I'll give you my take on it all. Because that's all I've got.

Drum circles are about rhythm, which people have in varying degrees. When a rhythm is going, anyone can join in. Ability, above that of finding the beat, is irrelevant, and everyone contributes to the collective effort. Really great drummers get to show off their skills against a background of steady, but evolving rhythm. Everybody rocks. Everybody grooves. Kumbaya.

We've had kids as young as 5 sit in. Some demonstrated great precocity. And a single person usually can't derail the group. Sometimes players will introduce other instruments. Flutes and recorders are most common, I've brought my guitar.

But what's it really all about. Some people use rhythm to discharge anxiety. (Some use other means.) Drumming, dancing, playing an instrument are all methods that can be used to productively channel anxiety. Those kinds of people, confined to a park, will find each other, and get to drumming, as sure as gamblers would start a poker game. As I kid I drummed on desks at school, pots and pans at home, garage bands later. Drum circles are great fun, and are pretty much anarchistic. Perhaps that's why they appear so easily out of OWS groups.

The rub for me, and perhaps them, is that drummers can be hard to tune out, especially when they go on 24/7. The drums command attention, but they are not shouting truths; I think they're a distraction for the movement, not necessary but inevitable, given the density of people and the low threshold for drum circle "music." People love to make music.

I think limiting the hours, or to marches makes sense. Otherwise a drum circle is like a corporation. It can't die.

--imm