before i left for argentina, my family was worried about my safety and crime. while we were in san rafael, in an ice cream store/internet cafe (what a combo, eh?) marcos accidentally left his wallet there. he didn't realize it until the next day, when we were 3 hours away, back at fortunately there wasn't much money in it, but there were credit cards and such that were going to be a hassle to cancel/deal with.

we couldn't even remember the name of the store. we called all the ice cream stores, internet cafes and couldn't find the right one. then we heard from marcos' cousin. he had gotten an email from a worker at the ice cream/internet cafe saying that he had found marcos' wallet and wanted to return it to him. the guy had emailed everyone who's email address (on business cards, etc) was in marcos' wallet.

it was returned to us a few days later, everything there. we were very lucky. i found so many very kind people in argentina. of course, there is still crime and not-so-nice people. but how many places can you loose your wallet and have the person who found it go through so much to return it??

i'm watching trey anatasio on charlie rose. charlie asked trey if there was anything he regretted. trey said that in the past couple of years, phish shows just became an excuse to show up in a city and party. and he regrets that he may have had anything to do with that.

i first started listening to phish in 1993. i went to my first show in 1997. in 2003, the music was the same, but the crowd had changed. not that people didn't party before, but they were there because they loved the music. the way that music made them feel. people stopped going for that magic. i am not sure how or why that happened - maybe because phish was popular among university-aged people, and as time passed, the next generation was different. the crowd had changed...i used to say everyone should go to a phish show, just to experience the music, the people, the love, that magic. then it changed - the music and magic were still there, but they were playing to different crowds.

as much as i am sad to see this era end, i see how it had to.

funny how things change...and how little control anyone has to keep things the same.