As I'm not a big fan of contemporary music I haven't been a viewer of the Grammy Awards for several years. Basically my tastes run to classical, 'new age' (or whatever you'd like to call it) and older stuff. Face it, my musical tastes were formed in the late 1950s to early 1970s and really haven't changed much since then.

Anyway, Timothy Noah over at SLATE has a good article "The Shame of the Grammys" which points out that despite national attention, at no time did anyone at the awards show mention the fire at the RI club. Surely the death of close to 100 music fans should have been important enough to call for a 'moment of silence'. The ceremony, from what I've read, did a tribute to a number of music industry folks who had passed away. Apparently fans just aren't as important.