Monthly Archives: April 2017

The Sioux Falls Bikini Lady

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Construction Materials Specialist
Residence: Sioux Falls, SD
Performance Date: April 23rd, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Deutsch

Background: My informant was a young adult who was born in the Watertown and raised in the nearby city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, one of the larger metropolitan areas of the Midwest and the largest city in South Dakota. He continued to live there for the last 20 years and is very much a Sioux Falls resident.

Main Piece: My informant told me about a well-known urban legend in the Sioux Falls area known as the Sioux Falls Bikini Lady. She is this mysterious woman that frequents the downtown area and runs up and down the streets doing exercise while in a bikini. It is somewhat of a landmark of the city and its culture, because despite the common cold weather, she continues to do this. It is of such fame that many people engage with this local legend by creating websites, twitter accounts and taking photographs. No one really knows why she does it as she doesn’t explain it herself publicly, but it is something that has spread throughout the town, to the point of becoming common hearsay and rumor.

Performance Context: According to my informant, he learned about the story from someone on the bus. He said he could be mistaken, but he isn’t sure. The story seems to be one that comes around the community through rumor and speculation.

My Thoughts: I think it is interesting because it talks a lot about how we look for interesting stories not only in old tales, but in the people around us. We often talk about how our communities build and how they are constructed, and a large part of that is the stories that connect us with one another. We look for not only the strange and the potentially dangerous through the unknown or the creepy, like the house on the hill. We also look for it in our everyday lives and in everyday objects. When we see something that is just a bit off, but yet so normal, we like to imagine what gives it that quirk. When we can’t find out, we begin to discuss it with others, forming conspiracy and theory. This kind of thing can cross generations. What will happen when she passes? Will someone take on the mantle of SF Bikini Lady? It remains to be seen, but these types of things are the precedents for traditions. What if one day there was a SF Bikini Lady 4K run with everyone dressing in bikinis? That would be amazing to see happen.

The Curse of the Nuno Sa Punso

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 41
Occupation: Denial Analyst
Residence: Sioux Falls, SD
Performance Date: April 23rd, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

Background: My informant was a Filipino immigrant who came to America when she was 12. She was born and raised in Manila before coming to America, her father seeking out new opportunities. She then got married and moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and currently works as a Denial Analyst for the Sanford Health Network, the largest hospital network in the Siouxland area.

Main Piece: There are superstitious tales in the Philippines about beds of mushrooms and the mounds that they can be found on. It is that that creatures live there called the Nuno Sa Punso, a form of Duwende (dwarf). The Nuno Sa Punso live in the mound, and if you come across these beds of mushrooms, you have to say “excuse me” and “no disrespect to you all” (tabi tabi po). More accurately, it means something like “I mean no harm, please step aside, let me pass” although it is a bit hard to translate exactly. You must avoid stepping on it because if you make one angry, it will give you bad luck and spit on you. If you step on it or harm it in any way it will use its spit to grant a curse. If you are cursed you will get an incurable lesion type of condition that can only be healed by the Faith Healers. You may also vomit blood.

The Faith Healers will usually warp the affected area in some form of leaves and oil while saying a prayer that asks for foregiveness from the dwarf you made mad. This is the only way the lesion will go away through time.

According to the informant, this kind of folklore is a major part of Filipino society and often talked about because Filipinios are a very highly superstitious people. It was fairly common for her to hear about stories like this, especially involving spirits.

Performance Context: According to my informant, the story was told (in her belief) to teach children to respect the spirits as well as to get them to come home before 6pm, when it gets dark. This is a story that is told to all children and so it is very widespread. It is known by most Filipinos. The informant said “Each region has a folktale to avoid so you know not to make the spirits angry.”

My Thoughts: I think it is interesting because it shows a certain commonality in storytelling to teach children respect and also to ward them from staying out or straying too far into the unknown through the use of mythical creatures. I think that their “curse” is quite severe, and really would be something that would scare children. I wonder if it is somehow derived from some medical fact or otherwise medical incident long ago that was explained through spirits.

The Mothman

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: April 25th, 2017
Primary Language: English

Background: My informant was a American who has lived across the country and has learned a lot of stories about other people through her travels.She is currently a student at the University of Southern California studying game design.

 

Main Piece: The Mothman is a man with wings and red eyes that shows up on this very specific highway near Pittsburgh. It scares people because they can see it in their rear view mirror. It’s similar to Sasquatch. It comes from a story from West Virginia wherein a bridge collapsed  killing dozens of people. It is said that before the bridge collapsed, and before other events both there, in Pittsburgh, and even in the world, the people saw premonition in the form of the Mothman. The Mothman is a sort of boogeyman that everyone talks about and blames, although the informant does not believe in it. It is as common as Sasquatch in the area, but is about as believable.

Performance Context: According to my informant, the story was heard by her while she lived there as it is a fairly common folk story about the mysterious creature. It is much like most other forms of cryptozoology.

My Thoughts: I think it is interesting because this touches upon this idea of cryptozoology, strange animals and animal-like creatures that may or may not purportedly exist. There is also a strong connection with prophecy and premonition with this and other stories. If we see something strange, there must be a reason. It must be some sort of experiment, or some sort of a sign. We start to attribute theorized motifs to the creature and further describe and explain its existence. It is really interesting from the perspective that we are encapsulating our fear of the unknown as well as our loose explanations of nature, which many feel is not meant to be conquered as humans do, in the form of folklore through these creatures.

The Wendigo

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: April 25th, 2017
Primary Language: English

Background: My informant was a American who has lived across the country and has learned a lot of stories about other people through her travels.She is currently a student at the University of Southern California studying game design.

Main Piece: The Wendigo is a Native American story of a cannibal evil spirit. It is an animal-human hybrid that had white skin pulled hard over its bones so that you can see the skeleton. It’s eyes are pushed all the way back so they looked deep. It’s nails would go through its skin, making it bloody. It would eat people. They would explain it, when they would go crazy in the Native American camps, they would lose their minds and try to eat other people. The Windigo was tied to greed. If you got too greedy, you would become a Windigo.

Performance Context: According to my informant, it’s an old folklore that she knew growing up because she was interested in Native American culture. She might have heard it from one of the Native American camps that she visited while growing up when she was doing her own research.

My Thoughts: I think it is interesting because it talks a lot about how cultures apply value to virtue and “sin” (to use a Christian idea). The idea that greed can cause one to lose one’s one mind and succumb to a disease that robs you of your humanity as a marker that lust for money and things are not only deplorable, but by nature they are unnatural and condemnable. This is an interesting idea and strongly suggests the ideals of the Native American culture, esp. of the tribes where this story is prominent and/or originates.

Russian Sleep Experiment

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: April 25th, 2017
Primary Language: English

Background: My informant was a American who has lived across the country and has learned a lot of stories about other people through her travels.She is currently a student at the University of Southern California studying game design.

Main Piece: The Russian Sleep Experiment is a story about how they were trying to figure out in a perhaps-WWII era the effects of sleep deprevation on their soldiers. They put a group of soldiers in a room with a porthole. Then, they poured in gas that keeps them awake into the room. For a while, it goes normal, up to a week without any real observable effects. At this time, the mics stop responding and the researchers are only able to look into the room via the viewport.  However, the porthole gets covered some sort of liquid. The researchers attempt to talk to the subjects, but they get no response, at first. They end up turning off the gas and opening up the door. Inside, there are only a small group of the subjects left alive. The rest have been disembowled with blood everywhere, the same liquid on the porthole. The one that are still alive had portions of their body missing, and some of them had their own skin ripped off. Evidence suggested that there were no markings of teeth, and it is suggested that the portions of them missing were by hand. The subjects alive begin shouting and panicking, asking the scientists to turn the gas back on.

They become hysterical as they were screaming to put the gas back on. The scientists tried restraining them, but like in a superhero story, they threw one of the researchers across the room, as if a ridiculous strong superhuman.  Eventually, they wrangle down the subjects. They tried to inject them with morphine, 10x normal dose, did nothing. They try to operate on them, they were immune to sedatives. They put them under anesthetics, his heart stops, and in the autopsy, they discover their is triple the amount of oxygen in the blood of the first subject. The second person had his vocal cords ripped, and wanted to be operated without anesthetic. The doctors operating on the subjects said it’s medically impossible for them to still be alive. Once they were finished, the patient wanted to write a message. When they let them write their message it just said “keep cutting”. Afterwards, only two subjects were left alive. The scientists began to monitor the position of the two that live and noticed that the EEG would hard line several times. They were suffering from repeated brain death at various times.

Then the story ends “really stupidly”, according to the informant. One of the soldiers kills themselves, the other broke out. When they caught the other, the scientists asks what they are. The remaining soldier goes on a rant saying “We are you, we are the madness within you, we are what you hide from at night.” The End. To the informant, this last part makes the story seem the most absurd and unworthy of redemption. The informant said it was “stupid as fuck” and it just another example of stupid internet stories run wild.  “It’s just a lot of gore.”

Performance Context: According to my informant, someone linked it through the internet because they said they thought she was Russian.

My Thoughts: I think it is interesting because it another example of creepy pasta that is on the internet of these strange twisted stories that almost seem to have no evidence, and yet is compelling enough that people read anyways. It makes you question whether the insanity of the story is of value or rather the insanity of its construction at all.