hola from mexico city. what a crazy place! i'm stunned again and again everytime i visit this gigantic city. 

the reason me and chris are here is to meet with our mexican distributor gonher. they are putting together our second international drum festival. we have had a great meeting today and went through all the final details that need to be taken care of like logistics, equipment, hotels, exhibition, venue, audio, video, security, and much more. 

all in all, everything is perfefectly on track and we are all very excited to finally do it. july 13 will be the day. all line-up info can be found on meinldrumfestival.com as usual.

and now? once again, tomorrow i'll be taking another very long nonstop flight back to germany. at least that is what i hope, considering that another icelandic vulcano, this time it goes by the name of "grimsvoetn", won't cause any problems to the transatlantic air traffic. please spare me!

- norbert

obscura's drummer hannes grossmann (who by the way only lives about 20min away from the meinl factory) has just released his first instructional dvd "progressive concepts for the modern metal drummer". he was kind enough to produce this short video teaser for us :-) enjoy!

the dvd is available on hannes' website hannesgrossmann.com

- norbert

i've been hanging out at airport lounges a lot lately - and there are more to come during the next couple of days. those of you who know me a bit better know that i love commercial aviation a lot. i love flying and airports so i dont feel punished at all :-)

last week i flew to norway with benny greb where we did two meinl clinics. one in bergen, and the other one in oslo. both workshops where fantastic. a big "thank you" goes to our local hosts; tom of musikk miljo in bergen, and marianne of norsk musikk in oslo for their hard work and passion that they put into the events. here are some fotos from both clinics for you.

bergen is the second largest city in norway, located directly at the sea. we ate great fish there and enjoyed the heartfelt vibe of the city. since it's located way up north, the sun sets not before 11pm every day. what an experience.

on wednesday i'll fly to chicago to meet with my good friend johnny rabb to discuss some new product ideas. i am looking forward to seeing him before i head over to new york for the annual modern drummer fesival. trevor lawrence jr. of herbie hancock and dr. dre will be representing us at this world's most prestigious event. i am really looking forward to catching up with all my industry friends there.

last but not least my colleague chris brewer and i will fly to mexico city after the modern drummer festival where we'll meet with our mexican distributor to finalize all pending issues for the upcoming meinl drum festival on july 13 of this year. this is going to be the event-highlight for me this year. check out meinldrumfestival.com for more information.

and then finally a 12 1/2 hrs non-stop lufthansa flight back to germany. did i tell you that i love flying :-))

stay tuned for my facebook and twitter news from the road.

- norbert

i just wanted to let you all know that the tickets for the 2011 meinl drum festival on july 13 in mexico city are now available online on ticketmaster (search for meinl drum festival).

line-up info, artist biographies, fotos, etc. are now also available on meinldrumfestival.com.

- norbert