The troupe did a second weekend at SCRF and we broke a tip record which made me happy.  We did some variation on the fire routine (no pics yet) and burned a rabbit effigy. It went over better than we hoped.  It was very nice that danielgreenwolf came and drummed for us –especially as we are ah, not musical.

Daniel tightening the drumhead with Monica heating it because of humidity (more on this later)

It’s a continuous issue-we have three really good drummers available but because they ARE so good, they are generally already booked.  I’ve been trying to avoid the bullet for two years but I gave in and am learning to drum.  I don’t have the free time to join drum circles or hang out so Eric Peterson is showing me (for pay :)  how to drum.  I have a djembe (shown above) but it is an instrument that takes a lot of physical “oomph” to pull nice sound out of it. Eric had me try a synthetic tabla and it was a lot easier to “reach” and sit with.  My main problem is that once I picked up speed, my reach started creeping across the drum head because I’m used to working the bigger one.

Don’t get me wrong- I *STINK* and have no natural musical ability. People have tried to teach me but only Eric seems to have hit on a method that works.  We had the practice space to ourselves (we decided not to have rehearsal) so we could make plenty of noise :)

It was also nice to be out of the humidity. New England is beautiful but sometimes we get the worst of all weather conditions-this is a view of the reservoir at 2:00 pm, it was amazingly hazy. 

For the fire shows it adds an additional element of danger. When there is precipitation in the air it makes the props burn hotter and longer.  (Essentially we are steaming the air) The most impressive fire show happens under these conditions. But when it comes time for these to go out –it changes everything.  I had a set of fans burn so hot I ended up throwing them down and lost all the hair on the back of my hands. Valkyrie turned to me and asked

“So, do I still have eyelashes?”

The photographer snapped a picture of the flame *licking* up the front of her from the orb-it was quite breathtaking. But man, the safety people have to be on their toes!  But seeing some of the early pictures (we won’t see the refinished ones for two weeks) it looks like they are good enough for packets and demos.

I’ll try to remember that over the smell of burning hair…maybe that’s the real reason I want to learn to drum *laugh*