irony house

the games we play August 14, 2008

When I was visiting Providence and the Friends House, I played three games of serious note. One, I learned from fellow farm worker Rachelle. Another, I have played for a very long time. The third, I’d never heard of before.

Game One: Surrealist Poetry
Scene: Cafe Nation, Brighton, MA
Players: Roxy, Amandeep, Nupur and myself

Rachelle went to a surrealist ceramics camp in North Carolina and told me about this game they played to “free their minds” and “knock down boundaries” and etc. Basically, you have a sheet of paper. You write a sentence, and then write its opposite (you define opposite). A simple example:

I like dogs.
I like cats.

Then you fold over the first sentence and hand it to the next person. They write the opposite of the sentence there.

[fold]
I like cats.
I hate cats.

Then they fold over the previous sentence and pass it on to the next person.

[fold]
I hate cats.

The next person writes that sentence’s opposite.

[fold]
I hate cats.
You like cats.

And then they fold over the previous sentence.

[fold]
You like cats.

And then they pass it on. Continue ad infinitum.

This is what we came up with.

Round 1: started by Sonia. The order is Sonia, Amandeep, Nupur, Roxy.

I lounge in a parched desert.
You live in a cold city.
I play in a hot field.
I lounge on cold concrete.
He jumps off the hot grass.
She floats in the ocean.
He sinks in the desert.
She floats in the ocean.
He dives into the earth.
She shoots into outer space!
He is imprisoned in the center of the earth.
She is freed by the whole of the universe.
He is chained to the worship of nothingness.

I have to say, I find this one pretty interesting, because it takes lounging and working and pushes them to their absolutes — freedom and slavery. It does the same with nature/city — makes it the universe and, well, nothingness. Anyway moving on

Round 2: started by Amandeep.

She loves the smell of grass.
He hates the odorlessness of the sky.
She adores the smell of the earth.
He abhors seeing the sky.
He sleeps out under the starry sky every night.
She is awake every day in the sunshine.
They both sleep when it pours.
I wake when the rain stops.
You sleep in a blanket of fog.
I awaken in a place of clarity.
You fall asleep in a state of confusion.
We drift awake to find our clarity.
They fall asleep, counting their illusions.

Round 3: started by Nupur.

His silence is unbearable.
Their noises are exactly what she needs.
Our silences satisfy his wants.
The din frightens the tyrant.
A silence comforts the downtrodden man.
The music irritates the driven woman.
A poem spurs the drowning man.
The mystic inspires the muse.
The plebe stifles the silencer.
A king appeases his supporters.
The queen scorns her enemies.
The whore adores her friends.
The librarian loathes his enemies.

The best part about the one above is that Amandeep thinks the opposite of “whore” is “librarian.”

Round 4: started by Roxanne.

In the quiet of my soul, I am invincible.
The voice of your body leaves you vulnerable.
My mind’s silence brings me strength.
My heart’s screaming rends the tenuous ground between my feet.
My mind’s calm draws bricks under my feet.
The turmoil of the heart smashes stones.
Star quality builds bridges.
The ordinary dust erodes our links.
The extraordinary smoke breathes life into me.
You accept death by fire.
I drown you.
You breathe life back into me.
I will suck your life away with a kiss.

Game Two: Word Association
Same as above

I like this game a lot. It makes you realize what your quickest assumptions and stereotypes are. Amazing how many times we tied together “Sex” and “red.” Basically, someone says a word, and then the next person says the first thing they think of, and then the next person says the first thing they think of based on the previous word. Progressions like “sex,” “red,” “Brian Boitano” are not uncommon. Amandeep was sitting next to me and didn’t know any of the pop culture references I was throwing out

Game Three: Leah’s version of Peppercorn
Scene: The Friends House
Players: everyone who was over that night

The way this one works is there are lots of pieces of paper and lots of pencils. Everyone gets one of each. There are six rounds per game.

One: everyone writes down the name of a male person (it can be anyone you know or don’t know or even inanimate objects if you’re bored). eg: George Clooney. Then everyone folds over what they wrote and passes their papers to the left.

Two: everyone writes down the name of a female person (same as above). eg: Nupur Shridhar. fold over and pass left.

Three: a location. eg. Bulgaria. fold and pass left.

Four: an action, eg. painting easter eggs. fold and pass left.

Five: what person A says (basically, just any string of dialogue). “My, we’re having nice weather today.” fold and pass.

Six: what person B says. “Man, my pants are way too tight.” fold and pass.

At this point everyone is holding a very folded up piece of paper with an entire little scene on it. Unfold and read aloud to great delight. Roxy has all of them squirreled away somewhere, but some notable ones included:

Octavia and Ronald Reagan getting it on in a bathroom stall (sorry, Octavia)
Benjamin and Malka in Skip’s Pants saving Christmas
Leah’s Mom and Michael Wasserman doing…actually, I don’t even know what

Leah and Roxy and I deserve some credit for sitting in a row and managing to pull off some really hilarious scenes. This one is going to have to happen again somewhere.

Aren’t you glad I don’t bullet-point everything boringly like Ben Brown?