This zine was originally meant to chronicle the travels that I undertook during the filming of From the Back of the Room.  Somewhere along the way, I decided I wanted it to be sustainable and non-finite, and tried to start writing it as a log of any trips I took out of the DC area.  Somehow, with work and school looming and a big cross-country move ahead of me, I thought I might be able to continue it after the filming was over (which it is now), and keep writing a general travel zine.  It’s seeming like that’s less and less feasible these days, which makes me sad, but I’ve got so much on my plate that writing a zine is going to have to take a backseat for the time being. 
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DECEMBER 26^th – DECEMBER 31^st 2007: FLORIDA

If you don’t already know, This is For You Fest happens every year between Christmas and New Years in Daytona Beach, Florida.  Tons of kids make the pilgrimage from all over the country every year to go to this, bailing out on post-Christmas family “duties”.  I’d never been before this year, but I managed to wangle a ride down with Sick Fix and Coke Bust, so I figured I should seize the opportunity.

December 26^th: Raleigh

Hopped in the van around noon.  The bands played Raleigh (and Tampa) on the way to Daytona, and I got to see our friend Chrissy, which is always nice.  The show was at this weird metal bar (think Jaxx), but the staff wasn’t total fascists.  They had a butt load of pizza and beer and dessert crap upstairs in their “vip room” (are you kidding me?), and we pigged out.  I wound up working merch and reading zines most of the night.  I wasn’t feeling too well, but was trying to keep my mind off of it.  After the show, Chrissy said we could crash at his place, but we opted to drive overnight and try to make it to Tampa.

Chris on the way to Florida!

December 27^th: Tampa

We got to Tampa in the afternoon, and went straight to the show space, which was a one-story warehouse behind the relatively famous Tampa skate park – which by the way was huge.  We were all exhausted, and half of us stayed and slept while the other half went to meet the show promoter for some lunch at a bomb veg-Chinese place before going back to the space ourselves.

The show space was really really rad – I think the dude pays the rent himself.  It’s a perfect size (big enough for between 50 and 75 kids), and he’s got a sound booth in a loft with a ladder in the back (people work the door underneath that if you can picture it).  There were eightfucking bands on the bill – and tons of kids.  Loaded for Bear ripped it up after 20-some hours in their van, and Sick Fix and Coke Bust played great sets too.  I was so tired I fell asleep at the merch table.  After the show, Pat almost killed us on the way to the place we were staying, but somehow he perked right up again when someone mentioned vegan hot dogs.  Walker (who was the other “roadie” for the trip) and I stayed in the van while the rest of them went to go eat.  It was like 2am – I was more tired than hungry for sure. 

We (finally) got to this kid’s house, and crashed out all over the ground floor.  There were some really big couches and lots of pillows, and most of us got to take showers in the morning, which was nice.  Even nicer was the fact that Daytona was only two hours away – which was a relief after the long drives we had in the past two days.

December 28^th – 29^th: Daytona

We got to Daytona in the early afternoon, and went straight to the show space.  It was in the back of a strip mall, which is nice because you can’t see it from the main road.  I guess the place is a nightclub that’s used for all kinds of stuff – there was a weird back room with a bar that was unused during the fest.  There was lots of room for merch on the two floors that were available – and a huge parking lot. 

The hotel we wound up getting was literally half a block from the beach.  The first night we were there I went for a long walk with some of Sick Fix and Blank Stare.  The moon was huge and it was warm and wonderful – and December 28^th.  It was so crazy to be on the beach in shorts just a few days after Christmas – not that I’m complaining.

I won’t go into the laundry list of bands that played in the two days I spent at the fest.  If you’re pressed I’m sure you can find a list, pictures, and video online.  The second day was when the MD/DC bands all took the stage – and the one that took me off guard was Pulling Teeth.  Kids were going completely apeshit for PT – I couldn’t believe it.  I mean, I know they’re a good band, but when you’re in proximity to a band like that you don’t think about how intensely popular they are. 

The view from our hotel room – two days after Christmas.

The second night lots more of our friends had come to town, and there was a massive convergence of kids on the beach after the show.  There was between 50 and 100 of us that met, swam, and drank – and lots of fireworks.  Hotel security at one of the beachfront places called the cops on us for roman candles at one point (thanks nicktape), but they didn’t show – and the beach patrol didn’t seem to care.  There were also tons of hotel rooms and plenty of places to walk and swim and party.  I love it when lots of punk/hc kids converge on any given city.  There’s always this element of feeling like we’re taking the place over – that for one weekend we’re living in our own larger community or something. 

December 30^th: Charlotte, NC (and part of the drive home)

Sadly, we didn’t stick around for the third day of the fest.  We started our trek back north – the bands had a show at Lunchbox Records in Charlotte, NC.  The record store was small and red inside (I feel like they almost always are), and I got a copy of the F-Word zine that had an interview with Peaches in it, which was pretty sweet.  Oh yeah, at the fest I picked up this book by Robert Jensen called “Getting Off: Pornography and the end of Masculinity”.  Even just the introduction to this book I feel is inspiring – and should be mandatory reading for all people claiming to be allies.  Ask me about it sometime.

After the show we started the long drive home.  Got back to DC around 7am on New Years Eve.  Sick Fix, Coke Bust, Blank Stare and Harms way played a show that night in Silver Spring that I went to.  It was the first New Years that I’ve spent relatively sober in a long while.  I feel like 2008 is shaping up to be a good year.

FEBRUARY 1^st – FEBRUARY 4^th: NYC, BOSTON, DIRTY JERSEY

I knew I wanted to go to Boston to interview the girls from Red Thread, but when I was able to solidify an interview with Anna Joy from Blatz for the first weekend in February, I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone.

February 1^st – 2^nd: NYC (then Boston)

Christine and I left DC around 4pm – but even in pissing rain and rush hour we made it to Queens by 9, which I thought was pretty good.  I used to come to New York a lot when I was a kid – mostly the Bronx – and I still get excited during the last approach towards the city, especially Manhattan. 

Manhattan is a big ol’ visual representation of the phrase “rat race”.  It’s so big, and there’s people coming out of everywhere at all times.  It’s kind of like one of those ladies you see on the pet police who collect cats, except that it’s people instead of cats, an and island instead of a house.  We got sucked through tunnels and tolls, past the theatre district and Times Square, and into Queens.

New York used to seem so hard to navigate to me, but I think I’m getting better at it.  I think I could even handle living there – as long as it wasn’t in Manhattan – I always feel like a moth in Manhattan, but all the other boroughs feel like normal cities to me.

We got to James’s second story walkup, unloaded our shit, and sat down for a few minutes before taking off to get a drink at a nearby pub.  Housing prices in New York are getting kind of comparable to DC prices, which is depressing to say the least.  James lives in a predominantly Irish neighborhood, and we headed to a bar two blocks away and shot the shit over some drinks.  The Pogues came on the jukebox and I had a pretty decent conversation with a British guy.  We headed back to James’s apartment relatively early, and watched Kids in the Hall until we passed out. 

Feb 2. Anna in NYC, Boston Red Thread

I had this crazy dream about New York, and woke up on James’s couch at around 10am.  I always say New York is fun to visit but I could never live there, but it might not be that way after all.  Who knows.  We left ourselves with a good amount of time to get to Manhattan – threw our shit back in the car, and headed to meet Anna.

Anna lives in California, and was in New York attending a creative writing conference of some sort.  She’s an English teacher (I think).  The conference was in some ridiculously huge fancy hotel near Park Avenue – we had to wait a while for her and were ridiculously relieved when she showed up, as we both felt REALLY out of place. 

Anna!

We ended up doing the interview outside, in the only mildly secluded/quiet place we could find – a path between two buildings.  One of the more interesting parts of the interview came when Anna explained how Blatz was liberating for a lot of people, but how that “liberation” usually consisted of people pulling off Jesse’s clothes during their set.  She said this was frustrating to her because she felt like she was being put on a pedestal as a woman – why did people feel comfortable groping Jesse?  She also talked about the AIDS crisis affecting punk in San Francisco, and about the power dynamic of being onstage and having the space/voice to call someone out in a public forum.  She talked a bit about dating Lynn Breedlove, and some more about her other bands.  These are all really valid and interesting topics that no one had talked extensively about yet, so I was really excited to har what she had to say.  Anna has lots and lots of history under her belt, and was really cool about all of it.  The pre-riot girl women I’ve met through doing this film have some of the most amazing stories.

On the way (the hell) out of Manhattan, we passed through Times Square, kind of on accident, and saw a woman who looked like what Nancy Spungen would look like if she had lived until now.  She was terrifying, and creepily close to the Chelsea hotel.  Also, if you wanted to know, 666 Avenue of the Americas is a Deli.  THE DEVIL’S DELI – BEASILBUB WILL HAVE CHICKEN SALAD TODAY!!!  Holy shit I laughed my ass off.  Anyway, after creeping through the streets in Manhattan, we finally made it out of New York and back to the highway. 

Boston is only a five-hour drive from New York.  Five hours is much nicer than the eight it takes from DC if you do it straight, which I’ve done on many occasions.  Anyway, we got into Boston in the evening, and went to Wendy from Red Thread’s house, where the girls were all hanging around waiting for us.  Mapquest screwed us on our way off the highway, but we outsmarted it.

Wendy’s house is super-cute, and she has a fireplace in her bedroom, which is where we decided to shoot the Red Thread interview.  The girls talked a lot about being frustrated at a lack of recognition in their scene.  Even though they’ve been a band for a while, they still get billed first at shows – and often times get a much better reception when they’re on the road.  This is a feeling I’ve head echoed many times by many different women.  Don’t get me wrong – the DIY punk community is better than pretty much anything else out there, but we still have problems – and things are still unequal.  

Red Thread at CLITFest 2007 in RVA

At any rate, after the interview we watched a terrible weed movie called “Smiley Face”, and played a drinking game where every time pot was referenced, we drank.  Needless to say there was a popcorn fight at some point (I bought a torso-sized bag of vegan popcorn earlier at the liquor store), lots of yelling, and lots of chaos.  I had a really good conversation with an awesome female roommate at the house – about putting people in a box (and how people tend to do that with gender and sexuality – and how it’s complete bullshit).  I passed out on the couch, and woke up around 10am the next morning. 

Feb 3 Boston, Jersey

We ate (ridiculously spicy) burritos with our friend Tommy that morning, and then set off to find a Sanrio watch for Christine.  When we stopped to get coffee and bubble tea, Wendy asked Christine and I if we would like to meet her financial advisor, Carol.  We both said yeah, okay, and waited for her to say someone was meeting us.  Instead, she pulled a small doll with crazy blond hair out of her purse, set it on the table, and started talking about how they decide on investments together.  Wendy is now saved in my phone as “Wendy, and Carol”. 

After the Sanrio store failed to have the watch Christine wanted, we went to Cambridge with this (hilarious) guy Ryan in tow, and stumbled into a Lush.  I don’t know if you’ve ever been into one of those places before, but they are CRAZY.  All the bath stuff there is really expensive, but it’s all handmade and organic and vegan and blah blah.  We overloaded ourselves on smells, and I definitely put a few pieces of soap in my mouth, hoping they would taste as good as they smelled.  They didn’t.  There was also a big cookie sheet full of what I think was bath gel.  I wouldn’t have cared at all about this except that it was really fun to slap.  Hard.

We also went to what I think is called the “Garage” in Cambridge.  This is the least-awful mall I’ve ever been to.  There’s a tattoo shop, a Newbury Comics, and a place to get really nice organic jewelry.  I bought a pair of petrified palm wood earrings, which were gorgeous.  All purple and brown and marbled-looking.  One of them broke the day after we got home.

After messing around in the mall for a while, and trying on various AMAZING hats, we procrastinated on leaving via coffee and witty banter.  At one point latte went up my nose and I almost choked. Wendy was the only one who saw it, but Ryan and Christine definitely heard it.

Around 5 or so Christine and I headed out of the city and back down to Jersey – another 5-hour drive in drizzle.  We decided to break up the long drive home by staying at my old friend Caroline’s house.  Like most people, I’m not too crazy about Jersey – but Caroline lives in a town called Sandy Hook that’s really close to the beach.  She recently started a career as an elementary school art teacher, and got her own apartment, which is even closer to the shore than her old place.  It’s always wonderful to see her, and even though it was late, we drove to a diner and had some snacks.  When we got back, I read while the two of them went to bed – and listened to Caroline’s pet chinchilla no doubt terrorizing Christine.  In the morning, we tidied up and went home.

MARCH 7^th – 9^th KOLLAPSE FEST: Richmond, VA

I wanted to go to Kollapse Fest anyway, but when I heard After the Bombs was playing, I figured I could get some footage of them.  I really feel like every time I drive to Richmond either the weather or traffic is horrible.  This time it was both.  Even though I left DC at around 2 or 3pm (I wanted to leave earlier but someone I was with forgot their wallet), it still took us an unreal FOUR hours to get to RVA.

We got to Lexa’s house around 6:30pm, and it was already halfway filled with Baltimore kids who were down for the fest.  Even though everyone else was already drinking, I was committed to staying sober until after I had filmed the band – and they were headlining.  We hung out at Lexa’s for a bit, and then took off for the fest. 

When we walked in to Alley Katz, the band onstage was covering “So What”, by Anti-Nowhere League, and it seemed to set the tone for the whole weekend.  Kind of objectionable, but kind of okay if you can slip into party-mode long enough to stop giving a shit about life.  The bands were all good – the entire lineup was solid – and I’m still pissed about missing Attake to go on a beer run.  I met up with Janick while she was talking to Chris Boarts-Larson, and the three of us talked for a while about now New York was in the early ABC No Rio days.  Chris and Janick have definitely left their mark on a lot of modern punk – it’s really cool that women like them are still around, and still make an effort to connect with younger kids.  Anyway, After the Bombs was fucking phenomenal.  This was the first time I’ve seen them, and they tore the fucking house down.  Janick owned it.  I filmed the whole set, despite a foggy camera lens for the first third.  The sound is great and the kids are going apeshit. 

After the show we went back to Cedar House for the inevitable after-party.  I drove to Lexa’s and walked over with some kids, and made it a while before I got incoherent and scored a ride back with someone.  The party was fun, but they always are, and I didn’t feel like I was missing much.  The weather was shitty, and we stopped for some food before going back to the house.  I have vague memories of this – but I know it’s true because I woke up with a burnt mouth.  Soon after, we got back to the house, and I crawled into Katies bed and passed out with her dumb dog.

I definitely fell asleep by myself, but woke up to a room full of people.  There were three of us in Katie’s bed, plus at least four more scattered on the floor.  I went to get water and there were kids passed out all over the house.  Crammed onto the kitchen floor, in the hall, and all over the living room.  I love mornings like this.  Eventually, everyone starts waking up and talking and cracking beers and frying breakfast.

During fests, and punk fests especially, there’s always this really awesome communal air.  We all eat together, sleep together, share drinks and smokes, and take care of one another.  We’re all filthy and sick and tired, but we take over a town for a few days.  There’s always something familiar and oddly comforting about this for me.

Friends from Philly to RVA at Kollapse fest.

About a dozen of us piled into a few cars and went to Harrison street café for breakfast.  If you’ve never been, they have bomb vegan food, but it’s always a little warm in there.  Towards the end of a meal there, I always start to get a little antsy because of this.  On the way back to the house, I called my friends in Wartorn to see when they would be getting into town, only to find out that they got snowed on and stuck in the mountains, and were turning around to go back to Wisconsin.  This made me sofucking sad.  Low point of the weekend for sure. 

Back at Lexa’s, some kids organized a kickball game that turned into a mud-throwing party, and the rest of us stuck around the house and drank beer in the yard.  I managed to go the entire day without having to drive, which was nice, and I jumped in someone else’s car on the way back to the fest. 

The second night of bands was every bit as great as the first – and Appalachian Terror Unit tore shit up at the end of the night.  There was (predictably) another party at Cedar House, but I and a bunch of others opted to go back to Lexa’s and hang out instead.  Lars mad me have a laughing fit, good times were had, and I passed out with the dog again.

The next morning, spurned partially by the fact that Donna was leaving Richmond soon, we had a ladies lunch at a diner near Harrison street.  I always love going out to eat (or do anything else for that matter), with a large group of women – it’s nice to travel en mass.  The lunch was probably the last time I’ll see Donna for a while, and I headed back to DC soon after.

Ladies lunch! I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again: my friends are total babes.

MARCH 25^th – 27^th: NEW YORK AND CONNECTICUT 

From what I’ve seen, people don’t die suddenly.  Life goes out of you gradually over a period of time.  Also; it’s hard to watch your mother cry.

MARCH 28^th – 30^th: PHILLY

I always feel like I should go to Philly more than I do.  Everyone there is always so friendly to me, and the shows are always a lot of fun.  This weekend was definitely no exception.  After trudging through some shitty traffic, Katie (or Jiggle if you know what I’m sayin) and I made it to our friend Courtney’s place, the Coven, in west Philly.  Nicole and Janine from Witch Hunt were meeting me there for their interview, and Courtney and her roommates were hanging out as well.  We started in on the gin early, and the interview went really well.  I think the interviews that I’ve done with people I only kind of know are probably the best in terms of comfort level.  I don’t like interviewing people I know too well, and interviewing people I’ve never met before can be kind of awkward.  Anyway, the girls talked about their unique perspective as nonwhite punk twins, which is pretty intense, and we touched on a variety of other issues.  The last thing they brought up (that I’m definitely glad was discussed), was the topic of female competition.  I’m with them 150% that this is a CRAZY waste of energy, and something that we all need to self-examine in order to fight.  I remember being in my late teens when I even became aware of the mechanisms that were driving me to insult and condemn other women – it’s so fucked up that it’s THAT ingrained in us.  I’ve been conscious of it and fighting it ever since then, and I still catch myself in its clutches from time to time.  Hurtful behavior within groups of oppressed people is one of the things that keeps us oppressed – and I think it’s important to recognize that we have the power to turn away from that.

Witch Hunt when they played with the Avengers at the Unitarian Church in Philly.

After the interview, we all got even deeper into the gin, and all got pretty wasted.  I (apparently) blacked out and got into some absinth that was sitting around – great fucking idea – and woke up next to Courtney in the morning.  Katie had taken off in the night to hang out with some other people, and I didn’t remember her leaving.  Luckily for me, Courtney had plans to make brunch with her roommates, which gave me plenty of time to recover from my massive hangover.

We headed towards South Street after lunch, and walked around and shot the shit for an hour or two.  South Street has great record stores and vegan food and Wooden Shoe – every time I go there I have to keep my wallet in check.  I did a surprisingly good job this time (maybe the remnants of the hangover were keeping my inner record nerd from remembering all the shit she wanted), and we made it out of there relatively unscathed financially.  We hit up an awesome veggie Chinese place for dinner (that had AMAZING veg sate), and then went back to the Coven to rest off some of our food comas.

I was supposed to meet up with Niki from Kill the Man Who Questions around this time, but she bailed out and stopped answering her phone – which bummed me out – but would have been more upsetting if I hadn’t had a hunch that it was going to happen in the first place.  I don’t know why, but I just felt like that interview wasn’t going to happen.  A few hours later, we left for the Millcreek Tavern, where Erik Peterson was playing.

Erik Peterson was good, and we got to see some other Philly pals and screw around at the bar.  The Millcreek is kind of weird – it’s sort of a fancy bar, but there are punks everywhere (I mean it IS Philly), and we had a pretty good time.  After the show, I went back to Courtney’s house to crash, and we stayed up hanging out, drinking a bit of champagne (left over from the brunch) and talking.

The next morning I had plans to meet up with Leora (from Thulsa Doom) for breakfast before she had band practice.  Leora lives on the South side of Philly, so Courtney came with me and we went to her apartment.  When we got there, Leora was making a massive tofu scramble, and a bunch of coffee, so we sat around and ate some food with her band mates as they filtered in the door.

Leora lives in one of those weird, narrow group houses that East Coast cities all seem to have.  The floors are a little uneven, but there’s unique little secrets to every one of those places.  Hers had a roof deck, and when she told me, I wanted to shoot up there because there was a great view of the skyline of Philadelphia.  But loading the camera gear up two flights of stairs and out a window seemed less-than-feasible.  Also, when I was looking for the door to the roof deck I definitely peeked into one of her roommates bedrooms by accident.  There was a thick haze of pot smoke, some stoner shit on the stereo, and a cat that started crying and walking towards me.  Being spooked from this, and not completely being sure if anyone had seen me definitely added to my decision to shoot downstairs.

We decided to shoot in front of a bookcase full of cookbooks, even though Leora mentioned the idea of shooting in the kitchen.  She’s a pastry chef by trade, and makes a living making custom cakes for people, which is pretty cool, since she’s basically her own boss.  We waited for her band mates to clear out, and her daughter arrived just before we started filming.

Leora!

Leora talked about how Thulsa Doom caught a lot of backlash from people when they started to become popular.  Apparently there was a decent amount of resentmen, especially because kids assumed they got privilege since Leora was dating Jorge from the Casualties at the time.  I can see how that would definitely taint an experience, but for me, getting into Thulsa Doom just after they broke up, I liked them because I thought they were a goodfucking band.  I didn’t even know about her and Jorge until later. 

She also talked a bit about her experience as a mother, which I was interested to hear – her pregnancy essentially broke up her band.  It’s interesting how different people make different decisions in the same circumstances, you know?

After the interview, we drove around the city to film some b-roll, and ate at the Olive Garden downtown.  Their $5 endless salad and breadsticks is kind of a sham.  Afterwards, we wallowed in our food comas for a bit.  I was a little bummed about not meeting up with Niki, but figured I could get some footage of her band if I corresponded with her.  Also, I had wanted to interview Jessica, who books shows up there, but she seemed so nervous about it that I didn’t want to push her.  She said she would probably do it, but it seemed like she needed time to process the idea.  So I talked to her on the phone for a minute, and then we got coffee and hit the road.

APRIL 12^th – 13^th: (Virginia, then) PHILLY (again)

Even though I didn’t “leave town” for this interview, it was still amazing.  I spent all day before the interview driving around DC and Baltimore with my friend Ashley, shooting random footage of both cities to use.  The interview with Cynthia was at 5:30 but we didn’t get to her house until 6, because DC traffic sucks, even on the weekends.  She lives two blocks away from the road I drive home from work on, so I recognized her neighborhood.  Cynthia is the main co-author of the book, Banned in DC, which you should check out if you don’t know about it already.  I had a hell of a time tracking her down, but we had been corresponding for a while, and I was stoked to meet her. 

Cynthia started going to shows in the DC area in 1981, and some of the early Minor Threat and Bad Brains practices were at her house.  It was great to gain some historical perspective from her on how gender dynamics were in early hardcore, especially in my hometown.  She explained how things got more and more masculine, and how things just kind of took on a life of their own.  It’s something you don’t think about too often, because you always hear how righteous Fugazi was, and how they would stop the show if people were moshing too hard… anyway, it makes sense. 

I think some of the things Cynthia said will be edited early in the film – to me it makes sense to start off with some of her interview for a few reasons.  1981 is the furthest back I think anyone has gone in these interviews, and maybe the film should be subtitled “25 years of women in punk”?  Also, Cynthia’s from DC and so am I – and, on a personal note, 1981 was the year I was born.

After Cynthia’s interview, we shot the shit for a minute.  Then, after already having been in the car all day, Ashley and I headed back to DC, and then took off for Philly again.   

The reson for going back up to Philly was two-pronged.  Sourvein (who I missed in DC and Baltimore) was playing a show with Hatchetface (a new all-female stoner band).  Also, Jessica had agreed to do the interview.  We got to Philly around midnight, and picked Courtney up from a house she was hanging out at.  Then, we drove to another nearby house (I love punk-infested neighborhoods in the city!), where our friend Allen, who had recently transplanted from DC, was chilling with some people on a porch.  We hung around there for a bit – it was good to see Allen happy and doing well – and then crashed out at Courtney’s. 

In the morning we went to Govinda’s for their amazing veggie chicken-cheese steaks, and then meandered back to the house to meet up with Jessica before all the bands showed up.  Jessica’s  inteview was short and sweet – perfect for the last( !!) interview of the film.  She talked about booking metal shows, and how the gender dynamic of different genres is different, for a variety of reasons.  Also, she discussed the treatment she gets managing the Relapse storefront, where she’s worked for a few years.  It was good – and after the cameras were off we talked a bit about female competition.  It’s always nice for me to talk to women who are on the same page about this – because so many girls don’t see it and don’t think about it.  During the conversation Jessica mentioned Renata from Samothrace – who’s also a friend of mine, and, coincidentally, the very first interview I did for the project.  Crazy how things always seem to come full circle in one way or another, huh?

It’s a little bittersweet being done with the filming.  It’s kind of a load-off, because for the past year and a half, I haven’t really gone “on vacation” for more than a few days without the camera, and without some kind of agenda.  I’m looking forward to tour this summer (and hopefully again in the fall!) so that I can spend the entire time not worrying about something else.  That’ll be nice.  Knowing that the editing is looming above me is a daunting task, but I think I’ll be able to deal, especially with all the support people have given me about the project.

So, as far as the film goes, that’s where the (traveling) story ends.  In April of 2008, I went to Ohio for This Is For You Fest with Sick Fix, and the van caught on fire (the dashboard of the van is the picture on the front of this zine).  In June and July I went to Japan and Southeast Asia with Magrudergrind.  I could fill a million zines with the things that happened on that tour – it changed my life (and the way I think about it) in a bunch of different ways.  I’m toying with the idea of zeroxing my tour diary and distributing it, let me know if you’re interested.

The film is plugging along.  I’m assembling footage and doing editing when I can.  It’s going to take longer to put together than I originally thought, but I’ll get through it. 

So, the last (but not least) reason that this zine is doomed, which I kind of mentioned earlier, is that I’m finally making plans to make my permanent “Escape from DC”.  It’ll happen in April of 2009, and I’m moving to Madison, WI, for a variety of reasons – all of which are personal, and none of which are your damn business.  DC is home, I love it here and I’ll miss it, but I need to push forward, keep moving, and get the fuck out.

If you want to write here’s my info, at least until April.  I’m always down with pen pals and snail mail.

info@fromthebackoftheroom.com

6319 8^th St NW DC 20011