No new pictures, but a few things to talk about. First off, tuning, which is an ongoing adventure. As the man says; tune a lot and tune often. I came across a U-Tube video by Rob Brown on tuning which was a breath of fresh air. Got my toms and bass drums sounding really good, with the wrinkles just go away technique. Rob distills this known technique down to it's basics and it works well for me. The snare style, with the reso head very tight and the batter what ever is pretty cool also. I'm still dialing it in with how much is too much with the reso head, but it works well with the looser batter heads , which I seem to favor these days. These tunings compliment my snare builds and the quieter playing I love with Biscuit City, my country, blues and roots band. I'm still using coated Ambassadors on the toms and snare, to which I can add rings or some plumbers putty for dampening. It's better to have the drums resonate and add dampening than to start with dampened drums, more versatile, depending on the sound of the room.
   As much as I love my old Ludwigs, with the 20 inch bass drum, I've been going with the Gretsch's and the 22 inch bass drum. Bigger sound when I need it and they sound good at low volume as well. I hope to add a rims mount to the 13 inch tom as the snare stand dampens the tone too much, no matter how I position the drum in the basket. I think rims mount are ugly but the tone is the thing. I find it's so very important to me to have my drums sound good to me, to inspire my playing, even though, this might not be the case to the listener. Some say the over ringing tone, sounds the best in the audience. Am I supposed to train my ear to accept this, for the better audience sound? I haven't had any negative feedback yet. So I'll continue using the rings on the heads.
   Playing has been generally more satisfying as time goes along but there are still plenty of areas to improve on. My confidence level is low on endings, especially rock and blues. I need to work on these but how? Some times I think a teacher might help, but who? Being so ADD and unfocused in a teaching situation doesn't help either, but I'll get there some how. Keeping it simple but sophisticated, is still the best goal, in all aspects of playing. Taste and feeling has gotten me this far. Another area to work on is brush playing. How to rock and groove with brushes, like George Recelli, who plays with Dylan on Dylan's latest, Tempest. Love it.
  A lot of drummers would agree with me that most bands tend to play too loud. It's very tricky to keep all the levels in check with dynamics and listening. Somebody turns up a bit for what ever reason, then someone else follows suit and pretty soon the drummer, who is usually unmiked, can't hear himself. When everyone is listening and keeping the lid on, it sounds wonderful. I'll keep on playing appropriately and hope for the best.
  There is so much great music being made out there on all kinds of wonderful instruments, hand made or commercial, check it out!