Miami drums

Mark Richards, from the miamidrum yahoo group is organizing the Virginia Key drum cicle:
Friday December 26, 2008 – 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm – Virginia Key Beach Park Dance Floor 4020 Virginia Beach Drive, Virginia Key, Miami, FL. Bring your drum. Bring your dancing feet.
There will be a fire pit to warm things up. The park entrance fee is $3 per car; but if you show your drum, they may waive the fee. Check the weather and dress accordingly. Bring your own seating.

Directions:
NOT the park entrance that is used to get to Jimbo’s. AFTER the Seaquarium (right before the bridge to Key Biscayne) turn left at 2nd traffic light. There will be a small green sign in the median displaying Virginia Key Beach Park. NOAA building and SE Fisheries are on opposite sides of the entrance road to the park.

…and at Saturday 26th :
Liberate your inner child & celebrate the last New Moon of 2008! – at the sandy beaches of miami beach, around or close the 79th St. Let your creativity & dreams spiral into the universe, knowing that this is a time of growing energy, newness, rejuvenation, growth, renewal, and hope.
Refresh your spirit with the ancient sounds of the sacred drums and dance with joy for the upcoming New Year!

Then the following day – Sunday 28th Delou is having another drum and dance class at FIU

Buddy Helm has being playing drums for all his life. Traditionally trained in the drum set, he played with legends such as Tim Buckley and Peter Ivers, inventor of the new wave theatre, as well as many other Los Angeles bands. He is an educator and author of several books: The Way of the Drum and Drumming the Spirit to Life: Let the Goddess Dance. He attended Paralounge for two healing workshops. Here are some fragments of an interview that I was able to do.
I thank Buddy for the interview and the workshops he performed at Paralounge.
Click play to see the video.

Paralounge was a great drum gathering with lots of djembes and friendly drum enthusiast from all over Florida. This is the first interview I’m posting exclusively here at miamidrums.com – Clint had donated some of his time for this short clip. Thank you again for everything Clint!
More at Paralounge .
Click play to watch the first episode

In the upcoming weeks I’d be introducing a couple more clips from the event. Interviews with Russell ‘buddy’ helm and Jana Broder

I’m not going to be able to post new information for this weekend, since I’m leaving tomorrow for Paralounge. I hope to be able to get some footage and interviews to share it with all of you when I get back…

It’s somewhat a big strech, this year Paralounge is at Mayo, FL – About six and a half hours from Miami Beach… I’ve been looking forward to this trip for quite some time…
Have fun this weekend and I’ll see you all when I get back.

Diego A

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Today I’m including a new category inside Miamidrums.com.

Last weekend my wife gave me a birthday present by going to the Jonathan Dickinson state park up in Jupiter Florida. About two months ago, in the middle of a work related crisis, I comment her of how wonderful and nice would be to go to a park, and be sorrounded by nature and not much else. To walk on the country side and forget about our daily routines. That not only stroke a chord on my, but I think it also did for her. So on a beautiful Saturday morning, she was driving up north on I-95 without me knowing what was going on.
At first I realized that Buda – that’s how I call my Djembe – and my other drum were inside the car. So I thought we were spending the day at the broward drum circle, but once we passed the airport I started to suspect otherwise.

The Park:
We stayed on the camping close to the river. If you go I seriously recommend you to go to this area. It’s close to the cabin site, and concession store- The park also has cabins with A/C. Each camping parcel had running water and a electricity socket – as well as a grill.
I’m still amazed on how people behave in a national park, or around nature protected areas. Once you enter the park, we were greeted by a very sweet park ranger who gave us a lot of information on the hiking trails and activities. Because of park’s eco-system, it’s not allowed to burn, use / take any dead wood, but sadly people disregard this. Some guy try to burn down a green tree for its wood – The concession store sells wood at a moderated price.

Drums:
We drummed a little. Question to all readers out there. Is it true what they say about snakes being attracted to low frequencies?. My djembe has a very deep and low bass tone, and when we were playing, a black snake appeared from the bushes behind us. My wife freaked out and so did the snake, it was gone in 1second…
We then continue playing for about 20 more minutes, two kids came to see us play, some other grown ups too. They were all too shy to sit down with us and try the drums, but we kept offering them to do so, until a lady with three children ask us to stop – mind you, it was about 5 Pm. We have asked the park rangers about rules and regulations, and they told us that It was fine and allowed. Yes, I didn’t like her attitude, the kids wanted us to continue, but not the mom. So we were polite enough to stop 😉 and moved our drumming party to the picnic area. By then, it was getting darker and decided to call the night

I’m looking forward to go to Paralounge this year. Is anybody planning to go too ?