^{Sorry for the poor territory placement. I wrote this whole post before realizing that the culture territory has gone the way of the dodo.}

Two seasonal observations...Two seasonal observations...

Let me know know if you've had similar or contrasting experiences.

Apolitical HippiesApolitical Hippies

Hippie festival season is ramping up. I was up in Wisconsin last week playing one and noticed something interesting. Around 2014, these things started getting really political. Last week was the first time in a while that I played one of these festivals in which there wasn't a strong political presence. But on top of that, there was no political presence at all! Also, the bikers are back attending these things, which I hadn't seen in a while. Go figure. Maybe the change is just Wisconsin. I've got some more of these on the books in the coming weeks, so I guess we'll find out soon.

I don't really personally have much of an opinion on the change. Most of the political stuff at these things seemed pretty ignorant to me. Some of it seemed to be in good faith, and some not so much. But I thought that it may be worth sharing for anyone trying to keep their ear low to the ground.

Mudgirl runs and OPSEC DeferredMudgirl runs and OPSEC Deferred

Later in the week, my sister-in-law tricked my wife into running one of these things. My wife subsequently tricked my daughters into participating as well. While this did not look even remotely fun to me, it actually turned out to be a pretty neat event, and I enjoyed spectating with my little man much more than I thought I would. On top of that, it gave me an excuse to visit Springfield and Yellow Springs, which I always enjoy^[1].

So I thought the event was going to be lame, but it was really cool. That said, they had me sign this waiver as a spectator. Again, it was an appropriate contract that I was surprisingly happy to sign. I'll share a part that stackers may particularly appreciate:

Alas, the reason I feel compelled to share, is that NO ONE aside from me and my spectating compatriot followed this agreement. Given the nature of the event, one would think privacy would have been of high value. I've known other women in which these type of events represent a healing step from sexual assault or other stuff like that. Fortunately, my family was just doing it for fun. One might think this stipulation would have been a heavily respected provision. But boy howdy, it was not.

Unlike the lack of hippie political stuff, this was definitely an actively unwelcome development from my standpoint. Anyway, just thought I'd share a couple of Overton window musings I've had this week.

Anybody else notice changes in the tides recently?Anybody else notice changes in the tides recently?

1. not a joke, I love these towns, you should visit them ↩