You know, I don't know how long I've been in the police, but I've been in the police department for three months now, and I've been in the police department for three months now. I've been in the police department for three months now, and I've been in the police department for three months now. I've been in the police department for three months now, and I've been in the police department for three months now. I've been in the police department for three months now. All right, I think we're going to take that part. I just want to remind everybody first, please turn off your cell phones. Because that's just not fun. And I wrote things down so that I wouldn't stand up here and go um, ten times. And I want to welcome everybody who's watching at home doing a live stream project. So Haloran has been awesome and anybody else that they're thinking about live streaming their project, they've been so incredible to work with. So thanks to Haloran. Thank you guys for turning in. Just in case you're wondering a little bit about Little Black Dress Inc. We're a female player. It's a producing organization. This is our third year doing our female playwrights on stage project. Started as one production in Arizona a couple years ago. I invited some female playwrights that knew that we're awesome. I asked them to send me their plays. A couple of them are in this room again now, which is really great. And we've grown. This is the first year we had a national call for plays. We had over 100 plays submitted. We utilized a peer review process. Which means that each of the playwrights that participated not only sent in their work, but then read and evaluated each other's plays. Which makes the process theirs as far as I'm concerned. So the results were we had 28 semifinalists who were read in Ithaca, Santa Barbara, Ithaca, New York with Acting Out New York. We had Kate Burks from who's here who handled our reading in Santa Barbara. She's fabulous. And we also had a reading in Sedona, Arizona with Red Earth Theater Company. And then a reading in Waco, which I coordinated with the Waco Civic Theater. We're hoping to grow. If you like what you see, please visit the website. It's littleblackdressinc.org. And find out how you can get involved as a playwright, as a producer, as just a fan. We love you all. Last things to do. Oh, I want to thank the LATC. We are at the Los Angeles Theater Center, which is a fabulous downtown venue. Not only does the LATC do a lot of really awesome work, they also produce a lot of female playwrights, which we really like. So thank you. Also want to give a shout out to the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, which has been a very big supporter. So thank you. And if you're at home and you want to tweet along, we're going to be tweeting at L Blackdress Inc. You can find us there. It's going to be scrolling across the screen. I'm going to stop talking so we can watch these fabulous plays. Thank you so much. Seeds of Rebellion, written by Kay Coyle. Dark stage, sounds of the tapping of a typewriter. The tapping stops and lights up on three characters in Tableau. Josie, female, dressed in a poodle skirt, sips a milkshake. Owen, male, dressed as a 1950s juvenile delinquent, leans against the wall. Older character wipes down an imagined counter as if it's a bar top. Is she gone? Like it. Thank God. The characters look relieved and come alive. I don't know which one's stiffer on this skirt or this plot. I like this story. Me too. She's off to a cracking good start this time. You can't literally see the headlights of literary mediocrity barreled in torsion. All I see is she's writing another play and we get to be the stars. Yeah. Another ten minute play. What do you gotta give to ten minute plays? Gee, I don't know. Main character dressed in a poodle skirt, sips a milkshake. First of all, my name isn't main character. It's not? Yeah. Do you really want to spend ten minutes wiping down that bar? Can we at least get a real set? Hang on a minute. Miss it might not be that bad. Yeah. It's only page two and lots of writers don't fill in the names till later. No, not yet.  And if you make it to the end, do you think there... What can anyone possibly learn about me in ten minutes? Calm down. It's only the first draft. Young man's right. You could find yourself with a name yet. Not many folks out there want to hear the story about an 80-year-old war horse. You are 80? An 80-year-old widower. Been plugging away for the last four years in different drafts. A few months back, I almost made it through a suspense piece. I was a superhero once. You don't say. I've got it. I have a plan.  We are more than just characters. We have motivations, thoughts, fears, loves, and we need to show her. I mean, who are you? Really, do you even know... I like to dance, and I like mid-century modern furniture. And I want to travel to Tibet and hunt the yeti. Yeah, that's me. He lives on this beret. And my name is Owen. Welcome to the family. Pauline was a fan of the mid-century modern. Was Pauline your wife? Yeah. Back then, it was just called Danish modern. The sofas, the tables. Great color, shapely legs. Pauline, not the tables. She had this infectious laugh. I was stationed outside Paris during a war. I picked up a little bit of the language. I apprenticed with a pastry chef, too. You were in the war? Oh, yeah. I even kicked around the city for a couple of years after the liberation. That's when I met Pauline. Pauline, no, no more. The older character places the beret on his hand with purpose. Infantryman? Husband? Pastry chef? Wilfred Forbes! Jose and Owen offer crisp salutes. Wilfred returns us. So, Miss Revolution, you care to share your grand plan? It's simple yet effective. At the end of it, you are going to hunt the Yeti, and you are going to make the best darned... Pan-o-chocolat you've ever tasted. Right. And if I can't beat Jose in a full-length play, fine. But I'm making it to the second draft, if it kills him. But how do you know she's going to cut us? She's only five pages in. Trust me, she always does this. But I know the warning signs. You don't have anything to worry about. She's giving you a name. When she wants to get rid of you, first you lose your name, and then your part gets smaller. Smaller? How small? Saying less and less until BAM! You're out of here! And the scariest part, she doesn't even... This time might be different. She could change. Older characters slowly rises and wanders away. Wait, Mr... Mr... Mr. Lee, come back! Older character disappears of state. Where's he going? Now, do you believe me? Oh boy, what's going to happen to us? Where am I going to go? I don't know how to do anything else. Oh my God, what if she writes something set in a forest? What about my seasonal allergies? I'm a dead man! Jose slaps him. Ow! Join me! Assistant's out! Together!  She says upstairs, you go down. Guess not. Sounds approaching footsteps. Now's your chance. Follow your dream. Act now, live forever with regret. Oh, look, it doesn't work. Oh, here she comes. Sound of a door opening. Footsteps coming closer. Me on your post, and remember... Oh, and not solemnly as they go back to Tableau, wearing berets with fists raised in the air and a defiant salute. The end. A room that took great taste and equally great thought to make it as perfect as any living room can be. A sofa dominance. It faces a flat screen TV whose volume is turned down. A door stays left leads to the outside. An open door on the opposite side leads to other rooms. At rise, the room is empty. Naomi enters, tearing a shopping bag. Sorry, I'm late. It was an accident, something involving a motorcycle. Looked awful. They were loading it onto a stretcher right as I drove past.  God, it's a poor mother. In small plates of food, she places on the coffee table.  What? Tell me about wine. Shit. Don't. I was rushing. Have we ever watched election returns without it? Honestly, I am not myself lately.   I am listening without you with a nightmare. Former Libertarian. She kept preaching about taxes. I found myself pointing out pot holes and asking if they'd fixed themselves. Don't ever leave me during the last two weeks of an election again. The West Coast numbers are coming in. Okay, it's official. I'm hitting the hard liquor. Tamara exits the other boat. Naomi suddenly dives for the food, shoveling great fistfuls into her mouth. So, trip was amazing. Oh my God, Reese's Paradise. I couldn't stop eating. The fruits, unlike anything you've ever experienced, figs, like candy, better than candy. And tomatoes, not all shiny and perfect, but real. Oh, delicious. Until you get any coli. And the people, so warm and welcoming. And did they work? Of course they did work. A lot. They're just not obsessed with it. Americans always think they're the only people... Oh, look at those numbers. Oh, they're even better than predicted.  That's not why I'm drinking. Well, I brought something back for you. It takes a random gift from a shopping bag. Hands it to Tamara. Stop it. Tamara rips it open. It's an evil eye pendant. An evil eye. Loving it. Really? You like it? Of course. It's blown glass, but it's not like... Thank goodness. You can put it in your car. Oh, please. I'm the least superstitious person on the planet. Oh, look at that margin. Not one of the pundits predicted that.  I don't know. To create good energy? Speaking of, any vacation sex? Well, yes. But there's something I would also like to do. There was vacation sex, and I'm only hearing about it now. It was such a small part of the experience. Between the beaches and the fruit, it was like... Wait, wait, wait. Nature, dry spell. What's he? Nicos. They're all Nicos there, right? I want details. Sure, I can't make a dream. Oh, thanks. Whatever. Easy. What's he? A guy. I met him at one of those beach sites to burn as they have everywhere. But that's not really what I wanted to tell you. It's in all the beach. But if the beach is rocky there, why can't it be comfortable? I didn't. We didn't do it on the beach. She goes for more food. Eat much? I'm pregnant. I had to tell you in person. The truth is, I probably shouldn't be telling anybody this early, but have you not told your best friends something that's monumental? That's just... Crazy. It is, right? It's really kind of a miracle. Exactly. So, how do you tell Nicos? Send a note via carrier pigeon to Miesgril Island? Oh, sure. You sound sure, but if it's early... I'm sure. How? I know it's totally out of the field. I guess I'm having a hard time engaging your reaction. I'm just shocked. In a good way. You sure? Yes! It's a miracle. It is, right? Oh, I knew the second after it happened. I can't explain it. I had this wave of dizziness right after. A tsunami, really. A tsunami. A good tsunami. A clearing out of the old to make way for the new. Then the next day I felt this intense happiness and I felt it every day since. I can't describe it any other way than to use words I know you loathe. Believe. Bliss. But then who isn't happy after they get laid? Look at Navarra. Those assholes don't have a clue what's good for them. They'd rather elect a king than allow abortion. Look, I'm for you something. I didn't think it was possible anymore. It's really kind of a miracle. Yeah, you said that. And in a miracle, if you actually want a baby, I do want a baby. I didn't think I did, but now I do. Okay, I'm a little worried you're hating me right now and I'm not entirely sure why.  Making fun of the breeders with their baby hand nicks and their high-op pink strollers. How they suddenly get religion, even though it's been scientifically proven that if you have unprotected sex, there's a good chance you're going to get knocked up. Like I said, it's weird and almost impossible to explain it out. I mean, look. Congratulations.   It did. It created a certain energy that causes change. If you can't see it, you're going to be fine. Anything about wanting a baby? I seriously had no idea and I did until now. Like you said, we laughed at those people. Rebecca Gorman, who committed high crimes to make five beta capital only to get married and breed like a prized spaniel. I'm not like them. You have to believe me. This tea, it feels right more than anything ever has in my life.  I wish you'd come back, paint the word, but it felt like destiny was deciding for me and I was just going along and it was so freeing to not have to take everything upon myself for once. If it means anything, I think Nevada won't really make a big difference, you know, country-wide. We did good work there and we'll continue to do it even if I have to walk around in a hundred degree heat with a baby strapped in.  But I have to say, it's doing the trick. Nevada, who cares, right? I mean, it practically doesn't make sense. So, when's the wedding? I mean, since you're joining the ranks, there's gotta be a man's wedding in the near future, right? Kelly Lilly's at Vera Blaine? Oh, God, no, no, wedding. Just, that's what I want to do. A lavish ceremony of Nicos's for most great idol? It's not, well, it's not his. Nicos isn't, he's not the father of the baby. Where did you go on vacation again? To a med school in 1975?   He wasn't exactly... Phil, are you sure you embraced that dry spell? Did you meet him during your layover and do it in the airport bathroom? Tecara! I'm just asking, because that would deserve a medal of some sort. Seriously. We met for lunch in Brooklyn. I hadn't seen the guy since 1990, so it was weird. No, not weird. Fine. Like, nothing had happened in 20-something years or that a million things happened and we needed days to talk about it. Next thing you know, we're listening to a band in the park and it was crowded, but there were all these people just, you know, enjoying the music and the glories of New York Day. So, when we got pushed together, it sort of made sense. He put his arm around my waist and then... So damn groovy, and then... Please, don't make fun of me. This is hard enough. Please. It is.  I'm the same person. You have to believe me. We were two reasonably attractive, highly intelligent women opting out of city cops and designer diaper bags.  In a minute, you're gonna have a baby shower and I'll glance across the room and see you looking so comfortable, fitting right in. Of course, I'll be the one throwing it. So I'll spend a lot of time in the kitchen pretending the food needs tons of attention and I'll drink a lot. I need you. Sure, my mother can come for a few months but she's not. I can't have anyone.   I'm drunk.  And besides, if the decision had been left to you you might not have made it. You know I don't buy any of that pop spirituality. That's my point, T. What is? What is your point? Life. Moving with it. Accepting it. Accepting people. But it's not just me. There's a whole lot of change going on out there and you're fighting against it. The yoga retreat. You acted like I was joining a cult. It felt like you were. Didn't they call it a weekend with the goddess begin? This is happening, T. I need you to catch up. You, a cult parent.  I'm a friend. And what if I don't want to?  That's not the point. Everyone's gonna think we're lesbians. You know, whatever. You're really going to do this, aren't you? It's what he said.  Look at this. It's too close to call. Lights dim, end of play. Ended by Anne Hamilton. Lights up on the salad standing in a podium. There is ambient noise of many people in the room shifting in their seats. There is a very exciting atmosphere. First of all, I want to thank you all for coming to the first meeting of Ogo Farmer's Emerging Network. Today is an auspicious day. We will band together as farmers and distributors to grow and sell only female-centric fruits and vegetables. Hence, open. Ovo Farmer's like the egg. But without eggs, we won't grow eggs. We are vegans. Let me back up. My co-founder and partner, Kate Mann, and I, decided to start this organization after looking at our plates one afternoon at lunch. What did we see? Cucumbers. Braised squash. Carrots. Italian eggplant. And what did we think? Are we eating all of these fallow-centric food people?  We take back the fields from the mail to provide everywhere with a source of food they can truly enjoy, literally shoving its penis down our throats. We will grow only. Are you ready for this? Bell peppers. And, of course, movement. As we take back the garden, take back the farmer's markets and tomatoes, the lettuces in all kinds of eating and oath and diet. Maybe we're just listening to the aggression in males and females. Investing in this way of life. An increase in empathy. Neighbors will stop shouting at neighbors. Road rage will decrease. Speeding. Well, that might become a thing of the past. But it starts with the sugar snap peas. And yes, your email so we can keep in touch. And how we need you. Our vin and vigor. Say hello to a new way of life. Thank you very much. Welcome, welcome from the audience, written by Jen Husion. Man 1, 2, and 3 sit in lawn chairs and drink long-neck bottles of beer. They're dressed casually and comfortably with shorts and t-shirts. On stage, the cooler holding more long-nets and two or three plastic pots with newly transplanted flowers. She won't come back. She won't come back. No. No. She won't come back. How do you know? She won't come back. She said she would. She left instructions. Plants. She left instructions. I've been watering. Dillion instructions. What? What? I've been transplanting. You did that? I dug it up. You? Internet. Layer of dirt, layer of mulch, layer of dirt. Here, I'll show you. Two jumps of flower pollen to the stage.  I'll repot it. See? Dirt. Mulch. Dirt. But it's all mixed up together now. Yeah. That might not be good. As three and two finish off their beers, one goes to the cooler, pulls out three long necks, pops them open, passes them out. Thanks. Two takes a drink, then puts the beer aside so he can gather up the dirt with his hands as he attempts to repot the flower. Did you pot this one? First one I did. Soil is dry. Dry? Means water. I'll get the watering can. Two takes a drink of beer, puts it down, changes his mind, picks it up and carries it off. I have some extra seeds if you want some. What? Seeds! I have seeds! Who do you want the pot of? Two overwaters to pops. Careful. Did I get you? No, no, no, you're good. One puts the pot down. I have been growing my own food. Carrots, beans, cucumbers, peppers, organic, no chemicals. I have extra seeds. No thanks. I prefer flowers. You can't eat flowers. Some of them you can't. They're impractical. They make me smile. You're not doing this because of her, are you? No. Nice, that's something you can watch grow. You can watch vegetables grow. Yeah, but one day you'll have to eat them. That would be a sad day for me. They are plants! They don't have seeds. They are plants! They don't have souls. Do they? How do you know? Because they just don't. You're drinking plants right now. Yes, yeast and hops grow out of the ground, my friend. Maybe I could grow grains. You might not have enough space back here. I could make my own beer. Oh, there's an idea! Cheers to that bag! Three falls asleep and his beer bottle falls to the floor. I know. Let him sleep. He's had a hard time of it lately. He's going to run a bad luck. It's good for him to get out of the house. You could bring the TV out here. We could watch the game. Good idea! That's why I'm here. Yes. A parked bench in the city. Autumn, early morning, just after dawn. The sound of dawn's first birds. Lights up on Mariah, who walks up. Sits on the bench. Pencil in hand. Sketchbook on her lap. She isn't drawing, but looking out, deep in thought. All of a sudden, Sadie runs in. She's wearing jeans, hoodie, and baseball cap. She's breathless. She sees Mariah. Sadie tears off her hoodie and cap and throws them in the trash can. She's wearing a stylish shirt and her long-haired tumble's down.  Mariah looks at her, but doesn't move. Sadie takes a big gulp of air to stay her panting and holds it. A policeman enters, running. He stops, looks around, and runs out again. Sadie waits, then exhales. He looks off in the direction of the exit income. Let's just say that was a close one. Thanks. I appreciate you going along. I am just not in the mood for a night in metropolitan lock-up, so thank you. I'm not a thief or a hooker or anything. You're not anything? Excuse me? Well, you just said I'm not a thief or a hooker or anything.  Again? Thank you for not giving me away. I really shouldn't hang out here under the circumstances, so you have a nice morning. Mariah. I'm Mariah. Nice to meet you, Mariah. Well, if you're going to pose as my daughter or lord or my granddaughter, if that was the plan right, then you should at least know my name. Okay. Have a lovely day, Mariah. And you can tell me yours or I guess. I'm Sadie or Sadie K. S at K. Sadie at K. That's where I go by my writer name.  Anyway, see you around, Miss Mariah. You can flirt with me. It would save you a lot of time and keep you from having all those visits to the detention center. Look, I'm not a criminal, Mariah. I'm an artist, an activist, and my art is not always appreciated by de-establishment. It's not your art that we'll trouble with. It's your canvases. A public property I'm part of the public, right? What I do is for the public. She sees someone coming and quickly sits back down next to Mariah. Mariah looks off to the direction Sadie was responding to. You can just remember how to fly. You avoid all this drama. If I could remember how to fly, that's right. Sadie sees the sketch path. Hey, are you drawing? Can I see? Sadie gently reaches for the path. Mariah allows her to take it. She pages through it. This is yours.  Very cool. Well, I draw. My goal is to make art. And I'm practicing. I'm always practicing. You can call yourself an artist. That's the difference between our generations of black women. Confidence and the claiming, humility serves no one. Well, I'm the same age as Oprah. And 10 years older than the first lady of the United States. My generation is doing just fine. And I'm just fine. It's you that has forgotten how to fly. Yeah, you keep saying that and I'm thinking she has dementia or early onset Alzheimer's or something. Oh, she got some. Sadie continues to look at the drawings. You're into birds. That's cool. Your drawings are really beautiful. Seriously, gallery quality. I'm just not that kind of artist. I have something to say. My art is political. Make it beautiful. Make it personal. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No, that's the personal part. Let's just agree to disagree about this one. Got to fly. Diego Rivera. He was a political artist last century. Huge murals, whole walls and sides of buildings. Yeah, okay. Great artists, very prolific. Thousands of paintings in his life. In museums still all over the world. His political stuff is interesting and David. Simon turned out to be not such a great guy. And then there was Frida Callow, his wife. I know her. I know her stuff. Mexican or something, one eyebrow. Or some. 200 paintings. That's it. Everything she did revealed what in her was desperate to fly. She flew. So you don't mean literally fly in the air like a bird. You mean to rise above or release your spirit or hope flows or something like that. Something like that. I tell you, if I could fly it would make my job a whole hell of a lot easier. You ever hang upside down from a gutter with Suddenly Mariah holds up her hand for Sadie to be quiet and still. She points to something out in front of her. Mariah begins to sketch. Sadie sees something out in front of her. Slowly next to Mariah transfixed on the view. Oh, where did he come from? He must be lost, huh? I never seen a bird like that around here. He comes every day? No way. Check him out. Mariah sketches. Sadie is transfixed by a bird. Oh no, where is he going? What do we do? I don't know. Birds fly away. Sadie, they just always do. So that's why you're here so early to see the birds. Hey, why don't you take a picture a photo and work from that? Seems like it'd be a whole lot easier than waiting. Well, I don't make pictures of birds. Well, I say this is personal. Sadie looks at the sketch path of Mariah's lap. Looks like a bird to me. Mariah hands Sadie her path. Sadie looks through and studies one of the sketches. I wait and I watch and I listen. So many tiny sounds in the morning quiet. I see that bush right there. The one with the tiny bright green buds. And then I let that bush see me. Look at that yellow tree right over there. See? Really see. Penetrated with your sight. Now let it see you. All of a sudden, that tree has a lot going on for it. Am I right? A lot of days I come here and I don't see anything. It all seems random and senseless and, boy, I'm pissed off.  Every so often I have a split second of communion with this and with that. When I put what I can down here, my work is political too. And I take my politics very personally. Sadie looks back down and I get it. I can see it here. The way of it. The hoping. The moment of delight. That split second of connection that it's got. Loss. And the memory of when it was here before it was lost. Which brings you back to hope, yeah? That's it. Right here. And beyond. All at once then it's gone. And you doubt it was ever there. Maybe you made it up. That's really depressing, Moriah. I don't believe it has Russian power. It is. But when I feel that thing inside me, something bigger beyond me, I'm so very okay. It happens to me most very early in the morning. Just after dawn. That's the magic time for me. I guess for you it's in the dead of the night. Oh. I work at night because no one's watching. You know, to not get caught can't do what I do in broad daylight. Or maybe the moon inspires you. Why not get still? Moriah sees a cop coming. I think your friend is back. Yeah, I don't care. So you come here every morning right here? Well the birds and I have an agreement. No way. Rainy days we work on other things. And your family doesn't mind? I'm sorry. Me too. The cop enters. Oh, pay him no mind. And how could something be beyond me and inside me at the same time? But I'm working on it. The cop sees clothing in the garbage can and picks it up and looks it over. And now that you don't give a hoot about that maybe because you're working on it too? Maybe I can join you. You know, some of the orders. You can come and purge here any time you want. Now that you can fly. Hey you, over there. I want to talk to you. Say to see something out in front of her and powerfully holds up her hand. She points in front of her. Right there. Mariah starts to sketch. Oh. Where did he come from? They all look at the bird. Lights. And fancy tomatoes written by Tiffany Andrew. An overturned picnic table protects two jets. The first wearing a hollowed out watermelons and helms. Flushing a small wooden box. They cower as strawberries, apples and a squash fly at them from a distance. Tiny is impeccable. You couldn't have chosen a more dreadful moment to the second. You never specified the worst. I really think that. I mean, I have no part in things really. This can't be good for a man. You want to make a run for it?  A splat. A woman quite small and comes on carrying more ammunition. You really threw the pooch this time, George. Do you think I'm being discriminated? You wouldn't. It's really a low respect. Very domestic. I'll pass her by. I shouldn't even be... They can sense distress. I never speak to them above a whisper at home. What do you think this will do to them? Splat. Oh, my God, she's discovered the tomatoes. What? Really? Veldman Pizza's head up getting hit squarely with a red, ripe tomato. George grabs him, inspecting the carnage. It's just a feasting. Damned it from his face in horror. Then fascination. He takes a taste. Oh, dump. Three beers. Salting. The nibble of the fancy tomato. He smacks his lips in appreciation. And one more. So thin. So delicate. That's way too delicate for a rainbow. But the sweetness. Followed by a tangy, like a tangy aftertaste. Almost like a black... It's not at all like a rainbow. What are you doing? You're crossbreeding. You want my little muppets to be party to this debate. Oh, what, Veldman? Stop smiling. He makes her run for it. Or a crawl. He doesn't get too far. George lashes onto his foot. And Janine pelts his head. To begin stuffing tomato. I have always loved... Maybe I do. But it's only because because you is... You love me so right.  You take care of everything that I forget to... To thank you for it.  Revolution. Here, I take it for granted that you are doing all these things for me and I'm sorry. I need you to keep me in line.  In the second job. Uh, um, what? You spent all of our money on plant seeds. It comes! Uh, Veldman. He's choking for... George takes a deep breath, leans down, pinches Veldman's nose and blows.  Janine knocks him out of the way.  First you're just going to blow it deeper into his lungs. You're going to get that money back. You're flying first class. Janine! And I want the window seat to now blow! George takes another breath, leans down, pinches and blows. Veldman! She slaps him. George blows again, miraculously, Veldman coughs, breathes, rolls over to his eyes. He looks him fiercely in the eye. There's no tomatoes in heaven, George. He picks up his little brown seed box freddling in close to his chest. Where do you go? I can without feeling guilty about it, okay? Yeah, are you alright? I want to see George. He's alright. Italy will be my slice of heaven. George looks at his wife, looks at his tomatoes and finally looks to Veldman. Veldman, I... We must make your hybrids. Well, Janine is kind of having a meltdown. What did you say? What did you mean? Well, Veldman pulls a chair from his cottage, tears it to shreds, Janine collects them joyously. There are more important things in this world than money, George. I see it now, stretching out before me like a never-ending farmer's market. Time is precious, too precious to waste on petty grievances. Me and the seeds are in this for that glory. The fame. It's great. It's beautiful. Yes, it's great. Oh, cool. It's so good, huh? Your face is clear. She got the clarity of all of this. It's great. I really like that. I want you to want it out a lot. You guys can take it out. You'll die. Yeah.  How's it going? How's it going? Yeah. Yeah. It's really magical. Look at this thing. Okay. I don't know. It's kind of like a pruning. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's so stunning. Yeah, so great. It's amazing. Everything I saw was really cool. It was amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. I love it. Why didn't you get up there? I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm going to show you some of the things you can do to help you get out of this. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I'm loving it. I have never asked nor have I desired anyone to refer to me by my rank since I retired 20 years ago. Wow, okay, got it. And your ship was... I can't tell you that. Top secret? Nuclear naming. I could tell you, but...  Your secret's safe with me, Edward. Now if there's nothing else, I really need to... If it's not secret, how come you have the found anchor sticker on the windshield of your Mustang? Leave me alone. But get out of here. I've got it. Sorry, sorry, my life. I just can't... I can't... Deal with me, I know. Neither can anyone else. Don't worry, it's okay, I'm used to it. Later, that's what they all say. The neighbors, the guy on the fishwalkies, my mother. It's not my Mustang. Skip with the urn. He holds out his hand. What urn? The one at your hand. Oh, oh, sorry. Skip, let's go Edward's hand with the urn. Thank you. I thought you wanted me to... I never would have, you know, if I hadn't thought you wanted me to. Hey, you okay, buddy? I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. What am I supposed to do now? What am I supposed to do now? Drove that Mustang over the country. Dropping off the charred bits of my heart, as instructed. The last off this balcony and into the sand and the sea. Now what? Edward waved the now empty urn. Here, no, no, let me get that for you before you feel it. It took me 20 years. No. It took me until 20 years ago. It took 60 goddamn lonely years to find the love in my life. I wasn't expecting to fall in love, Skip. When I got to Omaha after I retired, Omaha was pretty landlocked. When an old salt retires, he throws an anchor inland as far as he can, and wherever it lands, he's home.  Yeah, you look pretty fit now if you don't mind my saying so. I bet you could still throw an anchor all the way to Omaha from San Pedro, California. It was right down the shore. We thought we'd be able to see San Pedro from Marina del Rey. That's why we bought the condo sight unseen. Palace Verdez is always going to make San Pedro sight unseen from Marina del Rey. That's for sure. Why? 25 years younger than me. We both always thought I'd go first. I'll never forget when we met at the Omaha Blue Lagoon Bar Luau, we always kept the first photo of the two of us on the mantel. And Rick pulls a photo out of the moving box Skip brought in and stares at it intently. Oh, what a... Skip. Great for children. He's a little taken aback. Oh, what a night indeed. Quite a... quite a... handsome woman. So handsome. Beautiful... lips. Great hair. It's not everyone who can look good in a grass skirt and coconut bra. That's for sure. Heart attack. Gone. Just like that. How long has it been? A year. A year last Monday. Only one thing to do. Please don't tell me to get on with my life. No, man. We've got to get you drunk and laid. Skip, as a great bar, right down the street, sell us some little gals and put the wind right back in your sails. Skip, I can't. No, hey, not another word, I understand. A little problem with the old mask.  Skip, a lot of my life.  Never could find me a gal who could give me the kind of, oh, the real love and understanding and companionship that we all enjoyed in the Navy. Those great fellas. Those long months at sea. I mean, even as they did all eventually say, get out of here, Skip, I don't want to talk to you anymore. Can't you see I'm taking a shower? What are you, antsy boy? I insist you listen to me. You may, maybe. No woman has ever come even close to those days and nights on the ship. I never found the one girl in it. Poor, and I'm just like I'm sure your life was 20 years ago. Now that you're a single sailor again, it's time to just follow my lead and we're at my right, at my right. Yes, sir. Yes, the love of my life was a handsome woman. The most handsome woman in my life. That's because her name was Milton.  Ensign? No, sir. I don't think I do, sir. The love of my life was a man, Ensign. A man. A man? A man, a man! Sit it out loud, Milton. You didn't live to hear it. How can you not be alive to finally hear me tell the truth? Brasca! Wellington Jones, the third, the most handsome woman in Omaha. President of the Ladies Garden Society, lead alto of the Garden Gals Glee Club, is a man. Was a man! And I will love him forever. Permission to speak, sir. No, Ensign. Permission to listen. Listen. Yes, I have one of those Nancy boys the name he was full of. The ones you hated and feared. One of those sailors from Don't Ask, Don't Tell, forced the lifetime of secrets and lies until now it's too late. It's too late. No, Ensign. Permission to stay. Stay and listen. You may think I'm less than you are every day I'm alive, but by God I will not rank you until the day I die. Say yes, sir! Yes, sir! Nobody in the seashore, any of the neighbors, looking at us like you're looking at me right now. Permission not to look you in the eye, sir. Permission not granted. I think our love was as foul as the foul anchor. Unnatural? Well, it wasn't, Ensign. You know what Milton called it? Stop shaking and listen to me. It's my knees, sir!   Milton, sun shining on that ridiculous straw hat he always wore in that crazy garden, he used to harvest the biggest zucchini in town and say, Edward, Edward, darling, they may not know it, but our love is as good as theirs. It is certified organic. Certified organic. Oh, whoa! Bomb say it, Skip. Permission to speak frankly, sir. As frankly as I've been speaking to you. Seller to seller. Man to man. Man to man. I'd really like to get it out, Skip. Say it! I'd really like to take a ride in that house tonight. What? Top down. Top down. With you. With me. Made this statement down before. That was better than a navy. That was nice. That was. Wasn't it? Let's drive down to the Paradise Bar in Walm Beach. That old gay dive bar is still there. The last time I checked. And you want to take me? No! Not take you there for me. I want to take you there for you. See, if there's anyone there who puts the life back in the old lighthouse. I'm a one man, man, Skip. Maybe. But from what I understand, friends get friends late, sir. And whether it's with a gal or with a guy, I think you need to get late, sir. I don't know about that, but if we're going to be friends, you need to call me Edward. Can I? Can I take some keys out of his pocket? Just drive, Edward. It's not like it's... What was that again? Certified Organic. Yeah. Certified Organic. Certified Organic. Sir. Edward and Skip go through our door. End of play. A black comedy about a most absurd reality written by Jenny Webb. Jane stands next to a tall pedestal table in a crowded Starbucks like coffee spot. She's drinking from a covered paper cup. We hear business bustle around her along with traffic and street noises in the background. The woman looks out front through a window onto the street. A lot's going on. She checks her phone, someone's late. No one's called. No surprise. Lynn enters with the cup. Not hampered by the people around her. She moves directly to the table. No word? Nothing? No, but she does this all the time. Not calling? She mostly calls, but she's always late and there's always a fabulous excuse. She had someone on a date last night, so maybe it'll be extra fabulous this time. What's a somewhat date? Movies with a friend. A man, but just a friend. So that's not a date at all. With her you never know. I don't understand. Rebecca enters with the cup. Rebecca enters with the cup. She moves with the disturbing awareness of the close proximity of people around her, the chaos outside. Hey, you. I was right, wasn't I? Hot city in the night. Well, you look terrible. Nice to see you, too.  No, I'm serious. You really do look... Be a doll and get her something, would you? Like what? To drink. That'd be great. Thanks. Get her what I'm having, tell them it's for me. But it's not for me. You know what, it's okay. And see if they have any croissants left? The chocolate ones. If not chocolate, berry or something, but not cheese. All right. Thanks. I sometimes think she lives on her own planet. So, given your questionable appearance, I'm especially looking forward to the story behind your 45 minute delay. I know. I'm sorry. Hang on for just a bit. Our guy-less friend has not apparently been pretty to even one of your extraordinary excuses what bizarre mishaps or accounts of barely missed buses we have in store this time. Yeah, I wish. I just noticed. You wore that last night all that.  No, don't start yet. It's never a fifth of a second time. I love the third time. I don't know. I never quite got the charm name. But that's just me. I'm jaded. Right. No chocolate croissants. And no berry? No. So no croissants? No. We're all on the edge of our figurative seats. Beverage is in hand. Tell all. I'm sorry to let you down here. Not much to tell. I was raped. You were raped. Again? You were raped again? Weren't you just raped? I'm sorry. This year has sucked. It's the third time. What third time? This year. The third time this year. Right? Right. Yeah. You were on a date though. If it was date rape, that really shouldn't have happened. It wasn't date rape. It wasn't a date. Then it wasn't much of a friend. Even I draw the line at rape. Wait. You were raped. How did it happen? Same way. It always happens.  To rape? Well, it's how they were raped. I mean, they think they come with the equipment. Any pastries at all? So rape was your friend? No. He would never rape me. Well, that's certainly upside. Friends and rape get far too complicated. Scones. There's always scones for their scones. I don't. What did happen then? Nothing out of the ordinary. You don't want to hear about it. I do. We just went to the movies. That's all. Movie theater rape. Those floors are awful. That is a messy, messy rape. It was after the movie. Right after? I don't really do this, but I'd settle for a biscotti if it comes down to the toilet. No. It was late, so we thought we'd take a bus home. My friend and I. There weren't a lot of people around. We didn't give it a second thought. And we didn't notice until we got on what kind of bus it was. What kind of bus it was? Well, yes. A bus with curtains. What? They're very popular now, because who wants a public rape? Rape is something you do in the pricey of your home with the drapes drawn, or in the occasional alley, shuttered storefront, office cubicle, bathroom stalls. That's always a go-to. Waking up after a party, having no idea what happened until you watched the videos. I don't understand.  Rape buses. Handy-dandy buses, strong with curtains built for rape. What, really? No, but I think the city prides itself on adaptive reuse.  We didn't notice the curtains or the men in the back until we were already moving. Oh, that's a hard road.  Gang rape? How many of them were there? I don't... my friend tried to protect me.  How is he? How is he?  I bet they roughed him up something terrible. How are you? She's fine. Wait, but fine. And be honest on the excuse meter. She was raped for the third time this year. You're talking like that's some sort of a record. And my five men, all five... She doesn't get extra credit for that. When I was in my 20s, it was like every month I couldn't keep track of how much you'll get over it. We all do. How? What choice do we have?   Rapists at the counter, rapists drinking coffee, rapists with baked goods.  The street is teeming with them. Oh, look, there's a couple I recognize now.  Never. You've never kissed? Yeah. You've never kissed?  You've never been raped. Not once. I don't know. But you have had sex. Of course. Consensual sex. That's still possible. I'm sorry to say it's hard, but you are. Why do I do? That's her life. You shouldn't have put it off that long. That's crazy. Real sex. What? What are you talking about? It's one of those things. You just have to get out of the way. It's easier. But why should it be easier? Why should it even happen? Look at her. For the third time this year. She looks like she's had enough. More than enough. Behind curtains. In dark corners. And on the street in broad daylight. In my own back. Pieces I don't even recognize. I'm not even sure they're still a part of me. I keep moving. And there's less and less of me. This year. Each year. Every year. We'll drink up. That's just the way it is. But why? Why? Because we didn't have to be that way. What if we lived someplace where rick wasn't the way it is? In your alternate universe where rick apparently doesn't exist. Or if it does. As long as it does. It should never be easy. Men should never be raised to think that. Should not be raised to think that. There should never be an excuse for anyone. There's a sign. Can you imagine? Artans taking them down. So everyone sees. Everyone has to. Getting on a bus. To some place you actually want to be. Invited a St. Pierre. A bare stage. Per a woman of indeterminate age. About distinct youthfulness. Stand center stage. Believe me. I put a lot of thought into this. The last thing I wanted someone to tell me. I shouldn't want it. I mean, yeah. Of course I'm a feminist. Who is it? But that's not. An all encompassing notion. There's no binding contract there. No. Constitution. Save the basis to human decency, right? Right. Because. She always told me about the choice. The choice. The woman's choice. But I guess she never considered what would happen. If I chose a choice she wasn't happy with. If I chose to choose you. The choice that takes me part way out of myself and into you. And frenzies my thoughts and makes me want to be the kind of woman she could hate. I choose it. I chose it. And I don't care. Broke the earth around my brain and till the soil and planted a seed. In the prefrontal cortex. Right between the eyes.  Should have. I have the choice. We have the choice. And we should choose to rev. Max out the odometer until the needle quivers beyond the delineation and prescribe limits. We've only ever imagined and not a generation ago would have never fathomed. Good! Of course it's good. Why wouldn't it be good? Extending down and twining with my brainstem and tracing my veins seizing my muscles and animating me from the inside out because she moved a lot of earth. Delicate flowers are not so hearty.  I was no longer enough. I must be more. Want more. And shatter who I am when I'm with you.  Victim of your violent penetration. That was all me. And I am not defenders of you but not quite part of you. We are only an amorphous entity from afar. I do want more. She wants me to have. I need to opt for another option. She shouldn't have provided it.  For now at least because I want this now and I may never want it again. The seasons wane and I just want to suspend myself at this precise axial tilt at this exact angle for just a little while longer. My head isn't the only fertile realm. So sew those wild oaks in me. Catch a seed on the wind and stick it in. Stick your finger into the hot wet earth and let it catch. Let it explode from me and the bamboo shoots skywards and let it carry us until we see the curvature of the earth let it grow from me and into you. Because I need a season outside of my own head because I love you. Choose it. Time now place New York City of Reese's Island. Lights come up on Dorothy's old but luxurious apartments. It is empty. Footsteps and heavy breathing as someone tries to unlock the door. There is frantic jiggling and hitting of the door. I can't get it to work!  Why is it the minute you put the key in the lock you immediately go you have to go to the bathroom.  It's always that way. It's so weird. Are you using the right key? Of course! Don't dare! Let me try! She rushes in and Louise on her walker follows slowly but both are wearing strange wigs. Louise a short blonde platinum and Dorothy a long bright red with bangs.  Hurry! I think we were followed! Hurry up! A thank you would be nice and old bones will go. Dorothy slams the door behind her and begins locking the door tight as Louise heads down the hall. Did you notice the dark blue sedan? We should not check our bags. No, no, no! You said two minutes to Paris. Dorothy examine the key. Unless you're in a unitard the thing you insisted we all wear the manny bird is stylish. Yeah, right. Looks like we made it with what? 10 minutes to spare. I thought the boys would be... It's an appointment with my therapist in five years? Do you think he believed me? You told him you were sick, right? Definitely him. Of course he believed you. You're always definitely him. It's been for me and I don't think there's anything wrong with keeping yourself monitored. I need to take my blood pressure ASA key. Dorothy takes a cuff off an end table and begins taking her pressure. Technology today. Let's see. Why don't we two days?  I think you should. You already had two on the flight. You counted too many. You get a little loud, call attention to yourself and under the circumstances I don't know what I do without you watching out for me and seriously wonder how I lived for 72 years without your help.  Dorothy struggles to get Louise's boots off. We were on every news channel at the airport. Who can help you know even the driver was talking about it the whole country thinks they've been attacked by radicals. The boots come off. I've got to get out of these clothes a nice long hot bath is what I need but first the drinks. That girl. You know they had to put a spin on the deal. Middle eastern terrorists in the easiest direction they might think twice before they spin on old tree uggers. They've been touched that much and well well it was carrying hand grenades by the way they grabbed. Now there beware of the old lady with the tube of denture cream. Well here's some iron and have some stock in that oil corporation we just blew up. Oh. Money well spent. Dorothy enters with drinks. I'm not sure if traveling really suits me anymore. I used to adore new places. Montana? Not so much. What time is it? Who cares? We make it back alive. Louise switches on the TV. Interviewing that young kid not a clue that still can't hardly believe we did it. Cactus. Horticulturists. Collecting cactus specimens. The earth. I'd like to save their precious oil. Oh every joint in my body is on fire. You think the boys made it out? Maybe we should do something. I think we've done enough. They could be stranded somewhere or maybe maybe we should call the police. The highway patrol. The hospital something.  We are under the code of silence. Remember the pact?  If anything happens to them. You are getting hysterical. I have a pill for that somewhere. You know we are in the silence mode. We can't contact them no matter what. We promised no calls. And the police? Are you kidding? We just blew up the largest oil field in the country. We might want to lay low for a few days.  You know exactly what I'm talking about.  That is still doing it.  I'm going to assume it is the tension of the moment I know all the age that is possible to lose your mind. Any time anyone speaks the truth about you they must be insane. I'm going to assume they must be insane.   I don't know for marriages, for dead husbands what would you call it? Watch your step. You can hand it up but not take it. I was a trophy. Louise and Dorothy are circling each other.  I'm going to let you walk out of here now you better guess again. I'm going to let you walk out of here now you better guess again. I'm going to let you walk out of here now you better guess again. Louise jumps Dorothy and the women struggle awkwardly It's unreal. Overreacted You're not putting that back on. Who am I to stop you? So now you would? Time, maybe you're right. Men, they had one thing to do detonate and come home. Maybe they got kicked out. They're old and old is invisible.  You're probably right. Factory next They killed dolphins you know. We're going to be involved next year we're going to do this again because we're that crazy playwrights, female playwrights we love you, visit the website connect with us on Facebook, Twitter we're all over the place. I do want to give a lot of applause to our fabulous directors Mary Jo Tre and Sarah Israel taking the corners of me like a rock star so lugging water I can't even, I'm so thankful. So we've got some playwrights here we have Jessica Abrams here.


Welcome to the drum history podcast. I'm your host Bart van der Zee and today I'm joined by the legendary teacher Pete Megadini. Pete, welcome to the show. Yeah, thank you, Bart. So today's kind of a unique episode because we're going to talk about your career as both a musician and a teacher, which you have very, I mean, you've been a teacher for a long time. So going back to Michael Shrieve from who played with Santana up to the very famous Mike Johnston, who everyone knows and loves from Mike's lessons and modern drummer podcast, formerly, I guess. But so I think a cool way to do this is there's a lot of history involved as we've talked previously and kind of gotten a plan together. But so why don't we start with the beginning of your career and your drumming? And as you go, you can just kind of fill us in on some cool history stuff and drum stuff along the way. Sounds good. I'll try to sort of give you just a brief summary of how I got started and and how I got serious. Cool. I my first drum experience was in the elementary school band in Palm Springs, California. Catherine Finchie elementary school in the fifth grade, and they had a band and a band director. And in the sixth grade, I was still playing. And most of the guys had dropped out by then. But I was still playing and I played in school bands up until high school. And then I went to high school in Arizona and got pretty serious. I was playing in rock bands. I was actually doing some recording. It was some kind of major people already when I was quite young. And I actually did a track with Phil Spector, which was the beginning of kind of his his thing, you know. But I took I so I got a teacher when I got out of high school. I realized that I was getting really serious about drumming and I didn't know a lot of the things I needed to know about it were escaping me. So I I'll just mention this. I got a great teacher when I was 17 just out of high school, Don Boswell in Phoenix. I was only in Phoenix for four years, but I had this terrific teacher and he brought me a long way. So there you go. That's how my teaching started hit his influence. Yeah, that's that's funny how I think a teacher can either make you or break you. And that's so sad. But like you know that a good teacher can make you absolutely love the drums.  Like you have a little old lady who's teaching you or something after school and you don't want to play.  Yeah, he had come around to the high school and he played, took us all into a studio and he played for the drummers in the high school band. And I just couldn't believe the guy was so enamored with him. He was he was everything, a great player. He knew he knew what he was talking about and so forth. But you're absolutely right. I had a few bad teachers and as long as you hang in there, you're going to learn something from bad teachers as well. One thing is if you're going to teach, you don't want to be like them. No, that's a good point. So you don't want to teach and have students feel less than, you know, it's your job, I think as a teacher. If somebody's doing the work, now somebody's like if you're in school and you're teaching a course to somebody in drums and they're slacking off and they're trying to just get a credit, that's one thing. But if somebody's coming to you for lessons and they're working hard at it, some guys are going to be more talented than others, you know. But you know what? Some of the guys who just do the work and work the hardest, they'll get a lot further, they'll get a lot more out of it and go a lot further than some of the guys who have the pure talent. Yeah. And I always kind of in my mind, I find that when I'm doing the show, I equate things. So I went to school for like video and like audio engineering stuff. And a lot of the drum stuff in my life corresponds with that, where you'd be in class and there'd be people who'd be slacking off and who wouldn't be paying attention in like a recording studio class. And I'm like, isn't this what you want to do? But it doesn't like, it's the same with drumming where, and those people, a lot of them have literally nothing to do with like media for their career. And it's the same with drumming. It's like, okay, if it's a class, whatever, but the people who thrive are obviously the people who like are obsessed with it and love it, like all of us. Yeah. And maybe they're not obsessed with it at first, you know. Maybe it's up to you to show them some things. Maybe you recognize something in them that they're not even seeing in themselves, you know? Absolutely. And you say, hey, listen, you got something here. I'm ready to work with you, but you're going to have to work with me too. Otherwise, let's not fool ourselves. I don't get too many students anymore who aren't real serious. If they study with me, generally, they know why they're studying with me. And they spend the time and they do the work. And, you know, we take it as far as it can go and as far as they want to go. And I've had some fabulous students who are doing really great in the business. The two that you mentioned, Michael is a great example of a perfect student who was enjoying some success. He was with Carlos Santana when he was studying with me. But Carlos hadn't hit yet. The band hadn't. I was asking him questions like, how's the band doing? And he'd say, oh, pretty good. You know, we played this gig or that gig. And then he said, you know, ask him, how's the band? He said, oh, yeah, we made a record. And then three weeks later, I said, how's the record doing? Hey, it's doing pretty good. They got it racked out in front of Tower Records in San Francisco. I said to my wife, you know, Michael Shreve's band, they got the record racked out in front. And I said, that's pretty serious.  And of course, that album went platinum and the band went platinum and Michael went platinum. With that great solo he played on Woodstock, the Woodstock Documentary. There's that 10 minute drum solo by Michael Shreve. And you'll see all that great hand work and all that stuff he worked on so hard. And it's still today. I mean, Michael's still playing at a high level. I mean, he doesn't play any less. He plays stronger now than he probably even played then, you know. Because those things, you know, if you learn correctly, especially technique, which I always work with my students with technique just because we immediately assume that we have to have good technique. It's not going to be some magical formulas. And here your stick's going to be three inches high and then four inches high. And then, you know, we just work on it. I studied with the best technicians and I know what I'm talking about. So we get that out of the way as we're going, you know. We don't just concentrate on that. We work on everything. So, you know, the guys are always playing. It's not like, okay, I'm going to break you down and we're going to start all over again. I never do that. No. And you hear about those kind of teachers and it's a little bit drill sergeant-ish. Like, I know that we, I did an episode about Max Abrams, the teacher in England.  And it's just very different. But let me ask you, so because you had both teaching career and obviously as a performer, but like, when did you start teaching? Like, how old were you when you started teaching? Okay, so I was taking lessons with Don at the Leaderman's Music Store in Phoenix. And then he got busy with students and other things. So he gave me, he said, would you like to teach my beginning students? And I said, yeah, sure, that sounds great. So I started with students he couldn't handle. I started taking them, you know, and that's how I got started. And, you know, I've always done both. I've always taught, but I've always played. I'm a serious player. I mean, it's all about playing to me. As a matter of fact, I always tell guys, you know, check out a teacher. If he doesn't really have good playing credentials, I don't know, man. To me, that's a red flag for a lot of them. Yeah. I mean, I see both sides of that. There's people who are just, they love to just teach and like, for me, I mean, I'm in Cincinnati, which isn't the biggest like music hub. So it's harder to get the big credits, but it's like, but it does definitely help when you see that like, oh, they've done this and this. I'm not talking about big time credits. I'm just talking about knowing what it is to go out and play professionally at a drum set. You know, I'm not talking about percussionists and orchestras and stuff. Yeah. And that's really important too. I mean, I studied percussion at the conservatory with a wonderful percussionist who became the tympanist with the New York Philharmonic for 31 years before he passed away a few years ago. And so I had that background and I admired a great deal. But for drum set playing, you got to hear your teacher play a little bit and like it, I think. You know, if he says, you got to do this, but I can't play it. I don't know. I think that anyway, if I can't play it, I usually don't teach it. So that's probably smart. Probably a smart thing to not do. But all right. So then simultaneously, you're teaching, but you're also performing out. And you've got some big credits. So why don't we talk about that?  But what was your big kind of breakthrough moment? Actually, maybe my first gig as a country and Western drummer in Arizona, just playing a club with these really seasoned professional country musicians every night for a year and a half. It gave me a real good taste of, you know, journeymen. Even though I was really young, I was only 16 when I started. But so when I got to playing, I got interested in jazz through my teacher. And once I got interested in jazz, I spent an awful lot of time working on that part of my playing. So I went to New York City and I studied with Roy Burns. And I played in New York City at a club all the time I was there, two Italian guys and me. And we played from nine to four in the morning or something. But I was in New York and it felt great. And when I moved from New York to San Francisco to go to school, I went to the conservatory and I met George Duke at the conservatory. And George and I cooked up and we formed the Georgia Duke Trial. And so then I spent five years with George, four or five years with George.  And it was a real popular place. And a lot of musicians and athletes and so forth. But mainly it was a black club, not that it everybody was welcome, but it was that's just the way it was. And then Al Jerobe sat in one night and then he got the gig and then he was with us for two years. That's awesome. Well, you got to be there. I think the key thing that I mean, it's so obvious, but a lot of times people don't force themselves to think about it as like, for things to happen, you have to be there or you have to be doing it.  So the fact that you were there doing it, that's how you meet people. Well, we all moved to LA, George and I and the bass player John Hurd and Al. Everybody moved to LA at a different time. The gig kind of ended and we went there and George took off right away and then John got really busy and then I got busy in LA and to your point, if I wasn't in LA, I wouldn't have gotten those calls.  That I got the Diana Ross gig because I happened to be in the right place at the right time to go to an audition that she was holding and she picked the rhythm section and I happened to be the drummer she picked. So that was because I was in LA and I was ready to do that audition and it happened. That's awesome. What year was that? What year was Diana Ross? That was when she first started as a single performer. I had been with Bobby Gentry and then I moved over to Diana Ross in 1970 and 71. Was it a pretty technical gig?  Was it it seems a little more like your background you're playing the album? Yeah, they needed some because this was we were playing all big rooms, big showrooms, is that Las Vegas, New York, Miami, Canada, and we'd stay there for two weeks or three weeks in the same room playing six nights in Las Vegas seven nights. And so that was that kind of showroom with a big band. And so we'd have some numbers that we'd have to play. We'd have to read. We had to be good readers, but we also had to play Motown. We had to know how to play Motown. And but, you know, I had played going back to my country days and my rock days. I was I always felt I was and still do feel I'm a pretty good backbeat drummer.  And then ain't no mountain high enough is a straight ahead backbeat Motown, get it down. You know, cool thing. So, yeah. So that show was fun because it had everything in it, you know. How old were you at that point, just to kind of keep the timeline? 28. Maybe 26. Yeah, I'm not 26, 28, something like that. You think of like, like I was watching recently a thing about Levon Helm. And it was a it was like a newer documentary about the band. Like we were brothers. I forget the name of it. But it was like talking about playing them with the Hawks where it was like, they were like, oh, yeah, we were I was 14 years old or something. And it's like, yeah. So you started when you were 16 playing out and stuff. I mean, that's just that you got an early start, which I think is great. And it's obviously a different world now than there's no where there's there's no social media then.  Well, you know, I think it's exciting now. I mean, it's it's always been exciting. It's always been different from decade to decade with me. And it's exciting now. You know, I'm I'm doing stuff online and I'm getting better at doing some some of the stuff that I play that people maybe haven't heard me do. Some of my polyrhythm books. Yeah, to demonstrate some of that stuff. And I'm finally getting it getting a chance to get it out there. And is that some very complex stuff written in some some of my books? And now I'm going to chance to play it a little bit and talk about it and put it on YouTube. And it doesn't cost me a dime. It's just a matter of, you know, spending the time to learn to learn how to do it technically. Yeah, really? You know, and so I find it exciting. And man, if I want to hear somebody play, I guess I can hear anybody I want any time of the day. Yeah, you just search it and there they are. And there they are. Yeah. And your books are pretty, you know, you have very famous books. And like we talked last week about kind of the polyrhythm stuff, which I want to get into that about into more like, you know, maybe you give me and the listeners some like, you know, lesson type stuff that we can we can take and work on.  But so obviously you're still teaching your, do you do clinics and things? I mean, as a 28 year old, I'm sure you're just trying to gig with Diana Ross. And what came after that? Well, after Diana Ross, I got a few calls to do some more road gigs. But I was living in LA and had had two kids and we had played Toronto. And my wife at the time was Canadian. And I decided to move to Toronto because they had a I like the musicians up there. They were they were very good. And they had a vibrant studio scene. And I wanted to place more studio work. So to make a long story short, I enrolled in at the University of Toronto to do a master's degree in percussion. And I thought, well, I'm up there. If it didn't work out, at least I would have done something, you know. So that worked out great. I had some great teachers there. And they it was there's a percussion group called Nexus. And those guys were teaching there. The two guys had found that group Nexus that they won. They've won a Grammy and they they still tour and cool. And so I studied with them. And I got busy in the studios in Toronto. And and then I started teaching there. And I've had some great students up there in Canada. But I lived I lived in Canada for about 17 years before I came back to the States. And I wound up in Montreal and teaching at McGill and Concordia universities. And and playing around. But in Canada, I played with some great people. I played with Chet Baker. I played with Sonny Stitt twice. You know, some really big name jazz artists who are coming up to play in the city. I got to I got to play with some of them. So that that was, you know, that I don't know where else I could live where I could have played with. Yeah, big names from the West Coast and big names from the East Coast who are all coming up to Canada to play a couple of these jazz rooms. Where I was a house drummer. Some of the time, you know, I mean, Canada's I've only been to Vancouver, but it is just so awesome.  And it was like city with like the, you know, the water and everything. It was really cool. But I need to go and explore more of Canada when that's where we're physically able to do that after this is all done. Yeah, it's a different place. Yeah, it's really quite different. A small population, 35 million, maybe 40 million people in the entire country. The entire country is bigger than the USA. So I wound up giving clinics all over the all over the country for Pearl. I was with Pearl drums at the time.  And boy, I had it all to myself for a few years of just doing clinics. And I went all over the country. And yeah, it was it was it was interesting being up there. But you know, like you say, logistics sometimes is is the most important part of this gig. It used to be, I don't know if it's it's that way anymore. But you know, guys are making good careers now living in smaller places, which is nice to see, you know. Yeah, absolutely. And the clinic thing and just what you said kind of made me think of like, like I know Joe Morello did a ton of clinics where you can and a lot of guys now, let's say Mike, Mike Johnston, a lot of people, he does a ton of stuff.  And you almost get this reputation as being a clinician where like it kind of, I feel like it takes your teaching and this is just the perspective of like an outsider. Seems like it takes your teaching to the next level because everyone kind of goes like, oh, that's Pete Magadini, you know, the clinician, he's doing these clinics. He must know everything. It seems like it doing the clinics really helps to solidify you as more of like a quote unquote famous teacher. And I guess what I'm getting at is did that lead to you getting like, I know on your like the people you've you've taught there's like, let's say like Chad Wackerman and stuff.  You know, it's hard to say exactly why people contact me to study privately. But usually they've heard about me one way or another either through one of my students or they read maybe a biography about me and some of the people I've taught. But I don't know, you know, when I when I give drum clinics, I try to, you know, I try to pick a certain area that that might appeal to that audience because, you know, if I do polyrhythms and I have somebody who just wants to know about playing basic drums, then we're not going to communicate too well, you know, because that's that's a pretty advanced stuff. But anyway, you know, I just I just want people to come to a clinic and and leave with something and feel that, you know, that they've learned something. Some guys give clinics, they're not really used to it. They just do a lot of playing and then they go, are there any questions? You know, so yeah, but there's both. I've seen both different.  But you got to speak to everyone a little bit. Yeah, right. And you know, I don't get me wrong. I admire those guys who just sit sit. I saw Cindy Blackman at the drum fest in Quebec, Montreal one year. And she just got out and she just sat down with the drums and she just played a solo for 20 minutes. And it was like incredible.  Awesome. Yeah. And a perfect technique. Her technique is so beautiful to watch.  I mean, she's not big. And she hits the drums like a truck, you know, if she wants to. And that's all from this great technique that she has. And, you know, I met her once after one of her concerts that I didn't know she knew me. And I said, hi, Cindy, I just love the way you play. I'm Pete Megan. She said, oh, Pete, wow. Yeah, I want to talk to you.   And then I'm left there with Robbie Coltrane and the two of us. I'm there with John Coltrane's son and he was on the gig. Wow. And I'm going, oh, yeah.  And I figured, well, that might be something to talk to him about because he never heard his dad play live. He was his dad was gone by the time he was sure, you know, a youngster. So we talked about that. And then she came back and I didn't know how she knew me, but she had gone through my book, Polyrhythms for the Drum Set. And when I hear her play, I hear this loose feeling that she gets with her time. And when you go through that book, that's what that book does. It opens you up. It widens your playing. It takes your headlights from down the middle of the highway and expands them all over the road. Yeah. Well, why don't we do that right now? Maybe because we talked about having a little polyrhythm section of this, why don't you kind of give us your general like, you know, overview of polyrhythms that can help to do exactly what you just said, where you can kind of like broaden your horizons. And I'm going to say before that that I have, as my foot has been in a cast for three months, my right foot, I'm a little out of practice. So bear with me if my mind is not quite there with you because, but everyone else is probably way more practiced than me at the moment. So give us your kind of spiel on polyrhythms. Okay. Well, basically, I studied Indian music one summer in San Francisco at Berkeley, at University of California. Ali Akbar Khan came with his musicians to teach. And so there was about 40 of us in the polyrhythm class, which lasted eight weeks every day.  Sure. I've heard. And, but he used to let me hang back after class with my drum pad. And we used to kind of improvise back and forth. And he showed me, the teacher showed me, he says, I'm going to teach you about rhythmic ratios. Oh, rhythmic ratios. What's that? You know, and so he showed me like if you're in four, four, and you take all those notes and you divide them into triplets and sixteenths, eighths, triplets and sixteenths and all those combinations, you're still in four, four. Yeah. But you can also go in six over four and then take all those notes, eighths, triplets and sixteenths and drive, divide them in the same combinations. And then you're in a ratio of, you have two ratios going one to one, which is the four, four and one and a half times faster, which is the six. So six, so one and a half to one, I said, oh, one and a half to one. Never thought about it. I knew I could play in six. I played enough Latin and some African beats and I knew that. But, but then it goes, you know, four, five, six, seven, eight. And then half note triplets, three. So three, four, five, six, seven, eight are the basic polyrhythmic ratios. Once you get those down, then you just subdivide notes in the middle. And, but you need how to, you need to know how to feel both rhythms at the same time. And that's, that's the trick to it. Because most people want to just hang on to the four, four. They want to play some pattern that comes out as a polyrhythm, but it only so happens to come out as a polyrhythm. You're not hearing it as a polyrhythm. Sure. You're just saying, oh, look at that, that, that quarter note triplet just seems to float out of this exercise I'm playing. Yeah. So he taught me and, and here's a simple thing to try. If you want to try something that is the basic, basic thing you need to do when you talk, do polyrhythms. If you have four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, and then you have six. One, two, three, four, five, six. One, two, three, four, five, six. I'm going to have to tap on something here. Sure, go, go for it. And so we have six. One, two, three, four, five, six. Now count the four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four, five, six. One, two, three, four.  Yes. I feel like it's one of those things where you hear words talking about it and it's just, but to hear someone actually do that and split it is just really helpful because polyrhythms are always something for me where I've, like you've said, I've played many different things, but I'm not actually feeling it. You know what I mean? Like I'm not actually comfortable where that helped just to hear that. Yeah, exactly because that is really the basis of all of it. If you start there and the book that you need if you want to start with polyrhythms is my first one. It's called Polyrhythms The Musician's Guide and it's published by Hal Leonard. It's available everywhere. Cool. And the drum set version of that is polyrhythms for the drum set and that has to do with coordinating polyrhythms between hands and feet. So everything's in a polyrhythm, you know. Gotcha. Wow.  You know, yeah. And that's the kind of things you want to hear when you're a drummer. Yeah, you want to hear it's not it's hard and, man, you keep slowing down or you keep speeding. Oh yeah, that's great. So I'll put a link to the book and you're probably your website, which I'm sure has everything on it. But yeah, that's really cool polyrhythms. Honestly, there's certain things with drumming that are like, maybe it's just, I think everyone knows what I'm talking about, where you kind of like learn and you find it like, I guess scary is the wrong word for it, but it's daunting and it doesn't need to be, you know, you just got to practice. Exactly.  Look at all the drums that are all doing something different and but the dancers are pulling it all together and what are they doing? You know, yeah, now my books aren't African or Indian or anything, it just gives you the ability to hear that. And if you, if you start at the beginning and just take a few pages, you'll know more in three pages, you'll know more about polyrhythms than most people in the world. Yeah, you know, you just got to do it. But I'm speaking to myself. You like, you just got to do it where you just got to practice it and sit down, which is that's just the the thing in general is practice actually practicing, sitting down and having educated practicing, which, you know, and maybe we talk, I think we should talk about him because one of your very esteemed students, Mike Johnston, who he has been very helpful to me. And if you're listening to this, hey, Mike, thanks very much. But he, he made me his pick of the week one week on the modern drummer podcast when he was on it with Mike Dawson. And it just, it I don't think he I'm sure he does realize, but it quadrupled my listenership. It introduced me to a whole bunch of people who had never heard the show and it just has grown since then. So I owe him a big thank you for that. But how did your relationship start with with Mike? Oh, well, Mike called me. He said, my name is Mike Johnston. No, you know, he was unknown. I mean, I mean, I never heard of him. He had lessons with Mike and all that. That was that was to come, you know. And he called me and he and the thing that impressed me about Mike was, first of all, when he came to me, he was already playing really well. He was playing with a group called Simon Says. I thought they sounded really great. He was really up on the band himself. And I think we're going to go places. And we have some good sponsorship and something to do with Disney. And and so, but that was cool. That that he still just came every week. He had to drive two hours to a lesson or hour and a half anyway, because I was in Northern California in a little town called Navado outside of San Francisco and he was driving down from Sacramento area. So that's quite a drive. And he'd be all prepared. And he and, you know, I introduced him to the polyrhythm stuff fairly soon because he was quite advanced already. And he just did the work. He kept doing the work. And we talk about the band and it looked like things were going. He's always exuberant, you know, very exuberant. And but the exuberance never got in the way of the lesson. The lessons were always practiced flawlessly. And then he'd add something to him. He said, look what else I did with this. And here's what I did with that. Steve Smith studied with me for a little while out of the polyrhythm book, Polyrhythms for the Drum Set. And he kept giving me exercises back that he invented himself. And now I'd have to go home and practice to to get him down. You know, I felt like I was taking the lessons after a while. Yeah, that's a pretty big. That's a big name. And so Mike just kept doing it. And so I introduced him to Yamaha guys. And I said, you know, I'm with Yamaha now. I've been with for quite a while. And and this was in the 90s. And he came to the drum fest same drum festival in Canada. And I said, if you can make it, I'm going to want to introduce you to these guys. I think the band's going to hit and you're going to and you're impressing me a lot. So they gave him an endorsement, you know. And then the next thing, you know, the band, something happened. The band collapsed. It didn't go. He went back to Sacramento. He was kind of down to just start teaching himself at the at one of the stores up there. I can't remember the name of it, but fairly well known music store. And I said, Mike, how's it going? I said, oh, you know, band didn't happen, but I'm giving lessons in that. And the next thing, you know, he started doing the lessons online and. Yeah. And look what happened.  I should tell you, he's been on the show. So at that point, it's kind of where he picked up his episode because he basically was kind of like, you know, I'm sure. Someone else on the show said someone's always first or so. You can't say someone was first. But Mike was probably one of the first people to do online drum lessons. And he kind of gave us that whole story. And he mentioned you a little bit in his episode, too. But obviously it was more about just the starting the lessons.  And he's got this talent, you know, to talk to people. And he's a hard worker, you know, he not only has the online lessons, but he has people flying in to go to the school and now the thing about Mike is that he played with Simon says, and maybe a few other bands. But you know, he plays really well.  And that's because he just works so hard at it, you know. He knows polyrhythms. You hear it in his playing. And I teach my drummers a lot about Latin playing, too. And you notice when he does lessons with Mike, he'll do a segment on Brazilian drumming or the influence of Latin on his own playing. And then he'll play some outlandish thing that incorporates some of those grooves, you know. Yeah, definitely. And I see I see guys like Mike and a lot of other drummers and even talking to you and like just people where like it just motivates you to A, practice the drums, but B, for me, it's like, I'll see, let's stick with Mike.  Like I need to keep doing an episode of the podcast every week.  It's just it's people like that, I think, who inspire people to do whatever it is they want to do. It might be like like he's talking about like, you know, tea all the time. So it's like, you know, and he takes cool pictures of it. It's like, it might inspire you to get into something new. So I think that's a part of what being a teacher is. It's just like you said, your first teacher is just a cool guy who makes you want to do it, right? I mean, that's a huge part of it. Yeah. Yeah. I've had four great teachers. Don Bothwell, Roy Burns, Roland Koloff, the percussionist I mentioned before, and then the Nexus guys at the University of Toronto, and then Mahaprush Misra, my Indian guru teacher. And then I studied some African drumming, too, with some guys from Wesleyan University, also with Nexus, mainly Russell Hardenberger. And African, if you look at some of my videos, you'll see me play some of these basic African grooves. And from all from some of these basic African A-way grooves, all our all our drumming in this in this continent came from, including Brazil and also including the Caribbean islands. So salsa and Brazilian and jazz and straight ahead funk drumming up, you know, has these African roots. And I think it's important to learn a little bit about African drumming as well, which Mike did. You know, everybody who studies with me gets gets this one African pattern, because out of that comes almost everything we do, so one way or another. Sure. Yeah.  That's kind of the basis of this show is just kind of going and digging in and finding the the origin of everything. And in reality, it all goes back to like Africa and that that kind of stuff, which I've done some episodes that touch on it, but I really need to do I need to find the like the the the absolute expert on African, you know, rhythms, which I imagine will be someone from Africa that seems fitting. But oh, yeah, there's some good experts out there to the. Yeah, for sure. Definitely. But before we end, I just want to give credit to some of the my favorite drummers from the past that had a great influence on me. Max Roach, Philly Joe Jones, Shelley Mann, Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, and Paul Motion with the Leavins. Yeah, I'm not familiar with him. I was going to say everyone before I'll check him out. Obviously, I'm always on the hunt for for great drummers, but everyone you just listed has just become like, I honestly think if there's like a Mount Rushmore of drummers most, I mean, and then obviously there's a there's a long list more of like, you know, many greats.  I really like Shelley Mann. I feel like he's he's well known. He is obviously a well known drummer, but he's not quite as well known to the the outer circle as like your buddies and your genes. But Shelley Mann is just unbelievable. And he seems like a really nice guy, obviously. Yeah, wonderful, wonderful person. Yeah, I got to know him a little bit.  You know, I thought about doing an episode which I have enjoyed a lot of Zappa music, but I need to go far further in. But like the I was thinking an episode will be cool about the drummers of Zappa and the another one about the drummers of Weather Report. Because there's like those two, you know, bands have so many great drummers. It's kind of one of those things where it's like a it just churned out great drummers. You know what I mean? There's something special about it. Yeah. Yeah. Before Weather Report, Joe Zawinol played with Cannonball Adderley's Quintet. Yeah. And that drummer was Louis Hayes. Yes. Also another terrific drummer, mostly known for playing with that band. But yeah, I've posted some videos of him online and I'm thinking so I don't get mixed up with another one. But I believe that there are a couple good solo videos of him, which I'll have to check and re and repost them. But yeah, it's when I started, I think I told you, but every day I post a cool old drum video that I find of like, you know, from the 20, I just posted one from 1928 up to like, you know, cool modern ones.  And two years later, I've never had one day where I've had an issue finding a different drummer. It's like, I was gonna say, I don't think that's gonna happen. Ever. And that was a non drummer who said that. But like, there's, so how do you, maybe this is a little bit of an out there question, but like, all right, so for young drummers, new drummers, I should say, how do you draw inspiration from a drummer when you're watching it? Like when you watch Billy Joe Jones, or when you're watching John Bonham, how are you kind of doing your homework and pulling things from him? What's what do you typically do? Typically, I just listen and love it.  And I have some things that I've worked out that, you know, are Elvin-ish. And I think they get you into that space. Yeah. But he sounds like two drummers to me. And that once asked his brother, his older brother, Hank, who piano player, Hank Jones, who was well known in his own right, I saw him at a concert or at a club one night. And I said, what is it with your brother, Elvin? I said, you know, I try to figure out some of the things he's playing. And it sounds like two people sometimes. He says, well, a lot of people don't know this. I don't know. Maybe he was putting me on, but he said a lot of people don't know this. But Elvin had a twin when he died. The twin died. When Elvin was born, there was a twin. Oh, man. And he says, don't ask me about it, but our brother, Sad, has a theory about your question. And that, and he left me with that. So I went, oh, Elvin and his twin are playing at the same time. That's crazy. That's it. Yeah, that was crazy, because sometimes it's, sometimes he sounds like two people at once. That's so, that's just like, it makes you just think so hard. I mean, that's so sad that that happened, obviously, to his twin. But man, I'm sure he internalized that. For me, when you hear a drummer, you just sort of let it, it's sort of subliminally, you start to be like, oh, that's cool.  Oh, and yeah, another friend of mine and a wonderful drummer, Louis Belson, for sure. I want to mention a studio drummer that I saw play with Steely Dan on YouTube, Ricky Lawson. Ricky Lawson, I got to check him out.  And, you know, how do you analyze that? I don't know. It just feels so good, you know? And he's a deep cat. He must have played a lot of spiritual stuff, maybe worked on polyrhythms, I don't know, but maybe worked gospel, but the groove, the way he plays, but he's also reading some very, very difficult parts. And he's playing them without losing any of the groove and any of the flavor of what he's doing to make this band sound so, you know, down home and danceable, if for lack of a better word. Yeah. And he's playing in the, I just Googled him, he's playing Remo drums, which is sort of like, Louis played those, Louis Belson played those for a while, which that's, we talked about those drums in the Remo episode on the show, but just cool to see another guy playing that kind of short-lived line of drums. Off-brand. Yeah. I played those for a little while. They're good drums. They are good. Louis owned part of the company, though. Oh, that's, yeah. Well, and I remember when I talked to Herbie from Remo, he was telling me that, like, he was like, the main point of those drums was to sell pre-tuned heads. Like, they were like, the heads were pre-tuned and it was like a whole new technology and the drums were kind of secondary, which I wasn't sure if that, I was like, well, I don't think these huge drummers would be playing them. I mean, obviously he's the expert because he works for Remo, but I don't know. Not the drums I played anyway. They weren't, they were regular drums that tuned the heads. But they sounded really good. I have to say, they were, they were quite good drums, but they never took off because the shells were, I think, a little bit different enough that drummers didn't quite get it, you know? Yeah, sure.  Are you like a vintage drum guy? No. I have a couple of vintage drums in my studio and, yeah, I just don't have time to, I appreciate that and I love looking at them when, and the guys who do it are so knowledgeable about it and, but they're great to look at and I love them when I see them, but yeah, I don't have much room to put any vintage stuff around in my studio anyway. So, sure. Yeah, that makes sense. Now, I think now is a good time to tell people the classic where they can find you, what you're up to. Obviously, it's COVID, but maybe, you know, in the future. And if people can take lessons with you online, how they go about doing that? Sure. Well, I give Skype lessons and I have about 20 students I'm teaching on Skype. And I'm at www.petermagadini.com. And I can be reached through my website. Oh, I want to give a shout out to Brett Bellis, one of my students. And I think Brett mentioned my name to you at some point. So. Thank you so much for doing that. I always try and do it and sometimes try and give the shout out. So, thank you to Brett again. And people who listen to the show know that I mean, it's kind of cool that like most of the episodes now, for the most part, have turned into ones that people have recommended, which makes my life easier. I just need to find the right people, which for you, when he recommends talk to Pete Magadini, it was easy to find Pete Magadini. But some of them are like pretty out there and I have to find an expert. But yeah, big thank you to Brett. That's very cool. He recommended you. And I love that you're so eclectic with your show and you have so many different facets going at the same time. It's that's really terrific. I can see why Brett likes it so much. He said, Pete, you got to check this out, man. I've been listening to all these podcasts. They're really happening. So. Oh, that's awesome. I appreciate that a lot that and I've tried to keep it eclectic and I added it up. So this probably when this comes out, it'll be like episode 82 or three or something. And if you I mean, if you do the math they're each about an hour. So you can listen for if you listen straight, you have a couple days like three or four days of straight drum history. Yeah, I can see it. I don't recommend doing that. But but yeah, no, that's that's great. So so peter magadini.com. Correct. Yeah, www.petermagadini.com. Okay, Peter and then MAGADINI.com. People can find you there. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, Pete, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us here. And I'm going to link in the show notes to where obviously your website, but I'll put a specific link for that. The Polyrhythm book, because I think a lot of people will like that. And a lot of listeners, which I love actually buy the books that we talk about, which is really cool. Well, I should mention my my my drum set book, because that's really important book. That's what I teach more than anything. It's called Learn to Play the Drum Set All in One. Used to be two books. They combined it into one. It just was re re-released about three years ago. And it's published by Hal Leonard. And it's 75 pages. And it takes you from the beginning, if you're just starting out with drums. And it gets you playing right away. And then it gets into the more complex stuff and the linear drumming, which we didn't talk about much, but it's important. And yeah, so that's another book, the two Polyrhythm books and then Learn to Play the Drum Set All in One. A lot of teachers use that book. And a lot of students have gone through it with me and maybe some other teachers, but it's kind of proven itself. And it's it's hung in there. So if you're if you're interested in anything that I do and some of the concepts that I have, my all my things aren't about polyrhythm. So it's a small part of it. So sure, of course. Yeah, you're not just the polyrhythm guy, you're you're multi trying not to trying to escape that being just that. So I know. But hey, that's it's good to have something that people know you for. But yeah, awesome. Well, Pete, thank you for coming on the show. And I look forward to hopefully catching a clinic of yours or seeing you live when we get through all of the 2020 craziness. Yeah, actually, the idea is clinic here in Chicago a couple years ago is called the Chicago Polyrhythm Clinic. It's up on YouTube. Cool. You might you might want to check that out. Absolutely. Cool. I'll link to that as well. Awesome. Thank you, Pete. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. If you like this podcast, find me on social media at drum history and please share rate and leave a review. And let me know topics that you would like to learn about in the future. Until next time, keep on learning. This is a Gwynn Sound podcast.


Hey mom, it's me. I'm here in Djibouti Africa. Just wanted to say happy Mother's Day to the most Beautiful loving woman. I know think about you. I wish I could be home to celebrate with you I hope you have a good one up.