By: Sarah L. Myers
Editor-in-Chief

As I write this Letter From The Editor, my first in our 24-issue history, the sun is setting on Tuesday, August 26, 2008. Our writers from Tokyo to London to Buenos Aires to New York and Chicago may have said goodbye to this sun already, or are seeing it for the first time in their mornings. It's been a day of milestones - professionally, emotionally, and musically. Today marks the American release of "Forth", the first new album from The Verve since 1997's "Urban Hymns", and the fourth anniversary of the passing of Ryan Licht Sang, whose philosophy to "stay thirsty" is the core of our Manifesto.

"Urban Hymns", if you glance at our Credits, is listed as my favorite of all time. None other has served as the backdrop to every major event in my life. I've grown up to it, fallen in love to it, cried through it, and then forgave it for riding behind all of those moments. With "Forth" comes a new soundtrack, and how fitting that it arrives as we celebrate two years of Thirsty.

From our first meetings at a certain dining room table, we vowed to change the world. We vowed to do it our way, to do it Ryan Licht Sang's way, to do it in a way independent of conventional thought and complacent heart. We knew there were others out there like us. There were people who saw more on city streets than meets the eye. They took art and music so deep inside that it became part of the air in their lungs. They were constantly searching for that next thing to tell the world about - that film they saw, that piece of graffiti etched on the lamp post, that book they borrowed, that album they scratched on the turntable. They were Thirsty.

Thirsty has changed the world. More than 130 countries and counting, we are just getting started. We have interviewed my heroes, your heroes, and the heroes in between - whoever they may be, and whomever they belong to. We've sat outside in San Francisco with Blixa Bargeld and we've shared conversation with Henry Rollins. We've also absorbed the unique imagination of outsider artist Joe Coleman, who has been with Thirsty since the very beginning. So has Colonel JD Wilkes, front man of Th' Legendary Shack Shakers. These close friends inspire me every single day. Their friendship is invaluable; their talent immeasurable. We continue to support the Joey Ramone Foundation for Lymphoma Research by co-sponsoring the icon's annual birthday bash which is organized by his brother Mickey Leigh and held every May in New York City. We found a rock n' roll soulmate in Jimmy Webb, who dresses rock stars at New York City's infamous Trash and Vaudeville, and we've knocked back Jack Daniels with Lemmy Kilmister and lived to write about it.

Thirsty is a lifestyle. We know you live it, too. Two years later, we still need more. That's the thing about people like us. We're insatiable. And we've got even more in store for the world. I ask myself every day, and I want you to ask yourself: How Thirsty Are You?