[May 17^th, 2025]

Dark Lord Day comes around like a grim boomerang of demise.

Per usual we boarded the rickety school bus at Reggies Rock Club at 8 AM. This is of course post breakfast buffet. Dark Lord on tap to coat our pancakes as a viscous spirit of black syrup.

Our bus broke down on the Bishop Ford.

Like the wealthier patrons of the Titanic, our rescue ship came to claim survivors and haul us to the event. The dead were left behind to crawl on the paved ditches aloft the rumblestrip-tumbleweeds and exhaust fumes.

The Twisted Pretzel Shocktop

We had a vessel passed between hands for years in jest – the Magic Stella Bottle. It broke. Shattered around the time our crew did the same.

Around 2017 its successor, the Twisted Pretzel Shocktop has performed its function in the field as a lucid curse. A notable clown only brought out to be laughed at, passed again from one bookbag to the next, year after year in honor of the Magic Stella that abandoned life all too soon.