Editorial: The Envelope at Shangri-La Music Festival
As the wind blew and rain fell on Friday evening of Shangri-la at Harmony Park, I sat in the shelter of the Kava Bar with my friend, Robbie. We discussed the evening shenanigans until the wind settled. Before his departure, Robbie said to me, “I have something to give you” and began to shuffle through his bag.
If you’re not familiar with Shangri-La or any of the other festivals hosted at Harmony Park, the events are a gem for old and new hippies alike. “Welcome Home” echos through the oak trees as people flock from all over for a tree huggin’, foot stompin’ good time topped with trippy hippy music with a message. The event is hosted by Wookiefoot, and this year’s bill featured artists such as The Polish Ambassador and The Diplomatic Scandal, Arrested Development, Dead Larry, Dirtwire, Trevor Hall, and Mike Love.
Finally finding the item in the deep abyss of his bag, Robbie said, “A man in a purple suit coat gave this to me. He told me, ‘open it later or give it to somebody else.’”
He presented a black envelope with a dark red, wax seal. It was in crisp condition, a surprise due to everyone having dirt under their nails and the over all “down to earth” vibe of the place. I’ll admit, I was slightly disappointed.
Three years ago, Robbie gave me a sticker that said “I love Harmony Park” all around the edges and a big green heart in the middle. It’s one of the few chosen for the honorary, back of my ukulele. It resides alongside the Wookiefoot symbol, a black and white sticker reading “I really appreciate you.” the Hawai’ian Islands, Bassnectar’s bass drop, and a caution sign reading “Don’t love me.”
It’s among the elite of the elitist sticker collectors stickers.
I held the envelope, looked down at it and a sense of curiosity took ahold of my mind.
If I choose to give it away, who should I give it to? Do I even want to give it away? If I keep it. . . when is later? What if I open it to late? Did the man in the purple coat say anything else? Did he make this envelope? Or, did someone give it to him?
Robbie didn’t have any answers as he wiped his hands of the envelope and backed out into the night. Smirking at his passing of the mystery.
“Game on,” I thought as I slid the envelope into my own backpack.
The next day, I was standing in the same spot and digging through my bag to retrieve an object for Jenna when I came across the envelope.
It seemed appropriate.
“Here,” I said to her. “You can either open this later or give it to someone else.”
She took the envelope from my hands and a million questions began to come out of her mouth.
I shrugged my shoulders and went back to digging through my bag.
When the sun rose Monday morning and it came time to leave, some broke down tents and said goodbye to friends. Others laid face down in the grass and some finished up the last of the bottle of Windsor, crying about leaving “home.” Regardless of how or who packed up the campsite, all items and people loaded into their respective ride out.
As our mini caravan pulled into the Kernel, a homestyle restaurant in Owatonna, Minnesota, my changring cell phone lit up. A message from Jenna appeared.
“Lol remember that black envelop you gave me,” her text message read. “There was only a link to this website in it.”
My phone dinged again, this time with a link.
The link was to www.shorthandrants.com and the image attached read “Church of Satan Member”.
I followed the link to the website and the opening statement read:
“This website you see before you is but a medium for my manifestations in which I call ‘shorthand rants’. These rants are poetry in a minimalist style. They are unapologetically inspired by Satanism, life, love cynicism, misanthropy, the occult, assholery, and generally hell bound shit…”
Ready for some inspiring words or hippy shit, and this is what had been passed along.
Well played, well played.
If you’re interested in finding more out about the minimalistic, satanic rants click here.
Photo by: Alycia Grace
