I don't want to hear any of this crap about Moongels, pre-dampened heads, or living with an faint-but-annoying ring "because no-one will hear it twenty feet away from the drums!".*

A tooled-leather souviner change purse with two dollars worth of nickels and dimes in it, laid at the edge of the batter head at 12 o'clock.

I brought my drums (essentially a microkit) to a friend's party last night, and this was the method of dampening I chose.  The sound in the living room was refined and full-bodied, like Anne Hathaway Nigella Lawson Omar Hakim's backbeat in Jennifer Lopez's J.Lo's "Baby I Love U [sic]".  It worked both for jazzy things and straight grooves.

It really enhanced the gathering, that is until many of the guests stayed until three in the morning until the hostess, dragging from exhaustion, had to speak up and all but shove them out the door.

* I don't care if you use these methods and they work for you.  I like my way in addition to these other ways.