Play And Forget
One of my favorite home-spun maxims comes from the nine year-old son of a good friend. He was telling us about his day at summer camp. As the kids changed into their swimsuits, a heavyset man was also changing in the same locker room. Whatever my friend’s sweet son witnessed that fine summer day was clearly unnerving. His mom asked him if he wanted to talk about it. “No, Mom,” he said. “Sometimes you just have to play and forget.” Play and forget. That’s reality camp for many of us. My personal childhood memories of a summer aerospace camp include having a ham sandwich vomited on me inside a cramped single-engine Cessna.

Just Play. Or Not.
Los Angeles Music Academy and Drum Channel promise to enhance reality with the premier Drummer’s Reality Camp June 28th through July 2nd. In place of locker room trauma and graphic nausea, this camp will offer close-quarters study with artists-in-residence Terry Bozzio, Efrain Toro, Ralph Humphrey, and Joe Porcaro; and guest artists including JR Robinson, Peter Erskine, Alex Acuña, Teddy Campbell, and Nissan Stewart . The five-day intensive will consist of class study, workshops, ensembles, private lessons, and evening performances; plus, a field trip to tour Drum Workshop and the Drum Channel studios.

Drummers from across the globe, of all skill levels, ages 14 and up are welcomed to participate. The first 100 enrollees will be accepted and class sizes will max out at 25. Campers will be placed into style-specific ensembles comprised of current LAMA students, and according to drum department chair Ralph Humphrey, will not be separated by skill level allowing less advanced students to learn from the more experienced. Mike Packer, LAMA VP and drum department instructor adds that not everyone may feel comfortable playing and that’s OK. Sounds like the week could range from low-pressure and entertaining for some, to highly intense and challenging for others depending on individual intent and desire.

Keeping It Real
Tuition has recently been reduced from $1,495 to $995, and students are eligible for a discount rate of $495. The deadline for registration is June 14th.

In addition to my tentative flight camp experience, I also attended week-long jazz camps over a couple high school summers. I know first hand the impact and inspiration such a concentrated musical environment can offer. HollywoodDrum.com is happy to support and help promote the Drummer’s Reality Camp. Stay tuned for our full coverage.

For now, we offer you a preview in our Q&A with the three principals of the event: Humphrey; Packer; and DW president, Don Lombardi. Happy camping.

Visit LAMA’s Drummer’s Reality Camp page for more information.

Feel Like We Do
No, HollywoodDrum.com has not grown more gray and mellow, or less gaunt and pouty in that cool rockstar way; neither have we assumed a proper banker’s haircut over a golden blown-out mane, or gut-covering button-down in place of one seriously badass open kimono shirt. We are simply and officially one year more mature and fleshed-out since our debut post, Hollywood Drum Comes Alive!. We still rock a badass kimono. It’s our first anniversary. If gifting paper, make it cash.

In that introduction a trip-around-the-sun ago, I expressed a desire for the site to fulfill its newly minted slogan: L.A.’s Drum Community Has A Home. Based on the much appreciated feedback and contributions we’ve received from many of you, it’s well on its way. The opportunity and privilege of connecting the tribe has helped make this past year an exciting and satisfying journey.

Best Of
Some highlights (CUE “The Way We Were”): We bought Dan Konopka (OKGo) a scotch and assigned him to cover the Pro Drum 50th Anniversary Celebration—an early lesson in delegation. Q&As with Phil Maturato of Drummer Intensive Days, Peter Erskine, Alex Acuna, and Mike Clark heralded our support and coverage of local master classes and clinics of interest. Our video interview with Ashes Divide and Pusicifer drummer, Jeff Friedl, ushered our technical production capacity beyond the girlfriend-with-a-camcorder territory of debut interviews with Craig Macintyre and Elvy Brock. And so, Stanton Moore and Brian Blade features initiated full show reviews that culminated in our latest of Taylor Hawkins. A cheeky pictorial recounting of The Hollywood Drum Show presaged our most recent cheeky pictorial recounting of concurrent Guitar Center and Sam Ash parties on Sunset. Then there’s Steve Gadd—a video interview and show review. That was cool. Hehe. A Kneebody show downtown featuring Nate Wood on drums inspired a morning-after series of mini-reviews dubbed “Hittin’” and a subsequent full video feature with Nate. But a mere sampling of our debut year. You’ll find a more complete listing neatly organized in Features and the News Archive.

On Purpose
I’m not comfortable calling it a highlight, but when we lost Jake Hanna this February, Stan Keyawa of Pro Drum contacted me with the news; and I asked Stan to write the tribute. He did a lovely job. This was important to me because it seemed to best characterize the purpose of this site as a venue for L.A. drummers to connect and reach out. This truly is your website, and I felt pleased to turn it over to a rightful owner at that moment.

Now Playing
One of the most used and—according to you—appreciated resources has been the Calendar featuring dates listed by drummer. To enhance this feature and truly get it running up to potential, we need your help. Please feel free to submit any cool hits you know of—maybe yours, maybe not yours. A brief note on this: Some dates have been submitted that don’t actually make the Calendar. Please consider that they are timely and of wide appeal and interest. Not that I won’t show up at the Moose Lodge (a decent hang) on a Monday night, but it may not quite pass wide-appeal muster. Forward dates and info here. Also, please feel free to post any and all gigs, classifieds, and general musings on the Hollywood Drum Forum.

To Come
Big, exciting, informative, entertaining, super-awesome stuff to come in the year ahead. A revamped site update is on the way. Valued new partners are coming aboard. A new production team and an on-deck roster of some of L.A.’s best promise expanded and ever-evolving video content. We’ve got stuff. Don’t you worry about it. But, as ever, we need, welcome, and appreciate your involvement. All ideas, feedback, or submissions are always encouraged and solicited. Talk to us.

As HollywoodDrum.com evolves further, we’ll continue to focus our attention on improving and expanding the elements that best support our mission of being the online home for the L.A. drum community. Clink.