Big loves to those who gave their time to help me with my pursuit of becoming a drum tech for the 88 Boadrum event.
Ringo, I value you not only for your wealth of knowledge (which is immense) but for your compassion and humanness, evident in every sentence that you write and in the way in which you choose to live your life. You are quite simply, one of the best of the best. Your friendship makes me smile.
Eliya- We had never really had any interaction prior to your response in the drum tech thread. I was delighted to read your responses and pm's. The instructions your sent were precise and perfectly suited to my knowledge level. I appreciate you taking the time to write all of that out for me. You are a sweetheart and I look forward to getting to know you a bit better.
Sleepkid- Although I did not learn how to "go into a forest with nothing but a stone axe and chop down various trees so that you can whittle them into drumsticks," I did remember your suggestion of saying "Sumimasen," but the fear of butchering the word and looking like a complete ass, prevented me from uttering it aloud.
While standing with Seiichi Yamamoto, I was very relieved when another volunteer suddenly began speaking to him in Japanese. To my ears, his Japaneses was remarkable, but after we walked away, I said "Wow. I have to remember to keep you around. That was impressive!" His response, "I don't think he really understood what I was saying to him, hence his responses in English."
Incidentally, he asked Seiichi how long the composition was that they were going to play that night. Seiichi said it was well over 100 minutes, not 88 minutes. I did not time it though, so I don't know how accurate he was.
Hisham Bharoocha did an excellent job of translating for the band and leading the drummers for EyE.
Skatingbasser, TRIFECTA and vockins, thank you for your advice.
Megathor, you are the man. Thank you so much for taking the day off from work to volunteer with me. After spending hours on the freeway in LA morning traffic hell, it was awesome to arrive to your smiling face. You hung in there with me the entire day, even through my weak periods and made all the down time (of which there was a lot due to the "organizationally challenged" people who were supposedly running the event.) a lot of fun. You are a trooper and a good friend, sir.
Vockins, you were right in saying "
I get the impression that the tuning duties at BoaDrum will be limited. Limited indeed.
As drum techs, we were responsible for:
-moving the 88 drum sets from the tent, to the grass.
-passing out water to the drummers.
-keep 5000 people from rushing the drummers during the performance.
In regards to the last duty, I asked if we should resort to violence if need be, the answer was "yes." Thankfully, the crowd behaved themselves and we did not have to bash anyone's heads in with pipes.
Megathor and I "protected" Mr. Zack Hill during the show. He was located in the 88th drummers position. At least the STAFF shirts allowed us that pleasure! My fucking god is Zack awesome! He completely blew my mind as he showered me in his sweat. I was even more impressed after I came home and learned that he is self-taught and has only been drumming since 1995. The guy is the hardest hitting, (I could feel the wind from each hit he made) most precise drummer I have ever witnessed. His his non- Nike wearing feet moved so incredibly fast on that bass drum pedal (single) it made my head spin. Simply put, the guy is phenomenal.
Otis- I looked for your long wild haired friend around Zack's kit, but did not see anyone who matched his description. I was bummed. I hope he made it in for the show.
One of the highlights of the day was watching Yoshimi's kids walking around amongst the drummers donning their protective "ear goggles." (coined by Fly) So cute!
We did not stick around for the after party, way too tired. I just emerged from bed a couple of hours ago, if that is any indication of my exhaustion.
Despite Nike, a fun time was had.
Slowriot, I thought you had said you were going when we spoke about it at the Harvey Milk show? If my memory is faulty, I profusely apologize. Would have been great to have to there with us. So sorry!
Burun- thank you for your encouragement. You are THE woman of all women. You seriously kick ass, lady! xx
'Sup- so bummed you couldn't make it. The day would have been shitloads more fun if you were there. You were there in spirit. Your name came up more than a few times. Maybe next year.
Edit: Funny Hella
video here.Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around. An extremely yang solution to a peculiar problem which they faced. T. Mckenna
