Looking Back

I spent most of my week on Long Island taking care of my parents dogs and my grandma. Returning to my hometown is always an experiecne (even if it’s only 45 minutes from where I live now.) While most of my week was uneventful as I had my anime filler week, it got me thinking a lot about my early twenties, and the journey I’ve been on since then.

I was reminded of the countless nights I spent at my friends and I’s favorite dive bar Effin Gruven. A rundown shitty bar that served craft beers on the side of a highway in Bellmore. We spent every weekend there whether it was where the night started or ended, we would show up and be welcomed with open arms. It was a place I felt grounded and represented a part of my life that I’ve naturally grown away from.

Friends new and old would gather, we would drink the night away (a lot of the times for free) and just have a place to exist. I became close with the bartenders, who became some of my closest friends outside of the walls of that establishment. I still talk to them to this day. It’s a place that I think back to fondly, and one I mourned the loss of when it shut down and my friends and I moved out of our hometown. Leaving it behind like a relic of the past, a place that served it’s formative purpose for us as we grew up.

As I took the train back to Brooklyn, I listened to a lot of Long Island pop-punk and emo bands that were getting big around the time. It instantly brought me back to all of those nights at Effin Gruven, every shitty foosball game, every conversation with a high school friend, and every instance of love I felt in those years. I don’t really know how to formulate the words to explain those years, because of course there was heartbreak, insecurities, and a lot of growth I needed to do as a person. I guess ultimately what I think back to, is a safe place for me to be myself and learn how to navigate the transformation into becoming an adult. Maybe it’s reflective of the person I am now, someone who learned lessons of life in a shitty dive bar on the side of a highway. Everyone will experiecne soft-love for the first time somewhere in their life. This was the era I learned that people can offer me a type of love that’s reassuring, that’s full of active listening and promoting the best values in myself. I learned that during this period of my life, and it’s something I hold to this day.

I wouldn’t trade those years for anything. I miss the people from that part of my life dearly, and hope they are all doing well. This was also the time I was working to book pop-punk/hardcore bands on Long Island. But that’s a story for a different newsletter.

Game Informer is Back

My wonderful friends are back in business and Game Informer is back! You can get your print magazines and subscriptions and podcasts and video content and written content and everything else. It’s cool!

We so rarely get good news in this space. It’s always layoffs, horrible working conditions, and corporate entities keeping all the money up top. It’s nice, even for a moment, to believe that creative spaces and collaboration can still thrive when given the proper runway to succeed.

Support this shit, because if you’re not supporting good things when they happen we can’t complain when bad things happen.

Craziest story of the week

I don’t think there is a crazier story on the internet than this. Our government continues to be that most incompetent piece of garbage I’ve ever seen. Read this and your jaw will also be on the floor.

Ok

Alright everyone, see ya next week. I’ll have something really cool to talk about next week, so be on the lookout!!