Wildrose Man lost and out of place at Edmonton folk fest
Well, that was a big fat fail – wearing a Wildrose Party T-shirt at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival to get a rise out of the Lefties.
Nobody cares! Plus there are so many layers of irony on everything nowadays that it’s hard to tell anything about anything anymore. What a waste of $25, which will now help fund the Wildrose Party’s quest for world domination. Great.
Wearing the increasingly stained and stinky but formerly green and beautiful Wildrose T-shirt for four straight days, Wildrose Man was the target of a number of dirty looks, smirks, sneers, snickers and frowns over the folk fest weekend – but it was hard to tell if it was more than usual. Wildrose Man’s other job is a music critic. Maybe an Ezra T-shirt would’ve worked better. Or Harper.
This was originally part of a two-pronged prank suggested by local artist and PR man Gene Kosowan. The other idea was to go to the Big Valley Jamboree wearing a Gay Pride T-shirt. It seemed less dangerous to go with Wildrose Man at the folk fest, but who knows? Maybe the cowboys would’ve thought it ironic and had a good laugh.
People acquainted with Wildrose Man teased and scolded. “Really?!” exclaimed one guy, then added, “Really?!” Mostly there were just more smirks and snickers. Novelist and “Make Something Edmonton” guy Todd Babiak took a picture and tweeted it (above), with the caption, “Don’t be ashamed, super conservative friend, for loving the arts. Embrace the folk music festival.” There was an Instagram post. There were a couple of tweets. One read, “To the guy wearing the Alberta Wildrose T-shirt at folk fest, you look lost and out of place.” That’s about it.
Wildrose Man was pleased to be complimented – by a woman – on his “stones,” but there was no need for them. All encounters were very pleasant. Everything was cool. There was no getting egged. There were no death threats. A youth heckled, “Hey, Wildrose!” and that was it. Once again: NOBODY CARES.
Let’s get this straight: There are a lot of people who don’t care about politics, but it’s not apathy. A lot of people are too busy, and think, rightly, that the government’s function is to do the nasty and complicated jobs we don’t want to do because we’re too busy, and we pay for it, too, so shut up and keep the potholes filled and get out of our faces. Of course, the pain in the ass is that you have to keep an eye on them lest they run off with all our money or spend it on Talus Balls. Bad example. On an arena. There. That’s better.
Lesson learned: Expressing your political beliefs via T-shirt is kind of a dumb idea.
