Drumming for Health? WTF?

I set up the drum kit.

My nephew's drum teacher polished it since last time I saw it. (I lent it to The Neph when he thought he wanted to learn to play drums.)

It looks great.

Me, not so much.  Playing a simple rock beat is like exercise! (Holy Crap!) More fun than jogging, though—maybe I found my new aerobic workout program. How pathetic to get this out of shape. Seriously.

TJones admitted he plays bass. "Bass players: the only musicians drummers tell jokes about."

I guess you have to be a musician to get that. (TJ will!) I hate to explain jokes, but rock drummers are stereotyped as the "blondes" of rock & roll. Dumb as a box of....well you get the idea. After all, so the thinking goes, "all they do is hit things." Here's an example:

A robot bartender is serving drinks in a neighborhood bar. He's been programmed to talk to every customer about stuff they're interested in. First guy comes in and the robot bartender asks him is IQ. He says 180. The robot chats about astro-physics and string theory, and they have a lovely time. The next customer comes in and admits his IQ is 125. The robot talks about law, politics and real estate. The next customer has an IQ of 100. They talk about cars, sports and women. Finally a guy comes in, and when the robot bartender asks his IQ the guy answers 60. The robot asks....."So, what size sticks do you use?"

Drummer joke.

Now, all we need is a lead guitar and a singer.....

Sure we can't actually PLAY together, but that doesn't mean we can't form a BAND.

"Magnificent Bastards" is a good name. Yes, I know there's a movie of the same name—spelled differently, of course. But, remember: "Design is just creative plagiarism." My Graphic Design teacher told me that. And in the years since, I have recognized the truth of it for all art forms.

The movie was good, by the way. Did you see it? I recommend it. (Turns out Brad Pitt can act. Who knew?) I loved it...Well, except for one scene, where a German shows extraordinary honor and loyalty...and he gets treated...um...rather badly. This made me uncomfortable. Honor and loyalty are almost always admirable—and they were in his case. A simple bullet to the head would have sufficed.

By the way, there's another movie....not great, but fun, called "The Rocker", starring Riann Wilson, of "The Office" fame. It's a comedy about a drummer who gets dumped by his original band just before they hit super-stardom (resentment!)...only to find himself with another chance at success 20 years later.

It didn't get great reviews, but I liked it. Sort of an "Animal House" meets "That Thing You Do". It had a lot of cool drumming scenes. What can I say. You don't get a lot of movies...good or bad...about drummers. We gotta take what we can get.

The Gunslinger
Drummer