Author Archives: Aidan

Cross Country Running Superstition

Main Piece:

In a conversation with the informant, SE, we discussed his time running in high school and a pre-running ritual he observed every time.

SE: “There’s a saying to never stretch your calf muscles before a race. Something my dad told me that he learned when he would race in high school.”

Me: “Why not?”

SE: “There’s a superstition around keeping your calves tight so that you’re like more springy. And I’d tell my teammates, but they wouldn’t listen.”

Background:

The informant is a long time runner who had done cross country all four years of high school and now runs for recreation. His dad was also a cross country runner and is a recreational runner now as well. He still doesn’t stretch his calves before attempting a speed trial to this day, as it is so deeply engrained into routine.

Context:

After going on a run together, I saw he was stretching out, but didn’t stretch before hand like I did. This prompted a conversation where I was let in on this superstition.

Thoughts:

It’s unclear whether or not there is a real science to back this up, but it has clearly effected his racing as he placed extremely well in races in his time racing in high school. Regardless of the scientific backing, it clearly impacts how he views his running capabilities and has cemented into the way he views the sport.

Video Game Taunting – Online Insults

Main Perfromance:

In the online game series called “Halo,” CS was exposed to the start of a long running insult to one’s opponent called “tea bagging.” The movement, crouching up and down over a dead enemy, was so infamous that it got its very own name.

Background:

This action of crouch spamming over an opponent that the player killed, has since expanded to pretty much all online shooters, but is less often called by the name. Instead, the action is by far the most recognizable part of the gesture.

Context:

When playing the online game “Overwatch” with CS, he got killed and “tea bagged” by the enemy team.

Thoughts:

Disrespect and crude humor is a common occurrence in online video games, especially when it gets very competitive. The same way that basketball players might taunt each other before and after making shots, online gamers treat the sport with a similar attitude. With more and more humor coming from the internet, on occasion, this emote/crouch spam taunting makes its way even into the material world.

Reference:

I found one other post about this online taunt/humor in our archive:

http://uscfolklorearc.wpenginepowered.com/video-game-celebration-american/

Pouring one out for a loved one – Shrine, Paying Respect Ritual

Main Piece:

When talking to the informant, CS, I asked him to explain a ritual that he, his friends, and his family all share.

CS: “We have a friend who is no longer with us because he was killed by police officers. He always loved the Golden State Warriors and he specifically loved drinking Sailor Jerry spiced rum. His love for Sailor was actually enough for him to have the logo tattooed on his body. So, to honor his memory, we planted a tree in his name in our front yard. Now every time there is a Warriors game, before the game starts, those of us who can make it to the tree go and drink Sailor Jerry, then pour out a small amount of it onto the ground for him.”

Background:

The person that CS is speaking of was a family friend who had grown up with him and his brother. He was killed in a situation of excessive force that was racially motivated with him being a black male. The ritual around this has no specific religious affiliation and is more individually spiritual.

Context:

Discussion around the tree and the ritual of pouring out the drink for a dead loved one came up during discussion in the anniversary week of said friend’s passing.

Thoughts:

This tragic loss of a young friend feels like it fuels the spirit around the ritual of metaphorically having a drink with them. Since the lost loved one was in that stage of social celebration, the ritual locks the fun and bright side of their life in place, separate from the sorrow at the end. It feels vaguely familiar to Chinese and Korean practices of leaving food and drinks for loved ones at their graves for them to enjoy in the afterlife. Also, the specific timing of having it be during a sports game emphasizes a ritual timing where the perceived boundary between the two worlds is thinner.

Reference:

For more appearances of this kind of paying respect, see the collection piece below on “Placing Cutlery for the Dead – A Korean New Years Tradition.”

http://uscfolklorearc.wpenginepowered.com/placing-cutlery-for-the-dead-a-korean-new-years-tradition/

Jazz Slang – Band Leader Terminology

Main Piece:

CS (mid-twenties, white male, music degree background, LA resident) and I had a conversation about musicians.

Me: “So can you like explain that phrase, ‘take it to the top?'”

CS: “Take it to the top means to go back to the beginning of the song.”

Me: “That’s it?”

CS: “Well, like, there’s also usually a hand motion too.”

He mimes spinning his hand in a circle in the air.

CS: “When we used to play at bars in New York, I’d have to swing my hand around all wild and scream it out just to get people to hear me. It’s usually energetic like that, ya know? Like when you want to keep the jam [song] going, you take it back to the top.”

Background/Context:

Phrases like this seem to be universal to musicians and are passed on homogeneously by other musicians and music teachers. The emphasis of this saying is returning to the “top,” which references the top of a music sheet where the notes would begin. The only real time that this phrase would appear would be during a live performance or amidst a practice with a band that plays the sort of songs that don’t have a clear run time.

Thoughts:

Jazz definitely serves itself to folk expression because of the collaborative nature of the music. Call outs like this connect the band into a collective consciousness that allows them to move as a uniform organism. The call out to loop the song also greatly relies on reading the audience for when the energy in the room wants the song to continue, versus wanting it to end.

“Can you photoshop that?” – Advertising Folk Speech

Main Piece:

CS, a mid-twenties home office worker, currently works in advertising and something their company’s clients say all the time is “Can you just photoshop that?” Photoshop is a tool made by Adobe that allows for a huge range of editing on images. But what the client means when they say that phrase is, “can’t you just do some designer magic to make my thing look really good with minimal effort and cost to me?” And while every so often, it’s easy to “just photoshop it,” more often than not, it’s a long, arduous task taking many hours.

Background:

When clients give notes on the provided work, they usually don’t know very much about design (hence them coming to said advertising company), and aren’t versed in the minutia of the design work. Using the program name “photoshop” as a verb in this context has become the universal word for “fixing” images despite it’s origin being such a broadly applicable software.

Context:

When talking about a conversation he had at work the informant, CS, said the phrase “can you photoshop that?” I asked for him to elaborate on what it really means.

Thoughts:

More and more often, we are adopting digital programs and company names into our vernacular. The phrase “Google it” comes to mind, which without living in the context of the present day, could be quite confusing (in this case meaning, “research it in an online format; find your information on the internet). It is interesting to benchmark these terms that are in use now, for as things become even more digital, they may get more specific to functions WITHIN these broader programs and terminologies.