Put the "Rum" back in African Drumming

Before I begin, let me apologize to my brother for intentionally delaying this post to make him think that I lost interest in the blog again...in response to his assumed response, I understand that he'll hurt me when he returns home.

I'm finishing up a break for a week. YAY!!!! Now that I have my incredibly silly moment out of the way, I'll just start by saying that I spent last Thursday night and Friday playing video games, with a hint of Saturday. What did I play? Well, I had two of my friends up, and we played Rock Band. I've played the game before, but after a night of practice, I finally can play the bass part on hard, and some songs on expert (And score over 90 percent)!

Anyway, onto the point of the title. Last Saturday, I went to an open mic night in a nearby town. The event wasn't held at a bar, or a cafe, but rather at an art gallery. A few people from all around came by, brought some food or drinks, and played an instrument. Overall, it was kinda boring. I sat there for a few hours listening to music I'd either already heard the previous time I was there, or didn't care about due to its boring nature. I played a song or two with my drummer friend, harmonized with a guitarist, and left wishing I'd stayed home and found a crappy movie online instead.

Still, there was one point of the night that got to me. At one point, there was a man who brought a multitude of African drums, and started drumming. I'm going to break down my reaction, step by step.

1. Okay, this is going to be interesting
2. Wow, impressive speed, but no rhythm
   
3. Still no rhythm
4. Finally...wait, he's back to just speed drumming
5. My god, it's been going on for 20 minutes now
6. How are people liking this?
7. The wheels on the bus go round and...oh, it's time to clap now...thank Chuck Norris

I appreciate the fact that people are trying to bring around a different culture to people who wouldn't otherwise understand, but it seems to me that we've taken certain things out of context. For example, we see a man at a party where everybody's wasted. We'll call him Steve. Steve is chatting up people in a language he and his drunk friend have created.

Let's take Steve out of this environment, and place him into a presidential inauguration. He'll play the part of a speaker. Steve starts speaking in this new language at the podium. Most are curious as to what he's doing, and believe it's a piece of art. As he stays in his drunken stupor (Steve is an attention whore) and speaks, people grow tired of not understanding what's said, and lose interest. It's then that Steve vomits and passes out, letting the Secret Service take him away.

If what I said makes any sense, you can help by encouraging others to seek culture combined. By that, I mean to incorporate African drumming in American rock. Modify recipes to include multicultural foods. Try making taco spaghetti one night. Basically, don't shortchange your own culture for another's when you can get more enjoyment out of combining them for your own style.

I hope I didn't offend anybody with this post. If I did, let me know how, so I can get a better perspective over what I did wrong, and how I can improve in the future. As a question to all of you, what's the worst public experience you ever had?