February 11 at 4 a.m.
In treading through the annals of rock music, it’s hard to argue that any approach to the genre has been more persistent than psychedelic-rock. From the jangling opening riff of 13th Floor Elevators’ “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” to the outpouring of groups that flocked to Haight-Ashbury in the late-60s (therein forging a widespread counterculture), to the shoegaze sounds that swept the U.K. throughout the 90s, rock artists have continuously found new ways to interpret the ever-malleable, wide-ranging sound of psychedelic music. Aside from modern pop’s incorporation ( cough appropriation) of the genre’s aesthetic, the national craze around this music and its culture is clearly not as prevalent as it once was, when thousands of young Americans blew off their middle-class expectations for the Learyology of “dropping out and tuning in”. Since the start of the decade, however, a more subtle independent scene has been brewing.
Recently, Texas Renaissance Festival owner George Coulam has been mentioned in a lawsuit filed in the Houston division of the Southern District of Texas, in which former employee Toni Ewton alleges he required her to peruse sugar daddy websites on his behalf. Though Coulam is not named as a defendant, his appearance in the lawsuit is not much of a surprise to people who have been in Coulam’s circle for years as the man has a very widely known reputation as a complete creep.
It isn’t even the first lawsuit of this kind to involve Coulam. In 2018, employee Eileen Pena alleged she was fired after she told Coulam that making her find women for him to date was inappropriate. TRF denied that Pena was ever employed as Coulam’s assistant. The case was mutually dismissed by both parties in June 19.