Skelletones is hands-down probably the most influential element in my life to date. One little venue has taught me so much about life. I was introduced to more people, more music, more artwork, more literature, more ideas, more experiences than any other place up to this point in my life. When I was first introduced to this establishment I was this frightened little boy who had all these questions about life...but didn't know how to start asking them. I had spent the majority of my life living in a bubble...a tiny, little, closed-off, sheltered idea that some people were good and other people were bad, and everything was black and white. But at this point I was really wrestling with that. And what's more important...Skelletones finally introduced me to good music. Dear God in heaven, why did you take so long to let my ears take in the sweet, glorious melodies and harmonies of harcore, punk, metal, acoustic-singer-songwriter, emo, experimental, indie...all of it!!! WHY? WHY? WHY? I wasted so many years listening to dc Talk and Steven Curtis Chapman when I could have been listening to Anti-Flag, Social Distortion, Rocky Votolato, Death Cab For Cutie!!! AAAHHH!!! Makes me sick. (although I still enjoy dc Talk...Steven Curtis Chapman...let's just pretend that I never admitted to buying his records!)

One of the most powerful things about Skelletones is that unlike most independent music venues...this place stayed open longer than 2 months!!! In fact I believe they are going on 7 years. That's an accomplishment. The second is that Skelletones was started not to make money off a profitable music genre at the time...it was started in the spirit of the punk rock diy movement and started by people that love music, love weird kids that love music, which means they love the music scene. Mirf and Annette have poured blood, tears, sweat, and their every last breath into being a powerful movement and force in changing the kids in the Grand Rapids music scene. And beyond that they have worked excessively hard to place it in the loving (and often dangerous and ungentle) hands of those very kids. This wasn't Mirf and Annette's venue...this was our venue. We all seemed to have ownership in it. Some of us poured a bit more into than others...and some of us flat out dedicated every moment we could into being within those four walls. Whether we were part of the bands playing the shows, audience members in attendance for some of the most amazing (and at other times horrifying) music ever listened to, part of the volunteer staff that would stay after and clean or talk, or part of the "regulars" that would sit at the coffee bar and dialogue about why this particular band was more influential than the modern-mainstream, bullshit we were seeing on MTV. (all very cliché...but all very true!) The fact is that for many of us, Skelletones was the dinner table that our dysfunctional, misfit, over-emotional, bi-polar family would gather around each day at 7pm when those doors opened and stay at often well into the next morning (usually around 3am). The truth is that we believed in Skelletones...Skelletones believed in us, and therefore a bond was forged where we would do just about anything and everything to see that place survive for the next generation of little, black-clad, hot-topic-shopping, mallcore, hellions that would start strolling through our doors (no matter how annoying some of them were)!

It simply has to do with ownership. If you believe in something you take responsibility for it and become a part of its life-blood. But as years have passed and our generation has started to grow up, responsibility has taken a back-seat to victimization. We have drawn ourselves to be the most horribly violated victims that we no longer deem it necessary to take charge of accepting our part in this world. Recently Henry Rollins was speaking to a group of Israeli young people, and was specifically addressing the continuous conflict between Palestinians and Jews. He addressed that it was the call of these young people to do something radical to end the violence between these two people groups. They have inherited this battle from their parents and if they don't do something they'll pass it onto their heirs. The problem right now is the role of responsibility. These poor kids didn't start this conflict. They didn't start bitching over land and rights...but they sure as hell have grown up right in the middle of it and are stuck with this dilemma; either be a proponent of change and see something powerful and revolutionary happen...or simply let things persist the way they are and see more suicide bombs, open market attacks, and military conflicts. Their parents are going to die off and eventually, whether they like it or not they are going to assume responsibility for the next steps in this journey.

This is the truth our generation is facing today. We did not start 90% of the shit that we are dealing with now. We didn't...it's that simple. BUT...we are responsible for it now. Sorry. That's the truth though. We are stuck with a faulty, screwed up, broken system...and we have two choices. Either we are going to take ownership of this epidemic and do something about it...or we can sit and whine and bitch like everyone before us and watch the world go to hell. Look...I don't like it either...trust me...ask anyone that I use to hang around with from 4 years ago to now...I'm the most whiny, sniffling little victim there is. I want it to be everyone else's fault...and it could very easily be painted that way. The problem is that they are not going to take the fall for it...we are. They're all going to die off in the end and we are the ones who are going to be left with a world falling apart. So get over it...suck it up, grow a pair and let's do something about it. This is our world now...they are losing touch with it (if they haven't lost it already). Now I am fully aware that I am going to have to walk into my bathroom, stand in front of a mirror and recite this whole paragraph verbatim. But that's just it...this is you and me. We don't have a good choice...this is not a win/win situation...but we can do it. You and I. We need to stop throwing immature temper tantrums and actually grow up and start fighting...but we need to be smart about it. This is our war, our battle, and I sure as hell would like to learn to go down swinging than roll over and take it up the ass!

Let's talk about this idea of fighting smart. Right now I see two primary groups operating in this generation. The system of materialism and the system of intentional-poverty. One group is simply motivated by hording more and more...becoming richer and richer. (Just watch Paris Hilton or "The Hills"...it's all about the Benjamin's baby!) Then there is this group of people sooooo fed up with acquisitiveness of society that they willfully give up everything and just become...well...poor homeless people. I see some intrinsic flaws in both of these thoughts that deal specifically with ownership. Let's start with the most blatantly obvious. It's pretty clear if your only motivation is your own personal comfort (ie...upgrading from a 3 bedroom, multi-million condo in luxurious California, to a 5 bedroom, multi-bathroom, extravagant condo in the same luxurious California, just because your daddy has lots of money and you someday want to have kids, even though you are currently a single, party-going whore, with your own sex tape), you might possibly have some issues with excepting responsibility for the current state of the world (especially when you capitalize off the working class of America by doing a tv show about two dumb, little, greedy girls who have never actually worked in their life "working" with people that actually understand that 6am is when people get up for work, not when people go to bed from a night at the Las Vegas club that pays you and gives you a new Ferrari to show up twice a month). Ok. That's the obvious...now on to the other. While the ideal of intentional poverty and forsaking of materials is noble and can work...I also see giant black spot on this. The fact is that there are very few people that truly understand intentional-poverty. Several of the kids that I've run into that practice this way of life still suffer with this. They expect everyone to help them. Give them a meal...let them crash for the night...give them a couple bucks for cigarettes. In the end, they are just as greedy as the rich people...they just don't make tv shows highlighting the contradiction! And that really shows a lack of ownership in wanting to work to make the world better...they just want everyone to give them just enough to survive and end up being a group of people saying "I don't want the responsibility."

The fact is that both of these systems of thought are based upon narcissism. It's all about the individual. It's all about what the individual receives or doesn't receive and how they have somehow defined that they are entitled to certain things. Now there is nothing wrong with being rich or poor...based upon how you view the world outside of you. The fact is that our generation needs to take ownership for making the world better...and you only make the world better through love. And love is not about you. So the simple truth becomes that taking ownership is intrinsically linked to loving the world around us. Seriously. If we are taking ownership in something we are saying that this is valuable to us...and like I talked about last time, intrinsic to holding ourselves in value, is holding the world in value. If we want to see the world radically and powerfully changed for the better...we need to take responsibility and ownership for the crap we've inherited and do something about.

This is our fight.

This is our life.

This is our love.

much love.