Nothing says '4th of July' like Afro-Cuban drumming. I was invited this
year to play on the Iowa Childrens' Museum parade float by my good
friends the Yahoo Drummers. I had been thinking that I'd never been
in a parade before, but I now remember walking in a parade in
Horicon, WI, as a Boy Scout. That sucked. This, in contrast, was an
absolute blast.

Click any image below for a larger image.

Davey, perched on his throne before the parade.
"Join the Fabulous Yahoo Drummers!"

Davey, Carol, and Cliff rollin' it out. Where am I?

There I am. I rigged up a pretty comfortable strap
for my large djembe...the thing's a good 12 pounds,
but it was pretty comfortable to walk with.
Eventually, though, we got a little far behind the
other floats, and when our driver started to speed
up to the point that I had to trot to keep up...

...it was back to the truck for me. Do you like
my shirt? I bought it special for this parade.

Two of the Museum staff girls, and the float
banner. The girl on the left is playing this odd
little ashiko of Davey's (it's a Remo, and what's
left of the head after years of playing is plastic),
and the girl on the right is playing my smaller
djembe (a little 3 pound Toca, fiberglass body and
goatskin head...sounds a bit like a doumbek).

I wasn't sure which angle to rotate this picture to,
as it was taken at a severe Batman Criminal Angle,
and it only has 1/4th of one of us in the shot. It does
show the crowd pretty well, though.

Seriously, it didn't seem anywhere near that cloudy
while we were playing...

We look entirely too serious here...

...and here...

That's better! I like this picture.

Poor kids, waiting for candy. I think at this point,
or close to it, the staff girls had run out of candy
to throw. All they had left were little plastic trolls.

Now I'm not the most experienced drummer out
there, but I'm not sure what technique this girl
is employing...

Hey! That's us! Carol, Cliff, Davey, and me. Ah,
good times.