Silly twit. Get your hate out of my festival.
I'm sure I'll post a much longer Folklife round-up later, but for now, just one bit of amusement.
Folklife is both huge and free (the largest free music festival in the nation, as everyone asking for donations kept reminding us!), which means it's a prime target for people with an idea to sell. Usually that takes the form of initiative petition gatherers* and a handful of anti-war protestors (which fits the general feel of the festival), but there's always at least ONE crazed Religi-o-Ranter bucking the trend. This year there were also small flocks of mormon 'elders' who looked about 17 and were clearly totally out of their depth. Everyone totally ignored them.
The Religi-o-Ranter, though, was a fine specimen of the bred. His giant sign may have been the quintessential Religi-O-Ranter sign. It had imprecations! It had threats! It had failed grammar and non-parallel list construction**! And on the back it said "GOD HAS GIVEN YOU OVER TO YOUR DEGRADING PASSION."
My folks, our friends and I were on the Fountain Lawn catching a concert and idly watching this guy. When we saw the back of the sign for the first time we all shouted variations on the same theme. "FINALLY!" "Hot damn!" "Degrading passion, I am YOURS!"
And, in the case of my mother dearest, just one long "WE WIN WE WIN WE WIN WE WIN!"
*The best signature gatherers were the ones a few years back campaigning for marijuana legalization. They were all raring to go at 11 a.m., and in a stoned cuddle pile surrounded by their signs by 2 in the afternoon. It was nice to see their hearts were in the cause. :P
**Non-parallel lists drive me bonkers. In this case it was "Sexual immoral. Adulterers. Idolaters. Homosexual offenders." Mom and I decided that since we try not to offend homosexuals and the first one wasn't even a noun we were in the clear.
Folklife is both huge and free (the largest free music festival in the nation, as everyone asking for donations kept reminding us!), which means it's a prime target for people with an idea to sell. Usually that takes the form of initiative petition gatherers* and a handful of anti-war protestors (which fits the general feel of the festival), but there's always at least ONE crazed Religi-o-Ranter bucking the trend. This year there were also small flocks of mormon 'elders' who looked about 17 and were clearly totally out of their depth. Everyone totally ignored them.
The Religi-o-Ranter, though, was a fine specimen of the bred. His giant sign may have been the quintessential Religi-O-Ranter sign. It had imprecations! It had threats! It had failed grammar and non-parallel list construction**! And on the back it said "GOD HAS GIVEN YOU OVER TO YOUR DEGRADING PASSION."
My folks, our friends and I were on the Fountain Lawn catching a concert and idly watching this guy. When we saw the back of the sign for the first time we all shouted variations on the same theme. "FINALLY!" "Hot damn!" "Degrading passion, I am YOURS!"
And, in the case of my mother dearest, just one long "WE WIN WE WIN WE WIN WE WIN!"
*The best signature gatherers were the ones a few years back campaigning for marijuana legalization. They were all raring to go at 11 a.m., and in a stoned cuddle pile surrounded by their signs by 2 in the afternoon. It was nice to see their hearts were in the cause. :P
**Non-parallel lists drive me bonkers. In this case it was "Sexual immoral. Adulterers. Idolaters. Homosexual offenders." Mom and I decided that since we try not to offend homosexuals and the first one wasn't even a noun we were in the clear.