Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

I broke out of my comfort zone in two big ways this weekend; both involving drumming. When it comes to personal challenges, those involving my creative efforts are the most difficult to engage. A failure at something coming from creativity is a personal one, to me. However, I don’t feel that I lost in either… Continue reading Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

Raquy Danziger Workshop

Saturday I took a workshop with Raquy Danziger of Raquy and the Cavemen. She’s touring for her latest album release, “Naked.” I’ve been looking forward to this workshop since before it was actually being offered with her busy touring schedule. Perseverance paid off and the schedule was finally updated to include Atlanta as a stop… Continue reading Raquy Danziger Workshop

How to Kill a Kiln

This evening marked the time of the week in which I get together with some friends (sometimes strangers) and play hand drums. If we can put together an decent collection of people, we’ll call it a drum circle. It was getting cold out tonight, so we took the noise inside the Main Street Market where… Continue reading How to Kill a Kiln

Dragon*Con 2006: Day 3

Sunday was our big day at DragonCon. It is usually a pretty eventful day for the conference itself, and we were looking forward to the Masquerade later, followed by drumming. Speaking of drumming, it’s 4:00am and we’ve just arrived home from the Hyatt where we beat the night away. We had a real good time… Continue reading Dragon*Con 2006: Day 3

Dragon*Con 2006: Day 1

Today marks the first day of DragonCon for Amy and I – it’s 2:00am on Saturday, but it was at 7:00am Friday morning when we began. It took us all day Friday to take care of things at home and get to Atlanta where Amy’s photography would be on exhibition in the DragonCon Art Show.… Continue reading Dragon*Con 2006: Day 1

6 Days ’till Dragon*Con 2006

It’s getting down to the wire and it looks like we just scored a room at the Marriott Marquis for Dragon*Con weekend, thanks to Mike Eaves. He’s one of the other drummers on the Silk Roads track and in the Dragon*Con drumming circle. I’m sure I’ve mentioned the apparent misalignment with drumming and Sci-Fi/Fantasy, but… Continue reading 6 Days ’till Dragon*Con 2006

When is the Weekend only the Beginning?

Friday night I went out with family for Father’s Day – Amy’s sister was in town from Philly, so it was a special occasion. The two dad’s in the family were treated to dinner at Kiku’s, a fine Japanese hibachi place in Gainesville. I had been uncustomarily hungry throughout the week, so Friday night I… Continue reading When is the Weekend only the Beginning?

Drum Circle in Atlanta

I ventured well outside of Gainesville tonight to attend the Lake Claire Community Land Trust drumming circle in Atlanta. They hold these gatherings on the 1st and 3rd Saturday’s of every month and start at o-dark-thirty. It ends promptly at midnight to respect the community. And it’s the community that has put together and maintains… Continue reading Drum Circle in Atlanta

Sitting with Eric Peterson

Matt Z. and I sat with Eric Peterson Monday for some education on the doumbek. It was enlightening, as most any training would be for us these days. At one point, Matt insisted that Eric play a riff on our drums to ensure that his, seriously more professional, drum was not magical in some way.… Continue reading Sitting with Eric Peterson

Drum-Filled Weekends

As I’ve said before, October is a busy month for the Gradin household. This year, drumming events take a great deal of our time in the fall. On Friday, Alchemy Drumming and Dance put together a drum circle for the Georgia Theater Conference at Brenau and on the square. We were asked to come in… Continue reading Drum-Filled Weekends