I went to Baltimore for the punk rock fest but then I never wrote about it. It's not THE fest, but it's one of like 5 big ones through the year. It's the one more of my friends go to, and the ones my friends put on, so it's the one I go to.

It was fun! On friday night, the Ergs! ended the night and even played a ZZ Top song as an encore while I sweated and yelled along with everyone else.

It's so crazy to look at this photo and realize how many people I know. It's weird being in the fest setting too, because you're like "AND I! COULD WRITE YOU THE PERFECT SONG! ABOUT HOW EVERYTHING'S GONE WRONG! AND YOU COULD SING ALONG!!" and you look around and see friends that you never see and they're all crammed in with you, screaming right along, like you hang out all the time. It's really awesome, but something about it kind of breaks my heart at the same time.

You can see me here, obscured by Kelly Lynn's arm (I have no idea what's going on here and why she's so psyched and no one else cares) on the right side. Next to me is Eloy, who was in town from Puerto Rico and who I've spent 3 days with in my life despite knowing him for like 7 years. I was thinking about skipping the fest this year, but just seeing people and the fun convinced me to go. I'm glad that I did. But the photos make me wish that i got to hang out with these people more. Chad and Deana are the best and I would have to drive 7 hours to hang out. And they're close by comparison to my Vancouver friends and Puerto Rico friends and CA friends.

Stefan was even in town from Holland!

I love Stefan. He's one of the tallest people we know, so having him hold up a sign makes a lot of sense. He lives in Holland and yet I see him a few times a year. I need to hold my end of this friendship and visit him and Foek in Holland one of these days. He even gave me a painting while he was in town! He's the best. It kicks total ass!

Stefan is an incredibly talented guy

The Zatopeks came in from England:

They looked so happy to be playing that they were about to burst. Sebby is a ray of english sunshine, beaming from every pore in his body. He and Sam and Will (Sam and Will are the ones with unibrows) stayed in NYC for the week afterwards and so I got to see Sebby a bunch. It was great! After like 5 years of knowing each other and one time of barely speaking, we actually had conversations and went to parties and went out for pizza. Fun!

On Saturday night the Queers played last, and the plan was for them to play a pop set of their surfy songs and songs like "all screwed up" that they don't do that much anymore. They did but I'm not a big Queers fan by any means. I was there though, waiting impatiently because I knew that they were going to bring Lisa Marr out to play some Cub songs. HOLY SHIT!!! I saw Buck earlier this year in CA so I have seen Lisa Marr once already, but that's it.

Watching her sing "New York City" in a crowded room with so many people that I love, was the perfect way to start my birthday (it was about 1am on the 29th at this point). I thanked Enoch for the very thoughtful birthday present and he assured me that he planned it just for me. Ha!

Sunday was a bit bittersweet, but so many people came back to NYC that it felt like it went on for another week anyway. Now everyone's gone (well, Livy is here interning until august) and it's much quieter and back to normal.

Hopefully the Marshmallows (my band!) is ready to play by next year's fest and we can all hang out again.

**All of these photos were taken by Marc Gaertner www.marc-gaertner.de/ and he kicks total ass. He flew in from Germany to see the fest and take over a thousand photos**