BABA Ornaments: REFERENCE

OH CLASSIC

GETTING CLOSER

I THINK WE'RE THERE.

NOW!

LET'S LEARN ABOUT THE "BA" IN BABA.

BAs ARE LIVING THINGS! THEY'RE CONSTRUCTED WITHOUT THE IDENTITY OF THEIR DESIGNER INTERFERING WITH USER RELATIONSHIPS! THEY ARE PURE OBJECTS! THEY ARE COMMON OBJECTS! A BA's LIFE IS DEFINED BY ITS APPLICATION! THE RATE AT WHICH IT TRAVELS! THE FREQUENCY OF ABANDONMENT!

IT IS THE MOST PROPER CHAIR! IT IS A FAVORITE CHAIR! IT CAN BE PLACED ANYWHERE!

A BA IS OFTEN CALLED A "LEMON LUMP" OR A "ROSE CLUMP". (NO SOAKING IN BABA UNLESS YOU BELIEVE IT TO BE APPROPRIATE. BAs ARE NOT CONSTRUCTED TO MEET A COMMON CONSENSUS. BEFORE YOU SOAK GIVE THE BA A CHOKE!)

BRILLIANT FOOTWEAR

LOOK ORTHOPEDIC

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

OH SOCK!

FOR THE RECORD--WE DO NOT APPROVE OF GENTLEMEN.

CREATIVE NAMES

SO ATHLETIC

HERE'S ANOTHER LOSER DOING SOMETHING.

QUILTED PANTS? FURRY RUG? 

WHAT IS THIS, FASHION?

YES IT IS. ☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻

I REALLY DON'T KNOW BUT I LOVE IT.

SO POSH

RESOURCES

research.

Sophie Taeuber

tsuguharu foujita

gertrude stein's dog, Basket I

Andre Breton

 

This is Virne Beatrice "Jackie" Mitchell, who was one of the first female pitchers in pro baseball,

and happened to also strikeout Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig (two big timers) back-to-back. Babe dismissed it with fashionable misogyny.

A New York paper ran this in response to the event:

"Cynics may contend that on the diamond as elsewhere it is place aux dames. Perhaps Miss Jackie hasn’t quite enough on the ball yet to bewilder Ruth and Gehrig in a serious game. But there are no such sluggers in the Southern Association, and she may win laurels this season which cannot be ascribed to mere gallantry. The prospect grows gloomier for misogynists."

Yet soon after she was fired--apparently due to complaints from her team's other (male) pitcher--followed by the next and final female pro inspiring an ultimate ban of
female players in the league.

So much of what men build their pride upon throughout history are made exceptional or grand because anyone who may challenge the structure is repelled. These things are no big deal, but history would like you to think that they're the feats of powerful men instead of passionate participants. It's incredible how distorted the general public's perception is. Stuff like this hits me hard.

I cried a little.

That's all.

Really inspired to do this comic.

Creating Baseball: Concepts, History, World Building

Base Ball: Sports as Performative Art Comic

 While many may already be thoroughly familiar with the particulars of this phenomenon
 it may be appropriate to explain a few of the basics to those who have yet to experience its     mystery.
     

)))))) BASE BALL ((((((

 First invented as an aside to what was originally an excuse for groups of people no larger than twelve to wear their favorite hats and collectively chosen color combinations in public with a sense of purpose.

These gatherings would eventually develop into philosophical salons of sorts which functioned as platforms for debate and the critique of thought, behavior, society, and artistic expression within and without reality as it was temporarily understood. 

They were generally known as Hat Clubs.
      
 Depending upon the topic, social climate, weather, general morale, and number of those present with a feather in their hat (a sign informing your fellow participants that you woke up a bit cranky yet determined therefore relentlessly stubborn and vocal in your opinion) the discussions could last for hours--rendering those present and active stiff and restless, irritable and weary.

Enter Base Ball: a practical solution to this idle condition which incorporated applications of the mind and body in order to maintain psychological stimulation while also reminding a Hat Club of its physical details by stirring them from a dormant state. So, effectively, Base Ball was invented to provide mental relief from the often strenuous theorizing Hat Clubs demanded of their members.
     
              At first, there were no precise or identifiable rules or objectives--
             or if there was no one could really tell you any different, and if they could
             then that was likely information they were to keep to themselves
             lest they forfeit any potential advantage they may have discovered
             assuming there were any advantages to be had.
        
              Years passed and still none were certain about what it was they were actually doing,
              but the games always began and ended with obvious groups of what one could call
              winners and what one could maybe call losers depending on the nature of that day and the 
              relative set of conditions the game was performed in relation to.
     
Eventually, Base Ball made such an impact upon the personal lives of those in the Hat Clubs that it was mentioned during one of their conversations--at some point between someone making an argument for the personalities of chairs and what was then going to be a debate about walls and straight lines (a topic no one particularly cared to talk about seeing as they all generally agreed that walls and straight lines were great ).
       

This would become the longest conversation, and would lay the framework for Base Ball as it is seen today. In fact, the game became the salon for the hat club, permanently unifying the body and mind through performances which demanded highly articulated thought and conversational aptitude as well as precise physical expression and execution of concept.
      
It is said that Base Ball was the first example of clearly defined "performance art". This is not exactly true, with a yet-to-be-identified individual who removed their groceries from a shopping bag, arranged them in their appropriate locations within the kitchen, then told as many colleagues, friends, and family members as possible being the first which the art world accepted as the first example of performance art. (circa the moment Base Ball was discussed by Hat Clubs)
       
  As Base Ball was developed and performed, word of it spread rapidly, reaching other Hat Clubs that had also fabricated an activity to relieve themselves of their intellectual charge, and while it had many different names and faces, it was generally decided that this was in fact the same game and that they were all to meet and discuss the enormous mystery behind this coincidence.
       
  Naturally, many began to assume that this was in fact no mere coincidence, but a reflection of the human process, that this collective phenomenon was indicative of some great universal pattern in thought and action and its mutative processes.
       
  Some (most of which no one seemed to have remembered ever seeing in Hat Clubs) attempted to argue for the "grand slam" theory, which proposed this as irrefutable proof that the world's population shared a great cause or mutual fate under the guidance of a conscious supernatural force, which everyone quickly rejected and just as soon forgot about. (Although from this birthed a small, yet vocal and strangely violent league known as the Orthodox Baysebol League of Followers which continues to adapt the values and practices of the Primary League of Base Ball into aggressive ideologies today.)

 Due to this realization, the Primary League of Base Ball was formed to further discuss the act's responsibility and role within society, which has continued to mutate and change in accordance to time, culture, those who exist within it--acting as a relentless portrayal of the human condition and often operating as a beacon of social change and international delegation.
         
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While to this day it is accepted that the rules of the game are implied and analogous to the space and position in time of both the participants and environment, thus intuited by the players and never clearly understood, there are a few basic general truths that are most readily comprehended outside of performance:
        
1. Each team must have 9 players (known as Actors) on the field (known as the Round) at all times, and have a reserve (known as the Crew) comprised of as many players of varying degree--Probationary (known as Hollows) to Performers (known as Fills)--and roles as the team (a Cast) desires.
 
2. The Round may vary in size, material, topographical appearance, and undergo any number of alterations, but must always be outlined in plain, brilliantly clean white walls made from brilliantly white material and not walls of some other sort painted brilliant white. The Round must be maintained by a person in brilliant black clothes which hang to their ankles and a broad brimmed round hat which shades their face no matter the position of the Sun--clothing which represents the field which they maintain and the many layers of history which are suspend from it. In addition to this, the Groundskeeper must be a skilled cartographer and provide detailed Maps and keys bi-monthly concerning the Round's territory as it undergoes renovations whether approved by the Cast and Director or implemented by nature and its many animate objects.
3.Members are not numbered, but designated by a symbol which is exclusive not only in the Cast but throughout the entire League and its history. Of course, after all of the years, many symbols have been claimed forcing new Actors to either be painfully clever or humble in their selection. An Actor's symbol means a great deal, not only because it represents them as players within Base Ball, but because it is an icon with which they IDENTIFY upon accomplishing the initial one-year probationary period, entering the League, and consequently being stripped of their Pre-League identity (a process collectively known as Animation).

4. All Casts have an emblem and color scheme which represents it. While there are no strict dress codes nor the requirement of uniforms within The League, Actors tend to enjoy dressing up like one another with a certain level of Cast-specific continuity, and with costume variations which represent the personality traits of individual Actors. This level of expression is deeply important to some Actors given it is one of their only opportunities to visually express their individuality and display their identity. 

       (One Actor shocked the League and its fans--even enemies, harshest critics, and those typically too unimpressed by the League to follow its events--when they decided to claim the Empty Badge as their symbol and continue to be known by the probationary title "Hollows" (plural to indicate solidarity and identity complexity and individual formation; literally, "that which is even without"--a commentary on the perception of negative space and one's inclination to see it as space which is missing an object, rather than an object possessing individual characteristics unto itself.) Hollows, affectionately titled "DOT" by their fans, continues to be more or less silent, only ever speaking when it is absolutely necessary to do so, which is rarely ever as it seems. Furthermore, the expression on their face is the very same last seen moments before being absorbed by the League upon finishing Animation Ceremony and relinquishing their former name. It has remained undisturbed since.)

 5. There are no clocks or timekeeping devices allowed within the arena (known as the Gallery) nor is anyone (Actors or Audience members) permitted to seek out time-space orienting information while the gameplay is active. While it is not against regulations to discover time while the gameplay has been halted for contemplation and perspective, it is not encouraged by the League, due to the fact that Base Ball is an un-timed activity and could potentially last for as long as it takes for any one Cast to realize they won or lost. Concept of time may alter the perception of play, and the behavior of the audience, influencing the manner in which the Actors perceive and deconstruct their actions and processes. With this, it should be understood that Audience members are in themselves Participants in Base Ball and are recognized as such, therefore are expected to perform relative to their individual experiential material, but also appropriately within the context of Base Ball by integrating that information by remaining fully present throughout performance. For examples, consult the internet.
            
6. Audience members may leave at anytime during the performance and are encouraged to do so if they feel as though they might like to. This is not seen as inappropriate or frowned upon in any manner and is absolutely accepted by all Participants.

7. Admittance is free, although donations of any kind are greatly appreciated.

8. Base Ball may be referred to as being "non sequitur" by nature, and although that term gets tossed around quite a bit, often incorrectly, The League finds that it is a fitting explanation when explaining it those those new to the phenomenon of performance. However, upon experiencing it, one must take note that there is a certain hidden pattern throughout its functionality, albeit an ever changing and undetermined one. The League slogan often helps when Audience members still struggle to comprehend the nature of Base Ball and struggle to participate.
    
   "Base Ball is the act of finding accurate questions and does not concern itself with answers." 

Base Ball comes from the words "base" meaning "to place upon a foundation" or "the bottom, foundation, pedestal" or "the most essential form" or "low, lowly" which when considered in the context of Base Ball and its philosophical function, is meant to imply a meaning which isolates the most basic of conditions relative to time and extrapolates their actuality by placing them within an exceptional circumstance and deconstructing their purpose or definition by altering the way we interact and make sense of them. Applied to "ball" we see how this function is applied and performed through an act involving sport or play--in this case involving a spherical object which operates as a conceptual grounder, anchoring direction and vision around a common focus. This concept can serve any number of intention, whether it is political, personal, personal-as-political, nonsensical, nonsensical-as-sensical, etc. 


     
      -----

That is all for now.