It didn't take long for me to realize that a large portion of today's artists lack one single talent; the ability to compose music and write lyrics. You see, Grammies are given to the performer of a certain track and the person who actually wrote it. To my recollection, not a single winner during the entire night, actually wrote the song for which they won the award. As a result, people who actually have no talent beyond being able to sing and play an instrument are being awarded for their total lack of song-writing skills and the fact thay they have sold a great deal of albums.

As a result, personally I feel that the entire Grammy awards are a shame. There are literally thousands of unrecognized artists who have worked without budgets, and have composed multiple albums and yet they never have a chance to be recognized at these award ceremonies. These include not only Industrial, Gothic, and Techno artists but many more conventional artists as well. It is a shame that these highly talented artists who perform every facet of their music, which sometimes even includes producing their own albums, don't receive proper recognition. Unfortunately I don't have an easy solution to fix this problem and until the right people push and prod these artists into the public eye, they will probably never achieve the fame they so truly deserve.

On a lighter note, I'd like to formally announce that the cable access music video show here in Portland is finally about to begin. We've actually been into the production studio and edited down two shows. The first show will contain excerpts of the Portland 16 Volt show on 2/27/97 as well as an interview that I did with Eric Powell. It will also contains about thirty minutes of other videos as well. The second show is more of a standard format with sixty minutes of just videos. It should be noted that while we don't actually have channels and air dates yet, they will be forthcoming. Our show idea has to receive acceptance from the local cable access board before we can air, but since we won't be showing any rampant sex in our videos, show approval is pretty much guaranteed. So stay tuned to this column, rec.music.industrial of the video show web page for Trinity By Night for details and show times.

Finally, this month we have articles on Numb & Whitehouse written by a Tom K. Bailey, a new guest writer. We also have the usual array of interviews featuring Luxt, Violet Arcana & Yeht Mae, as well as a ton of album, demo, and magazine reviews. So stay tuned and enjoy our gratuitous display of underground artists to the masses.

Jester