« Sock Hopping And Tub Thumping »

In all the hubbub of setting up and developing sites for Jubilee Economics Ministries or Women Who Speak In Church, and discussing sites with other non profits or small businesses or even talk about doing UCC work, I feel like ol' TAPKAE.com is left out in the cold a bit. It hasn't been far from sight, but with all the digital time spent doing other work, it is hard to come here and to let myself be creative. There is plenty of uploading to do since my hosing plan can store anything I throw at it. Uploading, captioning, blogging, and all that stuff takes some time. I just uploaded a few hundred pictures of our Death Valley trip from last November. I don't think I will caption each, and I will probably ditch a bunch of redundant ones for the sake of even a feeble attempt at brevity.

Yesterday, I played drums with the Broken Strings at a sock hop dance put on by one of the local UCC churches. I get a kick from playing, even as unrehearsed as this was. It was fun for folks, and that's what counts. Just staying connected to music making is okay for me now. It isn't like this stuff pays the rent but on a good day, it might be just about enough to buy the new set of whip sticks I used for the gig, after the old set fell apart. Whip sticks are the only kind that I can use for this band, and even they elicit "too loud!" comments.

The nice thing about drumming is that it is not plugged in. Nothing to turn on or manage. The drumming world involves wood, steel, mylar, and bell bronze. It is the ultimate in tactile interaction. In other words, I get HIT stuff! For a while it is nice to just come off the grid to enjoy the simple pleasure of moving wood to ultimately move air. It just about doesn't matter to me that I don't know the music all so well. It comes reasonably easily once I get a taste of it. It is only oldies rock and roll, after all. It isn't stuff that I spent my time playing, but it is the stuff I learned first, even though I only knew beats according to certain dance names. It was stuff I was shown in 1984 that I didn't know I'd be playing in 2011!

One thing that is amusing to note was the cultural shift from when this music first made its appearance in the world. These days a sock hop dance event held at a church is a event made for family fun. Thinking back to my grandmother's amusing response to the whole Elvis/gyrating hip scandal—one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for her—it is a quaint idea tht rock and roll was once the disruptive noise that parents couldn't stand. Some might even think of it as the devil's music! LOL! My grandmother had a scowling, coughing disgust at the idea of Elvis. For her it marked the end of the civilized life. And now, congregational churches such as the one she once held membership in are hosting the very stuff. And all the people who were once the "rebellious" teenagers in 1958 were there, doing what they always did—dancing to Elvis with one Ed Lucas at the drums.

You can read about the Broken Strings from founder Rev. Curtis Clare. A photo gallery of my musical history is for viewing here.