Psychedelic Foosball Project 2002
As the story goes, in 1626 A.D. the indigenous people of New York sold the entire island of Manhattan to the Dutch for $24 worth of beads and “trinkets.” One can only speculate on what “trinkets” might mean for such important piece of real estate.
Did the Dutch hand over Christ’s Holy Grail? What were these beads made out of? I wonder if the tribe still has these trinkets and beads? The historical value alone would make them worth a lot.
Before this foosball drift began, I created another “psychedelic” art project. I made home-baked foosballs.
The history of this project began when I went to New Orleans a couple of years ago.
I made my own homemade beads to give to people that I would meet on the trail.
Perhaps these drifter-beads might be worth something for these strangers if I ever wrote a book or made a name for myself?
To make these beads, I would buy multi-color Sculpy clay from Michael’s crafts or Walmart. This clay could be baked in a conventional oven. Not sure how hygienic this process is for an oven you eat out off, but it creates a fairly durable bead.
Foosballs are essentially just big beads.
R&D testing of these foosballs proved that they could take a beating from even the hardest hitting players.
I called my foosball creation project “psychedelic foosball” do to the nature of blending the different clay colors into something that the 1960’s or ’70’s foosers would have loved. I cooked up my first rack of homemade foosballs for this tournament and brought them with me. My intention is to sell my art on my foosball journey in order to help pay for food and beverage.
Chilling in Carma’s hotel room with her professional foosball room mate, Wydman, I tell him about the foosballs I made. He is curious about my project since he never heard of such a thing. Make your own foosballs?
“Let’s see what you got,” he says as he exhales a cloud and passes the herb.
I break out my lot of foosballs on the hotel room bed. I explain how I made them.
He is impressed. “I’ll buy all of them.”
Wydman loves the concept of my project. He invests in my creative nature and my foosball adventure by buying these foosballs. Wydman is helping sustain a foosball drifter. He pays me a $100 for my first rack of foosballs.
Much respect.
