The Way of the Gong™

I played a Gong Session last night in Woodstock, Il, got home late, then got up at 4am to catch a flight out here with my wife. I'm running on about 4 hours of sleep. Today was the day before the actual Gong Summit and things are already happening. Some presenters and people, like myself, have arrived early. The afternoon was spent unloading trucks full of Gongs and stands, carting them in, and setting things up. This will definitely be the place to try out and hear a lot of different Gongs. Massive new Bowls from Grotto Sonora A huge, and I mean huge Gong from Shawn Aceto Lots of Chinese Gongs of all types and sizes A wall of Shawn Aceto creations The Summit doesn't officially start until 3pm tomorrow, but there were already many lively discussions happening around the building. It's truly a meeting of the minds. As for myself, I've enjoyed meeting people in person that I've known online only, and look forward to meeting many more...

It's been a difficult 3 months for me since April. Besides a very intense schedule of both gigging and teaching, my 89 year old father's health took a rapid decline and he died. Between gigs, we were visiting him as much as we could. Since he died, it's been a lot of work to just deal with his passing and trying to settle his estate. Of course my blogs all fell by the wayside.  Next week (July 1-5) I will be in Chester, CT as part of the 1st Gong Summit . I will be presenting a master class and be a part of 3 panel discussions. I will also be hanging out all week and hope to have time to talk with everyone attending. I plan to blog daily about the whole event starting June 30 and going to July 6. Hopefully I will have the time and energy to at least post a wrap up of each day. If I can't post in detail, I'll do something later in July when I have the time. Watch for this on The Way of The Gong ™. After the Summit my wife and I will be taking a much needed bit of...