Last night was an unexpectedly fun ending to a crappy day. After work I grabbed a bite at home (fresh-baked pita and all the fixin’s, yum!). Stacey had a friend over, who seems quite nice, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to her for long. I threw my new Ugandan djembe (courtesy my globetrotting dad) in the car and drove to Heathcote for world music drumming. It was a fairly small group last night. We did some interesting things, besides for drumming. Charles taught us a traditional children’s song from Zaire. It has a simple yet pretty three-part harmony, but the most interesting part was the clapping pattern that went with it, which involved standing in a circle and clapping your neighbor’s hands before clapping your own. It was fun, and there was a lot of giggling over mistakes; but it was also very beautiful standing in a close group, singing and moving as one.
When I got home Stacey informed me that grindcorean had called, on his way to a Joy Electric show at York College. “!!!” I said, and darted back out to see if I could make it to the show. As luck would have it, they were just about to get started when I arrived. I hadn’t seen Joy E in years, and they’ve just gotten better. Ronnie Martin has miserable stage presence, but he’s a whiz with a monosynth. It was great to see grindcorean and finally meet the girlfriend I’ve heard so much about. I was impressed with her – my first impression is that she seems like good people, and I look forward to getting to talk to her more. It was also nice to see darkpool at the show. I picked up Joy E’s new album, and said hi to Ronnie, who is nicer off-stage than on.
It was a good night.
How do you pronounce “!!!”?