Luck, superstition, curses and such

[K]

[CarringbushCigar]

I like Courage !

Do we need a petition?
How about a good old Nick's poll ?

[K]

[HAL]

My favourite kind of Music is techno, but I also like Opera.

[E]

All of our problems stem from the fact that you guys honestly think that changing the word "cakewalk" is all we need to do in order to fix our curse and superstition issue.

How ironic....

I have a better idea: Let's make dolls of every player on the opposing team. I'll bring the pins!!!!

[K]

Not at all, E! You obviously have not been reading this thread at all. There are many possibilities and they are not all mutually exclusive. Some Nicksters, for example, are of the opinion that the curse's origin is supernatural. Other Nicksters deny its existence altogether. You, of course, are welcome to state your views on the matter -- which you have not done so far. Which of the 10+1 (now 11+1) possible causes of the curse listed do you subscribe to? [ http://magpies.net/nick/bb/viewtopic.php?p=1881036#1881036 ]

The club song's words are clearly an issue, regardless of whether one thinks they are relevant to this thread's main topic. That's why the club tried unsuccessfully to change the words in 1983. Or do you think the club was trying "to fix our curse and superstition issue"?

[Cam]

I think you are enjoying this K

[PyreneesPie]

[K]

[Raw Hammer]

Maybe the fact that the term “cake walk” has racist connotations may prompt the club to change the line once and for all:

https://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/blogs/cake-walk-the-strange-origin-of-an-unwittingly-prejudiced-term.htm

[simon tonna]

^^^
, and perhaps then the curse.

[E]

..and then if we do all of that and get rid of the "curse", we will then win so many flags that we will wish our song said "oh, the premiership's a cakewalk.....

[K]

Historical footage of the cakewalk from the Library of Congress:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QifiyNm6jG4


Henry T. Sampson, in Blacks in Blackface: A Sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows:

"Two years before Bob Cole produced A Trip to Coontown, Bert Williams and George Walker, America's greatest comedy team, came east from the West Coast. They brought with them their famous cakewalk dance and their song "Has Anybody Seen Dora Dean?" ...
Bert Williams, however was really lighter in complexion than his partner Walker, and blackened up several shades darker than George. The team was billed as "The Two Real Coons." Williams, in his style of blackface comedy and dancing, and in his delivery of a song, was inimitable."


Regan Schrumm, http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/who-takes-cake-history-cakewalk :

"But just like a cake, cakewalking has delicate layers—of race, culture, and appropriated entertainment embedded throughout. Who knew this pleasing game had such a murky and complicated past that demonstrated how African Americans opposed their oppressors?

Although the exact year and location are still undetermined, oral histories from enslaved people assert that the cakewalk began in the enslaved quarters of Southern plantations. ... But the cakewalk was more than a recreational dance; it also gave a chance for enslaved people to ridicule those who tyrannized them. The dancers would dress up in their finest clothes and parodied the mannerisms and dancing of the white Southern elite.
...

While it might be assumed that slave owners would punish their slaves for this mocking behavior, in fact, many owners actually encouraged it. According to the ragtime musician Shepard Edmonds, who described the stories of his formerly enslaved parents, "They did a take-off on the high manners of the white folks in the 'big-house,' but their masters, who gathered around to watch the fun, missed the point." Often the white slave owners even assumed the role of presenting the cake instead of the enslaved people choosing among themselves, once again trying to demonstrate their authority.

In fact, white people became so enthralled with cakewalks that by the end of the Civil War, it became a regular routine in minstrel shows, a type of variety show where white people performed in blackface. ... Cakewalk imagery was also used on sheet music, advertising, prints, and toys, with African Americans being depicted as cartoonish and racist stereotypes.

By the 1870s African American actors began to perform as minstrels, though often still in blackface. While some African Americans were able to distinguish themselves from the white performers by bringing some humanity to the caricatures, the black minstrels continued to depict racist content. Many African American performers attempted to reclaim the cakewalk; as such, as ragtime historian Terry Waldo states, the dance became about "Blacks imitating whites who were imitating Blacks who were imitating whites." For example, in the way well-known African American performer George Walker executed the cakewalk, he was not seen as a clown, but instead a graceful dancer."

[PyreneesPie]

K.... yes, if you could come up with a poll, that would be much appreciated.. by me anyway. I'm not sure how to do it. I think it could start anywhere and hopefully just "evolve" into what most Nicksters think appropriate.

Thank you too for all that background info on the term "cakewalk". Makes me dislike it even more!!!

History aside, I take the current day meaning to be that something is as easy as "piece of p*ss" (to use colloquial Australian language). That's so blatantly untrue nowadays (for us anyway) and I also wonder how many current supporters even know what it means???

It's a completely useless, outdated, dishonourable, cringe-worthy, embarrassing term and it needs to go, IMHO. There has to be another term that means we are really gunning for the premiership and giving it our all. "Striving"?

Also, I'd rather not have any direct mention of premierships at all. I reckon it's tempting bad fate!! Grin. As I said previously, only four clubs have a mention of it in their songs. However, that's probably not a great issue either way - very minor compared to cakewalk!!

[E]

This thread made me wonder about what our mantra should be this year?