iursday • February 19, 1998
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The wo
By Rhonda Reinhart
Staff writer
Ins happened just a few years ago out on the
road that turns off 59 Highway by tliqMoliday
hut. This couple were parked under a
his road. Well, it got to be time for the girl tone
:at the dorm, so she told her boyfriend that they
ild start back. But the car wouldn't start, so he
her to lock herself in the car and he would go
n to the Holiday Inn and call for help. Well, he
ft come back and he didn’t come back, and pret-
<011 she starred hearing a scratching noise on the
of the car "Scratch, scratch ... scratch, scratch.”
got scareder and scareder, but he didn't come
l Finally, when it was almost daylight, some peo-
aine along and stopped and helped her out of the
and she looked up and t It dye was her boyfriend
ging from the tree, and his feet were scraping
'list the roof of the car. Tit,is is why the road is
•d “Hangman’s Road.”
- From The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban
'lids and Their Meanings \ \
pecific details. Plausible scenarit)..Generally
evable.
lore than likely, you’ve heard a variation of this
1 e" story called “The Boyfriend’s Death.” You have
'ably passed it on to others, and you might have
ibelieved it. To folklorists, the tale and others like
e known as urban legends, realistic stories about
tfed events with an ironic or supernatural twist,
n The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban
] ends and Their Meanings, Jan 1 larmcl Brunvand
’ les that urban legends gain credibility from spe-
c details of time and place or references to
L rce authorities.
The storytellers asspme that the true facts of each
'lie just one or two informants back down the line
with a reliable witness, or in a news media report,”
Brunvand writes. ‘‘In common with age-old folk leg
ends about lost mines, buried treasure, omens, ghosts
and Robin Ifood-likfeoutlawheroes, urban legends are
told seriously, circulate largely by word of mouth, are
generally anonymous, and vary constantly in particu-
Itr details from one telling to another... ”
Society often updates urban legends to include re
cent events, and they almost always are passed down
from a friend of a friend.
Ed Walraven, a journalism lecturer arid atnateur
folklorist, said part of the mystery of urban legends lies
with who creates the stories.
“Nobody knows how they get started,” he said, “and no
body knows where they go when they're not being told.”
Although the source^ of urban legends tend to
elude folklorists, researchers have theories on why
these tales have escaped mortality and permeated all
aspects of society.
Walraven said urban legends are a way for people
to express general suspicion of institutions and to re
lease pressures on a society.
“We’re always afraid of tilings being out of our con
trol,” he said. “They (urban legends) really are meant
as a coping mechanism to help us deal with our per
ception of the unfairness or difficulty of living in a
modern age with technology and things we don’t have
control over.”
Recurring themes in urban legends include every
thing from food-contamination to maniacal killers on
the loose in college dormitories. The stories have
showed up time and again in movies and television
shows, and there is often a lesson to be learned from
the unsuspecting victims of the tales.
The couple in “The Boyfriend's Death” should have
known better than to travel alone on a dark road in an
unreliable vehicle. But they did it anyway and look at
what happened to them. Tell this story around a camp
fire at night, and the listeners may think twice before
they embark on a similar adventure.
• Fright Nights
Many urban legends have the same sort of scare
factor as “The Boyfriend’s Death.” Brunvand writes, “
... urban legends gratify our desire to know about and
to try to understand bizarre, frightening and poten
tially dangerous or embarrassing events that may have
happened. These floating stories appeal to our morbid
seat” involve nighttime escapades with crazed killers
and make for juicy ways to add excitement to slumber
parties and late-night gat* sessions.
As “The Hook” goes, a young man and his date are
parked on “Lovers’ Ume” when they hear on the radio
that an escaped convict is loose in the area. The man
is described as having a hook instead of a right hand.
The couple get scared and hurry home. When the fel
low opens the door for his date, he discovers a hook on
the door handle.
Along the same lines, “The Killer in the Backseat"
involves a woman in a dangerous situation with a
would-be murderer.
One of the functions of all folklore, Walraven said,
is entertainment. And urban legends fit the bill.
“Society sees a need for these kinds of stories,” he
said. “They scare us. They entertain us cheaply.”
He said urban legends tend to have an element of
poetic justice.
“Somebody ends up getting what they deserve, even
if they escape the law,” he said. “Sometimes the little guy
gets justice in the end and sometimes he gets screwed."
• Fight the Power
Urban legends often maintain strong currents of
distrust of institutions such as universities, hospitals
and big business.
Walraven said urban legends tend to poke fun at the
powers that be.
"University-based urban legends usually deal with
students getting justiee, getting even or pulling some
thing over on the professor,” he said. “The stories tend
to give students inspiration."
From sinking libraries to canceled classes at
tributed to late professors, urban legends thrive on
university camp uses.
■ The tales arc- believable, and they are also
leved. The number of college freshman who
actually trusted inwThe Suicide Rule” (univer
sity gives surviving roommate a 4.0) is probably
surprisingly high.
The case of the sinking library has circulated at
Texas A&M and other universities.
This urban legend involves library architects
who, when designing the library, forgot to account
for the weight of the books. As a result, the library is
continually sinking.
• Believe It Or Not?
Urban legends travel fast, and they are widespread.
Countless numbers of aunts’ neighbors’ friends have
heard tales like “The Baby on the Roof” (mother for
gets baby on roof of car) and “The Kentucky-Fried Rat”
(fried rodent served as chicken).
One might think that in a society where activities
such as the Internet, video games and television are so
widely available, people would not take the time to re
vert to such a cheap form of entertainment as story
telling. But the pastime lives on.
So the next time the electricity gets knocked out and
the computer becomes a useless piece of machinery,
call on your imagination.
Light a few candles and pass on an urban legend.
No batteries are required for a creative mind.
hursdav Friday Saturday
Our Lady Peace perpetuates
tradition of altema-rage rock
• Blue Earth (alternative)
@ The Crooked Path Ale
House
• Kid Fantastic @ The Cow
Hop
• Ronnie Po @ Sweet
Eugene's
• Gary P. Nunn @ 3rd Floor
Cantina
Highway 6 @ Shadow
anyon, singing "The
ightin' Texas Aggie
Song"
Battle of the Bands @
'me Theater (8 p.m. - 1
.m.), featuring Blue
rth, Linus, Kid Fantastic
leckless Panhandlers
rock) @ The Crooked
Path Ale House
I’ Inspector 12 @ The
Cow Hop
• Don Overby @
Fitzwilly's
!(>;>11 (>! < iii l l : IfW
This Week’s Theme: What is your favorite m
^ Lonesome Dove. A movie has to be great with a
in it.”
— Cody Lane
Sophomore agricultural economics major
• Six Mile Bridge
(celtic) @ The Crooked
Path Ale House
» The Great James Band @
The Cow Hop
• Ruthie Foster @
Fitzwilly's
• The Groobies @ Sweet
Eugene's
The Texas Twisters @ 3rd
Floor Cantina
James
Francis
aggielife editor
I first heard
of Our
Lady
Peace on a
Modern Rock
compilation
CD, with the
song “Hope.”
Since
then, it
seemed ages
before hear
ing “Super
man’s Dead,”
a song that not only has the ener
gy-drive of a Mac 10 truck, but
also contains lead singer Raine
Maida’s sometimes ear-piercing
high-pitched voice.
The “screaming vocal” has
gradually become a tradition
among alternative rock groups,
such as Matchbox 20 with its
“Push” and Third Eye Blind with
its “Graduate.”
But something must be right,
because it seems people cannot
get enough of rage-rock these
days. Granted, Our Lady Peace and
its fellow rockers create somber
and slow tracks every now and
then, but for the most part, the
tunes people remember are those
with high-pumping drums, guitars
and angered vocals.
On clumsy, Our Lady Peace
gives listeners the kind of music
they would take long drives to
— hard thumping, and if you
turn the volume up loud
Our Lady Peace
clumsy
Columbia Records
' sm
-
Critique: B-
enough, almost deafening.
With lyrics on “Superman’s
Dead” such as, “do you worry that
you’re not liked / how long till you
break / you’re happy cause you
smile / but how much can you
fake,” it’s clear the band needs
work on writing down words that
actually mean something.
But still, the water-logged title
track, clumsy, brings out the best
in Our Lady Peace.
The band might be compared
to a million others in the music
industry, but they seem to be hav
ing fun with their music and
working hard to improve.
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