Bad news

This won't serve very well as a welcome-back-from-the-holidays message, so apologies if you were looking for something fluffier. Obviously the extreme weather situation in Southeast Asia is disastrous on every level possible. Diverse communities will be left burdened with sad stories, and unfortunately it appears the punk community* may not be exempt. Mieszko Talarczyk of the amazing Swedish grindcore band Nasum has been listed as missing after the bungalow on Thailand's Phi Phi Island in which he and his girlfriend were vacationing was hit by a wall of water. His girlfriend is alive but badly injured. In addition to pulling guitar and vocal duties for Nasum, who sit comfortably near the top of their genre, Mieszko ran a record label and produced numerous records falling in the heavy end of the spectrum. Let's hope for the best...

Here's a United Nations site featuring updates on the relief situation. If you're looking to contribute resources to relief efforts, it shouldn't take much poking around to find appropriate outlets.

*I should point out that parts of Southeast Asia have active punk scenes, so of course the flooding is of immediate concern to native punks. I don't mean to suggest that we should all start caring about the death and destruction just because one of "ours" may be a victim.