Tuesday, September 7, 2010

A Clear Channel - Day 186

Two. Two. Two blogs in one. I was too tired to blog after getting in from Palm Springs last night. My intention was to check in this morning but I got all caught up in preparing for my computer guy to come a fix my computer. My desktop was running extremely slow, colors were fading and I was so fed up I just stopped using it. Fortunately, I have this Mac so I could keep up as much as possible. But here I am tonight typing on that Mac because my desktop is stuck on a defragmenting page. I'll have to call the computer guy again in the morning to find out what's up.
So let's catch up. Yesterday's trip to Palm Springs was fun as far as hanging out with the girls on the ride down there and being a part of my friend Kimberly winning her very first Bid Whist trophy. I was her partner. She's so new at the game she didn't even want to play cause she thought she would "bring me down." Believe me after the way that tournament was run, it really didn't matter it was all for fun. We ended up tying for second place so we had to share the two trophies with another team. I let Kimberly take ours to her home. She had the biggest smile on her face!!! The event was a bit lame, food not so great but it was good seeing faces I hadn't seen in a while. I'm really not a "group" or "cliche" kinda chick, but every now and then I like to check in. Like I said, the most fun was in the car talking smack and the card game. I wanted to get out of town for minute since it was Labor Day weekend so I continued with that game plan in mind for today. After my computer guy left, I drove to Thousand Oaks to check out some drums. I knew on the way up there that I would probably buy a djembe today and sure enough I did. It took so long to get there and I was anxious to christen my new drum so I decided to follow my teachers to their Monday night class. I thought it was right there in T.O. but we ended up in Ventura. So now I'm a hour outside of L.A.
I hope I don't sound ignorant with these next statements but I was surprised to find myself the only little brown face in class besides the master drummers. OK, I know we were in Ventura County, but I find that has been the norm. I have been in about 4 different drumming classes within the past 6 weeks although I expected to be in the minority as a woman I didn't expect to be in the minority as a Black person. Let me tell you those Ventura County people take their djembes very seriously. Everyone had their own drum so I fit right in with my brand new drum and case. You could tell they were a tight group, everyone knew each other and the master drummers were hustling around before class to get food, utensils, etc. for a birthday celebration for one of the students. It looked like they might be there for a while after class but I wanted to get on the road so I slipped out.
When we have class at Motherland in Culver City, we put our money on our teachers drum at the end of the session. Today, I was summoned into an office and asked to pay before class began. Malik (my teacher) worked that class like I've never seen. He would call out a songs/rhythms I can't even pronounce let alone spell and the students would simultaneously play...slap slap slap tone tone tone bass tone tone slap slap. These people were serious!! I could barely keep up. There'd better be a website with a glossary of terms and some mp3's to practice from. My Wednesday class feels like kindergarten now. Malik and I need to have a little chat.
Shout out to my Beloved for reminding me that I work hard and deserve to treat myself to something I do just for fun. Thank you honey...I Love You. My djembe is beautiful. Tone tone slap slap tone tone slap slap...

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