Monthly Archives: April 2012

High School Pre-Show Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 24, 2012
Primary Language: English

Maddy Heyman

Los Angeles, California

April 24, 2012

Folklore Type: Ritual

Informant Bio: Maddy Heyman is one of my apartment mates and good friends. She is a twenty year old Sophomore and double major in Theatre and Narrative Studies at The University of Southern California. She is from St. Paul, Minnesota and has lived there her whole life. Maddy is a very active member of her theatre community back in St. Paul. She also has acted and directed shows at USC. Although she is thriving in college despite tearing her meniscus and finding out she has mild Crohn’s disease, she is very attached to her home, family, friends, and Theatre community in St. Paul.

Context: Maddy and I were in our dimly lit apartment late in the night around midnight when I asked her to share some theatre folklore knowing she is a Theatre major. She had just closed a show the previous weekend.

 

Item:

M: There is a super secret pre-show ritual at my high school that no one is allowed to talk about, but now that I’m graduated I can. So we would all gather in a choir room behind the stage in the hallway area. It would be fifteen minutes before the show. One thing we did was the bugaloo, and that was pretty normal (sings) let me see you bugaloo. There was traditionally a leader of the bugaloo. They would be the leader for the whole year. It was passed through, well we had these testaments in the paper at the end of the year, and the leader would be named that way. So we would do the bugaloo and people would do ridiculous ones like let me see you fry like bacon. Or we would do things that make fun of the show. The next one would be ride my pony which was pretty basic. You know, ride, ride my pony and then we would ride our ponies around the room. And then after that we would scope. We would get a bottle of Scope and some Dixie Cups. We would pour the Scope, and we had a phrase. We would say, “Scope that shit up, mothafucka what? Scope that shit up, mothafucka what?” continuously until all people have Scope. The order people got Scope and got to count down would be different every night, some nights would be seniors, or all the girls first, or all the chorus leads. When we Scoped we had to swish it in your mouth as long as everyone counted down from ten. And then right after you’d just go and do the show. Well except on the last night. We would get together early, turn off the lights, and light a bunch of candles on the piano ‘cause we were really safe. Then each senior gives a little speech about their experiences and advice for the uh, the whatever we call younger people in high school that I can’t remember anymore.

A: Underclassmen?

M: Yes (sweeping hand gesture) underclassmen. Then we’d do the bugaloo and everything. And that is the Central High School pre-show ritual. And if anyone knew I’d shared that with you,

A: You would be murdered?

M: An’ you’d be murdered. It’s cool to see each place’s pre-show rituals.

 

Informant’s Analysis: (The following interaction applied to her analysis and why the ritual was important to her)

A: Why is this one ritual in particular important to you?

M: Just ‘cause this was the most long-standing tradition I’ve experienced. They have always been a part of the ritual for as long as people can remember, and like no one knows how they started. We do it for every single show, every single year (hand chop down). Especially since at SC each pre-show ritual depends on the show so they’re different. I also just think the fact that all shows have pre-show rituals is interesting.

 

Analysis: Maddy has a serious attachment to her home and life in St. Paul as well as her childhood. She has a tattoo of Alice from Alice in Wonderland because of that attachment. This particular ritual is most likely important to Maddy because it connects a large part of her childhood home life to her passion and career choice. Remembering these experiences allows her to reminisce when she is having a hard time being away from home especially with all of the stressful physical issues she has had to face while adjusting to living away from St. Paul for the first time. This memory also keeps her spirit and passion going when the Theatre world is less than kind as it is known to be. The ritual itself like many things in the Theatre world was probably developed from personal experiences and inside jokes of various casts over time. Although Maddy claims the ritual has not changed over the years, it has probably been adapted slightly from cast to cast. The bugaloo is one version of several Theatre games actors use to warm up. It combines rhythm and improvisation. Ride my pony is also a Theatre game that is energizing and loosens nerves. The Scope ritual appears to be a combination of hazing and was probably an incident that turned into an inside joke for one of the casts that started this pre-show ritual. The seniors sharing their experiences by candlelight on the last evening of the show is a fairly common occurrence with most show casts. The cast of a show is a lot like a family because there are people that love each other and people that hate each other, but everyone has to interact and work together or the show will fail. Theatre people are also generally more flamboyant and in tune with feelings because they have to express them on stage in front of people, so a final sharing of knowledge and memories is a way to feel like a collective family for the last time before the mandatory time together are over. This is especially true for high school seniors because they are about to or have entered into a giant transition in their lives out of childhood and into an interim phase of college before true adulthood. This ritual is a way to create a collective memory and connection as well as relax before a performance.

 

Alex Williams

Los Angeles, California

University of Southern California

ANTH 333m   Spring 2012

The Haunted Forest

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: March 8, 2012
Primary Language: English

Parin Patel

Los Angeles, California

March 8, 2012

Folklore Type: Ghost Story

Informant Bio: Parin Patel is a friend I met when we both went on an archaeological excavation in Rome the summer of 2011. He is a Junior and double major in Archaeology and Business at the University of Southern California. Parin is Indian and thus interested in Indian Archaeology and stories, particularly of the supernatural sort. He is actually interested in spirituality and the supernatural in general.

Context: There were several Archaeology majors and one Visual Anthropology Graduate student sitting around drinking after a long day of survey at Catalina Island. We were there for the weekend as a Directed Research Experience. Parin was the only guy in this group hanging out. We were talking and laughing in general. We played Never Have I Ever, and then Parin says, “Guys, guys let’s tell ghost stories.” About four or five people shared some sort of real life encounter that they heard from a friend or relative. Parin told two stories. This was the second one he told.

Item: So here’s the next one. (which burial ground? Then we can talk.) um my uncle is an engineer and a developer in India, uh he lives in Gujarat. But he basically takes land and from like forested land and just like chops it down and builds entire sub-divisions. So he took this forested area and uh built up the land and built houses and stuff. And built uh my other uncle, his brother, a house there as well. And so they’re living there. My cousin uh one day this was um back in 2002 or so. He’s in, he’s like in the bathroom uh just like uh taking a shower or whatever. And he like. First of all his house, his house is kind of scary anyway ‘cause he has this photo of this woman with no face like posted up right in the hallway when you enter the second floor. When you walk up the stairs there’s this woman with no face. So like every time I’m there I just run through, but that has nothing to do with this story. Um so my cousin’s in the bathroom, he just got through taking a shower and he looks out of the window ‘cause he hears, hears something, something or somebody and he looks out of the window. And all of a sudden like the entire area’s just forest. Like all he sees is like trees everywhere. And this whole place is like built with houses. There’s no trees around. Um it’s just entire forest and he sees a woman scream, and he hears her scream like as loud as like… (stammer) uh if somebody’s next to you screaming. He looks out of the window and he sees her running through the forest with like a white gown on. And he just freaks out he just runs downstairs. He’s like, “did’jou guys hear that? Did’jou guys see that?” And nobody heard about it. And they like did their research or whatever, and it turns out like a girl was like raped and killed in that area… twenty or thirty years before that. (so creepy, murmurings, o my god) And he’s, he’s not one to believe in ghosts or anything and that’s the first time he’s ever had that kind of experience. (that’s horrible).

Informant’s Analysis: Parin trusts his cousin because as he said his cousin is not the type to believe in ghosts. Parin said that he believed in the supernatural and was very interested in it. He believes the story to be true based on his trust in his cousin.

Analysis: Everyone that shared a story was sharing a second account of a personal experience, and everyone that night agreed that they believe in the supernatural on some level. Yet, we are all a major that is grounded in material data and theory. Sharing and believing in the ghost stories fulfills a need for an explanation that in most circumstances is impossible in Archaeology. Although material culture is available the answers to Archaeological questions are mostly theory with no way to truly know if the theory is correct. The supernatural provides an answer that is acceptably unexplained, which could provide comfort to Archaeologists that it is all right that their questions may also never truly be answered. The story itself reflects a clash between old occurrences on specific land and modern changes to said land. The area used to be a forest, and then it got disturbed by being torn down and turned into houses. In many ghost stories the correlation of modern people disturbing the land is fairly common. Older ideas of spirits living within the land or the land being alive come out in these stories of modern change to an old area.

Annotation: In the film An American Haunting there is a scene of a girl running through a forest, she has been raped, rape is a central issue in the film, and there is a reference to the Bell Witch which is the other story Parin told that evening. There is also a house that burns down and connection between the past and present through the story in a journal which relates two similar tales of rape in the past and present of the film.

 

Alex Williams

Los Angeles, California

University of Southern California

ANTH 333m   Spring 2012

The Easter Bunny

Nationality: American (British Descent)
Age: 56
Occupation: CFO
Residence: Del Mar, CA
Performance Date: April 26, 2012
Primary Language: English

“The Easter Bunny coming and leaving eggs, hiding eggs around the house. So, when the kids woke up in the morning they’d, uh, find Easter eggs.”

 

“So yours were in the house?”

 

“Yes. It was in the house. It wasn’t like we did up at Yosemite and stuff. We changed it cuz when we went camping at Yosemite, we changed it to hide the eggs around the forest, or the trees and stuff when we were camping.”

 

“I sure hope you guys counted the number of eggs you hid in your house cuz you’d be finding something smelly later.”

 

“Well or the dogs would find them.”

 

“And then there was, uh, the time when we had done the camping and Yosemite and Easter egg hunts so many times that one year it was raining so hard that we left, and you were concerned that the Easter Bunny would never be able to find us. Cuz we weren’t in Yosemite. which was kind of funny.”

 

“ And then you did them in the, or what was it, in the hotel?”

 

“Yeah, we stayed at a hotel and I went out out, and colored eggs and we hid them all over the hotel room and in your bed and everywhere.”

 

 

Easter, a very religious, Christian holiday, follows a different path for some, particularly in our more secular, commercialized American culture. It’s all about the bunny, Peeps, and chocolate. And, personally, the family tradition of camping in Yosemite and searching for decorated eggs has always been a highlight of my year. Perhaps it neglects the original, truer origins of the holiday, but at least it will never be forgotten in one way at least.

 

 

The Easter Bunny, and basically everything else that has to do with the holiday, painted eggs, Peeps, deviled eggs, jelly beans, is so far removed from the original Christian roots of the holiday. But nonetheless the holiday and at least some of the traditions have survived the centuries in one way or another. Only time will tell what may become of them.

Slenderman

Nationality: Farmer
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Brea, California
Performance Date: 15 February 2012
Primary Language: English

My informant told me about the urban legend of Slenderman, who is a tall, lanky man with extra long limbs that wears a black suit. Slenderman has no face and is very reminiscent of the men in black. The legend of Slenderman is very interesting because he is always seen around children and then after that the children will disappear. The way that she found out about Slenderman was through a youtube series by a channel named Marble Hornets. In the videos, the kid that created the channel explains that his roommate had increasingly gotten crazier while making a student film he called Marble Hornets. While making the film he would get very temperamental and one day he said he was transferring schools and told his friend to burn all the reels of his film. The kid did not what was going on and since he felt bad about throwing away the film reels, he kept them and did not watch them until months after his roommate had left. When they finally watched the reels, the kid realized there were no shots of the Marble Hornets movie, it was all short clips of his roommate; there were also sound clips of heavy breathing. In certain clips, they supposedly see Slenderman and realize that the kid’s roommate feels like he is being followed or haunted.

This youtube series, though fictional, introduced the legend of Slenderman to the mass public. No one actually knows where the idea of Slenderman came from, but there are many pictures online where he is supposedly in the background lurking around. And then, the kids in the photographs have been said to have mysteriously disappeared. Nowadays, my roommate and I often kid around that Slenderman causes the mysterious mishaps in our lives, like lights flickering or mysterious texts that we receive. It seems that ghost stories are always so popular in our modern society. I think that the reason the Slenderman legend might have been made was to scare children into staying with their parents and keeping safe. Supposedly, Slenderman has a hypnotic effect on children like the Pied Piper and kidnaps them that way. If we pair that similarity then with his Men in Black physicality, it is almost like a satirical myth about the secret government and Area 51, a tall man capturing children.

Annotation/Additional Comments: These are current sources for information on Slenderman: http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Slender+Man, http://www.youtube.com/user/MarbleHornets?feature=watch: Marble Hornets is probably the most well known sharer of the Slenderman legend. The Slenderman legend started out from nowhere, but is now so widespread that there are tumblrs and twitter accounts dedicated to him.

Hollywood Acting Lingo – Break Some Face

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/20/12
Primary Language: English

This was one of the coolest pieces of folklore that I collected for this project (in my opinion). After writing up my piece on the real estate finance industry’s saying “if the shoe fits, wear it”, I decided to ask my friend Derek if he had any similar sayings from the movie industry. Derek interns at Paramount Pictures, and has been on the set with tons of actors. Therefore, he has had ample opportunity to pick up some of the lingo.

He told me a few other sayings that are commonly thrown around before he got to this one. Apparently, depending on who is working on the movie set, the staff and actors will say “Break Some Face” to one another before shooting a scene. I immediately thought of the traditional saying that everyone knows, “break a leg”. Derek explained that this was of similar meaning, in that it is a phrase of encouragement. However, it has a slightly different origin.

Apparently during auditions for movie roles, it is not uncommon for the judge not to say a single word to the candidate. It is the responsibility of the candidate to “break” this stone face. Naturally, if the audition goes well, the judge will smile and/or speak to the candidate. When this has occurred, they have successfully “broken some face”.