What I Want To Do When I Grow Up
Finally figured out what I want to do when I grow up. Figured it out Saturday night.
A composer friend of mine (not the composer friend doing Beautiful Loser, a different composer friend) invited The Love Of My Life and I (TLOML=Wife) to see him conduct his latest score Saturday night at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro, which is coincidentally right across the street from where we shot a scene of the film. Well, this guy's very talented and we had a marvelous time watching this hundred piece orchestra play his marvelous score, but through it all I couldn't take my eyes off the cymbal crasher.
Now, I know that's not the real name for what he does, but I don't know the real name, so we're calling him a Cymbal Crasher. But what a job! What a gig! What a way to make a living. The whole night he maybe crashed those cymbals 10 times. While everyone else is violining and tooting their asses off, he spends most of his time sitting on a bench between crashes like a member of the audience. But it gets better...
He has an assistant! And he's the only one. He has someone to turn the music pages, hand off the cymbals to after a crash, and run get them before he has to crash them again. And I don't even think you have to learn to read music for that job. If you just sit through a few rehearsals and get a feel for where to bring those bad boys together.
A composer friend of mine (not the composer friend doing Beautiful Loser, a different composer friend) invited The Love Of My Life and I (TLOML=Wife) to see him conduct his latest score Saturday night at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro, which is coincidentally right across the street from where we shot a scene of the film. Well, this guy's very talented and we had a marvelous time watching this hundred piece orchestra play his marvelous score, but through it all I couldn't take my eyes off the cymbal crasher.
Now, I know that's not the real name for what he does, but I don't know the real name, so we're calling him a Cymbal Crasher. But what a job! What a gig! What a way to make a living. The whole night he maybe crashed those cymbals 10 times. While everyone else is violining and tooting their asses off, he spends most of his time sitting on a bench between crashes like a member of the audience. But it gets better...
He has an assistant! And he's the only one. He has someone to turn the music pages, hand off the cymbals to after a crash, and run get them before he has to crash them again. And I don't even think you have to learn to read music for that job. If you just sit through a few rehearsals and get a feel for where to bring those bad boys together.
It's good to have some direction back in my life. It's good to have a goal again. My resume's up on Monster.com and I await my new vocation with great anticipation:
JOB WANTED
Cymbal Crasher Guy
Experience: 20 years as a cymbal crasher in the United States Navy
References available upon request.
posted by Contributors at 3:48 PM
2 Comments:
But don't you think there's something rather sinister about cymbals? For starters, there's that whole "Man Who Knew Too Much" vibe. And don't even get me started on the evil cymbal-playing killer monkey (which your illustration just brought vividly back to mind, thank you so very much) from a particularly loathsome little flick featured on "Mystery Science Theater 3000." . . .
Maybe cymbals aren't that sinister. Maybe I just watch too much television.
I've had to be the cymbal crasher a few times when marching with a school band a few years ago in the hometown parade. While it's fun being the cymbal crasher, it can actually be a bit painful to simply tap the cymbals together. If you're not careful, you'll end up pinching your arm numerous times.
Again, I wasn't exactly experienced either. I did it only a few times over the course of 2 years.
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