A Different Drummer

What if the crowd is beautiful?

I have drums on my mind.
Or more accurately, difference.
But it was the drums that got me there.
It’s always the drums.
The rhythm that moves us.

I’m just rolling out announcements for my September run of It’s A Lot and that means graphics.

Made a poster, with hand lettering on a photo - a performance shot - me doing a backbend.
The team loved it. What’s the typeface they asked.
It’s hand drawn… Oh right. Dang

I guess I’ll be hand lettering allll the posters.

Fine, very meditative work, she tells herself half believing it.
The thing is there’s a drum set behind me in this shot.
And yes I could have digitally removed them,
but I didn’t want to be floating in a digital space.
The whole point of shows is they are not a digital space.

And somewhere between
The Eventbrite banner version
And reel-friendly 4:5 version
I remembered one of my very first jokes:
My drummer is so different
she plays the accordion.
I know.
Not actually funny..
Technically there are two reasons.
We’ll save that educational comedy symposium for another day.

But I love that I was trying to work out ideas of difference
From the beginning.
In a way UnCabaret
has been a celebration, exploration and amplifier of difference.
From stylistic to emotional.
Different was different when I started out.
The rainbow was quieter, more of a grey scale.
The spectrum was narrower.
So the march sometimes looks more like a dance now.

But another way I see difference differently.
And maybe not so much because times have changed, as that I have changed.
It feels like when we say march to the beat of a different drum
We imply
Being different among a uniformity.
Being unique and stand out among a crowd of standardized replicants.
There’s a righteous indignation about the conformity.
And an air of superiority
To the individual.

But what if your different drum
Is separating you out from stuff you consider amazing?
And beautiful.
And stuff that’s currently successful?
What if you don’t see the crowd as a hall of mirrors
But as a group of fully expressed individuals.

What if your efforts at marching to the beat
Of your off-beat drum
means that it takes longer.
That you and your audience
Are still waiting for your meet cute?

What if marching to the beat
Of your different drummer
means you move forward awkwardly
At some points even seeming to move backwards?
Well that’s the way a spiral feels.
And if the crowd is linear movement?
And you are a spiral?
So be it.

What if everything is going great
And like Dylan’s drummer
Yours tells you to play electric
At a folk festival
When that was a hundred per cent
not what everyone is there to hear?

No matter the circumstances
The answer is always courage.
The beat of your different drummer
Is your own heartbeat.
The word courage
Comes from the French word for heart.
Couer.
Following your heart.
Listening to your heart.
That is the only way to march to the beat of a different drummer.

With Infinite Love and Gratitude,
Beth

And speaking of different drummers - this Friday at UnCab we have a symphony of syncopation! Still some tickets left. Never been to UnCab? We’ve been waiting for you.

And see what I mean about the drums in this It’s A Lot poster? And yes, I know the shows aren’t until Sept 17, 18, 19 but the early bird tickets will close in 10 days! Be in the room with me for that one!