Do You Feel Lucky?

(and feel free to comment! My older posts are certainly no less relevant to the burning concerns of the day.)

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Pretzel Dough Drum Solo

I was standing in line for a lemonade and an almond pretzel at Auntie Anne's, and...you ever notice, they ALWAYS have a line? Anyway, I'm not really paying attention to it but I'm grooving to this crazy percussion music they're playing. It's a little tinny, I'm guessing it's just somebody's little boom-box rather than any sort of in-store speaker system - but it's wild! It's like an extended drum solo, an indefinite drum solo with no overarching unifying rhythm or purpose, but with a pretty steady tempo. And I do mean an uptempo. It's like, boombittaBOPitta snare-kick-snare-cymbal, constantly shifting rhythmic textures but with a certain unity to the way the beats tumble and crash against each other, and with certain patterns occasionally repeating themselves. Finally I said to my girlfriend, "this drum solo is insane! I want a tape of this!"

She listened for a minute, looked around for a minute, and replied, "I think it's the pretzel dough mixer over there. See the tall metal bowl turning, with those automatic arms agitating?"

Sure enough, it was. Another frightening instance of mankind being outdone by cold unthinking machine.

4 comments:

jul said...

LOL. I have to say, whenever I really need to laugh, I can count on you. And this time, I have to thank your girlfriend too...

dogimo said...

Oh, I swipe half my best material from her! Albeit...she probably would not want to claim that particular blot for her escutcheon.

I still want to get a tape of that thing. But how to secure a clean feed? Directional surveillance mic?

jul said...

I suggest a prenatal moniter. You can purchase this aparatus to place on a pregnant belly and listen to (and record) baby sounds. I think it would be the perfect solution to your problem, and it comes with headphones so you listen to the whole thing amplified to your preference.

dogimo said...

They're not going to let me behind the counter with that thing!

Or...will they...?

Maybe if I make up a convincing story.