more stuff ...

Well, it’s about time for another instalment – this time from the first class compartment of an aircraft, somewhere above the big flat bit of America. From my window, the land as far as the eye can see is unpunctuated by anything higher than a tree – it’s extraordinary. I wonder what it must be like growing up there – you must end up with an entirely different appreciation of landscape. A bit like Norfolk – only flatter…

So, the hitherto unknown and mysterious world of first class travel is now being revealed to me by the good fortune of being bumped from last night’s flight! When I checked in, they asked for volunteers to go on a later flight. All I had waiting for me in LA was an unknown hostel bed, a hire car, and nothing until 10.45 the following morning, so I duly ticked the appropriate box and volunteered. When boarding time arrived, my name was called, and I was asked to relinquish my ticket – what I received in exchange was room and board for the night in Baltimore, a free one-way ticket voucher….and a first class upgrade on the flight the following morning! Makes a nice alternative to a hostel dormitory, I must say.

So, here I am, living it up with the high flyers, with more leg room than I have legs to fill it with. What’s different? I suppose it depends on which airline you choose – I had visions of these mini-cubicles that are beginning to appear on some airlines, but there’s fairly normal seating on this one – except a bit more spacious. You get real crockery, which soothes my environmental conscience – although a few plastic cups is miniscule compared to the several tons of CO2 this aircraft is currently dumping into the atmosphere (though I am going to find a way to pay to offset the environmental consequences – as much as possible). I also had a stunning enormous breakfast of a lovely plate groaning with fresh fruit, cereal, Danish pastry, etc, which should keep me going for the next week at least. You also get a small linen tablecloth to place over the folding table, which although not quite conjuring up the ambience of fine restaurant dining, does take you a little further than the usual foil sealed oily aircraft fodder.

Anyway – enough swanning about – time to catch up on the last few days of vagrancy. I’ve really enjoyed my time in Baltimore, which seems to be an extremely vibrant place, with an identity very much its own. I’ve been staying with a friend who I met in Hawaii, and meeting up with several others, so it seems like a real reunion. A lot of the housing is made up of ‘row homes’ which are like terraced houses that are only one room wide – tall and narrow. Some of them stand alone, which do look rather skinny! They’re all over the city – much like sandstone tenements are in Glasgow. In the evenings, people still sit out on their front porches and watch the world go by, which feels very sociable.

The area (Hampden) in which I was staying was a bit like a slightly more upmarket version of Camden in London – lots of small, interesting shops, and cultural oddities, such as a ‘Honfest’ (if I can find a website link I will add it later) dedicated to a particular type of woman who might wear a beehive hairdo and Dame Edna specs. Or the ‘Roller Derby’- a women’s roller skating team event where they seem to gain points for beating each other up as they go. I’m sure the men must get to do some fun stuff too… we went to a farmer’s market place where there was a stall run by a man who fancies himself as a pirate…so at least he was having fun!

Ooo! Hills have reappeared, and we’re passing over a gorgeous looking river delta… more flat stuff on the horizon though…

Managed to squeeze in more drumming in the past few days – one workshop for a ‘kids at risk’ summer camp (inner city boys in their early teens), were we did some Ghanaian drumming, and a bit of drum circling. It was halfway through a 6 week series, and really encouraging to see how the boys had started to listen to each other and play co-operatively. I wonder what an equivalent workshop in Glasgow would be like – these boys were energetic, but extremely well behaved compared to some of my previous experiences.

I also went to something called the ‘Rumble Club’ which is a monthly event designed for people who facilitate drum circles to get together and practice their stuff on each other, as well as an hour or so of freeform drumming. It was great to sit back and be a participant and just play for a while!

The last occurrence was a friend’s 40th birthday party, where I met up with a load of old Hawaii friends – it was wonderful to drum with people who really understand how to make music together! Effortless, playful, and ever changing, it was stuff to feed the soul…

Ooo – just seen one of those legendary long straight motorways they have over here – stretching waaaay into the distance with barely a kink in it. I’m missing out on that thing they sometimes have that shows you a map of where you’re flying over – it would be really handy to know what I’m gazing out at!

Right – off to have a little snooze now in my comfy chair. I was up at 4.45 this morning, and today will be extended by three hours because of the time difference, so I need all the rest I can get!


Zzzz…..


Zzzzzz…


How refreshing! Well, extreme flatness has given way to desert and mountains, and everything looks like the grand canyon from up here! I can see only one road, and a couple of riverbeds, and the rest is rock and sand – stunning.

I forgot to write down another couple of little observations – one is that whilst travelling through Pennsylvania, several of the churches had cheesy slogans outside – here are three of my favourites:

‘Warm outside? This church is prayer conditioned…’

‘We are a prophet sharing organisation…’

‘Hot? Try one of our cool Sundays with heavenly food…’

Something else which amused me greatly was a dinner one evening at a classic suburban home – all chintzy furniture and pristine ‘stuff’! Anyway, we were talking with our host, a rather animated lady (who clearly had a lot to say) who asked me what my impressions were about Americans, and was really pressing me for ‘one bad habit’ - it’s really not my place to pass sweeping generalisations on a vast population, but there was no way out, so I made an observation that sometimes people talked a lot more than they listened over here, and seemed to interrupt each other.

‘That’s really interesting, do tell me more about that’ was my host’s reply, and when I proceeded to elaborate, I hadn’t even completed my sentence before she jumped in with an anecdote of her own! That really tickled me, and I didn’t get much of a word in edgeways for the rest of the evening - and I’m sure it went completely unnoticed!!

However, I must balance things out by mentioning that by and large I have been met with extremely eloquent and reciprocally conversational people, which have been a delight to spend time with.

When I land I’m off to spend a couple of days at the west coast version of the conference that brought me over here in the first place – a happy co-incidence, and I’m looking forward to connecting up with some of the organisers again. Then it’s off up north somewhere near San Fransisco for the weekend, and more adventures.

I have no idea where I’m going to sleep tonight…


Happy trails!

Jane


P.s. now in San fransisco!

Finally found time to write!

Hello Groovers!

Ah, the travelling life – I’m sitting writing this outside a Starbucks next to a dual carriageway, during an enforced hiatus while I wait for a very generously offered lift. It’s been the first real time I’ve had to myself to write some stuff for the blog – things have been very busy – both business and pleasure wise (hard to key stuff into a laptop whilst swimming in a lake!), so it’s actually quite nice to have a break.

Today I had my first USA driving experience – driving about 1 ¾ hours north of Pittsburgh to a small town called Meadville, to meet up with a doctor who seems to have done most of the published research about drumcircling – a chap called Barry Bittman.

It was only the second time I had driven an automatic car – leading to some lurches in the car park from whence I rented it, and some frantic grasps for a absent gearstick the first few times I drew to a halt! Apart from that, the journey passed without incident and I made it there and back in one piece (and so did my bank account – there are hefty charges for ‘incidents’. I was accompanied by the strains of the local country and western radio station (when in Rome…) – playing such delights as ‘She thinks my tractor is sexy’; ‘My favourite view is my front porch looking in’; and ‘Have you forgotten’ – a guilt inducing number designed to stir up memories of 9/11, and justify colonising the Middle East. Good tunes though…

Musical propaganda aside, the trip was very well worth it – the medical centre where Dr B is based has a room stuffed full of drums, which they use in all sorts of sessions from people with asthma, to stress release for heart and cancer patients. We also talked a lot about the phenomenon of ‘recreational music making’ which is sweeping the music products industry world here, and very much aligned with what I’m studying.

Back in Pittsburgh, I’ve been staying with a lovely woman called Nancy and her family, enjoying the classic American diet, (good n'plenty!) a small, energetic Dachshund, and a cat which only eats its food when you go to the loo. I kid you not – I was extremely surprised (not to say a little nervous) when the bathroom door began to slide open while I was enthroned – only to be joined by a ginger tom cat eager for his meal, which apparently he won’t touch unless lavatorially accompanied – most odd, but you do get used to it!

Yesterday I accompanied Nancy to the retirement home where she works, enjoying a picnic with the residents, followed by a drum circle and bingo. Hope I land in a place like that if I need it when I’m old! The residents seemed to have a keen capacity for drumming – one of them was seriously getting down with a beatbox-type thing and sounding extremely funky – much to the envy of the others…

Presently working out how to get to Baltimore tomorrow – either by bargain flight, or greyhound bus – all the travel arrangements so far have clicked into place just the day before, which unnerved me at first, but now I’m getting used to it, and I’ve been very lucky with it all so far!

Ohio
Well, to expand a bit on my post conference travels, I mamanged to catch a ride with a conferee to half an hour from my final destination, where I was met by the Kellars – a lovely family who are establishing their life and drumming business in rural Ohio after ‘downsizing’ from Connecticut. They live in a GORGEOUS house right above Lake Seneca (about 5 miles long – the lake, that is…). Their company and surroundings made for the ideal post-conference decompression. No sooner had we arrived, had a sandwich, and played a game of cards, than we were headed out on the lake on a wee twin hulled craft (think of an ice-cream tub floated on two bananas, shape wise) to visit their parents, who happened to have a pair of ‘wave-riders’ (mentioned previously), and very generously offered me a ride on one! Three of us set out along the lake, and once we’d puttered [past a line of bouys (pronounced locally as ‘booeys’, which made me chuckle once I’d realised what they were referring to), we could let rip and skim across the surface of the waves. My smile was bigger than my face!!! We then beached them on a little island and jumped in for a swim in the lake – (ah… watery bliss!) before heading back, firstly to their parents’ house, where I saw my first hummingbird - astonishing and almost unearthly in the flesh, like a cross between a fairy and a large bumble bee.

Wonder was being heaped upon wonder – when we arrived home I was treated to the most gorgeous meal of wild venison (from the woods) and fresh corn on the cob, and I loved both – not bad for an ex-vegetarian! To round off a blissful day, we sat outside by a campfire and made another American classic - Smores – which consist of a fire toasted marshmallow squidged between two biscuits with a lump of chocolate. Mmmmm – tastebud heaven – dietary purgatory!

I had one more day with the Kellars, spent very conversationally, finding out about their drumming work, and admiring their collection of field-dug prehistoric and art knapped arrowheads. Stunning. In the evening, we went to a local youth detention centre, where Toni runs a workshop once a month. Loading happened through double-locked doors, and we were met by eight extremely excitable boys – not as overtly rude and destructive as some I have worked with in Glasgow, but very far along the attention deficit syndrome spectrum – they seemed to find it extremely hard to focus on anything, and had a very explosive energy about them, barely under control. We had two full on tantrums, and several calmings down by staff, but persevered. There were some lovely moments however, which made it all worthwhile. Two of them came up for hugs at the end, and left me with a great big lump in my throat.

Hanging around to chat with them afterwards felt important to me – they seemed fascinated by the idea of different time zones around the world – and had lots of questions about British cars, and my funny accent….

In Baltimore now for a couple of days before heading across to LA - all the arrangements are still rather "flexible" just now, so I'm hoping they'll settle down a bit soon!

tara!

Relaxing...post conference

Hello!

This is just a quickie - the conference was absolutely wonderful, exhausting, and inspiring (more about that later...)

...and there's nothing like whizzing across Lake Seneca at 50 mph on a waverider (a bit like a jet-ski) to relax afterwards!

I'm in Ohio at the moment, staying with Toni Kellar (and Steve and Kayla) of 'Roots to Rhythm' - and I couldn't be in a better or more hospitable place. They have a lovely house right near a lake, complete with boat, and space for night-time camp fires.


aaahhhh....

Pittsburgh tomorrow - and adventures new...

Deepest Pennsylvania

Hello again!

Well, I've arrived, and found internet access!

It was a very easy trip - when I checked in at the airport, they asigned me the whole back row of seats on one side, as the flight wsan't very full, so I had a lovely comfy trip stretched across three seats, my nicest transatlantic trip ever!

I was met at the airport by my lift to the conference in Pennsylvania, who is a lovely woman called Debbi, and we hit it off straight away, which is ust as well when you've got at least 9 hours to spend in the car together!

The plan was to drive about halfway there, then spend the night in B+B, which we duly did, at

http://www.paulyns.com/home.html which was an extremely restful stop. Our hosts were from the Mennonite religion, and were models of hospitality! Breakfast was arranged at a time when all the guests that were staying could come and sit at one big table and eat together, which I thought was a really nice touch, and reminded me a bit of meals at Iona. We had quite some grace at the beginning of the meal too - I felt very much prayed for by the time we got to eat! It was a three course breakfast too - I think I'm going to need to work on my stomach capacity, as I'm not used to all this food yet... certainly sets you up for the day though.

The following morning we set off on our way, via an enormous Wal-Mart, which was one of these supermarkets you hear about that actually sells guns and ammunition in it - scary.

er... 6 loo rolls and a round of ammunition please?? Hmmm....

and off we drove... and I've never seen so many trees! The landscape mostly consisted of sizeable, rolling hills, absolutely covered with trees - for most of the drive, hours at a stretch. Like a big green, scratchy lumpy duvet. I suppose that's what the British landscape would have looked like before our forebears came along and used up all the wood!

Finnaly , we drew up at the conference centre, which is in a small rural town, New Wilmington. We also happen to be in the heart of Amish country , which is fascinating:

http://www.800padutch.com/amish.shtml

I've already seen a few horses and carts being driven along the road, and people working on their farms - it's like being dropped into another century - I'd love to be able to chat to someone and find out more about them. There's a couple of Amish craft shops in town which I'd like to check out - remembereing however that I'm at the start of my trip and will have to carry any purchases with me for a month!!

ah well...

more soon!

Getting ready...

Only a few days left before I head off, and I'm working doing drumcircles for the local council in the two days before I go, so it's all got to get sorted out now!

First off, I'm visiting a conference in Pennsylvania - http://www.presbymusic.org/confwestminster.htm

which is the reason for this whole trip. I met the organisers last year at a music week I was running on Iona:

http://www.iona.org.uk/Centres.htm

- which was one of my all time favourite weeks of the year - a wonderful group of diverse people, who made a very special community that week, and some extremely groovy music! I still have very fond memories of an Abbey full of 'surprise' boomwhackers (the congregation were even more surprised!)...

So I'm off for a small reunion - and a good few more workshops - two drumcircles and one 'sing' per day, and a few more extras - I can't wait!! They've very kindly provided me with the means to get across the atlantic, and extended the ticket to give me three weeks travelling time afterwards - so I'm hopefully using the time to further my research studies (and be a bit sociable) by connecting with other drum circle facilitators.

These three weeks are a little flexible at the moment to say the least! I have made some great connections already, but there's not very much pinned down yet... today I took a deep breath and emailed the drum circle facilitators list:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/DrumCircles/

to see if anyone felt like meeting up!

I'll definitely (hopefully!) be dropping in at the following destinations:

http://www.mind-body.org/ - Barry Bittman - who's done a whole lot to promote drum circles in health and wellness contexts

http://www.fundrumrhythmcircles.com/rumbleclub/ - and the lovely Jonathon Murray

http://www.newrhythms.org/ - with the extremely hospitable Heather McTavish

and winding up at the:

http://www.remo.com/portal/events/index.html?type=1

- Remo Recreational Music Center - thanks to John Fitzgerald, Mike, and Jerry, where we'll be running an event which in my mind is called 'Rhythm and Pews' (cos I like the pun) - but in reality may get called something else. It's aimed at encouraging the use of rhythm in church congregations.

...and the rest is a mystery at the moment!!


yippeee!

Jane