First one, then a few...then many pound the pavement, pound the brown earth. The flash of light warns me. The crack of thunder fills me. The scent of rosemary holds me.
There is nothing, and I mean Nothing like a summer thunderstorm!
As the clouds shift and move, begin to clear, the hummingbirds come out to play! And there are many visiting today! They zoom and feed and fly right by me, buzzing loudly. They seemed to love the fresh rain air as much as I do!
Here is a taste of the Rock the Rhythm, Beat the Odds event.
It was so wonderful to see all of the buses pull up and the kids in their colored t-shirts streaming in. Two years in the making, I felt proud to see the community come together to promote/support the arts in education, especially during these financially difficult times.
and local school districts came together to put on this great event.
We are so lucky to have these organizations and companies right here in our valley. This event was filled with the generosity of Remo Belli (aren't the 'sound shapes' he donated way cool?) and many stars in the music industry donating their time and talent.
Here are some of them:
Mickey Hart - The Grateful Dead, The Mickey Hart Band John Densmore - The Doors Rikki Rockett - Poison, Rockett Drum Works Poncho Sanchez - "the king of conguero" Gorden Campbell - Jessica Simpson, George Duke Eric "E-Panda" Hernandez - Bruno Mars, Taio Cruz Mike Phillips - Janelle Monáe
HOW COOL IS THAT????
To see a bit more, there are some nice photos at the
I personally love drum circles. I've
been to a couple others in years past. They were a much, much, much smaller
gathering being used as a fundraiser for a school I used to work for.
Yep,
even me who shies away from crowds on a regular basis...even me who
generally cannot make music on her own, even me who doesn't always hold
the beat real well!
If you have never attended a drum circle, I highly recommend it.
There
is something magical about a group of people coming together for the
first time and being able to create music together! If you can follow
directions...you can participate in a drum circle!
I particularly like the part where we all end at once!
BOOM!!! Silence.
These 2 young women were signing the whole event for the deaf & hard of hearing participants. I could kind of tell how they were demonstrating the drum patterns. In this picture they are signing "applause". That sign I know!
Imagine how it must have FELT to be in the stands surrounded by so much vibration!
There are so many positive benefits that come from drumming together.
Remo does a lot of work with the connection of health and drumming.
If you check out their Health Rhythms page and associated links,
I'm sure you will find it interesting and inspiring too!
While we may not know for a few weeks if the record was broken according to Guinness's standards, the enjoyment and celebration by all who participated was a definite success!
post...I've been thinking about something. How would it be - what would it feel like to
'sew without seeing'??!! Cindy's amazing bracelet with the seemingly random stitches gathering more in some places than in others had sparked the idea.
So tonight, as research for this post (haha) I finally tried it.
Sitting on the couch, I closed my eyes and added some stitches to my Chicken Cloth.
I knew I was at a corner, so I tried to stitch a circle. Feeling and visualizing as I went.
As you can see below, my bright blue thread ended up in a square-like shape. Well, pretty close. Then I decided this was not the most scientifically planned experiment since I knew what my cloth looked like and planned to sew in the available corner, thus sighting there Before closing my eyes. No fair Nancy, that's cheating!!! So, I quickly closed my eyes again and tried a few more stitches (you can see them to the right of the 'square').
Bright blue stitches added while my eyes were closed
This was an interesting experiment that told me how insensitive my fingertips really are!
That is why this video I found tonight is all the more impressive.
If you would like to read more about Diane Rose her website is here. And be sure to check out her 'about' page, as it gives a lot of details about how she works.
As the clouds shift and move, begin to clear, the hummingbirds come out to play! And there are many visiting today!
They zoom and feed and fly right by me, buzzing loudly.
