculptures, flowers, disco ball, lamps, art quilts. There's also a discussion about the glories and dangers of putting them in the microwave.
The Craftster community is probably one of the best examples of a
Fun Community on the web. Its participants are playful, creative, and remarkably supportive of each other's ideas, interests, and concerns. There's a lot of heart here. You can see it in the discussions about what to make for people who are serving in Iraq, people who are grieving or looking for a new job. And in its small way, it's play in service of the planet - focusing people's creativity and inventiveness on recycling, reusing, and reconstructing this very planet.
Calvinball, as many would claim, is both pre- and post-cursor to
Junkyard Sports. I exemplify:
In this
episode (one of only ten I was able to find on the remarkable collection of C&H strips found on
Calvin and Hobbes at Martijn's) we see the following: "Calvin and Hobbes are playing Calvinball. Calvin stole Hobbes' flag. Hobbes hit him with the Calvin ball. He has to sing the 'I'm very sorry' song. Calvin protests he was in the 'no song' zone. Hobbes corrects him, as he had touched the 'opposite pole,' so now the 'no song zone' is a 'song zone.' Calvin complains that Hobbes didn't declare it. Hobbes says he declared it oppositely by not declaring it. Calvin starts singing, and Hobbes joins in. When they're finished, Calvin says he gets free passage to wicket five. Hobbes tells him they did that last time. Calvin makes up a new rule to jump until someone finds the bonus box. As they jump away, Calvin says the only permanent rule in Calvinball is that you can't play it the same way twice. Hobbes says the score is 'Q to 12'."
The most obvious connection scholars will one day make between Calivinball and Junkyard Sports is, of course, the Permanent Rule, which both of them more or less share, except for the fact that in Junkyard Sports you are allowed to
try playing a game the same way twice. A perhaps more definitely subtle connection can be found in the relationship between the players. If one of them were really
trying to win, the game would fall apart, immediately and completely. If you remember playing with kids who don't quite understand this subtlety, you'll know immediately what I mean. True, kids'll change a game, at every possible opportunity, but usually only as long as they can change it to their immediate advantage. Whereas C&H, like the true Junkmasters they are, change the game to keep it fun. For everyone.
