And since we have your complete attention,

Grip would also like to use this space to thank the many talented contributors that have graciously submitted time, work and effort

over the years to

A couple of newcomers to the Staff: The moonlighting Jeremy Berlin, who has a REAL journalism job, the Jazz-loving Andrew Simon, who was once (so goes the myth) an intern at Rolling Stone (maybe you’ve heard of that rag), and the myserious Vitamin Eli Lake. The latter was responsible for compiling (with the editors) one of our most downloaded articles, "The Grip 69," all about the joys of, ah... just go and read it. We at Grip are currently compiling espionage documents in order to successfully exploit their talents in music interviewing and analyzing for future issues. Hope Jeremy, Andrew and Eli don’t mind. . .

Occasionally, when we were lucky enough, we’d get reviews from one of this region’s busiest (and best) music journalists-- the unmistakable Norfolk-based stylist, Rickey Wright. Many a night has been spent with this City Paper / Alternative Press / CD Review regular at Bogarts and Marvin’s in Richmond discussing the intricate and fragile nature of "rock music" in all its celebrated transmutations. A fine human being, an amazing theorist, a slow eater: He’s got the Wright stuff! (Can you tell that we’re big fans?) And now that he’s a new Music Editor at Amazon.com, he’s frying some html fish right now.

For a long, long time this magazine would get REAL lucky and receive exclusive features from the prolific and talented Sue Van Hecke, a.k.a. Sue Smallwood, a freelance music writer with a dizzying range of interests. St. Martins Press recently published her biography of Norfolk’s Gene Vincent (available in stores everywhere), and she published an amazing rockabilly magazine herself, "Original Cool," for years. In the DAY, Sue was responsible for some of Catharsis’ best-ever interview-features: national artists from Nine Inch Nails to the Butthole Surfers to Consolidated to Crowded House talked to her for our humble little rag.

Kudos go out to the critically-acclaimed D.C. artist / designer Scott Seymour, who came up with the fantastic "medieval turntable" illo for Grip #1 and many of Catharsis’ finest covers, and the Grip Turkey Dinner (voted "Best Grip Cover" by the disciminating Koko). . . when he’s not putting up with D.C. politics, this Georgia native is helping Brian Greene layout the mighty Dodobobo.

When we enlisted them as Grip’s Vinyl Editors, Steve Richmond and Scott Meiggs were wet behind the ears. Then they started getting hot under the collar. Now they are gettin’ busy-- C-Ville renaissance man Steve recently relocated to Georgia, but when in Charlottesville he could be found making demos for local bands like Crowd Control, Union of a Man & a Woman and the Grip-affiliated family of combos (can we plug Draw the Kitten again?) on his 4-track Tascam. Meanwhile, Scott continues to defend the discography of Steve Perry and the subliminal influence of Lee Majors’ "Fall Guy" theme on the world of alternative rock at every party that he attends. His own 9-CD compilation of "Home Demos" is due for release whenever Scotty-BOY can get around to stop recording and compile ‘em.

Everyone loves Paul Wilkinson, Mark Leta & Josh Krahn! Not only do these talented Va. musicians come up with stellar interviews and reviews, they have prominent music-y lives that transcend journalism and all its pretensions. Paul, aka Parker Paul, recently released his debut CD for Jagjaguwar, Lemon Lime Room, and holds the current Central Va. record for most appearances by a sideman in a working band award, due to his apps with such units as Glass Babies and (yes) Draw the Kitten (see a theme here?), Mark, for instance, has been known to selflessly loan his mandolin to Bruce Hornsby whenever Bruce hops a freight train westward to slum. Known alternately as "Skippy" and "Sparky" depending on the position of the moon, recent Arlington resident Mark is an excellent musician (formerly backing up Ben Arthur in Shake and currently the sex symbol in Draw the Kitten)-- definitely the Leta of the Pack. Meanwhile, Josh-- the bassist for Charlottesville-based Curious Digit in his spare time and leader of the mighty One Hundred Dollars-- has been known to eat his own beard on command for visiting MTV-style video directors as well as regular folk. People have come far and wide to see this spectacle. . . and "The Krahn-ic" never disappoints! He and his new bride Katie now reside in Ohio, like Mr. Wilkinson. Methinks I can hear a band starting. All of these guys alternate placing one-two-three in the Ultimate Nice Guy Awards.

And. . . while we are on the subject of fine reviewing and beard-eating, we can’t leave out longtime Catharsis / Grip troublemaker Tim Lee, who lives in Newport News and manages to contribute a grab-bagful of musical ruminations in between his pressing duties as a Food Lion Inc. mogul and a C.I.A. double agent stationed at Langley (oops! Sorry, Tim.)! Tim has a fondness for the ladies. That’s all we’re saying here.

Speaking of the Catharsis days, we shouldn’t leave out one of the pioneering voices of this publication: George Paaswell. Under the name "Clark Street" (he was working for one of the Peninsula’s two corporate daily newspapers at that time. Hence the pseudonym), the Big G. delivered some mighty fine interviews and reviews, and some even-better essays on the-then "current state" of rock ‘n’ roll that galvanized many, angered some. George now lives in New York City with his beautiful wife Elizabeth, and records cool lo-fi demos with Luna bassist Justin when he’s not working in the independent film field and hanging out at a Big Apple country bar (!) called Joe’s. We miss George’s writing and, hey, we gotta call & see how he’s doing...

And, looking back AGAIN on those old newsprint days, have we ever really thanked Steve Guion. . . Phil Pegg . . . Kirk Seville. . .& Greg Schneider enough for their stellar contributions during the primordial ooze of our first conceptions? Guion, a great guitar player and even better songwriter (the MAN behind Oui Doggey), contributed interviews and features with folks like Matthew Sweet and House of Freaks’ Bryan Harvey. . . Pegg was our most on-top-of-it CD reviewer (he saw the Krautrock revival coming years ago). . . Seville was the magazine’s first (and only-- he proved to be irreplaceable) sports editor. He contributed a funny and perceptive pro basketball column under the name I.J. Reilly. . . and the Baltimore Sun’s own Schneider, under the alias Derek Chandler, turned in a mess of stirring fiction (like the serialized "Inside With a Reefer" fiction, soon to be a straight-to-video indie) and hilarious political commentary (such as his "Summer of Guv" series) during the mag’s first few years. All of these extremely talented guys have real jobs now in the journalism / communications fields. . . but if they ever chose to get back into the fold, they can consider their spaces held and reserved.

When he’s not running against Katie Couric’s sister for the Virginia State Senate, representing the Libertarian ticket (honest! Could we make something like that up?), or managing the Charlottesville-based band Juicebox, cigar-puffin’ Eric Strzepeck could be found penning the occasional piece for Grip Monthly-- like the well-received article on ex-pro wrestler Steve Musulin that you can access on this very web site. Eric’s was known to send an occasional pizza up at Grip Plaza at deadline time. . . and for that, he’s well on his way to getting all our votes in his next political run. {Just don’t run against Emily again!}

Besides serving as the inspiration behind the new Barbie spinoff, Malibu Marjan, the cool-breeze known as Marjan Shirzad was also up to the task of interviewing "rock" figures like Will "Palace" Oldham for Grip and this web site. Alas, the mermaid is off to bigger and better things-- moving to New York, New York. We predict calamity and a social revolution.

2 Subjects For Further Study: What of the man they call "Egghead"? Aaron Landsman is a shadowy figure-- a late night radio guy with a dangerous past and a penchant for computer fixin’! Thanks for the Foetus interview, Eggs. . . and can anyone who knows Richmond’s Michael Dickinson personally help us out? We need to pass along word that we want more articles from him. Mr. Michael’s interview with D’Angelo was an unexpected treat and we’d like to thank him for thinking of us. Only problem is: We’ve lost his address.

Chuck Adcock took most of the pics included on this web site. He has provided the stark B&W covers for Grip issues 3, 4 and 7. Adcock engineered the debut disc of the Aaron Binder Quintet, which he recorded and produced after featuring Binder and several other area jazz players in Grip #3. . . Matt Dair was this magazine’s first Chief Photographer and is said to be in the Blacksburg area these days. A fine guitarist, and a picture-taker of some note, Dair got married a few years ago following a heralded stint as "Virginia’s Most Eligible Bachelor". . . To tell you the truth, we miss the stately images of Andrea Dallas and Lezlie Culberson. These two femme photogs from Hampton Roads-way came up with a more than a few of our most distinctive covers and we thank them for their inspiring work. . . Ms. Genny McDowell, too. That eye-popping condom cover she did once is still a much-discussed conversation piece up at the HQ. Thanks, Gen, where-ever you are. . .

. . . and we can’t say enough about the

cartoonists, artists & illustrators

A Thom Crawley is a superfine artist, a commercial animator and one of Virginia’s premier trip-hop explorers. He contributes enigmatic mini-epics for Grip when he’s not working on full-length comics, like his excellent Divinity Book. . . Sean Polyn, who lets us reprint his wonderful "Shallow Grave" comic and occasionally collaborates with Tyler on REALLY uncomfortable ‘toons set in dark bars. . . how about Post Office Buddy, prolific Natalie Fairfax? Natalie is always sending in stuff from beyond the ether. The artist’s love of the Carter Family and Howard Tate has been noted often and with much respect. As we’ve learned, too, N.F. is something of a poet too. . also thanks are extended to Rick Dunn (who drew the Pete Townshend cartoon featured on this site) and Jerry Pope, two Tidewater-based cartoonists with infectious ha-ha stylings. . . and yes, the enigmatic Daily Nightly just so happens to be a moonlighting celebrity cartoonist who doesn’t want her real name disclosed. (Hint: It’s not Patricia Cornwell) She likes to do ‘toons based on "the scene," whatever that is. . . ThroTTle founder Dale Brumfield has long been our publishing idol / hero and used to send along wonderful brain-teasing ‘toons before moving out to Doswell to write his tell-all book on the torrid love affair that occurred between Stanley Kubrick and Scatman Crothers on the set of The Shining. Don’t ask. Dale and his wife Susan have raised 12 kids based on the motto that Skinless weenies are best!!. . . D.C.-based artist Matt Langley gave us many cool things back in the old days, including a scary indictment of the suburbs that ran as a cover. He and his brother Marty are still in mourning over the loss of Go! Records. . . ah, and some of our best covers ever (like the Touch of Evil series) were designed and drawn by the fiery Hal Weaver, a Norfolk-based artist who has had many exhibits and showings of his detail-filled work over the years. Hal also self-published a comic called "The Reluctant Sadist" for years and has a thing for that annual Sturges biker rally deal. . . yep, occasionally, we’ll hear from art-teacher-extraordinaire Kirk O’Brien. He was responsible for one of the magazine’s longest-running serials: a cartoon about a middle-aged record promotion guy called "Fred’s Revue." The French critics loved it and Claude Chabrol even OPTIONED it. When he’s not traveling from city to city with his brushes and inks, Kirk can be found in Richmond watering holes talking trash about his lackluster basketball prowess. . . last, but not least, we can’t leave out Michael Hurley. Besides being a world-famous recording artist, and the Richmond-area’s coolest cult-age folkie, Hurley (you can call him Doc Snock) contributed some classic covers for Catharsis back in those days when he was still speaking to us.

* * * * * *

Dale McGlothlin, David Middleton, Michael Joyner, Seth Gordon, Lesley Rosenberg, jam, Darius Van Arman, Lori Blackmon, Stephen Graziano, Joe Apfelbaum, Brian McNamee, Dan DeGregory, Bill Kenney, Mike Bowen, Nick Johnson,

Gene Johnson, Vic Demise and Chris Jones.

Oh yeah. Guess we’ve got to include stellar regulars like Patty Melt, Chuck Gimlet, Jefferson County, Tab Hutchins, Count Bruga, Art Rocque, Milton French, D. Daintyfoot, "Baskets" Weatherbee, Hambone Hunter, Esau Smith and Richard Hedd in the "Thanks" column. Very little is known about these mystery collaborators-- we’ve even dusted their manuscripts for fingerprints. Nada. What little we’ve learned really hasn’t been pretty.

in addition to writing at one time for every newspaper chain in Virginia (please don’t hold this against him), as well as the web and other places that shall go nameless, founder / publisher / writer / editor Don Harrison also claims to be a singer / songwriter with several ongoing projects in the works (another plug for Draw the Kitten); rumor has it he’s an amateur videographer, film buff and a fanatical follower of the National Basketball Association too. Don-- a.k.a. Hop-- has also worked for nearly every Va. record chain in existence at one time or another (and amazingly-- knowing his temperament-- was only fired from one of them). He has served many a plate of night spaghetti and midnight macaroni to weary staff members of Virginia’s rock ‘n’ roll tabloid and is married to the lovely and talented Tina Eshleman, the city editor of a certain Virginia daily who is no slouch in this newspaperin’ game her own darn self. . . and special thanks to Ellen Raynor, who was constantly made to go to the computer, by webmaster Randy Melton and give her valued and valid opinion on the VMF design.

. . . and thanks to you too.

the end