Pata-flafla

To anyone who is not a drummer this title will probably sound like my brain has lost its connection to my mouth, or that I'm trying to imitate the sound of someone falling down a few flights of stairs. It is neither. The Pata-flafla is one of the 40 basic rudiments every good drummer should know, or at least know of. Translated in a sticking pattern (with flams looking like so: r-L,the little letter being the grace note and the big letter the main one, L for left and R for right) a couple bars of Pata-flafla played in basic 4/4 and the main notes being 16ths should look like this:

l-R L R r-L, l-R L R r-L...

Yeah, trickier than it looks especially when trying to play it fast. As with all drum rudiments, start slow and learn to play it clean and comfortably and gradually speed up. And yeah, use a metronome. And why am I all psyched about talking drum shop on this fine Halloween day? If you've been reading my blog you may have heard me talk about getting together with some drum corps drum line people and having a total blast. Enough that for my Friday music video I just HAD to post more drum corps love. And yesterday I got some great news from the Wishmaster drum line: there is rumor that another show is in the works, and this time I want in. And because I want to get on snare line, I have to practice my ass off like I haven't done in a very long time. So far I'm looking at 1 to 2 hours a day with the fat snare sticks, my practice pad and an Android metronome app, more as I get closer to an eventual audition. Not especially exciting in and of itself but the ultimate goal sure is. And if I can't make it on this particular line-up I'll just offer my services as a roadie; God knows I can changes drum heads and carry gear! Here's to hoping I can make an impression and land myself a spot anywhere on that drum line :)

And on to the EVE front now. Last week I've had one of those "what the fuck was I thinking" moments. Now that my buddy si Gong has some decent BC skills I thought we could tackle the epic arc mission I had left hanging for about a year: The Cost of Preservation, 2nd mission from the Brutor Tribe L4 epic agent dude. The mission is pretty simple: kill this one guy, loot the guy and GTFO. Killing the guy isn't too much trouble, but the stuff that spawns when you start shooting... yeah. So si Gong and I warp in and I start approaching Mr Target. He's in a rather tanky cruiser but together we managed to kill him, but as soon as he died all hell broke lose. The new spawn had 4-5 frigs that point and web on sight, and I was literally fucked. because we couldn't kill 'em fast enough. I asked si Gong if he was pointed and with the negative answer, GTFO. So the cost of preservation was one unit of nicely fit Sleipnir. I was later told that another of the Montreal crew, ex-capsuleer Suletsap III, had lost a faction-fit Navythron to one of those epic arc missions... I'm guessing that this is what CCP would call an ISK sink XD. So because my Slippy was nicely fit (5 faction modules) and because I treated myself so nicely before taking my summer break (Absolution and Cynabal). I couldn't replace it right away. But I don't care. I did get a Maelstrom but after flying a command ship for so long a battleship feels like shit. So much for L4's until I can get a replacement Sleipnir, and to Hell with that so-called epic bullshit.

Not that I'm very interested in missions anyway. When my subscription renewal arrives I will not only get my 3 months but will also buy a GTC or two and dump 'em on the market. Grinding sucks too much in this game. I'd rather grind my drum skills, and if I do get that drum line gig, it's drums I'll be playing, not MMO's. We will see what the future holds...

Fly it hard even if it's not cheap

o7