Hey there, hi there, ho there. My name is Geoff Reading. Five years ago, for nine months or so while my wife was pregnant, I forgot to pay attention to what I was doing and woke up one morning having relocated my family from sunny Los Angeles to your lovely city of Tacoma. This was a total accident.

Fast forward to the present: I have fallen in love with Tacoma and all that it is, and isn't. I love the people who live here, and almost more so, I love those who don't. I want to write of things I love about Tacoma. The way it compares to other cities around the country and around the world. This is such an amazing time to be in the 253 that I want to go around town and talk to people who grew up here, started businesses and families here — people who have, and always will, call this home.

I love the shirts I see with the AK-47 that says "Protect Tacoma."  It’s exactly how I feel.

I like hearing people say, "Fuck Seattle."

I love how territorial people are about their city. You don't get that in a city full of transplants. Tacoma has the personality that Seattle lost right around the time Andy Wood eternally benched himself. Most people in Tacoma are from Tacoma. Not a lot of people relocate (present company excluded) to the 253. That creates a homegrown attitude, feeds the city's character and makes for a general lack of self-consciousness that tends to foster creative growth. I'd like to take time, now and again, to shine some light, tell some stories, and blow a little smoke up some of the people's asses that I think make Tacoma one of the great undiscovered cities on the planet.

Drummer Geoff Reading – who will be writing a bi-weekly Spew column for the Weekly Volcano called “Holding Down the 253” which will post every other Friday — has played music in tons of Northwest bands. Green Apple Quickstep, New American Shame, Top Heavy Crush and most recently Duff McKagan's LOADED — to name but a few. He's toured the world several times over, sharing stages with the likes of Slipknot, The Cult, Buckcherry, Korn, Journey, The Sex Pistols, Nine Inch Nails and on and on. He has called Tacoma home since 2005, and he holds down the 253 in the North End with his wife and son.