<html><body style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Three weeks ago today, we lost three dear friends to the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland. With spaces and voices the entire community grieves together for 36. We hold and release ours: three deep souls bubbling over with enthusiasm for their crafts.</span></p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Barrett Clark ran sound for several of our events in California, headlined x24 in Detroit in 2010, and was always ready to welcome us into his home for celebration and fellowship. His peculiar sense of humor was outshone only by his mastery in the kitchen. Or was it?</span></p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Jonathan Bernbaum was an incredibly skilled video editor turned VJ, who projection mapped onto hexagons for us, and was always ready for adventure whenever, wherever. He would frequently work two gigs in one night, consistently coming through, perpetually awesome. </span></p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Micah Danemayer, alien space baby turned upcoming electronic musician, listening to noise and hard beats and working them into his own unique alchemy, friendly and reaching for the connection he understood but you were only just now figuring out. </span></p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1">They were collaborators, they offered us their support and enthusiasm, they were allies, they were friends. We shared with them that special companionship of art. But perhaps most importantly, these three were givers. Each incredibly talented, they often chose to support, encourage, and contribute not only their own careers but to the success of others. This makes the sting of their loss especially biting, in a time where so much focus looks towards personal gain, we need those that reach for connection.</span></p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Our friends, and all others that perished, were connectors, infrastructure, vernacular of a community. They held us tightly in creation, </span><span class="s2">a practice that continues</span><span class="s1">. Then thoughts turn also to the broader world. Some tragedies get coverage, some go silently. Even in our sorrow we have a privilege. There is so much we could mourn, and there will be so much more. To hold them, let this be a window. We saw individuals working to open their hearts to the world, to expand rather than to take. This is perhaps the best signature of their memory, of what can be so senselessly lost, because it is what we will need: to be opened up and filled with love to face dark times ahead. </span></p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1">We honor them in inspiration always.</span></p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Split Horizon and Key</span></p></body></html>