Good News for the New Year Well, it has been yet another two months since the last issue. A lot has happened in the lives of some and not much has changed in the lives of others. I think the best place to start is with a bit of good news.  Precious Gifts
Tastyfresh founder Jamey Wright and his wife Lynda are now proud parents of their 4th child. Judah Lewis Wright (shown left) was born Dec 3, 2004 and weighed in at more than 9 lbs. Shortly after that, Tastyfresh alumni Joe Schoolfield a.k.a. Enkriest and his wife became proud parents for the 3rd time with Benjamin Daniel on December 5, 2004. Benjamin was almost a 12 pounder!!! Melissa and I will be joined by a son of our own this April (maybe earlier) and I know that several others within our Tastyfresh family are expecting as well. It is definitely an exciting time for all of us. Let’s continue to keep one another in prayer. Upcoming Changes for the New Year Beyond the celebration of the new lives and new challenges that God is blessing us with at this time; there are some other winds of change blowing here at Tastyfresh. Soon, I will begin an EXTREMELY slow migration of the site to a new server and message board system. It will not be an easy thing to do, but in the end it will be worth the trouble. You may have noticed that the message boards are running rather slowly. There are several reasons for that, but the biggest one is that the database needs to be moved from Access to SQL. That is not going to be an easy thing to do and because of this, I plan to simply stop using the current message board software. What will replace it will be some brand of php bboard. I have a few boards in mind and will be testing those out over the next few months. This will do several things: Clean up all unused/old accounts, speed up the boards response time, allow for more discussions to be stored, and allow access to more pre-built tools that are not as easily available for the current asp based systems. The bad news is that you’ll have to sign up for a new account on the new boards. In addition to this, the entire site will be revamped a bit. I am still working on the details, but I basically want to move the site in a direction that will focus on three things: The Zine, the boards, and an index of resources. If you would like an idea of where I am heading with this, it might be a cross between www.lunarmagazine.com and www.alistapart.com. It will take time, but it will be a good move in the end. The most immediate change that you will see however is the end to advertising on this site. The advertising on this site was supposed to help cover costs. Unfortunately, it has not. This has mostly been due to my lack of proper management of the advertising revenue … as in collecting it. The other factor is that rarely is there an interest expressed by companies/artists/DJs to advertise on this site. Because this also cuts into my personal time, I would rather simply not deal with it. The costs of this site in its current state are miniscule. New Products for the Store Everyone has been begging for new products to purchase. The wait for those products is almost over. Kevin Coffman, our store manager, has been working hard to develop some new products sporting the TF logo. I do not have an exact date yet, but very soon we will be selling several types of stickers and hoodies in addition to the current line of t-shirts. You asked for them, it took a LONG time, but we are finally getting them for you. Start saving your pennies now, because the new products will rock. The New Zine Issue I think I have learned a valuable lesson this time around. Usually, I work with a close knit group of people when I have deadlines and I know what their schedules are like the back of my hand. This zine is not the same in any way shape or form. Each issue I am working with a new group of people from all over the world and there is no way that I can know what their schedules are like when setting deadlines. This issue was also challenged by the stress of the holidays in addition to the regular scheduling issue. The bottom line is that many people had to work extra hard in December to create the material in this issue. I am going to do my best to start giving more lead time to the writers so they do not feel as rushed as I am sure they felt this time around. That said here is what you can find in this issue of the Tastyfresh Ezine: - The Current State of Things
I have been wanting for some time to write a general article about the state of our scene. This is it, but it may be far from being truly complete. In it I take a look at the current state of the labels, the artists, radio, events, and where we may be heading. - Advancing the Industry
DJ Rish of Radio brings us another article that focuses on what he feels is needed to help solidify and advance dance music in the Christian market. - Trade Secrets – Live PA’s In Focus
Brandon Sweet begins a series on various types Live PA setups and discusses their different advantages and disadvantages. - Dance Music Ministry in the Great White North
Brandon Sweet also talks to us about his experiences as the founder of a North American dance scene outreach organization including the struggles, the successes and the failures. - Sho Yo Love: Sheltershed
Ms. CocoLove caught up with Craig and Rob from Sheltershed to chat with them about why they love EDM. - Noah DeSmit: I See Grace
Late in 2004, Demulcent released their second single. We have the disc and now you can have our review. - Mike and Mia: Energy
System 3 Records has released their latest single. We have the review for you. - Recent Singles
DJ’s Joel Armstrong, Brian Babinec, Ethan Bliss, and DJ Himmel have searched their recent record purchases and have some recommendations for your next shopping trip. As an added bonus to this, Joel and Ethan have provided mix sets for their recommendations.
Well, that’s about it. We did not get enough responses to the last opinion question and the interest over all for that feature has not been high so we will not be doing another opinion and the DJ reviews will be replacing the Drop of the Month feature as well. For March, expect to read a technical article from analog synth guru Brian Scroggins, a review of the new album by Fienx, more on Live PA’s from Brandon and much more. Until then, may God bless you and keep you, Dave R
Webmaster/Writer/Editor |
