Kolobok: The Little Round Bun

Nationality: American
Age: 26
Occupation: Student
Residence: Tumbridge, Vermont
Performance Date: 04/19/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Russian

Main piece: Once upon a time there was an old man and an old housewife. The man demanded his wife to make him a bun from the flour box. And so, she swept out the bin and made some dough in the shape of a little round bun. She put in the oven for it to bake and then next to the window for it to cool. The bun jumped out the window and rolled along the road until he met with a Rabbit coming towards him. The Rabbit told him “I’m going to eat you little bun”, and in response the the bun sang him a song:

“I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin
And baked in the oven
And cooled on the sill.
I ran away from Grandpa,
I ran away from Grandma,
And I’ll run away from you, this minute I will!”

So the bun rolled away, until he saw a wolf coming at him. The wolf told him “I’m going to eat you little bun”, and so he sang again:

“I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin
And baked in the oven
And cooled on the sill.
I ran away from Grandpa,
I ran away from Grandma,
And I’ll run away from you, this minute I will!”

So the bun rolled away, until he met with a fox in front of him. The fox told him “I’m going to eat you little bun”, and so he sang to the fox:

“I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin
And baked in the oven
And cooled on the sill.
I ran away from Grandpa,
I ran away from Grandma,
And I’ll run away from you, this minute I will!”

The fox told him “Sing some more, please don’t stop! Hop onto my mouth so I can hear you better”. And so the bun jumped into the fox’s mouth and sang:

“I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin-

But before he could go on the fox closed his mouth and he gobbled up the little bun.

Background information about the piece by the informant: William Murawski is an American from Polish and Russian decent. His grandparents from Russia used to tell him tales and nursery rhymes from their hometown as a child. William is an aficionado of Russian folk tales and likes to tell preform them the same way as his grandparents performed them for him when he was a child.

Context on the performance: The tale is usually told to children. The song sang by the bun is told with a melody, which is why it is easy to remember verbatim.

Thoughts on piece: The seems more nonsensical than classic western European tales, as they usually have anthropomorphic animals, but rarely a simple object like a bun acting with human characteristics. The resolution of the story is also anti-climatic and dower, but it does provide children with a lesson, which is that one must not be overconfident on a victory like the bun did in the end, as well as the power of wit, as the fox showed. This shows that Russian folk tales are concerned with providing life lessons rather than having feel-good endings.

Mexican Proverb

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 56
Occupation: Film Director
Residence: Mexico City
Performance Date: 03/13/2017
Primary Language: Spanish

Main Piece:

  1. Camarón que se duerme se lo lleva la corriente.
  2. Shrimp that sleeps is carried away by the water.
  3. A sleeping shrimp is swept away by the water.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Simon was born and raised in Mexico City, where this proverb is a very common saying. It dates back to before he was born in 1960, as he claims his father used to tell it to him,

Context on the performance: People recite this proverb to refer to a situation in which someone is distracted or not present and end up getting taken advantage if because of it. For example, if someone steals seats from someone when that person is not looking, it is common for the person who stole the seats to say this to the other person. Under that context, it is usually seen as an assertion of power, but it can also be used as a way to impart wisdom.

Thoughts on the piece: This proverb may tell us that Mexican culture believes that if opportunities are stolen from someone it is partially that person’s fault. It serves a reminder for people not to blame the circumstances, but to see the flaws within themselves. It also works as a way to tell people that they should be alert at all times if they don’t want to loose and opportunity.

The Bellybutton of Aphrodite

Nationality: Italian/Mexican
Age: 57
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: Mexico City
Performance Date: 03/14/2017
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: Italian

Main piece: Tortellini are probably the most famous and important dish from the Emilia-Romagna. They are basically small balls of meat wrapped up in pasta and then dipped in a chicken broth, and they also happen to look like bellybuttons. They are so delicious and iconic that they even have an origin story. Locals say that the goddess Aphrodite went to visit Bologna once. She went in disguise, so no one knew she was a goddess, but she was still beautiful as hell, so they treated her like a queen. They pampered her all they could and the one thing that she ended up liking the most about Bologna, like most people was the food. She stayed there eating for so long that she gained a few kilos, which would have usually enraged her but was so enchanted with the food that she could not get angry at the Bolognese. When it was time for her to leave, she wanted to leave them a present of gratitude, and since she wanted to loose weight from her stomach she gave them her bellybutton, which was the first Tortellini. If you ask anyone in any restaurant in Bologna they will tell you that’s how they were invented.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Ersilia was raised in Bologna, Italy, the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region. She is a food enthusiast and has an interest for folk stories. She learned this story first from her dad and claims that everyone in Bologna knows the story.

Context of the performance: I asked Ersilia if she knew of any stories about the folkloric local food from Italy. According to her, this story is popular in Bologna and most people will say that Tortellini come from the bellybutton of Aphrodite, even if there are variations to the story form person to person.

Thoughts on the piece: This story elevates the dish to mythological proportions. It is always a mystery how traditional dishes were created, since they cannot be traced back to a single author, so giving an origin to the Tortellini involved with divine intervention shows the value that the Bolognese give to their food. They treat it as a cornerstone of their culture, to the extent in which a single dish has a mythology behind it.

All Star Memes

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Francisco, California
Performance Date: 04/20/2017
Primary Language: English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey5GItze-BY&t=10s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsSw_9oAFdI

Main Piece: These are mash up video memes on the internet that use the song ‘All Star’ by Smash Mouth as their basis. The song has also become a meme and has been used, edited and bastardised in every way possible by the internet. They are usually presented with a title that says ´All Star, but…’, followed by the alteration. For example, theres ‘All Star, but every time they say star it gets faster’, ‘All Star but it’s in the melody of Space Oddity’, ‘All Star but the lyrics are reversed and the music is fine’ and ‘All Star but all the instruments are Bill O’Reilly saying his name’. There are too many of these to mention, but the amount of things that one can do with that song is unbelievable. They know every single lyrics, note and accord.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Jake is an enthusiast and avid investigator of memes on the internet. According to him, the movie ‘Shrek’ has been a meme for at least the past 8 years. He is not sure why, but he assumes that it’s because the animation and the soundtrack are an outdated product of the early 2000s, which people like to ridicule. There is even an entire webpage dedicated to Shrek memes known as ‘ShrekChan’. ‘All Star’ is the opening song of the film, so it has also been used as a meme by the internet. It represents the seemingly outdated so soundtrack of the film, as its style is that of pop exclusive for the early 2000s.

Context on the piece: Since these memes do not have any actual jokes for the general public, the videos are only meant to be funny for the people familiar with the ‘Shrek’ ridicule of the internet. It is sort of an inside joke in which only a niche group of people will get the reference.

Thoughts on the piece: This meme creates a very specific in-group, as it is meant for a very narrow audience. It is meant for people who are avid meme and internet users that are not only familiar (and most likely grew up with) the Shrek films, but that also know and understand the widely non-generic and strange humor of the Shrek memes. This creates a strong community on the internet, just when there are people with an inside joke in real life that brings them together. I think this is in part due to the fact that this group was raised on these movies, and now that they are adult they enjoy taking the film and the opening song apart in a form of expression of transitioning form childhood to adulthood.

The Stanky Leg

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Detroit, Michigan
Performance Date: 04/21/2017
Primary Language: English

Main piece: The stanky leg is a dance for smooth hip hop. What you do is you you leave one of your legs still and you bring the other leg close to that one by bending you knee. You start alternating legs and it will look like you are smooth and going with the flow. You can also bring you hands in the mix, waving them around in free flowing motion.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Troy is from Detroit, Michigan, where hip hop is a large part of the musical scene. This move is a classic when dancing to hip hop, and it has been popular since the genre’s origins in America. It’s partly based on the moves of Rock and Roll figures like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, but has been adapted to have a more relaxed look to it that fits the tune of smooth hip hop.

Context on the piece: The stanky leg is usually performed in a hip hop dance party when the music gets slow, and it has the purpose of seduction. Men usually dance the stanky leg to smooth hip hop to show themselves as relaxed and smooth, something that they think the females of the dances will notice and appreciate. It is meant to make women comfortable with the relaxed feeling, and this can lead to them getting close to the women and asking to dance with them. Sometimes, the roles are inverted with the women dancing the stanky leg to captivate the men, but its usually the males doing it. It can also be danced with no intentions of seduction just to feel more relaxed during the dancing session, and it is common that lone stanky leg dancer consume inhibiting drugs such as cannabis to help them with the relaxed motion of the dance.

Thoughts on the piece: Even though Hip Hop is a fairly modern brand of music, this dance move shows that the genre still follows many of the traditions of folkloric music. It is common for cultures across the world to have mating dances in which a member of one gender will attract the other with some sort of sensual move that shows confidence or implies sex, and this is no exception. It is the male equivalence in Hip Hop of twerking, in which the females move their bottom up and down to stimulate sexual desire. Although the stanky leg doesn’t necessarily have any specific sexual movement, it is meant to simulate a safe and relaxed environment for the females, for which it is considered a seduction/mating dance.