A Family’s 400-Year-Old Musical Secret Still Rings True

Wir waren ja alle mal irgendwann in einer Band (ich ungefähr für fünf Minuten) und kennen daher den Namen „Zildjian“, wenn wir den Drummer anschmachteten (okay, ich eher den Basser). Zildjian ist ein Hersteller von Becken – und wie ich seit der Lektüre dieses Artikels weiß, das bereits schon seit 400 Jahren und in der 14. Generation. Im Artikel wird beschrieben, woher das Instrument kommt und wie es sich über 3000 Jahre verändert hat.

„Zildjian was incorporated in the United States in 1929. But the company’s relationship with drummers, and drumming itself, dates back much further: 400 years to be precise, to 1618, when a secret casting process resulted in the creation of a new bronze alloy for the court of Sultan Osman II, the ruler of the Ottoman Empire.

“My father always said that the name is bigger than any one person in the family,” said Craigie Zildjian, the company’s chief executive officer (the first woman to have the job), a member of the family’s 14th generation of cymbal makers. “In other words, you have this little piece of 400 years. Don’t screw it up.” […]

Touring the factory, which now sits in a leafy industrial park in Norwell, Mass., is the drummer’s equivalent of stumbling into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. “We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams,” Mr. Francis, the director of research and development, said, quoting the movie, as he led the way on a recent visit.

A line of Gen16 products attempts to create an electronic cymbal that looks and feels like a real cymbal instead of a drum pad. A low-volume practice cymbal that looks like mesh is selling well among drummers in Asia who live in apartments with thin walls.

The lobby has the feel of a show room, with kits on display that belonged to Travis Barker (Blink-182), Tré Cool (Green Day) and Ginger Baker (Cream), along with a replica of Ringo Starr’s. “We all know what happened in 1964,” Mr. Francis said, referring to the British Invasion. “We had 90,000 cymbals on back order.”“

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Tagebuchbloggen, Donnerstag, 2. August

Die liebe Nessy hat Gründe, auch als Selbständige gesetzlich und nicht privat krankenversichert zu sein. Das sind auch genau meine: Ich finde das Solidaritätsprinzip gut, und ich zahle gerne mehr, weil ich auch mehr abgeben kann. Ganz einfach.

Wenn ich aber irgendwann mal ins Krankenhaus muss, würde ich mir ein Einzelzimmer erkaufen, sonst werde ich noch kränker. Meine Mutter hat mal allen Ernstes mit akutem Tinnitus in einem Sechsbettzimmer gelegen. WTF?

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Cheer up, Deutschland

Der Economist wundert sich, warum wir alle so schlechte Laune haben. Ich mich auch. (DIESE HITZE!)

„Pessimism comes easily to Germans. Gloom stalked their literature even before the traumas of the 20th century. “Simplicius Simplicissimus,” the first great German novel, describes a peasant wandering the devastated Holy Roman Empire after the Thirty Years War; Goethe and his contemporaries imagined love-struck romantics killing themselves in dark forests; Wagner’s Ring Cycle ends with Valhalla in flames. Few Germans ever quite believe that calamity is not just around the corner, reckons John Kornblum, a former American ambassador. He relays a tale of a woman who came up to him in the street unbidden and warned him that he would trip over and die if he failed to tie his shoelace. […]

This is all getting out of hand. Pessimism, and the associated perfectionism, may be a German strength—but in moderation. And that moderation risks succumbing to the latest bout of hyperventilating self-denigration, along with basic facts about the state of the country. Germany’s economy, for example, is powering ahead. Unemployment is at a record low, and exports are booming. Its infrastructure is among the best in the world. Inequality remains lower than in most other rich countries and the quality of life higher (the fourth best in the world, according to the UN’s Human Development Index). German politics, it is true, is fragmenting, as in other European countries, but Mrs Merkel remains a sensible and decent leader, and moderate forces still dominate.“