Beyond all its celebrity and glamour, its massive volume and sometimes chaos, the annual Winter NAMM Show (convention and showcase for the International Music Products Association) is a key component of the NAMM organization's far-reaching purpose. Doing more than providing an incredibly overwhelming opportunity to see, feel, and touch the latest and greatest in musical product innovation from all over the globe; more than giving industry insiders an exclusive chance to mingle with legendary performers from all areas of music – NAMM brings all of this toward the higher goal of touching people's lives with music. NAMM's objective is to bring the world together through music, and they achieve this by putting the tools and education within reach of the people. That's what the NAMM Show is all about – bringing music to the masses in a swathe of grandiose splendor.

NAMM is strict on granting access to the show, since the point is to put the freshest manufacturers' products in front of the powerful buyers who in turn deliver them to the public via distributors and retail outlets. For members of the media, the policy requires writers and photographers to submit proof of NAMM Show coverage from the previous year to the show's press coordinators at The Lippin Group. Managed by Ronnie Lippin, the legendary entertainment industry publicist, The Lippin Group has smoothly and successfully handled the planning, logistics, and credentials for events such as NAMM for nearly 20 years, and they do it with finesse. Though it may sound intimidating to go through the Lippin review and approval process, it's actually a pleasure to deal with Ronnie's people, and they drop us generous pre-and-post-show data so we're well-equipped to cover all the bases.

Buyers get blue badges so the exhibitors (red badges) can spot their targets easily and know who gets the most attention. Although urban legend says the media (clear badges) is an unwelcome annoyance (that's why I always flip my badge over to the back side when walking the halls) the exhibitors, as well as the Anaheim Convention Center staff, tell a different story. From venue employees helping us through registration lines to merchants treating us as though we're rock stars ourselves (in an effort to get photographed and interviewed to maximize their exposure) we writers are made to feel like royalty for the most part – with the exception of the occasional musician's bodyguard who might muscle you out of a photo-op, but that's okay, we're tough.

My primary mission throughout the event was to take pictures of rock-n-roll legends and interesting new gadgets along the path leading to the Holy Grail, the magic flute. On Saturday, I caught a glimpse of Brides of Destruction (see Tracii Guns' blog's eye view here: (http://journals.aol.com/traciiblog/TRACIIGUNS/entries/812) looking very L.A. and tatted-out. They gathered quite a crowd, and all the fans left satisfied with fistfuls of autographs.

Heading from the main hall toward the smaller, more mellow classical instrument area in search of my flute, I noticed a cute, tiny girl named Danielle making weird-in-a-cool-way noises on a contraption she calls a "Strumstick." Heralded as "...an instrument that anyone can play – an inspirational composing tool, training wheels for guitar..." it comes in three sizes (alto, standard, and grand) with various chromatics, wood types, and designs. Based in Hibernia, NY, McNally Instruments (the makers of Strumstick) were spot-on in pimping little Danielle like a Girl Scout selling cookies. She did a great job of reeling the looky-loos in with her cuteness so the grown-up sales force could snag 'em into the booth's web for the kill. Excellent use of bait!

A frenetic, machine-gun hammering of drums suddenly distracted me away from little Danielle and her Strumstick-a-ma-jigger. I gravitated toward the sound just in time to witness Mike Mangini (he has his own Website: http://www.mikemangini.com/MMmm/index.htm) setting a new World Record as the first person in history to beat 1,203 drum strokes per minute. Mike was so proud; he came over and talked to me, showing off his gigantic award, a metal belt of the type normally given to wrestlers and prize fighters, undoubtedly a cool addition to his trophy case.

Plowing on toward the coveted flute, something very attractive caught my eye. It was adorable, sweet, friendly, floaty, welcoming and beaming from one end to the other. It was...Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction! I had to stop and talk to The Perk, and of course get a photo of his royal fine-ness. The flute could wait. Admittedly, it's pretty easy in the L.A. area to hang out with Perk (http://stephenperkins.com/) on any given weekend, since he plays around town a lot in projects such as Banyan and Camp Freddy, but it just don't matter – he's a god and he's down-to-earth at the same time. Simply irresistible.

Several rows of cool stuff later, I happened onto some extremely bright-colored violins hanging from an overhead rack. Hot pink, purple, red – these violins looked like just the thing parents could use to entice poor, suffering children into practicing their boring instruments. Bridgecraft, a La Mirada, CA tool company-turned-musical instrument manufacturer and distributor, specializes in acoustic and electric guitars and accessories, as well as all types of standard school band gear in hot, glittery metallic colors. Magnetically drawn into the Bridgecraft wonderland of guitars embellished with customized artistic montages and amazed by the novelty of miniature red lacquer pianos and accordions sized suitably to a six-month-old baby, I scanned the booth with my jaw dropped in awe until...I saw it. Long, thin, slender; silver and shiny. There it was, my flute, propped on a pedestal, just waiting for me to snag it out of its cage and take it home to safety, away from the NAMM weirdos who were groping at it, smearing it with their dirty, nasty fingerprints.

Sara, the perky sales and marketing associate, did a great job of telling me the Bridgecraft story, even with her mouth full of Fig Newtons. The tool company had an employee who was bored one day and started using company materials to make a colorful little guitar. He took it along on his tool deliveries and it got more interest than the tools. People started ordering guitars like crazy, so Bridgecraft expanded into the full instrument line, getting ahead of the game by adding unique customization while keeping the prices at promotional levels and having all items in stock at all times for maximum accessibility to the average consumer; pure brilliance. Sara asked me if I was a buyer interested in carrying their lines. When I responded I was a writer interested in buying a flute, she told me to come back the next day and she'd hook me up with the floor model at a drop-dead bargain price.

On Sunday, I returned early, anxious to get hold of my dream; but first, I took advantage of the fact that the music industry likes to sleep in late on Sunday mornings. I got first-entry into the Gibson hall (they have an entire upstairs conference room to themselves for their extensive display). Sweeping through quickly to dodge the oncoming crush of visitors, one item stood out - the new Eddie Van Halen Series. Although the image is old-school by now, they've replicated the look with a high-gloss finish, the colors vibrant enough to renew the interest of the target demographic for this type of guitar while bringing back memories of days past.

Next, I throttled downstairs to the novelty area, where jewelry pendants shaped like Flying-Vs are displayed alongside such items as belly-dancer finger cymbals and squeezy toys designed to build up the calluses on your pickin' and strummin' fingers. Surprisingly, I ran into Sean Abramson and Adam Schlesinger, two 14-year-old boys I'd read about in the news recently. These guys took the common school-kid fad of burning a hole into a guitar pick and stringing it onto a metal chain as jewelry and took it to the next level by mass-producing the necklaces for sale, with proceeds going toward tsunami relief, among other worthy charities (www.lucky-pix.com). I bought a butt-load of the charms and praised them for their efforts. In return, they struck a pose for the camera and thanked me for supporting their cause. A NAMM warm-and-fuzzy moment!

By the time I reached Sara back at Bridgetone, who improved on her already-sweet deal by inviting me to their facility for a personal guided tour and to get a new, in-the-case flute at an even lower price than she quoted the day before (score!) I was reeling - not only from the sheer magnitude of the weekend's events, but from the statistical recap: At show's close, NAMM reported a five percent increase in overall registration for a grand total of 78,091 attendees, 8,416 of these from other countries. This year, NAMM broke all previous records with 1,428 companies displaying their goods.

NAMM's next show is the 2005 Summer Session in Indianapolis, Indiana, July 22 – 24. Next year's glamorous, slammin' Winter NAMM Show will be the 104th, running from January 19 – 22, 2006, continuing the quest to bring harmony to the planet through music. By then, we would think I should maybe be able to make a sound of some kind come out of my beautiful flute. Stay tuned!

http://www.thenammshow.com

Photos by Marlene Montez and Michelle Ratzlaff