When thinking about what I’m going to name an issue, I sometimes engage in a little bit of creative visualization—close your eyes and think of [blank], that sort of thing. And the combination of women in wedding dresses, kids moshing in the basement of a temple, and Mumford & Sons getting all gussied up in their old-timey outfits made me think of the word “flock.” A flock of sheep, herded by the Mumford dudes, maybe using the banjo as a crook from time to time; a flock of true punk believers in an undulating, moshing mass (and probably cocking the occasional glance at the Mumford guys); and finally, a flock of brides, their gowns billowing like clouds as they run down a pastoral hillside—although the ones featured on Bridezillas, which gets a eulogy of sorts in this issue, would probably be kicking up a cacophony that recalls a flock of particularly enraged geese.

(Thanks to Robert Barry Francos of FFanzeen for the photo on the cover, which also illustrates Jaya Saxena’s story about the Punk Temple.)