Well, this is it. You are now, finally, reading the annual Cornerstone Music Festival issue where we collectively recount what happened at this year’s EDM stage in that lovely place known as Bushnell, Il. This year was extremely different though since I was in charge, well… me and the BTU Posse and well… just about everyone who had a connection to Tastyfresh. Kevin and I did the bulk of the planning, Fitzpatrick and I handled the graphics, Jeremy Kadinger handled the generator stage to a level other stages only dreamed of and the list of workers goes on. I need to give a special thanks to Andy Turner of Deeplife Records who literally saved our generator stage when we lost our subwoofer during our first official set on the first day. 

I won’t spend a lot of time talking about Cornerstone here because in this issue we have four retellings of the week from various perspectives and my retelling of how I put together my live show. The only thing I will say beyond what I already have on this issue is: It’s official; we’ll be running the show next year. John Herrin, the Festival Director has already confirmed this with me. The trust and support he has given Tastyfresh this year has been nothing short of amazing and I can’t wait to work with him again next year. Heh… oh yeah… we’ve already started the planning process. One last thing: Thanks to everyone who has provided links to photos from the shows. All of the festival photographs here were taken either by Joel Armstrong, the BTU Crew, dj404, Deeflash, DJ Glow, Cindy Tucker, and myself.

Moving on, change is in the air. In 2004, I brought articles back to Tastyfresh in the form of an online magazine. Today, we have more than 175 of them posted and this marks the 20th issue. Granted about ten to fifteen of the articles are from the original incarnation of the site, but it’s still not a number to sneeze at. Doug Theodore, or rather Jones as he was known back then, was the first editor. He had full creative control and did a fantastic job… for the first two issues. Then, for various reasons he stepped down and I took over the job as editor. I took the job on knowing that at some point I too would want to step down to focus on other things. As it turns out, now is that time. This is my last issue as editor for the zine.

I’m not going anywhere. Don’t for a second believe that I have abandoned it. Tastyfresh is at a unique point in time right now. We’re ready to really start growing and pushing boundaries right now. Back in April, I finally had a chance to outline some goals that I had for the site this year. I’m happy to say that we are on track for meeting just about every single one of them. In fact, one reason I want to step away from the zine is to help shore up the areas that we are not making it on and to help surpass the ones we are meeting. So, what are the goals? Take a look:

1. We get our visitors up from an average of 5,000 people a month to somewhere between 6,000-7,000 people on average.
   
2. To get the new podcast set on SOLID ground as one to be reckoned with in the mainstream.
3. To bring more relevant topics to the public via the magazine
4. To be recognized as a solid force in the area of music reviews.
5. To pull off a successful Cornerstone event
6. To help encourage the establishment local small groups (groove fellowships)
7. The reintroduction of dance music to the Christian sub-culture... not as a product or isolationist copy of the secular, but a movement focused on reaching the mainstream.
8. Exist as a resource that helps people grow closer to God and to encourage them in their walk.

So, how are we doing? Well, so far for the year we have had an average of almost 6,200 unique visitors to the site each month. The podcast has had 1,500 downloads on average per month which almost makes it as or more popular than BTU Live’s Guide to the Weekend show. Thanks to some top notch writing, our articles on Ableton are becoming required reading on several Ableton DJ sites. We no longer have to seek out secular music labels for music to review. They now come to us. Label’s such as Fat!, Queep Organic Music, Yo-Yo Records and many more have all come to us because of the quality job we do. We also blew the roof off Cornerstone this year. Those are the successes.

Here are some of our failings. We’re not establishing local groups as I would like to see happen. We’ve only started to strategize how to get our sub-sub-culture reintroduced into the Christian sub-culture. We are getting better at encouraging people and building people up here, but there’s still a lot of work to be done in that area.

That’s pretty much what I have observed. Overall, I think we are doing great, but there is still so much work to be done and that is why I want to shift my focus a bit. After more than a month of prayer, the opportunity to do this has come and we now have a new editor for the Tastyfresh magazine: Alex Wilson.

Alex comes to this position as not only a regular member, but also as some one who already has prior editing experience as he was responsible for the resurgence of “the Drop” column in the magazine back in 2005. Alex also has written several stand-alone articles for the magazine on various topics ranging from discipleship to features about his mission work. He recently completed a six-month round of discipleship training with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in the UK and he will be returning there soon to help establish a club ministry.

Alex will start work with the next issue and has committed to this job for at least the next year. I know that Alex will be able to coordinate articles that are targeted not only at helping DJs and producers improve their craft, but also to encourage and challenge all of us spiritually. Please welcome Alex back officially to the staff here at Tastyfresh and if you have any suggestions for the new direction of the magazine or if you want to write an article let him know.

In Christ and with Love,
David Richardson
Former Tastyfresh Magazine Editor