we just got back from the shows this weekend in michigan after driving home all night and as i walked the eight blocks from where the mutant dropped me off to my house, the streets of columbus somehow seemed less familiar. it wasn’t that the early morning made them quiet and fresh, but that i fealt that more than any time in my life, home is not so much a place as it is a group of people that surround you. this weekend it fealt like home could be a pavilion in the middle of a park eating lebanese food with old and new friends and listening to some amazing bands or an old theatre in detroit drinking root beer and going crazy. as hollow as the notion of a punk community can often be, at the very least this past weekend reminded me of the way i fealt when i was in high school and discovered punk – excited to know that in far off places there were kids very much like me doing the things that i wanted to do and dealing with the things that i hed to deal with and maybe, just maybe we could be part of something bigger than all of us together. thanks to everyone who came to the shows and laughed and danced and sang along. thanks to the kids who had to leave early because of their curfew and the kids who ignored the notion of curfew altogether when they hopped in a car to drive across state lines with their friends. thanks to all the people who gave us a place to stay and fed us and hung out. thanks to all the friends i’ve met who still feel like close friends even though we live far away. thanks to all the other bands who played and were completely amazing.

xoxo,

geoff